Chapter 21
Panting,I rolled onto my back beside Tally on the floor. Sweat made her skin glow, and I wanted to lick the salt from her skin. I didn’t know what it was about her, but I couldn’t get enough. I was obsessed.
“You know, we don’t have to christen every single room,” she told me, breathing equally as heavily.
I rolled to my side so I could take in her post-sex expression. That soft flush of pink might be my favorite color. “Are you complaining? Because it didn’t sound like it, when you were like ‘oh my god, Jesse, right there, right there!’” I teased in a fake falsetto.
She whacked my chest, but her palm quickly came back down and stroked over the abused skin. I almost purred. “I do not sound like that.” Her indignation was cute as fuck.
Oh, she sounded way better than that, but I just kissed her instead of arguing. She kissed me back, yawning and stretching a little. Her stomach was a little round ball between us, and she looked like a fertility goddess.
Honestly, it was too easy to imagine her round with my baby, and that should have shocked the shit out of me. Three months ago, I might have been horrified by the very thought. But now? A primal part of me really enjoyed unloading inside her tight little cunt. We’d quickly produced medicals so we could abandon condoms, at least for this last part of her pregnancy. She had dreams that didn’t involve being barefoot and pregnant forever, so once the baby was born, we’d reconsider contraception.
“Do you really not want to fuck in every room?” I asked her lightly. She was horny as hell, and the internet said it was because her hormones were wild. I had zero problems with that. I was here to satisfy every desire she had.
She flopped back. “We both know I do. You take your shirt off, then the sweat drips down your back muscles, and I’m helpless to resist. I’m like a savage.”
I leaned over her. “My savage.”
Weeks were slipping away so fast, it was hard to imagine she was getting close to her due date. I’d worked hard at getting this place finished, because I wanted her to be able to relax after giving birth. I’d set up the spare room in my house for her too, though she hadn’t moved into it. Apparently, we could renovate a house together, but it was a little soon to move in together.
But she’d agreed that after the birth, she’d move in with us at least temporarily, so she would have help during the night. Will had put his foot down about that, and I was kinda glad it had been him and not me, even though we were in complete agreement. He’d told her that for the first month, she either moved in with us, or with him and Colin.
My phone buzzed somewhere across the room, which I knew was my signal. My job today had been to keep Tally distracted until Hayes messaged me. Turns out, the VANT Racing team had fallen in love with Tally as easily as I had, and wanted to hold her a surprise baby shower.
I mean, not that I loved her. Well, not yet. But I was definitely going that way. I mean, I really cared about her. The thought of anything happening to her produced a panic in my chest that felt like a heart attack. Her laugh was the best thing about my day.
Yeah, that’s not love at all.
Dragging myself from the spiral where I’d admit things to myself that I wasn’t ready to even say out loud, I grabbed my phone. “Stay there, baby. I’ll grab a towel.”
I climbed to my feet and ducked into the bathroom. Looking at my phone, I saw the message I’d been waiting for.
H: We are good to go.
Pulling on my jeans, I walked back into the sitting room. We’d been christening another finished room. At least we’d laid down a drop cloth.
“Hayes messaged. His car won’t start, and he wants a ride home.” I’d told him that was a stupid excuse, considering he literally worked at a glorified mechanic’s workshop, but he’d insisted it was fine.
I knelt between her thighs, stroking the wet washcloth over her core, making her moan softly. This little part of the ritual of fucking satisfied something deep inside my chest. The urge to care for her needs.
I moved away before she could tempt me back between her thighs. Pushing to my feet, I reached down and hauled her to hers. She rubbed her stomach and sighed heavily. She was frowning, which wasn’t the face I wanted on the woman I’d just made come. Twice.
“All good?”
She nodded. “No one tells you that hefting around another human being in your body is exhausting. And painful.”
I was pretty sure everyone told you that, but I wisely kept my opinion to myself. We were mere weeks away from the birth, and she was uncomfortable in a way I couldn’t help with now. I hated that. “Come on, we’ll go get your boy toy, then I’ll give you one of those calf massages you like when we get home.”
This time, she sighed happily. I watched her walk through to her bedroom, then went to the kitchen to find my shirt. I’d taken it off earlier, partly because I wanted to keep it clean, and partly because I liked the way she watched me with hungry eyes when I worked shirtless.
She emerged from the bedroom in a soft dress, and I internally fist-pumped. She looked like a goddess, and I knew that she would’ve murdered me if she’d shown up to a party dressed in her old painting clothes.
After locking Norton in the backyard, I ushered her to the truck. I gave her a little boost as she climbed into the passenger seat, and kissed her shoulder, just because I could.
She gave me that crooked smile that had me in a chokehold. “You look like a bad boy, but you’re really just a marshmallow, aren’t you, Jesse Banks?”
I gave her my best panty-dropping smirk. The one that had gotten me out of bad grades and speeding fines, but had also gotten me into almost every bed I’d wanted, and more than a few fist fights. My mother had told me it was dangerous, and she hadn’t been wrong.
“Don’t tell anyone. I’ve got a reputation to maintain.” I shut the door and walked around to the driver’s seat. She chatted happily as we drove across town to the VANT warehouse, and she only really expected a few responses from me here and there. She seemed so damn content, and that felt like my greatest accomplishment in life right now.
Pulling into the guest spot in the complex’s parking lot, I feigned looking around for Hayes. “He must still be inside.”
She frowned, but leaned back in the seat. “He might’ve gotten caught up talking with one of the guys. We can wait.”
“Or you could take me in and show me around? I’ve never been here before. It would be nice to see where my partners work.”
Tally raised an eyebrow at me. “Partners?”
I shrugged. “I mean, I’ve seen his hairy asshole way more than polite society would consider necessary, so I’m pretty sure that makes us closer than friends now. I still don’t want to fuck him, though,” I joked, and she rolled her eyes. “We are all partners in this relationship. You’re my girlfriend, and he’s my Brofriend.”
She let out that honking laugh that I loved so much, gripping the bottom of her stomach. “Stop, I don’t have the bladder control I once had,” she hissed out between laughing breaths. “Brofriends. That’s perfect.”
I moved around the hood of the car and opened her door for her. She put her hands on my shoulders, allowing me to lift her down. I didn’t let her go, as I looked down into her sparkling sea-green eyes.
“You’re perfect.” I leaned down and kissed her, my lips telling her things my voice couldn’t just yet. Finally, I pulled back, my dick getting uncomfortably hard behind my jean zipper. “Come on, before we make an unintentional sex tape on your bosses’ security cameras.”
She flushed that pink again, but she threaded her fingers through mine and led me inside. There was a girl behind the reception desk, and her excited face would have given it away, if Tally even remotely suspected what was about to happen.
“Tally!” she said, all but bouncing in her chair. If she’d been a dog, her tail would have been wagging faster than the speed of light. “I think Hayes is back in the engineering offices.”
“Thanks, Valeria,” Tally replied, seeming unfazed by the girl’s excitement. Maybe she was like that all the time. Tally led me through the office doors. “This is where everyone works, except Antony. His offices are off the garage.” She went toward a set of swinging double doors. “The workshop is just through?—”
“SURPRISE!”
Tally jumped a foot in the air, and I put my hands on her hips to hold her steady. The workshop was filled with blue balloons in all different shades, with a big Congratulations sign in an arch. It looked like everyone was here, including the higher-ups in VANT Enterprises and all the mechanics. There must have been thirty people in that room.
“Oh. My. God,” Tally squeaked out as Hayes bounded over, lifting her into the air and spinning her around.
“Are you surprised?” he asked, giddy.
She looked around at the trestle table of food and the giant cake shaped like a baby bottle. “When… How?” She shook her head. “You guys did this for me?” she asked, her voice unsteady.
Valeria from the front desk skipped in. “We did! We’ve been planning it for weeks.” She grabbed Tally’s hand and dragged her further into the room, where everyone crowded around and congratulated her. Hayes and I stood back, watching her fight back tears as she hugged all the gruff mechanics, the slightly awkward Stephie, the PR girls, and Antony.
“She looks happy, right?” Hayes murmured. Honestly, she looked overwhelmed and like she was about to burst into tears, but the grin on her face made my chest feel all warm.
I slapped him on the back. “Yeah, I think she’s happy.” With this. With us. We were doing the right thing.