Page 53 of Hungry Hearts

Those whiskey eyes go wide before narrowing at me. “Am not.” She lifts a shoulder with a sly grin. “I’m sitting here innocently eating my ice cream.”

Her fucking tongue darts out again, making its way along her top lip. I take an aggressive bite of my rocky road and crunch on the nuts. If only my nuts could get some love from her mouth right now.

“You can have my napkin.” Ruby leans across the picnic table and offers me her used, crumpled napkin.

“Thanks, Ruby Cube.” Not caring that it’s sticky from her hands, I dab the melted ice cream from my hand.

“What’s a ruby cube?”

“Well, a Rubix Cube is a square thing with a bunch of colored stickers. It’s a puzzle you have to put back together.”

“Why am I a Ruby Cube?”

I finish my cone and grab a clean napkin from the stack between us and wipe my mouth. “Because you’re fun, a little complicated, colorful, and the name sounds good with Ruby.”

Ignoring her ice cream, she gives me another giggle. “You always call me silly names.”

“It’s what I do, Rubes.”

Another giggle. “What do you call Mommy?”

I don’t even bother to hide my smirk as I stare at those whiskey eyes. I don’t have many nicknames for her. Mostly, I just add adjectives before her name. Explicit ones. Especially when she’s coming on my tongue and fingers, especially my cock. When she wraps those luscious lips around my cock, I can’t even formulate words. Just grunts and groans. And curses.

“Maia. MaiaMine. Angel.”

“Angel doesn’t sound like Maia or Mommy.”

“Look at her though.” I wait until Ruby’s attention is on her mother. “Her hair blankets her like a halo, and she has the heart of an angel. So sweet and innocent. Yet powerful and strong.”

“But angels are dead. My daddy is dead, but Mommy isn’t.”

And there goes the bucket of ice on my dick. Guess I needed that or I’d be making a fool of myself as soon as I stood up. The relief in my softening dick doesn’t feel as good as it should.

“Sweetie, angel can mean many different things,” Maia says as she dunks a napkin in her water and wipes Ruby’s face.

“But if I’m a princess, then that makes you a queen. Ryder should call you Queen Maia or Queen Mommy.”

The chuckle is deep and louder than I expected it to be. Both girls turn to look at me. “Princess Rubes is correct. She can’t be a princess if she doesn’t have a queen.”

“You two are pathetic.” Maia rolls her eyes and goes back to making a porno with her ice cream cone. At least, that’s how my brain sees it.

“What are your nicknames?” Rubes asks me.

“Usually people come up with nicknames for others, not for themselves,” Maia says.

“Ry-dog, Benny, Ben-dog, Ryder Hard,” I slip the last one out in a whisper.

Queen Maia’s mouth forms anObefore she clamps her lips shut and gives me a stern talking to with those eyes.

“What does Ben-dog mean?”

“My last name is Benton.”

“Do your friends call you those silly names?”

Rarely. Usually, they call me fuck face or asshole, but I don’t share that with her. She wouldn’t get the humor anyway. “They stick with Ry or Benton. Sometimes Benny.”

“That’s boring, Ry-Ry.” She goes back to what’s left of her cone. She might as well lick her arms at this point. She’s wearing more ice cream than what’s inside the cone.

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