You Can Count On Me (Christmas Daddies, #2)

by Fae Quin

And even though it sucked, I’d been forced to fill in for them—wasting away on the farm—wishing I was home with my green-eyed babies for most of the week.

I liked spoiling him. I loved it. I loved the faces he made.

“You look wore slap out.” I didn’t know what the hell that meant, but I figured it must be Southern for “like shit.”

Hahaha

I was proud of him for asking for help today. It wasn’t easy, but he’d done it anyway. He’d let me in. He’d trusted me. And I wasn’t about to let him down, no matter how anxious or terrified this whole experience made me feel. Some people were worth being uncomfortable for.

I pushed his hair back. I watched his lashes flutter, and I thought, maybe if I was lucky enough, Trent would be the first person to stay with me. I could make a home here with him.

He was hard as a rock. I could feel his cock, thick and needy as he lazily ground it against me. The movement was so small, however, I wasn’t sure he was even consciously doing it. Somehow that made it even hotter. I burned from the inside out.

He waltzed right up to me and there was nothing to protect me from him. He wanted to nurture me, and…I wanted to let him.

Bubba’s eyes met mine, and the love I saw in them nearly floored me. He reached out and stroked a tiny little hand down Rooster’s back, right alongside mine, determination making his lips thin. “It’s okay, Pops,” Bubba reassured him. “I can be big for you sometimes, if you need it. I don’t mind.”

“There a reason you won’t let your man back in here? He could easily pop a mask on and grab his own shit.” My cheeks were so hot they hurt.

“Robin,” I warned him quietly, but my laugh broke free and betrayed my amusement. I hardly ever first-named him. He hardly ever needed it.

“What kinda stories do you like?” My cheeks tingled with embarrassment immediately and I shrugged, hiding behind my cup. Wasn’t like I was about to tell Trent’s damn mama that the only books I read were ones that had more sex than plot and a whole lot of dicks. Even monster ones. Especially monster ones. With knots.

I feel ya lol

Lost in Trent’s eyes, the world was a beautiful place. I wasn’t scared when he was around. Which was amazing because I couldn’t remember a time when I hadn’t been scared.

“You sweet thing,” Trent crooned softly, stroking my neck with purpose now. Gooseflesh danced in the wake of his warm, scratchy fingers. My lashes fluttered shut. “Barely a touch, and you’re melting.” He shuffled even closer, and when I forced my eyes open again he was staring right at my mouth.

“You keep looking at me like that and I’m gonna stick my tongue so far up your ass you’ll start squealing.”

“I’m terrified because you’re everything. You’re everything I’ve ever wanted. And for the first time in my life, every action I take is wrong, wrong, wrong. I don’t have sweet words. My silver tongue gets tangled. You make my hands sweaty, and my heart race. I feel like I’m in goddamn grade school when you’re around.”

How could the cockiest, sexiest, most amazing man I’d ever met be so damn insecure? It didn’t make sense. Or maybe…maybe it did.

His hobbies, his hopes, his dreams. His demons. All of them. So I could help fight them when they came to visit.

Vanilla my ass. This was goddamn monster porn.

“I’m nervous,” I admitted, giving his knuckles a gentle swipe with my thumb. “I’ve already fucked up once.” His reaction was instantaneous. He shivered, his whole body lighting up as his eyes fluttered shut and he melted. Damn. Touch starved, baby.

His reaction to such a simple touch made me ache to show him more. I bet he’d unfurl beneath me, like a flower tipping its petals toward the sun.

Miles smiled at his phone, and I just about lost it. Those smiles were supposed to be mine. I’d only just earned them. What had this stranger done to deserve one?

This was my reality now. Sexy alpha male. Jealous. Over me!

“But you’re mine, Miles Johnson, and I’m finding…” “What?” I asked, breathless. “I don’t at all like the idea of sharing you.”

“I bought all his albums so I could have something to talk to you about. I listened to all of it on my way to and from work.”

“God, you have the prettiest damn smile I’ve ever seen, you know that?”

It slipped down his abs, and the vein that danced below his belly button, where it ended its journey beneath the terry cloth prison and the cock that lay trapped beneath it. Fuuuuck. He was hard.

And then it was just him. And me. And the moonlight. I had never moved quicker in all my goddamn life.

Pausing outside my bedroom doorway, panting like an animal, my teeth ached to bite. My dick ached to fuck.

He was the kind of person that made a house a home.

I wasn’t her first, he was. They’d been alone together for years before I came along, after all. Not that he’d ever told me the extent of his pain.

But I wasn’t angry. I was numb. Robin chased his dreams. And me? I chased a home. I took Bubba and ran too.

The creepy-death-twins. Probably.

“Did I win?!” “Ho-ly. Shit.” When I turned to look at Trent, his jaw was open and his eyes were popping out of his head.

“I just—get all. Weird. When you’re there. I just. I just—” He covered his face with his hands. “I can’t help but trip and stuff—Mama says my feet are too big or something. I dunno. I really am sorry,” Jeremy repeated, steadily growing pinker.

“Time!” the ref called, writing down how long it’d taken him before he took the egg and spoon away from my overly-serious baby. Damn, he looked just like Miles when he did that.

“Trent is,” Ben’s voice was wooden, and when I dropped my hands he looked pale as a ghost. He snatched the phone out of Becca’s hands quicker than any of us could blink.

I was a petty bitch, so sue me. I wanted to match them so bad I’d taken things into my own hands.

When Trent came into the kitchen several long minutes later, he was alone. Bubba’s feet pounded up the stairs, probably in search of blankets or the snacks he hid in his room. Trent’s eyes were liquid honey. “Give him to me,” he demanded, arms outstretched. “I’ve got him.”

“Not my fault he’s got puppy dog eyes every time you enter a room. He doesn’t know the definition of subtle. He never stops touching you. He told you your ass was yummy in front of his mother. You two ain’t foolin’ anyone.”

“Where are you going—?” “Home.” I turned back to her, my tears still hot, lashes still wet. I couldn’t help but grin.“I forgot something.” “The casserole?” she teased, and I shook my head. “No.” A feeling of rightness settled warm and soft around my heart. “My goddamn family.”

We both ship Triles, but even we have our limits.”

Same kid, same.