Chapter 11 - Exploration

Taking care of a baby and two toddlers that have yet to be pottytrained sure is a stinky job. But with Rhiannon and Matthew out to breakfast for the third day in the row, there's no one else to take care of the three kids.

The rewards come in happy forms, at least.

"Thanks so much, Glyn," Rhiannon murmurs, and Glynnis notes that the lines slowly growing on Rhi's aging face look more relaxed than they have in weeks. How can Glynnis complain about babysitter duty when her mom finally looks...happy?

Matthew's become a pretty frequent guest in the house over the last few days, in fact. During those times, he and Rhi seem to interact rarely, but he's always there to teach Athena and Tiara a few words like "lawsuit" and "agent" or to smooth Naomi's hair when she's pouting.

He's even taken to chatting with Glynnis while Rhi is busy doing work off the clock to catch up from the maternity days she's been forced to take.

"So...how's school?"

"It's all right."

"Making friends and stuff?"

Glynnis looks around the room with a quiet chuckle. "See all the kids in here? Does it really look like I'm gonna be making friends when I've gotta come right home and take care of them?"

"Oh..."

"I'm not complaining," she murmurs, glancing toward Rhiannon to make sure she's still distracted. "I don't need them anyway. I'd rather be here than anywhere else."

Though his visits are mostly used for him to keep Rhi up to date with what's going on at the film studio and for her to run lines with him, eventually Glynnis always has to go to bed.

"Rhi," Matthew murmurs, voice low and eyes warm.

It's always strange when the two of them are alone these days. She can exude that easy confidence when they're surrounded by her children. She can strut around the apartment and send him smirks and winks and pretend like he's just another man.

But then the door to the bedroom shuts when Glynnis disappears, and she's left staring into the eyes of a man who became one of her greatest inspirations to become an actress when she was younger. And he's looking at her like THAT. He's looking at her not only like she's beautiful, like he wants in her pants, but like she's crucial and important.

It's in these moments that the confident pretense drops and she's left staring at him with an utterly haunting vulnerability in her big brown eyes.

"Do you want...?"

She nods and takes his hand, guiding him out to the hallway.

They've never had sex anywhere but the elevator in her apartment, but Rhiannon refuses to take a risk of sleeping with him in her apartment with four daughters to take care of.

Every time she draws close, he finds that he really doesn't mind that much.

When the two are sated, barely able to support each other in their panting exhaustion, Matthew catches her eyes again. "I'm having a party tomorrow. I want you to come."

"A party?" Rhiannon still remembers when Barry Tenderlove pulled that line on her. He's a happy man now, apparently running around with a four-star celebrity himself in the form of Emmy Starr, but something in her still twitches every time she sees his picture in a magazine. There's always that faint twinge of jealousy.

"Yeah. Formal dress. Just a few friends of mine."

There's a plea in his eyes and Rhiannon sucks all the power she can from it like a spider. She lifts her chin a little higher as she smooths her skirt back down and readjusts her rumpled top. "Yeah. Yeah, all right, I'll be there."

The old dress has too many memories. Rhiannon smooths out an old relic, one she never thought she'd fit into after having four daughters, but she surprises herself.

The taxi drops her off a short distance from Matthew Hamming's estate, since there's really no good word for it otherwise, and she strolls toward it with a faint sense of trepidation. She had a horrible track record with Bridgeport parties. Who's to say tonight won't be an exception?

There are just a few people there, such as William Fangmann, but Rhiannon carefully steers clear of them and sticks close to Matthew for the night. Being alone with a vampire doesn't suit her.

The two find ways to stay close to each other through the evening without being overly obvious. Matthew doesn't hesitate to beat her quite soundly in foosball.

"Goddamnit, boy," she groans, putting her hands on her hips. "No mercy on an old woman like me?"

"Old?" Matthew's eyes slowly skim over her figure, the corners of them crinkling with his smile, and he chuckles. "Babe, if you're old, I'm two steps away from dying."

When the other guests finally leave, Rhiannon corners Matthew near the door. "Now now...I've been here for hours and you still haven't invited me to spend the night."

"Mmm, Miss Toft." He simpers like a woman, pressing a hand to his chest. "I never thought you liked me like that."

Her words slip out in a whisper before she can stop them. "I think I like you in every way."

Matthew looks over at her with wide eyes, mouth open in surprise. Rhiannon's stomach twists with nerves. Watcher, what does Matthew want? Does he want a commitment that she can't give him? He takes a step closer to her, eyes flicking down to her lips, and she catches her breath. "You know," he murmurs, lifting a hand to touch her cheek before his thumb slides across her lips. "You're pretty likeable yourself, lady."

For the first time, their kisses are slow and languid. There's no need to rush. His hands dip into the slope of the small of her back. Her fingers slide through his perfectly coiffed hair.

When Rhiannon finally manages to pull back from him a moment, she gasps. "Matthew, I...we need to talk about this."

"No, we don't."

It's incredibly hard to try to think when there's a pair of lips tracing down your neck, but Rhiannon tries. "I'm serious. I can't...I can't keep doing, ah, this with you if you want a...commitment."

He chuckles. "Rhi, I don't want a commitment from you, unless it's a commitment for me to have sex with you in every room in this entire city." He presses another kiss to her jawbone before he leans toward her lips instead. "Find another sugar daddy, for all I care. Just let yourself feel what we have here. Don't run from it."

When they finally slip into Matthew's bedroom, his stomach growls heartily. "Could your body have any worse timing?" Rhiannon teases.

"Frankly, Rhi, I don't give a damn." He adjusts the pillows and looks up at her with fiery eyes. "There's only one thing in this entire damn city that I want to taste, and it's right in front of me."

For the first time, the two have the chance to explore each other. It feels virginal, in a way, the fact that she's let this man take her any number of times but that she's never seen him naked or vice versa. The passion of the evening threatens to overwhelm them both, and by the time that the sun is rising outside, they're still enjoying each other with an insatiability reserved for people half their age.

Glynnis's night isn't quite as fun. Sleep? What is sleep?

Rhiannon returns tomorrow just long enough for Naomi to grow into a toddler. She's a wide-eyed, bushy-tailed little thing, that's for sure.

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Can you tell I'm trying to move the story as fast as I can so I can move the family to somewhere more suitable to have a legacy? OTL Everyone being so crammed together is making me sad.

Matthew's old man bathrobe makes me giggle.