kept their bodies together so close, like nothing could come between them, his chest tight against hers. The gorgeous blue depths of his eyes stayed right in line with hers, and she lost herself, falling so hard she never wanted to recover.
With a growl from low in his chest, his hand snuck around to her shoulder and he rode her. Hard. She was left understanding one thing with total certainty: There was a reason Nash was a PBR champion. He hated to lose. And he would do all he could not to lose her.
She felt that in every touch, every kiss, every stroke.
Desperate in the same way, she held onto him, meeting him thrust for thrust, wanting to believe all the things he had said and promised. Every stroke and each pound of his pelvis against her sex blinded her with pleasure. Her toes curled and her back arched at the pulsing of his cock.
As they fell apart in each other’s arms, she began to believe him. They could be happy. This could be a time when the only two people who mattered were him and her, and their new baby who needed them at their very best.
* * *
By the time Nash looked at the clock it read 11:00. He realized the night had gotten away from them. He’d fed Gus before they settled back into bed. Other than that, he’d had Megan a few times, which was all that he wanted to do.
Now as they lay cocooned together, a couple of sweaty bodies tangled in the sheets, a sweet smile on her face, what she had told him earlier filled his mind. He hadn’t realized how hard the feud between their families had been for her. More importantly, he didn’t realize that was what she thought had kept them apart. He thought he caused that.
Nash tucked an arm under his head resting on the pillow and glanced back up at the wood planks on his ceiling. He’d never felt that way about the feud between their families. Maybe because he wasn’t as emotional. What he saw was a man trying to destroy his father’s business and steal away Blackshaw land. Nothing but that.
Now, he felt different.
The longtime fight between their fathers had hurt Megan. Nash didn’t like that. In fact, he fucking hated that.
The mattress dipped. Nash lifted his head to find Gus plopping himself down on the edge of the bed, his head resting on Megan’s waist as she lay on her side. Nash smiled and stroked Gus’s head. Yeah, he liked Megan too. Though a part of Nash, a warm undiscovered part, wondered if Gus was a little more protective because Megan was carrying Nash’s child. A new member of his and Gus’s pack.
“You really let him sleep on the bed with you?” Megan asked, drawing Nash’s attention to her now open eyes.
He snorted. “Have you met Gus? He’s one hundred pounds of stubborn fur. I don’t think let is in his vocabulary.”
She laughed, her hands still beneath her cheek. “I take it that means you’ve tried to kick him off and failed.”
“The fact that I have a king-size bed and live alone should answer that question.”
She turned onto her back then, and Gus gave a long deep sigh when she started petting his head. “You know, I’ve never heard the story about where you got him.”
Nash smiled and turned on his side, facing her. “He got into my truck one day.”
Her hand froze on Gus’s head. “Seriously?”
Nash nodded. “I went over to Dalton’s place”—the lead singer in the Kinky Spurs band—“and his dog had puppies. Gus jumped into my truck, so Dalton said it was a sign, and that was that.”
“How sweet is that?” She squeezed Gus’s face. “He picked you.”
A sudden surge of emotion tightened Nash’s chest, and he pushed past the desire to shut down. Yeah, that was his thing, but it would get him nowhere with Megan. “Maybe he knew I needed someone then.”
Megan turned to him, her eyes wide with surprise, obviously at his sharing. “Dogs seem to have an intuition about that kind of stuff, don’t they?”
He nodded.
Silence descended as she began stroking Gus’s head again, a sweet smile on her face. He often wondered what it was like to a have a serious relationship. He tended to like his relationships in the one-night variety, especially since his attention had always been on Megan. Since she hadn’t had a long-term relationship either, he assumed she felt the same. But he realized he liked this. Christ, he could even see himself walking up to her every day and sharing things with her.
Shit, she was making him soft.
Fuck, he liked that too.
To get his mind on other things, he followed her hand stroking a sleeping Gus with his gaze. There was a ring on the ring finger of her right hand. Halfway to another soft stroke on Gus’s head, Nash took her hand in his and dragged his fingers across the vintage ring with an oval diamond encased in smaller diamonds. “You’ve had this ring for a long time.” He remembered she wore it all through high school. In fact, he’d never seen her without it. “I take it that it’s special to you.”
“It’s my grandmother’s wedding ring.” Her voice was soft, thick with obvious emotion. “She left it to me when she passed away.”
“Were you two close?” Damn. He should know this about her.