Renewing Their Vows
He turns to me now and his face transforms with a powerful combination of lust and wonder. This is how he always looks at me when we’ve been apart for a matter of hours. As if he can’t believe I’ve still here. As if I’m giving him life simply by existing.
I can relate.
“Hi,” I whisper, pushing off the counter and going toward him.
“Beauty.” His stride picks up and he meets me halfway across the kitchen, his hands reaching out to frame my face. He studies me hard a moment, his eyes touching on every single one of my features, before our mouths slant into a kiss. It’s a reunion. A celebration that we’ve returned to each other unharmed. It’s out and out desire, stoked higher by every ride of his tongue along mine, the trailing of his hands down my front, over my breasts to my hips. The rough squeeze of his hands. “God, I can’t even keep my hands off you long enough to tell you the news,” he laughs against my parted lips. “You just make me so goddamn hot, Gracie.”
“Same. But I have news, too.” I take one more fix of his mouth, then step back, away from temptation for now. We have all night to get lost in each other and God knows we will, but I want to hear about his meeting. And I’m dying to tell him about the test that’s sitting on the bathroom sink, decorated by two blue lines. Our dream come true. “You go first.”
Watching me shift side to side with excitement, his beautiful lips quirk up on one end. “You sure?”
I fold my hands at my waist and force myself to stay still. “Totally.”
Blowing out a breath, he rakes a hand through his dark hair, a light sheen coating his golden eyes. “Got my first professional fight, baby. It’s happening.”
“Oh my God!” I clap a hand over my mouth, tears rushing to my eyes. Only a split seconds passes before I’m launching myself at North, laughing as he spins me in a circle. “Wait!” I tap his shoulders until he sets me down, but I stay close, my hands fisted in the front of his shirt. “When? Who? North, this is amazing. I knew you would get here. You’re the best amateur fighter in Boston. It was only a matter of time.”
He leans down and kisses the tip of my nose, affection written on every inch of his face. “I did it because you believe in me, Gracie. Because of you, period.” His mouth lingers on mine, making a meal out of kissing me slowly, his palms smoothing up and down my hips. “I’m fighting Tip Bradley next Saturday night. It’s going to be a big crowd. They’re filming it for paid television and everything. They weren’t selling any tickets with the lineup, so they tapped Tip to fight.” He sighs. “And you know how promoters love to bill me as the scrappy, former underground fighter from Southie. They think my story will fill some seats.”
“Well,” I say, lifting a shoulder and letting it drop. “That might be how they get people in the door, but your talent is what’s going to keep them coming back.”
His arms wrap around me, securing me in the warmest hug possible, his exhale threading through the loose strands of my hair. “You always know what to say.”
“It’s the truth.” I tilt my face up and kiss his chin. “I’m so proud of you.”
North groans and lifts me up, his hold tightening. I’m off the ground now, my toes dangling several inches off the floor. “I live every minute of my life to hear those five words, you know that, beauty?”
He’s walking me down the hallway toward our bedroom and I know exactly what’s going to happen once we clear the threshold. His rapidly thickening erection against my belly makes that clear as crystal. But if we start making love now, we’ll never come up for air. “Wait, I have news, too.”
“I know,” he says, his voice muffled by my neck, which he is kissing now with an open mouth. Long strokes of his tongue and bites of the patch below my ear. “Tell me while I get you wet. I’m hard as a motherfucker, baby. Missed you so bad.”
“I missed you, too.” He’s starting to pull me under. My legs are itching to wrap around his hips and suddenly, I’m wearing too much clothing. I want it too. I want to be skin to skin with my husband because it’s the only place I can fully breathe.
Last chance before he wrecks your concentration.
“I’m pregnant,” I blurt.
North’s tongue pauses halfway to my ear. For long seconds, he doesn’t move a muscle. But then his chest starts to move in big, brutal heaves. “What…did you say? You’re…” He sets me down on my feet and cups the sides of my face, scrutinizing my eyes. “Are you serious, Gracie? You’re really having a baby?”