Mine To Promise: Small town secret baby romance.(Southern Wedding Book 6) (Southern Weddings)
Mine To Promise: Chapter 28

“Yes,” I hiss, moving my hands from her hips to her tits as she grinds down on my cock, my back to the headboard.

“Stefano,” she moans out my name, making my cock twitch inside her. She arches her back as I roll her nipples between my fingers, right before pinching them. “Yes.” She picks up speed, moving up and then slamming back down on me. Her head goes back, making her hair rub against my thighs. “I’m almost there.”

“I can feel you, baby.” I watch her eyes close as her movements get faster. I lean down, taking her nipple in my mouth, sucking it, and then biting it. Her pussy squeezes me so tight, we both hiss. “Let go,” I tell her before assaulting her other nipple. It’s all she needs before she lets go. Her pussy convulses around my cock, and when I know she’s done, my hands grip her hips and I turn her on her back, my cock still buried in her. “My turn,” I growl as I pound into her over and over again. My forehead is on hers as I slide my tongue into her mouth. “It’s so good,” I say as I pull out of her all the way to the tip, and then slam back into her. “It’s always so fucking good.” She wraps her legs around my hips and then her arms around my neck as she lifts her hips up to match my thrusts. She moans out again, my mouth swallowing her moan and two seconds later she is swallowing mine. I plant myself into her as I bury my face in her neck, her legs slowly slipping away from my hips, giving me the chance to turn to my side, again taking her with me.

She buries her face in my neck, at the same time the alarm on the side table goes off. “Good morning,” she mumbles as I turn to grab the phone and turn it off.

“Good morning to you,” I say, “although, any time I wake up with your mouth on my cock is a very good morning.”

She retorts, “You were poking me in the back with that thing. I thought it was code.” I can’t help but laugh as she pushes me away. My cock sliding out of her, I go to reach for her but she’s faster than me this morning. “I’m going to clean up and you are going downstairs to make us coffee. It’s back to work, mister, for the both of us.”

“Ugh,” I moan, tossing the covers off me and grabbing a pair of shorts from the floor next to the bed where I took them off last night before sliding into bed.

“I see where our daughter gets the early morning shine from,” Addison says over her shoulder, making me smirk as I walk out of the bedroom.

Instead of going downstairs, my first stop is Avery’s bedroom. Peeking my head in, I see she is in the middle of the bed on her stomach, but she’s sideways. Seeing that she is okay, I finally make my way down the stairs toward the kitchen. I grab two cups for coffee before turning and taking the milk out of the fridge. Once the coffees are done, I take both cups upstairs to the bedroom. The sound of the shower is still going by the time I walk back into the room. I take a sip of my coffee before placing both cups down on the coffee table. I think about maybe joining her in the shower, but right when I’m debating, I hear the sound of feet hitting the floor. I sit on the bed and watch the doorway, seeing her shadow on the floor before she walks into the room. Her tiny hands rub the sleep away from her eyes. “Morning,” I say to her and she grunts, making me chuckle a bit.

“Where is Momma?” she asks as she comes to the side of the bed where I’m sitting.

“She’s in the shower.” I kiss her neck. “Did you sleep good?” I ask her and she nods her head. It’s been two days that we’ve been back from San Francisco. The week flew by in the blink of an eye. As soon as we got off the plane, we headed to Addison’s house to make sure everything was okay. We stayed for a couple of hours until we headed out to my house, where we’ve been for the last two days. “Do you want to go and get some breakfast started?” I pick her up and put her on my lap, wrapping my arms around her and pulling her close to me. She lays her head on me as she nods. My chest fills so much it is sometimes hard to breathe, but at the same time I feel a dread. Today for the first time since I found her, I’m going to work. I mean, I was working before but today I’m flying out and going into the office to have a couple of meetings.

“Do I have daycare today?” She looks up at me, and I nod. She climbs off my lap, and I stand.

“Go get dressed,” I tell her, “then meet me downstairs.” She turns and walks toward her bedroom. The shower turns off as I grab her cup of coffee, walking to the bathroom. When I open the door, I replace her wrapping a towel around herself. “Avery is up.” I hand her the coffee cup. “I’m going to go make her breakfast.”

“Don’t you have to pack?” she asks me, and my stomach tightens.

“I’ll drop Avery off and then come home to pack,” I say to her. “Are you hungry?”

“Not really, I sort of ate already today.”

I shake my head. “That you did.” I kiss her neck and then kiss her lips before returning downstairs to start breakfast.

Avery eats some pancakes and fruit before we all usher each other out the door. I put Avery in my car before walking over to Addison’s. “I’ll call you later.” I wrap my arms around her. “And I’ll FaceTime you for dinner.”

“Okay,” she says softly, “fly safe.” She kisses my lips. “See you on Saturday.”

I nod at her, giving her one more kiss before I open her door and she gets in. I hold my hand up as she pulls out of the driveway before I get into my car. I take my time driving Avery to daycare, and when I park she hops out. I walk way slower than I should, stopping at her classroom door, I squat in front of her. “I’ll call you tonight,” I tell her, “and then this weekend we could maybe go to the zoo.”

“Okay, Dad,” she says, not even giving a shit that my heart is breaking right now. She has no idea the hold she has on me.

“Give me a hug and kiss,” I tell her and she walks into my outstretched arms and kisses my cheek. “I love you,” I say to her and she just runs into her class, turning and waving at me before joining her friends who are shouting her name.

Packing is a piece of cake. I’ve done this before so many times, I can do it with my eyes closed. Even when I get on the plane, I think to myself that this is the longest I’ve been in one place. The flight flies by, and two hours after I left my house, I’m walking into our office. “Holy shit,” my partner, Levi, says when I walk in, “he’s still alive.” He’s dressed in what for sure was a suit but he took off his jacket. We’ve been friends since our first day in college when we took computer coding together. The two of us were at the top of the class and then we just started hanging out together. We opened the company together and fast-forward about twelve years and here we are.

I laugh. “I worked every day,” I tell him as I walk over to my office, open the door, and feel the stuffiness come out. I dump my bag on the love seat in the corner before walking over to my desk. The mail has been piled up. “What time is the meeting?”

“We can start whenever you are ready,” Levi says to me.

“I’m good to go,” I state, grabbing my laptop from my bag and heading to the conference room.

“The war room,” Levi says, coming in with his own laptop in one hand and a bottle of water in the other. “I don’t know about you,” he says, sitting down, “but I love, love, love these times.” He leans back in his chair, waiting for the rest of the staff to come and join us. “How have things been?”

“Good.” I try not to smile big, but I can’t help it. “Amazing, really.”

“You look good.” He rocks in his chair back and forth. “Saw a couple of pictures of your daughter and your…” He trails off, making me laugh. “What are you calling her?”

I chuckle and look down at my hands and then declare, “Mine.” He just laughs. “You should try it.”

He looks at me, his eyebrows pinching together. “Are you crazy?”

“What?” I lean back, mimicking him. “The proverbial bachelor can settle.”

He chuckles. “Not my thing.”

“Until you replace the right person,” I tell him, and he huffs and rolls his eyes at me.

“I’ll take your word for it.” He leans forward, unbuttoning his cuffs and rolling up his sleeves. “The only woman I’ve had in my life for longer than one night is Eva, and that’s only because she’s always been my wingman. She knows all my secrets and is always there when I need her.”

“You mean she wouldn’t touch you with a ten-foot pole,” I remind him of what she told me the last time she came in, and I joked about them dating.

“That also.” He points at me. “She can smell my bullshit a mile away.” He stops talking when more people come in and say hello to me.

The seats are all taken as we go through our list of clients. “Okay, people,” I say, clapping my hands, “let’s get this done.” I know we have to go through our client list and see if they have any needs. Then we have to go through our waiting list to see which clients we are going to be taking on in the next couple of months. I lean back in my chair as Levi starts in on the first name on the list.

I don’t even feel the time go by. “We should order in food if we are going to keep going,” Levi suggests, and I look down at the corner of the computer screen and see that it’s a little past eight thirty at night, and I start to panic.

“I have to head home,” I hear someone say as I look beside my computer for my phone and I replace it empty. I jump out of my chair, ignoring everyone voting on staying or going. “I’m with whatever,” I say, rushing to my office and replaceing my phone on my desk. I turn it over to see Addison tried to call me once, but then I have ten missed FaceTimes from Avery.

I sit in the chair and call Addison first. She answers after two rings, and I can tell she was sleeping. “Hey, did I wake you?”

“Yeah,” she mumbles, “I must have fallen asleep with Avery,” she whispers.

“She’s sleeping?” I say, putting my head back and my eyes closing.

“Yeah, she had a busy day. Apparently, she was teaching the class how to wave like a princess. It’s hard being Avery.” She chuckles, and picturing her is just making it worse, even with my eyes closed. “How is your day?”

“Good, we just stopped to get something to eat or finish, I’m not sure. I saw the time and ran to call you,” I tell her, looking up when I hear people start walking in the hallway. “I think we are going to be ending it. I’ll call you when I get to the hotel.”

She yawns at the same time that she says, “Okay.” I disconnect the phone and put it back on my desk.

Levi sticks his head into my office. “We will reconvene tomorrow at ten,” he says. “Get some sleep. You look like shit.”

“Thanks,” I mumble, getting up and making my way over to the hotel two doors from the office. I check in and make my way up to the bedroom. The sound of the door clicks closed once I walk in.

I toss my bag by the bed and call Addison right away; she answers after one ring. “Hi,” she grumbles, and I press the FaceTime button. The sound of ringing fills the phone. “Are you FaceTiming me?”

“Yes,” I confirm, putting the phone in front of me as the white circle goes around until she fills the screen. “Hi, beautiful,” I say softly.

“You look tired,” she notes. “Why don’t you get a shower and go to bed?”

“I will in a bit. I miss you,” I admit to her and her mouth goes from a smirk to a full-blown smile.

“Do you?” she asks me, turning on her side, and I wish I was sliding into bed with her.

“I do.” I smirk at her. “How is Avery?”

“She’s good,” she says, and I can feel her holding back something.

“She tried to FaceTime me,” I tell her and she smiles sadly.

“Yeah. We called you from my phone together and then she went to her bedroom.” She trails off. “I found her under the covers trying to call you.”

I close my eyes and it feels like someone kicked me in the balls, and then came back to kick me in the mouth after I fell to my knees to cup my balls. “What did you tell her?”

“You were at work, and you would call her when you weren’t busy. It’s totally normal for a parent to go away for work. Your dad used to do it.”

“I know, but I didn’t. He didn’t come into my life after deserting me for four years,” I groan.

“You didn’t desert her, and I see what Sofia was talking about being dramatic with the family.” She softly giggles. “Go take a shower, and you can call her tomorrow. Then she can guilt-trip you and you can come home and bring all the stuffies you replace in the airport.”

“Should I order them now?” I ask, and her eyes go big.

“That was sarcasm,” she retorts. “You aren’t going to buy her anything because then she is going to think that she is going to get something every time you go away.”

“But she will,” I assure her and she rolls her eyes.

“Goodbye,” she says, “call me tomorrow.”

“Night, baby.” I look at her and she disconnects. I order some food before taking a shower and eat in my bed before going to sleep. “This is my life,” I say, hunkering under the covers.

I don’t even know when I fall asleep, but the phone ringing fills the room.

I sit up in bed, looking around before I realize where I am. I get the phone and see that it’s Avery calling me. I press the connect button and see her sitting in the car. “Dad,” she says, her voice high. “See, Momma, I told you he would answer.”

“Hey,” I say, lying back down in the bed, “how are you, my beautiful girl?”

“Good, I’m at daycare,” she reports, and the back door opens and she jumps out.

“Already? Okay, have a great day,” I tell her and she hands the phone to Addison.

“Why didn’t you call me?” I ask her.

“Because I knew you would be sleeping, and if you are anything like me, you tossed and turned all night long, so I was being nice.”

“You missed me.” I smile into the phone.

“I have to go,” she deflects. “Say bye.”

“Bye, Dad, call me tonight,” Avery says, and then the phone hangs up. I lie back down in the bed, turning to the side and seeing it’s just after eight. I get up and get dressed to go to work, grabbing a cup of coffee right before walking back into the office. The joy I used to get walking into the office feels like it’s gone.

I nod at the receptionist, who greets me when I walk in. Most people aren’t even in yet, so I go through the mail I have on my desk. By the time Levi gets in, we get back into the war room, and just like the night before, it’s after nine when I finally look up. After lunch, I didn’t even see the time move. I felt like I looked down at it after one in the afternoon, and then we started talking about our next client. It would be a big one that would keep me working for days on end. I am not going to lie. I was itching to get started, especially since I was the one who wanted this company.

Everyone gets up, this time slower than yesterday. I look down and see I don’t have any missed calls, but I have a video. I grab my stuff and head to my office, sitting down and opening Addison’s text. I press play on the video, and Avery’s face fills the phone.

“Hi, Dad. It’s me, Avery. I’m going to bed, and Momma won’t let me call you because you’re busy.” Her voice trails off sadly. “Call me tomorrow. I love you.” She gives the camera her princess wave before it turns off. My hands grip the phone as my eyes close.

“We fly out tomorrow morning at six thirty,” Levi says, sticking his head into my office. “Meeting starts at eight sharp.”

“Sounds good,” I say, getting up and putting the phone in my back pocket, “then we’ve got to talk,” I tell him, and he just looks at me, nodding. “Let’s nail this client, and then we talk, yeah?”