Claimed by my Best Friend (Men of Valor Springs #7)

Epilogue

Five Months Later

Paula

“So, when are you going to tell him the news?”

I jump at the voice, clutching my heart as I turn around to glare at Eleanor. My heart is racing hard, and I question if she’s trying to give me a heart attack so she can inherit all my cardigan sweaters. That has got to be the reason she keeps sneaking up on me.

“What the hell, Eleanor!”

The woman in question leans against the sink next to me, passing me a paper towel to dry my hands. I snatch it from her fingers, but my glare stays locked on her, which she easily laughs off. “So?”

“So, what, Eleanor?”

She rolls her eyes at me. “Are you really going to play twenty questions when we both know what I am talking about?”

“I have no idea what you are talking about,” I say truthfully. With her, you can never really know for sure. She could be wanting to talk about that one kid in our class who eats chalk or tell me what kinky things she’s been trying with her husband lately. Quite frankly, it’s always extremes with her.

“Okay, fine, I guess I’ll spell it out for you,” she says, leaning into whisper. “You are pregnant, aren’t you?”

My eyes widen in surprise, and I look around the bathroom in panic to make sure that all the stalls are empty before turning to her. “H–how did you know?”

“Darling, I am a mother of two and a grandma of one. I know these things,” she tells me with a smirk. “I mean, it’s either that, or you have suddenly developed a taste for sour gummy worms dipped in lime juice.”

Well, that’s not the only thing that has changed recently. My extreme cravings extend further than just food. My husband and I have a healthy sex life, but it’s been different lately. Every time I see the man, I damn near climb him like a tree. It’s been quite intense lately. I find myself attracted to everything about the man, craving his scent with a force strong enough for it to be odd.

“I haven’t told anyone yet, not even Darrell. I’ve been waiting for the right moment,” I say, picking at my nails. Just thinking of Darrell alone is enough to have my stomach fluttering and nipples tightening behind my bra. “He’s been busy these past couple of weeks, trying to catch up with work since getting back from our honeymoon, and I didn’t want to distract him.”

“How long have you known?”

“A week or so,” I say, running my hand over my still-flat stomach. To think that a tiny human with mine and my husband’s DNA is in there sends my pulse drumming fast. I’ve always wanted kids, and the second I saw Darrell, I knew I wanted his kids. And now our first baby is on the way. Oh, if I thought Darrell was protective before, there is no telling the beast I am going to unleash with this news.

“You should tell him. He must be wondering why you’ve been riding him faster than a horse in full gallop.”

My jaw drops to the floor, and I look around to check again that we are alone. “Eleanor! You can’t say that!”

“Why not? From the way I saw you jump on him yesterday when he came to pick you up, I can tell you’ve been wearing the poor man down. At least let him know why his stallion is working double the shifts.”

“You…” I shake my head, tossing the paper towel into the trash. “You are impossible.”

I shake my head and exit the bathroom with her in toe. She waves at me when I slip into our classroom, then she continues down the hall to collect our class from the music room. I close the door behind me and lean against it. It’s true what they say about older ladies not having much of a filter.

Even so, I mull over her words during class and recess. I watch the kids run around and picture my own doing the same. A baby girl or boy with a mix of mine and Darrell’s features running around with other kids and laughing at the top of their lungs. The thought fills my heart with warmth, and I find my hand going back to my stomach.

Eleanor is right, I need to tell Darrell.

The rest of the day flies by fast, and soon, I am driving down the road to my husband’s studio. My hands are shaky and sweaty on the steering wheel, and I am reminded of that day five months ago when I left work and came straight to his place with the intent of confessing my feelings.

Today is different. Things have been different ever since I put my foot down and told my father that Darrell and I are a package deal. It took him a few days, but my father finally came around when he realized how serious I was. We had a beautiful wedding at Uncle Dane’s ranch, and was everything I’d dreamed it would be. Saying our vows and Darrell telling me all the things he’d already told me in private, but this time, in front of an audience.

Everything was perfect. We are perfect together.

I’m practically trembling with excitement when I walk into his studio. I smile at the blue-haired girl seated behind the reception desk. “Hi, Milly, are you leaving already?” I ask, nodding at the bag on the desk.

She pops her gum and nods. “Yep, I have a date with this hot guy I met at Annie’s, and I can’t wait to see where he’s taking me.”

“Oh great. What is he like?”

We make small talk as she finishes packing her things. I wait until she’s done packing up before nodding toward the door that leads to my husband’s workstation. “Is he with a client?”

“Nah, you should go ahead.”

I smile and wish her a great time with her date before leaving to find my husband. I catch him bent over his sketchbook, so I stand there for a moment, admiring every inch of the man I vowed to spend the rest of my life with. He’s wearing a black shirt with the sleeves rolled up to expose his tattoos and dark jeans that hug his muscular build perfectly. The pulsing between my legs is back with an overwhelming intensity, slicking my sex and staining my panties.

“Like what you see?”

A lot.

I like it so much that I want to kiss him. So, I do.

With three quick steps, I am perched on my husband’s lap, kissing him like someone who’s been starved for affection, but that can’t be right. We made love just this morning. Why does it feel like it was ages ago?

“God, I missed you,” I whimper, raking my hands up and down his broad shoulders. He seems stunned, but only for a second before he drops the sketchbook and his massive hands drop to my ass, and then he’s lifting me. In a matter of seconds, I am flattened against the wall, and I wrap my legs around him as he kisses me back with just as much need, if not more. His hands flex on my ass as he lines up his erection against my panties-covered sex.

“Horny little thing,” he grunts against my lips, rocking forward, which has my sex growing slicker, pulsing rhythmically, and I wince when my walls squeeze at the emptiness. I want to feel him inside of me. I always want to feel him inside of me. “You’ve been pinning for my dick way more than normal. Something you need to tell me?”

“I can’t want my husband?”

“Of course, you can, angel.” His mouth finds mine. “This dick belongs to you. Will only ever belong to you.”

I bury my hands in his short hair as our mouths lock and tongues tangle in an erotic dance. I cry into the kiss when his hips punch forward and drive me up the wall, his cock grinding against my sex. I sob at the delicious friction, rocking desperately against him and rubbing my aching nipples against his chest but find little relief.

“Darrell…” I whine in frustration, pushing my head back when he breaks the kiss to trail his mouth down my throat, nipping at my earlobe and kissing the sensitive spot behind my ear. He holds me up with his forearm, using his free hand to yank down the neckline of my dress along with my bra. My nipples are aching, practically burning with need, and when he closes his greedy mouth around a bud, my back arches with a cry. His attention shifts between the buds, tonguing and suckling on them feverishly, the pressure shooting right to the spot between my thighs and flooding my sex.

He releases a rosy nipple from his lips with a pop before leaning up to look at me. “You are practically trembling, angel. You want this dick inside that tight little pussy, don’t you?” he rasps, raking his hand up my thigh before sliding his fingers into the waistband of my panties and tearing them completely off. “I bet you are dripping, aching for me to fill you up.”

“Yes,” I beg shamelessly. Maybe later I’ll look back on this moment and my neediness and feel some kind of way, but not now. My head is foggy with the need to feel him inside of me. Christ, it feels like an eternity since that last happened. “Need you,” I cry desperately, burying my face in his neck and inhaling his scent. Christ, he smells incredible, and I could spend an eternity buried in the man’s scent.

“Fuck me, angel, what’s going on with you?”

I need to tell him something, but I don’t remember what it is. I can’t think beyond my need clawing at my chest. “Want you!”

“Fuck! Take me out,” he growls as he backs up, then drops down onto his tattoo chair. I keep one hand hooked around his shoulder as I reach down with the other, feverishly tugging at his zipper, I nearly tear the damn thing off with my need to get to his cock. I slide my hand into his boxers and take him out, jerking his massive girth in my hand, his precum slicking the motion. “Do it, put that cock inside of you.”

I flush, guiding his shaft to my sodden sex. My mouth falls open with a cry when the crown of his cock pushes against my entrance. “Oh, God!” I cry out when Darrell slams forward, burying his manhood in my pulsing sex. His fingertips dig into my hips, and he pulls me tight against him before he starts hammering into me. My back arches with a moan when he starts to pump up into me. I bury my face back in his neck and soak in his scent as I lose myself to his brutal thrusts, the wet sounds of our lovemaking echoing in the room.

How I went on for a full two years without this will forever be a mystery to me. Christ, I should have jumped him back at the fair, saved me years of heartache and months of uncertainty.

Mine . Every gorgeous inch of this tattooed god belongs to me, and I have the papers to prove it! And a little human growing inside of me to back it up.

“Fuck, you feel incredible, baby,” he growls, his hips pistoning fast, sending pressure spreading through my body. My toes curl as I feel every inch of his massive shaft and revel in the moment. “I can’t stop. You are a fucking drug, and, angel, I’m hooked. Your pussy is a fucking drug!”

“Close,” I whimper into his skin, rocking forward to meet his hard thrusts and bracing for the storm that is about to break, and when it does, there is nothing I can do but let it overwhelm me. I come with a scream, burying my teeth into his neck to curb the noise as my feminine walls cinch hard around his cock, triggering his own climax.

“Fuuuck!” he roars, a violent tremble racking his body, and he comes, flooding my sex with his seed. Darrell fucks me through the orgasm until we’re both panting and out of breath, then he goes slack against me.

We stay locked in each other’s embrace, our breaths mingling hotly when Darrell pushes back to look at me, his ocean blues scrutinizing.

“What?” I ask defensively.

“You tell me,” he says, gently stroking my back as he softens inside me. “You’ve been acting weirdly lately.”

“How weird?”

“Paula!”

“Fine,” I chuckle, running my fingers over his sturdy chest before finally telling him the news. “Well, you know I still want that teddy bear tattoo, but I guess I’m going to have to wait even longer to get it because…I’m pregnant.”

He seems stunned into silence for a second, blinking at me as if he’s terrified that I am pranking him, but I would never do that to him. I know about his rocky relationship with his parents and would never be so cruel as to joke about something like this when I know he wants a baby as much as I do.

“You are serious?” I nod, watching with a smile as his face morphs from shock to excitement. “Fuck, baby!” I shriek when he wraps his arms around me and lifts me in the air, spinning around the room until we’re both out of breath.

“We’re going to be parents,” I tell him when he finally puts me down, reaching up to clasp the side of his face before leaning in to brush my mouth over his. “I know you are going to be an amazing father just as you’ve been an amazing friend and husband.”

My words seem to affect him as he pulls me back into a tight hug. “Thank you, Paula. You and our baby are everything.”

I hug him back, nuzzling his neck and losing myself in the feel of this man. As we stay locked in each other’s embrace, I realize that I can’t wait to start the next chapter of our story.

~The End