Fantasized by You

by Steph Nuss

  “Mav?” she sighed.

  “Hey, baby.” I pulled her closer and watched a small smile tug at her lips. “Are you feeling any better?”

  Her eyes fluttered open and she stretched out against me and let out a deep breath. “I’m so tired.”

  “Then sleep,” I said, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

  Pulling away, she sat up and gazed down at me. “I can sleep later.”

  And there it was again: that different look in her eye, like she was concealing something from me. The more she woke up and rubbed away the sleep from her eyes, the more I saw it. What’s going on with her?

  She leaned against the headboard and I sat next to her, lacing our hands together. “How was the shower?”

  Tilting her head toward me, she took another deep breath and exhaled. “We need to talk.”

  I knew it. Her voice was shaky when she uttered those four little words no one ever wanted to hear. “Did something happen in Texas?”

  “No,” she said, shaking her head. “I mean, yes, something happened, but it’s not what you’re thinking.”

  “Then tell me what happened.”

  “Could you hand me my purse first?” she asked, pointing to the black bag at the end of the bed.

  “Sure.”

  She started rummaging through it in search of something, and then she stopped and smiled up at me. “You know how I thought I had the flu?”

  I nodded, unsure of where she was going with this.

  “Well,” she stated, pulling her hand out of the bag. She laid a ziplock bag containing a white plastic stick on my lap. “I don’t have the flu … I’m pregnant.”

  Hearing those last two words and connecting them with the item in the bag, my heart felt like I’d been shocked by an electrical current, but in a good way. I felt high and thrilled and totally fearless. I studied the stick in the bag, and when I saw the plus sign, her words finally sank in. We’re having a baby.

  “Mav,” she said nervously, pulling my attention back to her. She laid her hand on my arm and tears glistened in her eyes. “I know we haven’t been together very long, so I understand if you’re not ready for a baby yet. But I’m ready. I’ve always dreamed of being a mom, and I’m fully capable of doing this on my own, so if you’re not—”

  Shutting her up, I grabbed her face with a sense of urgency and kissed her with everything I had, pouring all of my excitement into the kiss. How she could possibly think I didn’t want this with her was beyond me. When I pulled away, a tear fell from her eye and I swiped it away with my thumb and smiled. “When have I ever given you the impression I don’t want to spend the rest of my life with you?”

  Her smile widened as more tears poured from her eyes. “Never.”

  “Then stop talking crazy,” I said gently, drying her cheeks with my thumbs. I searched her eyes and the difference from before was gone. That was it. She’d been worried about telling me she was pregnant. “When did you take the test?”

  “At the beginning of Elly’s bridal shower,” she confessed. “Bayler had made brunch for the shower and I got sick when I smelled egg.”

  I nodded again, smiling. “So, no eggs for a while.”

  “Definitely,” she laughed, shaking her head. “Then I found out she carries around pregnancy tests in her purse like they’re packs of gum, so she gave me a test to take, and that’s when I found out I didn’t have the flu.”

  “That’s kinda funny about Bayler,” I laughed, running my hands through her hair. “But I’m glad she had one on her.”

  “Me too.” She ran her hands up my arms, tracing my tattoos with her fingertips. “I was afraid you might think it was too soon for us to have a baby, or that we weren’t ready to be parents.”

  Skimming my hands under her shirt, I rested them on the small of her back and held her in my arms. “Our future can’t come soon enough. I’m ready for everything with you.”

  “You are?” she asked, incredulously.

  “Of course.” I gave her a quick peck on the lips and then gazed at her. “I’m ready to be the guy who holds your hand as you give birth to our beautiful daughter and the guy you agree to marry someday. Not today or tomorrow or even next month but someday. But, right now, I’m ready for us to move in together. What do you say?”

  “Yes!” she exclaimed, throwing her arms around my neck. “Yes to everything you just said!”

  Pulling her close, I laid her down on the pillows and covered her body with mine. “Nothing will ever be too soon for us.”

  “I agree,” she sighed, cupping my face with her hands. “So, we’re officially living together!”

  “Yep.”

  “And you think it’s a girl?”

  Nodding, I crawled down to her flat belly and pulled up her shirt. “A beautiful little girl who will look just like her mom.” I kissed just above her navel and gazed up at her. “I’ll have to spend the rest of my days threatening boys to stay the hell away from her.”

  She laughed and ran her hands through my hair. “Well, I think it’s a boy.”

  “Oh, the gang will have fun betting on this,” I said, knowing how much we all loved to gamble on one another. “Who else knows?”

  “Just Bayler,” she answered, “I wanted to tell you first before anyone else found out.”

  “I can’t wait to tell everyone.” I gave her another gentle kiss on the belly, and then ran my hands up her sides. “So, how’d the rest of the weekend go? You looked beautiful in your bridesmaid dress. Did everyone love them?”

  She groaned and shook her head. “Don’t get me started on my bridesmaid dress.”

  “What do you mean? What’s wrong with it? Didn’t they like your designs?”

  “Yes, everyone loved all of the dresses and everything,” she said, frustratedly. “But my dress doesn’t fit right. It’s already too tight around my boobs and my hips. I felt like an elephant standing next to the other girls in their dresses. I’m going to have to take it out.”

  I crawled up her body and kissed her hard on the lips. “You are not an elephant. I thought it looked perfect on you.”

  “Of course you did, because my boobs look gigantic in it,” she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. “I know when something doesn’t fit me correctly; it’s part of being a designer.”

  Running my eyes over her body, I smiled, amused by her dress fiasco. Her boobs did look bigger, which only made me more excited about her being pregnant, but they were by no means as huge as she made them out to be.

  “Stop staring at them,” she demanded, lifting my chin up to her.

  “No, they’re beautiful.” I smoothed out the crease between her brows, and she pursed her lips in an adorable little pout. “We both know you’re going to gain weight, but you will never stop being the beautiful, sexy woman I love. So you have to take the dress out a little bit; it’s not that big a deal.”

  “I know,” she sighed, sluggishly. “I just don’t feel good right now. I’m so tired; I feel like I could sleep for an entire month and still not get enough sleep. My boobs hurt, and I’m all bloated. I can’t keep anything down except saltines and I feel nauseated constantly. There’s nothing sexy about any of that.”

  Wrapping my arms around her, I turned us so we were spooning and pulled her back to my chest. “I’m sorry, baby.” I brushed her hair off her neck and kissed her. “Just remember that I love you anyway. If you need me to hold your hair back for you, I will. If you have a craving for something, I’ll make it or I’ll go out and buy it. If your hormones make you crazy horny, I’ll take one for the team.” Laughter spilled from her, and she turned to face me wearing a huge grin. Leaning into her, my lips barely touching hers, I said, “I love you. I will always be here for you, no matter what.”

  “I love you, too.” Her mouth covered mine, and I sucked on her bottom lip before tangling my tongue with hers and stealing more breaths from her. She was and would always be my better half—the half of my soul I’d been dreaming about my entire life. We w
ere so attuned to one another that our hearts beat as if they were one, and we knew exactly what the other desired. I’d always dreamed of having what my parents didn’t—a never-ending, can’t-live-without-you kind of love—and with Harper, that dream came true every moment we spent together, every second I thought about her, and every kiss and touch and intimate fever that burned between us.

  She broke away first and lay back down. Resting her hand over mine on her belly, she relaxed back into me. “We’re having a baby.”

  “We’re having a baby,” I repeated proudly, caressing the warm flesh under her shirt. I couldn’t wait to see her barefoot and pregnant. She’d be pregnant during the summer, and just thinking about her wearing a bikini while carrying my child made my cock twitch. There were so many moments I couldn’t wait to share with her, but for now, I just wanted to help her feel better. “But for now, let’s sleep.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Harper

  Once Maverick was all moved into my place, we had our first doctor’s appointment on the first Friday of April, where we found out I was ten weeks along. Hearing our baby’s heartbeat felt like hearing music for the first time—joyful and overwhelmingly beautiful, and I cried when the doctor pointed out our prune-sized fetus on the sonogram. Now, after weeks of keeping my pregnancy a secret from our friends, we were seconds away from meeting them at Judge’s to give them the good news. I’d wanted to have my first appointment before we started telling everyone. Our parents and Bayler knew, and Imani had figured it out, but so far that was it.

  “You ready?” Maverick asked, excitement dancing in his eyes. After finding a sublease for his place and moving in with me, he’d done everything in his power to dote on me day and night, and I loved how eager he was to tell the world about our baby. What I wasn’t too thrilled about was the media finding out I was pregnant, but I was trying my best not to worry about it.

  I nodded and reached for his hand. “Yes.”

  He carefully helped me out of the car, though I wasn’t even showing yet. I still had touches of morning sickness here and there, but the biggest issue I was dealing with right now was constipation. The doctor suggested exercising more and keeping a food journal of all the foods that clogged me up or gave me gas to find my triggers. Lovely, right? I also had veins appearing on my breasts and belly now, but according to the doctor, that was perfectly normal.

  When we walked into the bar, I found all of our friends and my brother seated around the bar. I stood there for a moment, watching them all sip their drinks and laugh at whatever story Cash was telling as he filled drinks. After hanging out with them more and more over the past few months, the skin of being an outsider had finally been shed; I felt like one of them now. Kissing my neck, Maverick’s hands roamed my belly and I leaned back into him.

  “Come on, woman,” he laughed against my skin. “I can’t keep her a secret any longer!”

  “Or him,” I teased, smiling at him. We’d been doing this ever since I told him I was pregnant, going back and forth on calling our baby a girl or a boy. Honestly, I didn’t care about the sex, I just wanted him or her to be healthy, but listening to Maverick talk to or about his daughter nearly made my panties drop every time; there was just something incredibly sexy about him when he talked baby. Of course, my hormones may have had something to do with it, too.

  Taking my hand, he kissed me on the lips and led us over to the bar.

  “Hey!” Elly cheered, taking a sip of her drink.

  “Hi,” I said, smiling back at her.

  Cash immediately handed Maverick a beer and then looked over at me. “Harper, what would you like?”

  “Um …” I tightened my grip on Maverick’s hand.

  “She’ll just have a water,” Maverick said, wrapping his arm around my waist. At the mention of water, they all turned at the same time and gaped at us like we were crazy. Glancing up at Maverick, I watched the smile on his face widen, showing off his beautiful pearly whites, and I immediately wished we were back home so I could jump him. Simmer down, hormones! His eyes met mine and I nodded, silently giving him permission to make our announcement. “We have some exciting news: We’re expecting!”

  “Ohmigawd!” Elly shouted, jumping off her barstool. Tessa’s excitement mimicked hers, and they both wrapped their arms around me in a tight hug.

  Paige lifted her drink in the air and smiled. “Congratulations!”

  “I’m going to be an aunt!” Elly cheered, dancing her way back over to Carter. I watched her give him a cute smooch on the nose and giggled. “And you’re going to be an uncle!”

  “Yes, I am,” Carter grinned.

  Fletcher and Justin each gave Maverick and me a hug, and then Cash made the announcement to everyone in the bar, and they toasted us. When the commotion finally settled down, we took a seat at the bar with the others.

  “So, how’d Mom and Dad take the news?” Carter laughed, nudging my arm.

  “Well,” I mused, thinking back to the phone call with our parents. “Mom refuses to be called Grandma, but Dad sounded excited for us.”

  “Not surprised about Mom,” Carter said, rolling his eyes.

  “And how’d Charlotte take it?” Elly asked.

  Maverick took a drink of his beer. “Mom cried tears of joy, and then asked us what color afghan we wanted for the baby. I don’t even know what an afghan is.”

  I rolled my eyes at him and laughed. “I’ve told you, it’s a blanket.”

  “Well, it doesn’t sound like a blanket,” Fletcher interjected.

  “Exactly!” Maverick said, high-fiving Fletch. “Thank you. That’s what I was thinking!”

  “Men,” Paige sighed, shaking her head, which made the rest of us girls laugh.

  The guys went back to watching the game on the flat screen and talking about March Madness, but Maverick’s hand never moved from my thigh. It was as if he couldn’t bear the thought of letting me out of arms’ reach.

  Tessa leaned against the bar. “So, when’s your due date? We have to throw you a baby shower!”

  “October twenty-sixth.”

  “Awesome!”

  “Please tell me you’re going to find out the sex of the baby,” Elly said, giving me a pointed look. “Have you had an appointment yet?”

  I took a deep breath, completely overwhelmed by all of their excitement. “Yep, we actually had our first appointment earlier today. I’m ten weeks, so the baby’s about the size of a prune.”

  “Awe,” Tessa cooed, like the prune was the cutest fruit in the world.

  “And, yes, we’re planning on finding out the sex,” I said, glancing back at Maverick, who’d been listening.

  “I think it’s a girl,” he smirked.

  I turned back to the girls and laughed. “I think it’s a boy.”

  Paige hopped down from her barstool without a word, and moved down to the other end of the bar next to Justin. What the hell was that about? Confused, I looked back at Elly and Tessa frowning.

  “Don’t worry about her,” Elly said, shaking her head.

  “She’s weird about babies and pregnant women,” Tessa said, rolling her eyes. “I don’t get it. Who doesn’t love babies?”

  I nodded, still feeling like Paige had just stabbed my pregnant belly with a knife.

  “She’s happy for you guys,” Elly insisted. “Pregnancy just freaks her out, so listening to people talk about pregnancy makes her uncomfortable.”

  “I see,” I said, gazing down at the other end of the bar. “We could’ve talked about something else, like the wedding, or whatever.”

  “No, we can’t!” Elly said firmly, waving off my concerns. “I’m so sick of talking about the wedding. You’re having a baby! That’s something to talk about.”

  “Exactly!” Tessa said, holding her drink up in the air for a refill. Cash came by and grabbed her glass, and then she turned her attention back to us. “So, I’m with Mav. I hope you have a girl. You’re a fashion designer. You have to have a little fashion
ista!”

  “I don’t want a little diva though,” I laughed, snapping my fingers back and forth dramatically. “That would be a nightmare.”

  Elly giggled and shook her head. “I don’t know. I see you having a boy.” She nudged Carter’s arm and smiled up at him. “What do you think they’re gonna have, a boy or a girl?”

  “Oh, I smell a bet brewing!” Fletcher said, rubbing his hands together. He stood up from his barstool, and we all turned around to face him. “Okay, the bet is: Will Harper and Mav have a boy or a girl?” He pointed at Paige at the end of the bar. “Go!”

  Paige smiled. “Girl.”

  Fletcher pointed at Justin.

  “Boy,” Justin said.

  Carter was next. “Boy.”

  “Boy,” Elly said, sticking her tongue out at Maverick.

  Maverick shook his head. “Girl!”

  Laughing, I answered, “Boy!”

  “Girl!” Tessa yelled, clinking her glass with Mav’s.

  Fletcher studied me for a moment, as if I had the answer written on me somewhere, his fingertips grazing his jawline as he pondered.

  “What are we betting on?” Cash asked, leaning over the bar.

  “The baby,” Fletcher said, pointing to me. “What’s your bet: boy or girl?”

  “Oh, man, I hope it’s a girl just so we get to watch Mav freak out for the rest of our lives,” Cash joked, patting Maverick on the back.

  “That would be fun,” Fletcher laughed, still studying me. “Girl.”

  “So, four boys,” I said proudly, wiggling my brows at Mav.

  “And five girls,” he smirked, sliding his hand up my thigh, knowing how much his touch turned me on. “You’re going down, Jennings.”

  “We’ll see about that, Jones,” I retorted, kissing him.

  We all turned back around to the bar, and Cash went back to bartending. Maverick’s phone went off inside his jeans, alerting him of a new text. He pulled his iPhone out and smiled when he saw that the message was from Charlotte. I loved how close he was with his mom; they made me want the same type of relationship with my child. Growing up with parents who cared more about their social calendars and oil fields than they did about their kids, always pawning us off on our grandparents, wasn’t the ideal childhood. I loved them, but Mom would never text me the way Charlotte texted Maverick, sending him funny jokes or just to say hi. They shared a bond I didn’t have with my folks.