The Daughter He Wanted (29 page)

After cutting the cake, Alison hugged Paige. “Happy birthday, bestie. I hope it’s been amazing.”

“If you’d asked me earlier, I’d have said no, but now I think this is the best birthday ever.” Paige looked around at the friends filling her deck and yard. At the man playing a hand-slapping game with her daughter. At the fairy lights and streamers swinging in the light breeze and all her friends dressed up in kid-friendly costumes. “I can’t believe you’re all skipping the bar parties for my birthday.”

“Oh, I think some of us will hit the bars later,” Alison said. “We can’t let the senior citizens think we’re getting old, you know.”

Paige took a bite of chocolate cake and sighed. “You bought me a Breanna’s Chocolate?” she mentioned a bakery in the next town.

Alison shook her head. “Alex did. This whole thing was his idea. Good guy, remember?” She tapped her head against Paige’s shoulder.

It was getting harder to remember any of her reservations about the man or the relationship, Paige admitted.

“Yeah, good guy. Speaking of, how are things with your good guy?”

Alison chuckled. “Good. Distracting. Easy, believe it or not.”

Paige could believe it. Tuck seemed steady, just like Alex.

Alison picked up a slice of cake and took a bite. “So, tell me Kaylie and I aren’t the only loves of your life anymore.” She tilted her head toward Alex, who was cornered by Mrs. Purcell. “He’s been over a lot lately.”

Paige couldn’t help the smile that stretched across her face. “He has.”

“A-a-and?”

She watched him chat with her neighbor and then detach himself to stand with Tuck in the yard. “And...I think he might be the best relationship I’ve ever had, Al.”

Two hours later the last of the birthday guests left for the parties at the local bars or their own couches. Paige looked over the backyard and decided cleanup could wait. There was no way she was climbing trees in the dark to pull down hundreds of streamers or to unwind the strings of fairy lights. Kaylie lay on the sofa in the family room; someone had thrown a light blanket over her legs with her Snoopy head cuddled into her chest. The rest of the costume was puddled on the floor.

Alex brought a stack of plastic cups into the kitchen to throw in the large garbage can. “I’ll take her upstairs, if you want to go relax on the deck,” he said.

Paige usually put Kaylie down for the night, even when Alex was visiting, but maybe tonight wasn’t just about presents for herself. “She’ll want a drink of water and a story, no matter how exhausted she is.”

He nodded and picked the little girl up to snuggle her against his chest. “I’ll handle it. Meet you outside in five.” He disappeared into the hallway and she heard his soft footfalls on the steps. Paige filled two fresh cups with wine and then boxed the last few pieces of cake and stuck them in the fridge before settling into her favorite chair on the deck. She turned off the deck lights so the only illumination was from the full moon and the fairy lights.

Alex slid the door open and closed and joined her in the other chair. “Happy birthday, Paige.”

She rolled her head against the cushioned chair. “You already said that.”

“I know, but you only have three hours of birthday left. I figure you could stand to hear it a few more times.” He reached across the space and took her hand. “Happy birthday.”

“Thank you. It has been a happy birthday.”

“How does thirty feel?” he asked in the dark and she thought she heard a smile in his voice.

“Thirty feels very much like twenty-nine, to be honest.” They were quiet for a minute and she asked, “When did you come up with all this?”

He raised his eyebrows.

“Alison said it was all you.”

“I ordered the cake and asked who to invite. She came up with the decorations and turned the ‘maybes’ into ‘yeses,’” he said.

“Whatever the division of duties, you gave me one of the best birthdays. Ever.”

“Better than eighteen?”

“By at least a hundred points.”

“Twenty-one?”

Paige waved her hand. “Twenty-one, schmenty-one. It pales in comparison.”

“Since twenty-one is usually the barometer for all birthdays, I’ll accept that I am a party-planner extraordinaire.”

“We all bow to your prowess,” she said and leaned across the low table between them. Laid her lips on his and sighed. The kiss started slow, a gentle caress of his full lips against hers. Paige wanted more. And, damn it, it was her birthday. Why shouldn’t she take more? She pulled away long enough to leave her own chair and join Alex in his. “Kaylie’s asleep?”

His hands spanned her waist, burning her through the coarse fabric of her Lucy costume. Paige pushed the skullcap from his head, letting it drop to the floor. He nodded. “Until another rush of sugar kicks in.”

“Thank you for remembering my birthday.”

“Thank you for taking me trick-or-treating.” He removed her wig and freed her hair from the bun atop her head. Paige shook out her hair and Alex buried his hands in it. She pressed her mouth to his once more, tasting the sweetness of the wine and the cake. “I don’t care if she ate the Mount Everest of sugar, there is no way she’ll wake up tonight. This much excitement always equals exhaustion for our kid.”

“You never said that before. ‘Our kid.’”

“She is. The best of you, and the best of me.” His tongue tasted her and Paige sighed at the intimate contact. Alex tilted his head, deepening the kiss, and Paige followed along, content to taste him. Content to play with the stubble along his jaw. His hands inched along her ribs and Paige arched her back, wanting more than the easy touch, wanting to feel his hands against her skin.

But with the thick Lucy costume covering her neck to knees there was no chance of that happening. His hand closed over her polyester-covered chest, rubbing through the layers of fabric, and Paige decided there was something to be said for making out fully clothed.

The combination of lacy bra and fabric played against her nipples with Alex’s hands giving just the right amount of pressure. She moved her torso closer to his, wanting more of his heat. More of the sweet pressure on her breasts. More of the liquid warmth pooling between her legs.

And then his hand moved from her breast to play with her knee and inch slowly over the smooth skin of her thigh. His hands were smoother than she had imagined, or maybe that was just his moves. Obviously the man knew how to make a woman want him. His fingers played over the backs of her knees while his other hand kept up the pressure on her breast until Paige was a writhing, moaning mess. She buried her hands in his hair, but it wasn’t enough so she walked her fingers down his chest and over his abs to the hem of his bright yellow tee.

Pulled it up and played her fingers over his washboard abs. Alex sucked in a breath and bit down on her lower lip gently. Then soothed the burn with his tongue. Paige sighed against him, liking the feel of his quivering muscles beneath her hands. Liking more how his hands were playing against her upper thigh and breast.

She could feel his hardness against her hip and she wanted it. God, she wanted it. Inside her, pushing her over the brink.

“People make love with kids in the house all the time.”

“Are you sure?” His voice was rough, as if he might already be at the edge. The knowledge shivered up Paige’s spine.

“I’m sure.”

He led her up the stairs and into her pink-and-brown bedroom, locking the door behind him as it closed. He left a small light burning on her dresser and was across the room in a flash, and the heat of him burned through the heavy polyester of her Lucy costume. So slowly she could hear the zipper as it opened over her back, he drew his hand over her spine. Little jolts of electricity followed the light touch and Paige swallowed hard, reaching for the hem of the Charlie Brown shirt and lifting it over his powerful chest.

Everything became frenzied. Alex’s lips descended on hers as his hands pushed the costume to the floor. Paige pushed the black shorts off Alex’s hips and he tugged the tee over his head.

She couldn’t get enough of the feel of him. Her hands met his warm flesh and she felt his abs ripple beneath her questing fingers. She walked them up, up to play in the light dusting of hair over his flat nipples. Alex pushed his index finger under the thin strap of her lace bra and she shivered. His eyes darkened from hazel to almost brown in the dim light and Paige bit her lower lip.

“Beautiful, Paige, you’re beautiful.” Alex’s finger trailed over the side of her breast, down her ribs to play with the elastic below her belly button. Paige gasped and closed her eyes, concentrating on the feel of his hands on her. Tracing the indentation of her spine. Squeezing her buttocks. Playing her ribs like she was the most expensive piano on the planet. But always, always coming back to her breasts. Barely touching the undersides. Lightly flicking his thumb against her nipple until she wanted to scream at him to flatten his palm and grind it against the sensitive flesh.

But he seemed to be in no hurry.

Finally, not content to be fondled, Paige reached her arms around his neck until they were skin to skin.

It was glorious.

He was hard where she was soft. Warm where her body had cooled. His lips met hers, caress for ardent caress. His scent tantalized her nose—woodsy and fresh—and her belly tingled where his hardness pressed so firmly against her. She could feel him through the thin layers of her lace and his cotton. Wanted to feel him without any barriers between them at all.

Alex led her to the bed and lay her down, kissing his way from the sensitive flesh of her collarbone through the valley of her breasts and over the shivering skin of her tummy. His hands played under the soft edges of her bra, teased at the sensitive flesh under her lace panties and then he went lower, pressing a soft kiss to her belly button. Tracing his tongue over her hip bone and finding erogenous zones where she’d never imagined. Like the outside of her thigh, the inside of her ankle. And when he found an area that made her writhe on the bed, he focused his attention until she was breathless and desperate.

“Alex, please.” The heat that had been pooling in her center from the moment he’d parked the truck threatened to go molten. To burn her from the inside out, but still he seemed content to kiss and caress. When Paige didn’t think she could take any more, Alex hooked his index finger under the elastic of her lace undies and pulled, exposed her fevered skin to the coolness of the room. She moaned but he caught the sound in his mouth and chuckled.

“Little ears. Quiet, remember?” She could only nod as he reached behind to unclasp her bra and pull it from her shoulders. “Paige, you are so...everything,” he said finally. “And I can’t believe this, but I didn’t come prepared.”

Paige grinned, glad that he was as taken by the moment as she, that this wasn’t planned. But she
was
prepared, because since their evening in St. Louis she had thought about when they might make love. She motioned to the nightstand and said, “Top drawer.”

Alex made quick work of the condom and then his hardness pressed against her wetness and Paige opened for him. Cradling his hips between her legs, wrapping her arms around his chest as he pressed into her.

He slid in, inch by delicious inch, and Paige forgot to breathe. Forgot to do anything except feel the weight of him against her. Inside her. It was the best feeling she had ever experienced and she couldn’t define it.

“Mmm,” she mumbled when he slid in to the hilt. He didn’t move for a moment, as if he waited for something. When he started to move in a slow rhythm, Paige matched him, letting him take her over the edge into blinding heat.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

A
LEX’S ARM WAS ASLEEP
. Pins and needles shot through his veins. He wasn’t about to move, not with Paige sleeping so soundly against him. He brushed a lock of hair behind her ear and she settled in, breasts pressed flat against his ribs. One leg insinuated between his. Hip to hip.

Skin to skin.

Nothing between them.

No guilt. Wasn’t that odd? To some degree there had been guilt, on his part, between most of their interactions. Tonight there was only Paige and the future. Nobody’s feelings but his own.

It was liberating, lying in bed with her and being able to simply enjoy the moment. To look out the window and watch the stars. It was enough to be with Paige.

Enough to have the certainty in his chest that this relationship was headed somewhere permanent even if the start was a bit rocky. He ran his fingers over her silky hair, thinking that this moment was a long time coming.

He loved her. It wasn’t the same as loving Dee, but it was just as real. Just as scary and just as wonderfully surprising, with a unique set of obstacles still to overcome. There was telling Kaylie. There was dealing with her parents and his.

There was telling Paige how he felt when he didn’t know how she felt. She liked him, was attracted to him, but did she want more?

She stirred against him and pressed her lips to his nipple. “Is it morning?”

“I don’t think so. The clock is blinking midnight. I think it’s broken.”

“I must have unplugged it yesterday.”

“Shh, go to sleep.”

Her breathing evened and he thought she must have drifted off. “Stay.” The word was a whisper in the dark and sent a jolt of heat to his chest.

“For a while.”

“For the night. Stay.” Her fingers drew circles around his flat nipple and Alex drew in a breath.

“Do you think that’s a good idea? What about Kaylie?”

“Your running shoes are next to Kaylie’s by the sliding glass door. You left them on Sunday.” She raised up on her elbows. “The book you picked off the shelf is still on the coffee table from Wednesday evening and almost every drawing Kaylie has made since the night you babysat her has included an image of you. I don’t think she would mind waking up to find you’re already here.”

He had to be the voice of reason, didn’t he? One of them needed to remember why they wanted to tell Kaylie he was her father before they took things to the next level. Except he was already naked in her bed. “What about that conversation you said you didn’t want to have? The one where she’s a teenager and realizes my sleeping over wasn’t about camping in the backyard?” he said before he could talk himself out of it. Because he wanted to stay.