by Eve Black
“Is there anything we should add? Perhaps a mobile…puppies or kitties or both?”
She smiled, the tears falling in earnest now. Thankfully, he couldn’t see her face.
“What about turtles? They would match the color scheme.”
“Turtles?”
“Yeah. They look like adorable and grumpy little old men, just like how babies look when they are first born.”
“Bugger that. Our babies will be gorgeous from birth!”
Our babies. It hit her hard then… In his embrace, in a room filled with thoughtfulness and love, she broke. Sobs tore from her throat.
Tensing, David spun her, staring down at her in shock.
“Diana, darling. What’s the matter? What’s wrong?” he begged, his expression turning to one of panic.
“You keep calling me darling—and then you talk about us, we, ours… Like there is an us or we or ours. I am just the incubator for these babies, David. I know that. You are just putting up with me until it’s time for them to be born and then we’ll split visitation until they are eighteen and have grown to hate us.”
David growled, pulling her into his chest.
His heart thundered against his cheek.
“No, Diana. No. I hate that what I’ve done to you has made you think such a horrible thing, but it just isn’t true. You may be carrying my babies, but you aren’t just some damn incubator. You are their mother, their creator, the one piecing them together, keeping them safe, holding them so close to your heart that I am jealous of them. You are a miracle worker. A goddess in the flesh, bestowing on me your favor. And I am awed by you, Diana, darling. So fucking in awe of you.”
Her tears didn’t diminish, but their cause changed.
“How can you say such things to me? You can barely tolerate me,” she blubbered.
His arms tightened around her.
“Oh, darling…” David murmured, pulling away just far enough to meet her gaze. She blinked up at him, trying to clear the tears from her eyes.
“I love you,” he breathed. “I love you more than I can ever tell, and I am one sorry ass of a bloke for not showing you how much I loved you from the beginning.”
Her chest aching from the pounding of her heart, Diana began trembling.
“Fr-from the beginning?” she sputtered, not sure if she understood him correctly.
He smiled at her, his lips curling into the wicked grin she associated with something blunt and shocking.
“I think I’ve loved you since the elevator.”
She gasped. “Since I collided with you in Ayers’s building?”
He chuckled. “You’ve had me since the moment our gazes met, and I must say, the view down your blouse didn’t hurt, either.”
Snorting, she made to swat at him, but he grabbed her hands.
“I spilled coffee on my shirt, and Margie volunteered to switch with me because she had a change of clothes in her office.”
“Sorry to tell you, my love, but you are far more bountiful than your friend,” David drawled, his eyes glinting with steel heat.
“Why are you sorry about that?” she teased.
“Because Margie is so obviously lacking,” he answered in such a matter of fact way, that it took a moment for Diana to realize that David’s hands had dropped hers and they were now at her waist. Slowly climbing.
She shuddered. “What are you doing?”
He purred. “All this talk of your bountiful breasts has made me wonder…how much better they will look in my hands.”
He cupped her breasts, stroking her diamond hard nipples with his thumbs. “Ah, yes. Just right. But…to be sure, I should check them while they are naked.”
Diana moaned, pushing her aching breasts into his touch. The strength in his hands was gentle as he kneaded her breasts, eliciting warm, tingling shivers throughout her body.
She peered up at him through hooded eyes, and his gray eyes were molten, his nostrils flared.
“Diana… I want to make love with you—no more fucking. I want to take my time with you, cherish you, worship every inch of your beautiful body.”
Diana shuddered, her breathing ragged.
“Will you let me do that, Diana? Will you let me show you how much I love you?”
Mindlessly, she nodded, driven by her need for more of David.
For all of David.
Without missing a beat, David bent and scooped Diana into his arms. She let out a squeak.
“Put me down! I’ll break your back,” she urged.
He ignored her, continuing to stride toward another door before kicking it open. He was barely breathing hard when he stopped by a large bed.
“You aren’t heavy, Diana. You are the perfect armful. Made for me,” he growled as he bent and slowly lowered her until she was lying with her back on his mattress. He stared down at her from beside the bed, his body vibrating. “I am in disbelief, goddess, that after all that has happened, in all my wildest dreams, I never imagined you would be here. In my bed. Waiting for me.”
Heat blasted through her, covering her neck and face. She offered him a shy smile. “Who else would I be waiting for?” She raised her arms to him, silently begging him to take what he wanted from her, for she wanted to give it to him.
David undressed her reverently, his gaze pinned to her round belly sticking out over the waistband of her yoga pants. Once she was naked, she reclined on the bed, watching him as he slowly removed his own clothing—a purposeful striptease that only ratcheted up her need all the more. God, that man was built to perfection, hard edges wrapped in hot flesh.
He kissed her, pressing his lips against every inch of her body, his hands exploring her as hers explored him. They were lost in each other, murmuring words into the air between them, words with meaning she could not comprehend through the haze of desire.
As her need grew, she moved beneath him, her blood pounding through her veins.
“Please, David. I need you. Make love to me,” she implored.
He kissed her deeply, moaning into her mouth.
“As my goddess demands.”
He made love to her then, his cock sliding into her tight, wet channel, his thickness stretching her with glorious pleasure-pain. And as he began to move, his rhythm steady, he took her nipple between his lips, sucking. The whole of her rejoiced at what he was doing to her. With her.
He thrust into her, his body trembling as he held back his own release.
“Come for me, my love,” he ground out, panting.
The pleasure building in every molecule of her body exploded, sending stars and sparks through her blood, tumbling suns and planets from their orbits, and tilting the universe on its head, leaving her existence a jumbled, molten blaze of ecstasy.
Her back arching, her eyes closing as her pleasure crescendoed, Diana couldn’t stop the words from bursting from her chest. “I love you!” she cried out, her voice hoarse.
As she came down from her view of the collision of the universe, she whimpered, her body singing as David’s weight pressed down on her, anchoring her to earth.
“I love you,” she whispered into his hair as he huffed panting breaths into her neck.
“I love you,” she murmured, as she sank into a blissful darkness from which she never wanted to wake up.
Chapter 28
He knew making love with Diana would be a life-altering experience. And he’d been right. Damn, had he been right. He’d woken her twice that night to make love to her again, and each time had been better than the last. And even now, he wanted her again, his cock thick, hard, and throbbing for her. Her warm, lush body was pressed into his, her naked flesh smelled of peaches and him.
Mine.
Asleep, Diana was a vision of slumbering peace and unfettered beauty. Her golden lashes flitted over her cheeks as she dreamed, and he wondered what it was she dreamt about. Did she dream about him? He grinned wickedly. He’d dreamt of her, and all that they’d done the night before.
Being th
at close to her and not touching her was unbearable; he reached out, brushing his fingertips over her lips, up her cheeks, admiring the softness of her skin.
She groaned, her head moving as her eyes fluttered open. Her green irises hazy, she blinked several times before she focused on his face hovering over hers.
“David,” she murmured huskily, the sound turning up the heat in his blood. “Why are you staring at me?”
His wicked grin widened. “Because you are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
Her cheeks turned red. She tried to roll away to hide her face from him.
“We both know that isn’t true—I’m not even the right size to be considered beautiful in your world.”
Anger shot through him, quickly followed by the need to prove her wrong.
He looped an arm around her, his strength easily subduing her efforts to roll away and leave the bed.
“Uh uh, you stay right here, goddess, and listen to me,” he intoned, a warning in his voice.
She stiffened then huffed, blowing strands of golden hair from her face.
“The moment I saw you, I knew I wanted you. I desired you. My cock stood at attention and I craved to touch every curvy, lush inch of your body. I was attracted to your fullness, your womanliness. I’d never known such immediate desperate need before. I spent the rest of that day fighting the urge to go back to Rick’s building and find you—I wanted to fuck you on the nearest surface, not caring who saw us. Then, when I saw you walking across the lobby in the Incantata, I thought it was naughty Christmas and I’d been given the most delectable and beautifully wrapped present.”
She laughed, her lips quirking.
“I have always wanted you, Diana. You have always been the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.” He pressed his engorged cock into her side. “The body doesn’t lie, goddess. And this body, heart, mind, and soul all want you.” He leaned in, brushing his lips against the shell of her ear. “Forever.”
“So…what does this all mean?”
David brushed a strand of hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear. Her breathing hitched. She was so responsive to his touch.
“What does this all mean?” he repeated, trying to get his thoughts into a coherent line. “This all means that we love each other. We love these babies”—he slid his hand over her belly, holding it there— “and we’re a family.”
Her eyes lit up, her face breaking into a smile that melted his bones. “A family?”
Leaning in, David brushed a kiss over Diana’s forehead, then her nose, then, finally, over her mouth. She moaned, sitting up to make the kiss harder. He gave her what she wanted, kissing her thoroughly, before breaking the kiss to breathe.
Once he could think again, he announced, “You will move in here, with me. You belong here, in my home, where we can raise our children together.” He knew he was just throwing it out there and that, after how he’d treated her, she could just throw it right back. He held his breath, waiting, his gaze examining every micro-expression on her face.
“You mean that? You want me to live with you?”
“Why do you sound so disbelieving, Diana? I love you, why wouldn’t I want to live with you?”
She shrugged a sexy, naked shoulder. “Well, it’s just that, after that charity event where those women talked about me, I assumed you wanted to put me into hiding again. The gold digging charity case who happens to be carrying your babies.”
“Those women were jealous bitches. There are plenty of those no matter where you look. Don’t let bitter women keep you from taking what you want.”
Diana sniffed, indignant redness on her neck.
“What I want is to know why you hid me away all that time in the Incantata if you were going to just take me to the charity event and then out my pregnancy to all those reporters.”
Guilt slammed into him, probably making his own neck red. He rubbed at the back of his neck, suddenly extremely worried. How did one go about explaining his utter assholery in a way that would make sense?
Just be open and honest, his mum’s voice whispered in his ear. Of course, when he’d gone home after speaking with Rick about Diana, the first thing he’d done was ring up his mum for her advice. She told he was an asshole and that he needed to make things right. He’d agreed.
“The truth, Diana, is that…well, I took you to the charity event because I wanted to show the world what an amazing gem you are. In the beginning, I wanted to keep you to myself, close to the chest so I wouldn’t have to share you. But the more I learned about you through our nightly conversations, and the more time I spent with you, watching you grow ever more beautiful with my children inside of you, I wanted to show the world how special, how precious you are to me.”
“So you drag me to a charity event, introduce me to a bunch of people I don’t know, and then blurt out that I am pregnant?” she interjected incredulously.
Sighing, he rubbed at his neck again, the ache between his shoulder blades telling him he’d spent too much time being tense, carrying an unseen weight he needed to get rid of.
“I wasn’t thinking Diana. I only saw what I wanted and didn’t take your wants into consideration. I just assumed that because it was a glitzy party at a museum, you would be happy to come with me. Then, once the night was over, and you were flying high on happiness, I was going to ask you to move in with me, to live with me as my girlfriend.”
Air whooshed from her chest. She visibly swallowed. “You were going to ask me to be your girlfriend?”
Nodding, he offered a shy smile. “And I was going to tell you that I loved you, and you were going to tell me you loved me back, and we were going to live happily ever after.”
One golden eyebrow lifted into an arch.
“You had it all planned out, eh?” she drawled, but there was no anger in her tone. “What about that scene with the reporters?”
“Not my best moment. Some jack off waiter had just told me that my “charity case” had left. I had no idea who he was talking about until I looked around to find you, and you weren’t there. I was headed to the bathrooms to look for you when I spotted you outside the doors, talking to the paps.”
“And you thought I was going to spill the beans about the babies,” she stated, obviously knowing him better than he thought.
Hanging his head, shame filled him. “Yes. So, I jumped in and did it before you could.”
Hurt etched lines into her lovely face. “Why? How could you think I would do something like that?”
“I wasn’t thinking. I rarely do where you are concerned.”
“But why blurt it out rather than just pulling me aside and keeping me from saying anything?”
Good question. Terrible answer.
“I knew, in the pits of my chest, that you were pulling away from me again. I couldn’t fathom not having you in my life any more so I did the most outrageously awful thing I could; I bound you to me very publically. You are what I wanted all along.”
“And what do I want?”
“Me. My impressive cock. My talented hands and tongue. My heart.”
“Oh, I think I’ll take it all, please.”
“As the goddesses wishes.”
Epilogue
“We can just buy you new clothes, Diana,” David griped, heaving another box of her belongings into the back of the moving truck. It had taken Diana two months to get around to having the energy to deal with moving all her things to Manhattan. Once she’d decided it was time, David had wanted to hire some men to do all the heavy lifting, but Diana didn’t want strangers tromping through her mother’s house and going through all her private things.
“I don’t want new clothes, I want these ones. They’re worn in, comfortable,” she argued, pointing at another box on the curb, the last one in need of transportation. David wouldn’t let her lift a finger to help, which had given her a lot of time to think and plan. “What would you say if I told you I’ll buy new clothes, but they have to be…under clothe
s.”
David stopped midstride, the box of clothes making his muscles bulge. “Lingerie?” he asked, his eyes wide with interest. “I’d say let’s go now. No time to waste. I want to wrap you in green lace and then rip it from your body. With my teeth.”
She shuddered. David was an insatiable lover, showing her with every touch and kiss that he truly, honestly meant it when he said he loved her, wanted her.
“Down, boy,” she teased, swatting at him to get him moving again. “We still need to drop all of this off at the penthouse.”
“Then lingerie shopping?”
Damn, the man was incorrigible. She laughed, her heart light, her soul overflowing with joy.
“Yes, then lingerie. Then after that, cheeseburgers. Baby A wants bacon, and Baby B wants onions.”
David returned from loading the last box and splayed his large hand over her expanding middle. During their OB appointment that month, they’d discovered that they were having one boy and one girl, which thrilled them to no end. Then came the arguments about names. By the time they came around to agreeing on anything, the babies would be toddlers.
“Doesn’t Baby B remember that onions give you heartburn? No onions, goddess.” Lord, she loved it when he got all concerned and bossy like that.
She ducked her head, hiding her teasing smile. “Yes, but whatever Baby B wants, Baby B gets.”
“What about baby daddy? What does he get?”
She threw her arms around his neck, pulling him down to plant a quick kiss on his beautiful lips.
“Baby daddy gets happily ever after.”
20 weeks later…
“Look at them, David…” she murmured, exhausted. Her body throbbing and achy and numb all at the same time. “They’re so beautiful.”
The man beside her, her husband, grinned down at her, tears gathering in his eyes.
“They are beyond beautiful, darling. They are indescribable,” David whispered before bending down to gently kiss her sweaty forehead before kissing each of the babies on their foreheads as well.