Page 110 of Sugar Baby Mine

“Hey, that one’s my favorite.” She pouts.

“But it’s my birthday.”

“What?” She recoils like I’ve hit her, which fills me with dread. “You’re joking.”

“No.” I shrug. “It’s my birthday.”

“Wait, wait, wait—how is—you said—maybe you didn’t—” I can see the way her brain stutters, and she stiffens up like someone’s pressed pause on her brain.

I take her hands in mine, stepping closer to her and tucking her under my chin until she can feel the steady beat of my heart as I wrap my arms around her. “I told you once before, it was the 17th.”

“I thought it was the 17th ofAugust.”

“Mmm no, it’s July.” To be fair, I only told her once, some months ago when she was pestering me about it. I was being cagey because I’m not particularly fond of the fact that I’m turning forty-six.

“But—” She wiggles out of my hold, disappearing into the hallway. “I wrote it down, I swear!”

I lean against the counter, watching the corner of the wall for her to pop back around.

It doesn’t bother me that she didn’t remember because I barely remember myself most years. It’s not something I actively celebrate, so it’s not a big deal, but I know how this is going to hurt her. She’ll beat herself up over it, and I know I should have reminded her about it because of that. But it slipped my mind until this morning, too, when my mother called while I was out getting us coffee to wish me a happy birthday.

Emme comes back into the kitchen, shoulders slumped as she carries her planner. It hasn’t helped her as much as she’d hoped. The date slipped by her likely because she doesn’t pick it up as often as she thinks.

“I’m officially crazy,” she says, throwing the planner onto the counter and it nearly slides all the way to me. “I wrote it down for today, even circled it three times with a red marker. I fucking suck.”

Her eyes start to well up with tears, and it nearly tears me in half. I’m the asshole in this situation, one million percent. Because I let it slip past me, too.

So I gather her up in my arms, lifting her off her feet and hefting her up onto the island counter so I can step between her legs. She locks her ankles behind my back and curls into my embrace with a small noise of protest in contradiction.

“It’s okay,” I say, hands cupping her cheeks to brush my thumbs underneath her glassy eyes, drawing away the tears that I wish I never had to see fall. “It’s not something that’s important to me.”

“Butyou’reimportant tome. And that means this is, too.” Her voice cracks, and I’m about to fall to my knees for her.

“I’m sorry—”

“No,no.Don’t be sorry.I’msorry. I can’t believe my—well, yes I can. I just—”

I shut her up with a kiss, one that has her fisting her hands in the fabric of my shirt, pulling me even closer. Leaning into the push and pull of our hips, I lower my hands to glide around her shoulders. She presses up into my touch, like she can’t get enough of it.

“I don’t want you to worry about it,” I say in between the flick of her tongue into my mouth, breathless as she tightens her legs around my hips to grind against me. I know she will anyway, so the best thing I can do is to distract. “The best birthday gift you could give me is you.”

“You gonna pay for me, Daddy?” she asks, sultry and low, her teeth biting into her lip and I can almost feel it like it’s my own.

I can’t resist dragging her lip away from her teeth with my thumb, tugging on it until she leans back into my mouth. I can taste the gum I gave her earlier still on her breath, and it makes my mouth water.

“Problem is, you’re priceless.” Leaning back, I watch the way her eyes flutter open to look at me, tears still clinging to her lashes. I hate the way I love that look on her, so alive with emotion that it pours out of her. “Invaluable,” I continue. “You’re worth more than anything I can give you.”

She sucks a breath in like the air is precious. “Don’t be so nice to me.”

“Why not?”

“Because it turns me on.”

I laugh, and she tightens her legs around me until she can rub her pussy up against the front of my pants. My dick swells up so quickly as her breath feathers over my neck and jaw before she throws her head back.

“Stop unless you want me to spend the rest of the night making you come.”

“That sounds like a good birthday to me.”

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