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dad’s best friend x ofc

(Jack) Abbot

“Who’s Jack?” Hayden tries to play casual.

“You remember him, don’t you? Real nice guy. Served in the Army with me back in the day? He taught you how to swing a bat when you were about yay-big.” Her dad waves his hand next to the leg of his chair. Given the estimated height, she would’ve been two or three. Obviously she doesn’t remember the guy.

—————————————————————————

summary: Hayden Ellis heads to the Pitt looking for an internship at the favor of her dad. She doesn’t find “Jack,” but she runs into a handsome man named Dr. Abbot. Sleeping with a stranger never hurt anyone, right?

wc: 15.5k

tags/tropes: that moment when you accidentally sleep with your dad’s best friend #relateable, miscommunication, strangers to lovers, one night stands but it’s unintentionally romantic, age gap that gets them both off, unashamed daddy kink, self-insert yourself as ofc

ao3 link

——

Law school was supposed to mean something. A future, helping people, serving justice, all that jazz. Or at the very least, a job.

Having a bachelor’s degree is as useless as diploma now, but some could believe the combination of one and a successfully passed bar would count for something. Right?

Clearly, it did not.

Now sixth months with said combination and Hayden Ellis has yet to get herself so much as an internship in anything remotely law related. Even her barista application fell through. Somehow, being a licensed attorney didn’t even qualify her to pour coffee.

Luckily, her parents had let her move back home since graduation. Not as luckily, the constant nagging of her childhood had returned full force.

“You know Bill? Down the street, that big guy with the uh- ya’ know, the hair all like this-“ Christian Ellis waves his hands around his head as if to mimic the awry state of said Bill’s hair. He’s sat at the breakfast table, borderline shouting his story despite the early morning hours. His constant volume set simply to ‘loud.’ It wouldn’t bug Hayden so much if not for the complete lack of sleep from the night before— and not even from anything exciting. She’d just scrolled one too many times on her phone and suddenly it was morning. Embarrassing for a twenty-five year old to say the least. “Well he has a son- or is it a step son, Janine?”

“Oh I think I remember him remarrying. Remember that young redhead? From the other ward?” Hayden’s mother chimes in, stirring her tea with one hand and finishing her crossword with the other.

“Really? Golly I thought that was his niece or something. You know that’s just wrong-“

“Finish your story for God’s sake, dad.” Hayden grumbles from the kitchen, back turned to them and attempting to cook something edible despite her parents making her act up like a teenager all over again. She really needs to move out again.

“Oh right. Well, Bill has this step-son and he’s a lawyer too and he’s just got a job up in the city.”

That perks her up. “Really?” Hayden peaks from behind her shoulder. Maybe she could network her way into so much as an internship there too if they were still looking.

“No, honey. Bill’s step-son is five. And his real son got a job in insurance.” Janine Ellis doesn’t so much as look up from her crossword as she speaks. Another opening down the drain.

Hayden rolls her eyes and goes back to the stove like nothing had happened. This was probably the fiftieth time her father had accidentally gotten her hopes up like this.

“Really? I was certain-“

“Why don’t you just call Jack?”

Jack?

Her dad rubs his hands through the remnants of his grey hair like he’d never even considered the man before. “Jack isn’t a lawyer, hon.”

Her mom writes in a new word with a smile. “No, but he’s a doctor.” She looks up over her readers and points at Hayden with her pencil. “And Hay-Hay here is trying to go into malpractice.” Then Janine shrugs like she hadn’t just name dropped Hayden’s dream speciality like it was nothing. Over the last six-months, she couldn’t secure an attorney position in so much as intellectual property if she’s begged. So the idea of her top field being just a “Jack” away ticked a spark of hope all over again.

“Who’s Jack?” Hayden tries to play casual, plating her burnt food and tossing the dishes in the sink. She’d deal with it later.

“You remember him, don’t you? Real nice guy. Served in the Army with me back in the day? He taught you how to swing a bat when you were about yay-big.” Her dad waves his hand next to the leg of his chair. Given the estimated height, she would’ve been two or three. Obviously she doesn’t remember the guy.

She says as much, minus the sass, as she takes a seat at the dinning table alongside them both.

“Oh you’ll remember him when ya see him.” Christian waves her off as he wrestles his phone out of his front pocket. He starts dialing something with squinted eyes, then reaches over and steals his wife’s readers from her face. She mildly protests with a gentle smack at his arm, but there’s a sickeningly sweet smile on their faces as she does. God, being an only child sucks. She’s just third-wheeling a married couple and calling it a family breakfast.

When the call finally dials, he presses it to his ear and goes to stand, returning the glasses to his wife before he leaves. His heavy footsteps follow him as he pushes open the sliding back door, their ancient dog rushing between his legs to the backyard as he does. “Hey, you old son of a bitch, how are ya?” Her dad’s booming voice echos past the glass doors even after he closes them behind him.

Hayden shrugs it off, going back to her horribly made breakfast once more. Probably another dead end.

Her mother’s hand reaches out from her periphery and pokes her plate with the end of her pencil. Hayden looks up, her mom’s soft face already looking back at her, wrinkled and beautiful. When had her own mom grown up on her? “Do you want me to make you some real food, baby?”

“Please God.”

—————————————————————————

The long, loud, and consistently laughing phone call her dad made to said ‘Jack’ surprisingly, wasn’t a dead end. In fact, her dad had landed her a tour of their Hospital and a brief, unofficial interview with the lawyers who worked a few floors above it all. Which in nowadays job market, was better than getting the golden ticket from that chocolate factory movie or whatever. Not that Hayden would know— the guy on the cover had scared her too much as a kid to actually watch it.

But a week later, her dad took some time off work and figured they could make a road trip out of it. Hayden was just glad she wouldn’t have to drive, so she agreed pretty easily.

It was roughly a five hour drive from Western New York to Pittsburgh, and her dad filled it with singing along to old rock music and pestering her about her love life and every other sore subject under the sun. While Hayden was eternally grateful for her glaringly middle-class upbringing, overbearing parents and all, her dad’s incessant pestering had her doubting all of that.

They’d left pretty early and made it to the Pittsburgh hospital before dinner. Her dad had so lovingly overshared every detail he could remember about his war-buddy: one of them being the fact that he was usually on night shift. Apparently he’d made an exception for today.

Though, despite driving her the whole way there, Hayden was surprised that when they arrived, he made no move to leave the car. Clearly reading the confusion, Christian shooed her out. “It’s not professional for your dad to join you in an interview. I’ll catch up with Jack another time. Just go be yourself and be smart, bug.” He finishes with a heavily pointed finger like that’ll inspire some kind of confidence in her. It doesn’t, but she melts to the nickname and her dad’s cute, old-man anecdotes. But she knows he’s right, so she waves him goodbye as he drives off to find them a hotel for the night once she’s done here.

Stepping into the waiting room is indiscernible to a zombie apocalypse. Sick people all over and crowding the space so thoroughly, she has to push through a hoard just to get to the front desk. A grumpy but nice woman gets her name and sends her back with no further instructions.

Somehow, it’s even worse back here.

Less people oddly lends to more chaos. Yelling and crying and beeping machines all over. She carefully wades through the best she can. Isn’t there supposed to be an elevator or something? Hayden finds it highly unlikely a malpractice lawyer would be this deep in the trenches of said practice.

In her wandering, Hayden gets successfully rammed right in the side by a quick movie gurney.

Embarrassingly, she ends up falling to the floor right on her ass. A small part is grateful she hadn’t fallen completely onto her back like a starfish or something— though she wouldn’t completely put that out of future possibilities for her.

“Shit- sorry, I didn’t see you there.” A rough, gravely voice says from high above her. Hayden rubs at her lower back as she glances up through the sterile white lights of the ER. The gurney scurries away, leaving an older, honestly gorgeous man standing above her. Grey hair rustled atop his head and curling around his ears, with an equally silver stubble all along his jaw. There’s wrinkles all around his eyes and mouth like he’d smiled a lot as he got older.

Hayden doesn’t know what’s wrong with her. She has a dad. A perfectly regular, healthy relationship with him, too. So why on God’s green Earth does this old man doctor have her suddenly stumbling to put words together? What sort of meet-cute bullshit is this?

Given her lack of response, the man quirks a brow at her that feels teasing and borderline flirtatious. Then, he reaches a hand down to help her up. Jesus Christ it’s really like she’d just fallen into a rom-com.

Hayden— successfully not shaking— takes the hand and lets him pull her up. She doesn’t linger on how easily he’d done so.

Hayden musters up a semblance of her usual demeanor and brushes the back of her pants off. She also doesn’t linger on how the doctor’s eyes follow her hands down South for a moment, before shooting back to her face. “No, sorry. It’s my fault. I couldn’t tell you my rights from lefts in here.”

The man chuckles easy and low, then tucks his hands in his pockets casually, like he had all the time in the world despite the chaos that surrounds them. “Don’t worry about it. Happens all the time.”

They smile at each other for moment, both a little unsure of where to go from here. Then the doctor clears his throat and speaks up again.

“Uh- where’re you headed? I could point you in the right direction, that is.” Hearing the older, solid man stumble a little over himself brings a smug little grin to her face. Maybe she’s just imagining things, but maybe he was as flustered as she was. Wishful thinking on her part, but there was no harm in flirting with a doctor she’d never see again. The chances of her getting this internship was slim to none. Might as well get something out of this trip, right?

Hayden takes an unnecessary step closer as she pulls her phone out to open the email with her directions. She excuses the proximity by tilting her phone towards him, and she revels as he takes the bait and moves in as well— close enough to peak over her shoulder at the phone. Neither of them mention that with his height on her, he didn’t need to get closer; nor how she could’ve simply read the address out loud.

He squints all old-man-like as he reads— and there must be something seriously wrong with her with how attractive it looks on him. “Oh, you’re just in the wrong floor.” He states, but doesn’t move away. Neither does Hayden, opting to look up at him from over her shoulder. It must work, because the man turns away in an hurry and waves his hand in a vague direction, then continues talking. “I can show you to the elevators, if you’d like.”

The man isn’t wearing a badge in plain enough view for Hayden to discern exactly who this could be, but given the expensive stethoscope and how proud he stands amidst the ER, she takes a guess at a high ranking doctor and runs with it. “Wow, a personal escort? What did I do to deserve the specialty treatment, doctor?” It’s as straightforward as she’d been this whole conversation and it pays off as the man’s eyes never so much as glance away from hers. It’s intoxicating, having such a presumably powerful man paying such close attention; like he’s hanging off her every word. And given the way he doesn’t correct her on the title, Hayden had assumed right.

The doctor chances a grin so smug and lopsided, she’s certain it dips into smirking territory. It looks impossibly good on him. He starts heading towards his aforementioned hand-wave direction, and Hayden is sure to follow close at his side, if only to happen upon another stare like before.

“Well, I suppose I owe you for knocking you over, don’t I?” The elevators are annoyingly close by, and Hayden can barely wrap her head around the words he’s saying with how doused in saccharine they are before they’re arriving.

“It’s gonna take a whole lot more than a walk through the ER to make it up to me, doctor. You could’ve broken my tailbone for all we know.”

He clicks the button for her and she can’t help but stare up at him. Only a couple inches taller than her, if that, but he stands so sure and steady, his presence feels leagues bigger. “Well, we wouldn’t want that, would we?”

Lord what is she doing? Flirting with a man possibly double her age on her way to an interview at this very establishment. She’s suddenly grateful her dad didn’t join her inside.

They don’t say anything as the elevator arrives and pushes its heavy doors open. Not even as she steps inside. But Hayden watches as he holds his fist against the elevator doorway, keeping it from closing but not stepping inside. It’s her turn to quirk a brow at him, and he predictably falls right for it.

He sticks a hand out between them all formal like. “Dr. Abbot.”

Hayden eyes it for a moment and makes him wait for it. Then she finally reaches back and shakes it. It’s large and warm and it engulfs her hand entirely. She ignores how her stomach drops pleasurably at the sight.

The doctor holds on for longer than needed, but she doesn’t let go either.

“Hayden.”

Their hands drop, then a flash of something crosses his eyes and suddenly he’s raking them over her again, searching for something. He looks painfully confused but Hayden can’t fathom why.

The elevator beeps, annoyed at their lingering interaction and it snaps Dr. Abbot out of it. Whatever he’d been searching for, he clearly hadn’t found, but the pinch between his brows doesn’t leave.

He pushes on. “Will I see you after?”

He doesn’t even know why she’s here. Awfully presumptuous, but it runs a thrill through her veins and it burns hot as it drips down her spine. “Maybe. When are you off?”

The elevator beeps again, long and drawn out this time.

Dr. Abbot swears, then begrudgingly removes his hand. The doors immediately begin closing. “Come find me after. I’ll make time.”

The solid metal seals shut with that, and the beautiful, greying face is gone.

Hayden giggles into her hands like she isn’t a grown woman, looking around the elevator like it’ll reveal itself as a dream. When it doesn’t, she giggles again. Despite her somewhat extensive dating and sexual history, she’d never gone older than a couple years. Her one oldest hookup had been pushing thirty, but even that was an outlier. Men and women her age were most comfortable, and she’d never understood the whole “older-men” craze. Until now. Not until that handsome, powerful doctor probably in his forties had stared her down so thoroughly, and kept her on her toes for all of a five minute conversation.

This type of thing didn’t happen to normal people, and it sure as Hell didn’t happen to Hayden. It was borderline comical how easy it’d been; to flirt and batt her eyes and promise to see him again. Suddenly, the interview of a lifetime wasn’t the thing that made her the most nervous for today— but the promise of after.

—————————————————————————

It was like Hayden had stepped into a dream the second she’d entered the hospital doors, and it only continued, all the way through into her interview.

The woman she met with, Leanne, was a sweetheart. Same age as her mom and just as kind in the eyes, she spoke like a woman who wasn’t hardened through her time as a lawyer; even amongst malpractice. It was a fantastic sign for the workplace a hospital like this offered. Maybe it was the likeness to her mother or Hayden’s genuine love and interest for the field, but they hit it off immediately.

Incredibly informal, Hayden had never had an interview like this before. They’d sat side by side on her settee, sipped the tea her assistant had brought in, and simply talking about Hayden’s life. Her upbringing, her passion for law, her time in college. Then Leanne spoke of the hospital, its staff, the environment that kept lawyers here in the face of competitors and their double turn over rates. And best of all, Leanne spoke like Hayden was already part of the team. Introducing her to staff and joking about the free cubicle near her office. Hayden was just shy of drooling at the idea of it all. At this point, she’d even beg to be taken on unpaid if that’s all they could offer her.

By the end, they’d spent almost two hours just chatting. Then, Leanne shook her hand and squeezed real tight with a knowing little wink before they parted. Like the job was already hers, Leanne left her with a promising: “You’ll hear from me real soon.”

When Hayden reached the elevators again, she was on cloud nine. And with pressing the bottom floor to the ER came the startling reminder that her dream-like day wasn’t even over yet. In fact, it’d just begun if she played her cards right.

As the heavy doors slid opened to a now familiar site of a scattering ER, it all started to buzz under her skin once more. Hayden bounced her eyes all over as she slowly stepped out. She’d barely navigated the place last time, so her chances of finding the beautiful doctor once more were miniscule.

A kind, helpful voice called out to her and she couldn’t help but follow.

“You look lost, hon.” A nurse, Dana, her badge read, had her arms crossed over the long, centralized desk to peek over at her. Hayden drew closer and darted her eyes around some more.

“Sorry, I’m just looking for someone.” She skims the place once more. Then another. Nothing.

She sighs.

What was she thinking, anyways? It’s probably for the best. She shakes her head, then takes a step back. “Never mind. Thanks-“

“Are you looking for Dr. Abbot?”

Hayden freezes. How could she possible have guessed that? Does this Dr. Abbot have women looking for him often? “What?”

Dana leans back with a smug little smile. “He told me to look out for a pretty girl, though I hadn’t expected one so young.” Hayden is sure she flushes red down to her neck. Dana pays her no mind and throws a thumb over her shoulder, already moving onto another task, but still grinning like a cheshire cat. “He’s waiting for you in the ambulance bay, hon.”

Hayden mumbles a thanks and skirts her way out of there as quickly as possible. If she really is going to get this job, probably best as little amount of people see her run off into one of the doctors’ arms before she’s even started. Not that she’s entirely sure that’s what’s happening here— if anything’s happening at all, for that matter. But again, wishful thinking and all that jazz.

True to her word, Dr. Abbot is sat on a bench just outside the ambulance bay. He’s lazed back against the wall, all casual like and it shouldn’t be as attractive as it is. He’s tapping away somewhat angrily at his phone and has a camo backpack by his feet. Once he notices Hayden’s approach, his face splits into a grin and he pockets the device before he can send whatever charged message he’s been drafting up.

“Wasn’t sure if you were going to come.” He’s honest and it makes him infinitely hotter. She’s not sure how long he’s been out here for; long enough for the sun to begin its escape and him to doubt her arrival, and yet he’d waited.

Hayden smiles down at him where he’s sitting, and she likes how good he looks as he peers up at her. Not taking the moment to stand, as if maybe he’s enjoying the view as well. She shrugs like it’s nothing. “Wasn’t sure if I was going to either.” Lies. She’d never so much as considered the possibility of leaving without seeing him again.

His growing smirk leads her to believe he can see right through her. Hayden likes that. She likes it even more how he doesn’t call her out on it. Instead, he just stands. Huffing a bit with a creak of his knees and he throws his bag over his shoulder. “Ready to go?”

Vague. He can’t have her that easily.

Hayden crosses her arms over her chest, defiant against every bone in her body begging her to go with him without protest. “Hm. I don’t hop into cars with strangers that easily.”

Dr. Abbot tilts his head as he stares her down, the smug tilt of his mouth never escaping him. It grows now, splitting his lips as the point of his canine slips out with his grin. “Good girl.”

Hayden is sure she shudders; she’s sure he sees it— watches the shake trail down her body and devour her every minute movement.

She debates it for a moment, then lands on a consensus. “Let me call someone. Make sure they know where I’m going.” She trails off, waiting for him to pick up on her unsaid question.

He eventually catches on. “Oh. The dinner, down on 56th. I’m famished.” A well populated, good part of town. Several witnesses in case of a disappearance. Plus, that Dana woman inside had seen her face— knew she was leaving with Dr. Abbot. More so, she’d seemed confident in leaving a woman her age alone with him. That must be a good sign if not a slight assurance to her safety.

Hayden tosses all the possibilities of her potential kidnapping around in her mind and Dr. Abbot makes no move or remark to push her either way. She appreciates the space to make the decision for herself.

It pays off as she eventually nods. “Gimme a sec.” He grins, but withholds any outwardly pleased expressions for now.

Hayden steps off to the side, just outside earshot and Dr. Abbot goes as far as to turn his back to her, fiddling with his phone to offer as much privacy as possible. She dials the number for her dad and he picks up on the third ring.

“What’s up bug? Is the interview all finished?” The telling sounds of a casino pad the surroundings of his voice.

Hayden sighs. “Yeah, are you at the slots again?” Her dad always had an affinity for them. Never betting more than a few hundred bucks in a session— he always kept it safe but enjoyed it as a vacation highlight when possible. Perfect. Meant he was busy for the night if nothing else.

“Black jack is where the real money’s at, bug. Do you want me to come pick you up?” Always thoughtful, Hayden almost feels bad for lying. Then he looks over her shoulder and sees Dr. Abbot already looking at her, like he’s holding himself back.

Almost feels bad.

“Yeah no I’m okay. I actually made a friend. Figured I’d go get dinner and they can drive me to the hotel after.” Hayden half-lies.

The lack of confirmed pronoun raises no flags to the casino version of her dad. “Okay baby. I’ll send you the address to the hotel and there’s already a key at the front desk for ya.” Hayden starts to thank him and wish him good luck to hurry it along, but Christian hurries to interrupt. “Wait, wait before you go, did you end up meeting my friend Jack?”

Oh. She’d completely forgot about him to be honest. Not like she’d known what to look for anyways.

“Uh, no. Sorry. Must’ve missed him.”

Her dad swears through the speaker, somewhat blackjack related, somewhat Jack related. “Old man probably forgot the date. I’ll make sure he comes to visit us sometime.”

“Yeah sure cool, love you!” Hayden is practically bouncing to get this call over with. Thankfully, her dad is too, given the yelling in the background about winning something or other. She barely listens past his ‘love you too’ before hanging up and all but skipping back over to Dr. Abbot.

The doctor is already at attention, relaxed and properly smiling down at her now. “Now are you ready to go?” Hayden doesn’t trust herself to speak on sheer anticipation, so she just nods her head.

Dr. Abbot lays a large, steadying hand on the small of her back as he leads her through the parking lot to where he’s parked. The heat of his palm melts through her shirt like the barrier isn’t there at all. If this was just the start of their night, Hayden would do everything in her power to keep it going.

They arrive at a black truck towards the back. It’s not lifted or overly egregious, but it fits the man painfully well. He even ignores her pointed little look she gives him at the sight of it, like he knows the impression it gives. Then, all old fashioned like, he goes to her door first and holds it open for her. He goes as far as to reach his hand out, and she uses it to step up into the cab. Dr. Abbot squeezes her hand once before he lets go and shuts the door behind her. It leaves her skin tingling more than she’d like to admit.

The drive is slow going but calm. An FM radio plays softly through the speakers but neither of them pay it much attention. They don’t speak much, but it doesn’t feel awkward. If anything, it feels nice. Hayden takes the time to watch the buildings roll by as they drive. The dying sun paints the sides of tall glass buildings in warm hues as the city starts to unwind. So unlike her hometown, she takes in every detail she can along the way. Maybe Dr. Abbot watches her instead. She likes the idea.

Hayden knows the moment they arrive as the dinner sticks out like a sore thumb. All neons and rounded corners, it sits next to an overpass with a small parking lot and an oak tree three times its size jutting from the pavement out front. A testament to how old the establishment has sat there.

Dr. Abbot doesn’t let her get out of the truck herself, going as far as the lock the doors before she can even reach the handle, then unlocking it once he can open it for her.

The inside is equally quaint. Checkered floors and cracked red vinyl seats. Even a jukebox in the back. Its lights are off and presumably dead, but it’s the thought that counts.

It’s only once they slide into a booth across each other does Hayden realize he’d changed. Well, not really. Dark denim jeans in place of previous his scrub pants— but the scrub top is simply replaced by the black undershirt he’d been wearing beneath it. Probably sweaty and smelling of him, it clings to him in a way that’s borderline inappropriate for such a family establishment. Dr. Abbot catches her staring at the way it wraps around him. She doesn’t miss the smirk that crawls onto his lips.

Hayden takes the chance at regaining the upper hand. “So, is this how people went out back in your day?”

Dr. Abbot breaks into an open, genuine laugh. He rubs his hand down the side of his face like he’d been caught. “No, but it’s probably closer to mine than how your generation does it.”

Hayden lays her elbows on the table, then uses it to prop her chin up with one hand.“Yeah? You do this kinda thing with my generation often, then?”

That pulls a sputter from his throat. Hayden grins in her victory. “No! No. Never, actually.” Honesty. Given the way Dr. Abbot pinkens at the tips of his ears, it’s clear his bravado is lacking when it comes to her age.

She takes advantage of that, using the hand at her chin to twirl a forward piece of long, black hair between her fingers. The simplest trick in the book, but with the way Dr. Abbot can’t help but follow the movement, why fix what’s not broken? “Me neither.” He raises his eyebrows in shock, as if to say really? Hayden shakes her head in answer. “I usually keep to my age. Why, is that so hard to believe?”

Dr. Abbot shakes his head. Then he hesitates, and stirs his straw into the pre-placed water cup in front of them. “And what, exactly, would that age be?”

His completely lack of subtlety makes her laugh, and he smiles at the sound. This old man is borderline endearing. “I’m twenty-five.”

The small sip he’d taken in wait attempts to make its way back up, as he devolves into hearty coughs into the crook of his elbow. Hayden watches with a bemused little smile. She’d expected the reaction, if she was honest. Dr. Abbot clearly didn’t do things like this very often, either, and his coughing fit from a couple of numbers only confirms it.

“Jesus Christ I’m a predator.” Dr. Abbot finally chokes out and Hayden finds herself laughing all over again. “I’m almost twice your age, kid.”

Hayden enjoys that little tacked on name more than she’d expected in a situation like this. Maybe just because it’s him. She doesn’t speak, lets him settle down and then raises an unspoken brow at him.

He sighs. “I’m forty-seven.”

God, is she breathing?

The waitress comes by and takes their orders. She banters with Dr. Abbot like he’s a regular, which is adorable to imagine he’s a regular in a place like this. When she leaves, his attention is entirely back on her, like he’d hated to remove it for even a moment. It feels suffocating in a way Hayden can’t help but chase. She likes how much power she has over him— more so, she enjoys how little she actually does.

Hayden pokes about her food for the majority of the time, too focused on talking and laughing with the beautiful man across from her to eat much. He’s refreshing if nothing else. She can’t remember the last time she’d talk to someone for so long; so easily flowing that she forgot herself. College had been great for easy sex, but impossible to find a decent conversation. And now living at home, the only people she talked to was her parents. And despite the impossibly low bar conversationally, Dr. Abbot surpassed it by a mile.

His flirting is old school and forward. He likes to look into her eyes and tilt his head when she laughs. When their plates are long forgotten, he reaches across the table for her hand and holds it while they talk. It’s simple, yet so effective, Hayden feels lightheaded through it all.

If she was honest with herself, he didn’t have to do all this just to sleep with her. Not that she was particularly easy— no matter how she despised the term— he had her convinced the moment she stepped into his car. The wining and dinning her is just an added bonus with how badly Hayden wants to jump him.

That hum of arousal only grows the later the night gets. It’s completely dark out now, a few stars sprinkling through the fog of the city’s light pollution. Hayden knows he starts to feel it too. His hand had switched from holding hers to pressing his fingertips around her knuckles, then down her palm and padding at her wrist. He’s barely touching her, but it’s clear it’s driving them both a little crazy. She notes how Dr. Abbot’s eyes glaze over a little more every time she lets her fingers go pliant in his hold.

That’s all they need to silently convince themselves it’s time to go.

Dr. Abbot pays the bill before she even sees the check. Then he takes her by the hand once more, strong gripped but gentle touches as he guides her through the tiny parking lot back to his truck. They don’t speak much. Not even as they climb into the cab and he starts the engine. He doesn’t pull out of park.

They both hesitate.

Where does she go from here? They could do it here; though the waitress and a ticket for public indecency doesn’t sound great. She could go to his house— but no matter how much she’s come to trust the man in a short time, it’s still exactly that: a short time. She didn’t want to end up on a front page before she’d even gotten a job offer. On the flip side, does the doctor really want this? Sure, it’s fun to flirt with a twenty-something, but sex is another thing. Especially a presumed one night stand at his age. But Hayden decides: she wants this.

Wants him.

Hayden doesn’t say anything. She just lays out her hand in silent ask for his phone. Dr. Abbot’s eyebrows pinch in confusion, but he does as asked, unlocking his phone and placing it into her palm.

First, she inputs her number and texts herself. Dr. Abbot notices her screen light up from her pocket and assumes she’s done, reaching for it back, but Hayden pulls away.

Second, she types in her hotel address. She watches the screen of the truck open the route with a smile. Only then does she swing the phone back into Dr. Abbot’s outstretched hand. His expression is comical. A little shocked at her bravado, but mostly wanton. Scanning her face for any hint of apprehension— despite it very loudly being her idea— and when he finds none, his eyes darken imperceptibly. A hungry look melts like molten across his face, and he tosses the phone onto the console. Then he uses that free hand to reach across and grab her by the chin with his forefinger and thumb, jostling her a little like he’s making a show of her for himself.

Dr. Abbot watches her closely, eyes trailing every mark and freckle on her face like he’s committing her to memory. He moves his thumb from her chin and slowly swipes it across her bottom lip. The tip of his nail scrapes the corner of her mouth on its way. Hayden can’t help her lips from falling open, small and subconscious. His breath catches in his chest when she does.

When his gaze finally return to hers, there’s another question there. Doubt, maybe. That won’t do.

Hayden pushes the tip of her tongue from her mouth and lets it slide against the edge of his awaiting thumb still pressing down on her lip, then she retracts it. It’s enough to make the grown man shudder. Just barely, right at the shoulders, but she notices.

Whatever doubt had once been holding him back is miraculously gone now, and he pulls his hand from her face and down to the gearshift before she can blink. He swings the truck into reverse and high tails it onto the digital route. He’s clearly on his last straw, given how he grips the wheel so hard his knuckles turn white. It pulls a giggle from her chest.

Hayden takes her revenge for his teasing while he drives. Curled up in her seat, facing him, she reaches across the console to trail a hand down the side of his head. Twirling the grey strands with her fingers, then softly thumbing at his hairline; his temple, down to the scruff of his jaw and brushing the skin below his ear. Just whispers of a touch, barely there but enough to have his head tilting into the pressure like a dog. She pays no mind to his speeding or how heavy his chest falls as he breathes. She just sits there and enjoys him.

Her fingers go as far south as the collar of his shirt, a stray fingertip swiping just beneath it before they pull into an unfamiliar hotel lot. It must be hers given the address and the casino on the ground floor giving it away. Brave of her to bring a hookup to the same hotel her dad is at? Worse. It’s stupid. Insanely stupid. But if that’s the risk she has to take to get this man in bed with her, she’d do it ten times over.

Dr. Abbot has a hard time staying away from her, making it to her side of the car record speed. Hayden didn’t even attempt the door handle this time, she knew better than to test him right now. It’s an intoxicating idea: testing him. His hand stays appropriately sat on her waist as they enter the lobby, but she can practically feel his skin buzzing against her.

Hayden gets her key from the front desk lady who side eyes them as she does. It’s clear she’s drafting all sorts judgements on the situation before her. Hayden can barely care— too focused on the heavenly smell of cologne wafting from aside her with the close proximity.

She doesn’t mention the fact that she’s here with her dad or sharing a hotel with him. It would probably just ruin the mood. And it’s not like she’s sharing a room with him. Her dad likes to high roll when he goes out of town— in both the casino and his room. If Hayden were to guess, he’s probably got a suite on the top floor all to himself right now. She’d had to beg him to leave her in a lower floor room just to save herself some money. Six months of unemployment hadn’t left her particularly wealthy, and she refused to let her parents pay for her like a child.

That left her in the perfect scenario: a hotel room by herself, far from her father, and a perfectly handsome man with his hands on her. So Hayden simply grabs the key from the desk, says nothing of the nature of her trip, and leads the gorgeous doctor to the elevators this time.

Four floors and a silent ride up, Dr. Abbot’s hand drifts from her waist, and curls low around her hip. Then he uses his grip to pull her close, pushing his nose into the side of her hair. It’s the first real touch of the night, tangible and heavy handed. Hayden lets her head tilt back to make room for him as he presses his face down her scalp and landing behind her ear. She reaches up to grip his shoulder and bites her lip at the muscle she finds there. Her fingernails drag hard on the fabric and Dr. Abbot hisses, his breath hot against her ear. Her knees give a little to the sound.

The horrible noise of the elevator arriving breaks them apart, but just barely. Dr. Abbot’s hand sits solid on her hip and she walks impossibly quick to find her hotel room.

By the time they reach the door, the doctor has migrated to standing directly behind her, laying both hands on her hips now and gripping, hard. His face is nuzzled into the back of her neck and he’s muttering something into her hair that she can’t catch. All normal function begins to slip rapidly, and she tries five different times to get the door to unlock.

Eventually, Dr. Abbot swears behind her and pulls the card from her hand, unlocking it first try.

The green light of the hotel lock acts like a starting gun to a race. The door is slammed open and the grip on her hips spins her around, leaving her dizzy and tripping into his hold. Dr. Abbot doesn’t waste a beat, hooking her in close and then his mouth is on hers.

The first taste of his lips melts down to her core. The door swings shut behind them and somehow, he feels so much bigger than her now as he moves to devour her. It’s open and wet and their teeth bump the first few tries at finding a good angle. But when they do, Hayden has to wrap her arms atop his shoulders to maintain her balance.

It’s stupidly good. Mind-altering good. The years of experience between them become apparent now as he knows exactly how to press and angle her head exactly where he wants her. One of his hands traces up her back and lands a strong grip on the back of her neck— his hand big enough that his thumb wraps around to rub along the edge of her jaw. His tongue pushes and pulls perfectly, never too much and leaving her chasing after it each time. When he traces the side of her tongue with the tip of his own, it unintentionally releases the first noise of hers. Shaky and breathy, Dr. Abbot swallows the sound and it only drives him further.

He starts to walks her backwards and the back of her knees hit the edge of a desk and she stumbles. The kiss breaks as she catches her balance, throwing a hand behind her to steady herself on the solid surface. Hayden thought maybe he’d miscalculated where he was taking her, but when Dr. Abbot moves his mouth down to her neck in record speed, she can tell this was his plan all along.

Not entirely sure where he’s headed, Hayden leans back into her hand on the table and tosses her head to the side, bearing her neck to the man. A low, muffled groan rumbles into her skin as he takes advantage of the newfound space, and Hayden clenches her thighs tight around his hips at the sound. “Doctor Abbot-“

He bites down and she whimpers again. “Just Abbot.” He smoothes the stinging mark with his tongue, then he blows cold air onto the spit, cooling it to the point of pleasure. Jesus fuck, he was teaching her all sorts of new things about herself and they’d barely gotten started.

“Abbot.” Hayden rectifies, and it comes out broken and curled at the edges; it’s his turn to lose it now.

Abbot pulls away just enough to pull his shirt off over his head, throwing it to the side. Hayden’s quick to follow suit, without needing to be asked. Once the fabric is gone and she’s left in her bra— eternally thankful her past self for incidentally picking her best one— the look of dissolving restraint on his face makes it all worth it.

With the new expanse of skin, they take equal advantage, lips locking once more as their hands move to explore without limitation. Not that Hayden had expected much, but the fact that a man in his late forty’s could be this strong is absurd. Her fingers run up and down the ridges of his muscles; along his back and across the divots at the front. Occasionally running over faded scar tissue from all sort of wounds she couldn’t begin to understand, she can barely process it all when Abbot breaks the kiss again.

The whine that leaves her this time is needy and embarrassing, but Abbot only seems to enjoy it. Where she expect him to go back to her neck, he starts dipping South.

A hand reaches up to lay flat on her stomach, then he pushes her down to her back with it, strong and steady, she can do nothing but move where he wants her. When she looks down, Abbot is already looking up at her, mouth on her stomach collarbones and leaving wet kisses as he continues dipping lower.

Hayden reaches a hand behind herself and unclips her bra, sliding it down her arms and discarding it, before falling back flat onto the desk surface. Abbot stares down at her like she’d just explained the purpose of the universe. He doesn’t need to ask before running both of his large hands up her abdomen, before reaching up and cupping her in each hand. Hayden’s back arches up off the hard surface which only stirs him on.

Abbot looks almost drunk as he drops his head to her chest and pulls her nipple into his mouth, his hand moving to rub circles into the other. Hayden really arches now, her abs pressing up into his and she hooks her ankle around his waist. Her hips jerk up into him as he sucks and gently rubs the bud between this teeth and tongue— never biting, but making her wish he would. When he moves to the other, she chances a glance down at her chest and spots tiny bruises forming all over her breasts, with the culprit still attached to a spot that has him humming pleasurably into her skin. When she jerks her hips again, the angle finally makes contact, and the sweet, rough moan Abbot makes is enough to drive her insane.

Hayden tries for another grind, but a solid, now familiar hand holds her back down to the table, an unforgiving grip no matter how hard she tries against it. The idea that he can hold her down so easily; make her so pliable under his touch draws out a soft whine.

Abbot interrupts it as impatience— though he’s not far off— and shushes her like a whining child. Fuck, this entire thing is getting her off a lot more than she’d anticipated. Still, he gives her better than what she’d asked for.

One-handed and still holding her down, the other undoes her pants, then grips it by the front and rips it down her legs. It gets stuck on her shoes and he does her best to kick them off to let the constricting fabric fall from her feet.

Once successful, Hayden realizes she’s left only in her underwear, splayed out in a hotel room with a man double her age— who’s actively looking down at her like he wants so swallow her whole. Her thighs attempt to close, if only to get friction between her legs, but Abbot is stood steady between her knees and she can do nothing but lay there for him. Exactly how he wants her.

Abbot brushes his fingertips along her newly exposed thighs. As if every nerve ending is stood at attention, waiting for his touch. Hayden feels like a live wire.

“You good, baby?” Abbot’s voice is impossibly deeper, sitting low and graveled in his chest, which is still heaving with arousal. The sound of his voice alone has her eyelids fluttering shut, and the pet name leaves her clenching around nothing. When she cracks her eyes open, Abbot’s already looking South, right where the evidence of what he’s doing to her is dark at the surface of her panties. His hands have massaged their way up her thighs, landing right at the pelvic bone; his thumbs close in enough to brush the lace-edges of her underwear.

As if he had to physically force himself to look away, his thumbs still circle close to where she wants him. Abbot meets her gaze once more, serious and steely— then he presses his thumb down harder, with intention, and Hayden can only nod.

“Use your words.” Abbot’s voice purrs. His tone is so demeaning, her hips flex as they search for contact. The man very obviously files that information away for later.

“Please, daddy.”

An elephant’s weight of shame shoots through her at the freudian slip of a lifetime. She can feel her face go so hot, it creeps down her neck and even her collarbones go pink. Before she can ramble off every apology under the sun and scramble to return to the burn they’d been reveling in— Hayden catches a distinct whimper from the man atop her.

When she focuses her eyes back to his face, the evidence is written there. His brows are pinched in whittling self-control, and his lids are low. Even his jaw hangs loose as he looks down at her, dark and loaded.

Holy fuck.

“Is that want you want, baby?” Abbot whispers it like a secret, desperate, but no less steady and intoxicating.

Hayden has half a mind to shake her head; admit her mistake and move on. But the way her body thrums to the idea, and how badly he wants it too, she’d be an idiot to refuse. So with a shameful bite of her lip and staring down the barrel of the gun, she nods. “Yes please.”

That seems to do it.

With something suspiciously close to a growl, Abbot drags the desk chair closer with his foot and takes a seat. Then, he grips Hayden by the hips and yanks her halfway down the desk until half of her ass is hanging over the edge. And as he throws her legs up and over each shoulder, Hayden has to cover her face with her hands in nervousness. She can’t recall the last time someone had eaten her out, much less a one night stand. But as she peers down to the head between her legs, the man doesn’t so much as glance her way— as if what lay inches from his face is most important right now. Mouth slightly agape and his eyes half closed, Abbot leans in.

Hayden feels the strong bridge of his nose first, pushing and prodding into the fabric. His lips follow, tilting up and mouthing at the wet spot she’s already soaked through. The first brush of his tongue sends a shivering bolt down her shoulders and into her fingertips. Abbot groans into her at the taste and she feels it vibrate through her core.

He teases at the lace some more before he curls a hand around her thigh and uses it to yank the panties to the side— just enough to let his breath fan hot across her skin. Where he’d been teasing her all night, Hayden half expects him to make her earn it or wait for it. But as if he’d already been waiting a millennium, Abbot is on her in record time.

The head between her legs pushes in so quick, she’s sure he hurts his nose on impact, but it doesn’t slow him down in the slightest. Abbot falls nothing short of devouring her. Hayden gasps as her thighs instinctively try to pull closed, crushing Abbot’s head between them. It only spurs him on.

Tongue flat and incessant, he pushes and drags it against her clit, up and down; over and over again without mercy. No hesitation of placement or speed, he knows exactly what he’s doing, and it pulls out the most desperate moans Hayden is sure she’s ever made. Similarly, Abbot is releasing noises of his own like this is all for him and not the other way around. Panting and groaning against her, Abbot eats her like a man starved.

Hayden’s head falls back against the desk with a thud, but she can barely feel it— so much blood rushing through her ears she feels like she’s drowning on air.

“Oh fuck- ah, please-“

She’s mumbling and moaning so much it sounds borderline pornographic, but she can’t get herself to stop. For every whimper and ‘please’ and <i>’daddy’</i> earns her the most addictive twist of his tongue and a vibrating moan from his lips.

From below, without even realizing, Abbot pulls his free hand up and slips his fingers down right below his mouth. The first brush against her folds is so cold she gasps. Abbot pulls them away just as quick as they’d come and she whines. He shushes her.

“Suck.” Abbot pulls away just enough to rumble the words, drunken and slurred, then pushes his face back into her like it’d killed him to move away in the first place. His long arm does most of the heavy lifting to reach her mouth, but he has to sit up in his seat, effectively folding her knees closer to her chest. Hayden won’t admit that the burn of that stretch has her shaking for something other than pain.

The doctor’s fingers slip between her lips and they fill her mouth perfectly. Hayden grips him by the wrist and pulls them in, laying three of them flat on her tongue and she hums to the taste. Hayden makes a show of it: curling her tongue between each digit and sucking more than necessary for simply wetting a few fingers.

It doesn’t go unnoticed. Or unpunished.

Abbot pushes his fingers down deeper, padding at the entrance of her throat as he latches onto her clit completely, properly suckling at it, and it feels like a thousand volts striking through her, all the way up to her eyes. Something deep in the low of her back and the tops of her shoulders starts to build at the dual sensations, but as if he can read her mind— and she wouldn’t put it past him— Abbot pulls away on either end simultaneously.

The possibly best orgasm of her life falls away before it can even begin, and Hayden is sure she could’ve cried.

“Shh, baby. I know. Let me make it better.” Abbot mumbles into the insides of her thighs, where he’s pressing comforting kisses into her skin. Hayden, half out of her mind by now, is nodding more than necessary, like it’ll shake the empty feeling where his mouth should be from her head. But some small, probably fucked up part of her keens at the comforting tone of this voice; the way it purrs and how softly he’d spoken it, like it’s his sole job to protect her.

That thought alone is enough to calm herself back into a stupor, and Abbot takes full advantage, dragging his now dripping fingers up against her folds. Hayden’s gasp this time isn’t from the cold, but from pure anticipation. As if she’d forgotten that this little hotel-rendezvous didn’t end with edging her on a desk and leaving.

Even the simple reminder that Abbot being inside her lay just behind some stretching— Hayden forces every muscle in her body to relax and hurry up the process, right as Abbot’s first finger pushes inside. And though Hayden had expected a doctor to be good with anatomy, she hadn’t fathomed it would be this easy.

His first finger is as large and imposing as the rest, making itself familiar with the tight heat he finds inside her. Hayden hadn’t realized how wet she was until the slide of the second finger pushing inside makes a wet, squelching noise that has her incredibly embarrassed. Abbot didn’t mind one bit.

“Look at yourself, baby. So perfect and ready for me already.” Hayden peaks her eyes open and finds Abbot standing now, arm extended and flexed as he watches himself push and drag his own fingers in and out of her. Like he’s studying her, or simply intoxicated by the picture, he stares down her every twitch and whimpered reaction. He learns from each one, twisting his wrist and curling up in new ways until he finds his favorite moan of hers; then he punishingly repeats the movement to rip as many of that noise from her lips as possible.

Hayden grips the side of the desk with her hand, holding on tight as if it’ll keep herself from falling over, off the cliff of sanity and deep into deranged. But as Abbot scissors the digits, watches her enjoy the sting, Hayden is sure she won’t last much longer.

The third finger slips in alongside the others effortlessly, and Hayden has half a mind to be embarrassed and the other astonished. She’d never been stretched open so easily. Always a fumbling hand pushing down her jeans only ten minutes into making out. Her past hookups always found her a dry and a painful fit. The sheer lack of lube up to this point was enough to have Hayden reconsidering sex altogether. Was it always supposed to be like this?

Abbot chuckles deep and cocky from above her. Had she said that out loud?

Once he seems to deem her sufficiently opened up, Abbot carefully slips his fingers back out with a pathetic whine from Hayden. She watched man inspect his glistening fingers for a moment— a careful sheen dripping all the way down to his wrist— before pulling it to his mouth and licking a long stripe from his palm to his fingertips.

Hayden’s shaking by now. Perpetually riding a high that has yet to implode, Abbot does nothing but antagonize her like this and she’s certain she could finish just from watching him suck her wetness off his fingers some more; watching him groan around his own hand as he slips one into his mouth, then slowly pulling it out with a pop.

“Do you always taste this good?” A teasing, humiliating question, and Hayden shivers, then shakes her head.

“I wouldn’t know.” Her voice quivers and she barely musters the mind power to form the words. The corner of Abbot’s lips quirk and it makes all the effort worth it.

Taking the bait, Abbot lands a hand on the desk by her head, bends down by the waist, and takes her mouth with his.

The taste of herself on Abbot’s lips melds onto her own, sloppy and wet, more tongue than necessary but so incredibly dirty, it has her lightheaded. Hayden shoves her hands into his hair, holding him by the back of his head and pulling him impossibly closer, giving him no room to move or breathe anything but her. Abbot nips at her bottom lip and sucks it between his teeth— pushes the flats of their tongues together in ways that are certainly to replicate exactly what he’d done to her clit.

Hayden remembers herself amidst her shaking and grips the grey stands between her fingers and pulls. Abbot’s head effectively pulls away from her, but not without a rewarding, soft moan of his own.

Oh. She files that away for later.

Hayden holds him close but just out of reach, and whispers, “Are you going to fuck me or what, old man?”

Against the strength of her hold, Abbot pushes past it and latches his mouth right below her jaw and bites down, hard. Hayden gasps out a cry in pain, but her eyes undoubtably roll back into her head as he smoothes it over with his tongue, and blows a puff of cold air on it once again. Whatever upper hand she’d been trying to regain slips from her palms deliciously.

With his mouth right by her ear, she can hear his stuttering breath, giving away exactly how badly he wants it too. “Get on the bed like a good girl, and maybe I’ll consider it.”

Hayden takes several moments to straighten out and process his words. When she does, Abbot had already stepped out of the way to make room for her as she scrambles off the desk the best she can. Her knees are weak and shaky, but she makes it to the bed and crawls onto it. Whatever silicious pose she’d been making while on her hands and knees has Abbot grumbling swears beneath his breath before he’s crossing the room to get to her.

Hayden falls onto her back by the time he makes it to the side of the bed, staring down at her with his chest heaving and hands straining, like all he wants to do is pounce.

But he hesitates.

She looks him over for whatever is holding him back and notices his pants are still on. Assuming the culprit, she scoots forward and puts her hands on his belt. Hayden makes it as far as the first hook before he grabs her by the wrists and stops her, gentle but firm.

Hayden blinks up at him and finds the first sign of nerves there all night. Was it the age? He’d been hard since eating her out, and she can feel it now where it lays below the belt. Maybe he’d have a hard time coming later? A man lasting too long was certainly not a problem she’d faced before, but not an unwelcome one. She raked through all sorts of options, but none of them stuck out as being serious enough for the expression that sits on the doctor’s face.

Abbot sighs, reading the confusion on her face, then bites the bullet. “I’m a lower leg amputee.”

Hayden blinks.

“Okay?”

Abbot’s brows pinch together. “As in my leg is gone.”

She rolls her eyes. “Yeah I got that much, genius.” That only seems to confuse him more. Hayden switches her approach. “Does that change things for you?”

“I was going to ask you the same question.”

Hayden’s chest constricts painfully. She’d only been wondering if the amputation would change how they’d have sex; he’d wondered if it’d completely change her mind.

Instead of answering, she slowly leans in and places a kiss to the soft skin above his belt line, never breaking eye contact. She places another, then another; then five more until that strain in his shoulders releases just barely. Hayden pulls her mouth away but leaves her hands on the buckle, assumptious and charged, as if to say ‘I’m not going anywhere.’

Then, she whispers, “Would you like to take it off?” His hands freeze from where they lay on hers, but he doesn’t pull away.

Hayden meets his stare head on, letting him search every crevice of her face if it’ll display her honesty. Saying she ‘doesn’t care’ doesn’t do it justice. She does care. She cares about how it’s affecting him and how vulnerable of a question she’d just posed to him. But in the broad sense— she wishes she could shove him onto the bed and show him exactly how little a prosthetic would change how she’d ride him within an inch of his life.

Abbot, eventually, shakes his head. Hayden can’t help but pout, and Abbot finally chuckles again at that, so soft and adoring, Hayden has to shake herself out of falling into that sweet expression on his face and living in it. She’d just gotten attached to the idea of riding him— but if getting fucked into the bed was back on the table, she’d withhold her pouting, for now.

He pulls his hands away from hers and gently lays one on her cheek. Hayden rubs her face into his palm and he swipes his thumb across her cheekbone, looking down at her like a porcelain doll, admiration in his eyes. God, she really had unresolved issues if just the approving look in his eyes had her breath hitching. Abbot— the apparent all-knowing— catches it. And just like that, the consuming look in his eyes falls back into place, and Hayden can’t help but internally celebrate that he’d decided to trust her with this.

“Such a sweet girl,” Abbot purrs, swiping his thumb across her cheek again, feeling a lot more like petting this time around; like he’s awarding a good behavior. “Help me take my belt off, would you?” She’s nodding before he can finish. “Then I want you to go back to how you’d got on the bed for me.” Crawling. On her hands and knees, waiting to be taken— Hayden has to swallow the excited lump in her throat and she gets to work.

Her hands are, somehow, trembling even more on her second attempt at his belt. This time, there’s no such apprehension from the daunting figure above her. Abbot slips his hand from her face and down to her neck, thumbing at her carotid and whispering all sorts of pretty things as she works. The smooth slide of leather fills her head as she pulls it from the dark denim loops and lets it fall to the ground with a clank of the buckle. Abbot doesn’t say anything, just watches her in expectation. Waiting to see how well she’ll follow his directions.

The hair on her neck stands straight in anticipation, quivering under his heady and unrelenting stare, but she does as she’s told. Slowly, tantalizingly, she turns at the hip and braces her hands on the bed. She pulls her knees up and lets the comforter cushion her as she crawls forward, only a few inches until she’s facing the center of the bed. Then, she turns her head back and tucks her hair behind her ear to get the full, desperate look on her face across to the man still standing straight as a board behind her. He looks tightly strung; like a metal rope anchoring a cruise ship to the dock. The kind where standing too close can be deadly.

It snaps.

His hands land on her hips harder than they’d had all night and Hayden whimpers. His fingertips grip hard at the flesh that pad around the bone and she’s sure they’ll bruise come tomorrow. “You’re perfect, babygirl. Perfect for me. Just for me.” Abbot’s words are mumbled and strung together as he bends over atop her, kissing down her spine. He hooks his fingers under the lace panties that still remained and yanked them down her legs. Hayden can tell he’s getting desperate because he doesn’t bother to pull them all the way off of her, leaving it dangling off one leg and moving on.

She’s humming appreciatively as his hands move to sprawl up and down her sides— one crawling up and grasping at her breast, wringing another gasp from her— before falling away. Hayden picks up on the telling sound of fabric and she watches Abbot shuck the last of his clothes off from over her shoulder. At this angle, she can barely see anything at all— but she tries not to stare as he lifts a leg up onto the bed, knee landing to one side of her to brace his weight. The idea of being fucked by this gorgeous man knocks any thought of that shinny prosthetic on display to the bottom of her list of priorities.

Now undressed, Hayden can sense another wave of nerves from the man, so she pushes past all sense of embarrassment and drops her knees apart on the bed. The lower angle prompts her back to arch, her hands sliding forward to accommodate, and she’s borderline presenting herself to the man behind her. Like clockwork, the wanton pose rips the man back into focus, and Hayden almost feels smug, before she looks back again and realizes what exactly is about to enter her.

Abbot has one hand pulling her cheek apart, peering down at the wet entrance awaiting him like he’s entranced. The other is wrapped around himself, pumping slow as he leans down to spit on it, then rubbing it down his length to prep himself for her.

“Oh fuck, you’re ’gonna kill me.” Hayden rambles. He looks big enough to wrap two hands around and still have room for her lips— more terrifying, she’s not sure if her hands could even properly close around him if she tried. She tears her eyes away and hangs her head between her shoulders, internally bracing herself.

Abbot has the audacity to laugh, dark and amused as he spits on himself again. Just hearing the sound has her hands slipping more on the covers. They hadn’t even started and at this rate, Hayden isn’t sure how long she’ll be able to hold herself up.

The thought is answered as Abbot removes his hand from her ass and drags it up to the back of her neck— then he shoves her down.

Hayden falls onto the side her face with a moan, hands landing useless aside her head. Abbot holds her down, heavy with his weight as his arm sits extended and holding himself up. Hayden whines a long, needy noise at the realization that she couldn’t move if she tried. Abbot chuckles again. “Patience.” Hayden whines again, but relaxes her hips for him, back arched and knees apart, Abbot hums, pleased at the perfect picture she makes for him. “Good girl.” He holds himself at the base and enunciates the words by tapping his tip at her folds. His hips thrust forward but he slips across the wetness, simultaneously teasing her and getting them both properly slicked. It takes every muscle in her body to be patient and relax, and with Abbot holding her down, she can’t do much but submit.

She’s rewarded with Abbot finally pushing his way inside.

Hayden’s mouth falls open, as if to make room for the pressure as he sinks his way deeper. She swears she can feel him in her throat and she tenses up against her will.

Abbot groans deep in his chest as he slows to a stop, and she can feel it vibrate right through her. Hayden hadn’t even realized she was trembling until he’s comforting her again, all sweet words and shushing like he’s not sure if she can take it. “You’re okay. Doing so good for me, ‘m so proud of you baby.” His words effectively comfort her yet render her a useless, needy mess as she squeezes the tears from her eyes.

“I’m almost there, just a little bit more-“ Abbot continues rambling as he steadily begins his descent once more.

Hayden learns one thing very quickly: Abbot is a liar. A ‘little’ more is actually halfway, and Hayden only realizes as he drives himself deeper, relentless, inch after inch. She forgets to breathe, feels the sheer size of him in her chest, restrictive and imposing; he makes her take it all.

Tears finally escape and slip across her nose to the sheets when he finally bottoms out— his hips flush against her ass and a telling, whiny groan falling from Abbot’s slacked jaw. “Nng- fuck, baby you feel so good- did so good.”

Hayden’s eyes keep crying against the bed, but she feels nothing short of elated and finally fucked out. All senses abandon her and she’s almost nodding into his praise, but the strong grip of his hand on the back of her neck still holds her still and pliant beneath him. So all she can get out are the soft, illegible begging she’s only half aware that she’s saying aloud. A wet mixture of pleas and a particularly sad “Daddy,” acts as a call to action, and suddenly Abbot’s moving.

He shuffles his hips at first, testing the water, before pulling out, only a few inches at first, and slamming them back in.

Hayden cries out as the burning stretch is only amplified with how quickly he begins to fuck back into her. She’d begged him to do it, and the tiny twinges of pain only amplify the roaring heat between her temples.

A few inches of thrusting, heavy and solid, devolves into full pull outs and ramming of his hips. Each pull has her feeling empty and needy; each thrust back in fills her so full to the brim, it leaves her bumbling and choking on it. Always too empty and too full, the drag and stretch in between is equally suffocating. Hayden struggles to catch a breath, as each exhale devolves into a moan— which only breaks on its way out with every slam of his hips, leaving small ah, ah, ah’s being punched from her chest instead.

The hand holding her down never falters, only growing heavier as Abbot leans his weight into it, his other grips her hip still and holds her up as if she’d completely drop to the bed as dead weight if he let go. Hayden is sure she would, too.

Her hands grip uselessly at the comforter above her, trying to hold herself steady as each buck of his hips rocks her forward, effectively rubbing her chest up and down into the fabric and chaffing at her nipples perfectly. Hayden would never admit how thoroughly it all gets her off. How weak she feels under him; having to hold her together, forcing her into the bed, and all as she moans his name and calls him daddy if only to get a rewarding groan from the man in return.

The stinging sensations ebbs away and make room for mind-numbing pleasure. Wetter than she’s ever been, Abbot uses her like a toy, manhandling her like a paperweight and molding her like clay. And yet he is entirely focused on her, maneuvering her and angling in just the right places to make her see stars with each thrust. Whenever he hilts, Abbot grinds that impossible few centimeters closer each time, letting her clit catch on his pelvis and giving her that little bit more. Hayden feels like a case study, under the careful hands of her doctor, watching and learning from every tiny noise she releases and marking it down— then going out of his way to replicate it.

Lying there, completely helpless and at the whims of the harsh-thrusting, praise-whispering man above her, Hayden feels no build up before she’s kicked over the edge and she shatters into a million pieces.

Hayden cries out his name and remembers nothing after.

She recalls her own tears and the white, all-consuming flush of heat that drowned her as she came. Horrified, Hayden can vaguely feel the evidence of her finishing flooding down her legs and drenching Abbot’s cock— of which he only uses to his advantage, finding the newfound wetness and fucking it back into her as he keeping going, helping her ride out that high as long as possible.

Hayden goes slack in his arms and tries to remember how to move as he maintains his bruising pace inside her.

Before long, Abbot starts to slow, but Hayden moves to stop him, dragging her eyes open and looking back at him the best she can. He notices, and meets her eye with a question, still slowing.

“No, no- please don’t stop.” Hayden barely breathes out, still trying her best to bring oxygen back to her brain, much less speak. But she knew if this was going to be the one and only time she’d have this gorgeous doctor offering her life-changing sex, she would be damned if they didn’t finish what they started.

Abbot doesn’t speed up, but he doesn’t slow down either, still watching her carefully no matter how deeply her words affect him. “I don’t wanna hurt you baby.” It’s true, Though his grips on her were harsh and his rocking hips more so, Hayden was never scared.

She shakes her head the best she can into the bed, and blinks her available, watering eye up at him. Hayden is not above begging.

“Please daddy, please I’ve been so good- ah, so good you for-“ She uses the last of her strength to rock her hips back into him, a broke moan falling from her lips. The high of her orgasm has yet to fully subside, and she’d do anything to keep him so deep and full inside her. “Wan’ you inside- come inside me please, daddy-“

That punches a broken sound from Abbot’s chest, deep in his diaphragm and more revealing than he’d probably intended. She starts to double down— whine about him filling her up and all sorts of perverse images of his cum leaking out of her— before it finally breaks him.

Whatever hard moving pace he’d maintained before is abandoned in favor of quick and shallow ones at break-neck speed. Hayden almost forgets she’s being so thoroughly ran through by a man double her age with a pace that like, but she doesn’t get a chance to fully form the thought before it’s slammed out of her again.

Abbot’s hand releases her neck and tangles its way up into her hair, gripping and holding it so tight it burns, all the while forcing her face down even further into the mattress. Hayden knees fully give out now, leaving her flat on the bed and back arched the best she can into Abbot’s unforgiving grip, angling her up exactly how he wants her.

When tears start to fall again and her body thrashes against the overstimulation, Abbot doesn’t let up. “I thought this was what you wanted, baby. What happened to all that perfect little whining?” His words are mean but his tone has no bite, too focused on taking her apart to his heart’s content. Hayden cries more, then tries to say anything and everything he’d want to hear anyways. It comes out a jumbled mess.

He tugs her hair and it shuts her up again. “There we go, just take it- such a good girl, gonna let me fill you up, aren’t you.” It’s not a question, bitten out and telling of how close he’s getting. Hayden starts to roll her hips back into his thrusts the best she can with his pace. She’s rewarded with a broken little sound he’d tried to hide behind his clenched teeth.

Hayden can hear his mouth open as if he’s about to say something more, but as she bares down on him, clenching tight and perfect beneath him, only a low, drawn out whimper sound falls from his lips as he finishes deep inside of her.

A broken moan falls from her mouth as Hayden revels in the pulsing of Abbot’s cock as it pumps and fills her to the brim. Abbot is groaning above her, still shallowly thrusting into her to prolong the high he must be riding.

Once Hayden is sure he’s finished, she collapses against the bed and Abbot lets her, releasing his holds on her and rubbing the sore spots where he’d held on so tightly. The brief massage on her scalp and her hip has her humming softly.

“Perfect, so perfect, baby.” Abbot whispers into her skin, tracing chaste kisses along her shoulders and down her back. Thoroughly distracted, Abbot uses the opportunity to pull out, soft and slow. He hisses in overstimulation as he finally pulls out, and Hayden whimpers herself at the newfound emptiness awaiting her.

Abbot’s hand lands between her legs and his thumb pushes gently at her entrance. With a start, Hayden realizes he must be pushing his cum back inside of her.

Hayden halfheartedly reaches behind her and tries to swat his hand away and he laughs, his voice hoarse and rattling like stone. She’d pay to hear that sound forever.

“Let me take care of you angel.” Abbot seals it with a final kiss to the back of her neck— where she’s sure is bruising— and stands. Hayden jostles as he gets off the bed with an old man groan and he heads off in the direction of the bathroom.

With high effort, she rolls onto her back and throws her arm over her eyes. Then she just lays there and steadies her breathing the best she can before he comes back.

Jesus Christ.

<i>What the fuck?</i> Hayden took a chance on a silver fox out of pure curiosity, and now she’s not sure she can ever go back. More, how was she supposed to just up and leave after tonight?

She relaxes into the assuring thought, that at the very least, they have each other’s numbers. Now she just has to hope he’d enjoyed himself at least half as much as she did and would call her sometime— or pick up the phone when she would inevitably crave him bad enough to call first.

When Abbot returns to the room, he has a soft hand towel and an even softer look on his face. Hayden pulls her arm from her eyes and watches him approach. She notices that despite her full frontal nudity now on display, he can barely get himself to look away from her face.

Abbot takes a seat beside her on the edge of the bed and Hayden is pleased to find the towel is wet with hot water as he starts dragging it across her skin. He could’ve very easily dragged her up to the shower, but Hayden enjoys how lazy she can be right now. His gentle, unnecessarily appropriate touches as he eventually wipes his drying semen from between her legs. He doesn’t say anything of their lack of protection, and leaves what’s left inside her alone, but Hayden understands. She’d buy a plan-b in the morning.

Abbot pulls her panties back on for her, then finds her shirt on the ground to dress her in as well. They’re silent, only the whirling hotel AC filling the space, but it feels calming. Neither of them feel the need to break the peace they’ve found themselves in. Maybe they’re simply too afraid that once it broke, the night would truly have come to an end between them.

So they continue to say nothing. Even as Abbot pulls his boxers back on, Hayden doesn’t speak as she scoots further into the bed and kicks the dirty covers off, curling under the top sheet. Then, before he can put on his pants, Hayden pats the empty space beside her wordlessly.

Abbot freezes— she’d expected he would— but he eventually lets his pants fall back to the ground.

Hayden pulls the sheets aside for him and he sits down first, carefully removing the prosthetic and laying it at the bedside for later. She watches his naked back as he does so; watches his hands go down to check the site for any irritation, before he finally turns and accepts her invitation into bed.

Allotting the same curtesy as he’d given her when she was laid out naked, Hayden doesn’t look down either. She keeps her head on the pillow and her eyes on the addictive planes on his face as he slips beneath the sheet and scoots in close.

She doesn’t even realize she’s been smiling the whole time until he presses his own, cheesy grin to hers, and it’s more smile than kiss. Short and chaste, they just let their lips dust against each others before pulling away, noses bumping on the way out.

Hayden sees an odd, hesitant look in his eyes now that they’re so close. She understands it better than she realizes. Instinctively, she just tucks her head beneath his chin and curls up close to his chest. Both of them breaking all the unspoken rules of a one night stand— Abbot wraps his arms tight around her in return.

Abbot mumbles something like a, “good night,” into the top of her hair, but Hayden barely catches it before she’s dragged into a dreamless sleep.

—————————————————————————

Hayden is alone when she awakes. The light shining through the shoddy hotel curtains, she stretches into wake and her outstretched hands catch nothing but sheets. Though she’d assumed this would be the case, it stings a little more than she’s ready to admit.

The last twenty-fours have been a dream. A long drive and a perfect interview later, she’d gone and had the best sex of her life with a guy she barely knew. It wasn’t out of character for, say, a nineteen-year old Hayden. But she wasn’t nineteen anymore, landing in unfamiliar dorm rooms on a Friday night out. She’s an adult. One who’d riskily taken her chances on a random doctor who’d given her the time of day and a sultry look and that easily, she’d folded like a cheap chair.

Hayden rolls her face into the pillow and screams. Muffled and embarrassed beyond measure, she doesn’t feel any better.

The post-sex downward spiral continues as she plugs in her dead phone and hops into the shower. The hot water burns her skin red and she stays under longer than necessary. But when alls said and done, and she’s packed up her discarded clothes back into her travel bag, she feels incrementally better.

Swinging the backpack onto her shoulder and pushing her shoes back onto her feet, she grabs her phone before she leaves.

Two people had texted.

One from her dad saying he’s waiting downstairs for her. The other from an unknown number. One she’d called last night.

[unknown]: Hey, it’s Abbot. I had some early morning plans.

The first one reads. She rolls her eyes and saves the number.

[Abbot]: Not to be that creepy old guy, but I’d love to see you again.

Hayden covers her mouth with her hand and can’t help but laugh into it. She feels borderline giddy.

And then she quickly reins it in with a cough— she wouldn’t be caught slacking like that. In fact, she texts her dad that she’s on her way, then pockets it with the promise of texting him back later. Because she’s an adult, and adults don’t laugh at a simple text message and respond ASAP. Probably. She’s still figuring it out.

So with the texts still sitting heavy in her pocket and the front of her mind, she checks out of her room and meets her dad out front.

Christian Ellis is standing at the side of his car with his phone to his ear, laughing all loud and dad-like, totally unaware of the words ‘volume control.’

As Hayden approaches, he puts on a big smile but keeps going with his conversation as he side hugs her real tight with his free arm.

Then, mortifyingly, he points his finger down at her neck with a disapproving look, and Hayden shoots as far away from him as possible. Her dad makes a dramatic throw-up face but moves onto the conversation at his ear, laughing all big and loud again.

Hayden completely forgot about how thoroughly destroyed her neck must look after her little tryst with Abbot last night. When she gets into the front seat and checks in the drop-down-shade mirror, she’s no less relived to find only a few marks in favor of many.

Three dark bruises scatter her skin, but the largest falls on a prominent looking bite mark beneath her jaw. Jesus Christ she really was acting nineteen again, what is wrong with her?

Her dad takes his sweet time but eventually, he huffs and heaves his way into the driver’s side with an apology. “Sorry bug, got all caught up with Jack. Had to give him a real talking to for not meeting ya yesterday at the hospital.” With how hard he’d been laughing, she isn’t sure ‘a talking to’ is exactly what was happening, but she lets it go.

Hayden shrugs. “All’s good.”

Christian eyes her from his seat as he starts the car. “Yeah I bet. I see you made a new friend instead.”

Hayden groans like a child and shoves her red face into her hands. “Please stop. I’ll walk home.”

Her dad laughs and reaches over to ruffle her newly done hair. She quickly moves to fix it, but is eternally grateful her dad is being somewhat normal about it. “It’s fine, you’re an adult, bug. Even if I hate it.”

Christian sniffles dramatically, playing the old dad card and they laugh. Then he turns the radio on and that’s that. If it’d been her mom to catch her looking like this, she’s certain she would’ve gotten a real reaming about being a lady— to which said ‘lady’ would inquire all about how Hayden had met the person and if they would be coming around the house for dinner sometime. Her dad, however, wanted to hear about it about as much as she wanted to tell him: which was a whopping zero.

They circled through the city for a while before he turned off to nearby restaurant. Chinese food or something, Hayden couldn’t really tell. Mostly, she was just confused as to why they weren’t on the freeway.

When she asked as much, her dad just parked the car and pulled the key from the ignition. “Oh shit, I forgot to tell ya. Jack’s meeting us for lunch to make up for not helping you at the hospital yesterday.

Hayden rolls her eyes but unbuckles. “He doesn’t have to do that, dad. He was probably busy. Didn’t you say he was a doctor?” Honestly, after she’d ran into Abbot in those first few minutes, she hadn’t thought of that Jack guy once. It wasn’t fair to go and bully him into lunch if she’d completely forgotten about him, too.

“Oh nonsense.” Christian waves her off as they step out and round the car. He hooks his arm around her shoulders and jostles her, messing with her endearingly. “I’m just using it as an excuse to see the sad old shit again. Always off saving people and whatnot. It won’t kill him to catch up with his best bud for once.” Hayden secedes. She could wait a few hours before heading home if it made her dad happy. Plus, maybe she could get this Jack guy to tell some real embarrassing war stories of her dad as payback.

As they step inside, Hayden realizes it’s actually a pretty fancy sushi place, which she definitely won’t be complaining about. Christian does all the hard work with the hostess and Hayden remembers her phone still sitting like a rock in her pocket— the unanswered texts. Given their wait in line, she quickly swings it out and taps on the man’s name, an unintentional smile on her face. Finally, she texts back.

[]: not to sound like an overexcited 20 yr old, but I’d really like that

Simple. Playful, maybe. Hayden has to pocket it just to stop herself from thinking too hard about it. The man had all but ripped her apart at the seams last night, so why was she so nervous just texting him back?

The hostess waves them over and she sticks close to her dad on the way to their table. Apparently Jack is already here and has a table ready for them.

When the hostess waves them to the table, Hayden keeps out of the way as her dad takes charge in yanking the figure off his phone and into a big, manly hug— the kind where they hit each other on the back all macho for no reason.

Hayden’s distracted; her phone buzzes and she goes to reach for it before her dad calls her name, still so loud. “-And I believe I’ve told you about my little Hay-Hay, right?”

Politeness winning out, Hayden leaves her phone where it is and looks up, smile on her face and ready to meet another of her dad’s boring friends-

The grey hair she’d tugged, the stubble that left burns on her thighs— Abbot is standing there, her father’s hand on his shoulder and introducing him as “Jack,” his best friend.

Like she’d just plunged head first into the Atlantic, her muscles freeze solid and for a moment, she’s sure she’s dying.

Abbot— Jack, reaches his hand out between them with great effort, a tight smile on his face but terror in his eyes. Silently screaming say nothing. Hayden hates how she’d learned to read him so easily like that.

Hand still extended, that voice that purred and told her what a good girl she was only hours prior says, “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Jack Abbot.”

Hayden barely musters the strength to shake his hand— her fingers sing in his familiar touch, and panic has flooded to her ears.

She smiles. “Hayden Ellis.”

Her father’s last name now on display— Abbot’s first name. Their hands drop like they’d been burned.

There’s real pain behind Abbot’s eyes, searching her own amidst all this confusion. She looks away, and her dad prompts them both to their seats, oblivious and starting onto a story she’s sure neither of them hear.

Sat across from each other, her father between them, Abbot pointedly ignores her in favor of laughing along to whatever her dad is saying.

Best friends.

They’ve been best friends since before Hayden was even born. He’d taught her how to swing a bat.

Hayden is so fucked.