Xander’s contract was a little longer than originally expected and he would be in San Francisco for a few more weeks at least. The plane landed around eleven thirty. Xander arranged for a Uber, and I arrived late.

A company had taken care of my pets, which was probably better than the alternative, and I moved to the condo-hotel where Xander lived for the duration of this contract.

I knocked, and he answered. I got my luggage in and freed Miki and Lily from their cage and they went wild. I got stuck in the whirlwind of Miki jumping on me like a mad man, and my luggage everywhere and getting out of my jacket and shoes. And once everything was sorted and Miki had calmed down some, I turned properly to Xander.

“Hi,” I said.

It had been weeks since we’d last seen and it seemed like an eternity.

He put his hands on either side of my face and pressed his lips to mine. I felt my back connect with the wall a few seconds later, and I clung to him in the process.

If our first kiss had been lustful, then this one was pure madness.

My fingers were tangled in his hair, and he raised my legs on either side of his body. He was warm and his hands were all over me. It took us nearly a quarter of an hour to disentangle and he took my hand and lead me to a bedroom.

My eyes widened a bit, for a brief moment understanding what was coming next, as he was about to kiss me again, he hesitated, looking at me. I gripped his shirt and pulled him to me. He smiled and complied.

I pulled his shirt over his head.

“Mmh,” I muttered between kisses. “I guess you worked hard at the gym,” I notice looking him up and down.

He walked closer still, his eyes burning.

“Let’s see about those squats,” he told me, grabbing my butt with both hands.

Pieces of clothing went flying left and right. We tried to be quiet and not to wake Eloim.

I pushed Xander on his chest and he fell on the bed in a passable state of undress. He looked up at me smiling, but his mirth turned to lust quickly as I straddled him in my underwear. I took my bra off, and he proceeded in making sure I would not get cold by moving his hand on me, and his mouth too, for good measure.

What little clothing we had still on, went off and we found ourselves moving slowly together in tangled sheets. We rolled around and kept at it for a while, until we finally fell asleep.

“MILA!” screamed a voice in my ear. I bolted upright confused, and managed to grab the sheet fast enough to be sure to be covered. I could see my blond curls in my peripheral sticking out in every direction.

“Elo,” mumbled Xander next to me. “Don’t scream, please.”

I felt myself blush as I was naked next to the equally naked father of said boy, jumping on top of us.

“Eloim, sweety, do you think you could get me my luggage, I want the big red one.”

He jumped off, excited and complied.

Xander rolled around and looked me up and down, or at least what he could see. My back was fully exposed has I was clutching the sheets to my front. He gave me a wolfish grin, a little too proud of himself, and I smacked him on the chest which made him smile even more. He ran his left hand on my back and around my midriff.

“Not in front of the kid,” I muttered between my teeth.

“He’s not here now,” he said as we heard Eloim struggle with my luggage on the other side.

Xander, grabbed me by the waist and pulled me down. I tried not to squeal, but Eloim came in the room at that moment.

“Thank you, sweety,” I said, bolting right up.

Xander got up too and grabbed his pants from the floor and put them on. Then he helped his son into setting things up on the bed so that I could have access to a change of clothes, and then dragged him out to get breakfast so that I could get changed.

He rushed back inside the room when his father wasn’t looking, and I had barely managed to get my underwear on.

“This is my kitty,” he told me, showing me the black-and-white little kitten.

I quickly pulled a shirt on, and rummaged for pants.

“Have you given him a name yet?” I asked him as I finished dressing up.

“No, I don’t know what to call him.”

“Maybe we can think about it later,” I suggested.

I went into the adjoining bathroom and splashed some water on my face, and tried to wash off the remnants of last night’s make up, and apply some fresh one. I also brushed my tangled mess. Eloim was next to me, chatting incessantly all the while.

Xander joined us a little later with breakfast in bed, we sat in a circle around the plateau and ate.

Eloim was giving me a hug maybe every ten to twenty minutes, which seemed to put Xander in a pretty good mood.

It had been a while for me to have a few days off of work, and the sheer reality of not having to work for a while there, was some of the most freeing experience, but it also made me feel so guilty to enjoy it. As if it was not supposed to be. I know I would not be doing nothing with my time. I didn’t need to have been a parent to know that taking care of a child was very time consuming, and if I wanted to paint, I would spend a lot of my free time doing exactly that. Regardless, I still felt guilty.

Xander notice my mood swings.

“Are you okay?” he asked a few hours later.

I nodded. “It’s just a pretty big jump I’m taking and I need to get use to this.”

“You know that you can tell me if anything is too much or too hard.”

I nodded. “Thanks,” I said. “I’ll just need a bit of time to grow more comfortable, and stop feeling guilty for being off work and enjoying it.”

He took me in his arms. “See it as a bit of a holiday. Besides, it’s not like you won’t be busy.”

“I know, it’s just—.”

“I know.”

He was really growing on me. We got along well. We had fun together, I liked Eloim. I think I might be able to do this.