After Ever After
-Mia-
“It was so nice to meet you!” I said to the women walking away from my book stand at the conference.
While I had a moment, I looked around at the massive room and let out a long breath of awe. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I could be there, at a romance book convention, signing my name on books for people who were fans. Fans! I had actual, honest to God fans.
My eyes started to water with the gratitude that was blooming through my whole body.
“I loved Jackson in ‘Temptation Island’!” a woman said, coming up to me with a book smashed against her chest. “I mean, all the men were amazing, but Jackson stole my heart!”
I laughed, shoving back my emotions so I could slip back into author mode.
“If there was a man who a girl could be monogamous for, it’s Jackson,” I agreed, winking at the woman who shoved the book out to me.
It was my newest novel, a space opera adventure style reverse harem. Owen’s space opera from years ago had definitely been my inspiration, and I added all the sex and naked androids that I’d thought was missing in his. Not that Owen’s book wasn’t great as it was. It truly was fantastic, I just had a tendency to spice things up. Since he’d read the manuscript before sending it to my publisher and had approved wholeheartedly, I didn’t feel guilty at all.
“Seriously, It’s so nice to read an RH where there’s an actual relationship and love involved,” the other woman said, holding her copy out next. “You’re seriously the queen of Reverse Harem!”
“You guys are so nice!” I said, feeling the ever familiar sensation of embarrassment rattle through me from so many compliments.
“Only honest,” she said, taking the book back after I’d scrawled my pen name across it.
“You are the best, thanks for visiting my booth! It looks like they’re closing up for tonight, but there’s one more day of the convention. Maybe you can stop by again tomorrow and we can chat about Jackson, or even the boys in ‘Jaida’s Orbit’?”
They looked at each other, nodding the whole time.
“Of course! We’ll be back! I actually have Jackson’s book in my room, so I’ll bring that one for you to sign tomorrow, if you don’t mind.”
“I’d love to, uh…”
“Janet,” she bumbled, putting her hand out. “So sorry! My name is Janet, and this is Heather, my sister.”
“I’m glad to have met you,” I told them with a real grin on my face. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Janet and Heather!”
The women sauntered off, giggling to each other and fangirling.
I didn’t bother picking up much since I had to come back in the morning for another day, but the cash box definitely went into my bag before I headed back up to my room, weighed down by my two big totes and a handcart full of books.
I let out a long sigh when I got to my room and stretched out on my bed, grateful to have a few minutes to relax. It didn’t last long though, because my stomach demanded food and I was eager to oblige. Hotel bar, here I come.
My phone dinged as I picked a seat at the rather busy bar, and I hurried to pull it out, hoping it was Owen.
As it turned out, it was Clea.
Clea: How is the convention?
I smiled down at the words, glad that we’d managed to get past the rough parts of our relationship after college. It had taken a lot of forgiveness, but luckily that was one thing I’d always been blessed with in abundance, whether I should or not.
Me: It’s so good! I always forget how much I love these things, then I get here and remember how many wonderful people in this world read smut too!
Clea: LOL! I read your books, and they’re amazing! Not everyone can mix deeply philosophical situations and meanings into an RH orgy.
I laughed, leaning back in my stool until it swiveled and almost spit me off.
I gasped and gripped the edges of the bartop just as the bartender came over to get my drink order.
He smiled down at me with a knowing grin.
“Sure you want another drink?” he asked, slinging a white towel over his shoulder.
I scoffed.
“Believe it or not, this is how clumsy I am without alcohol.”
He chuckled and leaned his elbows on the counter, his eyes roving.
It was funny, honestly. I was thirty-seven and showed the wear of having two children with the pudge around my belly and the thickness of my thighs and hips. Even still, this boy, barely over drinking age was staring at me like a MILF.
“What can I get you?” he asked, eyes finally meeting mine again, though there was the heat of attraction staring back at me.
I was trying to decide how to put the poor guy down gently when two dress shirt clad arms framed around me at the bar, putting my back against a firm chest. I gasped in a breath to tell the individual to back the hell off when he spoke.
“Make it a glass of sweet, dry red…and a sazerac.”
I breathed him in, the familiar scent of his soap mixed with the worn leather and paper of the old books he surrounded himself with non-stop.
“Hope you don’t mind me ordering for you,” he said, moving his hands away from me which made me want to groan in protest. “It looked like that kid wanted to eat you up before we even had a chance to acquaint ourselves.”
When Owen sat in the stool beside me, I wasn’t surprised at all by the lust in his eyes. What did surprise me was the lack of a welcoming kiss and the distance he put between us.
“You here for the conference?” he asked again, acting like we were perfect strangers.
My eyes met his which were wrinkled in the corners from amusement. He was doing the whole strangers in a bar thing on purpose.
So, I went with it.
“Yeah, it just closed up for the day. It’s nice to get out from behind the booth.”
“Booth, huh? You must be a big deal,” he added, his attention only breaking when our drinks were passed to us.
I pressed my fingers against the foot of my wine glass and slid it over to myself while my husband grabbed his old favorite and sipped, eyeing me like a fresh cut of meat. It was kind of invigorating, to be honest. I’d never met a man at a bar before, and I was currently writing a book where my heroine met her hero at a—
My smile burst into a grin when I realized what he was doing. My husband was giving me an experience so I could write about it.
“Do you read romance?” I asked him, playing along.
He hummed.
“I read, but not usually romance. I often find it too…empty.”
“Empty. Yeah, I can see that,” I agreed. “But have you read mine?”
He gave a sly grin and leaned in.
“That depends, what’s your name?”
The silliness of the whole situation made me giggle, but he refused to break character.
So, instead of giving him my name, I gave him the name of the heroine from my new novel.
“Eddy,” I said, unable to help my grin.
“Eddy, yeah, it fits you,” he added, nodding like we weren’t doing some kind of role-play ridiculousness.
“What’s your name?” I asked him.
The big question was if he remembered the names I’d given him more than a week ago during a passing conversation.
“Vince,” he answered, blowing my mind with how much the man listened to me even after twenty years together.
“It fits,” I repeated the line to him, which made him smile at me.
“So, just getting a drink at the end of the day?” he said after a moment, sipping his sazerac.
“Yep. Just trying to wind down.”
“Hm, me too. I’ve been cooped up too long with my computer lately.”
“How long have you been here?” I almost demanded, wondering who was with the kids at home since he was in Housten with me.
“Oh, I just arrived today.”
“How long do you plan to stay?”
He swirled his drink for a moment in his glass, then lifted his eyes to meet mine again.
“That depends,” he murmured. “I came for inspiration. I’m a writer, too; adventure and sci-fi novels.”
I hummed in approval, swirling my own drink just to keep my hands busy. “What kind of scene are you writing?”
His tongue peeked out and drew over his lip for just a moment as he thumbed his glasses back up his nose.
“Not sure I should talk about it in polite company,” he all but whispered, a naughty turn to his lips making me want to kiss him so bad.
“You do know what I do for a living, right?” I asked with a chuckle. “I’m not what most people would consider polite company.”
“We can agree to disagree. The things they do…”
He shook his head and turned his eyes down to his drink again with a grin.
“Hm, I’m not sure I understand,” I told him, swirling a strand of hair that had been perfectly curled when I left my room earlier in the morning but now lay pretty flat. “I may need a demonstration.”
At that moment the bartender came back, eyebrows in his hairline thinking that we were just strangers who were ready to bang even though we just met each other, And honestly, that was kind of thrilling.
“You want any apps or anything?” he asked, slipping a little napkin toward me without meeting my eyes.
“Oh, uh, maybe I’ll just order room service,” I managed, turning back to my husband.
His eyes sparkled with humor at the poor young man, then leaned forward until he was practically touching his lips to my ear.
“Take me to your room and I’ll give you all the demonstration you need,” he whispered just loud enough for the bartender to hear him, but nobody else.
The kid choked and coughed, then made himself scarce while Owen nipped my earlobe just the way I liked.
“It’s only an elevator ride away,” I breathed, then stood from my chair, Owen following.
We didn’t hold hands, and he stayed a step behind as we worked our way to the elevators, then hopped on, staying on two separate sides.
When the doors closed, he took two big steps and caged me in against the wall, leaning down to speak into my ear again with his raspy, rough voice that spilled sex and control.
“I haven’t been able to take my eyes off you since you came into the bar,” he rasped.
“You vanquish me,” I choked out,
“You know I love it when you use big words,” he bit, breaking character for the first time.
“You know I prefer action to words,” I countered, feeling his hand skim up the skirt of my dress.
Then the door dinged.
We separated just in time for a cute family to get in and press the ground floor button.
“This one’s going up,” Owen told them, but the father just shrugged.
“It’ll go down eventually,” he threw out, then took the squirming toddler from the stressed looking mother.
I couldn’t help but throw my husband a smile. I remembered those days. Stress and diapers and luggage up the hooha, Now that our kids were older, I almost missed those days compared to the puberty and earth shattering ‘feelings’ of teenagers. Yikes.
My floor came up, and it was the first time I realized that Owen had a little briefcase with him, and that was it. Did he have his own room, or had he been waiting for me at the bar since his plane came in? If so, where the heck was all his luggage?
I didn’t have much time to think about it though. Owen took my hand and pulled me into the hotel hallway as the doors closed, then pushed me against the wall and pressed his lips to mine until my breath stuttered and my eyes closed.
“Which one is yours,” he murmured against my mouth, fingers digging into my thighs until I was up, legs circling his waist like we used to do when we’d first started dating.
“503” I gasped out as he nibbled the curve of my jaw and pulled at the edge of my panties.
He looked around, and I was never so grateful to be rooming so close to the elevator as I was in that moment while I dug through my clutch for my room card.
“Shove it in,” I told him, handing him the key card.
“I intend to,” he countered with a wicked grin.
I almost rolled my eyes, but then I felt the hard bulge digging into my slit, begging for our clothes to be gone.
Heck, I was begging for that silently, too.
My phone dinged again, but I ignored it since it was probably Clea.
But then again…what if it was one of the kids? Since Owen wasn’t there to take care of things…
“Hold on,” I told him, digging my phone back out of my clutch to see who it was.
“The kids?” he asked, breaking character again as he looked to the screen, shoving his way through the door.
I opened the text app and saw that it was Clea again, and while I loved the girl, I needed my husband inside of me, so a response could wait.
“Nothing,” I blurted, aiming the phone toward the little table by the door.
It fell to the floor with a thump instead and I didn’t care a single bit because his lips were on mine and I was melting for him from the inside out.
“Owen,” I panted, but he bit my lip so hard it almost hurt.
“Vince,” he corrected.
“I don’t care what the fuck you want me to call you. Just get inside me,” I demanded.
He grinned, always loving when I cursed.
“I never do this, pick up chicks at the bar—”
“Owen,” I snapped, which made him laugh just as he pulled me up higher on his waist, just enough to tease me with his bulge.
“You’re making this hard,” he told me, dropping me to the mattress where I bounced as he stood over me.
“That’s the point.”
“No, the point is for me to pick you up, and fuck the MILF at the bar into a coma. I’d disappear before she wakes up, leaving her wondering and pining for a stranger.”
“Yes, yes. You picked up the girl, now get inside the girl, or I’ll go back to that kid at the bar. I’m sure he wouldn’t ask questions.”
“Are you kidding me?” he asked with a confident laugh. “A kid like that wouldn’t know what to do with a woman like you, Mia.”
He ripped my panties down my thighs, and that quick, Vince and Eddy were gone and it was just us. He leaned over me, spreading my knees so he could reach my lips, then his fingers dragged down my soaked slit and slammed inside. My back arched, a moan slipping between my lips as he pushed my knees toward my shoulders.
“Gentleman, or animal?” he growled right into my ear, grinding me through his pants.
Oh, it was always a difficult choice when he asked me that. Did I want a gentleman, or an animal tonight?
“Animal,” I growled right back at him.
“Good. I don’t think I could manage to be gentle if I tried.”
Just like that, he shoved my knees until I was on all fours on the bed, then he flipped up the skirt of my dress so my naked rear was exposed to the room. I heard the jostling of a belt, then the rustle of his pants hitting the floor.
A palm landed on my rear with a loud crack, and it made me giggle just as much as it spiked my arousal.
“I had this all planned out, you know,” he said, pausing only long enough to slam into me with a grunt. “This was supposed to be inspiration for your new book.”
“Owen, love,” I panted, enjoying a moment of roughness until he stopped and ran his fingers down the line of my spine.
“Yeah, darling?”
“I think I changed my mind.”
He gave a soft chuckle, then slowly, carefully drew down the zipper on the back of my dress until the thing practically fell off me.
“Ok,” he murmured, pushing the sleeves off my shoulders then dragging the entire thing off my body. “Gentleman it is.”
His fingers cupped around my hip and he turned me around until I was on my back again, legs curled around his waist as he pressed back into me, making my eyes roll into my head with each deep thrust.
“I missed you,” I groaned, pulling him closer with my heels in his rear. “Three days is too long without you.”
“I couldn’t fucking stay away,” he murmured before slipping his hand behind my head and pulling me up for a kiss.
Maybe it wasn’t the hottest session we’d ever had, but it was exactly what I needed. The fullness between my legs echoed the fullness in my heart that he’d come all the way out to see me just to give me an experience for my new book. Well, that and a night together.
After a few more thrusts, he removed himself and I whined in protest.
“Owen, no,” I called as he kissed his way down my chest.
He stopped to nibble my nipples and lave kisses over them before moving down until his mouth was between my thighs.
I moaned for him, arching into the feeling of his lips and tongue.
Sure, people talked about the sparks and the heat of a new relationship, and those are great, but to be with the same man, a man who knew how to play my body like an instrument because we’d been together for so long, was far better than fireworks. A long, slow burn beat a momentary inferno any day.
Within minutes, I was coming undone around his tongue, not bothering to curb the cry of pleasure that left my mouth.
“You are fucking beautiful,” he moaned against my thigh, kissing me down from my peak.
When my brain finally came back into operation, I grabbed his chin and pulled until he crawled up and obeyed my silent order to kiss me. He did, pressing his soaked lips to mine.
Tasting myself on him always did it for me. With his mouth still against mine, he entered me again, so carefully filling me until I could feel him inside every beautiful part of me.
“Do you think you can come for me again?” he murmured so sweetly.
“Oh yeah. Just as soon as I hear you moan and feel you throbbing inside me.”
The groan he gave me reverberated against my skin as we moved again together, his mouth on my neck as our bodies gyrated.
It didn’t take long before I felt him twitching inside me, swelling and throbbing until he came with that satisfying moan I knew like the back of my own hand. He was barely recovered when he moved down my body again and gripped my hips, dropping his mouth to my clit again so I was yelping and screaming with an almost instant orgasm.
“Good girl,” he hummed, kissing his way back up my body, sucking my breast for a moment and letting it slip from his mouth with an audible ‘pop’.
Together we crawled up the bed and settled in, enjoying a long, naked cuddle.
“How are the kids?” I asked, pressing my cheek to his sweat-dampened chest.
“They’re good,” he said, shoving a hand through his graying hair. “Claire is at basketball camp, and Cassie is with your parents until I get back tomorrow.”
“And our boys?”
He grinned, a pleased expression on his face.
“That never gets old, our boys…”
“Well, they are our boys. They’re mine, and Paula’s. Well, and Richard’s. I guess he gets to claim them, too. They’ve been married seven years now, right?”
“Mhm,” he hummed, fingers feathering down my back. “Something like that.”
“I bet Mom loved having Cassie for a night.”
“Oh, she was over the moon. She convinced Caden to join them for dinner, too. Those kids are going to be fed well tonight.”
“What about Charlie? It’s been five days since I’ve seen my granddaughter and I’m not ok with that.”
Owen leaned over and pressed a kiss to my forehead with a laugh clinging to his lips.
“Youngest grandma ever, and you still can’t help yourself.”
“You’re right. I can’t,” I agreed with a giggle, kissing him again because I just couldn’t stop.
“That boy is still on cloud nine with his new baby girl. Luckily he has a wife with her head on straight or I’d worry about the kid.”
“Do you blame him? I remember what a bumbling idiot you were after Claire was born. It was the sweetest thing I’d ever seen.”
He breathed out a sigh of complete contentment and pulled me closer until my cheek was pressed to his shoulder and our bodies were completely skin to skin.
I was in my happy place, which was by his side. God blessed me with an incredible man, and a family I loved with all my heart.
“So, you’re heading home tomorrow?” I hummed after a long stint of quiet. “Am I going to wake up to an empty bed?”
He chuckled. “The most likely situation is, you’re going to wake up with my mouth on your pussy.”
“Hm, what a sacrifice.”
Owen outright laughed, then moved so we were face to face.
“Mia, I fucking love you.”
“I fucking love you, too,” I murmured, stealing another kiss. “Now, how about we get some dinner delivered, then you show me how much you love me all over again.”
END