Page 97 of Summer with the Single Dad

She needed to know that he didn’t judge or hate her. She was beating herself up over an accident. Over a mistake. Anybody with an ounce of humanity in them would have reacted in some visceral way to finding out not only that their fiancé cheated on them, but knocked their mistress up too. And the fact that neither Tad nor Ashli showed any remorse for their actions just made them even bigger shit stains on humanity.

He still had her chin in his grasp. “Promise me.”

She blinked.

“Promise me you will really work on forgiving yourself. On working through the guilt, the grief and the self-doubt. You are a good person and I’m sure you are a tremendous doctor. Please start believing it again.”

Tears trickled down her cheeks, falling onto her lap. He released her chin and swept them away.

“Also, I’m really sorry about Aya and the whole matchmaking thing. I feel awful that she put you in such an uncomfortable position.”

Her smile was small, but it still lit up her eyes. “She’s too sweet to be perturbed with.”

“No, she’s not,” he said bluntly.

They both chuckled, and she took a deep breath, releasing it on a sigh.

“How are you settling into the trailer? We miss you in the house.”

She glanced around at her new living space. “It’s great. I don’t want to be an imposition any longer. As much as we are finding our footing, I think it’s better if I give you and your daughters some breathing room.”

He nodded, though he didn’t entirely agree.

She exhaled again. “There’s a chocolate shop in Seattle that has a “back room” menu.”

His brows bunch in curiosity. “Meaning like chocolate shaped penises and nipples?”

She nodded. “Among other things. It’s not well known … you need to know people to get the menu sent to you. But they have a revenge menu. The owner had an awful bully of a sister and was tasked with not only providing a giant chocolate centerpiece for her sister’s wedding, but also the guest favors. She bought a butthole chocolate mold from a guy in the UK and proceeded to make hundreds of butthole-shaped chocolates. It was her secret, sneaky bit of revenge.”

A slow smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “You’re saying we should try to persuade—”

“Lucifer and the Witch.”

He chuckled. “You’re saying we should try to persuade Lucifer and the Witch to allow us to also provide their guest favors and somehow sneak in butthole chocolates?”

She shrugged. “I mean … would it really be that tragic? Chocolate is chocolate. It’s just kind of weird that chocolate is the same color as … poop … and it’s you know, a butthole. But I also think that if anybody deserves sneaky chocolate buttholes it’s those two.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

Their smiles were stupidly big, and soon they were both laughing until beautiful tears of joy shone in her eyes. He grabbed her chin again for a kiss.

She moaned against his mouth, wrapping her arms around his neck.

He scooped her up and carried her to the bedroom, but the romantic gesture of laying her down on the bed came to an abrupt halt because the bed was littered with her clothes and suitcase. So first, they needed to put those on the floor. Then, they scrambled to get off their clothes and the soft, romantic moment transformed into a heated frenzy to disrobe and get skin-on-skin as fast as possible.

They dove under the covers and he rolled on top of her, caging her in beneath him.

She blinked up at him, all the humor from earlier gone from her eyes. Nothing stared back at him but hope and sincerity. He could tell that her finally coming clean with him about what happened with her patient was cathartic. It may have been painful, but she needed it to begin healing and moving forward. The longer she held that ache inside, the more it would fester and poison anything good.

Brushing the loose strands from her braid away from her face, he kissed her nose, then her eyelids, her cheekbones, her jaw, and finally, her lips.

Her arms floated up around his neck, and her fingers toyed with the hair at the nape. She wiggled her hips beneath him and spread her legs so he could settle between them. His cock was already hard and when he moved a little, the shaft of it rubbed her clit. Her lashes fluttered and a small, sweet moan echoed in her throat.

He did it again.

“Bennett …”

“Hmm?”

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