An Underestimated Christmas (Underestimated 3) (12 page)

“I feel like such a failure, Morgan. How the hell did we get here?”

Drew rolled off me and propped himself up on one elbow. His eyes steadied on his hand caressing my naked stomach.

Had he asked that during one of our fights I would have reminded him that he moved us here, but this wasn’t a fight. This felt like rock bottom. The one where there was nowhere else to go but up. Drew dropped his weight and pulled me close to him. Without a doubt, I knew Drew shed tears while he held me close like he needed a hug, a really long hug.

“Drew, what’s going on with Nicky is not your fault. It’s nobody’s fault. It’s who he is. I need you to accept that,” I explained, wrapped in his body. Maybe not seeing his face made it easier to talk about it. It felt okay for whatever reason.

“I’m trying, I’m trying so hard. It’s not that I don’t want to accept it. I just don’t understand why him? I don’t want Nicholas to be different. I don’t want my son to be the last one picked on the playground. I don’t want him to sit on the sideline and wish he could play basketball. I don’t want him to be different.”

“He can play basketball,” I reminded him, not that he would want to. Nicky didn’t really get into that stuff. Not yet anyway. “I don’t know what to say, Drew. I hate the thought of my baby being left out, or made to feel less because he’s not the same as everyone else, too. I’ve seen it happen already. It hurts.”

And the contact was broken. Drew pulled away to face me. “What do you mean you’ve already seen it happen?”

“Remember when you said I enable him, too?”

“Yeah?” he questioned.

“I do. I’ve put him in a safe little bubble and haven’t let him out of my sight. We stopped going to Wednesday play dates because he doesn’t like it. He sits alone and watches.”

“But you can’t take him out of society. That’s not what he needs.”

Dropping to my back, I breathed a deep breath. “That’s not really why I did it. The day I decided he wasn’t going back, I watched Chelsea move Myra away from Tadpole. I couldn’t hear her, but I knew she was telling her not to play with him.”

“Why wouldn’t she want her to play with Tadpole?”

“I don’t know, same reason she doesn’t want her kids around Nicky, I guess, but that’s not what made me pull them out. They had a fire drill. Drew you should have seen Nicholas. I have never seen him so frightened in all my life. He held his ears, rocked, and cried with a look I never want to see on his face again.”

“Oh my god, Morgan?”

“What?”

“Was that the day before I took him to the dentist and you took Tadpole the doctor?”

“Yeah. Why?” I asked, wondering where he was going with a peculiar look.

“We were on our way home and got stopped in construction. Nicholas was watching a roller flatten fresh tar. I asked him if he wanted to do that when he grew up. He asked me a million questions about jobs that didn’t have fire drills. He was very adamant about places to work where they didn’t have fire drills.”

“He’s afraid of them. Like terrified, Drew. It took all day to calm him down from that.”

“Why? Why is he so afraid of a fire drill?”

“The noise, I’m guessing.”

“Okay, okay, we’re not supposed to be talking about this. Not yet.”

“I like talking about it. I can’t do this without you, Drew. I need you on board.”

“But you promised to trust me. I want you to go to the beach house next weekend for a few days. I need to go out of town for business, and I don’t want to leave you here. Call Alicia.”

“Why do you have to do that? I don’t want you going back to working like that.”

“I’m not. I promise. Trust me, okay?”

“I trust you, Drew,” I admitted with uncertainty.

I had all intentions of going in there with the belt and leaving my displeasure all over Morgan’s ass. I was irate. I was beyond furious. Pretending that it never happened around the boys was easy. I guess I liked pretending. I liked my family being close, vegged out on the sofa and watching cartoons. I loved Morgan’s hand in mine, Nicholas sleeping across her lap, and Tadpole, well, I’m not sure what he was doing. That boy slept in some of the most awkward positions. 

The force not to hurt her was stronger than the one to hurt her. My cock was ready to explode thinking about Morgan naked, bent over the bed and waiting for me. The sick part is, I knew her pussy was madly throbbing, too. She loved it as much as she hated it. I loved it as much as I hated it. The only thing that stopped me was one word. Hurt. I didn’t want to hurt her, and no matter how much my dick was telling me to do it. I couldn’t.

We needed that talk, and for the first time since I’d met Morgan, I was glad she was on her period. We did nothing that night but talk. I kissed her soft lips every chance I got, and kept her naked legs tangled with mine. Morgan was such a good mom. Other than the fact of the one thing we were still going to discuss. Besides her stupidity to drive my kids around while under the influence of pain pills, she was the best mom she could be.

Morgan had enough money to hire people to do everything for her. She could have had a nanny, a housekeeper, a cook, any of it. She didn’t want it. She wanted to be the one who made our morning coffee and the one who made bridges out of pancake batter and squares with skinny legs that always broke before she got them to the plate. Morgan wanted the experience of folding tiny onesies and Spider Man pajamas. Morgan wanted to make our meals with love, not money, and I loved that about her. Her way was much more private.

Morgan’s hand stopped, her fingers stationed from tracing mine, and her legs stiffened between mine. “Go get me the pills, Morgan,” I ordered.

“I can’t, Drew,” she admitted what I already knew.

“I know, I’m not going to keep them from you. Not yet. I’m going to control them until you’re better.”

“Until I’m better?”

“Yes. That’s all we need to say. The conversation is over and I don’t want to hear another word about it. Go get them.”

I watched Morgan’s naked ass walk away and move to her drawer. I waited for her to pull out a bottle of hidden pills, but she didn’t. She pulled out a gun and shot me. Just kidding. She pulled out pink silky panties and slid her feet into them.

“Why are you doing that?” I questioned. “I don’t want you in clothes.”

I knew the answer from seeing the little string. Damn. I wanted to be in there. “I’m on my period, Drew. I don’t like sleeping naked.”

Morgan sat on the bed with her purse and gave me a newly filled prescription. “Where are the rest of them?” I asked, knowing damn well she had them all over the place. I knew of two other bottles. After some extensive snooping, I found one bottle hidden behind the lotions in her bathroom cabinet, and one with the spices in the kitchen. Finding them hidden assured my suspicions. She wouldn’t have hid them had she not felt like she had to. She was hiding them from me.

Morgan brought me the two bottles I had found. That made me proud. She brought me a bottle from her vanity drawer where she kept fingernail polish. She brought me a bottle from somewhere in the kitchen. I heard a cabinet close, but didn’t look to see. Five bottles from three different doctors. Looking down, I read the bold letters. Do not take more than two pills in a twenty-four hour period.

“How many are you taking a day?”

Morgan stood before me and shrugged one shoulder. “Six, sometimes eight.”

“Jesus Christ, Morgan. Why didn’t I know this? How could I miss this?” My face had to have been bewildered. How could I not know it was this bad?

“You stopped looking, Drew,” she quietly spoke. The light from the hall illuminated the side of her beautiful, lost face. What the fuck have I done?

“Come here, love,” I said, pulling her tiny wrists.

That was the second time I was happy she was on her period. I held on to her as hard as she held on to me, both desperate for promise, needing something from each other. Again, I told Morgan to trust me and promised her I would fix this. She had to promise me, too. She had to promise to let me take care of the pill problem. She agreed.

I kept doing what I had been doing. I was the best husband a wife could ask for. And I was doing something that I should have talked to Morgan about first. I couldn’t. Morgan hated the cold and the snow. If I could change one thing about her, it would be Christmas. I never had much of a Christmas, either, but at least I didn’t hate it as much as she did. We normally just took a vacation for Christmas. That’s how much she didn’t want to do it.

If I moved us to New York in the dead of winter with snow and Christmas, she would divorce me. That’s the only reason I didn’t tell her. Had it been to Florida or even Texas, I wouldn’t have kept it from her. There was no point in having the argument with her if I didn’t buy the place. It was better to wait it out.

Morgan was happy to be taking the boys to the beach house, seeing her mom and Alicia. The only argument we had for ten days straight was for me recruiting Alicia.

“I can’t believe you told her that, Drew. If that would have been me, you would be pissed. You don’t like it when I tell her our problems, but it’s okay for you?” she barked. She was leaving the next morning. I wasn’t about to let her leave mad at me.

“Are you telling me you wouldn’t have told her yourself?” I asked, sliding my hands in my pockets. Her expression changed when she knew I was right. “You’re doing great, Morgan. I don’t want you screwing it up. You had two pills all day today. That’s better than six.”

“Thanks,” she said, calming her anger and turning her attention back to stirring whatever she was cooking. “You just had to go and mention that didn’t you?”

“I’m sorry,” I said, moving behind her. I knew I was in the clear when she relaxed into me. “What the hell is that?” I asked seeing the seaweed in the pot. 

“Creamed spinach.”

“I’m not eating that,” I assured her. Morgan shoved me away and looked to see where the boys were. Damn.

“I not eating dat, either,” Tadpole said from my leg.

“Me, either,” Nicholas joined.

“You’re all eating it,” she warned.

“We’ll eat it. Won’t we guy’s?” I asked, looking to them for backup.

“No, me not eat it. My don’t like it.”

Nicholas agreed with his brother. “I don’t like it, either.”

“Now you’re in for it, both of you,” I warned, crouching to the floor and planning my attack. They ran, screaming.

“Drew!” Morgan screamed, crashing to the floor with me. I rolled over her and attacked her instead. Just like I knew they would, Nicholas and Tadpole were on my back in seconds. I grabbed Nicky off my back and laid him over Morgan. Holding them both down with my body, I tickled them with one hand and kept Tadpole from falling off my back with the other.

I stacked Tadpole on top of his brother and mother, and rolled to their side, pretending to be dead. Morgan instantly shoved the boys over to me and got up.

“He’s dead. Give him CPR. Jump up and down on his chest,” she instructed the boys. She screamed again when I suddenly came back to life and grabbed her ankle with a growl. That right there. Times like that made me want to do just what Morgan said, take my family somewhere and keep them in a safe bubble. I often wonder if it’s like that for every man. Do other men have this strong of a hold on his family? I would kill anyone that tried to hurt them, without question.

Putting the boys to bed couldn’t come fast enough. My wife decided to torture me the rest of the evening. She didn’t put those silky short pajamas on for no reason. The ones that every time she bent over, showed her full set of breasts in the front and two little ass cheeks from the back. I had to hold one hand down with the other all night. She stretched clear across me to reach Tadpoles sippy cup. I could have got it. It was all I could do not to grab a handful of ass with the boys there.

She picked up toys with her nipples in full view. She rocked her leg back and forth at the end of the sofa, not giving me quite the shot, but just enough. I did move the material to the side once when the boys ran off to brush their teeth.

“We better go help them,” Morgan said, staring at me with those damn
fuck me
eyes. I held her gaze and dipped my middle finger inside her warm, wet pussy.

“Jesus, Morgan,” I growled in some sort of old man voice.

“Tadpole didn’t do it,” Nicolas called from the hall. Morgan’s eyes closed and her body tensed when I slid my finger out, back in, and then out. Morgan wanted to be fucked. Yes! Morgan wanted to be fucked!

I ran to the bathroom and helped the boys get ready for bed. I knew when Morgan suggested that we all read together in Nicky’s bed what she was doing. I was right. Jesus, I couldn’t read anything. Her leg rubbing up and down my cock and her nipples hard through the satin on her shirt made it impossible.

“You go to bed,” I ordered, looking over to her. I could get this done faster without her. She laughed, kissed Tadpole on the head between my legs, and leaned clear over me to kiss Nicholas. I don’t know if my hand would have stopped had she not moved it away with hers. Sliding it up the inside of her soft thighs, she stopped me and left. I stared after her until she was completely out of sight.

I tried to read fast, but that wasn’t putting Tadpole to sleep. Making him lay down again for the third time, I slowed down and tried like hell to put Morgan out of my mind. These boys needed to go to sleep. I finally pretended to fall asleep too after putting Nicky in his bed. Tadpole climbed around me, sang something about someone living in a pine apple under the sea, and kicked his arms and legs, karate chopping the bad guys. That’s when he finally gave up and I slid out of his bed.

Morgan looked over the dark framed glasses when I entered the room. The memory hit me immediately. “What are you reading?” I asked, wondering if I was about to cross a line.

“Leddy Harper’s new book.”

“Really? What’s it about?”

“I’m not that far into it yet,” Morgan said, removing the glasses. If I didn’t know better, I would almost say she knew what I was thinking.

“Tell me what you know,” I said, removing my cotton pants. My cock sprung to my hand and I stroked it, staring at her with the same knowing look. I swear she knew.

“Um, this guy Cade is a sex therapist and he’s helping this girl out.”

“What’s wrong with her sex life?” I asked, moving behind her. She slid up, resting between my legs with her legs already apart. I grinded into her ass a couple times with a groan. Fuck. I was hard.

“I don’t know yet. I’m not that far,” she panted in an aroused, raspy tone.

“Read it to me,” I ordered, holding a fist full of hair. I pulled her head back by her hair and sunk my teeth into her neck, and sucked hard, letting go before I left a mark. My other hand held her stomach firmly against my body and my cock pulsated on her ass.

I slid my hand down Morgan’s leg, stopping before I reached her pussy. “Read it to me,” I ordered again.

“It’s a sex scene, Drew,” she said with her a trembling voice.

“Even better,” I informed her, biting into her neck again.

My fingers slid between her lips when she started reading. Sliding them up and down, my cock felt like it got harder, hearing her unsteady voice. “Is this okay, Morgan?” I asked, sliding her juices up and down her pussy. Fuck. She was wet.

“Yes,” she replied, not missing a beat. My fingers circled her clitoris while my lips sucked and licked her neck. Her words were drawn out in shaky verses, describing the sex of Cade and Ivy. When Cade pinched Ivy’s clit, I pinched Morgan’s. When Cade finger fucked her pussy, I finger fucked Morgan. As soon as her words turned to moans, I stopped, wrapped her hair around my hand, and ordered her to read. When she started again, I started again. To say she became even wetter was an understatement. She was drenched and I spread it from her ass to her clit.

“Drew, I’m done,” she finally protested, begging for mercy. Sliding to a laying positon left Morgan straddling my waist.

“Raise up and keep reading,” I demanded, making her stand on her knees. I spread her a little in order to reach her pussy with about an inch of my cock. I used that inch to slide up and down her slit, focusing a lot of attention to her clit. Hearing Morgan read to me about someone else’s sex was hot. No wonder she read these books.