Egotistically Yours by Hayley Faiman
Chapter Seventeen
BETHANIE
Laurent walksinto the penthouse and I look up from my seat, smiling in his direction. He doesn’t even slow down as he hurries toward us. Without a pause, he bends down, touching his lips to my forehead.
“Hey, baby, how was your day,” he murmurs just as he does every evening when he gets home from work.
Smiling up at him, I tell him that it was good. I don’t tell him the few mishaps that happened, because to me they are just part of life. There were diaper blowouts, there was some crying by both me and Tucker, and we both napped. All in all, it was a good day.
“How about we grill outside and swim this evening.”
“Swim?” I ask.
He nods his head. I don’t have a suit here, and even if I ran back to my place and grabbed mine, it wouldn’t fit. I open my mouth to tell him that I don’t have anything to wear when he lifts up a bag that he has been holding in his hand.
“I bought you a suit. I figured you didn’t pack one,” he says.
Laurent reaches down and picks up Tucker, holding him close to his body while I reach into the bag to pull out the swimsuit. I blink a few times, unsure that he has picked this out for me and brought it home.
“I got some help,” he admits before I even ask him about it.
“I love it,” I say.
And I do, too. It’s a high-waisted, high cut bikini bottom that will show my backside off and hide my new fluffy belly in front. The top is a deep cut triangle top that will cover everything that needs covering. Plus, it’s a deep blue waffle texture. It’s perfect.
“I’m glad. Will you try it on for me?” he asks.
Lifting my gaze to meet his, I arch a brow. He is smiling, his eyes searching mine, waiting for my reaction. Licking my lips, I nod my head. I should tell him no, but I don’t want to. I want to try this on so badly. I want to see if it will look as good as I think that it will.
Standing, I throw my arms around his neck and touch my lips to his. “I’ll try it on for you,” I murmur against his mouth.
“Can’t fucking wait.”
Clutching the bathing suit to my chest, I hurry upstairs to try it on. I don’t know what to expect, if it’s going to look terrible or great on me, honestly, I wasn’t ready to think about swimsuits, but this is Texas and Laurent is right, tonight would be a great night to swim in the pool.
I strip out of my clothes quickly, I put on the suit, but don’t look at my reflection in the mirror, not until it’s completely on and I’ve adjusted everything. Slowly, I turn around to look at myself and I press my lips together when I do.
I’m trying not to be too judgmental of myself, of the way that I think that I look. Laurent thinks that my body is beautiful, he tells me often, but I don’t see it in my reflection, not yet at least. It’s hard to just accept changes that our bodies go through when we have a child.
Tucker is almost seven weeks old. He hasn’t been here for very long and yet, I feel as if my body should be back to normal already. It isn’t and logically speaking, it won’t be for a very long time. I should be okay with all of that, I tell myself that I am, but irrationally, I just want to be back to the girl I was before him.
“You look gorgeous,” Laurent’s voice says in the room.
Spinning around, I let out a gasp. He’s standing there, Tucker no longer in his arms, likely because he put him to sleep in his crib across the hall. Licking my lips, I watch him for a moment, silently we stare at one another.
“I love it,” I say.
His lips curve up into a grin. “I’m glad because I won’t let you take it back. You look stunning.”
“I’m not …” I start to tell him that I’m not where I want to be, but he doesn’t want to hear it.
Instead, he charges toward me, cupping my cheeks before his lips crash down against my own. I can’t say another word and I’m glad for that, I’m sure it would have been self-negative and only cause tension.
Laurent’s tongue slides across the seam of my lips and I part them in in anticipation for more. He doesn’t disappoint. His tongue slips inside of my mouth and I sigh as he tastes me.
Slipping my hands in the back of his hair, I twist my fingers into the strands. He grips the back of my hair as well, tugging my head back slightly before he shifts and trails his lips down the column of my throat.
He moves down my body, his mouth traveling down the center of my chest, then my belly before he stops at the top of the waistband of the suit. On his knees, he looks up at me with a wicked grin.
Before I realize what’s happening, the bottoms of the suit are yanked down and his mouth is between my thighs. He lifts one of my legs over his shoulder and I hold on to his other shoulder with my hand, gripping him.
His tongue feels like heaven, warm and wet as he licks me. Then he focuses on my clit, swirling and sucking me there and my eyes roll in the back of my head. I’m teetering on the edge of falling off and over.
Looking down, my heart almost stops when I see that Laurent is watching me. His eyes are as focused on mine as his mouth is against my clit. It’s breathtaking, there’s no other way to describe the way that he is in this moment.
“I’m close,” I whisper.
He grunts but doesn’t stop what he’s doing. He stays exactly where I want him, knowing what I need from him every single moment until I do what I said I was about to—I come. The climax is slow and gentle. It rolls through me and it’s so sweet that I am speechless.
Laurent’s lips touch the inside of my thigh, then he stands to his feet, wrapping his arms around me and touches his mouth to mine. His kiss is firm and I melt toward him—into him.
Wordlessly, he guides me over to the bed. I lie down, scooting back to give him room. I’m still wearing the bikini top, but I don’t care, I just want to feel him inside of me. Laurent gathers my legs by the ankles and my eyes widen when he holds my feet together, pushing them straight toward the ceiling.
Then he slowly shifts his hips and slides inside of me. Sucking in a breath, I hold it for a moment, then let it out when he pulls out before he sinks back inside.
This feels intense.
This isn’t a quick fuck. This is him, looking directly into my eyes. This is him taking me and this is me willingly giving myself any way he wants me. He doesn’t move his focus from me yet again, his hips moving, thrusting as he watches me in silence.
A sheen of sweat forms on his forehead and chest. His body is tense as he holds back his control, moving slowly and evenly, no doubt for my pleasure and what pleasure it is too. It’s not enough though.
It’s not enough to get me there again, but it feels amazing.
My body is building higher and higher, shifting closer to the edge, the pressure growing inside of me ready to explode at any given second. Then he opens my legs without warning, his hips swiveling as his pelvis grinds down against my clit.
I grip the bedding next to my hips so tightly that I’m afraid I’m going to rip it, I pinch my eyes closed, I can’t stop myself. Whimpering, I place my heels in the bed and lift my hips. He chuckles, then I feel his thumb against my clit.
Opening my eyes, I look up at him and he grins down at me. “Come on, baby. Give me what I want. I want to feel you all around me. Come, baby.”
God, the way he rasps his words, my entire body breaks out in goose bumps. It doesn’t take me long to do exactly what he urges me to do. I come. Hard. I cry out so loudly that I should be embarrassed, but I’m not. My entire body trembles as my release consumes me.
“Fuck, yes,” Laurent roars.
His hips move hard and fast, gone is his control, it’s somewhere else entirely as he slams into me chasing his own orgasm. When he comes, it’s with a loud groan. His hips move through his orgasm as he collapses on top of me, his face nuzzling my neck with another moan.
“Love you, baby,” he mutters against my skin.
Wrapping my arms around him, I try to catch my breath. Then there is a ring downstairs at the door. We both freeze. Laurent lifts his head, looking down at me with a frown.
“Are you expecting someone?” he asks.
“I’m not.”
He stands and quickly finds his pants, pulling them back up. “I’ll go get that. Maybe it’s a delivery or something. Put that suit back on and we’ll go swim. Can’t wait to make you come in the pool.” He grins.
I can’t respond because he is already out of the room by the time I think of something to say. Laughing, I push myself up and clean up, then put my suit back on before I go downstairs to help him get dinner ready.
LAURENT
Opening the door,I freeze at the sight in front of me. I don’t know who I expected, but Paulette was not it. I also grab my phone to see if she texted me but remember that it’s probably somewhere on the bathroom floor after falling out of my pants when I dropped them a little too quickly a few minutes ago.
Clearing my throat, I don’t open the door. Keeping my hand wrapped around the edge of the door, I don’t open it wide enough for her to see inside or for Bethie to see out.
“What are you doing here?” I ask.
I try not to sound like a dick, but how do you not sound like a dick when your ex-fuck-when-she’s-in-town shows up and you’re trying to prove to the mother of your son that you’ve changed?
“I’m in town for a few days, thought we could resume where we left off. I had to leave pretty early in the morning and it left me wanting.”
Looking behind me, I watch as Bethie starts to head downstairs. Shifting my attention back to Paulette, I shake my head once.
“It’s not a good time,” I murmur.
“Why? Do you have someone else here? We can play, you know that I’m not jealous like that. Plus, if I recall, you enjoy playing. It has been a while,” she says with a purr.
My eyes widen at the same time I hear Bethie call out from nearby. I’m too fucking scared to look back to see where she is. I know that she’s probably just a few feet away and getting closer.
“It’s not a good time,” I stress.
“Laurent? Who’s at the door?” Bethie asks from right behind me.
I jump, but I don’t know why I feel so fucking guilty. Paulette was between us. Paulette wasn’t someone I ever even gave a second thought about. Paulette was always just for fun, to scratch and itch and pass the time.
But guilt consumes me.
“Laurent?” Paulette asks, her French accent always heavy when she says my name.
Bethie tugs the door open the rest of the way and then it happens. Both women come face-to-face with one another. I stand there like a tool, unsure of what to do, wishing that this whole situation would vanish.
I shift my gaze from Bethie to Paulette, then back to Bethie. I love her, I do, but there is something inside of me that is screaming not to tell Paulette that I’m off the market, something that isn’t quite ready to announce to the world that I’m taken.
It’s stupid, really. It’s pointless. I am taken. I am off the market. There is nobody else that I want other than Bethie and Tucker. I love my family, but I can’t say the words. They won’t come out.
“Hello, I’m Bethie,” Bethie announces, holding her palm out.
Paulette flicks her gaze down to Bethie’s hand, curls her lip, then shifts her attention back to me, not shaking Bethie’s offered hand. She literally turns her nose up and I can’t help but stare in shock. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an adult act that way before to another adult.
“Laurent, can you tell your maid I’d like an iced coffee,” Paulette attempts to demand as she also attempts to brush past us and into the house.
I don’t let her.
Lifting my hand, I extend it and wrap my fingers around the jamb to keep her from passing. It’s the disrespect for me. I’m an asshole, I know that I am. I’m pompous. I have treated people like shit, but what I haven’t ever done is acted like someone is beneath me.
Ever.
My father, no matter how much money we have, has never allowed that shit and I won’t have this bitch think that the woman who shares my bed is beneath her. Fuck that.
“Bethie is my woman, Paulette,” I grind out. “She shares this home, my bed, and is the mother of my son.”
Paulette snorts. “Funny, you failed to mention her or a child a few months ago when you were deep inside of me.”
“I just …” Bethie whispers, taking a step backward.
Without looking away from Paulette, I wrap my hand around Bethie’s forearm and I don’t let her walk away from my side.
“You’ll nothing, Bethie,” I say. “Paulette is going to take her stuck-up ass out of here.”
“Excuse me?” Paulette gasps.
Leaning forward, I grin before I speak. “You are going to take your stuck-up ass out of here. You aren’t fucking shit, Paulette. Get the fuck out of my hallway.”
“You’re really going to turn away a model? Sex with a model with zero inhibitions? For that fat short girl?”
Leaning over even more, my face is only a few inches from hers when I speak. “Bitch,” I snap. “Get the fuck out of my house.”
Without giving her another second to spew her shit, I slam the door in her face. Flipping the lock closed, I inhale and exhale a deep breath, then I turn around to see Bethie standing in front of me, in her sexy suit, tears swimming in her eyes.
“Bethie,” I whisper.
