It’s Vegas, Baby - Vegas, Baby

10

Autumn

For the past two months, I’d gone from asleep to fully alert in the blink of an eye. It was just the way of things when I’d been in the Congo, between never feeling one hundred percent safe and the endless amount of work that needed to be done. Waking up in Vegas was the complete opposite—it was a gloriously gradual process. I savored the feel of the luxurious sheets beneath my body. If there was such a thing as a million thread count, then I was lying on them right now. But as amazing as the sheets were, they didn’t compare to the man who held me in his arms.

Drew.

Andrew Lennox.

Owner of the five-star, Lennox Hotel and Casino.

And the father of my unborn child, growing inside me...right beneath where his hand currently rested on my stomach.

I’d gotten quite a shock yesterday when I’d found out the secret he’d been hiding from me, but his explanation had quickly soothed my anger. Knowing this powerful, confident man had been worried he’d scare me off had more than eased my concern. It had made my heart race. And melt.

His arms tightened around me, and I shivered when he pressed a gentle kiss against my shoulder. “Have you changed your mind about forgiving me?”

“No.” I wiggled until he loosened his hold enough for me to turn in his arms and peer up at him. “Why?”

“Because you were thinking

so hard, I could practically hear it.”

“Not bad thoughts.” I smiled up at him, and the worry drained from his eyes. “In a way, I’m actually glad you waited to tell me who you really were. You might be Andrew Lennox to other people, but you’ll always be Drew to me.”

“Sunshine.” It was just one word, but with how it was wrenched from his body I was left in no doubt of how much what I’d said meant to him.

“So, yeah, it was a shock. But I get why you did it. I really do.”

He claimed my mouth in a brutal kiss that left my lips swollen when he finally lifted his head. “I missed you so fucking much, baby.”

“I missed you, too.”

His hand slid down my spine to my ass, and he pressed me closer to his body as he ground his hard length into my core. “I need you. Right now. As much as I loved having you back in my arms, holding you all night was fucking torture.”

“I need you, too.”

“I can tell.” He circled his hips. “Your panties are drenched, baby.”

Need wasn’t a strong enough word for the desire coursing through my veins. The chemistry between us was off the charts, and my pregnancy hormones only magnified it. When his hand slid between our bodies and into my underwear, I almost didn’t have the willpower to stop him. But no matter how desperately I wanted him inside me, we couldn’t have sex until I gave him a shock of his own. So I wrapped my fingers around his wrist and squeezed my legs together. “Not yet. Not until—”

His head jerked up, and his crystal blue eyes filled with concern as he scanned my face. “Shit, baby. I didn’t think—you slept like the dead, but you still look completely wiped. Did you pick up a bug of some kind while you were in the Congo? Is that why you’re home early?”

“I guess you could say that I picked something up,” I laughed softly. “But not in the Congo. It happened while I was in Vegas.”

“I don’t understand, sunshine. You’ve been sick since you were here with me?” His eyebrows furrowed and crystal blue depths filled with concern. “And you still went to the Congo? For a whole two months?” He cupped my face in his hands, his thumbs gently swiping underneath my eyes as though he could will the bags there to go away. “We have a doctor on staff. I’ll have him come up right away to give you a check-up.”

When he twisted his upper body to reach out for his cell phone on the bedside table, I grabbed his arm to stop him. “I don’t need you to do that, Drew. I’m a doctor, remember?”

“Of course I fucking remember! There isn’t a single thing about you that I’ve forgotten.” He gathered me up in his arms. “But just because you’re a doctor doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get medical care when you’re sick. Especially if it’s been this long. Have you seen anyone since you got back to the states? Or just a co-worker at Doctors Without Borders while you were in the Congo? They should’ve been able to figure out what was wrong with you by now. What if it’s something serious?”

I pressed my lips against his to stem the flow of words. “I already plan on seeing a doctor soon, but not yours and not right this minute. And no, I haven’t seen anyone since I’ve been back. This was my first stop.”

His blue eyes went wide, even as they filled with a possessive gleam. “You came straight to me?”

“Yes.” I turned my head when he went to claim my mouth again, and he growled in frustration after his lips hit my cheek.

“Sunshine, you can’t tell me something like that without knowing it’ll make me want to get inside your tight, little pussy even more than I already did.” His nostrils flared. “And I can fucking smell how much you want it, too.”

“I do.” My nails dug into his arms. “I really, really do. But I had something I wanted to tell you, only I got distracted by your identity reveal yesterday and then I fell asleep before I had the chance to say anything.”

I must’ve looked as nervous as I felt because he hurried to reassure me. “Don’t be scared, baby. There isn’t a damn thing you could tell me that’ll make you any less mine.”

I took a deep breath in an attempt to settle my nerves, but it didn’t do me much good. I was still rattled when I dove into my explanation. “With everything that was going on with my trip, it took me longer than it should have to notice the symptoms. But as things progressed, I finally realized what was going on and my boss ran a blood test to confirm.”

“Confirm what, baby?” His voice was becoming elevated with alarm. “Nothing you’ve said so far has made it clear to me what’s wrong with you.”

“I’m pregnant.”

A moment of stunned silence followed my bald statement.

“You’re carrying my baby?”—I nodded—“And you aren’t sick? It’s just the pregnancy?”—Another nod—”Halle-fucking-lujah!”

His reaction seemed pretty obvious, but I asked anyway, “You aren’t mad?”

His grin was huge. “Not even a tiny bit, sunshine.”

“Oh.” My head collapsed into his chest as a surge of relief crashed over me. “I swear I didn’t do this on purpose. I wasn’t trying to trap you or anything like that. I’m not even sure how it happened, really. Besides the obvious.” I went into doctor mode, spouting statistics. “But you used a condom each and every time, and when used effectively they only have a two percent failure rate.” I felt his muscles stiffen, and I pulled away to peer up at him. “I didn’t mean for it to sound like I’m blaming you—”

His expression turned sheepish. “You probably should since odds are good that it happened the first time I got inside you. That condom I found in my wallet our first time together? I was so relieved to have found it that I hadn’t stopped to think about the fact that it had to have been in there way too long.” He shrugged as his lips tipped up into an adorable smile as his hand slid down to cover my belly. “But I don’t regret it. Not when you being pregnant with my baby makes you even more mine than you already were.”

I offered him a shy smile. “So you’re the opposite of mad?”

His other hand tangled with mine, and he brushed his thumb over my ring finger. “The only thing that’d make me happier is carrying you down to the wedding chapel and making it official.”

“What?” I gasped, shaking my head in denial. “No! That’s not possible.”

His mouth kicked up at one side and he flashed me a wink. “It’s Vegas, baby. It’s more than possible. There’s something like three hundred weddings a day here.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “We’re not rushing off and getting married just because I’m pregnant.” No matter how much I wanted to take him up on the offer.

“I don’t want to marry you just because you’re pregnant.” His tone was indignant, making me smile inside.

I raised a single brow. “Then why do you want to marry me?” The air in my lungs stalled as I waited for his answer.

“I want to marry you because you’re mine.”

The breath I’d been holding let out in a huff. “Saying I’m yours isn’t a good enough reason. Not when we only spent two days together.”

His eyes narrowed and he looked at me pointedly. “It might’ve only been two days, but I still managed to fall in love with you.”

“You love me?” I gasped.

“Whoever said absence makes the heart grow fonder was right because my feelings didn’t go away during the two months we spent apart. They only grew.”

Holy shit, I was a lucky woman. This incredibly sexy man had somehow fallen in love with me and wasn’t the least bit bothered by the fact that I was unexpectedly pregnant. No wonder I’d fallen in love with him. “I love you, too.”

His grin grew smug. “You’re already in love with me and pregnant with my child. Why not throw caution to the wind and marry me too?”

I wanted to say yes. I really, really did. But it was a little more complicated than he was making it sound. “Because we live in different cities.”

“I’m a fucking billionaire. We can live wherever you want. Living in Vegas makes running the hotel more convenient, but you and our family are my priority.”

“I need to figure out my whole job situation,” I mused. “I hadn’t planned on needing one until my time was up with Doctors Without Borders.”

“Like I said before, I’m a billionaire. Take all the time you want to figure out where you want work.” I narrowed my eyes at him again, and he quickly figured out I wasn’t as happy with his solution to my lack of a job as I had been with him being willing to live wherever I wanted. “You weren’t expecting to go job hunting for another ten months anyway. Enjoy the pregnancy. Settle into married life with me. That’d be right around the time most women’s maternity leave is up. You could take over as our in-house doctor, open a clinic, get a job at the hospital here. I’ll support whatever you think is the right decision for you.”

My pregnancy hormones made me extra emotional, and my eyes filled with tears at how perfect his answer was. “Are you for real?”

He pressed my palm against his hard length. “I’m very real.”

“And you love me?”

He slid my hand up to where his heart pounded in his chest. “Every beat is for you.”

“And you really want to get married right away?”

His blue eyes burned with sincerity. “More than anything.”

Only a very dumb woman wouldn’t have agreed, and nobody have ever tried calling me stupid.