“To much info, sweetheart,” he told her ruefully. “I really don’t want to think about you and that bastard fu—”
She held up a hand. “I’m trying to tell you something, James. Don’t interrupt.”
He blinked. “You’re making me nervous.”
“No more nervous than I already am,” she confessed, then, sucking in a sharp breath, continued, “I’m pregnant.”
And with the release of those words, she wasn’t sure if she was going to be sick or if she was going to laugh, because James’ face, though loaded with astonishment, wasn’t registering horror or disgust.
Maybe, just maybe they could get past this.
Together.
“First time’s the charm, eh?”
It was her turn to gawk at him. “That is not the first thing that pops into your head after I tell you you’re going to be a father, is it?” When a grin popped up on James’ face, so smug and satisfied, she had to chuckle. “You’re insane. Do you know that?”
“Insane for you,” came the slick retort.
She blew out a breath. “Whatever I expected, it wasn’t this,” she confessed, eyes bright with amusement as she absorbed just how… happy he was at the news.
“Why?”
The simple question wasn’t so simple. “Because I thought you’d think it was Mark’s, or that I tried to trap you or something.”
He pursed his lips. “We need to work on your self-esteem.”
She snorted. “Whatever I think you’re going to say, I reckon I should plan for the exact opposite.”
“That probably works,” he said after a few seconds’ contemplation.
“You’re crazy insane,” she amended now. “I hope you realize that.” She shook her head at the excitement etched onto his face, and knew, point blank, that she would spend the rest of her life being grateful for that insanity.
“I do realize this, and who’s madder? Me, or you for loving me?”
Because her thoughts had been running on similar lines, she had to grin. Raising a hand, she curled her finger at him. “I think I deserve a kiss.”
James rubbed his chin. “On what grounds?”
She snickered. “On the grounds that I’ve had a rough couple of days, that the man I love, and father of my child, loves me back, and that said man also knows my knee has a true aim.”
His mouth dropped open and he cupped himself underneath the table. “You’d damage the family jewels?” he demanded, utterly aghast at her threat. “But they work! Why fix what isn’t broken?”
Laughter burst from her. “Kiss me, you nut.”
His grin was huge as he slid his chair back and rounded the table. When he bent down to kiss her, he shocked the hell out of her by swooping down and lifting her from her seat.
“I wanted a kiss not a lift,” she grouched sulkily, her lips pouting even as she tilted her head up, so she could look at him. Hannah refused to be in awe at the fact the damn man could carry her.
He had a big enough ego as it was.
“You get both tonight. It’s a buy-one-get-one offer.”
“Like you even know what one of those is.”
“Hey, I’ve seen them on the TV,” he replied.
She chuckled. “I’d pay to see you in a grocery store.”
“We can figure out a deal,” he teased as he carried her from the dining room and then, down a passageway which, she assumed, led to his bedroom.
It was pretty dark where they walked but she felt safe in his arms, and she knew that was exactly how she’d always felt. Safe. With him.
Any doubts were on her part. Never his. He’d never done anything other than be a true friend to her brother, to her family. To her. Everything else was down to her. Her insecurities, her fears. That this crazy rich, crazy beautiful man would ever look at her with anything other than amused pity.
He loved her.
He really loved her.
She sucked in a breath as she embraced that particular home truth, and burrowing her face into his throat, murmured, “What kind of deal will get you in Walmart?”
His laughter was throaty. Sexy as hell, too. “How about… if you say yes when I ask you to marry me?”
Her breath stopped in her chest. “Don’t even joke about things like that.”
Her chiding had his shoulders hunching with laughter. “You’re such a prig,” he teased. “And I’m not joking. I won’t ask you today, not tomorrow even. But it will come, and when it does, you’d better give me the answer I want to hear.”
“Well, I have to, don’t I? If I want to see you in Walmart that is. Surrounded by plebs.”
“You, my darling, are a pleb. I don’t have to go far to find one,” James chuckled in reply.
She whacked him on the shoulder at that, then before she could try to whack him again, he let her go. A shriek escaped her as the certainty she’d be crash-landing into the floor consumed her, but she didn’t.
She landed in a soft bounce of feathers.
“You jerk!” she hollered, and then squinted when he clapped his hands and the lights came on. As did a fire, which was banked on the other end of the bedroom. She gawked at the huge room with a bed the size of a hockey pitch, then mumbled, “I bet that fire got you a lot of pussy.”
“A gentleman keeps his mouth shut,” was his only answer, but he grabbed hold of her chin and stared her straight in the eye. “None of them ever mattered, Hannah.”
His earnestness had her heart stuttering. “You can’t say that,” she whispered hoarsely.
“I can. It was all meant to lead up to this. To this moment. With you.”
And then he kissed her.
When she felt like her heart was about to explode from the sheer wonder of his words, he joined their mouths, his tongue sliding between her lips to tangle with hers with an ease that was unique to them.
She should have known. Labor Day should have been clue enough. When they kissed, the world ceased turning.
Who else did that happen with? No one.
Because it only ever happened with your soul mate.
She saw that now, and could finally embrace the truth.
With a shudder, she scrambled onto her knees as she kept their mouths connected. Not stopping until her stomach was pressed to his, she better angled her head so they could get even closer. With a groan, she shrugged out of her thin jacket and began to tug at her blouse.
She needed skin to skin contact. Nothing else would suffice.
James grunted against her lips, but his hands went to work too. First on her buttons as he shrugged her out of her blouse, then he pulled away to lift his shirt overhead. In those seconds when his face was covered, she drooled over his washboard abs, then she launched herself at him. He grabbed her, letting her pussy settle against his cock as he held her thighs to his hips. She rocked her own, eager to feel him there, to know him again.
Damn, she felt alive, she realized as he thrust his tongue against hers and drove her mad with the need to be closer, forever closer to him.
“I need to be inside you,” he confessed as he pulled his mouth away and began to nibble at her jaw, then dropped down to her throat.
Only yesterday, Mark had pulled the same move and it had filled her with revulsion. Now? She felt like she was about to set on fire with the combustible need that powered through her veins.
“Yes, please,” she begged, keeping it short and sweet, enough for him to burst out laughing at her brusqueness.
“You please me, baby,” he told her, nipping her throat, then kissing further, heading down so his lips could sup from her breasts. She arched her back to allow him more freedom of movement and let out a whimper as his mouth curled about a nipple. He tugged and teased it, licking and flicking it in a way that drove her so high, she knew she’d go nuts if he didn’t stop taunting her.
With a moan, she ran the fingers of one hand through his hair, and reveled in his groan of desire when her nails scraped against his scalp.
“In
me, please. James, please,” she begged, uncaring that she never begged. With James, everything was free game. Always and forever.
He carefully pressed her to the bed, and she realized how she’d still felt safe in his arms even though she’d been begging to be dropped when she’d arched her spine to give him better access to her breasts. He would always protect her, she knew, and God, did she love him for that.
When the down once again encompassed her, she lifted her hips and began to tug at the fly of her pants. Kicking off her trousers and panties, she watched as he did the same. The fire at his back was nothing to the fire in his eyes, she knew, and felt certain that was the same with her.
Before she could do little more than gaze at his impressive erection, he was on top of her, his hips between her thighs. Then, he teased the hell out of her by letting his cock drag against her pussy, letting her anoint him with her juices, before he rolled over so that she was on top now.
With a moan, she sat upright, and began to rock against his dick. Loving the hardness, the slick slide of their juices together as she returned the favor of enticing them both.
He grabbed a hold of her hips and gritted out, “Put me in you, baby.”
She about died at that command, and could do no less than comply. She reached for his hardness, letting her thumb come up to curl about the tip so she could gather his pre-cum there. Teasing him, she sucked her thumb, letting her tongue twirl around it like a sucker, until the hands about her hips grew harder with their insistence. With a moan, she whispered, “You like that?”
“You know I do,” he moaned, then a grunt escaped him as she rewarded his honesty by grabbing his cock, pressing her gate to him, and then carefully sliding onto him.
He was big. She knew that already. But in this position, he was so thick she wasn’t sure she’d be able to take him. With a moan, she forced her muscles to relax, and slowly began to rock her hips, trying to ensure she took all he had to give.
When he was deep inside her, every inch of him caressed by every inch of her, they were both panting. She felt so full, so overfull, that she felt she’d go insane with it. He arched up, not stopping until his mouth hovered over hers. He hushed her under his breath, then whispered, “I love you, Hannah,” and God, didn’t that just make her want to cry?
Tears pricked her eyes, but before she could process that, he reached between them and began to caress her clit. She let out a long moan as sensation fluttered through her, then mumbled, “I need to move.”
The desperation in her tone had him chuckling. The sound was husky and loaded with satisfaction. He wasn’t smug though, and he didn’t laugh in a way that made her want to hit him. If anything, his amusement was aimed at the fact that she was his. And they both knew it.
She began to rock her hips, sliding up and down his length. She felt no need to tease or to entice now. This was honest. Just them. Needing to reconnect.
Within a minute, she was panting hard again as pleasure cascaded through her. She was near the edge, already, and as he carried on caressing her clit, she could feel how the clenching of her inner muscles was driving him insane.
James reached for her lips again, and as he took her in a kiss that made her heart want to burst, she started to come. How couldn’t she? He robbed her of air, robbed her of everything and replaced it all with him. Her senses were overwhelmed, as overfull as her pussy was with his cock.
And she loved it.
She pulled back from his mouth as the need for oxygen overcame her. She let her head fly back as her orgasm roared through her system, and she let loose a throaty holler that declared to the world that this man was hers, and she’d just made him hers.
Epilogue
“How many times do I have to say it?”
James, complete with baby Bronwyn in his arms, grinned. “You know you want to.”
Hannah rolled her eyes, but cut him a quick glance. How could she not? If she’d thought her husband was hot before Labor Day two years ago, that was nothing to now. With a baby in his arms, their baby, her ovaries were already melting again, and they’d been hyperactive for way too long.
“I really don’t want to trek in the African jungle with a baby strapped to my back, James.”
He snorted. “It’s not a jungle. It’s the Serengeti, babe. And it’s the new wonder of the world! Watching the wildebeest migrate. Wynnie wants to come, don’t you, sweetie?” he asked the gurgling baby who stared up at him adoringly.
“You do know she’d look at you like that if you told her the world was coming to an end tomorrow, right?”
He clapped his hands, delicately, over the baby’s ears. She was swaying free in a chest harness, otherwise Hannah’s heart probably would have burst if he’d dropped her. “Don’t you listen to your mean Mommy, Wynnie. And don’t worry. I’ll work on her tonight. When you’re asleep.”
Hannah snorted. “The reason I’m so damn busy is because you just had to release that tweet before we were ready, didn’t you?”
James grinned. Totally unrepentant. Being married to the man was as much responsibility as being the mother to an eight-month-old baby.
At least she could put Wynnie in a baby pen and know she wouldn’t somehow have NASDAQ erupting while she played with Pooh bear.
“I need a pen big enough for you,” she grumbled under her breath.
“You’d need a pen big enough for the both of us,” came his confident reply. “You know there’s no way you’d be able to keep your hands off me.” To the baby, he said in a whisper, “Your mommy can’t keep her hands of your daddy, sweetpea. That’s why there’s going to be another one of you soon. I’ll need a harness for the front and one for my back.”
Her lips twitched because, sadly, he was right. With a huff, she asked, “There’s no way those wondrous migrating wildebeest will get anywhere near us, right?”
His eyes lit up. “Nope. It’s safe as houses.”
“You always say that,” she grumbled.
“And I’m nearly always right.”
“I just don’t fancy being trampled to death on a delta by a million mammals, James. I really don’t think it’s any place for a baby, anyway. Can I even travel that far by plane when I’m pregnant?” She scowled at him, then at an email that just popped up on her dashboard.
“She’ll love it. Look, we need to get this little girlie into the adrenaline from an early age. I swear, by the time she’s a teenager, she’ll be so bored of crazy stunts, we won’t have to deal with any pubescent rebellions. She’ll be praying for the rest that is studying for SATs.”
Hannah laughed at his wiggling brows. “You’re insane.”
“You love me for it,” came the boastful reply.
God help her, she did.
“You’re a nut,” she told him, shaking her head at his silly ways. “But you’re right.”
He winked. “I love you too, babe.”
And that, she guessed, was all that mattered.
The End
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Continue on to read an excerpt of my release, Needing Her!
Needing Her
Those intens
e, blue eyes had such an effect on me… a pull that I couldn’t resist. And the man they belong to doesn’t even realize that he has changed my life forever…
Hailey was my distraction. I buried my frustrations in her.
I hurt her because of how unhappy I was with my life.
It’s been haunting me ever since.
No one had ever told me I looked unhappy before.
No one had ever run away from me before.
No one had ever made me want to run after her before.
I needed to gain closure… at least attempt to apologize.
But there's more than I bargained for when I find Hailey again.
She’s kept something from me… Something I need.
Something that has changed our lives forever.
***Needing Her is a stand-alone novella with no cheating, no cliffhangers, and a guaranteed HEA. And oh yes, plenty of steam too!***
An Excerpt
Hailey
Reaching for my phone propped up on the dashboard, I checked the time before turning off the car my company had loaned me for this week.
Only briefly checking my makeup and hair in the rearview mirror, I adjusted my stereotypical chauffeur cap and threw back my shoulders. Smiling at myself, I forcefully pushed away all thoughts about my family—my mom, in particular—to focus on the job at hand.
George Carlton had called me personally, after all; I couldn’t just disappoint my potentially immediate supervisor.
“Okay!” Climbing out of my car, I secured the locks before making my way closer towards the entrance of the airport. Even the sidewalks were packed with people, and my heels clicking on the cement was lost under the sound of conversation and rolling suitcases. The smell of people just getting on or just leaving a plane mingled in the air to withstand the slight breeze of late September, and thick tendrils slithered up my nostrils to curl my nose hairs.
Weaving effortlessly through the sea of people, I made my way to the gate board to search for the incoming flight from California. Plucking at my service vest, my fingertips tingled as they grazed shiny, brass buttons that lined my belly. I hadn’t worn my uniform for years, but my self-esteem couldn’t be higher that it still fit. Ignoring the noise and smells of the airport as I made my way towards my gate, I actively avoided licking my lips and smearing the light coat of lipstick I wore.
One Kiss: A Brother's Best Friend Romance Page 11