Flash Burned (Burned 2)

That was certainly a fact. I couldn’t exactly be surprised or mad at Amano. I knew he’d catch on eventually, even if he’d never spent much time—if any—around a pregnant woman.

“So, I know this is a shock—a total accident because I skipped some of my birth control pills when I was wrapped up in Lux planning.” I took a deep breath, let it out gradually. “Good news or … bad news?”

He sat on the bench at the end of the bed and dragged a hand down his face. “Good. Bad. Fantastic. Awful. I don’t fucking know.”

“Let’s try initial, gut reaction,” I tentatively ventured, my stomach knotting.

“You just got it. I couldn’t arrive fast enough. My private Learjet can get me here from the East Coast in just under four hours, and that was still too long.”

My stomach uncoiled. To help lighten the mood, I asked, “We have a Learjet? How cool is that?”

“Ari.” He smirked. The supersexy one that totally did me in. My knees weakened. I crossed to the bed and plopped down on the edge.

Dane said, “I paced the aisle the entire way. Thank God no one else was in the cabin. I vacillated between soon-to-be-new-dad jitters and hell-yes-I-knocked-up-my-wife excitement.”

I grinned.

“Then I saw you and all I could think was that I had to have you. Immediately.”

“So, we really shouldn’t waste time talking.” I wagged my brows. “And P.S., pregnant sex is pretty awesome—at least from my side of things.”

He grunted and went back to attempting to wear a hole in our hardwood floor.

“Okay,” I said, my spirits sinking again. “Now that gut reaction is over. What are you really thinking?”

“That this is the absolute worst timing imaginable. I am a colossal idiot. And, let’s see…” He shook his head, clearly angry. “I’ve put not only my wife’s life in jeopardy, but also our baby’s.”

“Ah, yes,” I said. “Hence the reason I didn’t mention that we’re with child.” I stood and interrupted his path, forcing him to stop. “I knew it would worry you incessantly to not be here, to not know every second of the day how I’m doing, feeling, et cetera. You have to finish what you started, Dane. You don’t need the distractions I pose.”

“Ari.” He gently gripped my upper arms and stared deep into my eyes. “You are everything.” He grinned a bit impishly. “You and our baby,” he amended, “are everything.”

I flung my arms around him and held on tight. “I know that. And the baby knows that, too.”

He harrumphed.

“Okay, well, he or she will know that.”

“You haven’t found out yet?”

“No.” I pulled away. “I wanted to be surprised right along with you.”

His head inclined to one side as he contemplated this. “How are you going to plan … colors, clothes … whatever?”

“I guess I’m not.”

He gave me a long look and then asked, “You’re okay with that? Because, come on, you have to be prepared for everything. I know you.”

“Yes, you do.” I kissed him. Then said, “But I want us to do it all together. So … I’m curbing my planning tendencies with meditation and yoga, and I’m basically driving Amano crazy with all manner of chitchat and making Kyle regret he’s living here with us by challenging him to pool and bowling, since they’re not strenuous and I’m of the ultra-paranoid mind-set when it comes to hurting the baby.”

Dane’s chiseled-to-perfection features darkened. “Then we shouldn’t have been having sex these few—”

“Oh, no!” I cut him off. “I already checked, read, double-checked. The baby is well protected inside. Sex is okay.”

He eyed me skeptically.

“Really, seriously.” I gripped the material of his black dress shirt and said, “Truly.”