And in time... (18 page)

“And you thought I was an ass?”

Alexis smiled sadly, not liking the way she felt, but for the first time, it seemed different. The nostalgic longing she’d once felt for Mitch was gone. It was the loss of her baby that broke her heart, not Mitch. 

“Do you want another beer?” Cory kissed her knuckles and Alexis slid from the couch.

“Yeah, I think I do. I’ll get them.”

Cory waited for her anxiously, flipping through a sale paper on the coffee table. He looked over to the kitchen door, wondering what was taking so long. Alexis stood with her hands behind her back, leaned against the threshold, staring at him. She didn’t understand what she was feeling. She wasn’t sure if she was ready for any of this, but she was sure of one thing. She wanted him.

Cory went to her and took her in his arms. His body pressed her against the doorframe while his knee went between her legs. Alexis held her hands behind her back and stared up at him.

“You scare the hell out of me,” she said softly.

“If it’s any consolation, you scare the hell out of me, too.”

“Take me to bed.”

Cory pulled her hand and led her toward the stairs. Alexis pulled away long enough to flip off a couple lights. Her heart melted a little more when he stopped off to kiss Riki’s sleeping lips and cover her arms. The melting heart did little to calm the nerves going on just below the first layer of skin. Adrenaline pumped wildly through her veins while she waited for the inevitable. Pep talking herself calm, she inaudibly reminded her lungs to take in air. Jesus, God! This wasn’t the first time she’d had sex. Why the hell was she so nervous?

“You okay?” Cory questioned in a quiet tone, closing the door behind them. Alexis smiled but didn’t reply with words. She didn’t trust her voice just yet. She needed a moment.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” he professed.

“I’m fine. You’re not going to hurt me.”

Cory ran his fingers up her arm and stared attentively at her body. Their eyes searched each other out, quietly without words. Alexis’s arms hung limply at her sides and her mind telepathically willed him to touch her. She had no idea how to take the lead, or if she even should. Her breathing became short and shallow when Cory unfastened her belt and then her jeans. Her eyes watched his hands pull the tight shirt from her waistband while she tried hard to swallow. With one quick move, Cory spun her in his arms. Her head dropped to his shoulder when his lips found that arousing spot, just below her ear, and his fingers slid between the lacy elastic. He tenderly let his fingers explore her body, softly brushing her sensitive skin. His fingers made their way between the thin material of her bra, forcing an instant bead. Alexis couldn’t stop thinking about his other hand, so close to the throbbing between her legs.

“You okay?” Cory whispered in question with warm kisses to her neck.

Alexis snorted. “Just trying to remember how to do this.”

“Want me to tell you?”

“Sure,” she whimpered when his fingers twisted the bead behind her bra. Why did she say that? No. No. She didn’t want him to tell her. She wanted him to do it. Gah!

“The thing is, you don’t have to think about it at all,” he assured her while sliding his hand a little lower in her jeans.

“I don’t?” she rasped with broken words, forgetting once again that she needed to breathe.

“No, you know the intent and you have the desire. Your natural instincts know exactly what to do.”

“They do?” she faintly replied, tilting her head and trying like hell not to move his hand down herself. This was torture and he did it on purpose.

“Yes, and now you have one thing on your mind. What is it, Alexis?”

“Sex.”

Cory’s fingers moved a little lower. His fingers now rested on her mound, just above her pelvic bone. “Yes, you’re in the first phase of the sexual response cycle. Do you know what that is?” he asked while moving his fingers, paying the other breast the same attention with a twist. Alexis shook her head and he answered with hot, sexy words to her bare shoulder. “Excitement. Are you excited, Lex?”

Alexis had no idea where she was, but she liked it. Her eyes refused to open and her head moved around for his lips to touch her skin. “I am.”

“I know you are. Do you know how I know this?”

“How?”

Cory’s hand pressed against her lower abdomen. “Your muscle tension is increasing.” His hand moved from the pucker behind her bra and he flattened it. Flush in the center of her chest, he pointed out her accelerated breathing. “Your breasts are full, forcing this hard bead,” he whispered to the sensitive spot below her ear again, sending a line of chills straight down her spine. “Your heart rate has increased, and your skin is warm, flushed.” Yup, all of those things. Yes. She felt that. “Blood flow has increased, resulting in a pulsating feeling where the swelling has already taken place. That’s the first phase, Alexis. The excitement.”

“Aaah,” she whimpered when his fingers thrust downward and they both felt the excitement. 

“You’re so ready, Alexis.” Alexis’s right foot stepped to the side and Cory took the invitation with two fingers. “The next phase is the plateau. Everything I just told you was happening, has now intensified from my touch. Your pupils are dilated, you’re very sensitive right here, and it continues to swell with the increased blood flow,” Cory explained while his fingers circled the swelling nub and she lost control. “Do you know what the next phase is, Alexis?” he asked in husky murmur, applying more pressure and a quicker pace. 

Alexis didn’t answer. She didn’t need to go to med school to know what the next phase was. She could feel it. Control was being loss no matter how hard she tried. With everything in her, she strained to reclaim control. Her eyes opened and she looked toward the window. She needed a distraction. It wasn’t supposed to happen that fast—was it? Cory’s enduring fingers picked up speed and she let out a soft moan.

“Oh God,” she audibly muttered, causing him to pick up even more velocity, bringing her to the crest of no return. Her legs parted, her toes curled, and her hands grasped the legs of his jeans. “Aaah” she called when she felt the muscles tighten low in her stomach and then lower. That’s when the ripple effect took over and she felt wave after wave after wave.

“And then you have the resolution,” Cory boasted with the same sexy tone while his lips lightly sucked on her neck.

“Those are really ugly curtains,” she blurted out of the blue in a pant. Her rapid breathing slowed with every breath while she came down from her glorious high.

“What?” Cory asked confused, both eyebrows curved toward the bridge of his nose.

Alexis giggled and turned to him. “I didn’t mean to say that out loud. I was trying so hard not to, you know. I was repeating ugly curtains over and over in my head, trying not to, you know,” she said again like she was too embarrassed to say the word. She was too embarrassed. There was no hiding that.

Cory laughed, too, and then kissed her, causing the first stage to start all over again. Their tongues danced and devoured each other’s mouths while the blood flow did exactly what he explained in phase one. He took a step back and removed her bra completely, and then dropped to his knees. Alexis wiggled her hips, helping him slide her out of her jeans. 

“I think you have me at a disadvantage,” she said while standing in nothing but the sexy black panties. Cory remained fully dressed, wearing jeans and the same Journey tee shirt she’d seen him in the day she ran into him at the grocery store. He stood and removed his shirt with a smirk.

“It’s still not fair. You still have more on than me.”

“You’re beautiful. Take your panties off.”

Alexis felt the crimson flush that time. “No, it’s your turn.”

Cory smiled and slipped out of his jeans. Bright white boxer briefs showed a well-equipped package, fully erect lying to the left side of his shorts. And there went the blood flow again.

“Your roll,” he said with a smirk. Alexis took a step toward him and he stopped her. “Uh-uh. Take them off,” he ordered.

“Rock, paper, scissors?”

“No. Take your panties off, Alexis.”

The pulsating between her legs increased with the swell. The authoritative way he’d just ordered her to undress for him was hot as hell. Her thumbs seductively moved between the elastic and she slowly slid them over her hips. His eyes watched with intent and Alexis felt more blood rushing to unexplored places. Cory’s hand dipped inside his boxers and topped the hotness chart. Although her eyes couldn’t see the stroking, her mind could, and that was enough.

Alexis screamed when he closed the distance between them and tossed her to the bed. “You cheated,” she accused. Cory’s mouth once again devoured hers and she felt her body quiver beneath him. His naked chest next to her bare breasts caused her to fall a little more. She loved being naked below him. Alexis watched with the same concentrating eyes when Cory removed his shorts. Very well endowed. That was being said with only one guy to compare him with, but still. Their kiss became emotional and desperate when Cory settled between her legs. The impressive throb between her legs was cosmic and intensified when she felt him enter her. Moving slowly in, deeper and deeper, Alexis lost herself again. Watching his chest glisten with his own damp arousal, his lips on her beaded breasts, and the feel of him moving, deeper and deeper, left Alexis with a longing she never wanted to end.

The deep burning that started in her lower abdomen, quickly spread to her groin, her lips parted, and her toes did that curling thing again, but this time, she didn’t try to stop it. She moaned, and dragged her nails down his back, thrashing beneath him with whimpering moans mixed with gasps. Cory moved faster, deeper, harder, and then thrust one last time, deep and hard. And just like that, he exploded, too. His body dropped to hers and they panted in unison, coming down from ecstasy in slow motion.

“Those are really ugly curtains,” Cory confessed while his lips kissed hers. Alexis laughed and he kissed the tip of her nose. “That didn’t work for shit,” he admitted.

“I could have told you that.”

“Are you okay?” he asked, concerned about her pain.

“I’m fine. I’m more than fine,” she assured him. She was fine. She hadn’t been that fine in, well, never. Finally feeling that proverbial safe point, Alexis relaxed in his arms. Sex was tiresome. Alexis was emotionally drained, exhausted even. She dozed off with a smile, trying to let that security penetrate her heart and unwind. That one might take a little bit, but this was okay, too. She was more than satisfied with where they were and how she felt.

Although it was hard to differentiate, she was sure Cory took her from behind sometime in the early morning, and she once again hit that third phase. Oh, happy girl…

Alexis was missing from her bed when Cory woke. After a stop off to the bathroom he went to find Riki missing from her bed as well. He quietly descended the stairs and walked toward the voice. The smile was instant, witnessing Alexis with his baby girl. Riki was dressed, sitting on the table in front of Alexis.

Alexis held two pairs of socks in front of her. “Do you want the pink ones or the purple ones?”

“Pink!” Riki yelled.

Alexis pulled the socks apart and Riki stopped her. “No…no. Me not wike pink.”

“Do you want purple socks?”

“Yes,” she said with a yell, making up her mind right before changing it again.

Alexis put a purple sock on one foot and a pink one on the other and lifted her to the floor. “How’s that?” she asked.

Riki looked down at her feet and giggled, pleased with her two different colored socks. Alexis smiled, amused at her excitement for two different colored feet and stirred the scrambled eggs. Alexis got excited next. Her eyes scanned Cory’s body, standing in the door, wearing jeans and no shirt. Holy smoking hotness. She actually had to swallow the instant lake of water in her mouth.

“Wook, Daddy,” Riki squealed while she squatted to touch her toes, showing her daddy her unmatched feet. Cory lifted her into the air and held her little feet in his hands.

“I love your socks. Good morning, how did you sleep?” he asked Alexis while holding Riki and kissing her.

“I’m not sure. We need to talk about that,” Alexis countered with a frown and a wooden spoon pointed right at him.

Cory gave an ornery grin and kissed her again. “Yes, that happened. You’re very hard to wake up.”

“Wet me get down. Me have a get sumpton,” Riki announced.

Alexis set the table with bacon, scrambled eggs, and toast while Cory pulled on a shirt and sat at the table. She poured coffee for them both and called for Riki.

“Come on, Riki, your breakfast is ready.”

“You don’t have to wait on me, Lex,” Cory said with his hand running up the back of her leg.

“I like taking care of you, and you, too,” she admitted while she pulled out Riki’s chair, giving her a sippy-cup of milk and lifting her to her booster seat. Cory handed her a fork and she put it down, plopping eggs to her mouth with her fingers. Alexis was just getting ready to sit, too, when the phone rang. 

“Me get it,” Riki called with a raised arm.

“No, you eat your eggs. Lexis will get it,” Cory laughed.

“Good morning, Dad… I’m good…. Yes, I’m fine, Dad,” Alexis promised while looking at Cory and rolling her eyes. Her mother must have told him about her hospital visit. Alexis talked to him while she ate her breakfast and watched Cory interact with Riki, mostly trying to get her to use silverware. She wasn’t having it. Her fingers were a lot more coordinated than the awkward fork.

“Everyone wants to wait until next weekend to get together because it’s so wet and yucky out,” Alexis relayed to Cory. She was secretly glad to be spending the day with just Cory and Riki. “They do want us to be at church in the morning, though,” she added.

“Then let’s go to church,” Cory alleged. He presumed it was something important to her, and truth be told, he’d never really gone to church. He went to a catholic school, but that wasn’t really about religion, more of a statuesque for his parents.

“Really?” she asked, surprised.

“Sure, but I have to go home for clothes, and I don’t think Riki has a dress. Does she need one?”

Alexis looked at him with her head tilted to one side and a frown. “No…she doesn’t
need
one, but what little girl doesn’t have a dress?”

“Do you wear a dress to church?”

“Sometimes.”

“Me wear a dress,” Riki chimed in.

“Way to go, Einstein,” Cory joked. He stood and took their empty plates to the sink.

“What are your plans today?” Alexis asked while taking Riki’s half-eaten plate and scraping it to Mr. Dog’s bowl. She scooped her up, catching her before she ran off to play and washed her hands.

“Hey, wet me go. Me wossed a pig,” she whined while sitting to the floor to escape the hold Alexis had around her waist. One of the three little piggies were misplaced from the basket Alexis gave her to carry them in. She noticed and needed to locate the lost farm animal.

“Wait, you have jelly on your fingers, look,” Alexis said while trying to wipe the sticky fingers before she ran off.

“Now me can?”

“Yes, you can go.” Alexis smiled and kissed her cheek from behind. “What?”

“I was worried about nothing. She loves you. You’re so good with her.”

“Let’s not talk about that. It just makes me mad all over again. Answer my question. What are your plans?”

“My plans are to spend the whole day with you. Whatever you’re doing, I’m doing.”

“Do you want to go to Canterville and go shopping for a dress?”

“I favor pants, but thanks anyway. Yes, we can go shopping if you want, but what I really want to do is lay you on top of this table.”

Alexis straddled his lap and forced her tongue between his lips. His hands ran up her shirt and to the bare skin on her back. As soon as those hands realized there was no bra below the baggy sweatshirt, he moved them to the front. She pushed them away.

“Stop, Riki is here.”

Cory didn’t stop. He stood and took her with him, placing her on the counter. The emotional kiss and his erection pressing on her already sensitive nub was probably enough to send her into the second phase, or was that the third one?

“This a bridge,” Riki announced with a giggle, splitting the connection between them. Thank God. “What you do, Daddy?” she asked with dark eyes, standing between them, looking up with a cow in one hand and a Rubik’s-Cube in the other.

“I’m going to get Lexis out of this house.”

“Why?”

“Because I need to get her into a public place.”

“Why?”

“Because she’s driving me crazy.”

“Why?”

“She’s a bad girl.”

Riki laughed and reached her arms for him to pick her up.

“Do you want to go buy a new dress?” he asked with a wink, looking at Alexis’s amused expression.”

“A pink one,” she decided.

“Pink, are you sure?”

“No, gween.”

***

“We can take my Jeep if you want,” Alexis offered while she petted Mr. Dog, leaving him on the front porch to hold down the fort.

“Okay, if you’re driving,” he answered.

“You don’t like my Jeep?”

“I like it just fine. I just don’t think you want me to drive it.”

“Why?” she asked, not understanding.

“Because it has a clutch,” he admitted and waited for her to laugh at him.

She did want to laugh, but refrained. “Okay, let’s take your city car. I’ll teach you how to drive a stick some time.”

“Don’t get in yet,” Cory ordered with a half a grin, buckling Riki in her seat. Alexis smiled and waited. Cory backed her against the door and forced his tongue between her lips. He placed two fingers inside the waistband of her jeans and tugged once before opening the door for her. “City car,” he said, closing her door. Alexis buckled up and smiled. How the hell did he do that? Her mind wasn’t even in the gutter. All he had to do was touch her and it went there.

They had a great day shopping in the Canterville mall. Riki got three new dresses, a pair of shoes, new socks, and a stuffed animal. They walked around the mall holding hands and Alexis was sure she’d never been happier in her life. As much as she wanted it, all of it, she couldn’t keep the nostalgic ending at bay. It was too real, too good to be true, and too much like a fairy tale. No matter how many times she told herself he wasn’t going to hurt her and things were great, she still had that feeling. The one in her gut that cautioned her wellbeing and reminded her of that pain. The one she never wanted to go through again. They stood in the middle of the mall with Cory’s arms wrapped around her from behind, watching Riki go from one kiddie ride to the next. Cory fed every ride a handful of quarters. Riki wasn’t satisfied until she rode every last one. 

“Okay, that’s it. Let’s go find some food, I’m starving,” he finally said after the last one.

“No, Daddy, me didn’t wide dat one,” she whined while she squirmed, trying to get away from his hold around her wrist.

“Yes, you did. That’s enough.”

Riki sat on the floor and cried out. Cory picked her up and whispered in her ear. Whatever he said worked and she took his hand and followed him out. Alexis learned later that he’d told her that people were staring at her and they were going to think she was a baby. She didn’t want that, she was a big girl.

Cory took them out to a fancy steak house, and then complained when Alexis ordered a cheeseburger. “If I would have known you didn’t like steak, I would have taken you to McDonalds.”

“I like steak. I didn’t want steak.”

“Me no wike it,” Riki added her thoughts while dipping her finger in ketchup and sucking it off. Again, Alexis tried not to ruin the time of her life with thoughts of it all ending, of it crashing in around her. The conversation with Riki was just as engaging as it was with Cory and she never wanted it to end. By the time they had left the restaurant, the rain had stopped, the sun was shining, and it had turned into a beautiful September day.

“You know this wasn’t how I’d planned on spending nap time, don’t you?” Cory asked with his eyes looking in the rearview mirror. Riki was sound asleep with her new little monkey acting as a pillow.

“I hate to tell you this, but it’s almost five in the evening. I doubt she’ll be going to bed anytime soon,” Alexis explained while bursting his bubble. Cory grumbled and moved his hand to her leg. And with that simple little gesture, phase one started all over again. Cory stayed in the car next while Alexis ran into the grocery store and grabbed a few things. She didn’t really have snacks for three-year-olds, although Riki seemed to be fine with graham crackers and peanut butter, and she needed milk. 

Riki was ridiculous after her nap. Crabby wasn’t even close to what she was. Everything was a major meltdown and nothing made her happy. She didn’t want juice, she wanted milk. She didn’t want a bath, she wanted a shower, and then a bath again. She didn’t want the pajamas Cory had gotten for her, she wanted her
Brave
ones. She didn’t want to watch,
The Little Mermaid
, She wanted
Planes
.

“Riki, Alexis doesn’t have that movie.”

“Me do at my house,” she whined.

“We’ll watch it tomorrow. Here, look, a squirt gun. Play with this,” Cory said with agitation in his tone, trying to calm her tenth meltdown.

“Me need water in it.”

“No water, just pretend.”

“Me want a have water in it,” she cried with real tears, throwing herself to the floor in another tantrum. As hard as it was, Alexis kept her mouth shut and let Cory deal with her. 

“Riki, you are not putting water in it. That is for outside,” Cory said while trying to sit her up. Alexis could tell he was getting short with her, but kept her distance. This wasn’t her business. Riki didn’t cry out that time, she screeched an ear-piercing scream, one that could break glass. Mr. Dog even ran from the room. That did it and Cory had enough. He snatched her up by one arm and shook her by the shoulders.

With a red face and popping veins in his neck, Cory yelled, “I said that’s enough.” Riki’s eyes went wide and she instantly stopped crying. 

Alexis didn’t think before she reacted. She was up and had Riki in her arms before she realized what she was doing. “Is that really necessary?” she asked in the same pissed off tone he’d used while Riki clung to her and cried again. It took Cory a couple seconds to calm down and not lash out at her, too. Really? She was doing this.

“Alexis, don’t do this,” he requested in a calm yet heated tone.

“Don’t do what, Cory? You want me to sit here and let you treat her like this? Forget it. You’re not doing that in front of me, not in my house,” Alexis declared, irate, knowing she’d probably stepped over the line. “Go take a shower,” she said in a more pleasant tone, hoping this didn’t turn into something more than it already had.

Cory took his clenched jaw and walked away, glaring daggers straight through her while he ascended the stairs.

“Me want a put water in dis,” Riki whined with the tips of her fingers, wiping tears down her cheeks.

Alexis kissed her damp eyelid. “We can put water in it in the bathtub. Do you want another bath?” 

“Okay.”

Alexis sat on the floor and let Riki play. That seemed to make her happy. Damn. Cory was pissed and this was probably it. He would take Riki and leave, never to be heard from again. All over a squirt gun—a squirt gun that Riki didn’t even play with. She was more interested in the cows swimming in the pond.

“You sit tight, Lexis will be right back,” Cory said as he popped around the corner, taking Alexis by the hand. “Okay?” he questioned.