Chapter 16 Mia
SIXTEEN
MIA
I turn to the side, trying to see myself from the right angle to confirm what I already know. With my shirt bunched under my boobs, there is a soft swell between my hips that’s no longer bloat.
It’s firmer, rounder.
Definitely a bump. A sign our baby is in there, growing. Real.
I can’t swallow past the choking lump in my throat.
It’s small but there.
It’s been three weeks since we saw them on that grainy screen. Three whole weeks of wondering when I’d pop, and now I’m seeing it, I can’t stop looking.
“Mia, are you—”
Jensen stops in his tracks. His eyes drop to my belly, and I watch him unravel in real time. First he blinks rapidly, then his jaw ticks and his chest heaves like he’s trying to hold back too much feeling.
“You’re showing.” His voice is thick, and he looks like somebody handed him the world, rather than the start of a baby bump.
“Yeah… I think so.” I press my palms there, feeling the subtle slope, blinking back the tears burning my eyes.
Jensen’s legs remember how to work, and he crosses the space between us until he’s in front of me. There is a beat where I’m not sure what he’s going to do, and then he drops to his knees so fast I gasp. His eyes lift for a second, dark and hungry, devoted and filled with madness.
“You’ll never be more beautiful than you are right now.
” He rests his forehead against my belly.
“This is proof that this body is mine.” He lifts his head, his hands cupping the small swell, like he’s trying to embed it into his memory.
“This little bump that I gave you…” He presses a kiss there so soft it makes my eyes water.
“You don’t realize how good you look, do you?
How hard you make me standing there, your belly ripe with me.
” He breathes against my skin, hot and needy.
And those same hands that touch me like I’m sacred, hook into my waistband.
He peels my leggings down my thighs, my panties with them like they’re an inconvenience. I tangle my fingers in his hair as he presses kisses lower and lower until his scorching mouth closes around my clit like he’s starving to taste me.
I tip my head back as he teases around my entrance, taking me apart piece by piece. His tongue drags along my slit in slow, deliberate strokes, drowning himself in my taste.
“You’re so fucking wet for me you’re leaking down your thighs.”
I’m not sure how I’m still standing. My legs are trembling so much that he has to grip my hips to keep me steady.
Pleasure builds inside me, coiling hot and sharp until the air feels trapped in my chest. There’s something crass and filthy about the way he’s eating me out, like he doesn’t care if the entire world hears him licking and lapping my pussy.
The wet, greedy noises he makes as he devours me are sinful.
I keep my fingers tangled in his hair as he sucks my clit, dragging a desperate moan from me.
“That’s it, Mia. I want to hear you come apart on my tongue.”
I gasp as heat rushes up my spine, my breath stuttering through my clenched throat. The sting of pleasure bites so sharply it’s almost painful.
I’m not sure if I want him to stop or keep going. It’s all too much, yet not enough.
He flattens his tongue, dragging it through my slit before he pushes the tip of it inside.
Oh. Fuck.
I can’t think anymore. Can’t move.
My body jerks as a cry rips out of me, and I detonate under his mouth, gasping as my orgasm crashes through me like a tidal wave.
He pulls back a fraction, his breath warm against me as he kisses my stomach again. “This belly. This baby. All mine. And I’ll spend the rest of my life proving it to you.”
“You already prove it to me every day. I don’t need more. I just need you.”
He stands, his lips wet, and kisses me. I can taste my arousal on him, which shouldn’t turn me on as much as it does. “You have me. Always. Come on. Let’s get you cleaned up.”
He guides me into the shower while my legs are still trembling and cleans me like he’s washing the sin of what he just did to me off my skin.
His fingers are gentle as he massages the shampoo into my scalp, but his hands keep drifting back to my belly, as if he can’t stop reminding himself that I’m showing.
Once we’re done, he turns the water off and wraps a towel around me. For the second time today, he gets on his knees to dry my legs and feet. It makes my eyes burn when he presses kisses to the inside of my thigh before he pulls my panties into place, sitting them just beneath my belly.
This is the Jensen I fell in love with—the man who looks at me with so much love I might burst with it.
I let him dress me, every scrape of his fingers leaving warmth behind. Once my leggings are settled on my hips, he guides my arms into one of his sweaters. It hangs off me, the sleeves dangling past my fingers, but it’s perfect. It’s him.
Then his mouth finds mine, his hand guiding my jaw so he can deepen the kiss. I grip his biceps as my pulse stutters and lean closer, until there is not an inch of space between us.
He cradles my face like I’m breakable. His is breath ragged, barely keeping control. I like that he’s wild for me. I like that I can make that fragile tether on his sanity snap.
He kisses the corner of my mouth and the edge of my jaw before he presses his lips to my temple. “If I keep kissing you, we’re never going to leave the penthouse,” he groans like it pains him to admit it.
I pause. It’s Saturday, so I assumed we were going to have a lazy day, but clearly that is not on Jensen’s agenda. “Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
My lips twitch into a smile. I love when he surprises me, though I can’t imagine what he has planned.
Theo meets us at the elevator, and Jensen keeps his fingers entangled with mine until we reach the car.
He opens the door for me, helping me into the back seat like I’m fragile.
I don’t protest as he pulls the seatbelt over my chest, securing it in the buckle.
Then he pulls it down under my small bump, his hand lingering there before he straightens.
He stares at me for the longest moment then closes my door.
I watch the Manhattan skyline as we head out of Tribeca toward SoHo. Jensen sits next to me, rubbing his thumb over my thigh like he’s not even aware he’s doing it.
The traffic is crazy, but Theo navigates it with the expertise of someone who has lived in the city too long to be polite.
Eventually, the car stops at the curb and the engine cuts. I don’t move. I know better than to get out on my own and for all the concessions Jensen’s made for me, this is something small I can do that makes his heart rate stay low.
When he opens my door, he looks at me like I hung the moon before he helps me out.
I still have no idea where we’re going until we’re standing in front of a store. Theo keeps close as Jensen opens the door for me and we step inside.
My heart flutters the moment I realize where we are.
There are shelves and racks filled with tiny clothes. Piles of soft blankets are stacked or draped elegantly over display cabinets and at the back of the store are lines of strollers, next to bassinets and cribs that make my chest ache.
I look up at him, my eyes burning. “Jensen.” I didn’t think we’d come shopping for baby things for a while yet.
“Find some things for our baby.”
I try to control my happiness as I gravitate toward the nearest display. There’s no one else in the store, just two sales clerks in fitted pencil skirts and blouses, hovering nearby in case we need them.
I pause and turn back to him. “Did you make them close the store for us?” I ask, even though I already know the answer.
Of course he did.
Jensen presses a kiss into my hair, trying to soften his answer. “I want you to feel safe while you’re looking for things for our baby.”
That flutter becomes a steady beat of wings in my chest. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“I’d do anything for you.”
I move between the shelves, my husband following behind me. There are so many tiny onesies, little socks, hats—I don’t know where to start.
“What about this one?” Jensen holds up the cutest little outfit with a lion on the front. It looks soft and I can already imagine our baby wearing it.
“Oh, it’s adorable.” My fingers trail over the fabric. I wrinkle my nose. “It’s a little terrifying to imagine something that size is eventually going to come out of my body.”
He squeezes my shoulder. “I’ll be with you every second.”
“I know you’ll be there,” I say, moving to the next display. Theo keeps a distance behind us, giving us space, but close enough to react if somebody suddenly jumps out from under a clothing rack. “But you don’t have to worry about whether you’re going to tear or be cut.”
“You know I’d do this for you if I could.”
“I know.”
I stop at a teddy bear. It is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. Gray, with a heart on its chest. I trail my fingers over it for a second before I move on to the next rack. This one’s full of little vests.
Every single thing I touch, Jensen grabs.
“What are you doing?” I ask when his arms are full.
“You like them. So we’re buying them.”
I blink. “I don’t know if we need all of that. I don’t know what we need at all.”
He shifts his shoulders. “I don’t care what we need. If you like it, you get it.”
I roll my eyes at him, moving toward the bassinets. “You can’t just buy the entire store, Jensen.”
“I mean… Technically I could. One phone call and the store would be ours—”
“Babe,” I warn, trying not to laugh at the ridiculousness of it.
He stops me, turning me to face him. “I want you to buy things for our child. Things that you like. They don’t have to be practical, Mia. They just have to make you happy.”
Yeah, I melt. He’s trying so hard with everything, and his enthusiasm, the way he is so in this tells me exactly the kind of father he’s going to be.
I press my palms against his chest, feeling so many things I can’t put it into words. “You, and this baby… That makes me happy. I don’t need the whole store for that to change.”
By the time we get back to the car, I feel light and happy. I lean against Jensen’s shoulder, the seatbelt pulling against me, but I don’t care. I just want to be in my husband’s arms. “Thank you for that. It makes it feel more real, doesn’t it?”
“You make this real for me,” he murmurs. “Every time you picked something for our baby, it made me love you even more.” He kisses me with the soft devotion that makes my skin buzz.
“This baby is going to be so loved.”
“This one, and the others I’m planning on giving you.”