Being Their Baby (26 page)

He laughed, to which she immediately smiled, then he helped her up from his lap. “Stay still. I’ll put your panties back on, you naughty thing.”

Josh had to give this much to his brother: Charlie was a genius. He found sexy where most men didn’t. The idea of pulling panties down a girl’s legs being sexy was no new concept; Josh always got that. However, Josh hadn’t before imagined the scene of Sophie stepping into them awkwardly, biting her pouting bottom lip with embarrassment while the flimsy fabric traveled up her legs and scraped over her tender, red flesh, exposing both her bald little pussy and her bare bottom to the whole room as she raised her skirt enough that Charlie could see what he was doing. Her cheeks were pink, her eyes watery; the picture was so seductively perfect.

“Now what do you have to do to keep those panties on?” Charlie asked her, causing to blush an even deeper pink.

Penitently, she responded, “Be a good girl.”

“That’s right.” He gave her a pat and then he slipped back into his daddy-caregiver mode without a hitch, although now, if he was anything like Josh, he was probably packing some serious wood. “Now, hustle. I’m putting an extra granola bar and a yogurt in your lunch cooler; you can eat it in the car.” He looked at Josh as he strode into the kitchen. “You gonna don a shirt today, or is this your new look?” he asked him, pushing him aside so he could get into the fridge.

“Maybe,” Josh replied with a shrug. He turned to Liz and posed. “What do you think, goddess?”

“I think you need to tell your friends that it’s just a game, and you guys aren’t trying out for the NHL,” Liz replied, eyeing the bruises on his abs, left pec, and right arm.

“The ones below the belt are all from you, sugar britches,” he replied with a wink, sipping his coffee. He nodded over to Sophie. “What about you, bunny? Think bruises are sexy? Makes me look tough and manly?”

Sophie looked up from quickly shoving all her binders and books into her backpack to raise an eyebrow at him. She shrugged indecisively. “Yep. I guess they give you that bad-boy look.”

Josh raised his mug to Sophie in a salute of approval and turned to Liz. “You see? The chicks dig me.”

“Well, make sure you pick up the little chick from school tonight, because Liz and I have to take off early to beat traffic,” Charlie said, pulling Sophie’s lunch bag out of the fridge. “And she’s got an important paper due on Monday, so make sure she gets started on it tonight.”

Josh shook his head. “No can do, bro. No papers, no homework, no nothing—I’m spoiling her tonight. We’re gonna go and paint the town while you’re gone. Boston might not be here when you get back; we might party it off the map.”

Charlie turned his head, something between suspicion and concern darkening his features. “I thought you were on-call tonight.”

“
Backup
call,” Josh corrected, raising a finger to point out Charlie’s simple yet amazingly wrong mistake. “That means the two guys on call would have to have to call in before I’m even on call.” He shook his head with confidence. “In short, I’m off tonight, and I’m spending it with the brat.”

Sophie snorted at being referred to as a brat, but Josh didn’t miss her seductive smile at him.

“
No booze
.” Liz was suddenly next to him and jabbing her finger into his bruised ribcage. “She’s eighteen, and I don’t want you passing a twenty to the waiter to make it happen, either.”

“You can do that?” Sophie asked from the other side of the room.

“I wasn’t planning to.” He winced at Liz’s accusatory look and defended himself. “Hey, calm your tits. I can’t drink anyway, since I’m on backup call. Drop the worry; I’ll take care of her. I’m not gonna light her up on cocaine and then go streaking. Give me some credit, here!”

Liz put up her hands. “Fine, fine. You’re right.” She patted his shoulder. “We’ll be back tomorrow afternoon, but if you need anything, we’ll have our cells on—”

“I think I know how to show a girl a good time without you,” he replied, tilting his head up and bobbling it side to side with a swaggered confidence.

Liz grabbed Sophie as she walked by with her backpack, grabbed her chin, and kissed her mouth. “Be good,” she directed the girl firmly.

“I’m always good!” Sophie replied, a little defensiveness in her tone.

Liz broke out into a warmer smile and brushed Sophie’s bangs back. “You’re right, you’re right. I’m sorry. Don’t let Josh corrupt you too much when we’re gone.”

Sophie got up on her tiptoes and tilted her head up to kiss Liz tenderly on the mouth, but then turned to Charlie. “You done pulling all the good stuff from my lunch?”

“Where’d you even get this?” he asked, picking up the energy drink he’d pulled out of the bag and replaced with a bottle of orange juice and a small bag of vitamins.

“I’m not giving up the name of my dealer, Daddy. Nice try,” she told him cockily, but then winked at Josh, her dealer of Red Bulls.

Charlie gave Josh a warning glare, but then pulled Sophie’s backpack out of her hands and tossed it over his good shoulder. “To the car, let’s go,” he instructed her with a slap on the butt.

Sophie turned to Josh. “Don’t forget to pick me up,” she demanded, pointing at him with her little finger, seemingly trying to copy Liz’s firm tone.

“Yes, Ma’am,” he teased with a grin.

She smiled and ran toward the front door, scooting around Charlie on her way out.

When they were out of the house, Liz was standing there, watching him. “What?” he asked.

“Nothing,” Liz said with a shrug. “So… You’ll have the house all to yourselves tonight, then,” she drawled.

He nodded, wondering where she was going.

She smirked. “Make it special for her?” she requested.

Josh swallowed, suddenly getting Liz’s meaning. He suddenly felt a world’s weight of pressure. “There’re no solid plans for… that.”

Liz nodded, then said, “I appreciate how you’ve treated her since meeting her. I really think if it wasn’t for you, she would have left us a long time ago. It’s hard to remember what it was like around here before she came along.”

“It did seem like an awful long time ago… She’s pretty special,” he agreed.

“Do you like her?” Liz asked, and then added, “You know, in a traditional girlfriend sort of way?”

Josh quickly blurted, “Well, I would never keep you or Charlie from—”

“I know,” Liz soothed, touching his arm. “But you know what I mean, right? Do you… have more of a thing for her than…”

“I don’t love her more than I do you,” he added softly. “It’s different with her, that’s all. I wouldn’t let her top me like you do, and I couldn’t do without you. Now, if you’re asking me if she means more to me than my weekend catches, then yes. That’s why I haven’t brought them around. She’s enough. She fulfills that dominant part of me. So yeah. Let’s just say I’m glad you brought her home.”

“She’s good for you, she’s good for Charlie, and she’s good for me,” Liz replied, almost mysteriously. She finally added after Josh stared at her for a moment, “Well, this all finally feels like home. I feel more…”

“Contented?” Josh guessed.

Liz smiled softly and nodded. “It’s nice when you have everything you want.”

“You mean two amazing boyfriends and a hot-as-hell girlfriend, a good job, a nice house, and a 401K?” Josh asked. It did seem like they had it all. Even Josh had two goddess-like girlfriends—he couldn’t ask for better than Liz and Sophie. They were very different, but because of that they seemed to round all of his bases.

She giggled slightly. “I’m a girl who wants it all, and I’m running out of things to want.”

“Next, you’ll take over the world,” Josh told her with a wink.

She shook her head. “Maybe, but when you have everything you want, the hardest part is always
keeping it
.” She reached forward and patted Josh’s hands. “So take care of her.”

Josh smirked, almost feeling like Liz had not just passed Sophie’s safety to him for the night, but Sophie’s well-being in a more permanent sense. And he wanted the job. “I’ll keep both eyes and hands on her at all times,” he replied, laughing.

She gave him a scolding glance, but then laughed. “I believe it. Poor girl doesn’t know what she’s in for when it comes to you.”

Josh shrugged and replied airily, “I always feel the same way when it comes to Sophie. She’s unpredictable, but I keep coming back for more.” He shook his head. “God bless those age-play–prone virgin schoolgirls.”

Chapter Twelve

Don’t fall asleep, don’t fall asleep…
It was hard to not sleep when Sophie’s teacher seemed to be giving his best Ben Stein impression. The May sun shone outside, and she was giddy about going out in it.

She heard a buzzing in her backpack pocket, alerting her that someone sent a message. Hoping it was Josh with information on what he had in store for her that evening, she plucked it out of her backpack and unlocked the screen to see that a group of girls from her class had texted her.

She looked over and saw a few sets of eyes staring at her, and then looked back down at the message. “Got a car? We’re trying to get a girls’ night together.”

She had neither a car nor a license to drive it even if she had—for now. Even then she had a feeling if she ever
was
given a car, Daddy would attach so many rules to it that all the joy of receiving it would be overshadowed with worry of something happening to it.

She didn’t want to explain all that, so she waited for the teacher to turn before she quickly typed, “Can’t. Got a hot date tonight.”

She got a text back before too long.

“Oooh. Hot date? Gonna lose the Big V?”

Smirking, she replied, “Who still says I
have
my Big V?” When this was picked up, she looked around to see the girls’ expressions. Of course, she was still a virgin, but they didn’t know that. They thought she was a girl from the other side of the tracks who had just been taken in by her “older cousin”—Elizabeth Button.

It was a lie, but Elizabeth was happy to say anything that was going to get her into this school. It was relatively close to the house, and they were in session through the summer, allowing Sophie to catch up and graduate in the fall.

The girls started giggling in the rows ahead of her and the teacher looked over, exasperated. “Girls,” he droned, “if you’re going to ignore me and fail your next exam, where what I’m talking about now will be sure to make an entrance, the
least
you can do is ignore me
quietly
.”

Sophie bit her bottom lip to keep from mischievously giggling, although she didn’t push it. Her teacher and Charlie had a rapport, which normally meant that if her teacher even raised an eyebrow at her, Charlie was going to up-end her over his knee by the end of the day.

She was halfway through writing another text, when another came in, only this time from Josh. “A good bunny knows when to put her cellphone away.”

She blanched at the screen and immediately stuck it back into her backpack before she even looked around to try to figure out how Josh knew she was texting. She glanced out the window next to her and noticed Josh standing under a nearby tree with sunglasses on and a Dr. Pepper in one of his hands. He waved at her, grinning boyishly.

She smirked in spite of herself and shook her head. Josh was such a nut.

But damn, he was a
sexy
nut. She could see his light blue eyes twinkle at her all the way from where she was sitting. It was as if someone shook a magazine really hard and he fell out of it. He looked like a model even with his wrinkled t-shirt, baggy jeans, and tousled hair.

Well, she certainly couldn’t pay attention
now
! She looked up, wincing at the clock. What class was she even in? English? Math? When was the day going to end already?

“What’s your opinion, Miss Benny?”

Sophie’s last name drew her eyes away from the clock on the wall to the teacher, who was unfortunately looking right at her. Apparently she didn’t imagine him saying her name.

She had no idea what he had been talking about, of course. “My opinion?”

“Yes,” the teacher intoned.

She sighed. “The weekend really needs to get here already.” The class tittered with laughter all around her.

She regretted her words immediately when the teacher didn’t even give the smallest of smiles. She was certain he was inwardly deciding what he was going to tell Charlie in their next phone conversation.

But once the tittering simmered down, he replied in his expressionless drawl, “That is one opinion, Miss Benny, on which we unfortunately agree.”

She let out a sigh of relief, and another right after because the bell rang. She grabbed up her backpack and noticed other girls looking out the window. “Who’s that? Rochelle, isn’t he totally hot?” one said, jabbing her friend with her elbow and giggling. “I wonder if he’d let me get in his pants.”

“Probably not,” Sophie hummed, causing the girls to spin around.

“Why not?” the girl challenged.

“Because he’ll be too busy with
me
in his pants to let you in.” Sophie winked at her, enjoying the ruse she was putting on. She liked to have the girls think that she was experienced.

The girls let their mouths drop open. “
That
’s who your ‘hot date’ is?”

Sophie nodded, her lips curling at the edges. “Yup.”

Rochelle tilted her head as she stared. “How old is he?”

“Twenty-nine,” Sophie shrugged.

The girls gasped. “Isn’t that a little old?”

“For who?” was her confident response, which had the girls giggling. She glanced outside only to see him now pacing under the tree back and forth, looking like he was talking angrily on the phone. She could almost see his eyebrows furrowed with agitation. She had a bad feeling about his sudden turn of mood. “I gotta go.”

She left the classroom, slinging her backpack over her shoulder. She walked down the hallway and out the doors toward the nearby trees in front of the parking lot. He was just hanging up his cellphone and putting it into his pocket. She paused as she walked to him, because he looked so put out, and she thought it had something to do with her.