Closer

This chapter is all about family to me—something I never had and I’m going to soak up every moment of being a mom. I’m lucky to have Lucas’s Ma at my side, who’s like a mom to me now, too. She helped me through the first few days when I was a little bit panicked that everything I was doing was wrong.

Lucas comes back over to me as the tub fills with water. “One of my favorite things about being pregnant was our nightly baths when you’d rub my feet.” I sigh as he pulls me down from the counter before removing the rest of my clothes from my body.

“You don’t have to be pregnant for me to do that for you, petal. I’ll do that every night for the rest of our lives if you want.” His hand grazes my belly.

“How do you think Sam will take it?” I ask as he leads me over to the tub and helps me step in.

“He’ll be a good big brother.” He steps in behind me. We sit so my back is to his chest for now.

“Yeah, he’s a mini you and you’re so good to your sister.” I smile thinking about that.

Lucas roams my body with gentle hands. I lay my head back and enjoy the feel of him. I know what he’s doing. Since he left our son’s room he’s been on a mission to calm me down. He always knows what to say and do to make me feel better.

The more I think about it, the more I settle into what is happening. I know Lucas will take care of everything. Every time something big comes our way and I have my Chicken Little moment, he’s there to not only fix it but to make me laugh and tell me what I need to hear.

His hand slides between my thighs. I part them naturally. My body always craves his touch there. He lazily strokes me, building me closer to orgasm. It doesn’t take long and I’m cumming from his touch. When my orgasm fades, he bites my neck.

“That was only a warm-up, petal. I’m not done with you yet,” he tells me as he lifts me from the bath and heads for our bed. Neither of us care that we’re wet. My back hits the bed and he comes over me. “I’ll never be done with you,” he adds, then kisses me. And I will never be done with him either. I want to be as close to him as I can get forever.

Epilogue

Lucas

Eight years later…

“I don’t like this, petal,” I say as I feel her tug my hand.

“That’s only because you’re blindfolded,” she giggles, and I almost trip as I take another step towards her.

“Of course it is!”

“Come on, let me be in control one time.”

She asks so sweetly that I sigh and give in. We both know how this is going to end up, but I’m going to let her have her fun for now.

Suddenly I hear the door open and I can feel sunshine on my face.

“Okay, Ava, what the hell are you doing?” I say as she leads me into the back yard.

“Look, you’re always the one to be romantic. You’ve spent our entire relationship giving me what I want and making my dreams come true.”

“That’s my job,” I say quizzically. What else does she expect? “But if you don’t tell me what is going on I’m going to take this blindfold off.”

“You will not! I’ve spent months trying to plan this out and you are not about to ruin it.” Her grip tightens on my hand as we walk out into the grass. “Just one more second.”

I sigh and try to be patient as she moves around behind me. I feel her finger undoing the knot at the back of my head and she tells me to keep my eyes closed. The material slips free and she moves back around to my front and I can almost hear how excited she is.

“Okay, open your eyes!” she shouts, and I do as I’m told.

“Ava, what did you do?” I say, my eyes widening in shock.

“Surprise!” She’s bouncing on her toes as she points to the hot-air balloon that’s parked in our backyard.

“How?” is all I can manage to say as the team of people all hold on to ropes to keep it in place.

“I called around. I wanted to do something big for you and it just kind of snowballed from there.” She twists her fingers together and looks nervous. “You don’t like it?”

The look in her eyes nearly breaks my heart and I force myself to smile as big as I can. I wrap my arms around her and scoop her up as I kiss her cheeks. “Of course I love it. This is the most romantic thing ever.”