RainaI groaned as he slowed his roll a little, letting me savor the feeling of him spreading me wide open and making me his once more. Fuck, he felt so good. It was almost ridiculous how amazing he felt. I wished I could have found some way to tell him the way it made me feel when he was inside me, but words had escaped me, seemed useless anyway in the face of everything that we shared together.I clenched myself around him and moved my hips as best I could to take him in deep, trying to tell him with my body that I wanted him, wanted him so badly it hurt, wanted him so badly that the thought of being apart from him for even a moment had been enough to shake me to my core.“You feel so fucking good,” he groaned in my ear, and the desperation in his voice was almost enough to tip me over the edge right there. I loved knowing how much he wanted me, was sure that I would never grow tired of hearing it from him. I wanted more, and I kissed him again, feeling myself swelling and growing,
HarryAs soon as I got the call from Michael, everything that had been so sweet about this weekend seemed to slip away at once. I knew that was all over. Everything was going to change.Maybe I had known that, though, when I had done everything over the last couple of days. I supposed I had accepted that everything was about to take a monumental shift, and I had made the most of what time I had left in the normalcy that I had created.Raina and I took Winnie to the zoo, and Raina had shown her around, telling her everything she could about the animals and even buying her a stuff toucan in the gift shop. We’d eaten fries from the overpriced café on a picnic bench, and Winnie had watched the birds in the aviary next to us while Raina and I held hands under the table.On the Sunday, it had just been Winnie and me, and we had hung out and caught up on homework and housework and just done our normal family stuff together. I liked that the most, I was pretty sure. I would have liked it even
HarryWe all got out of the car—it was dog-friendly, thank goodness—and found a table inside.We ordered up our scoops—coffee for me, mint-choc-chip for her, and the special peanut butter dog-safe ice cream for Tink—and took a seat at one of the booths. She tucked in happily, and I felt a surge of guilt knowing that I was about to shake up what was a good day for her.“Winnie, there’s something I have to speak to you about,” I blurted out finally.She looked up at me, curious. “What is it?”I launched into everything that I had been holding back from her. She might have known about Nico in theory, but in practice, this was a lot more serious. I had to let her know every detail of what was to come. I didn’t want any of it to shock her if I could help it.So I told her about the fact that we were going to have to move to a bigger house to make space for him. Even if he never came to live with us, I wanted there to be room for him to visit so we could get to know each other. I told her t
RainaEver since I’d heard the strain in his voice on Monday evening, I had known that I had to do something to try and take the edge off the worst of what he was feeling.I couldn’t even imagine how damn stressful it must have been to take on all of this at once. He was already raising a kid that he had never expected to have, and then the universe tossed another one in his direction? It wasn’t fair.The best I could do was turn up and offer what little help that I could, even though it felt pretty small in the face of all that he was taking on.Swinging by the store to pick up the ingredients, I filled my basket with cooking stuff and then drove over to the house to visit them. I had texted ahead, but I wasn’t sure if he had gotten it. Well, I hoped he didn’t mind me stopping by with a surprise for them.As soon as I pulled my car to a halt in the driveway, the door burst open, and Winnie came running out to greet me.“Raina!” she called to me, and she tossed her arms around my wais
RainaHarry supervised Winnie as she cut up the vegetables, and we exchanged stories of growing up. Harry told us about Winnie’s mother, and Winnie listened quietly, intently taking in every word. I wondered how she felt about hearing this stuff about her mother. Did it hurt her? Pain her? Did it make her happy? She must have had such a complicated mess of feelings toward it, and I could see a bunch of them written all over her face.She was happy to help us cook and put all her time and energy into making sure the recipe was perfect. I let her taste test and add spices until she was happy with it. I wanted her to feel like she had control over this, like she had a say.When she laughed at her uncle’s stories of her mother, I felt such a swell of love for the two of them that I almost tipped over a glass of water. It was hard to believe that I’d had the capacity for this much love inside me all this time, and yet I had only just figured it out now. My heart was so full, so happy. Tink
Harry“Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?” Yara asked, furrowing her brow at me worriedly.I shook my head. “I have to handle this by myself,” I replied, and I meant it. I was meeting Allison and Nico at the hospital, and I wanted to get this over with sooner rather than later. I knew that was a mean way to think about my kid and his mother, but I just couldn’t cope with anything else right now.“You’re still good to pick up Winnie, right?” I asked her as I handed her Tink’s leash.She nodded. “I feel like I haven’t had a chance to see her in ages,” she replied happily. “I’m looking forward to it.”She gave me a quick hug before I left for the hospital, and I tried to quell the pulsing nerves in my brain and keep myself on the straight and narrow. Now that I knew that I was officially a part of this kid’s life, I was going to have to come at this with openheartedness. He was my child, and I was his next of kin, and I was going to make damn sure he got the life he deserve
HarryI went with Allison to the appointment, and I had to say, considering the disease that she was dealing with, everything seemed as positive as it could be. I played with Nico on the floor, with the building blocks they gave to us, and the two of us put together a giant wild-colored tower that almost reached my knees by the time we were done.I savored the chance to be with him, to have him be with me. I felt like I had missed out on so much, but that just meant I had to work extra hard to make sure that I proved myself as a father to him and to Allison.“Thank you for coming today,” Allison told me as she strapped Nico back into the stroller.“Anything you need,” I promised her. “Anything at all, and you just let me know, all right?”“I will,” she replied, and she let out a long breath. “You have no idea how much this means to me, Harry, really. I thought you might just shoot us down, but—”“I would never do that,” I replied fervently. “You’re my family now. I’m here for you.”Sh
Raina“You take care of yourself, okay?” I told Reed firmly.He looked up at me and raised his eyebrows. “You have nothing to worry about,” he assured me. “I’m feeling a lot better, really.”“Well, just make sure you don’t let this get to you too much,” I told him, eyeing him for a moment. I had popped in to visit my brother in the wake of the great de-engagement that he’d been through, and I could tell he was still struggling. That said, he was sober and had started working from home again to keep himself busy. So that was certainly something.“I won’t,” he promised.I gave him a quick hug and checked my watch. We had been out for lunch together, and then I had walked him back to his apartment and helped him move in a new bed. He had wanted something that had no connections to his ex, and I was more than happy to help.“What are you up to tonight?” he asked.I grinned. “A date with Harry,” I replied. I had been so looking forward to it all week long. I couldn’t believe it was finally
HarryI hadn’t known until I’d met Raina how much I was hiding from, but now that I could see it, it made my heart ache to think about everything that I had been missing. I thought I had been protecting myself, but in reality, it had just been isolation.Yara had seen that. I was pretty sure, in fact, that she had seen that before I had. I had been ducking and diving from the truth, and she had seen through me, seen me for what I was, seen all the pain I had been carrying with me all this time. And that was why she had set me up on a date.It was crazy, really, thinking that all of this had started with something that I had been so averse to in the first place. I had pushed back against the very idea of going on that date, sure that it was just going to end with me making a fool of myself and looking like an idiot in the process.Of course, if I had known where all of this was going to lead me, I would have gone back in time and told myself to go with it, that it was going to be bette
Harry“All right, all right, if I could borrow your attention for a moment.” I stood up from the chair I had been sitting on and waved a hand in the air so that I could draw the attention of my staff and friends around me.Yara had done a hell of a job putting all of this together. It had only been a couple of weeks ago that I had brought up the idea of the party to her, and she had sprung into full-force action at once, running off this way and that to make sure everything got dealt with as best she could manage it.She told me she was just happy to finally have some kind of party she could organize—and said I could do with throwing a few more like it, actually, though I decided it was for the best that I ignored that little comment. I had been so busy these last few months, I couldn’t imagine finding any more time in my packed-out schedule for fun little gatherings like this.It had helped, of course, that George had been willing to put up his house and grounds to hold the party. We
RainaHe wrapped his arms around me and pushed into me deep, filling me all the way up to the hilt, taking me like there was nothing in the world he would rather have been doing in that moment. I sank my nails into his back and let my body sink into the sheets below me, the softness absorbing me, at odds with his hardness.He didn’t hold back. He didn’t seem to see a need to, and I was grateful for it. After everything that had been happening lately, I felt like I needed this connection with him to remind myself where this all came from.Not that he was so good in bed that I would have gone through anything for him—though, that was a part of it—but it was a raw thing that existed between just us. Nobody could take it away from us, no matter how much they might have wanted to. This was ours and only ours, and we had made it together, and that meant nothing could change it.I could already feel myself getting close. It was the feel of his breath on my neck that did it for me, his essent
RainaI had no idea why he was so eager for me to cancel on Reed that morning, but as soon as I had heard the tone in his voice, I’d known that it wasn’t up for debate. Harry had a damn good reason to want to see me, and I certainly wasn’t going to argue with it.As soon as he opened the door to his place, I knew what was running through his head. I grinned as he pulled me into his arms and kissed me deeply, like he was making the very most of the fact that I was here.“Thanks for coming,” he murmured, and he pushed the door shut behind me.“You going to make it worth my while?” I replied playfully.He scooped me off the ground and into his arms. I burst out laughing and hung on to him as he carried me up the stairs and toward the bedroom.He tossed me down on the bed, and it didn’t take long before our clothes went flying. I was wearing the scrubs that I would have to take into the office soon enough, so hardly my sexiest look, but he didn’t seem to care much.He stripped me off like
Harry“I was thinking more along the lines of a party than a bonus,” I replied to Yara. “Dogs allowed, of course.”“Well, when you put it like that…” She laughed. “Where were you thinking?”I scanned my brain for a moment and then landed on the perfect place.“Let me get in touch with George,” I replied. “I bet he’d love to have an excuse to do up his mansion.”“You really think he’d be willing to hand all that over for a company party?” she asked.I nodded. “You’d be surprised at how mellow he can be,” I replied. “Besides, think of all the women he’ll get to flirt with. It’ll be a dream come true for him.”“I guess so,” she agreed, shaking her head fondly at the thought. “You give him a call, and I’ll see what else I can pull in, all right? But I’m sure everyone would appreciate the chance to have some fun. Especially if our dogs are allowed to be there too.”I texted George as soon as she was gone, and he replied with an almost instant affirmation that promised me use of the house w
HarryI reached under the table and patted Tink where he was asleep at my feet. He might not have known it, but he was the reason that all of this weekend had been such a huge success.Without him, I would never have come across the shelter, and without that, I wouldn’t have been able to put together the awesome event that we had thrown the day before. It had been hectic as hell, but totally worth it, and I was proud to say that we had helped find homes for more than seventy animals over the course of the day.By the time it was over, Winnie was dead asleep in the back of the car with Tink, and George had to be dragged away from Nico, who he just couldn’t get enough of. But the day had been a wild success, and I knew that it wouldn’t be the only one that we had with the shelter.But for now, I was back at work, and I had to focus on catching up on everything that I had missed the last few weeks. Fuck, it had been so busy, I had hardly had time to remember that I so much as had a job.
Raina“Thank you for getting all of this set up,” I told Harry. “You have no idea how much this is going to help get people to start taking notice of the shelter.”“Well, it’s what you deserve,” he replied. “You’ve worked so hard here for so long. I wanted to do what I could to make it easier on you.”I kissed him again. “You know, you’re way sweeter than you have any right to be,” I murmured.He grinned. “Is that an insult or a compliment? I can’t tell.”“You decide,” I replied, and it was right then that I saw Rita and her son coming through the door. She had promised to put in an appearance, and she beamed as soon as she saw me.“Oh, how’s my favorite baby?” I greeted him with a coo, and I came over to hold him in my arms for just a moment.Rita handed him over to me at once, apparently glad to have a chance to put him down, if only for a moment. “Oh my goodness, I think I’m in a lot of danger being here,” she remarked as Marjorie emerged from the back room with a couple of lively
Raina“All right, do you have all the forms ready?” I asked Marjorie as the two of us practically sprinted around the shelter, trying to get everything ready for the adopt-a-thon that was meant to be happening today.She nodded. “I think so,” she replied, but she was clearly nervous.I put my hand on her shoulder. “Hey,” I soothed her. “Everything’s going to be fine. Everyone who’s coming today has already been vetted, you remember? So anyone who goes home with a pet, they’re going to be a good home for them.”“I know that,” Marjorie said. “I’m just... I don’t know if I’m ready to say goodbye to all these little guys after all this time.”“Don’t get all misty on me now,” I warned her. “We have to make space for other animals, remember? I want to make sure that we get as many of these guys off to new homes as we can. Think how good it’ll be to have the space so that you don’t have to worry about turning down anyone who needs a home, right?”“Right,” she agreed, and she nodded and tappe
Harry“I had my lawyer draw up these agreements,” she explained.Michael lifted his head from the papers that he had been going over. He nodded, looking satisfied with what he had seen.“Everything seems like it’s in order to me,” he remarked. “Harry, if you want to take a little more time to go over these and think about the decision, we can hang on to them for you—”“No, I’m ready,” I replied. I was dead certain. Nothing was going to change my mind. Nothing at all. I was happier than I’d been in such a long time. We had the house, I had Raina, and now, it looked like I was going to have my precious, perfect son on top of all of it. I couldn’t have asked for anything more. Not one little thing.“Thank you for this, Allison,” I said. “Thank you for trusting me with him.”“Thank you for letting us into your life after all this time,” she replied. “I know it’s more than I deserve. I know you’re being kinder than you should ever be with me—”“You never have to think like that,” I told he