Page 10 of Gilded Bird

“I knew you baked whenever you were sad. It pissed me off that he always let you down. That time though, I saw how beautiful your smile is. I made you laugh somehow, and my heart stopped. Wasn’t the first time I heard you laugh but that one, it was just for me. It was mine. After that, my very healthy obsession with you started.”

Taking the soap as his hands soap up my breasts, sending a shiver of pleasure between my thighs, I lather my hands. Running them down his chest, I hold his gaze as I move lower, lower. Before my hands wrap around him, his stomach flexes as he takes a breath. His reaction sends a jolt of power through me, and I grasp his thighs, dropping to my knees.

“Oh, shit,” he grunts when I lean forward and flick my tongue at the swollen tip of him. “Mika, baby, you don’t…oh, hell.”

Smiling as I open my mouth around him, I feel the hum of pleasure vibrate through him. His powerful thighs bunch as I take him as far as I can, my tongue swirling around his thickness. He is big, thicker than I knew possible, and impossibly hard in my mouth. I bob slowly, wanting to please him, wanting him to feel as good as he makes me feel.

“Baby, I’m going to come. Come here, I want to come inside you,” he grunts, both hands fisting my wet hair, his hips pumping slowly.

Nodding, because, yes, I want him inside me, I love how he fills me, how hot it feels when he comes, I suck a little longer. He pulls from my mouth, lifting me to crash his mouth to mine. Spinning me, he presses me against the cool tile. His hard body pins me as he thrusts inside me from behind, both of us moaning as we’re connected again.

“Did you know you almost caught me jerking off once?” He hisses as he rocks inside of me slowly. “I was so hot for you, Mika. I would see you and get so fucking turned on. Nothing else did it. No one else,” he grunts as he pushes my back forward, forcing my ass out as he pounds into me, rocking my body, shaking my world.

“Maddox,” I moan as his fingers find my clit again, my own hands cupping my breasts. I play with them, spurred on by his sexy words in my ear, telling me how hot I am, and how good I feel. “Make me come. I am so close, don’t stop, please…oh, oh, yes! Yes, I’m coming!”

“Ah, that’s it, baby, that’s it,” he rasps in my ear as he thrusts once more and comes, jerking inside me as rope after rope of his cum fills me.

Somehow we finish the shower and I am laughing as I step out. I reach for a fresh towel, catching my reflection in the mirror across the room. I am flushed, marks on my body from his hands. Then I see my C-section scar, the dimples in my thighs, and the soft rolls above my hips.

Watching Maddox step out, I swallow back tears. I cover myself with a towel because seeing his body in the same mirror makes it all real. He is young, golden perfection, his thighs powerful, his chest and abs carved sharply in sexy angles. There is not a gray hair on his head, not a single wrinkle on his face, and not a roll of imperfection anywhere on him.

What do I think I am doing, fooling around with a man like him? I have no right to even see him this way. To look at him with lover’s eyes. I have crossed a line I can never come back from. I have changed both of our lives and our relationships with my son if he were to find out, forever.

“Maddox…this was nice. It was so nice to feel wanted and to feel good for once in my life,” I sob the words, turning away from the reflection that mocks me in the mirror. “I never should have let this happen. Not last night or again today. It could ruin so much for Jameson. For you. Do you know what people would say if they saw us together?”

“Yeah, I do. They would say look at that lucky sonofabitch. Look at that beautiful woman on his arm. He gets to go home to her and wake up with her?”

Those words make me panic. He cannot mean what he is saying. After we’ve fulfilled some of his fantasies, this will pass. I am sure of it. I cannot risk another failed relationship. Jameson is all I have left that I haven’t screwed up. Even Maddox was a relationship I hate to damage.

“Mika, baby,” he purrs as he comes up behind me, grasping my shoulders. Turning me, he forces me to face the mirror again. Steam distorts some of it, but I can see his huge, perfect figure behind mine. “Stop it. I mean every word I say to you. Most definitely how fucking beautiful you are. Everyone always saw it. Saw how kind you were, how your smile changes the room, how people gravitate towards you because you make it easier. You make living, breathing, you make it easier for everyone else.”

“Maddox…I don’t know what you want from me. This is…”

“This is just the start, Mika,” he whispers against my ear. “Give me a chance. Let me show you how good we could be. How good I will be to you. I believe I can give you the great love story you were looking for.”

Something other than panic floods me. It’s…it’s hope. Joy. Excitement. I want to know love. I want to feel loved. Adored. Beautiful. And he is the first man in my life to make me feel even a little of that. Why should I give it up if this is just the start? How much better could it be?

“Go out with me tonight, just you and me. Please, baby.”

All I can do is nod—yes, I want to go out with him. I want a date with my son’s best friend.

Chapter Six

Maddox

First dates can be a disaster—good thing I got all the practice ones out of the way.

Tonight, with Mika, this is the first date that has ever counted. The one that matters to me more than anything. One I have to get right if I want her to take me seriously. If I screw this up she will never believe this is more than some kinky itch I wanted to scratch. Some perverse desire to bang the hot, MILF mom.

How do I tell her this is so much more—without admitting I've been in love with her most of my life?

A night out on the town is not what she would want. Some overpriced meal at a swanky place would not impress her. That is the sort of thing her husband would have done to keep up the charade of their marriage. Red roses days after her birthday or an anniversary. Nights out at places she would never have chosen if he had bothered to ask her.

“No, tonight is going to be all about her, for once in her life,” I whisper to no one as I fix my jacket, taking a hard look at the mirror.

This is a huge risk. Not just because I could risk losing her before I ever get to have her. It could jeopardize my friendship with Jameson as well as the deal we hope to close this weekend. I am gambling a lot on her wanting me in her life enough to take a chance on us.

Sighing, I fix the jacket once more, dusting off the dark jeans I paired with the gray jacket and white shirt. Around my neck hangs the class ring she helped me pick out. It was an important token, she said to both of us boys. Something you could carry with you, so you never forget you have finished something important.