“I’m not asking you to give up your mom’s house,” he murmured, resting his hand on mine. “We can keep it for family vacations, let our kids see what your childhood was like. Hell, we can spend the entire summer there each year if you’d like. I’m an architect, and my own boss since I own the firm. I can work from wherever I want with a mobile office, and the place I most want to be is by your side.”
“There you go with the sweet again,” I sighed, considering all that he’d said. The thought of returning to my hometown three months pregnant and alone except for my best friend was daunting. It wasn’t what I wanted for myself, and it sure as heck wasn’t what I wanted for my baby. Especially not when Wyatt was offering me the perfect solution. “I’ll call the school and see if they’ll give me a leave of absence due to the pregnancy. If I’m going to spend the next year—“
“More like the rest of your life,” he interrupted.
I glared at him. “—here, then I’ll need to go back and get some of my personal items and mementos I left back home. Clothes won’t be an issue since I’m going to need a whole new wardrobe anyway due to the pregnancy.”
“I’ll drive you out and load the truck myself if it means I’m moving it all into my house.”
“Then I guess you have a deal,” I agreed. “But don’t think for a second that I’ve forgotten how you called me your fiancée at the doctor’s office yesterday. I might have agreed to move in with you, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to marry you.”
“Maybe not yet,” he replied, a smug grin on his face because he knew he’d won this round. “But I’m going to do whatever it takes to make it happen before you give birth to my child, and that’s a promise you can take to the bank.”
I felt like the gauntlet had been thrown down, but there was no way I was going to pick it up. It was a challenge I was pretty sure I couldn’t win, not against the man who’d gotten me in his bed the first night we’d met. The same man who’d managed to knock me up the second time I’d ever had sex. And he’d been able to talk me into leaving the town where I’d grown up to move halfway across the country. He was persuasive, to say the least. Plus, if I was brutally honest with myself, I wasn’t even sure I wanted to win.
8
Wyatt
I loaded one last box into my truck, shut the tailgate, secured the tarp, and returned to the house. We’d been in California two days gathering up Bailey’s belongings. At first, she’d only packed another suitcase and a small box, as though she was coming back for an extended visit. I didn’t let her get away with that. She may not have fully come to terms with it yet, but this was no longer her home. I started packing up her bedroom while she huffed in annoyance and stormed off. Taking my time, I worked slowly, waiting. Sure enough, not twenty minutes later, she stalked back into the room and shouldered me aside muttering that I was doing it all wrong.
I laughed and held up my hands in surrender until she gave me direction and we got to work. We completed the room the next day and she asked me to stack all of the boxes in a corner. I did as requested, but when she went to dinner with her best friend, I loaded it all into the back of the truck. I’d insisted on staying in a hotel, not wanting her to be cleaning up after us in addition to packing, so she didn’t return to the house that night. I managed to keep her distracted enough that she didn’t notice the boxes this morning as well and now I was ready to get on the road.
It was early afternoon and we’d be able to go a good distance before pulling off for the night. I didn’t like having her sitting in the car for such long stretches, but I wanted to get her home and settled even more. I planned to stop early enough to have a relaxed dinner and get a good night’s sleep, though. I was particularly dedicated to wearing her out so she wouldn’t have any trouble sleeping.
I grinned to myself. Some nights, I collapsed before Bailey, she was insatiable. If this was how she would be every time she was pregnant, I was seriously considering keeping her knocked up for the next decade.
Once I walked in the front door, I stopped and watched her as she wandered around the front room, her hand softly trailing along, touching mementos and furniture. Her face was wistful, her eyes full of sadness, and I wanted nothing more than to take away the pain of her past. After a few minutes, I strode over and wrapped her up in my arms. She leaned against me, her head resting on my chest, and took a deep breath.
“She would have loved to be a grandma,” she mumbled, then chuckled, the sound muffled against my t-shirt. “As crazy as it sounds considering what she pulled with my dad, she wouldn’t have been so keen on me having a baby out-of-wedlock, though.”
“Easily rectified.” I reminded her. I’d been taking every opportunity to bring up getting married, but she’d been very adept at skirting the subject, much to my frustration.
She was silent for a bit, then she rubbed her nose on my shirt as though giving it an Eskimo kiss. “She would have liked you.” Warmth spread through my chest at the idea that her mother would have approved of me. I was kind of hoping that she was rooting for me, wherever she was.
Bailey sniffed and it broke my heart knowing she was hurting. I wanted so badly to be able to change it, but there was no fixing this. I dropped a kiss on the top of her deep red curls, then rested my cheek on the silky spot.
“I’m sure our son would have adored her.”
I felt her cheeks move up in a smile before I heard her sweet little laugh. “Yes, our daughter would have loved her grandma.”
We’d been playing this game for days and I knew it would lighten her mood. I loved to tease her about the baby being a boy, but the truth was, the image of a beautiful baby girl with her mother’s red hair and blue eyes had taken root in my head. However, it was accompanied by terror when I thought about her getting old enough to date. No boy would ever be good enough for my baby girl. Boys. We should only have boys.
“Are you ready to go, baby?” I kissed her head again when she sighed.
“Yes.” She looked up at me and her ocean blue eyes were swimming with tears but she was giving me a tremulous smile. “It’s hard to let her go, but I’m excited to have a wonderful new chapter starting in my life.”
I took my arms from around her and cupped her cheeks in my palms, kissing away each tear that escaped. “I wasn’t expecting our part of this story, baby. But, seeing it in front of me now, I couldn’t be happier.”
Lifting Bailey into my arms, I felt her stir as I carried her and our bag to the door of our hotel room. She’d fallen into an emotionally exhausted sleep about an hour into our drive. It wasn’t late, but she was getting more and more tired lately. I was worried at first but I’d read the books Bailey bought, and they said it was normal.
I didn’t want her uncomfortable, so once we got through Las Vegas, I stopped at a hotel and checked us in for the night. After getting into the room, I set the bag down and laid her gently on the bed. Looking her over, I was floored by her beauty, and a rush of possessiveness reminded me that she is mine.
I hated to wake her, but she and the baby needed to eat. I shook my head, still full of wonder at the fact that she was pregnant. And, I’d be honest, a healthy dose of male pride. Way to go boys.
Smoothing a hand over her brow, I placed a soft kiss on her lips and quietly said her name. “Bailey, it’s time to wake up, baby. I need to feed you, then you can go back to sleep.”
She stirred and her eyes fluttered open, gracing me with a sweet smile. “I’m so sorry, I’m a terrible road trip buddy,” she said sheepishly. I laughed and kissed her again.
“I wouldn’t want anyone else, even if you snored the whole way.”
She gasped and lightly smacked my chest, “I do not snore!”
Winking at her was my only response. In reality, she didn’t snore, but she did make a little sound I could best describe as purring. It was adorable and made me love her even more.
Love.
I was bursting with the emotion and amazed that I didn’t feel the slightest
bit of fear. Loving Bailey was easy, but I wasn’t ready to tell her until I knew she was as lost to it as I was.
She told me what she wanted to eat and went to the bathroom to get ready for bed while I put in our room service order.
Every night she would put on her sexy little t-shirt and sleep shorts and every night, I took them off of her. I couldn’t understand why she didn’t cut out the middle man.
I barely tasted my food, too busy devouring my woman with my eyes and salivating over dessert. She was so sexually charged lately, it didn’t take much to set her off. Her nipples were tight, poking through her thin top and I knew she would already be wet and dripping for me. Fitting, since I was hard and leaking steady drops of pre-come.
At long last, she swallowed the last bite of her meal and I stood from the table so fast, my chair went flying backwards. I stalked over to her and pulled her up, dragging her to the bed and helping her climb on. I stripped to my boxers and came down over her body, each of us groaning as I made full contact. I dove in for a deep kiss, sucking her bottom lip into my mouth and letting it drag through my teeth. Then sweeping my tongue inside to mate with hers.
Our mouths separated and she whimpered, “I need you, Wyatt. Now.”
“You want my tongue in your sweet, juicy pussy, baby? Or my cock buried deep, deep inside you?” I growled, craving her taste as much as the feel of her pussy squeezing the fuck out of my dick.