by Kate Swain
“I think you should take her in to check on her,” I murmured to the older woman.
The older woman nodded again. “We will.”
“Can I come with you?” I asked.
Again, Amelia gave me an odd look, but nodded. I thanked her and then, as they helped Amelia into the back of the ambulance, I got in with her.
“It’s okay,” I murmured reassuringly as she sat down. She was still shivering, and her eyes were wide and tear stained.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. She was looking up at me, her face a picture of sadness.
“No, Amelia,” I said gently. “No. You don’t need to be sorry.”
I held her hand as the ambulance started moving. We were jostled from side to side as it got onto the road, and then the journey settled down. I kept her hand in mine and she gripped it, vice-like in her cold fingers.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “I was so stupid.”
I felt like somebody had punched me in the gut. My heart ached. I stroked her hand gently and she flinched. I went back to just holding it. “You did nothing wrong,” I whispered. “I was the stupid one. I made you feel like you couldn’t trust me.”
She blinked at me. “Trust you?” she asked.
“Yeah.” I nodded. “I didn’t know how to behave. I did not know what to say or how to say it. I must have scared you away from my place, or you’d still be there, safe.”
“Scared me?” She looked at me with complete incredulity. Her eyes suddenly had more life in them.
“Yeah,” I murmured. The emergency team were talking quietly among themselves. They didn’t appear to be listening to us, which made me feel more comfortable. “I scared you away.”
“I wasn’t scared!” she stared at me. “I thought you didn’t want me there.” Her voice was hurt. “You were so uncomfortable when I was around.”
“You thought I didn’t want you?” I made a small snort like a laugh. I could barely believe what I’d heard. “Amelia! I wanted you every second.”
“Really?” She stared at me.
I laughed. Relief made it seem almost funny. “You better believe me.”
She frowned. “But… but even when you hired me, you acted like you hated the sight of me.”
It was my turn to stare. It must have seemed that way, I realized slowly. But it was so insane to think that, even for an instant, she hadn’t noticed the way I looked at her.
“What?” she asked, irritably.
“Amelia Rose,” I said softly. “I was in love with you from the moment I saw you. I was trying to hide it from everyone—and most of all, I was trying to hide it from myself. I love you, Amelia. More than I have ever thought possible.”
She stared at me. Slowly, I saw a light turn on in her eyes.
“Yes,” I repeated, seeing that she didn’t believe me. “Amelia, I love you.”
“Oh, Carter…” she whispered. “I love you, too.”
I reached for her and held her against my body. I could feel her heart beating against my chest. We sat like that for quite some time.
“Are they taking me to Emergency?” she asked me in a whisper. I was still sitting beside her. They were still doing their best to ignore us, though, a fact that I appreciated.
“Yeah,” I whispered, taking her hand and holding it. “Just to check to make sure you’re okay.”
“Can they check my baby?” She asked. Her eyes were huge. We were moving now over a bumpy section of roadway again, and I thought maybe I’d misheard her.
“What?” I whispered. She couldn’t have said baby.
“I said,” she whispered, “could they check my baby? I thought that he could have hurt her when he hit me.”
“Baby.” My brain was working at its slowest pace. Something about that sentence made absolutely no sense to me right now. My mind grasped it and processed it, and I turned to face her. “You’re pregnant?”
She grinned. “Well, I don’t know where else this baby is,” she said. “Yes, I am.”
“But…”
We had stopped now, and the team turned to help Amelia.
“Here, you can hold onto this…” the young man said, gently taking her hand so that they could lower her out of the back and into a wheelchair.
Baby? I followed them in, then went straight to the receptionist who took our details. As soon as we had a number, I sat down on a stool beside Amelia.
“You’re going to have a baby.”
She grinned. “Yes, Carter. I wanted to tell you. I’m expecting our baby.”
It didn’t make any sense. I sat there, trying to take it in. When a doctor came out with a board and pen, I stared up at him as if in a daze.
“Miss Rose?”
“Don’t forget to check the baby,” I said to him as he took the handles of her wheelchair.
Amelia and the doctor both stared at me bemusedly. I shook my head to clear it. Amelia smiled.
“He’s right,” Amelia said gently. “If you could please do an ultrasound? I want to be sure nothing happened to our baby.”
“Sure,” the doctor nodded kindly.
We followed him through into the examination room. I was still floating in a haze of utter amazement and surprise, not sure what to do or think. Her words were swirling around my head without pause.
Our baby. Our baby.
I held Amelia’s hand while he set up the ultrasound. When the image came on the screen, we both stared.
“Look… there it is,” he said. “About five weeks.”
“Five weeks,” I murmured. That was right. I stared into her face.
Amelia beamed at me.
I was surprised at the feeling of awe inside me. I turned away, afraid I was going to start tearing up.
The doctor checked Amelia’s pulse and put some ointment on the bruise on her face, checking her skull for injuries. I held her hand while he examined her. My mind was still floating in amazement.
“Our baby is okay,” I whispered into her hair when we left the room. “He’s fine.”
She grinned. “Or she.”
“Yes,” I murmured, holding her in my arms and pressing her warmly against my chest. “Whatever they are.”
She giggled and looked up into my eyes. “Yes,” she said softly. “Oh, Carter.”
I stared into those dark eyes and knew that I had never felt anything like this and that I never would again. This was what love felt like—this joy, this wonder, this freedom.
I kissed her and she reached up and pressed her lips to mine. We were outside the hospital in the gray, chilly afternoon. I didn’t care. Wherever we were, I would be happy. And it would always be like that, for the rest of our lives.
“I love you,” I whispered.
“I love you, too.”
Epilogue
Amelia
I rolled over in bed, feeling warm. I had slept well, which was nice, despite the summer heat. I shifted on the mattress, feeling a warm body beside mine. I smiled to myself, feeling Carter’s hand on my side.
It was good to wake up slowly. I had stopped getting morning-sickness months ago, thankfully, and now I was adjusting to the constant changes in my body. It was a pleasure to rest here, feeling well.
“Carter,” I whispered.
He was lying behind me, his hand tracing my back. I shivered, excitement flooding through me. He always woke me up like that, with his gentle touch. I moved closer, loving the way it felt to have his body beside me.
“Amelia?” he whispered softly.
I pushed myself against him. I could feel that he was aroused, and I was too. My body ached for his. I let my buttocks push against his hardness, and I heard him sigh aloud.
His mouth found mine, and I twisted my head around to return the kiss, my butt still pushing against him. I was wet, and I wanted him so much.
He let his hands stroke my belly, then move lower. I tensed with excitement as his fingertip found my folds. He moved behind me, and I felt the sheet twist as he got out of
bed.
“Where are you going?”
He smiled at me as he walked around the bed, then lay down in front of me. He moved the covers back so that my naked body was warm in the sunlight coming through the window. His eyes lingered on my growing breasts, and then, as I smiled, he bent down and took one tenderly in his mouth.
He sucked and nibbled at my breast, all the time gently stroking my other breast with his fingertips. I gasped as his lips and his hands made my nerves tingle, kneading and sucking.
He looked up at me and then swapped to the other breast, and then let his hand part my thighs.
I shut my eyes as he moved down the bed. I was already tingling with anticipation. As he parted my thighs still further, I felt my breath catch in my throat. I moaned as his lips found my clit.
He nibbled it, then licked the skin of my folds, with gentle pressure. His tongue was warm and wet, and I shivered as he repeated the motion, faster this time. His fingers stroked me while he gently bit my clit, sending waves of sensation through my body. I felt as if I was catching fire, and each lick coaxed the flames to greater heights.
He held me still as I shuddered, unable to hold still anymore as the sweet feelings built and grew, and grew, and built…
I cried out incoherently, feeling like something had burst inside me. The fire that had been flaring in my belly flare,d and I felt like I was falling as my climax raced through my body, making me utterly relaxed.
He lay where he was, his head on my side.
After a long while, he moved up the bed and lay down beside me. I was still exhausted, but I could feel his cock pushing against my thigh, and the feeling was already making me want him more. I rolled over to face him. His blue eyes sparkled. I looked down at his hard chest, propping myself on one elbow so that I could study him further.
“I think I could do with some more,” I whispered.
“Oh?” He grinned. Just seeing his naughty smile made the longing flare through me more than ever.
I rolled over, and he lay where he was, knowing what I was aiming for. I settled on his hips, then adjusted my weight so that, sitting, I could lower my opening onto him.
He gasped. The sound aroused me, and I drove down again, loving how hard he was, how he filled me so perfectly. I lowered my weight, pushing down on him, loving the way it felt to have him inside me. Nothing felt so good.
“Oh,” he murmured. I could see his eyes were tight shut, his face twisted with intense longing. The expression made me want him even more, and I moved my weight with more strength, pushing down on him again and again and again.
He was shaking now, and I knew he was close. I drove down at a constant pace, my rhythm slow and even. He sighed, and I knew he was close.
Almost before I expected it, as the waves of feeling swept through me, I didn’t know how much longer I could go before I finished, he cried out, then I spilled over the edge as I came tumbling down from my climax.
Gasping, we moved together. He lay still and wrapped his arms around me. I lay beside him, my skin damp and his arms warm around me.
I could feel his heartbeat and the pulse of blood in his neck, his breath fast and exhausted, like mine. We lay together, both lost in the wonder of our feelings. I put my arm around him, feeling like my heart would melt.
“Amelia.” He kissed my forehead.
I smiled, and his arm moved around my shoulder. I put my head beside his. His hair clung to his forehead, and I stroked it. He opened his eyes and smiled. Gently, he moved so that I was in his arms, my buttocks pressed to his hips, our heads beside each other as we lay on our sides.
“I love you,” he whispered.
“I love you too.”
He was holding me in his arms, his hand stroking my belly, which was quite round. I loved it when he did that, my throat closing with tenderness as he touched me so gently.
“It won’t be too long now,” he murmured, “before he’s born.”
“Yes. It’s soon.” I smiled. We knew now that it was a boy. We hadn’t decided what we would call him yet, though we had a lot of ideas. It would be three months before we saw him and could, as Carter said, finally decide. We would choose when we saw him.
“You know, I do wonder about Matthew, sometimes,” he whispered in my ear. “I don’t know where he got the paint.”
I laughed. Since they had found out we were expecting a son, Matt and Mark had spent an entire weekend painting the spare room in a delicate blue color. I hadn’t thought to ask where they got the paint from.
“It was so kind,” I said.
“It was,” he agreed. “Though the smell of the paint wasn’t great.”
“We have managed, at least,” I laughed. We’d conscripted all the fans in the house to blow the smell away, leaving all the windows open at night to get rid of it. It had been a while since I’d felt safe enough to sleep with all the windows open. Now, I didn’t even think about it anymore. It was summer. Carter was here, and it felt natural. And safe.
He laughed and drew me against him, and we lay like that for a while.
“You know,” Carter murmured, bringing me out of a half-sleep.
“Yes?”
“I have something to ask the mother of my baby before he comes into the world.”
“You have?” I asked.
“Yes.”
I waited for the question, but when he said nothing, I wondered what he meant. We’d already decided we’d wait until we named him. And the nursery was painted. We knew that Matthew and Mark would be his godparents. What more could he ask?
I turned around, unable to hold my curiosity.
I stared. Carter was sitting in bed. In his hands, he held a ring.
Wordlessly, tears pouring down my cheeks, my heart soaring, I nodded.
“Yes,” I whispered. “Oh, Carter. I say yes.”
“Good,” he whispered and took me in his arms. “Thank you, Amelia. Thank you.”
“Oh, Carter,” I whispered as he wrapped his arms around me, and I looked into his eyes to see that he, too, was crying now. “Oh, Carter. I love you so very much.”
He smiled and stroked my hair out of my face and kissed me.
“I love you, too, Amelia. So very, very much.”
Laughing, I bent to kiss his lips, and he held me against him and kissed me, slow and tender.
The sun shone in through the window, and I knew, at that moment, that there was nothing greater, lovelier, or more freeing than the power of love.
THE END
Country Love (Excerpt)
Check out my other novel that’s FREE with Kindle Unlimited
I had it all.
Country music’s bad boy renegade.
Success, women, money.
The name Walker Holcomb meant something.
I was on top of the world.
It was a damn long way to fall.
My third album tanked, and I looked for answers in a whiskey bottle.
I went from the top of every sexiest man list to the butt of every joke on late night.
Only thing in worse shape than me is the family farm.
Old place is as ramshackle and beat up as I am—another damned lost cause.
Until I open my screen door one day and find her on my front porch.
Luscious and fiery.
Stubborn as hell.
Irresistible.
Nothing’s had me this fired up in a long time.
She makes me crazy.
I want to shout and cuss at her.
I want to get my hands on that body.
Part of me wants to throw her off my porch, tell her to keep walking till she crosses the property line.
The rest of me wants to back her up against the rail and hike up her skirt.
Even bloodshot eyes can see she’s just what I’ve been waiting for.
1
Walker
“What can I get ya, sir?” the young woman asked.
I looked up at the high school girl and grinned. A
s I sat at the coffee shop in the middle of town, I thought back to how different things would’ve been this time four years ago. That young girl would’ve been lookin’ at me with a light in her eyes and a giggle on her lips. She would’ve been thrusting my latest CD or poster into my hands, beggin’ for an autograph.
But now? I was just another customer. Another slice of windblown talent, fading into the background of Tennessee’s rich musical history.
“Sir?” the young woman asked.
“Ah, yep. Just one of your never-endin’ carafes of coffee and some of your Irish Cream creamer. Love that stuff,” I said.
“Any sugar, too?” she asked.
“Nope. Just the creamer.”
“Anythin’ to eat?”
“Hmm, maybe one of your everything bagels. Toasted, with extra cream cheese.”
“Our cream cheese is good,” she said, smiling.
“That it is.”
“That’ll be it?”
“That’ll be it, ma’am.”
“Great. I’ll get your coffee and creamer, then your bagel should be out soon,” she said.
“Thank ya kindly.”
She scampered off with the order and I unfolded my newspaper. While everyone in Nashville and Knoxville were reading their news on iPads and smartphones, Hopeville was still a very small town practically untouched by the evolution of technology. People still carried around newspapers and talked at water coolers. If someone wanted news, they had to turn on their box set television or gossip on their neighbor’s porch. It was an old-school town with old-school flair, and I loved it.
The town used to love me, too.
Until I made the dumbest decision ever with my music career.
“Here ya go. The never-ending carafe of coffee with lots of Irish Cream creamer,” the young woman said.
“I appreciate it. Thank ya,” I said.
“I’ll go get your bagel and cream cheese, then you’ll be all set.”
I nodded at the girl and she scampered off, rushing her way behind the counter. I put the newspaper down and brought my coffee to my lips. I’d never make coffee in my home again, not since this place changed up their recipe. I had no idea what the hell they did to their coffee, but it was incredible; better than anything I could make. I ignored how hot the liquid was and took three long pulls, aching for the caffeine to fill seep into my tired bones.