19. Maggie
NINETEEN
maggie
We slept until dawn.
Light filtered in through my bedroom window…me in nothing but Nash’s t-shirt and a pair of underwear, him in his boxers. I let out a cozy, pleasured sigh as I woke, Nash playing the big spoon, his arms around me.
I couldn’t feel anything yet, not really, not exactly…but I was pregnant.
Pregnant with his baby.
I’d been here all of three months and I had what I’d wanted for years. The job at an elementary school. The baby on the way. The shelf full of kids’ books that would be well-used and well-loved.
A man who loved me. Probably loved me more than Bryce ever had.
Nash’s embrace tightened and he pressed a kiss to my throat, right over my pulse. He was hard—I could feel him between my thighs, and I wanted him now.
“You are so fucking beautiful,” he rasped in my ear, his hand sliding down over my belly…under my shirt. He dragged it back up so he could cup my breast, thrusting just slightly. “Can I fuck you, sunshine?”
“Please,” I whispered.
Nash moved his hand so he could pull himself free; then he went for my underwear, dragging them over my hips. I kicked them off and hummed when I felt him against me, sliding through where I was already getting wet.
“Needy girl,” he chuckled in my ear, his hand wrapping around his shaft, lining up. “Begging me to put a baby in you even when you’re already knocked up.”
“It worked,” I breathed. “Doesn’t mean I want you to stop.”
He made a low sound against my neck. “No?”
“No.” I pushed back against him. “Still want to feel you. Want you inside me.”
He pushed inside slow, and I felt every inch of it, and we both went still for a moment—just that, just him filling me up, his arm tight around my waist, his mouth at my ear.
“Morning,” he said.
I laughed—soft and sleepy and completely undone. “Morning.”
He started to rock into me slow and steady, holding me against him—his chest warm and firm against my shoulders, his lips at my throat. The angle made me feel safe, cozy, like this was what forever felt like.
“Just the first time,” I gasped. “I want…gonna want more.”
“Tell me.”
“Want you…keeping me pregnant—” I gasped, my chest heaving.
My breasts were so sensitive; it all made sense now, and I wanted him touching me, soothing, tasting.
Maybe it wasn’t the time to tell him how many kids I wanted, but I just didn’t care.
He’d never judged me. “Wanna make a family with you—”
It made him speed up, taking the words right out of my mouth. I moaned, trying to muffle it against his arm—but his hand found my breast again and I stopped trying.
“Yeah?” His voice was rough, low, right against my ear. “Want to keep you like this.”
“Yes—”
“Belly round with my baby.” His rhythm deepened. “Beautiful and mine and—”
“Nash—”
“How many?” he said.
I blinked. “What?”
“Kids.” He thrust deep and held there, his hand spread over my stomach. “How many do you want.”
The question hit me somewhere completely unprepared for it.
“Nash—”
“Tell me.” Low and certain. “We’re already here. Tell me.”
“Three,” I breathed. “Maybe four. I want—I want a full house, I want—”
He let out this animalistic snarl and moved—getting me on my stomach, then pulling so I was on my knees with my arms stretched out. Nash knelt and thrust back inside me, reaching forward to hold my breasts as he rocked my whole body, rocked the bed with every deep thrust.
“Fuck, you don’t know what you do to me,” he growled. “Gonna give you everything you want, sunshine. My cock is yours to use—take what you need, baby.”
“Nash—” I gasped.
“Three or four.” He thrust deep. “Gonna fill you up every time. Keep you round and pretty and mine.”
“Yes—please—”
“You want that?” His hands tightened on my breasts, thumbs dragging over my nipples, already so sensitive I couldn’t think straight. “Want me keeping you pregnant?”
“God, yes—”
“My good girl.” He dropped forward, one hand splayed on the mattress beside me, the other sliding down over my stomach—flat still, nothing yet, but the knowledge of what was already there making it mean something different. Something enormous. “Already carrying my baby and begging me for more.”
“I want more,” I said. Breathless. Completely certain. “I want everything. I want—”
“I know what you want.” His pace was relentless now, the headboard finding the wall, and I stopped caring about the landlord downstairs. “Been thinking about it since the first night. Watching you with Nell and thinking—”
“Nash—”
“—thinking I want to see you round with mine. Want Nell to have a little brother or sister who has your eyes—”
I came apart completely.
He kept going, rode me through it, his mouth at my shoulder, his hand back on my breast, murmuring things that weren’t quite words anymore, just sound and warmth and him.
When he followed me over it was deep and certain and I felt every pulse of it and thought yes, that, more of that, all of it, forever.
We collapsed together into the sheets.
Both breathing hard.
Someone was knocking on the ceiling from downstairs. Keep it down!
We both laughed…Nash’s laughter rumbling against my back, all through his chest. “Sorry!” I shouted.
Nash buried his face in my hair, shoulders shaking.
“Soundproofing,” he said. “We need to discuss soundproofing.”
“We need to discuss me not living above my landlord,” I said.
“You could move in with me.”
I took a breath…didn’t know what to say.
“That was—” he started.
“Did you just—”
“I didn’t plan that,” he said. “It just came out.”
I rolled over to look at him. He was looking back at me with the expression of a man who had said a thing and was now taking its measure, deciding whether he meant it.
He meant it. I could see him deciding he meant it.
“But…we’ll need a bigger place,” he said. “Not enough room for five kids in that little apartment next to Rick’s.”
I blushed. “God…you don’t have to take that seriously—”
“Why not? You told me you want it. I listen.”
I stared at him.
He looked back, completely calm, like he hadn’t just casually accepted the possibility of five children at seven in the morning after two days of knowing we were together.
“Nash,” I said.
“Mm.”
“You can’t just—agree to five children before coffee.”
“I can do what I want,” he said. “And so can you. And what you want is to have five kids.”
I laughed—surprised out of me—and he caught me around the waist and pulled me back against him, his chin on my shoulder.
“I’m serious about moving in,” he said, more serious than before. “Not today. Not next week. But…soon. Before you start showing. I don’t want you here alone for that.”
I gazed into his eyes, searching them for all the things he wasn’t saying. This all felt so sudden…but also inevitable.
“I didn’t get to do it right with Nell,” he said. “Her mom—she insisted on doing it alone, didn’t tell me a damn thing. I want to do this right. With you, I’m doing it right. I’m gonna give you everything you ever dreamed of, Maggie Laine.”
I could see it all with the way he described it…us together, growing a family, moving somewhere in town that was just for us. A house with room for all the babies we could ever want.
Starting with me, Nash, Nell, and whoever our baby was going to be.
“I don’t want to wait to start telling people,” I murmured. “The school…Delia said she would help me navigate administrative stuff.”
“Good,” Nash said. “Because I wasn’t planning on hiding you.”
“I know,” I said. “But there’s a right way to do it. Principal Daniels first, before anyone else at school finds out. And we should probably—I should probably offer to have Nell moved to another class for the spring semester. Conflict of interest.”
Nash frowned. “She won’t like that.”
“I know,” I said, “but it’s the right call. It protects both of us.” I paused. “And it protects Nell. She can’t be in my class if I’m her…”
I trailed off and Nash’s lips quirked at the corners. “Her what, Maggie?”
I smiled too. “Her mom?”
He pulled me close and kissed me all over my face. It felt so good. So right.
“Okay,” I said, pulling myself together. “So…the plan.”
I somehow managed to wrench myself away from him, then I padded out to the living room in nothing but my t-shirt. I heard Nash a second later as I went through my school bag—and I found him in his boxers, standing in my kitchen and making coffee.
I loved him.
I really, really loved him.
I turned around with my planner and my gel pens in hand, then I curled up on the couch.
“If you’re okay with it,” I said, “we should tell Nell today. I know it’s fast, but…I think this is right. I want her to have plenty of time with me before the baby becomes a thing.”
“Mmhm.” Nash paused midway through pouring water into the coffeemaker. “And I want to tell my sister. Properly introduce you, since you’re Rosie’s teacher too and Rosie is…”
I laughed. “I think the word you’re looking for is loud.”
“Yeah,” he deadpanned. “That.”
“Okay,” I nodded. “So we tell Nell. We tell your sister. Then…I’ll request a meeting with Principal Daniels Monday morning, before school. Delia can help me navigate any paperwork or anything like that, purely to keep Nell safe and the two of us safe.”
Nash nodded, walking over to the couch with two cups of coffee now. He handed one to me and sat down, then put his free arm around me, looking down at my planner.
“Are you…making a color-coded relationship reveal to-do list?”
I looked up at him with an embarrassed smile. “…yes.”
He kissed my temple. “You’re fucking perfect, sunshine.”