“I don’t know what I was thinking… I’m just such a hormonal mess, and I feel like I’m walking around in someone else’s body… And she was gorgeous and built just like I used to be, and—”
He stopped my rambling with a finger to my lips and firmly tilted my chin upward until I met his gaze. There was nothing but warmth and compassion in his eyes, and I felt a fresh wave of humility and remorse.
“I understand the hormones are overwhelming right now, but I don’t ever want you thinking you’re not every bit as beautiful as the first time I saw you. Hell, I think you might even be more beautiful, because now I know you better. The real you.”
His sincerity rang in every word as he stroked my cheek, smiling softly. I leaned into his hand and closed my eyes, feeling monumentally foolish for having doubted him.
“You’re such a good person, Kennedy. It shines like a light from inside you all the time. It’s in your smile and your laugh. It’s in the way you hold me and the way you carry my niece…
“You’re doing something so selfless and generous for my family, and I’m not sure you’ll ever really grasp just how much it means to all of us. Miranda’s been wishing for a baby since she was old enough to carry a doll. And watching her disappointment every month that she didn’t get pregnant was heartbreaking for everyone around her.
“You’re making her dreams come true, and I’ll always consider that to be the most beautiful gift anyone has ever given another person. I’m humbled to be a part of it, or at least to witness it. And I’m truly honored to know you and be a part of your life.”
I shook my head a little, amazed at the way he always seemed to know exactly what to say. I wound my arms around his torso and pressed my lips to his neck as the remaining tension drained from my body.
“I’m sorry,” I said again. When he opened his mouth to dismiss my apology, I copied his earlier measure to silence him. “Just let me apologize, okay? Hormones or not, there’s no excuse for thinking you’d ever fool around behind my back. You’re not that kind of guy, and I know that. My insecurities just got the best of me for a minute there… You’re so good to me, Donovan. Sometimes I just have trouble believing how lucky I am.”
“We both are. If it makes you feel better, I forgive you. But I don’t need an apology. If I’d seen something like that, I would’ve had the same fear. I get it. It’s hard not to question something this amazing.”
I nodded and leaned up to touch my lips to his, hoping the kiss would tell him everything I couldn’t put into words. Donovan held me closer and took my mouth with a gentle passion that made my skin tingle, possessing me the way only he could.
“Did you ever eat anything?”
“No. I wasn’t very hungry after…” I trailed off, but he seemed to understand my meaning.
“Why don’t you make a little snack or something for us while I go wash the restaurant smell off of me. Then, we can go to bed, okay?”
We cuddled on the couch a short while later, feeding each other pieces of cheese and fruit before finally moving to the bedroom. He lay me down gently, his expression almost reverent as he slowly undressed me and gazed at my naked body.
“Don’t ever doubt how beautiful you are to me. How utterly perfect. I’ve been addicted to you since the first time I got a taste of these lips,” he murmured, kissing me deeply. His tongue dominated mine and mapped every inch of my mouth, eliciting a moan from deep in my chest. “Actually, to be more accurate, I think my addiction might have started well before our first kiss. It was that first glance, when you caught me standing too closely behind you in line at the cafe. I was hungry for you before I’d even seen your face, but when you turned around… God, Kennedy. I wanted you so badly.”
I whimpered as his lips moved along my jaw to my ear, teasing the sensitive skin just below it until I was shuddering with need.
“Then, I heard your voice,” he paused, kissing my throat. I hummed a little, making the skin vibrate beneath his lips. “Just the sound of it would’ve made me hard if the sight of your body hadn’t already gotten me there. It still does that to me, baby. No matter what you’re talking about, your voice is the sexiest I’ve ever heard.”
“Donovan,” I gasped, straining against his hands as they made a slow journey from my neck to my breasts. He groaned in response.
“Hearing you say my name like that makes me want you even more. Especially when you’re like this, shaking and moaning beneath me.” His mouth moved lower, down to my left breast, and his tongue swirled around the hardened peak. “Don’t think I missed these that first day. I was trying so hard to keep my eyes on your face like a gentleman, but believe me, I noticed them. They were already growing by the time we found each other again, and they’ve grown even more since. And fuck if I don’t love every single inch of them. I don’t think you even realize how much time I spend staring at them.”
“Actually, I do,” I giggled breathlessly, threading my fingers into his hair. “You know, they’ll shrink at least a little after the baby’s born.”
“Doesn’t matter. They’ll always be perfect, Kennedy. Because they’re yours.”
My eyes fluttered shut, and I smiled, gasping with pleasure as he sucked hard on my nipple.
“There are so many parts of your body I’ve been fixated on. Things I’ve never given a second thought about before I met you. Your collarbones, for instance,” he said, letting his fingers drift lightly over the ridge of my right clavicle to my shoulder and down my bicep. “And your shoulders. I know you hate the heat, but I love getting to see so much of you these days. Especially your shoulders.”
Donovan’s hand continued downward to my wrist and wrapped his fingers completely around it.
“You like my wrists?” I asked, watching him skeptically.
“I do. Your hands too. I like how tiny they are compared to mine. How delicate your fingers are.” He paused to kiss the tip of each finger. “I like your toes almost as much.”
“Oh, God, I hate my feet.”
“Too many women do. But you definitely shouldn’t. They’re adorable.”
“I never took you for the kind of guy to have a foot fetish,” I teased, squirming in appreciation when his hands moved back to my hips and caressed down each thigh.
“I don’t. Not really. It’s just you. Everything about you. Your ankles are slender like your wrists. And your calves…” He lifted my right leg and pressed his lips to my ankle, kissing hungrily along the inside of my calf to my knee. “I spend a lot of time watching your legs when you walk too. When I can pull my eyes away from your ass, that is.”
Donovan grinned, sliding his hands beneath me to cup my rear. That part of me had grown too, and I waited for the usual blush of self-consciousness to overtake me as he kneaded me with his strong hands. But it didn’t come. He nuzzled his face against my inner thigh, his beard tickling the sensitive skin there.
“As much as I’m loving all of the skin I get to see in your summer dresses, I have a feeling I’ll enjoy blue-jean weather just as much.”
I started to laugh but stopped when he moved one hand between my legs, testing my wetness with his index finger. He groaned again and quickly replaced it with his tongue, apparently unable to wait any longer. He sucked and nibbled at my folds, plunging his tongue deep within me and pulling it upward again to flick against my clit, over and over. Within seconds, I was at the precipice. One lick away from implosion.
“I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how much I love this part of you, baby. Since I can’t seem to keep my hands, mouth, or dick away from it for long.”
“Please,” I whimpered, my hips surging upward of their own volition.
“Mmmm… Thank God it likes me back.”
He dipped his head again and attacked my clit, pulling it completely into his mouth and fluttering his tongue against it. I came almost instantly, twitching against his face and screaming his name at a volume that was bound to get me a few sideways looks from the neighbors tomorrow morni
ng. I was still panting when I rolled over, arching my back and pulling my knees under me.
“Fuck, yes,” Donovan breathed as he moved to kneel behind me, pausing only long enough to slip a condom over his considerable erection.
Sex sometimes required a bit more creativity these days, but this position had always been one of my favorites. I braced my hands against the headboard as he surged into me, gripping my hips with both hands and setting a breakneck pace.
“Oh, God,” I moaned, my voice shaking a little each time he bottomed out inside me.
“You feel so good, baby. Fucking perfect.”
He moved one hand to my lower back and the other to my hair, pulling hard enough to bring my head up off the mattress. I cried out, relishing the light pain, which he quickly amplified with a firm slap to my ass. God, how did he always know exactly what I needed?
“More,” I begged.
“More?” He slapped my ass again, harder this time. “You going to come for me again?”
The confidence in his voice made it clear he’d never had any doubt of his ability to work another orgasm from me. His slow, reverent exploration of my body had been incredibly intimate, but I loved it just as much when he took me like this. Raw, fast, and filthy. He was fucking me so deep I wasn’t even sure where he ended and I began. The thought went straight to my core, and I felt the first clench of another climax, my walls tightening around him.
“Oh, fuck. That’s right, baby. Come hard for me. Milk me with that perfect pussy.”
Holy fuck.
His words were my undoing. And his too, apparently. We cried out together as we rode each delicious wave of pleasure until we were nothing but a panting heap of entwined body parts.
“God, I love your mouth,” I sighed happily. “Mind if I use that line?”
“In your book? Sure. As long as my mother doesn’t read it.”
We laughed in harmony, and I watched him get up to dispose of the condom. He came back to bed and curled himself around my body, kissing my neck and caressing every accessible inch of skin. I smiled contentedly at the thought that even after a round of lovemaking like that, he still couldn’t seem to get enough. We lay in silence for a long while, savoring the feeling of reconnection we both needed.
“I’m sorry about earlier,” I whispered. There was no shame in my voice this time, merely regret.
“Shh. No more of that. It’s over. I don’t even see other women the way I see you, baby. I haven’t since that first day in the cafe.”
I smiled again because I understood exactly what he meant. Donovan was all I could see. And all I would ever want.
Sixteen
Donovan
Early July
Week Thirty-Two
“How about this one?”
Kennedy looked over at me to see the tiny pink onesie I was holding up. It had a cartoon drawing of a bottle and the words, ‘I drink till I pass out.’ She snorted and shook her head.
“I don’t know how your sister would feel about that.”
“Why? My sister communicates in inappropriate. She has a dirtier mouth than any woman I know. Except you when you’re… you know.” I wiggled my eyebrows suggestively, and she laughed.
“Still. It’ll be different when it involves the baby. You’ll see. What about the uncle one?”
“If you think I’m cute, you should see my uncle,” I read aloud. “Or what about, ‘If Daddy says no, my uncle will say yes?’”
“Get them both,” she shrugged, perusing the baby registry list she’d printed out. “I can’t decide on the bouncer or the swing. You got the car seat and stroller, right? And your parents are covering the crib and bedding?”
“Yeah. But baby, you don’t need to bring a gift to the shower. You already gave them the use of your body for nine months. You’re square.”
“I can’t show up with nothing but my belly and swollen ankles. I could go smaller, maybe. Swaddling blankets, extra bottles…”
I shook my head with a smile as I continued to thumb through the rack of baby clothes, finally spotting a winner.
“I found it! This one’s perfect!” I held up a hot pink onesie with black capital letters that read, ‘Don’t fucking touch me.’
“Throw it in the cart. Even if Miranda won’t let her wear it, I’ll put it on her when she’s with me. She’ll need it. Strangers already try to touch her, and she’s not even here yet.”
I added it to the pile with a grin, well aware of Kennedy’s constant irritation with handsy, presumptuous strangers.
Twenty minutes and six adorable outfits later, we were making our way out of the department store and heading for the food court. Kennedy was craving pizza, and I’d promised her the greasiest slice we could find.
As we ate, a woman I didn’t recognize sat down at the table next to us. She looked to be in her mid-forties, and she shook her curly red hair as she spoke animatedly to someone on her cell phone. From what I could hear of the conversation, she was lecturing one of her kids about a school project. After a few minutes, she ended her call and glanced over at us apologetically.
“Kids,” she shrugged, belatedly noticing Kennedy’s belly. “Just wait till they’re old enough to talk you into a cell phone they never want to answer.”
“That seems to be how it goes,” Kennedy chuckled.
“How far along are you?”
Here we go, I thought. I knew Kennedy wouldn’t miss this part of being pregnant. Apparently, every stranger on the street needed intimate details about the pregnancy. She obliged them all with more patience than I probably would’ve had in her position.
“Just past thirty-two weeks.”
“Ah,” the woman nodded sagely. “My youngest was born in July, and the heat was ungodly that summer. You look great. You’ve just reached the hardest part too. The second trimester gives you false hope that your body can totally handle this, but then that third trimester comes along to knock you on your ass.”
We both laughed and nodded in agreement. I’d read similar opinions online and heard Kennedy voice it more than once.
“That’s what I’ve read,” she replied with a polite smile. The woman’s brows raised.
“So, this is your first? That’s so exciting. Lots of changes coming. You’d better be ready too, you know,” the woman said, addressing me this time as she stood up from her seat. “It’s just as hard on Daddy. Good luck to you both.”
We watched her walk away, already on her phone again, and an awkward silence loomed over us. I had no idea what to say. While I’d certainly witnessed a multitude of people striking up baby-related conversations with Kennedy since the pregnancy had begun to show, none of them had ever included me. It felt odd, but not uncomfortable. Actually, it was… nice.
Kennedy ate the last bite of her pizza and began to collect our trash. She was wearing an odd expression, but she didn’t say anything as we left the mall and headed toward my apartment. By the time we were cruising down the interstate, her silence had begun to trouble me.
“You okay?” I asked, glancing briefly at her as I drove.
“Yeah.”
“You’re quiet. Did that woman upset you?”
“No, it’s fine.”
And there was the word that almost always meant the exact opposite when it came from a woman’s mouth. The word that men everywhere should interpret as a big, glowing sign that read, ‘Proceed with Caution.’
“You seem… I don’t know. Preoccupied, I guess. What’s going on?” I waited patiently for a response, and she eventually gave a little sigh of resignation before answering.
“It’s not like it was the first time someone thought the baby was mine. It’s easily the hundredth time. It’s a reasonable assumption, and strangers are always approaching me like that. Wanting to talk about pregnancy and babies.
“The questions and answers are pretty much always the same. ‘Yes, it’s my first pregnancy.’ ‘I’m due August 28th, and it’s a girl.’ ‘No, she doesn’t have a
name yet.’ ‘I’m feeling great.’ ‘Yes, the heat is horrendous.’ And so on… I don’t mind answering the questions, and I almost never bother to clarify that I’m just a surrogate.”
“Yes… But it was the first time anyone included me in their assumptions, at least out loud. Like you said, it’s a reasonable conclusion to draw. We were eating a meal together, surrounded by bags full of baby stuff.”
“Yeah…” She sighed again and rubbed her belly slowly, gazing out the window at the passing traffic. My concern grew when a street light revealed the troubled expression on her face
“Did that part bother you?”
“No, of course not. I’m fine, really. I think I just…” She paused, shrugging a little. “Knowing there’s a tiny little life inside of me is incredible, and being able to feel her move all the time now makes it even more amazing. It’s so surreal. I’ve bonded with her, you know?”
“Of course you have. I think it would be pretty impossible not to.”
“Yes, but sometimes… Sometimes, I catch myself wondering what she’ll look like or what kind of personality she’ll have. It’s harder than I expected it would be, knowing she’s not mine. When this is all over, I’ll have to watch her be taken away.” Kennedy’s voice was timid as she said the words, as though she were revealing a dark secret. “I’m afraid I’ll feel… empty.”
My heart clenched in empathy, and I squeezed her hand as I gave the only response that came to my mind.
“I won’t let you feel empty. Or at least if you do, I won’t let you be alone with it. I promise, baby.”
“I know that. But I also know that the postpartum hormones are going to be insane. I mean, I know how it’s supposed to work. Your hormones are a mess, you get upset over silly things, and you’re in pain while you recover from the delivery… But that sweet little baby makes it all bearable. Makes you forget how hard it all was so you’re willing to do it again. Because without that wonderful part, no one would be crazy enough to go through it all more than once. It’s like a reproductive insurance policy.”
Chance Encounter (Fates Aligned Book 1) Page 13