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An Invitation
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Related chapters
Asking for a Friend Interrupted
LAYTONSitting back on my heels, I grabbed Marissa’s hand and waited for her to steady before pulling her in the direction of the bathroom. “You’ve got yourself a deal. Come on, woman. I want to make that dream come true and don’t have nearly enough time to do it in.”Marissa giggled and followed me to her bathroom, where I flipped on the water and kissed her senseless until steam was pouring out of the shower and I deemed the water temperature acceptable. In the end, we had plenty of time to make Marissa’s dream come true.Contrary to what I believed, her dream wasn’t about getting her off at all. But about getting me off. With her mouth. Convincing me to make that dream come true was a hard sell, obviously. Not.I almost tripped in my haste to get into the shower, but Marissa’s resulting giggles were cut off when she dropped to her knees and saw exactly why I was in such a rush. Her lips and her tongue worked me into an even greater frenzy, and when I couldn’t take it anymore I push
Asking for a Friend Reeling Him In
MARISSACatching our dinner? Great. Just great. I wasn’t stupid or naive or anything. I knew the fish we ate came from the water and our meat from animals. I wasn’t one of those people who thought those things were grown at the store.I just didn’t know if I liked the idea of being part of the actual catching process. Annie, on the other hand, was super excited.When she said she was all about going fishing for our dinner, she was dead serious. Layton went to his place to get his tackle box and the fishing rods, while Annie proudly went to our garage and came out carrying the little pink rod he got her as a gift last time we went out to go fishing.Denise and I cleaned up after breakfast while Annie got changed into the cutest pair of waders he had bought her after we spotted them in a shop window the day we did the Freedom Trail. Denise turned to me while we were washing dishes, her voice barely above a whisper, but it was clear she was thrilled. “He stayed over?”I felt a flush cree
Asking for a Friend What a Catch
MARISSA“Yes ma’am, you have one. Quickly now, reel him in,” Layton said encouragingly. “Do you remember how to do that?”“I think so,” she replied, her small hand moving to the pulley. Layton had taught her how to do this part last time, along with baiting the hook and packing all the equipment.Layton stayed right next to her, ready to jump in if she needed help. She didn’t, though. Five minutes later, she pulled out a small brown fish.Layton grabbed it immediately and freed it from the hook. “It’s a trout. We’re going to need a few more of these before we have enough food for dinner, but great job Annie. Trout is delicious. Let’s bait the next hook. Marissa, you still good?”I nodded, watching my line in the water. It was still totally loose in the water, or whatever it meant when it hadn’t tightened and clearly didn’t have a fish on it. “I’m fine. I don’t think I’m great at fishing. I might go read again. That was more my speed.”He laughed, but then his brow furrowed when his ga
Asking for a Friend Out of Focus
LAYTON“I really hated seeing her cry,” I told Marissa on Monday afternoon. We were eating lunch in my office, Chinese takeout that I’d ordered up from a place down the street.Marissa’s shoes were off and her ankles were crossed on top of my sofa, where she was sitting sideways as we talked. Officially, we were in a meeting about cost estimations for a new project, but realistically, I didn’t know how many people who walked past actually believed that.I didn’t care though. I loved her. It was bound to come out sooner or later. I had zero fucks to give about what anyone else thought about it.Marissa smiled sympathetically. “I know. It’s the hardest part by far, seeing them sad and not knowing what to do to fix it. You did a great job, though.”“She’s resilient though,” I said. “I don’t think there’s much she can’t bounce back from.”“That’s true,” she said, as she took a bite of her spicy fried chicken, rocking her head from side to side as she chewed. Once she swallowed, she said,
Asking for a Friend Concerns
LAYTONMarissa smiled coyly, looking at me through her thick lashes. “So do I, and while you make a compelling argument, we can’t just flake.”“There has to be some perks to being the boss,” I argued. “We can go over those files of yours after. I’ll tell Carrie it’s going to take a few hours and we need to go review the files somewhere else.”“A few hours, huh?” Her cheeks flushed. “You’re feeling awfully confident today.”I scoffed, “I’m always feeling confident. And you know it. You also know my confidence has never been unjustified.”“Let’s just say you’ve got one very satisfied customer right here,” she winked before dropping her eyes back to the file. “But these guys won’t be unless we actually get to it.”“You’re no fun.” I wadded up a napkin and chucked it in her direction. “I’ll satisfy them anyway. Might as well satisfy you first.”“That’s such a line,” she smothered a giggle, arching an eyebrow. “Are you being serious or are you just messing with me right now?”“Depends. Are
Asking for a Friend Marking Her Territory
MARISSAA huge black sedan pulled up outside of our office building. Layton and I were waiting for a car Banks had insisted he send. Layton told him we could get to New Hampshire on our own, but the man wouldn’t hear of it.The driver of the huge black car got out, wearing a full freaking uniform complete with a hat and gloves, and walked up to Layton. “Mr. Bridges, my name is Victor. I’ll be your driver today.”What? This was the car Banks sent for us? My jaw threatened to drop. How many people did Banks think Layton was bringing with him? The thing looked like it could easily fit ten.Layton glanced at the car, lifting an eyebrow before he school his expression and nodded once. “Thank you, Victor.”“Do you have any luggage?” Victor asked, then spotted the overnight bags we each had next to us on the sidewalk. Without asking, he picked up both bags and deposited them in the trunk before coming back for us. “I’ll keep your bags while you’re in the meeting with Mr. Banks, and I’ve been
Asking for a Friend Meeting Mr. Banks
MARISSAEight minutes later and exactly, to the minute on time, yet another young woman came down a hallway to our right. “Mr. Bridges? Mr. Banks will see you now. Please follow me.”We did as she asked, being led to a conference room with a table the size of my house in the center of it. I was starting to wonder if this Mr. Banks had something to make up for, since his car, building and table were larger than life and he only seemed to have young attractive girls working in his office.I smirked, catching Layton’s eye. It was no wonder he had no use for such luxurious, ostentatious things. He had nothing to make up for.He narrowed his eyes questioningly, but I shook my head. I would have to remember to tell him later. He would get a kick out of it. At that moment, the conference room doors swung open again and a fifty-something man in an impeccable suit stepped through them. There were some gray strands interrupting his otherwise jet black hair and his eyes were almost the same colo
Asking for a Friend None of the Credit
LAYTONThree weeks after New Hampshire, I still hadn’t given Banks an answer to his odd request. I couldn’t really believe he would even ask such a thing, it was unheard of. As far as I knew, anyway. I’d done some homework since getting back from the meeting and it turned out that every property Banks owned had him listed as the architect.I didn’t know why the hell it was so important to him, but it was clearly something he’d been doing for a long time. Most architects didn’t have the money to cover the cost of a building if he threatened to pull out if they didn’t give him credit. I wasn’t most people.But I still hadn’t decided what I was going to do. Despite the fact that my inheritance was large enough to tide over several small countries for a year, and I’d had my own success and didn’t live too extravagantly. I had paid a small fortune for my apartment, but I figured that was both an investment and my sanctuary.My car was nice and I wore only tailored clothes. I wasn’t selfish
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Asking for a Friend Epilogue Part 2
LAYTONIt was still early, the sun wasn’t even fully risen yet. Annie and I had both snuck out of bed early this morning to make this breakfast. Marissa was fast asleep, lying on her side on the bed.Annie set down the tray and the glass and shook Marissa’s shoulders. “Mommy! Wake up Mommy! We have a surprise for you.”Marissa’s eyes blinked open slowly, confusion clouding them until she rubbed it away as she sat up and took in the scene in front of her. “What’s all this?”“We’re celebrating,” I told her. “I spoke to Craig earlier. They’re on their way to the site for the final clean up. The building’s finally done.”Her lips curled into a sleepy smile. “I can’t believe that it’s over. It’s really all done?”“It’s really all done,” I confirmed, picking up the tray and placing her plate on it on her lap. “Eat up, we’ve got a lot of celebrating ahead of us today.”“Shouldn’t I be the one feeding you breakfast in bed for this?” She asked, frowning slightly. Lifting up the duvet, she patt
Asking for a Friend Epilogue Part 1
LAYTONIn the past two months since Annie’s first ballet recital, there had been three more. Which were four more recitals than I ever thought I would attend. Or actually enjoy.But I did enjoy them. I enjoyed them so much I was even starting to consider myself something of an expert in ballet. I knew was arabesque meant, what pas de deux was, and that attitude referred to a position in classical ballet, and not a little girl shaking her finger in your face.I watched Annie practicing every night, since I had now officially moved in with them. So officially that there was a tenant renting my place and everything. Marissa didn’t know it yet, but I had been looking at houses for us online for the last couple of weeks.Most of my furniture was now in storage since our house wasn’t big enough for all my furniture and all of Marissa’s. I didn’t love the thought of my stuff gathering dust in a storage unit and I wanted us to have a place that was truly ours, not mine or hers.I had to wait
Asking for a Friend Tiny Dancer
MARISSALayton also threw himself deeper into his commitment to our family. He started driving Annie to school sometimes or offering to pick her up. He took her fishing a few more times and taught her how to play catch.Our lives together was everything I was ever too afraid to hope for. Watching him watch her recital now, tears burned the backs of my eyes.His eyes still hadn’t left the stage for so much as second and I could see the pride he was feeling, I felt it too. He was so much better of a father to Annie than Brice ever could have been. And he stepped into that role gracefully and seriously.I wondered if he would bolt when he eventually realized she was starting to look at him as her dad, but he’d done the complete opposite. On the contrary, he freaking loved being her ‘dad.’The final notes of the recital ended, the girls all dipping into low bows as the hall exploded in applause. Parents leaped to their feet and Layton and I joined them.“She was fantastic,” he yelled into
Asking for a Friend Sixth Months of Heaven
MARISSALayton’s eyes were glued to Annie on stage. Watching him now, it was hard to remember a time when I doubted his love or his commitment to her. Or to me, for that matter.The past six months had been perfect. A fairy tale I never believed was in the cards for me. But somewhere, somehow, someone sent Layton to me and let me keep him.After I finally told him I loved him, there was no turning back. And neither of us wanted to. We came clean to Annie about our relationship that same week and she was thrilled.She hugged both of us and refused to let us go. That next week Layton stayed over for the first time that Annie knew of. She was so excited when she saw him arriving with an overnight bag that she zoomed and bounced around all night before finally crashing hard. When she fell asleep, it was on the couch between us.Layton had insisted on being the one to carry her to her bedroom and when he came back to the living room, he had this expression of absolute serenity on his face.
Asking for a Friend Living the Dream
LAYTON“I was just thinking about something that happened with Annie a few weeks ago,” I told him, shaking the memories out of my head. As the site came back into focus, I noticed how much progress there had been in the week since I was last here. “It’s looking good, Craig. You guys are really outdoing yourself on this one.”“We’re doing our best,” he said, shrugging. “I encouraged you to do this by yourself without that other asshole involved. Least I can do is to have your back now that you’re actually doing it.”“Thanks, man. I appreciate it.” I still couldn’t believe some days that this building really was all mine. I tried not to think about it too much, since there was still a lot that could go wrong. I didn’t want to tempt fate by thinking about how well it was going. “Has the flooring been delivered yet?”“Right on time,” Craig said. “They delivered on Friday morning as promised.”I breathed out a sigh of relief. The people who manufactured the flooring called two weeks ago to
Asking for a Friend We're a Family
LAYTONSix months after Marissa first told me she loved me, I walked onto the construction site where the museum was just about done. The scaffolding was coming off today and the team was moving inside. We had two months left to go, tops.The past six months had been the best months of my life. By a long shot. The museum was progressing without any major hold-ups, which was more of a relief than I cared to admit out loud.Marissa, Annie and I were doing better than ever. In the last few weeks, we’d started talking about moving in together, and I was sure it was going to happen soon.I knew it was going to be an adjustment to live together, especially for Annie and me, but it was what I wanted more than anything. I wanted to wake up next to Marissa every morning, to have breakfast with her and Annie before we headed to work.I wanted to be there to tuck Annie in at night and to spend lazy weekends with them. Only a year ago, if anyone had told me I would ever want that kind of life, I
Asking for a Friend Tasting Him
MARISSAStars exploded behind my eyelids. The intensity of the orgasm building inside me was astonishing. My body was going to be blown to dust when it hit, but I couldn’t freaking wait for that glorious release. I gripped the sheets harder, trying to anchor myself against the powerful sensations ripping through me.My hands flew to his hair next, tugging it as I held him to me. Knowing my body better than I did, he knew exactly what I needed. Bringing his lips to my clit, he sucked the little bud in between them and flicked it with his mouth.That perfect pressure sent my body skyrocketing. I stifled a cry, relieved somewhere in the back of my mind I had the pillow handy and crushed it over my face. Sensation crashed into me as I came, overwhelming me with a pleasure I would never get used to.Floating in a bubble of ecstatic bliss, my body went limp. When I opened my eyes, Layton was there wearing a satisfied smile.But it was too tight, too strained. His muscles were tense and his
Asking for a Friend Raw
MARISSALayton’s lips on mine were the best thing that I’d ever felt and I never wanted him to stop. I writhed against him, feeling him hard as steel against my center as he continued to kiss the crap out of me. He dipped his head lower and licked a path to my breasts, his hands on the hem of my shirt.There was something we had to do, somewhere we had to go. But I’d lost track of my train of thought. Warm hands came up to cup my breasts over my pajama top, his thumbs dragging over my puckered nipples. A shiver ran through me. I was so damn wet. I wanted him so bad.“Cold?” Layton asked huskily.I shook my head, closing my eyes for a second as I tried to find words. And figure out that gnawing feeling that we had to move. “No, just—”Layton gave me a sexy, knowing smile. “Me too. Let’s take this to your bedroom, shall we? We definitely shouldn’t let Annie find us like this.”Fuck.Annie.Of course, that was why we had to move. I nodded at Layton. “Let’s go.”His hands dropped to cup
Asking for a Friend Prove It To Her
LAYTONHolding the NDA out to her, she took it and her eyes dropped immediately to the signature line. Which was blank. “I didn’t sign it. I told him to tell Banks where he could shove his insane requests.”Marissa blinked, a huge smile spreading on her face. “Annie’s sleeping, but would you like to come inside?”I nodded, pulling her into my arms as the door closed behind me. Marissa lifted herself up on her toes and kissed me, her fingers winding into the hair around the nape of my neck. When we broke apart, she kept her hands where they were and spoke with her lips inches away from mine. “I love you, Layton. I love you so much.”My heart hammered louder and harder than it ever had before. It was trying to beat its way out of my chest to climb into hers. That was what it felt like, anyway. It already belonged to her, it might as well have done it.I blinked at her, taken aback by hearing the words I wasn’t sure I would ever hear from her. “Could you repeat that?”She smiled. “As man
