When I'm With You

by Harper Sloan

  I hold the brush between us like a weapon. "Oh, she did, huh?"

  He nods.

  "Our daughter, the one who can only babble and drool, told you she wants a sister?"

  He nods, his smile turning wicked.

  "She's just now crawling, Nate. We agreed, two years between children."

  He takes another step, frowning now.

  "I'm going to give her what she wants."

  "You mean what you want." I laugh, dropping the brush when he pulls me into his arms.

  "I don't see a difference here."

  His mouth drops to mine in one hell of a toe-curling kiss. I find my protests falling on deaf ears when he pulls my sundress over my head and cups my naked breasts; the feel of his hands on me never fails to render me incapable of speech.

  "Are you going to give us what we want?" he whispers against my neck, trailing his tongue down to my shoulder to give me a light nip of his teeth.

  "Usually, it's the woman with the ticking biological clock, you know?"

  His soft chuckles tickle my skin. "You knew I wanted a house full of babies, Em. The way you look when you're pregnant, I can't even put it into words. Just knowing that you're growing our love in there unmans me. Straight to my knees, baby."

  "Quinnly is so little, Nate," I weakly add, and judging by the ear-splitting grin on his face, he knows I'm going to give him what he wants.

  "Just think about how close she will be to her sister."

  I laugh. "You can't guarantee her a sister, you know?"

  His handsome face brightens instantly. He looks down at my naked chest and bites his lip, the bright teeth peeking out for a brief second before he releases it. When he looks back up at me, the look of rapture in his eyes makes me gasp softly.

  "Watch me," he rumbles against my mouth before literally sweeping me off my feet when they give out in a rush of desire.

  When he pulls me from the bathroom and pushes me down on the mattress, I look up at him and lick my lips as he pulls his sweats down and yanks his shirt off, blindly tossing them in the corner.

  Ever since Quinnly was born, we've been using condoms. I didn't want to go back on the pill while breastfeeding, regardless of how safe it was. Call me weird, but I wasn't willing to take a chance that she got traces of that when I nursed. I had started to wean her two weeks ago when she started to prefer the formula that we had to supplement when I got the flu. I was heartbroken, but I knew it was time.

  Nate's been dropping hints ever since about starting to try for another child. Hints that I've been ignoring, but judging by the hungry look on his face as he looks down at me, he's going to do his best to make sure I'm pregnant by the end of tonight.

  He leans down, placing his hands on my knees before slowly dragging them up. The slow seduction of his touch makes me squirm, eager to feel him against me. He rubs his nose against my lace covered pussy, and I almost die of need when I hear him moan as if the smell of me alone is the best thing he's ever smelled.

  "Nate," I whine.

  "Hush," he scolds, looking up with a smirk. "I'm enjoying my wife."

  He spends the next painfully long five minutes doing just that. I know because I whine every time the clock turns over a new number, my oversensitive skin burning with every touch of his fingers, mouth, and tongue. Each nip of his teeth causes me to cry out against the palm he placed over my mouth when it became obvious I wasn't going to be able to quiet my screams of pleasure.

  And we learned the hard way over the last six months, babies seem to sense when the worst possible time to wake up will be. Which is usually the second he pushes his thick erection inside me.

  "Please," I beg, muffled against his hand.

  He looks up from the nipple he had been teasing, and he must sense how high my need is for him because the next second, he's holding my legs up by the back of my knees and pushing into my body with one powerful thrust.

  I whimper, rolling my lips together and biting down on the flesh to keep from screaming as he pounds into me with deep, rough, measured drives. Of course, when he pulls out, grabs my hips, and flips me over, I let out a loud yelp. That yelp turns into a scream of ecstasy when he slaps my ass while pushing back into me, even deeper than before.

  His balls slap against my aching clit as he continues to push into me; swiveling his hips each time, he bottoms out and only lets go of my hips to smack my ass.

  The painful smart of his palm mixing and mingling with the frenzied rush of pleasure he's creating every time he hits that spot deep inside my body becomes overwhelming in its power. My fingers hurt from the grip I have on our sheets, and I start rocking back to slam into his hips, welcoming each thrust he makes. We both let out grunts and cries as we climb the peak, ready to tumble over the edge of what promises to be one hell of a powerful climax.

  "Fuck, your pussy is so tight, baby. I can feel you hugging and pulling me deeper. You want me to fuck you harder?"

  I make, what I hope, is a sound of agreement. I know words aren't going to cut it, not when I feel like I'm about to burst into a million tiny pieces.

  "Hold on," he rumbles, tightening his hold on my hips with his fingers digging into the soft skin as he starts to piston into my body rapidly.

  "Yes! Oh God, yes!"

  He grows impossibly hard inside me, and the second his hand lifts off my hips to give me another one of those smacks that I love, I detonate. When he feels my walls start to flutter, he pushes in deep and even through the haze of my orgasm, I feel the delicious hot rush of him emptying inside me.

  Hours later, after a quick late-night bottle to Quinnly and one delicious coupling, I rest my head on his sweaty chest and sigh contently.

  "You know, I think I'm going to enjoy this whole practicing for another baby thing."

  He huffs. "No practicing, baby. My baby is already in there."

  I roll my eyes and curl into him more. "Whatever."

  His chest moves and the arm around me tightens. "Go to sleep, mama."

  He doesn't have to tell me twice.

  FOUR YEARS, SEVEN MONTHS, AND TWO DAYS LATER

  "QUINNIE, BABY, WHERE IS MOMMY'S makeup bag?"

  She turns and looks at me over her shoulder with a face that is so much like her father's, it's almost like looking in the mirror, and shrugs. Her chestnut ringlets dance around her face with the motion.

  "Right dare," Brooklynn, our four-year-old, says and points at her sister. Her sweet little lips turn into a sassy grin before she sticks her tongue out at her big sister.

  "Brookie!" Quinnly shouts and finally turns so I can see what she was trying her hardest to hide.

  My mouth falls open as I look at the mess she's created.

  "I made a princess."

  Kaylee, our two-year-old, gives a little clap and looks back and forth between her two sisters and me with the happiest of expressions on her face.

  I have no idea how Quinnly managed to cover so much of her baby sister, but I'm fairly confident some splattering of various colors covers every bit of her. My makeup bag is wide open in front of her with just about every item that was inside of it spread in Kaylee's lap.

  "I see, Quinnie."

  She beams, looking quite proud of herself.

  "Kaykay," I coo, bending to pick up my messy daughter. "Want to take a bubble bath before Daddy gets home? He's going to want his princess all clean so he can give you tons of kisses."

  She lets out a loud squeal of joy at the mention of her father. The blond curls bounce around her. We still don't know how she ended up with those beautiful locks, but they make her already angelic face look like she has a halo on when the sun hits her head. Of course, that wouldn't be the case right now since different shades of red and pink currently streak through it.

  "Quinnie, honey?"

  She smiles up at me.

  "Did you put lipstick in your sister's hair?"

  She nods and that smile grows huge and wonky. One little dimple coming out in her left cheek.

  "A
nd why did you think you should put it there?" I laugh because really, what else can I do?

  "Because Uncle Sway taught me how to do highs lights."

  Ah. And that will teach me to let my sister bring her niece to work with her. I thought it would be fun since Quinnly loves to play in my makeup, something that started during one of the many tea parties her daddy and little Molly Beckett had with her.

  "Okay, sweet girl. You did a wonderful job, but let's get this all cleaned up before Daddy gets home from work, okay?"

  She nods, her smile still huge, and with the help of Brooklynn, they start cleaning up my makeup.

  It takes me almost thirty minutes to get everything off Kaylee, and she loved every second of it. Her laughter never stopping. By the time I finish with her bath, I'm just as wet as she is.

  Just when I'm pulling a new shirt over her head, I hear Nate arrive home. His thunder of a greeting to the girls is something that never fails to bring a smile to my face.

  "Where is your mom and sister, my beautiful, enchanted fair maidens?"

  "Right here, honey."

  "Goldilocks!" he booms and holds his hands out to Kaylee, who of course gives a loud scream before diving from my arms to his when he steps in front of us. She curls into his chest and sticks her thumb in her mouth, looking up at him as if he hung the moon.

  I understand how she feels. There is no greater feeling than being in his arms. Which is probably how I ended up with three children in five years. I wouldn't change a thing, even though I give him a hard time about it.

  He pulls me into his side and places a kiss on my head. "I missed you."

  I snort, looking up. "You've only been gone a few hours."

  "Yeah, but the last thing I want to do on a Saturday is spend a few hours doing payroll at Dirty when all my girls are at home having fun without me."

  "Yeah, you could have been here almost an hour ago to see your daughter turn this one into a makeup experiment."

  He looks down at Kaylee and gives her a wet kiss on her cheek, making her little Tinker Bell giggles erupt. "I bet she looked beautiful."

  "She looked something, that's for sure." I yawn, and he brings his attention back to me.

  "You look tired." I narrow my eyes, and he holds up his hands. "I just meant; shit, never mind."

  "I am tired, but only because I had the paintings Annabelle commissioned two months ago to finish. I'm lucky she's so understanding. I just hope she continues to be that way."

  He frowns in confusion. "I thought you didn't have anything else due after you finished this last painting? We have the Disney trip coming up this summer."

  I turn when Brooklynn screams at her sister, telling them to stop running around the living room. Chuck, our one-year-old Lab, is chasing them and making just as much noise. It's at times like this that I find myself missing Bam more and more. His age caught up with him just after Brooklynn was born, and after watching him struggle for months, we made the painful decision to put him to sleep.

  Chuck was Nate's idea, and even though I love having his crazy butt around, I still miss my beautiful beast.

  "Ember?"

  I look back up at Nate, forgetting what we had been talking about, and give him a raised brow and secretive smirk.

  "Why don't you let Kaylee play with her sisters without my makeup," I add in Quinnie's direction. "I need to show you something."

  He still looks beyond confused, but with one more kiss, he places her on her feet where she joins her sisters and Chuck as they dance around the living room. I grab Nate's hand and pull him into the kitchen, giving us a moment of quiet so I can talk to him.

  I walk around the island, using it as a shield between us and slide the little rectangular card toward him. He looks down, and I see it the second he registers what's written on the card.

  "Oh, hell no!" He looks up, and I can see that he is about as far from happy as one could get. Not that I blame him.

  "Now, listen to me, honey." He opens his mouth to complain, but I give him the same look that I give the girls when they're out of line. "We agreed you would take care of this. Our family is complete. It's time, big boy."

  He places both his hands on the island and gives me a hard glare. "It is most certainly not! I'm not letting some jackass cut into my cock when I still have work to do with it."

  I roll my eyes. "You're being unreasonable."

  "Uh, no. I told you last week when you brought it up that I wasn't getting fixed. No fucking way. Not until I have my boy in your belly. You need to call and cancel this appointment." He picks up the card, and like the very presence of it offends him, he walks to the sink and shoves it down the disposal before turning the water on and flipping the switch. The whole time it's making its shredding noise, he looks at me as if he's won.

  Oh, how wrong he is.

  "Nate," I warn when he shuts everything off and stomps over to me. "Don't you dare."

  He, of course, doesn't listen, and before I can get another word in edgewise, he has me over his shoulder--gently--as he walks into the madness where our girls are still laughing and playing. They stop instantly when we walk in, and I'm sure if I could see them, they would be standing there just waiting to see what crazy thing their daddy is doing now.

  He places me on my feet, and I open my mouth to give him some attitude, but it comes out as a squeak when he spins me and I'm looking at the gray wall.

  "Five minutes, Ember. Time-out for trying to keep my boy from me."

  "Oh, Mommy is in trouble!" Quinnie laughs.

  I hear Brooklynn snicker, but I just start to count as a huge, happy-as-hell smile pulls at my lips. I start counting out the minutes in my head, playing into Nate's craziness as I enjoy his grumbling behind me.

  Over the years, with each birth of our children, achievement with the club, or with my artwork, our love has just continued to grow. We rarely fight, and when we do, it is usually always about when we will stop having children. I think, if Nate had his way, he would continue having them until I physically couldn't, but I knew it was time.

  Especially now.

  And since I love seeing him get all riled up, I figured this would be the funniest way to bring it up. And if everything goes as planned, I'm going to enjoy the benefits of provoking him later.

  I hit the three-minute mark and turn my head to the side. I see the painting of A Beautiful War that Nate had bought all those years ago and my eyes mist. He made sure that was the focal point in our family room. Luckily, we have the space with our vaulted ceilings because it takes up the whole top half of that wall. I let my mind wander to the large photo canvas that is over our bed, my heart filling with love.

  Nate surprised me a few weeks after our wedding with a canvas portrait I didn't even know was taken. It eerily looks just like the painting in our living room; only it's a picture of us on our wedding day.

  The center being our hands, clasped together at our hips as we both look to the side and into each other's eyes. You can't see anything else but half our bodies as we hold hands and look at each other with so much love.

  "Honey?" I call from my spot in the corner, having had enough, and I'm ready to knock my handsome husband down a few pegs.

  "What?" he snaps.

  I turn and look over at where he is petting Chuck with Kaylee hanging on his back.

  "I don't need to cancel that appointment."

  He stands and puts his hands on his hips. Kaylee giggles and I have to fight with my desire to look at the way his muscles always bulge when he does that.

  "I don't need to cancel because I never made one. I picked up an appointment card when I was leaving my gynecologist last week. She shares an office with the urologist."

  "I'm not following." He looks so damn hot that I struggle not to rush into his arms and kiss him hungrily.

  "The way I see it," I continue as if he hadn't spoken. "If you get your boy this time, we can make the appointment then. If not, we'll talk about you giving up on that boy and enjoying
a house full of women."

  His eyes widen, and he woodenly starts to walk over to me. Kaylee still laughing and squealing on his back as she continues to act like she's a monkey. When he's standing in front of me, he reaches out and I feel his knuckles brush against my belly before reaching up to take my face between his hands.

  "My boy is in there?"

  "Or girl, but yes." I smile through my tears. Even though this will be my fourth pregnancy, I'm still overcome with emotion when I think about how far we've come together as the proof of our love grows in my belly.

  "God, I love you, woman."

  I don't get a chance to tell him that I love him too because his mouth is instantly on mine. Our girls all start yelling and laughing at their parents as we kiss deeply, my tears mingling with his.

  I sink into him and, not for the first time, I realize just how lucky I am to have the love of a man like Nate Reid. True to his word, he's never stopped making sure that he gave me the world. He thinks I give that to him, but standing there with his mouth on mine while our girls dance around happily, I know that will never be the case.

  Eight months later, our world grew with even more love when our son, Elijah, was born and Nate got his boy.

  The End

  To my family: Thank you for every ounce of support. I love you guys and your love for me keeps me going. You guys might be the only people that love me more than Felicia does.

  Felicia Lynn: HA, you thought there would be something here, didn't you? I dedicated the book to you - so you get nothing more! :P

  To my amazing readers: I would be nothing without you all. Your support keeps me going every single step of the way.

  To my amazing publicist, Danielle Sanchez: I'm so beyond lucky to have you in my life. Thank you for ALL that you have done and continue to do for me.

  To the women behind making my books shine: Lauren Perry, Sommer Stein, Jenny Sims, Ellie McLove, and Stacey Blake - I would be lost without each and every one of you!

  A special thanks to my beta reader and friend, Lara Feldstein. You've been with me through so many books and I can honestly say I value your opinion to the moon. You're incredible.