by Ann Jacobs
She patted the dog they’d found together, and she remembered how he genuinely loved the pooch. The pins had been removed from her hind leg last week. Maybe…
Maybe he’d want his baby, too, even if it was conceived by accident. She got up and went inside as she heard him get out of his SUV and close the door.
He deserves to know, whether he wants to or not.
As he climbed the stairs to the great room overlooking the water, she tried to stop trembling. Her stomach rolled, more nerves than the all-day morning sickness that had sent her to the doctor.
A beer. He’ll want one. After I tell him, he’ll probably want a six-pack. Going to the bar, she got a beer for him and a bottled water for herself. With any kind of luck it wouldn’t send her racing for the bathroom.
“Hey, baby, sorry I’m late. Coach Harris wanted to meet with the linemen after practice.” Bending, he kissed her hard, then ran his fingers through the short regrowth of hair on her head that he’d so far resisted shaving again, though he kept his own head clean-shaven for her pleasure—and his. He grinned, amazed at how, in such a short time, she’d become the most important part of his life. Her being here had changed his bachelor pad into a home he loved coming home to.
She hugged him the way she always did, but he sensed from the stiff way she held her body that something was bothering her. “Still got a tummy ache?” he asked when he noticed she was drinking water instead of her usual beer or ginger ale.
“A little.” It bothered him that she didn’t look him in the eye but kept her gaze lowered the way she did when they were playing BDSM games at the club.
She’d mentioned this morning that she might go to the doctor. Jimmy fought down the panicky feeling that came over him. “Did you go to the doctor?” he asked as casually as he could manage.
“Yes.”
“Well? What did he say?” Jimmy didn’t like the icy fear that was creeping through his veins.
“She. I saw a female doctor. Don’t worry, I’m not going to die right away or anything.” Julie sat on a corner of the big sectional sofa and sipped her water. Jimmy didn’t feel very reassured by her answer, voiced in a monotone totally unlike his vivacious slave.
Fuck, he was going to get to the bottom of this. “Stand up. Look at me. Quit beating around the bush and tell me exactly what she said. Do it now.”
“Master—”
“Don’t stall. You’re scaring the shit out of me and I don’t like it. If you don’t have anything serious, then you shouldn’t mind telling me about it.” His hands itched to grab her by the shoulders and shake whatever she knew and he didn’t out of her, but his heart wouldn’t let him.
“I’m sorry, Master. I’m— I’m pregnant.”
He felt like he’d been hit by an eighteen-wheeler. It was obvious she felt the same, from the frightened look on her gorgeous face.
“A kid?” Once in a while he’d thought about having a family. But not lately. Julie occupied all his thoughts the way no other woman ever had—even Belinda. He sat beside her, gathered her up against his chest. “Are you gonna be okay?”
Julie sniffed. “I think so. The doctor seemed to think I’m pretty healthy for somebody of my advanced years, but she referred me to the high-risk OB Susan goes to. I have an appointment next week.”
So she wasn’t thinking of getting rid of it. He wouldn’t want her to, he realized when he pictured her growing round with his baby. Their baby.
“I bet we did it our first night at the club,” he said, recalling clearly that he’d taken her then without protection. Then and several other times since. He’d gotten pretty fond of riding bareback without giving too much thought to the natural consequences. “Are you happy, baby?”
When she looked up at him, he saw tears glistening in her eyes. “If you are. It took me less than an hour to realize I couldn’t…” She hesitated. “Terminate it.”
“I wouldn’t want you to, as long as it’s safe for you.” He’d heard pregnancies after the mom was thirty-five could be risky, but damn it, he wanted their child, maybe more than just this one. He wanted Julie not just for sexual games but for life.
“It’s safe. I’m healthy. Besides, I’m thirty-five, not forty-five. The only problem I’m likely to have is this twenty-four-hour morning sickness, and that’s supposed to go away pretty soon now.” She paused, brought his hand to her lips and kissed each finger. “I don’t want you to feel obligated. If you want me to leave—”
“Don’t even think about it. I want you and our kid, not just now but always.” He said it without thinking but realized he meant every word. “I love you both. How soon can we get married?”
Now her tears were coming like a flood as she clung to him. “I love you, too, Master mine, more than you know. But sometime you’re going to regret having a wife eight years older than you, when I get wrinkled and you’re still so hot.”
“Bull. We’re getting married. No kid of mine’s gonna be called a bastard. And if you don’t think I’ll still want you when we’re both doddering around the nursing home, you’re dead wrong. Quit bawling and put on your clothes, we’re going to Rebels’ Roost.”
This time her smile was genuine. She was so gorgeous and she was his. All his. He figured their play would tone down some in the coming months, and tonight would be a first step. Their first audition for family life.
* * * * *
Tonight Julie thought the stars shone extra-bright in a late October sky as she danced with her Master to the sensual sounds of a string quartet. Jimmy had never brought her to the Rebels’ Roost before on couples’ night, and it had an altogether different feel about it than it did on dungeon nights. A vanilla feel that felt a lot like commitment.
Tomorrow they’d get a license and buy the rings—it amazed Julie that her macho Master wanted to wear one, too—and she’d invite a few close friends on the team to witness a simple wedding on the shore in front of their house. They’d make traditional vows that would be no more or less meaningful than the ones they’d made two months earlier when Jimmy had become her Master, she his obedient slave.
Now she basked in her Master’s attention, a vanilla night for two lovers brought together by a shared fetish, bound forever by something stronger. Bound by love.
“Let’s go home, baby. This time I’m gonna shave you one more time before our baby is born. No scene. Just the two of us. I figure you’ll want to wear your own hair when you meet the little guy or girl.”
* * * * *
All the way home Jimmy fondled her damp cunt, inhaling the scent of his woman. His sex slave, his lover. Soon she’d give him a child, but even sooner she’d become his wife. Forever. His cock swelled against his zipper when he thought of taking her, renewing the vows they had made when he’d taken her hair and clamped his collar around her slender neck.
While they watched Missy take care of her business, he took off her wig and ran his fingers through the very short stubble that she soon would give him.
When they went back inside, he set the wig on its stand and undressed her gently, tenderly and led her to the master bath. He clippered her head while she sat at the vanity table, pausing often to play with her nipples, which already seemed swollen and extra-sensitive. When he bent to them, she ran her tongue sensuously over the back of his bald head. Just looking at her, touching her, had him aching and swollen, but he held off, stroking her beautiful body while she writhed in ecstasy.
He loved touching her, feeling the bristly remnants of her hair disappear as he lathered and shaved her. God, but she felt good, too good. When he licked and sucked the supersensitive spots she’d taught him about by doing the same to his own smooth scalp, she moaned with a pleasure so intense that he nearly came as he watched the rapturous expressions play on her gorgeous face.
“Fuck me, please.” Ever submissive, she wouldn’t push.
He loved that, loved that she so generously gave him her love. Very gently he lifted her and carried her to their bed. “My p
leasure.” He found her wet heat, let it take him on a slow, sensuous journey as he fondled her soft, bare scalp. “Come now, baby. Come for me.”
“Yes. Omigod, I love the way you love me.”
“Me too, baby.” Groaning, he managed to enjoy the feel of her cunt clenching his cock for mere seconds before he let go.
Afterward he held her, his cock still half-hard and buried in the wet heat of her cunt. She stirred, her legs going slack at his waist. “Thank you for loving me.”
“I do. I figure my cock has found a forever home.”
About the Author
Ann Jacobs is a sucker for lusty Alpha heroes and happy endings, which makes Ellora’s Cave an ideal publisher for her work. Romantica®, to her, is the perfect combination of sex, sensuality, deep emotional involvement and lifelong commitment—the elusive fantasy women often dream about but seldom achieve.
First published in 1996, Jacobs has sold over forty books and novellas, some of which have earned awards including the Passionate Plume (best novella, 2006), the Desert Rose (best hot and spicy romance, 2004) and More Than Magic (best erotic romance, 2004). She has been a double finalist in separate categories of the EPPIES and From the Heart RWA Chapter’s contest. Three of her books have been translated and sold in several European countries.
A CPA and former hospital financial manager, Jacobs now writes full-time, with the help of Mr. Blue, the family cat who sometimes likes to perch on the back of her desk chair and lend his sage advice. He sometimes even contributes a few random letters when he decides he wants to try out the keyboard. She loves to hear from readers, and to put faces with names at signings and conventions.
Ann welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email address on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.
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Also by Ann Jacobs
A Gift of Gold
A Mutual Favor
Another Love
Awakenings
Black Gold: Dallas Heat
Black Gold: Entrapped
Black Gold: Firestorm
Black Gold: Forever Enslaved
Black Gold: Love Slave
Club Rio Brava 1: Loving Control
Club Rio Brava 2: Switching Control
Club Rio Brava 3: Unexpected Control
Club Rio Brava 4: Learning Control
Colors of Love
Colors of Magic
Commitment
D’Argent Honor 1: Vampire Justice
D’Argent Honor 2: Eternally His
D’Argent Honor 3: Eternal Surrender
D’Argent Honor 4: Eternal Victory
D’Argent Honor: Eternal Triangle
Dark Side of the Moon
Gates of Hell
Gridiron Lovers 1: Naked Bootleg
Gridiron Lovers 2: Forward Pass
Gridiron Lovers 3: Hot in the Clutch
Gridiron Lovers 4: Coach Me
Gridiron Lovers: Hot for the Reunion
Haunted
He Calls Her Jasmine
Heart of the West 1: Roped
Heart of the West 2: Hitched
Heart of the West 3: Lassoed
Her Very Special Robot
Illusions
Lawyers in Love: Bittersweet Homecoming
Lawyers in Love: Eye of the Storm
Lawyers in Love: Gettin’ It On
Lawyers in Love: In His Own Defense
Lawyers in Love: Mastered
Out of Bounds
Tip of the Iceberg
Topaz Dream
Wrong Place, Wrong Time?
Zayed’s Gift
Discover for yourself why readers can’t get enough of the multiple award-winning publisher Ellora’s Cave. Whether you prefer e-books or paperbacks, be sure to visit EC on the web at www.ellorascave.com for an erotic reading experience that will leave you breathless.
www.ellorascave.com