It Started with a Pregnancy

by Christy Jeffries

  “I always had a dog growing up, but now I travel too much to take care of one.” He put his hands on the counter behind him and rolled back his shoulders in an attempt to stretch his upper torso. “My mom has a corgi, though, and I get my animal fix whenever I visit her surf shop. Or, obviously, when I come see my aunts.”

  “Which you’ve been doing with increased frequency lately.” Her eyes lowered to his chest, which he knew was on full display under the very thin cotton of his T-shirt. Her tongue darted out of her mouth to lick her lips and then her gaze jumped back up to his face. “Not that I’ve noticed or anything.”

  Too late, he thought, flexing his pec muscles. Rebekah’s earlier admission, as well as the unresolved sexual tension, hung in the air between them.

  “Well, you’d better get used to it, because now that I’m going to be a father, I’ll be here an awful lot more.” Okay, so Grant hadn’t really thought much about the logistics of living so far away while still being there to support Rebekah through the pregnancy and parenthood, but as soon as he’d said the words, he realized that he couldn’t keep up with the back-and-forth travel indefinitely. Something would have to give.

  “What about your job?” Rebekah turned to open the refrigerator and pulled out two bottles of water, handing him one. His fingers grazed hers and he was reminded of how her hand had clung to his most of this afternoon while Angus had been under sedation.

  Despite her attempt to avoid his gaze, Grant was willing to wager that she’d just remembered the same thing. In fact, he saw her fingers twitch slightly before she drew them back, gripping the counter behind her as though she were holding herself in place. She shook her head and he caught a whiff of her plumeria scent and inhaled deeply.

  “One nice thing about my job is that I can work from pretty much anywhere.” He twisted off the water bottle’s cap and took a long drink. When he lowered his head, he caught her staring at his neck.

  A current of electricity shot through him and when she licked her lips a second time, Grant took a step closer. He didn’t know if it was desire or courage currently flooding his body, but he’d grown extremely warm and he needed Rebekah to understand that he could only take so much heat before he needed to get out of this kitchen.

  “Rebekah?” Her name came out in a near groan.

  “Huh?” she said, giving her head another little shake before lifting it to face him.

  “You know how you told me in the car that I’m always looking at you with a side-eye?” He took another step closer.

  “Uh-huh,” she managed as her eyes darted down to his mouth.

  “And I told you that I stare at you because I’m attracted to you?”

  She sucked in her cheeks and gave a brief nod.

  “Well, you have a tendency to watch me in the exact same way.” She was still wearing her heels, making her nearly the same height as him. Which meant that his face was within inches of hers.

  “What do you mean?” Her whisper-soft answer was so close, he could feel the ice-water coolness of her breath against his mouth.

  “It means that if you keep looking at me like that, we’re going to end up in your bedroom again.”

  * * *

  One minute Rebekah had been in the kitchen guzzling cold water in an attempt to cool down the throbbing of awareness heating her blood. And the next she was kicking off her wedged heels as Grant led her backward toward her bed. His lips were just as warm and as fierce as she remembered and his mouth consumed hers while she lifted up his T-shirt to stroke the golden skin underneath.

  “Are you sure?” he asked when they were nearly to her bed.

  Lately, it seemed as if everything was being decided for her—unexpected twins, foster dogs, party pavilions. But her body was still the one thing she controlled. And she was absolutely sure that she wanted just one more night with Grant—one night to really get it right.

  Not that alcohol had totally impaired them last time, but she was more than sober right this second and needed to prove to herself, and maybe even to him, that whatever it was between them wasn’t really a big deal.

  However, when she finally got his shirt over his head and those perfectly broad shoulders were in full view, all she could think was, This is a very big, very muscular deal.

  How could one man be this incredibly handsome? Or smell this good? She knew he’d been on a plane and then at the animal shelter all day, yet his skin still held traces of coconut-scented sunscreen. Rebekah would’ve used her tongue to taste him; however, her mouth was currently occupied by his deep, exploring kisses.

  She slid her palms over the wall that was his chest, then over the smooth ridges of his abdomen until she got to the muscular lines that dipped into his board shorts. Her heart sped up when she got to his waistband, yet her hands slowed down. If this was going to be the last time she allowed herself to sleep with the man, then she was going to take her time.

  Grant, though, must’ve mistaken her pause as a request for assistance because his hands encircled hers at his waist and then she heard Velcro rip as he released the fastening. Rebekah was about to have sex with a man for a second time and she didn’t even know if he owned a proper pair of pants.

  When he stood before her completely naked, his casual clothing preferences suddenly didn’t matter. Rebekah gulped, unable to take her hands off him.

  Or her eyes.

  She didn’t want to ruin the moment with logical thoughts about him eventually flying out of her life for good. So she looked her fill, instead, memorizing every perfect muscle forged by years of swimming and surfing.

  “Now my turn,” he said, his fingers making their way to the zipper on the back of her dress. As the coolness from her air-conditioning unit hit the bare skin along her lower spine, Rebekah suddenly had the urge to pull her dress closed. She’d always been on the curvier side, but her stomach was even less flat than it had been a couple of months ago. Or even a couple of weeks ago.

  Then his hands were on her breasts and Rebekah forgot every single thing she’d been thinking up until that point. Throwing her head back, she let out a moan and Grant pressed his lips to her jawline and then trailed kisses down her neck and along her shoulder blades.

  She whimpered when he removed his hands from the sharpened peaks of her nipples, which were now aching for more. “Be patient, sweetheart,” he murmured in her ear. “As sexy as this purple silky bra is, I need it out of my way so I can feel all of you.”

  When she was finally standing bare in front of him, it was Grant who groaned as he reached out and gently stroked her breasts. “I’ve been thinking about your body for months, thinking about all the ways I’d like to touch you and make you feel—”

  He wasn’t able to finish because she captured his face between her hands and pulled his mouth back to hers. Months, he’d said. Knowing that all this time Grant had been thinking about her body the way she’d been thinking about his made Rebekah nearly drunk with power.

  He tilted his head and deepened the kiss while maneuvering the matching panties over her hips. After she kicked them free, he hooked his right wrist under her left knee and she could easily feel his arousal at her opening. The hard length of him slid against her and Rebekah wondered if Grant planned to take her right there, standing up. She arched her hips toward him and he drew back. “I brought protection along this time, but it’s in my carry-on bag. Which is outside in my car.”

  “At the risk of killing the mood,” Rebekah replied, her voice sounding raspy to her own ears. “Unless you have some test results you need to share with me, I think we’re past the point of needing protection.”

  “Good point.” Grant slanted his mouth over hers while hooking his left arm under her right leg. The next thing she knew, the bed was underneath her and Grant was above her, sliding the tip of his shaft against her damp heat.

  “Please,” Rebekah begged, sliding her
hands down his muscular back and pulling him toward her.

  Grant threw back his head and let out a deep moan when he buried himself inside of her. He was raised on his elbows, his chest grazing hers as he searched her eyes. “Sweetheart, I’m trying to hold myself back but if you keep rocking your hips like that, I won’t be able to.”

  Again, she felt that thrilling sensation that her body had this much control over his. She locked her legs behind him and said, “The last thing I want to do right now is hold back.”

  Chapter Ten

  Grant had planned to take things slowly, to savor each moment, but Rebekah was so eager and so encouraging. When she started making those little hiccuping sounds in his ear and then shuddered in his arms, he lost all control.

  She gave another small shudder when he eased onto his side and he kept his hand curled around her waist as he asked, “Are you okay?”

  Her eyes remained closed, with her silky lashes fanning her cheeks, but she was able to manage a slight nod and a very satisfied smile.

  The past few weeks, he’d rarely seen Rebekah do much more than offer a pleasant grin—and that had usually been directed at someone else. Pride swirled around him at the realization that he’d been the one responsible for this particular smile. He pulled her closer against him, absorbing every inch of her satisfaction through her relaxed muscles.

  The sound of tinkling metal filtered in from outside the bedroom, followed by the echo of little claws on the hardwood floors. Rebekah jerked up into a sitting position, taking the top sheet with her and covering that beautiful view. “What’s that noise?”

  “That’s right. You aren’t familiar with the pitter-patter of little doggy feet yet.” Grant smiled at her embarrassed expression when Angus appeared in the doorway. “Look who’s up from his nap.”

  “He probably needs to go outside for a walk.” Rebekah’s eyes searched frantically around the room until they landed on the crumpled dress that had landed in a heap a few yards from the bed. “Can you distract him for a second so that he doesn’t see me getting dressed?”

  Grant smothered a chuckle. “Are you afraid he’ll know what we were doing?”

  “Don’t wiggle your eyebrows at me. This dog is a lot smarter than he looks and he understands way more than he lets on.”

  “Come on, boy,” Grant said, rising to his feet. “Mommy doesn’t want you to see her naked and know that we were doing very sexy grown-up things in her bed.”

  She made a squeaking sound and pointed at Grant. “Now he’s seeing you naked.”

  “Rebekah, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but Angus isn’t exactly dressed, either. I don’t think he cares what we wear so long as we feed him and take him on walks.”

  Grant was easily able to dodge the pillow she sent sailing in his direction.

  Not bothering to cover his laughter this time, he found his board shorts on the floor and pulled them on right before the second pillow hit him straight in the forehead.

  “Mommy’s got a good arm.” He scooped up Angus so that the little dog didn’t have to keep jumping to see what was going on in the bed eighteen inches above him. The dog gave a happy yip when he saw Rebekah, so Grant placed him right on her lap.

  “That’s because Mommy went to Duke on a softball scholarship,” she told the dog as she scratched him behind the ears. The motion caused the cotton sheet to drop and Rebekah quickly yanked it up over her breasts again. Angus, on the other hand, mistook her quest for modesty as an invitation to play tug-of-war with her bed linens.

  “Attaboy, Angus.” Grant cheered on the scrappy mutt, who was now growling and yanking for all he was worth. “Get those covers away from her. Don’t let her hide that perfect body from me anymore.”

  Rebekah let the dog win so that she could launch a third pillow in Grant’s direction. This time he caught it and enjoyed the view.

  “Okay, boy, we won,” he said after Angus got himself so tangled up in the sheet, he rolled off the bed and landed in a pile of bedding. Grant picked up the happy dog in one arm and scooped his T-shirt off the ground with the other as he walked toward the bedroom door. “How about I take you for a walk while Mommy recovers from Daddy’s skilled lovemaking?”

  A fourth pillow hit the doorjamb as Rebekah yelled out, “Stop talking to him about that!”

  * * *

  Angus took his time as Grant walked him around the property, sniffing every tree, flower and curb along the way. He kept expecting the dog to try and make a run for it, or to at least pull against his leash, but Angus seemed content sticking close to Grant’s side.

  The poor mutt must still have been groggy from the sedative and the trauma of the day’s big adventure because as soon as they returned to the townhome, Angus crashed out again on the sofa. Rebekah had taken a shower while they were gone, and when Grant saw her emerge from the bedroom in a pair of dark blue lounge pants and an oversize Duke softball sweatshirt, he realized that he preferred this casual outfit to the formal clothes she tended to wear all the time.

  “I didn’t order dinner yet because I wasn’t sure what kind of food you liked,” she said as she pulled her hair up into a ponytail. It should’ve sounded weird—the fact that he was having children with a woman and neither of them knew whether the other preferred Italian or Chinese for takeout.

  However, the neckline of her sweatshirt dropped to the side and exposed a bare shoulder and suddenly Grant didn’t care about food at all.

  He leaned over to kiss her gently, and she gazed at him, then took his hand to lead him back to her bedroom—this time closing the door softly behind them to make sure Angus wouldn’t distract them.

  After another round of lovemaking they agreed on pizza, which was delivered while Grant used Rebekah’s shower.

  “I guess eating on the sofa is out of the question since Angus has established that as his new bed,” Grant said after he emerged from the bathroom. The dog gave him a dismissive glance before burrowing deeper into the throw pillows. “That’s a pretty big improvement from the dank porch you slept under last night, huh, big guy?”

  “Actually, I was hoping you wouldn’t mind me working through dinner. I need to go over a draft for the latest grant proposal I’m putting together for the animal shelter.” Rebekah had her back to him and was pulling plates out of a kitchen cabinet. “I was supposed to do it today at the office, but then...”

  She trailed off as she stared at the pup relaxing on her furniture. The zesty smell of pepperoni and tomato sauce surrounded them and Grant tugged at the neck of the clean T-shirt he’d found in his carry-on bag. It would’ve been quite the homey scene if he’d actually felt at home here in her living room. Or even in her presence.

  Rebekah was looking everywhere but at him and he suddenly had the feeling that maybe he’d been too presumptuous in bringing his overnight bag upstairs. Sure, he’d spent the night here a couple of months ago, but that had been a one-off. Grant didn’t usually play house with the women he dated.

  Not that he and Rebekah were actually dating. They were just sleeping together. And having kids together. And pretending to be in a relationship so that everyone else around them would think they were...together.

  Hell. Grant scratched at his damp head. He was supposed to be the guy who usually got people out of sticky situations. So how, exactly, had he ended up in this situation with no exit strategy in sight?

  He cleared his throat. “That’s cool. I actually have a presentation I need to work on. We’re setting up a product launch for my company’s latest design of waterproof cases for video equipment.”

  They sat down on opposites sides of the table and hid behind their respective laptops as they ate. Despite the fact that there were so many things that needed to be said between them, so many decisions that needed to be made, neither one of them spoke while they worked.

  She would yawn. He would ask if she was
tired—according to the pregnancy book he’d just finished, she should be—and she would insist that she was fine and continue clicking away at her keyboard. Yep. She was definitely avoiding something. Grant glanced down the hall to her open bedroom door. So far, the bed was the one place where things weren’t awkward between them.

  After an hour, Angus roused himself enough to jump to the floor and sniff his way to the front door. Rebekah finally looked up from her screen. “Do you think he needs to go outside again?”

  “I’ll take him.” Grant didn’t know about Angus, but he was dying to go out and take a break from this tense silence. He slammed his laptop closed and sprang up to get the dog’s leash.

  “Thank you,” Rebekah said around another yawn. She’d resumed her typing before he and Angus were even out the front door.

  “Any suggestions on how I can get her to open up?” Grant asked the dog a few minutes later as they followed their earlier route around the perimeter of the property. In response, Angus lifted his leg against one of the decorative lampposts.

  “It’s not like she can avoid the topic of...you know...forever,” Grant continued, more to himself than to the canine who kept on walking. “The woman can’t even say the word pregnancy. She just calls it you know all the time. So how am I supposed to figure out what she wants when she won’t tell me?”

  Angus tilted his head and gave him a lopsided look. “You’re right, I shouldn’t be out here talking to a dog about this. I need to go back in there and have a conversation with her.”

  As they made their way back to her door, Grant made a mental outline of everything he wanted to say to Rebekah. Unfortunately, when he got inside, he found her with her head slumped onto the table near the keyboard of her laptop. Sound asleep.

  * * *

  Rebekah sneaked a peek at Grant’s sleeping form next to her and then squeezed her eyes shut as she buried her face deeper in the pillow. She had a hazy recollection of him carrying her from the table to her room last night, and she supposed that after everything else they’d done in this bed together, it was probably only natural for him to assume that they should sleep there together, as well.