Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Clover
“I’ve really got to get to sleep, or I’m going to miss my alarm and be late for work.” I was draped across Van’s chest. It was late, and we’d spent all Sunday in bed.
It was like we’d never had sex before and were told the next month would be our last chance to.
For me, it might be. For at least a while, as I supported me and Bean. After being with Van, that was okay. Why settle for kibble when I’d tasted gourmet?
He kissed the top of my head. “I can think of many ways to wake you up.”
“You mean like you did this morning?” My entire body heated as if I wasn’t spent.
He traced circles over my hip as he held me. “I could wake up like that every day.”
“Makes getting out of bed harder.”
“We could get out of bed first and then have sex.”
I laughed and brushed my hand down his side. I didn’t get tired of touching him. Or talking to him. I probably wouldn’t have gotten tired of living with him. “That sounds like a plan. Another shower escapade?”
“Or I can have you for breakfast.”
My toes were already curling in anticipation. “Who’s going to cook?”
“Ah, sweet Clover. If you’re stopping to think of logistics, I’ve been doing it wrong.”
“No, you aren’t.” I propped myself on an elbow. “You’re just underestimating how much I think about food.”
“And now you’re eating for two.”
I nodded even if he couldn’t see me. This was the first time we’d acknowledged Bean since we’d started having sex. “I worried that would bother you?”
“That you’re eating for two?”
“No. That you’d remember I was pregnant.” He’d remember, and he wouldn’t want me.
He rolled to his side. “You thought it’d turn me off?”
“Yes.” The word came out a rasp. “I know it’s only temporary, but I thought you’d come to your senses.”
“Clover, you’ve knocked them all out, but aside from that, no.
I’ve had my eyes wide open this whole time about who you are and my relation to that kid in your belly.
I’m the guy helping you get back on your feet after my brother pushed you down, and you’re the girl helping me reclaim the career my ex dismantled. Now roll over.”
“You really mean it? We’re having sex again?” I hadn’t had a marathon day of doing it since, well, ever. I might be sore tomorrow.
“Roll to your back.” He crowded me with his big body until I was sprawled on my side of the bed. Tingles spread from my belly to my sex, but then he put his face inches from my lower abdomen and stopped there.
“Hey, Bean,” he crooned.
Shock rippled through me, but I didn’t move. The view was too cute, too sweet, and it didn’t matter there was no light.
“I’m your uncle Van. You can call me Sullivan, though I suppose that’ll be harder for a kid to say.”
I smiled, but I didn’t want to interrupt him. These were the moments I thought I’d never get. The small things I was prepared to mourn. I had no husband, no fiancé, no boyfriend to share in all things baby. But Bean had an uncle Van.
He had come to the first doctor’s appointment. He’d been there for the bulk of my morning sickness. Now he was here for the smallest of moments—talking to my belly.
My heart clenched, and my throat grew thick. I could do this alone, but geez, if I was getting this choked up over this? I had more work to be the independent, lady-boss role model for Bean.
Yet I wouldn’t interrupt him. I was weak enough to need this too.
“Just don’t call me Sully,” he continued, a breath gusting over my skin, making this all the more intimate.
“You’re not going to have a choice. You’re going to learn how to play Pokémon.
” He shared a grin with me. “You’re also going to learn rockhounding.
I bet you’ll have a good eye, like your mom.
I bet you’re going to be smart, too, like her. ”
“I think Bean will get some of his uncle’s intelligence. His fortitude.” I swirled my fingers through his hair. “Bean might even start his own geological consulting company.”
Van’s shadowy smile was lopsided. “As long as Bean doesn’t let some girl or guy wreck it all.”
My heart dipped. No, I would not be that girl for Van. “Bean’s going to have some good people to look up to.”
“Yeah.” His lips were a whisper away from my skin. He kissed my belly, a touch as light as a snowflake. “We’ll set the example. Mama and Uncle Van. I’ll be the example I almost never got.”
“You’re going to be around that long?” I was only asking to keep up the playful conversation.
Not at all because I wondered if he would be around this time next year.
Or in five years. Ten. Where would our lives be then?
“You could be a tech millionaire and buy a house in Aspen, and I’ll be a girl who plays with rocks. ”
A rumble came from him that sounded like a growl. “Don’t diminish what you do.”
“It is what I do.”
“Tell me your job again.”
“You know what it is. I’ve told you.”
He flipped over, and cool air gusted over me before he nestled by my chest. I hadn’t put my pajamas on yet. We hadn’t made it any further after our last round of sex than this. He drew a nipple between his lips, and a shiver racked my body.
He let it go with a pop. “Tell me.”
As if he wasn’t making my brain a slurry, he blew across the damp tip. Goose bumps erupted over my skin, and a bolt of electricity shot through my bloodstream. “That’s mean.”
He sucked my nipple back into his mouth, licked across, then let it go and blew over it.
“Is this supposed to be torture?” I arched my back off the mattress, like I was trying to stuff the peak back into his mouth.
He pushed up to reach the other side. “What do you do for a living?”
“I figure out where to store brine underground.”
That breast got the same attention, and a quiver rippled under my skin. “There’s more.”
Was he going to keep going? I wanted him to. “I analyze data about dirt—”
A hot mouth closed around the same bud, only he let go right away. “Try again, just like you told me the first time,” he muttered against my breast. “Or I’m not going to fuck you for breakfast.”
I bit my lower lip. I liked this game way too much, but also, I could also be laid on the table or against the counter, or however he wanted to do me.
“I determine the well type, location, and the rate for optimal pressure to manage the carbon dioxide plume. I also analyze data from the storage tests.”
“Sounds like you do more than play with rocks.” He moved on top of me, nudging my legs apart with his knee. “You make them your bitch.”
“No, I can’t do that.” I swept my hands down his shoulders as he notched the head of his cock at my entrance. “The rocks will always show me who’s boss. I just try to sweet-talk them into letting me work with them, and when they don’t like it, they push back. Hard.”
Just as I said that, he thrust inside, smoothly and slowly, as if he sensed I might be tender and didn’t want to make it worse. While he was inside me, I didn’t care. I was full, and all was okay.
He dipped his head to nibble along my jaw. “Every time you want to diminish what you do, remember how good you get fucked if you don’t.”
I widened my legs to take him farther. Pleasure was building like a sensual mudslide in my veins, ready to crash over me any moment. “I won’t forget.”