“Georgia May—”
The other woman put her hand up, cutting Lily off. “I won’t take no for an answer. You just let me handle everything and I will see you there.”
Then, as suddenly as she had arrived, she was gone. The bells over the door jingled with her exit.
Lily sighed as she tossed the card onto the desk. Her gaze landed on the spilled pen holder and she began bending down to gather them up.
Sloan beat her to it. He scooped them up and returned them to their place.
Lily thanked him, but her gaze remained focused on the card.
“What is it?” he asked, going to her.
She shook her head. “I really don’t want to be surrounded by married women, judging me for not being the same. I know it’s going to be brought up.” Her hands went to her belly and she stroked the bump. “I’m pretty sure that’s why Georgia May is doing this, to ridicule me for not being married.”
She left the room before Sloan could respond.
“Lily?”
Later that evening as Sloan lay with his head in Lily’s lap, watching Jimmy Fallon on TV, he peered up at the woman gently combing her fingers through his hair.
She looked down. The glow from the TV shone over her face, illuminating her eyes. “Yeah?”
She watched as he reached for the remote and muted the canned laughter. He set it back down on the coffee table and twisted his body around on the sofa.
“I want to know what happened to your camera.”
It was something that had been steadily nagging him since the day she moved in and no matter how many times he tried to bring it up, he found he couldn’t, or it wasn’t the right time. But he couldn’t stand it anymore.
“My camera?” Even if her voice hadn’t tightened, the tension in her once lax frame said it all. “Why do you want to—?”
“Because no one seems to know what happened to it,” he said evenly. “You used to take it with you everywhere—the hundreds of albums upstairs attest to that—yet no one has seen the thing in years.”
She focused on something across the room. The muscles of her delicate jaw worked anxiously.
“I grew out of it,” she mumbled.
Sloan shifted higher on the sofa until they were face to face and she had no choice but to look into his eyes. “No one with that kind of passion simply out grows the thing they love to do.” He coaxed a strand of hair behind her ear. “Tell me.”
Her bottom lip disappeared between the vicious gnawing of her teeth. Her eyes glittered in the semi darkness. “If I tell you, do you swear never to tell anyone?”
He pried her lip free from the abuse and brushed it with the pad of his thumb. “You know I won’t.”
Her throat moved with her hard swallow. She dampened her lips. “Do you remember that weekend the school took the senior class camping before graduation?”
Sloan’s ribs gave a twang of pain at the memory. That had been the weekend his father had broken three of them after he found out Sloan had taken money out of his beer fund so Cole could go to that camping trip with everyone else. When Cole had asked what happened, Sloan had told him not to worry about it, but the pain of it felt as real now as it had then.
“I remember,” he mumbled.
Lily drew in a deep breath. “I never wanted to go. Three hundred dollars for a single weekend of camping seemed like such a waste when we needed that money for a hundred different things. So I never told my parents about it, because I knew they would want me to go. But they found out and next thing I knew, my name was on the attendee list. Later, I found out, by accident, that the money had been for my mom’s medication, that they had used her money to send me to that stupid camp.” Her voice broke and she looked away.
Sloan brushed away the tear that glittered in the TV light. “You sold the camera.”
“It was the only thing I had worth anything,” she whispered. “I didn’t get as much as I should have, I know that, but it was enough to get Mom her meds.”
“How did you do that without them noticing?”
A ghost of a grin pulled on her lips. “I put the money in the hen jar.”
“The hen jar?” he inquired.
Lily chuckled. “It’s this ugly cookie jar my mom keeps in the pantry. Whenever they had some spare money, which was hardly ever, they would put it in the jar for emergencies. They never knew I knew about it, but when you’re eight and see a cookie jar, you always hope…”
Sloan laughed and kissed her nose.
Lily sobered. “I put the money in there. Neither of them could figure out where it had come from, but since I didn’t know about the jar, they figured they must have just forgotten. Mom got her medication and all was right in the world once more.”
“No, it wasn’t,” he murmured. “You lost your camera.”
Lily shrugged in what she probably thought was a gesture of nonchalance, but the pain he saw reflecting in her eyes were unmistakable. “It was only a camera. Besides, it’s not like anything would ever come of that hobby. I like to think it served its purpose.”
Sloan kissed her with all the tenderness swelling up inside him. He kissed her as though worshiping her with his mouth was the only way to convey just how precious she was.
Against his lips, she sighed. Her fingers brushed his jaw and glided up until she was cupping the side of his face between her palms. Sloan adjusted his weight, lifting himself up and scooting up from his reclined position. With their lips still attached, he drew her over him as he stretched out onto his back. Her knees went to either side of his waist and her arms slipped around his shoulders. And they kept kissing as the TV flickered in the background and their heartbeats pattered as one.
Sloan paused only briefly to peer up into her beautiful eyes, shadowed by the curtain of hair draped around both their faces. Their labored breathing tangled together as they examined each other in the darkness, and Sloan realized with a start that he wasn’t hard. He knew he could be in a matter of seconds, but there was no desire to change that comfortable moment when all he wanted to do was hold her.
“I love you,” he whispered. He brushed his fingers over her cheek and combed them back through her hair. “I love everything about you.”
Lily lowered her head and nestled her head into the curve between his neck and shoulder. Sloan rubbed the arch of her spine where she couldn’t fully lay over him through the soft material of her top.
“I love you, too.”
Sloan held her there a while longer, enjoying the wash of her breath against his throat and the tickle of her hair along his jaw. But he knew it couldn’t be comfortable for her the way she was hunching, and as much as he wanted to stay there, he pushed them upright.
“I think it’s time for bed,” he murmured into her temple.
Lily sighed and nodded. “You have a move in the morning and I want to go shopping for some clothes before people think I shop in the children’s department.”
Sloan chuckled. “Did you want me to come along?”
She pulled back and squinted into his face. “You want to go clothes shopping with a girl?”
When said like that, no. But he was a wise man.
“Only if you want me there.”
With a snort, clearly not believing him, Lily tentatively climbed off him and stood. “That’s okay. I’m only going to pick up a few things. I read that apparently this,” she splayed her pale hands over her belly. “Is just the beginning. It gets bigger, so no point getting too much when I’ll just need to buy more later.”
Swinging his legs over the edge, Sloan heaved himself upright and turned his body so he had her between his knees. His hands lifted of their own volition and rested carefully on her hips. His head tipped back so their eyes met, his asking without words.
Lily nodded, and for some reason, with that small gesture, she had given him something irreplaceable. And it scared him that he was terrified. Yet, when he raised his hands, they were steady. Over him, Lily’s sharp intake of air w
as never relinquished. She seemed to be holding her breath as he was. It rushed out when his palms made contact.
The swell seemed to radiate its own heat. It burned his skin like cupping hot coals. Part of him wondered if that was only in his head, or if a person’s body could reach those temperatures. But it was more than that. The hurt was spectacular. It was the sort of burn that made his entire body sing with an unimaginable happiness. It was no surprise when his voice caught.
“Does it hurt?”
There was the slightest shake of her head.
The idea of a baby had always been there. He had always known she was carrying and that eventually, one day, that baby would be out in the world and it would be his responsibility to step up. But it had never truly felt real until that moment. There was a tiny life inside her, one that needed him for so much. This child would only know him as its father. He—Sloan—would be the one to put it to bed, wrap up its skinned knees and make the monsters go away at night. True he had had no hand in its conception, but that didn’t matter. This kid, no matter what the future held, would always be his and he would love it no matter what.
He found Lily at her desk the next morning. She looked agitated as she dug through the filing cabinet with a ferocity that made him worry for the files. Sloan edged carefully into the room.
“Lil?”
Yanking out a file, she slammed it on the table and wheeled herself back behind the desk. “Why is it so hot in here?” she snapped at him. “It’s like a million degrees.”
Sloan shot a glance in the direction of the gray, winter glow outside the window and frowned. “It’s November, love. In Canada. No one ever mistakes Canadian winters as too hot.”
She blew out a breath that lifted her bangs off her brow, and only then did he notice it. Her cheeks were flushed like she had a fever and there was a thin sheen of sweat across her upper lip. Concern propelled him around the desk to her side.
“Lily?” He touched a hand to her brow. “God, you’re hot!”
She glowered up at him. “Now is not the time to be hitting on me.”
He would have rolled his eyes, but it wasn’t the time for that. “Baby, you’re burning up.” He dragged her chair away from the desk and scooped her up into his arms.
“Hey!” she protested. “Put me back. I have orders to fill out and calls to make…”
“It can all wait!” He marched with her into the sitting room and gently set her down on the sofa. “How did you catch something overnight?”
“I’m not sick,” she grumbled. “I’m just really, really hot.”
“I’m calling Dr. Phillips.” He dug into his pocket for his phone.
“I’m fine!” she cried, making a grab for the device. “I swear. I don’t feel sick. No runny nose, no sore throat. I’m just really on edge.”
He eyed her. “Fine people don’t have temperatures that high.”
“Stop fussing,” she ordered. “I feel fine. You, on the other hand, have a move that you need to get to.”
“The boys can handle—”
“Go!” she commanded. “I will make myself some tea and just relax. If I need anything I will call.”
“What if it’s the baby?” he demanded.
“The baby is fine. I’m fine. Now, please go to work.”
The phone in the office took that moment to ring and she made as though she were considering getting up.
“Stay!” he commanded sharply.
Lily frowned up at him. “I’m not a golden retriever.”
“No, but you’re still not moving from that spot.”
“It could be Tom,” she reminded him. “He’s probably wondering where you are.”
“Tom has my cell number,” he said. “He can call me there. In fact, everyone has my cell number, so if there’s any problems, or if someone needs to get a hold of the office, they can phone my cell. You are not moving from that spot. In fact…”
He left her and marched into the office. A moment later, he had the phone yanked out of the wall and was winding the cord around the base as he stalked back to her.
“That was a little excessive,” she grumbled. “Now how am I going to call you?”
Giving her a smug smirk, he walked over to the end table, picked up her cell phone and set it gently down next to her hip.
Her scowl deepened.
“I’ll be back before you know it,” he promised. He bent down and brushed a kiss to her warm brow. “Get some rest.”
“Hey man, what took you?” Tom, no doubt in the middle of dialing Sloan's phone again, snapped his cell closed and waved Sloan over.
Yanking his bandana free of his back pocket, Sloan fastened it around his head. “Just some home stuff,” he muttered.
“Everything okay with Lily?”
Not answering, Sloan motioned with a jerked of his head towards the two story house waiting to be emptied. “What we got?”
The move was straight forward; load, move, and unload. Sloan had done it a hundred times, but his mind was a mess of worries and questions, all involving Lily. Several times he had to stop himself from calling her and checking to see how she was. It irritated him that she hadn’t called him. He kept glancing at his phone, expecting to see a missed call, or a text. Hell, an email. But the stupid thing remained stubbornly blank.
He rubbed a hand over his grimy brow and wondered if she was resting, or if she was on the sofa, too weak to move, unable to call him because the phone had dropped and shattered and now didn’t work and he had taken away the only other phone in the house and she was…
No! He needed to stop that. He was worrying himself sick for no reason. He should just call her, then maybe his mind would finally be at rest.
But what if she was sleeping?
With a low growl, he hoisted up a box and lugged it to the van.
“Lily? I’m home.”
He let the front door close behind him as he trudged into the foyer. He kicked off his boots and ambled his way deeper into the silence. The sofa was empty except for a rumpled blanket and an indented pillow. The TV was off and Lily’s phone was on the coffee table. Its owner was nowhere to be seen.
“Lily?” he called again.
A low curse followed by the clatter of something dropping had him heading for the kitchen.
It was only then he noticed the rich scent of fried meat and tomato sauce thickening the air. There was a bubbling pot on the stove. Steam billowed from the edges where the lid wasn’t set properly. A ladle dripping with red sauce sat perched on a napkin. Lily was standing over the table, one finger in her mouth as she glared at the knife on the cutting board, surrounded by small, neatly diced piles of celery, red, green and yellow peppers, and mushrooms.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
Scowling, she nodded. “Just cut myself. It’s nothing.” She wiped her hand on her skirt impatiently. “Supper will be ready by the time you get out of the shower.”
From the smell of it, supper was chili, which made sense how the temperature had dropped since autumn had begun to set in, but it didn’t explain why Lily was wearing a short, strappy dress in an almost sheer fabric that clung to the swell of her breasts and fluttered down her delicious frame like every man’s fantasy. Her hair was swept into a messy knot at the back of her head with tendrils falling enticingly along the flushed column of her throat and the rosy slope of her cheeks. Her feet were bare, the toes painted a metallic blue.
“Why aren’t you in bed?” he asked, edging a couple of steps deeper into the room.
“Because I told you, I’m fine.”
He stopped when the table was between them. “You’re still really flushed. That can’t be fine.”
If possible, the red in her cheeks seemed to only get darker. “It’s fine.”
Her confidence on the matter puzzled him. “How can you be so sure?”
“Because,” was her only response as she tactfully avoided his gaze.
“Lily…”
Her face bunched i
n a grimace. “Please don’t make me say it. Please.”
“Tell me,” he pleaded softly.
She pulled in a deep breath, held it in her chest while she leveled him with a gaze that begged him to just drop it. Her chest rose and fell rapidly beneath the lacy cups of her dress, demanding his attention, but Sloan stayed focused. When she pried her lip free of her teeth, they were swollen with blood and wet from her tongue and momentarily caught his gaze before he shifted back to her eyes.
“There’s this thing that happens to pregnant women,” she began awkwardly. “Like a hormone imbalancement. What happens is that it messes with … with your body.”
Sloan nodded slowly, trying to understand what she was trying to tell him. “Okay, so what do you need?”
Her chuckle was pained. “I didn’t want to bring it up like this. I had this whole thing in my head. You would come home. We would have supper. Then I would…” She mumbled the last word too low for him to hear.
“What?”
She rolled her eyes heavenward, her face as bright as the chili sauce. “I was going to seduce you.”
Sloan’s eyebrows migrated straight into his hairline. “What?”
“Don’t make me say it again!” she snapped. “I already said it twice.”
“No, I heard you … I think.” He rubbed a hand over his hair. “I just don’t understand.”
Lily threw open her arms in exasperation. “What part of that didn’t you understand? I want you to fuck me.”
Her eyes said it. Her lips said it. It hung in the air around them, thick and heavy. But his brain had completely gone on standstill.
“We’ve been officially together for nearly two months,” she went on, her words quick like she needed to get them out before she lost her nerves. “We’ve kissed … a lot. We nearly came close a few times, but either you pull away or we get interrupted. I’ve only been with one person, but I know enough about my body to know it wants you. I want you. I want you to throw me down on this table, tear off my clothes and fuck me until I can’t see straight.” She broke off, sucked in another breath and continued. “There. Now you know why I’m so hot. Now excuse me while I go drown myself.”
Forever His Baby Page 15