Authors: Claire Kent
Anna shook her head, although she was clearly on the verge of tears. Mackenzie exhaled slowly, obviously just as disappointed as her sister. “We’ll be good. Daddy can’t help it.”
Erin felt like hugging her sweet girls, but she was distracted by the sound of Seth’s voice.
“I’m serious,” he said, his voice a little louder. “I have plans that can’t be broken, and I don’t need to be there tonight.”
Erin’s heart started to race in excitement and growing hope. She couldn’t believe it, but it sounded like…
After a pause, Seth went on, “I know it’s important, but Jackson can handle it.” Another pause, longer this time. “Listen to me. I’ll be there first thing tomorrow morning. Until then,
Jackson
is in charge. Tell him that this is what I’ve been training him for and that I’m sure he won’t let me down.”
Erin gulped. Felt like she wanted to scream and cry and laugh hysterically and hug someone all at once.
Seth disconnected the call and came back over to the couch. Took his seat and looked around questioningly at the four pairs of eyes staring at him. “What?” he asked. “I thought we were in the middle of a game.”
Mackenzie giggled in relief, and Anna squealed and hugged herself. Erin leaned over and gave him a long, soft kiss on the side of his mouth.
Liz laughed out loud. “I have got to hang out with you more often. You guys are a hoot. Getting so excited over the littlest things.”
Two minutes later, Anna won the game.
***
Later that evening, after Liz had left and the girls were in bed, Erin went to her desk in the family room and looked at her inbox.
She actually had work waiting for her to do.
A month ago, she’d found a non-profit that needed some legal work done, so she’d volunteered to help. The organization had recommended her to another one, which had a lot more work that needed doing.
It was silly, she was sure, but she wanted to revel in the sense of accomplishment. She felt like she’d accomplished a lot over the last few months in terms of her family—as a wife and a mother. But this was a different feeling and one she hadn’t thought she’d experience again.
She’d thought her dreams of a career were long gone, but maybe there was an outlet for them after all. She felt like
Erin
again.
She was so caught up in her feelings of pride that she didn’t hear Seth approach until he wrapped his arms around her from behind.
“Hi,” he said huskily, skimming her ear with his lips.
“Hi, yourself,” she replied, smiling fondly and snuggling back against his warm body.
“I looked over that brief you wrote.”
“Don’t tell me if it’s not any good.”
“It’s amazing.”
Sighing, Erin felt like melting away. Seth’s opinion meant so much to her that she’d actually been nervous when she’d given it to him to read. “Well," she murmured, reaching up and back so she could caress his neck, “You’re a little biased, I’d say.”
“I’m a lot biased.” He bent his neck so he could mouth the pulse in her throat. “But I’m also a very good lawyer. And so are you.”
“Thanks.”
She turned around in his arms then so she could embrace him for real. They just hugged for a minute, pressing their bodies together as Erin buried her face in his shirt. Then she tilted her head back, and he took the lips she offered him. The kiss was long and leisurely and tender, and it made Erin feel even more like she was about to melt away.
When their mouths finally parted, she breathed, “Thanks for sticking around tonight. I know it must have been hard for you to not go in if there was a serious situation.”
Seth gave a half-shrug, his arms still draped loosely around her waist. “It wasn’t that hard.”
He was minimizing the choice he made, but Erin knew it hadn’t been trivial.
Since clearly he didn’t want a big deal made about it, Erin didn’t object. Her fingertips gently rubbing circles on the back of his neck, she murmured, “Shall we go to bed early this evening?”
“Only if we agree to keep the volume down. I’m a little disconcerted by being heard down the hall.”
“All right. You won’t hear a peep out of me. I’ll just lay there like I don’t even notice you.”
“Oh, you’ll notice me.”
“Well, then, I’ll do my best to suppress my blissful cries of ecstasy.” She held her hand out to him. “Let’s go.”
After getting ready for bed, Erin crawled under the covers, and Seth got in beside her, spooning her from behind.
“Are you sure you didn’t need to go in?” Erin asked, feeling her body already respond to Seth’s closeness, after her mushy feelings earlier. “I’d feel guilty if I thought you were neglecting something important.”
“It’s nothing so important that I can’t deal with it tomorrow morning.” He skimmed one hand over her curves through the thin cotton of her chemise. His voice growing husky next to her ear, he added, “And, let me assure you, I’d much rather be in bed with you than working.”
Erin smiled and pressed her body back against his, loving how the hard planes of his body felt. “Good.”
He nuzzled the hollow of her neck, pushing her hair out of the way. His hand strayed up to the swell of her breast, chafing her hardening nipple with his palm.
Sighing in pleasure, Erin arched against him, trying to get as much sensation as she could. But, after a moment, she asked something she’d been wondering all day. “Seth? Do you know what today is?”
She hadn’t been sure she was going to bring the subject up at all. Not until she’d actually spoken the words.
“Hmm?” Seth mumbled, his mouth busy nibbling her bare shoulder. “It’s Friday, isn’t it?”
Erin huffed out a breathless laugh, feeling a wet warmth gathering between her legs despite the silly fluttering of her heart. “Yes, but I mean today. The date. Do you know what it is?”
She could feel Seth’s erection growing against her bottom, and she couldn’t help but shift against it. He was mouthing her skin hungrily, possessively, and one hand was still fondling her breast while the other had edged under her body and moved lower to rub against her groin through her chemise. “Well,” he said, his voice deliciously textured. “I know I haven’t forgotten your birthday because I’ve already made plans for it.”
Erin squirmed at the sensations from his hands, mouth, and body behind her, and in anticipation of his plans for her birthday, which was coming up very soon. But she wasn’t going to be distracted, now that she’d brought the topic up. “Not my birthday.” She moved her hand down to cover his and pressed into it to get a good rhythm against her clit.
“Well, it’s not your time of the month,” Seth replied, pushing his erection purposefully against her. “Because that was—”
Erin choked, half in laughter, half in pleasure as Seth tweaked one of her nipples. “Never mind. It’s not important.”
She relaxed and just enjoyed his touch, telling herself that there was no reason to feel disappointed that he didn’t know what she was talking about.
She shouldn’t have expected him too. It was the kind of thing that a woman might pay attention to, but it wasn’t something most men would even consider. It didn’t mean it wasn’t important to him.
“Erin.” His body was hot and tight as he wrapped himself around her from behind. His mouth was against her hair. “How can you even ask? Of course, I know what today is.”
Something melted again in Erin’s chest, and she turned to look at him over her shoulder. His face was only a breath away from hers. “Really?”
He brushed a kiss across her lips. “Of course. Seven years. I’m going to try to get out to the cemetery tomorrow if I have enough time.”
Erin felt another kind of pang in her heart. It was so easy for her to forget that, on the day Mackenzie had been conceived, Seth had also buried Mac, the only relative he had left.
Seven years ago today.
“I can go with you if you want,” she offered softly, reaching behind her to stroke his warm cheek.
“I like to go alone.” Giving her a quick kiss on her cheekbone, he added, “But thanks.”
Before the shift in mood could distract them from their arousal, Seth edged a hand between her legs, parting her thighs enough for him to slide a finger inside her, spilling the moisture that had collected there.
She bent forward slightly to give him better access as he held his cock in place at her entrance and then thrust himself home.
She gasped as he filled her. Then gasped again as he gathered her tightly in his arms, pulling her upper body back against his chest.
“It seems strange,” he murmured, his voice like raw silk in her ear, “to be so devastatingly grateful for a leaking condom.” He drew his pelvis back, then pushed forward again, sliding his cock with the motion. “But I am. Baby, I hope you know how much.”
Erin was pumping her hips back against his thrusts, feeling sheltered and cherished and hot and exhilarated all at once. His arms were all the way around her, and she clutched at his forearms, needing to touch him in any way she could. “Yeah. I know. Me too. Me too. Me too.” Her babbling had fallen into the rhythmic cadence of his thrusting.
He made a gravelly sound that sent exquisite vibrations running through her. He must be low on stamina tonight because he lowered one of his hands to bunch up the fabric of her chemise enough for him to find her clit. Rubbing it in firm circles, he rasped, “If not for the ineffective condom…”
He stopped to suck in a harsh breath, and Erin moaned as his massage of her clit produced a spiraling pressure deep in her belly.
“Then no us. No girls. Nothing.” Seth was on the verge of wordlessness, his thrusting becoming less controlled and more primitive.
“I know,” Erin panted, trapped between the lush sensations of his hand on her clit and his cock inside her.
She could barely stand to think about what her life would have been without that random encounter with Seth in the cemetery seven years ago. Could barely think of anything at the moment, as her pleasure coiled even tighter.
With another guttural sound, Seth leaned over and bit down on her shoulder, the sharp pain sending a jolt of hot sensation to the climax building inside her.
“I love you, Seth,” Erin gasped, feeling something so powerful that she needed to say it, needed to shape it with words.
Seth grunted something that sounded like “love.” He was far gone now, his pelvis jerking against her ass.
She was almost there herself. Felt so much that was so hard to say. “I love you,” she huffed out. She was shaking now, the rich pressure on the edge of erupting, but she kept gasping, “Love you. Love you.”
The world started to dissolve into waves of intense heat and pleasure.
Seth made a burst of raw sound—emotion and pleasure and need all at once. “Me too. Me too.”
There was more to say. More to feel. More to express about this experience—this moment, this evening, these last three months, the last seven years of their lives.
But she couldn’t. Couldn’t do anything but whimper helplessly as Seth’s body and his love pushed her into climax.
He came after her with a hoarse exclamation, the spasms of their release mingling, lingering, and then fading into soft, wordless peace.
They didn’t say anything afterwards. Stayed tangled together—hot and damp and drowsily complete.
In the aftermath, Erin felt a tangible presence, filling their embrace, their bed, their room, their home. It wasn’t new, but it was more real now than it had ever been.
More real because they’d fought to keep it.
She knew what it was. Knew it would last, linger, stretch over the rest of her life, beyond the ways her family might change from this night on.
She knew what it was. She could name it now. She had watched it shape itself into existence.
She knew what it was.
Knew its name was love.
***
If you enjoyed Christening, you might enjoy Hearts in Hiding, a collection of Claire’s three full-length contemporary romances (also written as her alternate penname, Noelle Adams), bundled at a 60% discount price. Find out more about Hearts in Hiding
here
.
Claire has been writing romance novels since she was twelve years old. She has a PhD in British literature and, when she's not writing, she teaches English at the university level.
She also writes romance novels under the penname Noelle Adams (
noelle-adams.com
). If you would like to contact Claire, please check out her website (
clairekent.com
) or email her at
[email protected]
.
Other Books by Claire Kent
Other Books Written as Noelle Adams
One Hot Night: Three Contemporary Romance Novellas