Facing West (Forever Wilde 1)

“No, god no. Never mind. It’s stupid. Turn back over and let me finish. I didn’t even get to the good parts yet. Namely, that glorious, fucking ass.”

“No distracting me with offers of fondling. Something is on your mind, Nico. What is it?”

I loved the way my name sounded when he said it. Surely the man could make me come just by saying my name over and over without even touching me. Maybe I should ask him to try.

“Huh?” I asked.

“Why are you asking about single parenting? If it’s not about Adriana, is it your mom?”

“No, not at all. Although, now that you mention my mom… she did an amazing job raising us on her own,” I admitted, remembering how I’d never once felt as though I was missing out after my father died and it was just the three of us. Maybe that was my answer.

I continued thinking out loud. “I just assumed Pippa was better off with the Warners than with me, you know? I mean, what kid would rather be raised by a perma-bachelor who lives above a tattoo shop in an urban commercial district? But then I think about family… biology. And it’s hard. The idea of the last living person connected to me by blood going to live with strangers… Never seeing her again…”

West reached out and pulled me into his lap again, wrapping his arms around me and running his hands up and down my back. “I know it’s hard, Nico. I mean, I can’t imagine what this is like for you. Losing your mom, Adriana, and Pippa all at the same time. But you have to think about what’s best for her and what all is involved in raising a child.”

“I know that.”

“It’s expensive, exhausting, heartbreaking,” he began.

I joined in. “Messy, loud, and stifling. Plus it would crimp my style in the clubbing and hookup scene,” I joked pathetically. “Not sure anyone would want to play with a man who has a kid.”

I felt West’s body stiffen and wondered if he had a problem with the club scene. He was probably a snob about people who didn’t meet at the fucking golf club or whatever.

“When you have a kid, Nico, your entire life revolves around them. It’s a massive sacrifice. Very different from the life you live now.”

“True,” I said, deciding he was right. Maybe I wasn’t cut out to be a parent. It had been a silly daydream anyway. I knew the reality of parenting was nothing like the fantasy.

“I’ve learned from watching families at my practice that being a single parent is lonely as hell too,” West cautioned.

I glanced at him, wondering why he was trying to talk me out of the idea. Little did he know, those last words weren’t an argument against parenting in my mind, because he didn’t know the truth.

There was absolutely no way raising Pippa on my own could be lonelier than the life I’d already been living before she came into it.

Chapter 24

West

Before we had a chance to discuss it further, Pippa began to make her morning noises. Nico rolled his eyes and muttered. “Jesusfuckingchrist, I was just up with her before you got here.”

He got up and slid some pajama pants on before pulling a T-shirt over his head. “Get some sleep,” he said before turning to leave the room. I reached out to grab his wrist before he walked out of range.

“Just give me a couple of hours, then I’ll be good, okay?” I asked. He nodded, looking adorably sleepy with his crazy Troll hair sticking up everywhere. I couldn’t help but pull him in for a kiss on the lips before letting him go. “Good morning, cutie.”

He smiled shyly back at me, the stress from our previous conversation melting away. “Good night, sexy doctor,” he said before turning to leave and closing the door behind him.

I rolled over to settle in and reveled in the smell of him on the bedsheets. Was it possible to hyperventilate from sucking in that smell as much as I did? It was to that comforting scent and the soft, familiar sounds of him cooing to the baby that I was able to drift into a dreamless sleep.

When I came awake a couple of hours later, I was surprised to find myself wrapped around him again, our naked bodies as close as possible under the bedding. My stiff cock was throbbing against the cleft of Nico’s ass, and the hunger for him in my belly was overwhelming.

I arched my cock into him, hard, and felt his responding thrust backward. Both of us groaned, and I murmured into his ear, asking for supplies.

“Over there. Your side,” he said in a groggy voice.

“How long has Pippa been—”

“Not long; we have plenty of time,” he responded, reading my mind. I left my legs tangled up with his while I twisted to reach for the supplies in the bedside table. I tried to ignore the other items in the drawer but couldn’t help but laugh.