We Ran From Our Babies' Fathers, Then One Toddler Went Viral novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: The Pool House

I read the papers twice, standing in the kitchen with a glass of water I didn't drink.

They called me an unfit guardian.

They called Poppy a minor exposed to commercial exploitation.

They had a photo of her in the yellow hat that I had never seen.

At eleven, with Poppy asleep and the baby monitor humming on the counter, I found Preston on the pool house steps with the lights off.

He was holding a bottle of water he hadn't opened either.

"I won't lose her," I said.

"You won't."

"You can't promise that."

"No." He looked up at me. "But I'll spend every cent and every day before I let it happen. I'd like you to know that's a promise, and not a prediction."

I sat down on the step beside him.

My leg pressed against his, and neither of us moved it.

"I don't want to talk," I said.

"All right."

"I don't want to be careful, either."

He put the bottle down.

"Come here," he said.

I climbed into his lap on the step and took his face in both hands and kissed him.

It wasn't the door kiss from last time.

It was slower, and it was mine.

I opened his mouth with my tongue, and he made a rough sound.

He slid his hands up under my dress, over my thighs, and gripped my ass hard enough to hurt.

"Inside," I said against his lips.

He carried me through the glass door into the pool house.

There was a wide daybed with white linen against the far wall, and moonlight on the water coming in through the slats.

He set me on my feet at the edge of it and pulled my dress over my head.

I wasn't wearing a bra.

He made a low, appreciative noise in his throat and put his mouth on my breast, and I grabbed the back of his neck.

His tongue circled my nipple, then he sucked it into his mouth, and I felt it all the way down between my legs.

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