Triplets Make Five

I couldn’t keep my hands off her. “Of course! This is the best news I could hope for. You’re pregnant! We’re going to have a child. You’re the

only woman I ever wanted to have kids with.”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “You’re not joshing me, are you? You’re not upset about this?”

I drew her close. “Is this what kept you at a distance all this time? Did you worry I would be angry and push you away again?” I closed my eyes against the pain in her face. “Don’t answer that. We’re together now. That’s all that matters.”

“What do you mean, we’re together?” she asked. “We’re not together. We’re not even involved.”

I struggled to keep my voice calm. I had to keep reminding myself. Go slow. Don’t scare her away. Don’t move too fast. “I know we’re not, but I want to be. I want us to be the real deal. I want us to be a family.”

Her eyes fell out of her head. “You do? Since when?”

“Since forever, Vic. Don’t you know I always wanted you?”

She sank back on her stool. “No, I never knew that.”

“Well, I did. Maybe I didn’t really realize it until we got involved this time, but now that it’s happening, that’s what I want. What do you say? Is that what you want, too? We could have it all, you and me.”

“You know that’s what I want, but....”

I waited for her to continue. “But what?”

Her chin fell on her chest. “But nothing. That’s what I want, too. That’s what I always wanted. I just never thought you wanted it.”

I burst out laughing, but when her head shot up to stare at me, I swallowed it down. I had to be a rock for her. I had to be steady and rational. I couldn’t show her how much I was busting to grab her and tackle her to the floor right there in the bar.

I settled for kissing her knuckles. “Come up to my room, baby. Let’s blow this popsicle stand and get off somewhere where it’s just the two of us.”

She let out a shaky sigh. “All right.”

That’s all I needed to hear. I guided her by the hand to the elevator and back up to the eleventh floor. I unlocked the room and showed her inside. When I closed it behind me, I turned around to see her standing on the balcony.

I came up behind her and wrapped my arms around her waist. She swayed in my embrace. I closed my eyes and inhaled a deep breath of her hair. She was pregnant, and she was all mine. She wanted it all. She wanted everything I could give her.

My heart threatened to explode out of my chest with love for her. I would give her everything. I would protect her and provide for her. I would become ten times more successful to make sure neither she nor my kids ever went without. They would never know pain or hardship as long as I had anything to say about it.

I formulated a thousand plans. This cast my whole life in a new light. I drove myself to the wall with work, but I never had a reason to work before now. I only ever worked for money. Now I worked for them—and for myself, too. I understood myself. My life had some meaning as long as I held her in my arms.

Her voice startled me. “It looks different now, doesn’t it?”

I kissed her hair. “What does?”

She nodded at the city spread out below us. Lights winked on, and the strip gleamed and shimmered into the distance. “The whole world. It looks different. I never thought it would be this way. I thought getting pregnant would be a nightmare, but it actually makes the world look so much more beautiful. It looks bright and clean and wide open. I feel like I could stretch out my hand and the world would fall into it like a ripe peach.”

Her words stabbed my heart. I almost burst into tears, she made me so happy. That’s exactly the way I felt. The whole world was ripe and ready to be picked, just like her. I buried my face in her neck, and she leaned into me.

I whispered into her pearly skin. “Be mine, Vic. Be mine forever.”

She traced her fingers through my hair. “Shh. Shh. Everything’s okay now.”

My soul couldn’t contain so much happiness. I sank my teeth into that choice skin between her neck and shoulder. The air sucked through her teeth, and a delicious quiver passed down her body. She wanted me all over again. That teaser in the hot tub only made her hotter than ever, the same way it always did.

Isn’t that what I brought her up to my room for? No, I brought her here to keep her with me, to keep her in my life and never let her go. I turned her around, so her body was facing out on the balcony. She rolled her back against me, and a moan escaped her mouth. She let go of the railing to grab my hips. She pulled me against her and bent over under my weight.

This couldn’t be happening. She couldn’t feel the same way I did and want all the same mind-blowing happiness. What did I ever do to deserve a woman like this? Without really meaning to, I got hard for her again. I got hard for her heart and mind and soul. She excited my deepest being, not just my body.

She massaged down my thighs and back up between them to the package inside my pants. She nudged it to aching solid hardness. Could I keep up with a woman like that? Could I give her everything she wanted and keep her satisfied?