He looked at her with suspicion. “You’re not over this, are you?”
She stood and cupped his shaft, which showed a definite interest in the events at hand. “Not by a long shot.” She climbed through the window and walked to the bed, watching him as he followed her inside. Making sure she had his attention, she pulled her sundress over her head. She was naked beneath.
Chloe climbed up on the bed, lay back with her arms above her head and bent one knee. “Why don’t you take off your boots?”
Dev studied her for a moment with a puzzled look on his face, then his lips twitched. “I know I’m in trouble, here, but I figure any punishment that starts with you being naked can’t be all bad.” Sitting on the bed next to her, he silently unlaced the boots, then removed his socks. He looked up at her. “Pants?”
“Nope. Leave those on.”
He stood. “I was afraid of that.”
“I believe Plan B was called Worship-the-Fertility Goddess?”
“And?”
“Let the ceremonies begin.”
His eyes gleamed as climbed up on the bed next to her and lifted her legs. “Be gentle with me, sweetheart.”
An hour later, Chloe had lost track of her orgasms. She thought she’d just had number four, but whether it was four or five, she knew that Dev had to be more than ready for what she had in mind. After catching her breath, she reached for his head, pulling his short hair until he sat up and looked at her. It was dark in the cabin, but there was enough moonlight to see the gleam in his eyes and the way he clenched his teeth.
She patted the space next to her. “Come here.” He crawled up near her, rested his head on his elbow and lay down next to her on his side. The jerk licked his lips with a satisfied grin, which made Chloe feel no regret whatsoever for what she was about to do.
Chloe touched his nipple with her fingernail and grazed it back and forth. His grin evaporated. “There’s one more thing I need from you.” Running her fingernail roughly down his chest, she continued along the front of his pants, making him suck in his breath and swear. “I want you to open those buttons and show yourself to me.”
He hesitated. She could tell he didn’t much like being ordered around. It wasn’t something that came all that natural to her, but the man needed to learn something about trust. She let out her breath when he finally complied.
He was beautiful, thick and long and corded with veins that pulsed with life. She felt a spasm in her heated vagina. It was difficult not to reach for him.
“Now what?” he asked with a husky note in his voice.
She met his eyes. “Now I want you to show me how much you want me. I want you to make yourself come.” She didn’t look away from him as she put her fingertips to her nipples.
He closed his eyes with a look of pain upon his face, but his cock twitched and lifted high against his belly. When he looked at her, his eyes were blazing. “There’s not another soul I would do this for.”
And she knew what he meant. She was asking him to be vulnerable. She wanted him to repair the trust that had been broken. Of course that didn’t mean she couldn’t help him through this.
It was frankly quite a power trip to know she could affect him so strongly. “I’m supposed to massage my nipples to get them ready for breast feeding.” She purposely pouted. “I’ve been a bad girl, neglecting them.” She could feel herself blush, but she didn’t let her eyes waver from him. “Usually I use hand crème to keep them from getting dry.”
He looked at her breasts, which she held up for his pleasure. Then with a groan, his eyes returned to her face and his hand made a fist around his cock. He was much rougher than she had ever been, so it was a revelation to her to discover what he liked.
Her fingers drifted to her nipples, dusting them softly as she watched him pump. The head of his cock was thick and nearly purple and his balls lifted high in his scrotum. He moved his hand faster, breathing harder, staring at her breasts, which she moved closer to him by shifting in the bed and lifting for his use.
“God damn it!” he bellowed, while hot jets of semen spilled onto her breasts and nipples.
Chloe watched his face, tight with tension, his lips gasping for breath. When he finally opened his eyes, she used her hands to massage his warm semen into her nipples and around the skin of her breasts. There was only one problem. She was so aroused by watching him that the pooling and heaviness in her vagina was nearly painful. She was ready to tip over once again. “Dev?” she whispered.
Reaching for her with his hand, he smiled and whispered against her lips. “Allow me, goddess.”
A few minutes later, he encompassed her with his arms and spooned her backside against his chest. Chloe pulled his lower arm up between her breasts and intertwined her fingers with his. “I’m still mad, you know.”
“I know,” he answered. His arms pulled her even closer. “Not as mad as before, though.”
She could hear the satisfaction thrumming in his voice, but she was too tired and too satisfied to care. She snuggled into his chest, content and happy. Dev must have felt equally content because he lay relaxed against her back and trailed his hand absently over her hip, lulling her to sleep. Just before she dozed off, she thought she heard a whisper in her ear. “I figure that means you’re going to marry me.”
Chapter Five
Chloe twisted the simple gold wedding band around her finger as she sat with Dev in her obstetrician’s waiting room. She had been a married woman for five days.
Dev squeezed her hand then stood. “I need to give them the information for medical benefits.”
As he leaned over the front desk to speak with the nurse, every pair of female eyes in the waiting room zeroed in on what the man could do for a baggy pair of cargo shorts. It was down right criminal that he had not tucked in his red polo shirt to improve the view. When he reached into his back pocket for his wallet, she was sure that she heard a collective little gasp of anticipation.
Dev completed the forms for the nurse. When he turned around to return to his seat, at least twenty heads dropped down to magazine pages to study the pros and cons of cotton versus disposable diapers and the evils befalling infants who were not breast fed.
He sat back down and leaned close. “Why’s it suddenly so quiet in here?”
“Because everyone was staring at your butt,” she whispered.
He frowned. “Did I sit in something?”
She rolled her eyes. “Surely you know that you are major stud material.”
A slow grin appeared under his twinkling eyes. “If you say so, sweetheart. Just say the word and I’ll find us a corner so you can check out my front side as well.”
The nurse called Chloe’s name, so she ignored his suggestion and headed for the door with Dev on her heels. It was weird to be self-conscious in front of him, but Dev must have sensed her unease and stepped outside the exam room while she changed.
By the time the doctor arrived, Dev was back standing at her side as she sat on the exam table. “Chloe. You look well.” Dr. White looked at Dev expectantly.
He held out his hand. “Dev Gallagher. The father.”
The woman looked confused and met Chloe’s eyes. “I thought you used –“
“I did,” Chloe answered. “Meet the non-anonymous donor.”
“Hmmm. I foresee a very interesting board meeting at the fertility clinic this month. You’re okay with this?”
Chloe shrugged while Dev wrapped his large hand around her fingers. “Very okay,” he said. “We’re married.”
“Well, as long as everyone’s happy.” Dr. White motioned for Chloe to lie back while she felt her abdomen and listened to the baby’s heartbeat. The rapid little patter of beats on the speaker always gave Chloe a thrill, and by the look on Dev’s face, it was a mutual experience.
“Everything seems fine,” said the doctor. “Your blood pressure is normal. The baby appears to be growing at the expected rate.” She consu
lted a card in her pocket. “November fifteenth still looks good as a due date.” The doctor wheeled the ultrasound machine close and squeezed some gel onto the skin over her uterus. “Let’s give dad a quick look.”
Dr. White moved the probe over her belly as if it were a computer mouse. She used arrows and lines to point out the baby’s head, spine, arms and legs. Dev reached his hand up to the screen. “Is that what I think it is?”
There was a definite extra structure between the baby’s legs that was clearly not an arm or a leg. The doctor laughed. “Ultrasound is not completely accurate for determining sex, but I’d say you spotted a pretty suspicious sign of a little boy, Mr. Gallagher.”
Dev had taken her hand in both of his. He met her eyes and she could have sworn his green eyes looked misty. She squeezed his hand and asked for a print to take home, then handed it to Dev while she dressed.
It wasn’t until they had walked all the way to the car that Dev spoke. He helped her in the car door and stood with his hands on the roof and open door. “It’s as if every other thing I’ve ever done doesn’t matter.” He leaned down and softly kissed her. “Thank you. For everything.” He handed the ultrasound photo back to her.
She pushed it back to him. “That one’s yours.” Chloe had to fight her own tears as he walked around the car. This was starting to feel way too comfortable and it was going to hurt way too much when he left.
As they drove silently down the highway, Chloe knew she needed to do something to protect herself. Over the years, she had become an expert at being left by men, and in her considered opinion, it sucked.
During the last half of college at Emory, she had had her first serious relationship. But then Barry had gotten a fellowship to study painting in Italy, and there was no invitation issued to tag along. To be fair, money had been tight for both of them, and something had kept her from pushing the issue. She had taken a teaching job and stayed put.
Barry’s letters and emails had followed a pattern. They both became increasingly scarce. And then the inevitable message came --- he was in l-u-v with a fellow painter he had met at the art institute. Ciao, Ciao Barry.
Then when she was twenty-five, she went back for her masters in education where she met Bobby Joe Johnson. He had just finished his music degree and was playing keyboard and horns for a couple of local jazz bands. Their hours conflicted, but they managed to stay together for four years and had a lot of fun. Then he’d gotten a gig in New York City.
To Bobby Joe’s credit, he visited a few times, and she traveled to see him once. But on his last visit home, he told her he was moving to the Big Apple for good. No invitation came to join him. And once again, she didn’t push it. Her subconscious mind must have been telling her that it wasn’t meant to be, but that still didn’t keep it from hurting.
So as a wiser thirty-year-old woman, Chloe looked at Dev as he pulled up in front of her house. Here was a man who had told her up front that he would leave. Here was a man she was afraid she could love more deeply than she’d ever known. She knew she needed to pull back.
The opportunity arose the next day, as Chloe sat on her back porch and watched Dev, dressed only in a pair of gym shorts, weeding her garden, looking for all the world as if he belonged in her back yard. A large pot of tomatoes he had picked for her sat at her feet.
When he plopped down in the chair beside her, sweat rolling down his bare chest, she had to look away so that she wouldn’t weaken. “I need to go out for a while.”
He took a long chug of ice water from a jug and watched her over the rim. “I can drive you if you want.”
“No. I’ll be going with my neighbor across the street.”
“That would be the lady that looks like a fire hydrant?”
“Yes. Liz. She’s a psychologist.” Don’t be a chicken, Chloe. “She’s my Lamaze partner.”
“I’ve been meaning to ask you about that. I’d like to be there when the baby is born.”
Chloe blew out her breath. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
“I don’t get sick at the sight of blood or anything. If this Liz person wants to be there too, that’s okay. But this may be the only kid I ever have.” He sat down the jug of water and met her eyes. She hated the vulnerable look that he quickly hid behind his steely green gaze. “I want to be there.”
“It’s not that I want to deprive you. I just need to prepare myself for when you leave.”
Dev sat silently for a few minutes, then went into her kitchen. He returned a few minutes later with a cold beer and stood at the railing surveying the garden. “Tell you what. Just let me watch from a distance. You won’t even know that I’m there.” Right. As if he could be within fifty feet of her and she not feel his presence.
When she didn’t answer him, he drank from his beer bottle and propped his bad leg on the lower rail. His shoulders looked as if he was carrying the weight of the world. His voice was quiet. “I want to be there. And then why don’t we just wait and see how things go after the baby’s born?”
She couldn’t stand this uncertainty. “We’re getting a divorce, right?”
He turned around and looked at her. “That’s what I said.”
“It would help if I knew when you’re going to leave.”
His eyes narrowed. “It can be tomorrow if you’re in such a damn hurry.”
“I’m not trying to rush you.”
“Then what is this, Chloe?” This was the first time she’d seen him get angry over anything, but it was very controlled, very cold.
“This is me trying to protect myself.”
“I threaten you?” He asked with disbelief.
“I’m afraid that I’m falling in love with you, you big jerk.”
“Oh.” His subsequent moment of silence was eloquent. He sat down next to her in the chair, probably trying to figure out how to let her down easy. “I’m not good at long-term, Chloe. It’s not a smart move to love me.”
What a newsflash that was. When he didn’t say anymore, she stood up and walked to the back door. Trying not to cry, she turned back toward him. “I’ll see you when I get back.” They both knew it was a question instead of a statement.
“Yeah. I’ll be here.”
* * * *
The house was entirely too quiet with Chloe gone. It was a grim reminder of what Dev’s life was going to be like when she was gone for good. In retrospect, getting through his divorce at twenty-two and being dumped by his fiancé at thirty-two seemed like teenage crushes. Learning to live without Chloe was going to be worse than his baddest, sickest nightmares, only he’d get to feel the panicked ache in his chest all day long in the light of day. Every day, until god knew when.
Of course, if he stayed, he knew that it would end one of two ways. She would either throw him out because she didn’t want to live with a man who was always gone, or that same basic message would be delivered in the form of an affair during his absence. Chloe might think she loved him, but it would never last. Besides, if she loved him, why the hell was she so eager to push him out the door?
Dev figured he’d rather find out sooner rather than later, so he picked up the phone and made a few arrangements. And then he planned what might be his last night of loving the mother of his child. He ordered her favorite food –pizza -- then made a salad and lit the candles on her table.
He’d just stepped out of the shower and into his jeans when he heard the front door open. He padded into the living room on bare feet and nearly ran into Chloe’s brother, who was carrying a canvas bundled up in plastic wrap. “I finally finished your wedding present.”
“You have a key?” Not that anyone would need one if he really wanted to get inside. The house was a sieve. It didn’t even have an alarm system, a fact that would be remedied later this week. Still, it pissed him off that she had never offered him a key.
Jay nodded. “We look after each other’s homes.” He set down his package and noticed the table set table w
ith candles. “Special occasion?”
“Nah. Just waiting for your sister to get home so we can eat.” Dev slipped his t-shirt over his head. “You want a beer?”
“What a novel idea. I believe I will.” He followed Dev into the kitchen. “This is her Lamaze night, isn’t it?”
“So I hear.” Dev opened the fridge door. “Beer?”
“You’re joking, right?” When Dev handed the beer to him, Jay shook his head and pulled out a frosted mug from Chloe’s freezer. “So why aren’t you there with her?”
He shrugged. “Chloe started these classes with her neighbor. I don’t think she wants to switch her coach mid-stream.”
Jay stared at him. “She didn’t ask you, did she?”
Bingo. “There’s no guarantee that I’ll be able to be in town when she goes into labor,” he explained, trying to sound like a rational man who wasn’t getting his heart ripped out of his chest.
Jay sat down at the kitchen table and poured his beer into the mug with a perfect cap of foam. “You’re leaving? Back to North Carolina?”
Dev propped a hip up on her kitchen counter and nodded. “I’ll drive out tomorrow so that I can check in from leave before the end of the day. I’ve got a doctor’s appointment and a P.T. session on Thursday morning.” All of which he’d arranged an hour ago.
“And then what?”
Then he got back to his life. “I’ll probably get put on desk duty for a while. My knee isn’t a hundred percent, but it’ll get stronger.”
“You staying with the Delta unit?”
It would be easier to leave Chloe if he was busy and out of the country. “I doubt I’ll leave my current unit.”
“So are you leaving her for good?”
“That’s up to her.” He took a swig of beer out of the bottle and eyed Jay Simon with exasperation. “Do you meddle in all of her relationships, or am I just lucky?”
“First of all, there haven’t been that many relationships. Second of all, who do you think is going to pick up the pieces after you go? C’est moi.”
“I don’t think she’ll be all that unhappy to see my tail lights.”
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