Perfectly Toxic (Sterling Shore 9)

BELLA: Is that for me? Or were you texting Tag again?

ME: Har. Seriously, where the fuck are you?

BELLA: Awww, you miss me.

ME: Bella…

BELLA: Ethan…

ME: …

BELLA: Don’t dot dot dot me. That’s my thing. And for the record, I’m sitting out in the driveway.

I’m out of my chair and ignoring everyone who is trying to speak to me as I make my way through the house and toward the front door, where I see Bella getting out of her car. Her stitches came out the other day, and I’ve been inside her every chance I’ve gotten. Hell, it was like inhumane torture to live with blowjobs and hand jobs for so long.

Yes, I realize how fucking spoiled I sound.

She grins at me knowingly when I grab her at the waist, and my lips are on hers before she can say a word. When she moans into my mouth, I’m forced to think about random shit to keep my dick from trying to go another round. Twice today doesn’t seem like enough.

Breaking the kiss, I lean back as she winks at me. Damn smug girl knows exactly what she does to me.

“What took so long?” I ask her as she reaches in and grabs her phone.

Just to be a dick, I slap her ass while she’s bent over. Hell, she’s so used to it that she doesn’t even react.

“My boss was begging me to stay, but I told her I wanted a private practice job.”

“But you’re not going back to work until after the baby is born, right? I thought we agreed on that. You could catch anything coming through the doctor’s office.”

She rolls her eyes. “No, I’m not going back to work until the baby is at least six months old.”

I breathe out in relief, because I’ve seriously been stressing out about that. Hell, I’ll be stressing even when it is time, because I don’t want Bella subjected to every fucking disease that swings by to get looked at.

I only thought I was obsessed and protective before. Then four days ago, I heard the baby’s heartbeat for the first time. It’s like it broke the last bit of sanity in me that was rationally holding me back from keeping Bella captive.

Now I’m losing my damn mind. But I have a while to convince her to never go back and risk exposure to who knows what kind of illness, so I’m biding my time.

“How is Daniel?” I ask her as she flicks a piece of lint off her.

“He’s great. He’s starting to get stronger on the braces. It’ll still be a few months before he can walk without them though,” she says, her smile growing. “And he wants you to come visit him again.”

Yes, she finally talked me into that. My worries about stealing the spotlight were in vain, because she’s still his hero.

I nod instead of answering.

“I take it everyone is already here?” she asks, looking around at all the cars.

“Yeah,” I say, not liking it one bit. It’s part of that irrational need to keep Bella to myself that has me hating this damn cookout idea. But… There’s a reason I agreed to it. I just hope Bella remembers that she loves me when I reveal that reason.

She threads her fingers with mine, and I lead her through the house to the backyard where everyone is already gathered.

The pool is still open right now, but I have contractors coming out to put a fence around it… A tight fence that a baby can’t possibly break into.

The longer her hand is in mine, the more I relax. Everyone is talking to her, and cracking jokes. I finally take a seat as Maverick walks over.

“Never thought you’d trade in your wild parties for tame cookouts,” he prods, smirking like the asshole he is.

I shrug, because the ribbing doesn’t bother me anymore. To be honest, I don’t even remember why I thought the parties were so much fun anymore.