Jo woke up ravenous, and early. When Ethan was young she had discovered that when she woke up early, between five and six, those hours could be hers and she would not feel guilty for having them. She would make a brew, and sometimes sit quietly, enjoy rare stillness, read the news until it became too depressing, or prepare Ethan's lunch and tidy before her whirlwind came back from his sleepy, dreamy wanderings.
The habit remained all through his growing years, though the need for silence was replaced by a hope to be seen, appreciated, for all the little things she did. And now, she was back to the beginning with Zoe. Once she had clawed out of the sleep deprivation cave, she found her early morning routine reasserting itself. It was really the only time to herself.
Curiously, she never painted. That was a night time activity for Jo. Perhaps that was why the trenches of motherhood were not full of painting; she had to make a choice between giving up sleep in the am or pm.
She found when she did not sleep well that it was worse. Jo would be up extremely early if her rest was disturbed by bad dreams, hers or Zoe's, or worry, or sadness.
Jo was up before dawn this morning, and she felt like painting. Perhaps because the world was still dark. And she had slept very little. But that had everything to do with her bedmate.
Harry was sprawled out over her bed that had always seemed too big for one person, but was perfect for the two of them. They made good use of the space after she had met Audrey at the back and sent her out the front. Harry had barely waited for the babysitter to clear the garden wall before he was attaching himself to her neck and walking her through the house to her bedroom.
He hadn't let up for most of the night. Jo's thighs smarted when she stood and she could feel finger bruises when she smoothed up some plaid pants to her hips. He'd held her hard when she was sure she couldn't stand another orgasm. Turns out she could, but when she went to finish him in her mouth she felt a small abrasion on his glans. Harry was going to need a break. Too much friction.
Turns out, he was a tummy sleeper, she knocked away the comparison to Ethan and looked at her lover. That title felt right. He certainly loved her right. And it wasn't so heavy on the feelings she was trying to ignore after their excellent date and streaming conversation. If they shared one more conspiratorial smile over a shared interest or love she was gonna have to consider other shades of the appellation. This morning she refused.
But her golden valley was calling her away from the curl obscured face and sheet wrapped lower torso of the Adonis in her bed.
Jo reapplied the gold, shading it over the gray she had smudged in the background of the piece she was working on just a few days ago. The gold wasn't so perfect now, it was shadowed. She liked it, felt more realistic. The brush end rolled smoothly over her lips while she thought about the golden footsteps. Now it looked like her lone female was running through sand, where she had smudged the golden footprints away. She'd seen pictures of dark sand beaches. There were yellows sands, right? Golden and sand was glass unformed, so she could give some shimmer.
Her teeth bit lightly over the wood stick while she planned and thought about what colors to mix; she needed more gold paint, again. What would it look like over the sandy grey path? She'd need a lighter base yellow, and some white with the gold to get it the way her mind's eye did.
Jo's stomach growled loudly, and she realized the sun was up, but no one else was. When was the last time she ate? A flash of Harry spooning crema catalana into her mouth made her tummy sound again, and her mouth water. Her toes curled a little into the carpet shag.
Breakfast. She'd make eggy bread. Jo thought everybody liked that. Well, Zoe did and she was the hard one to please. Jo would eat anything at this point, and she imagined Harry would wake up ravenous.
He seemed to have. But not for food when he found her in the kitchen in his sheer shirt and pants. Harry wrapped her up from behind and the hug might have been filial, except for the presence of his hard dick against her ass and his open mouth on her jaw.
"What're you doing?" His voice creaked like an old man's bones.
"Making you breakfast." Jo found she didn't even want to stop herself from pressing back into him, from placing her pelvis within the bowl of his.
"In my shirt?" Jo felt his hands on the back of her thighs and then he pulled his hips back just enough to fill his hands with her ass. She could feel, practically see, the overflow of her flesh between his fingers.
"It was that or naked." She teased. Jo had little idea where her dress had wound up or how it had fared last night.
"Ughhhh! Zoe?" The ring of his voice was an alarm.
Jo pointed at her handy monitor. Zoe was still in the bed he had helped fashion for her.
"Good." Was all he said before he caught a hand and turned her with more grace than a waltz but the heat of a salsa, and grabbed her by the back of her thighs to carry her into the studio.
The door thudded like a untuned piano, but it was still music to her ears before she remembered one thing. "Harry, you have a sore."
"I know, I don't care." He said into her neck where the few hairs of his stubble were trying their best to irritate the skin.
"Well, I do. If we go again, you'll not heal for far too long."
Harry pulled back then and stared at her, "What's that mean ,then?" His smile was hopeful, and one sided, the left dimple was popped, but she knew just what would bring out its twin.
She placed her mouth against his and said, "It means, much as another go right now would be lovely, I think the whole week's worth of sex is worth more. Because I'm grown up, and can delay gratification. Can you?" She licked his open mouth, caught his tongue and one canine.
"You want me to delay your gratification?" He chicken necked to look at her, "I can do that."
And he dropped to his knees me pulled her pants with his gravity as he slid her to a stop over his mouth. "Great angle to get my mouth and hands in you."
That idea was thrilling, and the reality was amazing! He was right about the angle, it seemed to take away any of the awkwardness of sliding his fingers inside of her while getting his mouth around her center. It felt so good, she was near her edge quickly. Harry just didn't let her cascade over it. Jo was sure he had ever intention to edge her, but the smell of burning egg and bread did his job for him.
"Harry!" He stopped abruptly at her tone and she slid off him, she heard the squelch of his fingers when she uncoupled them.
Jo was moving fast and Harry looked around bewildered and nervous, like they had been discovered by an inquisitive three year old.
She was pulling the ruined food from the stove and trying to scrape off the caked on parts. "There goes another spatula." Jo held up the twisted implement for his inspection and found herself laughing despite her irritation at herself when he started humming 'another one bites the dust'. He took the pan out of her hand and danced her around to the song he was now singing in his surprisingly good Freddie Mercury imitation. He spun her out and back to him in a grapple like hug.
"Sorry, baby. I didn't mean to distract you." She pulled back and narrowed her eyes at him. "Well, I did, but... anyway, Do you have another pan and spatula." Jo lay back against his chest and breathed in the warm morning scent of him. She wasn't sure exactly what he smelled like, maybe sleep-stained sheets, a linger of sex, a tang of her, his old cologne, toothpaste, and an under layer of paint. It was the best smell in the world. She pressed her nose to the depression in his chest and inhaled then pressed a moist kiss to his heart.
Harry dropped his head onto the top of hers and choked out, "Jo." She'd just looked up at his plaintive tone and the moment felt like a 20 pound child who won't be put down. But before she could find out the reason for the ponderous look she heard her name, well, "Mama," which was one of them, and saw Zoe sitting in her bed scrubbing her eye on the monitor.
"Hold that thought!" Jo bussed his mouth and went for her daughter.
She knocked on the door, and rolled her eyes at herself, that was an Ethan born habit from his 12th year when she started finding lone socks in states of rigor mortis beneath his bed. "Morning freckles!" She singsonged and Zoe extended her arms. Jo went to her and started to hoist her up when Zoe protested.
"Lay with me, mummy." And Jo knew her stomach was still empty and Harry's too and Zoe's always, but she also was acutely aware that children grow up. So she lay in the bed and read "Flyaway Katie." With Zoe's name inserted and her little head in the crook of Jo's chest. After Zoe complained she smelled of course.
"Are you hungry baby?" Jo asked the wispy hair at Zoe's crown and wondered when it would start growing in for real. Her kids had thin wispy business until they didn't, then it came in. Ethan's like thick strands of chestnut. Zoe's baby curls hung down her back and were the kind that would be gone forever once they were trimmed off.
"Mmmhmmm!" Zoe nuzzled. Jo gave a moment's nerves about explaining Harry's presence, but decided she would address it if Zoe seemed to think it strange.
The scene the two Smith girls found in the kitchen stopped the bigger one's breath. Harry had found some jeans, she still had on his shirt, but he'd also found the spare pan and spatula and finished breakfast. He had plated for all three.
"Morning Zoe!" He danced to her and extended his arms.
"Arry!" Zoe ducked her head and rather than the big hug Jo could see he expected, she was coy.
"What's this then? Where's my mermaid?" He didn't try to take her or force her, he just waited, and Zoe bloomed under his patience.
"Your mermaid is on your arm, Harry!" Zoe took her chin off Jo's collarbone and pointed at his tattoo, "I'm not a mermaid, I'm a girl."
And Jo loved the way that word sounded in her voice. She almost swapped the l and r or swallowed them together, it was one of the few Zoe-isms from the list Jo was aware enough to keep this time that she still used. Jo looked up from the heart eyes she had focused on Zoe and saw Harry biting off a laugh.
Zoe didn't like to be laughed at, she got her feelings hurt if she hadn't told you a joke. How'd he know that? He looked at Jo with huge eyes the shade of a ripe pear. She loved the look of his iris swimming in the green mirth. They shared a look she'd longed for and didn't know it - a conspiratorial adult glance over the perfection of Zoe. Jo caught herself before she dove off that cliff.
"Are you hungry, baby? Harry made," she looked at the table and her eyes boggled. "Harry made waffles and eggs?" A lot of them.
"C'mere Miss." He took Zoe off her mum's arm. "Are you sure you're not a mermaid? I heard that they feel light as a feather on land," and he picked her up higher, over his head and hoisted her there and then down and made a heavy sound. "Oof, not a feather. Not a mermaid."
Zoe laughed, "Cuz I'm a unicorn."
Jo laughed, while she watched them together. "You most certainly are."
"Explains the heaviness too, I read unicorns feel extra heavy in human form, it's the hidden extra legs," Harry flipped her sideways and looked at her legs. "I don't know where you have them stashed, but I can feel them. Oi!" He sat her in her chair while she giggled and moved out of Jo's way while she moved near him.
Harry clutched her waist and rubbed along her back and Jo glared and side stepped him.
He grinned and quirked a brow and shoulder in an endearing way. Her need to slap and then kiss him was such a strange couple. But, he always brought it out in her, like when you see a pair of mismatched people together and can't figure them out until you talk to them and realize how well they fit.
When she turned around he handed her a plate. "Teas at your place."
She looked over to where she usually sat, and there was her mug, with liquid almost the right shade. Just kiss, she didn't want to slap him anymore. "Thanks, Harry."
He nodded and graced her with dimples. Jo glanced to see Zoe happily ripping apart the waffle and stuffing a piece in her mouth. "Where did you find my waffle iron? Forgot I had one." It was a wedding present. Jo stuck a lot of those away.
"Deep in a cupboard. Sounded good, and I have a trick." He licked his finger and Jo squirmed a little at his eyes on hers while he sucked the batter off. They had some unfinished business she guessed would remain there, and she'd wiggle all day on the orange under her bum, and she wasn't sure what he could do with that sore on his dick.
"What's that?" She ate a bit of eggs. Really good eggs, and not just because she didn't make them.
"Try them." He gestured with the silicone spatula he had to pop out the waffle.
Jo sliced in and looked for the toppings - none were on the table. So she ate it and found it to be already mapley and sweet, crisp like caramelized and not bone dry like her waffles usually turned out. Hmmm. She ate two more bites before she even remembered to ask.
Harry was putting the new waffle on a plastic plate that said, "Zoe."
"Are we out of clean plates?" When did she last run the dishwasher?
"Yeah. Dishwasher is running. How's the waffle?"
"Good." Everything was good. "Flavorful and moist."
"Good." He sat at her elbow and pressed his forearm against her before he grinned and took a bite.
What time was it? When was nap time? She looked and found it not for a while.
"How do you make them, what's the trick?" She nudged his hand with the back of hers and he quickly held it and took a bite of his waffle like nothing was amiss.
"It's not revolutionary. I put the syrup in the batter with vanilla and cinnamon and milk. Put butter on both sides of the iron." He said when he finished chewing.
"Ah, so they are sinful." She did that stupid mental calculation she had been taught entirely too young of the calories and moved onto the eggs.
Harry squeezed her hand and brought another bite to her mouth. She took it off his fork after a glance at Zoe.
He checked the little girl was distracted too, "It'll just go to your ass, and I will not be complaining." He said into the shell of her ear.
Jo shivered and checked the clock again. She cleared her throat and moved her arm to swim to safer waters.
"What do you have on today?" She drank her tea and pushed her plate away but caught the pleased smile on Harry's face when she used her fingers to eat another bite, even if she knew she shouldn't.
"Nothing, I have no plans - you?" His hand found her thigh beneath the table and she felt the pads of each of his fingers on the inside of her knee, he squeezed once and then moved them slowly back and forth.
"Um..." she drank another gulp, "I need to organize the studio, it's still chaos, and go over my syllabi intros, maybe pack up my supplies. The house is kinda messy, I like to clean before semester begins, first few weeks are crazy, ya know." She kept talking.
"Jo, relax." He nudged his chin at Zoe, "She's not the fuzz." But he took his hand off her, and she missed it.
"Yeah," was all she said. But she could tell Ethan. That she didn't say. But Jo was already thinking up plans to get around that. Harry babysat her so she could focus on school things. That sounded likely.
When Zoe started whining, Jo got up and cleared her and her place. Jo went upstairs and didn't think about that neither of them spoke about him leaving.
And he didn't. When she came down, he'd cleared breakfast, and cleaned the counters. He didn't leave water everywhere.
"Let's go to the park, Unicorn Zoe," and he bundled her up in her unicorn onesie and disappeared.
The quiet was productive but strangely disturbing and Jo was glad when Harry carried a sleeping Zoe in. He lay her on the ottoman, and pulled Jo behind him to her bedroom, she hadn't made it in to clear the bed, but that was useless, because he pulled off her yoga pants and jumper and pulled her back over his face.
He was groaning and needy after she came in his mouth.
"God, you always taste so good. Like a peach!" He brought a hand to his swollen dick.
"No, it'll get worse." She admonished and watching him grown and squirm. She took pity on him and reached into her bedside where she had a new purchase. Jo slicked them both up good with the lube and faced him on her side. "Don't move, it'll put you out of commission. I've got you." And she put him in.
It took a long time, and his hands and mouth moved rampantly because he obeyed and kept his hips quiet. It was about an hour before the flexes she employed along with the pressure of her pelvic walls up and in and down, was able to draw the sobbing need and spunk from him.
He stayed there with her, just staring and every time he started a sentence, he shook his head before he spoke. Jo wasn't sure why, but she let him.
She let him stay too, until late Sunday when she knew he had to do something to get ready for courses to start.
"You have to go!" She smiled as she pushed him out the door when they had cooked and cleaned together. "Get out of my space, Harry!"
"Not because you told me to! Cuz your don't really want me to. But, because I have to. I'll see you tomorrow?" He kissed her after he checked Zoe was watching her show intently.
"Nope, get out!" And she pushed him and thought how nice it would be to get her space back without the instrusion of his pleasant shape.
Almost as soon as he left she missed him. All through bath and bedtime. Not that he would do any of her chores, but she missed his company and smell.
Jo didn't text him, her phone found it's way to her hand over and over, but she kept herself from being desperate. It was a thrill when she woke up to a 'miss you' that Monday morning.
The 'See you soon.' made her even more excited.