Page 80 of Catching Sparkles

“You think he’d answer you and not me?” Benji asked.

“N-no,” I clarified quickly, glad he couldn’t see the blush rising to my face through the phone. “I just mean maybe he’ll wake up or whatever while I’m in the shower. And if he does, then I can give him a ride. That’s all.”

“… Yeah. Maybe.”

Resisting the urge to clear my throat, because I suddenly felt like I was in one of those interrogation rooms with the bright light shining in my face, I bit down into my lip when Rhys stretched out his long body next to me. He flipped onto his stomach and nuzzled his face into the bare part of my thigh, above the lacy border of the silk stockings I’d put on for him, like he was breathing me in.

“Anyway, forget all that,” I said quickly. “I can’t wait to meet the new baby.”

“You’re going to die when you see them,” he said, punching the last syllable to remind me he wasn’t even going to reveal the sex over the phone, so I really had to hustle and get over there so I didn’t die of suspense.

“Congratulations, Daddy,” I teased.

“Gross,” he remarked, and I laughed.

“I’ll see you in a few, okay?”

“Okay. See you.”

I hung up, placing my palm on the crown of Rhys’ head and stroking over his thick locks of dark hair. “Well, we’re officially uncles.”

“I heard,” he said, giving my thigh one last kiss before rising to sit up next to me, grabbing his glasses off the nightstand and slipping them on. “He sounds kinda pissed at me.”

“I’m not really sure why,” I said, but didn’t disagree with his statement.

“I, uh… I think my phone is in the pocket of my jeans on the floor over there. When I came in and saw you, I couldn’t really think about anything but getting on top of you.”

I couldn’t suppress the prideful little smirk that carved itself across my mouth. “You like this set?” I asked, running my finger over the lace-edged strapless bandeau across my chest and then down to the matching stockings.

“Holy fuck, Sparkles. Like is not the word.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. I have similar things you haven’t seen yet, you know. And I love shopping.”

He groaned dramatically, grasping my hand in his and smacking kisses all the way up my arm, like that horny French skunk I used to see in the cartoons. “Next time I won’t be in such a hurry,” he promised. “Next time I’m going to put my tongue on every single inch of your body. I’m going to start from your toes and work all the way up.”

I giggled, biting down into my lower lip before remembering we were on a mission. A mission far more important than wallowing in this disgusting bed together reminiscing about the amazing sex we’d had the night before, and making promises about all the amazing sex we’d have in the future.

“We need showers. And you have to figure out a way to get back in touch with Benji without it being obvious you’re with me.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, suddenly looking kind of tense. “You don’t think the baby can sense any of the bad energy, right? Like, because Benjamin’s pissed at me? I don’t want its first impression of me to be that I’m some, like, womanizer who was too busy getting laid to care about its birth or whatever.”

I blinked, waiting for him to laugh or say he was kidding but he only stared at me earnestly, waiting for my reassurance. “You are seriously the sweetest guy in the entire world.”

“And you’re probably the only guy in the entire world who would ever think that about me, let alone say it out loud.”

WE TOOK A shower together, even though we absolutely didn’t have time to fool around. It would have felt wrong, anyway. It didn’t stop his cock from perking up when I had to brush past him to rinse the strawberry shampoo out of my hair, but he very selflessly told me to ignore it.

He texted Benji after, apologizing for missing all the calls and messages, and told him he’d be on his way as soon as possible.

“He told me to get in touch with you if I need a ride over,” Rhys informed me as I tugged my jeans up my legs in the bedroom. I slipped on a shirt with Hello Kitty on the front. It wasn’t too early to introduce the new baby to the queen of cute.

“Okay, cool. So we’ll just say you messaged me and I picked you up.”

“Right.”

Neither of us said it out loud, but it was obvious that we both felt kind of shitty about lying and sneaking around. It was like something had shifted the night before, for both of us. As bad as it felt, it just wasn’t the right time to think about any of that.

The tingle of anticipation in my stomach was all about the new baby. I couldn’t believe everything had happened so fast and I’d had no idea. Benji had texted me a few more details while I’d been in the shower. Apparently they’d gone to the hospital the evening before when Josie started having contractions. Just 11 hours later, the baby was born. According to Benji, 11 hours for a first time birth was pretty quick and easy. It didn’t sound quick or easy to me.