Chapter 62
Reese does get naked and so do I but when he comes back down on top of me, with all his hard perfection, we are not edgy and intense as we were right before we met with my brothers. Not yet. Not in this moment. We are softer, our lips coming together in a breath, our bodies pressed close, but we don’t move. This is us, alone, the rest of the world gone. Feeling each other. Loving each other. Needing each other. I can feel this man in every part of me, inside and out, and that is nothing I knew or understood before Reese. That is why he is the man I want to have a family with, share my life with. The man I love so very much.
His fingers stroke my cheek, a tender touch that sends a shiver down my spine. His hand then closes down on the side of my neck, his mouth over mine, his tongue licking past my lips, and I moan with the touch, with the thousands of sensations this man creates in me. My nipples ache, my sex clenches, my fingers dig into his shoulders. He pulls back, breathing with me again, and it is everything to just be here like this with him, savoring every moment. He kisses me again, this time a deeper stroke of tongue, a deeper connection and then his mouth is gone again and he’s kissing a path down my neck, over my shoulder.
His hands cup my breasts and he shifts lower until he’s licking my nipples, one at a time, then sucking, teasing, driving me wild. I want him inside me. I want so much right now, but his mouth is on my belly now, and his fingers are stroking a line along the wet seam of my body. “I want you, Reese,” I whisper. “Please.”
He licks my clit and looks up at me. “This is me,” he says, suckling me and I moan and arch into him, but God, I just want him inside me.
“Not like this,” I insist. “Not this—time.” The last word comes out as a pant, as he runs his tongue in all the right directions and places and I melt into the mattress, no longer fighting what comes next. He’s too good at this. He knows my body too well. And I’m too aroused to do anything but tumble right over into orgasm in another few licks of his skilled tongue.
He doesn’t linger or slowly take me to completion. He knows exactly what I need. He’s on top of me, pressing inside me, letting those last spasms of my sex happen with him buried inside me. It’s perfection and I am arching into him, even as he pumps into me, his mouth now on my mouth, the salty taste of me on his lips. Lips that travel my jaw, my breast, my shoulder. Lips that are back on my lips as we sway together and time stands still. There is just us and there is nothing between us, but us. I don’t want this to end, and I can feel that in him, too. We go slow and savor each other but at some point we snap. At some point we become urgent and there is no more holding back. We ride the high of need together and shudder and quake into orgasm. The next thing I remember, I’m pressed to Reese’s side, my head on his chest, and the heaviness of sleep overtakes me.
I wake to darkness and the roll of my stomach, which has me scooting away from Reese and glancing at the clock to read two am. I hurry into the bathroom, and without turning on the light, kneel in front of the toilet, and heave up nothing. When the wave of yuck passes, I grab a gown from a hook on the back of the door, push it shut, and then brush my teeth.
I’ve just finished when Reese opens the door, now in pajama bottoms, his hair a sexy rumpled mess. “You okay?” Am I okay? I’m having his baby. I’m perfect, and Debbie doesn’t get to change that fact.
I walk to him, hug him and say just that. “Perfect,” I say. “Let’s go back to bed.”
He strokes my hair, kisses my temple, and a few minutes later, my alarm is set and my husband is wrapped around me. I smile into the darkness. A few hours from now, I’ll officially confirm the pregnancy I know is real. Yes. I am indeed, perfect. And I decide this moment, these very thoughts, with him holding me, must be a part of my journal.
I wake at six in the morning and thankfully I’m feeling better, because Reese carries me to the shower and makes a vow to fuck me every day before trial, not just on day one of new trials. I am not going to complain about the lofty goal, not one bit. Mr. Hotness is all mine. I dress in a pink dress that I decide means I want a girl, though a little boy who could grow up to be just like his father has just as much appeal. Reese dresses to impress, as he always does, in a blue pinstriped suit with a striking royal blue tie that brings out his blue eyes. The jury doesn’t have a chance with this man. He’s already in the kitchen on his laptop when I join him to wait on Lauren who will arrive any minute.
“Well?” I ask, stopping across from him, aware that he reads my column every morning.
“It’s you, Cat. A fighter all the way in every way. I like it.”
“I poked the bear. Bear meaning Debbie, by telling her I’d out a liar and in hindsight, Gabe seems to think she might come forward just to get us to pay her to later say she lied.”
“We don’t fight any war scared. That’s not who we are. I’m glad you did this. If she comes at us, we’ll come at her. We, Cat.”
The doorbell rings. “That will be Lauren,” I say.
“I hate I can’t take you to the doctor.”
I sigh. “I hate I’ll miss the beginning of the court proceedings.”
“I’ll update you at the food truck.” He says as we meet at the end of the island.
“It’s a date,” I say, smiling and pushing to my toes to kiss him.
“I’ll walk you down,” he says, grabbing his briefcase. “I want to get an update from Royce.
A few minutes later, we’re standing on the sidewalk with Lauren, Royce, and Savage. “One of our men is following Debbie,” Royce says. “She hasn’t returned my calls, which means we’ll approach her today in person.”
It’s not grand news, but Reese and I both accept it, and he departs in a vehicle with Savage as I leave with Lauren and Royce. “How are you holding up?” Lauren asks, sitting in the backseat with me. “I read your article.”
“What did you think?”
“That you’re a badass pregnant princess who takes no shit from anyone.”
I laugh. “Pregnant Princess. I’ll take that description and right now, I’m perfect. I’m excited about confirming the pregnancy. I’m excited about telling Reese on his birthday. I’m going to set Debbie aside and embrace that feeling.”
We chat and Royce parks in front of the building where my doctor has his office. He leaves the black SUV he’s driving idling and walks us to the door. “I’ll park and be right up.”
“You don’t have to do the waiting room thing with me,” I say. “In fact, please don’t. I feel like Reese would feel weird knowing that and I’d tell him. I’d have to tell him.”
His jaw clenches but he nods. “I’ll wait in the lobby.”
“Better, I guess,” I say. “Thank you.”
“Good luck,” he replies.
Lauren and I step into the elevator and she links her arm with mine. “This is it. You’re about to get the pregnancy stamp.”
I laugh. “Yes. I suppose I am.”
I’m smiling as we walk into the office, and it’s not long before I’m peeing in a cup and giving blood. I sit on the table and I wait and wait, to the point that I stand up in my gown and pace, despite the gap in the back where my ass is hanging out. The door opens, and I fold my arms in front of me. “Well?”
“You are indeed pregnant,” Anna, the nurse practitioner says. “Congratulations.”
I tear up. “Oh my God. Thank you. How far along?”
“Let’s do an exam and we’ll estimate a due date.”
Thirty minutes later, I find out that I’m five weeks pregnant, have samples of prenatal vitamins and set an appointment to come back again. I exit to the lobby and the minute Lauren sees me she squees and hugs me. “YAY! You are going to be such a good mom.”
“Thank you, but now, I just want to get to court and watch my baby’s father kick butt.”
“Agreed,” she says, and we exit to the hallway to find Royce standing there.
And while Royce always looks gruff and rough and hard, there’s an edge about him. “What?” I breathe out. “What is wrong?”
“Everyone is safe,” he says. “But Debbie showed up at the building.”
“What building?” Lauren asks before I can.
“This one,” he says, and the message is clear. She came here for me. And coming for me means coming for me and my baby now, and that is not acceptable, nor is it something I will take without fighting.