Rough and Rugged: A Meet Me In Milwaukee Charity Anthology

Blaine

My chest swells at her compliment, one I know isn’t just bullshit ego boosting because of the way she always looks after.

Satisfied.

Glowy.

Blissful.

I grin at her, tightening my grip on her waist. She squeezes her legs around me, aligning her core to grind against my still very much awake cock.

“And here I thought you fell in love with me for my intelligence.”

She laughs and leans in to feather her lips over mine. “Oh, I find your intelligence incredibly sexy, too. And your drive to succeed, and your creativity, and how passionate you are, in and out of the bedroom and boardroom.”

I raise my brows at her. “Wow, what did I do to deserve all these compliments today?”

Her slender shoulders rise and fall. “I give you compliments all the time.”

Nodding, I search her soft features for something I’m starting to get the feeling she’s holding back. “You do, but…”

She raises a brow at me. “But what?”

I shake my head. “I don’t know. Today feels different.”

This entire trip has.

But especially today.

Waking up beside her in the beautiful house we built on the land that the Schroeder family has owned for over a hundred years. Hearing the birds chirping instead of car engines on the street. Smelling the fresh wood and leaves and clean air instead of the tinge of exhaust and overall smog that lingers near the house in the city.

All of it was so… pristine.

Annie nods slowly. “I agree. Today feels different, though, I don’t really know why.”

Staring into her evergreen eyes, I’m transported back to the first time I saw her. “I think I do. Because it’s been so long since we’ve been here, and it’s where we met.”

Her lips curl into a grin. “Do you remember that night?”

“Of course I do. How could I ever forget?”

“I was so scared.” She sucks in a sharp breath and shakes her head. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t come along.”

Something I try not to think about—ever.

Because the reality is, if I had never found Annie, I never would have found happiness.

“It was fate, babe, for me to find you on the side of the road like that with your flat tire and no spare.”

She grins again. “You were pretty fucking terrifying…”

I chuckle, the sound resonating out across the water. “How so?”

“Your big truck pulling up behind my tiny little car, all six foot four of you climbing from the driver’s seat in your flannel shirt and jeans, that axe across the back of your window in the cab.”

“Well…”—I shrug—”it was either that or my rifle.”

Her spine stiffens. “Yeah. That wouldn’t have made me feel any better.”

A lone woman with a flat along a desolate road with a guy my size advancing on her with any weapon…

The thought now sends a chill through me.

I can’t even imagine how she felt that night.

“Is that why you locked yourself in the car?”

She nods. “I wasn’t about to let some axe murdering psycho kill me on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin.”

“I’m surprised you ever got out.”

Her gaze softens, and she lowers her forehead to mine. “I saw your eyes through my window, how kind they were, and I knew I could trust you—despite you absolutely looking like a killer out of a slasher flick.”

I release a heavy, shaky breath. “I’m so glad you did. Fuck. I can’t imagine what my life would’ve been like the last ten years without you in it.”

She shakes her head. “Me, either.”

We remain quite for a few moments, the only sounds those of nature around us. The calling birds, the lapping water, the breeze rustling the leaves in the forest, but she finally pulls back.

The hint of sadness in her eyes that makes my heart ache.

Squeezing her tightly to me, I search her face for an answer before I even ask the question. “Are you happy, Annie, with our life?”

She hesitates a second before she nods, but it’s enough for me to know that the it is not a one-hundred percent yes.

“Yes, but…” Annie chews on her lip and waves her hand out to the side, water streaming from it at the movement. “I really do miss this. Milwaukee’s great, but I think we need to spend more time up here. Once a month, at least.”

Oh, thank God.

A vise had been tightening around my chest thinking there was something really bugging her, something I couldn’t easily change.

I nod. “I agree with you.”

The way being up here has relieved so much of the tension has proven we need to be.

She grins. “Good, because I think our kid will appreciate it, too.”

I raise a brow at her. “What kid? We getting a goat and I didn’t know about it?”

Annie shakes her head, pressing closer against me. “Human one… in about eight months.”

My heart stops, my ears ringing with her words. “What? But… I thought the doctor said…”

She nods. “I know. It’s why it took me so long to figure out why I’ve been so tired and emotional. But I went to the doctor before we came up here, and they ran a blood test.”

Oh, my God.

All the air rushes from my lungs.

It’s what we’ve always wanted.

What we thought was never possible.

Our miracle baby—the one we never dared to dream would ever come.

“Fuck coming up here once a month, Annie. I don’t want to raise my kids in the city. Let’s move back up here.”

Her blond brows fly up. “To Hayes Creek?”

I nod. “We already have the house and the land here, and like you said, I can work from anywhere and make the drive if I absolutely need to be at the office in person for anything, or hell, I can even take the Cessna and fly back and forth.”

It takes a moment of her searching my gaze before she responds. “You’re serious.”

“I’m dead fucking serious.” I pull one hand from around her and reach up to cup her cheek, my wet palm against her smooth, warm skin. “I am so blissfully happy right now, Annie. I can’t even put it into words.”

She shakes her head. “You don’t have to because I feel the same way.”

I kiss her again deeply, then drop my hand across her still flat stomach. “Our baby’s really in there. Huh?”

A grin plays at her lips. “Yep.”

Holy shit…

The very fresh, vivid memory of having my cock buried inside her while I railed her against that tree flashes through my head.

I pull back from her slightly. “I just fucked your brains out…”

She barks out a laugh. “Sex is totally fine while you’re pregnant, Blaine. Even hard sex. I promise. And some women even get insanely horny from all the hormones.”

“That would certainly explain the last few days…”

Annie has been insatiable.

I thought it was simply being up here, having this time to ourselves and getting to experience doing what I love so much without having to think about work for a little while.

Dropping her lips to mine, she kisses me deeply, rolling her hips along my cock. “You may be one of the lucky ones, then.”

I chuckle. “With you, baby, I’m always in luck. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me, you and that goddamn flat tire.”