Chapter 25
25
ZARA
I open my eyes and feel the heat behind me, then feel his hand resting on my stomach. Gabriel. I smile and blink at the same time. There is nothing I’ve wanted more in my life than for him to be here when I was taking the tests. But I knew it was never going to happen, until I opened the door and saw him. The cowboy who is in my dreams. We spent most of the night naked, only stopping when he made me order ginger ale and some saltines, along with some soup and pizza.
I turn from my side to my back to my other side, kissing his neck softly. He moans, pulling me closer to him. “Morning, Cowboy.” I can’t even try to hide my smile on my face. For the past six weeks, every day started off with a sadness that he wasn’t here, but now he’s here in my bed and I can’t help but feel all kinds of happiness. Happiness I can’t hide or contain. I feel like a kid on Christmas morning and I spotted all the gifts under the tree.
“Morning, Sweetheart,” he mumbles, his eyes still closed, his head back when I push him on his back. I straddle him and his hands come up in his sleep to grip my hips. I lean down, trailing kisses from his neck down his chest, that if possible is better than it was the last time. My tongue comes out to taste him at the same time. We spent most of the night touching each other, making sure we weren’t both dreaming that we were with each other. “Hmm,” he hums as I make my way down his chest, my hand coming out to grip his cock.
“I missed this,” I admit, squeezing his cock in my hand, “more than I thought possible.” I lick the head of his cock like a lollipop, before taking the tip into my mouth. “So so much,” I say, sucking him in halfway before moving my mouth off him. His hands raise from my hips into my hair, moving it to the side.
“This is a sight to wake up to.” I look up at him. “My girl with my cock in her mouth.” I take a bit more. “All the way to the back of her throat,” he says and I take him all the way to the back of my throat. “That’s my girl,” he encourages me as I take him and move my mouth up and down on his cock. I close my eyes, doing my best to focus on sucking his cock, but the need to have him in me is bigger than the need to have him come down my throat. My mouth lets go of his cock as I move to straddle him. I slide down onto him until my ass is sitting on his thighs. His hands go to my tits. I hiss when he rolls my nipples, it hurts but feels amazing at the same time, I’m pretty sure that I can have an orgasm with him just playing with my nipples. “Ride me, Sweetheart.” He doesn’t have to tell me twice. I ride him and take what I need, which isn’t much. I come hard, and when I’m finished, he curls up, taking my mouth and slamming into me.
“That’s it, Cowboy,” I encourage when he lets go of my mouth, “fuck me like you mean it.” I know that if I egg him on, even a little, he’s going to fuck me like he’s never fucked me before. Every fucking time, it gets better and better. He slams into me over and over again until he grunts out my name, burying himself all the way to the root of his cock as he comes. He collapses on the side of me, sliding out of me, his chest rising and falling as he catches his breath.
“Okay, I’ll admit it. It might be better in the city.”
I laugh, turning on my side to face him, kissing his shoulder. “I don’t really think so.” I watch him. “I just think we are making up for lost time.”
“Yeah,” he agrees, rubbing his hands on my hips. “How are you feeling?”
“The same,” I admit. “I mean, I’m not sad anymore, so that is a good thing.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t call you.” He pulls me to him. “I should have called you.”
I smile. “It wasn’t just you. I should have called you also. I just?—”
“We need to communicate better,” he finishes for me. “There will be texts and phone calls and FaceTime calls and all of that.” I laugh as he buries his face in my neck.
“How long are you here for?” I ask him, holding my breath, waiting for him to answer.
“I have to go back tonight,” he replies and I feel the tightness in my chest. “Can you come back with me?”
“I don’t know,” I answer him honestly. “I have a couple of big contracts coming up and I can’t back out. But I can check when my next meeting is and see if I can swing it.”
“At least for the weekend?” he asks. “So we can tell the family.”
I nod, rolling out of bed and grabbing his T-shirt that is on the floor. “You didn’t bring any clothes.”
He sits up. “I’m here for one day, so why would I need clothes?” He gets out of the bed.
I shake my head. Going to my office, I see my next meeting with the CEO of the company is in the middle of the following week. “I can come with you!” I shout from my desk chair, and he walks in wearing just his black boxers.
“Good, pack your bag. We’ll head out after we talk with your parents.”
“You sure are bossy.” I get up, walking to him. “Were you this bossy before?”
“Sweetheart, it’s going to be on a whole new level,” he informs me, swatting my ass. “You have half of me inside you.”
I put my hand on my stomach. “I can’t believe I’m going to have a baby.” I look down to see him putting his hand on mine. It’s crazy that I had no idea this time yesterday I was pregnant, yet I’m already full blown in love with him or her.
“We’re going to have a baby,” he corrects me. “I’m in this.” He kisses my neck. “Now call your parents and pack.”
“Bossy,” I groan, pulling up my parents’ number and texting my mother, asking if she’s up. My phone rings instead of her texting me back. “Hey, Mom,” I answer as I turn in Gabriel’s arms, kissing his chest silently.
“Hi, sweetie, how are you feeling?” she asks me.
“Okay this morning.” I look up seeing Gabriel. “Actually, really, really good today.” I smile and he bends to rub his nose to mine. “I was wondering if you and Dad were busy?”
“Do you want us to come over there now?” she asks and I can hear her rushing on her end of the phone. “I’ll get Dad right now.”
“No,” I snap. “How about I meet you in about an hour and a half for breakfast?” I look up at Gabriel, who nods.
“What does this have to do with?” Her voice is in a whisper and I laugh.
“It’s all good, Mom,” I assure her. “Trust me, it’s all good.”
“Fine, we’ll meet you around the corner from your place in an hour and a half,” my mother agrees apprehensively. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
I try not to smile but fail miserably. “I’m more than okay, Mom. I’ll see you soon.” I hang up the phone before she can ask me anything else.
“How far is this place?” Gabriel wraps his arm around my waist.
“Couple of minutes.” I’m pressed up against his chest.
“How long will it take you to pack?” He starts moving us toward the bedroom.
“About ten minutes.” My voice comes out breathlessly. “Less if I have no choice.” I don’t have to answer him because he grins and then takes my mouth while he leads me to the shower.
We walk out of the front door, hand in hand, my bag waiting at the door for when we return to head straight to the plane. “Are you nervous?” I ask him, and he shakes his head. “Good, at least one of us isn’t,” I mumble before we stop in front of the place and I point. He drops my hand to pull open the door for me, and I step in, Gabriel following me. Spotting my parents right away, I smile at the hostess and walk toward them.
My mother looks like she’s been crying, and my father has his arm around her, as he talks to her and she nods. “Hey,” I say, and they both look at me.
My father looks at me and then his eyes move to over my shoulder where I feel Gabriel is, his hand on my hip. “Mom, Dad.” I smile at them. “I don’t know if you remember Gabriel.” My mother’s mouth hangs open. “He’s Sofia’s cousin. He helped me out when I was down there.”
“Of course,” my father says, “it was a busy day, lots of people, but you look familiar.”
Gabriel reaches out, extending his hand. “It’s a pleasure to see you again, sir.” Then he turns to my mother. “Ma’am.”
“Please, call me Zoe.” My mother shakes his hand but you can tell the smile on her face is fake as she tries to guess what the fuck is going on.
“I’m Ethan’s son,” Gabriel says to both of them.
“That’s the oldest one, right?” my mother asks and Gabriel nods before turning to me.
“Sit down,” Gabriel urges, pulling out a chair for me and then sitting in the chair beside me. We both take off our jackets and he rubs his hands on the tops of his jeans, while he studies the menu in front of him. “What are you hungry for?”
“I’m sorry,” my mother says, “are you visiting the area?”
Gabriel smiles at her. “You could say that. I came down yesterday.”
“How long are you in town for?” my father asks, also trying to figure out what the fuck is going on.
“We leave as soon as we are done here.”
“We?” My father catches that. “Who is we?”
Gabriel looks at me and all I can think of is just do it like a Band-Aid, rip it off and then deal with the aftermath. “I’m going to go back down there until next week.”
“Oh, that’s nice.” My mother tries to hide that she, too, is secretly freaking out.
“That’s nice?” my father echoes like he didn’t hear her. “How is that nice? That isn’t nice.” He looks at Gabriel, who puts his arm around my chair, making my calm father not so calm. “What is going on?”
“I don’t think there is an easy way to say this,” I start, putting my hand on Gabriel’s thigh to feel his strength. “We are having a baby.”
My mother gasps out as my father leans in to the table and turns his head to the side. “A what now?” As if he didn’t hear what I just said.
“We are having a baby.” I take a deep breath in. “Gabriel and me.”
My mother looks over at my father with huge eyes as my father chuckles. “This is a joke?” He looks at my mother. “Are you in on this?” He keeps laughing. “You got me.” He points at me. “I will say, you got me.” He shakes his head.
“I’m not kidding, Dad.” I notice him watch me, then turn his eyes to Gabriel.
“That’s impossible.” He then turns back to me. “You”—he points at me—“and him?” He points at Gabriel. “It can’t be.”
“With all due respect, sir,” Gabriel now cuts in, “it can be. It is and it’s happening.”
“Oh my God,” my mother whispers.
“Abso-fucking-lutely not.” My father slaps the table with his fist. “You don’t even know each other.”
“We got to know each other when I was there.” I blink away the tears. I knew they would be surprised, but I thought I would have to talk my mother off the ledge and not my father.
“Oh, you got to know each other when you were there?” my father mocks me.
“Viktor,” my mother hisses, and he whips his head toward her.
“She’s known him what, ten minutes, and she’s pregnant.” My father shakes his head as I look down and wipe the tears away. I feel Gabriel move from beside me when he pushes away from the table.
“Okay, so this isn’t happening.” He grabs his jacket. “I’m not going to let her sit here and go through this.” I look up at him. “It’s not happening, not today, not tomorrow, not ever.”
“Is that so?” My father gets up from his chair. “How could you be so careless as not to protect her?”
“Viktor.” My mother pushes away from the table and puts a hand on his arm. “They are two consulting adults.”
“She was just engaged,” my father tells Gabriel.
“I’m aware of that, sir,” Gabriel says calmly. “That was then, this is now.”
“This is preposterous,” my father snaps. “You’ve been home six weeks, and in all that time, you haven’t mentioned him once. He’s never come up in conversation. We’ve never even heard of him.”
“Can we all sit down and discuss this like adults?” My mother sits back down, pulling my father’s arm until he’s sitting down. I reach up and put my hand in Gabriel’s, who sits back down.
“As long as we can do it respectfully,” Gabriel states, “then I have no problem with that. But if I feel that Zara isn’t being respected, I have no problem taking her out of here. Even if it’s from her parents.” He picks my hand up and kisses it. “I know this comes as a shock to you since you don’t know anything about me.” He looks at my parents, and my father is about to say something, but Gabriel raises his hand to stop him. “What you need to know is that I’m going to be there every step of the way.”
“You say that now,” my father retorts, “and then what?”
“Well, we haven’t really figured it out.” I come to Gabriel’s defense. “We found out yesterday. We are here telling you two, and then I’m going back with him so he can tell his son and then his parents.”
“You already have a child?” my father says, shaking his head. “Great, just racking them up.”
It’s then I snap and slap the table with my hand. “That’s enough.” I raise my voice. “I expected this from Mom”—I point at my mother—“but not from you. I am not going to sit here and be scolded by my father for this?—”
“Mistake,” my father spits out quickly.
“Viktor Petrov,” my mother hisses out, “are you not hearing what your daughter is saying?”
“You’re wrong, Dad, it’s not a mistake.” I put my hand on my stomach. “It’s a surprise. It’s not something that either of us was thinking would happen. But it’s happening, and I’m not going to stand here and let you ruin this moment for us. I’m not going to stand here while you say things that you will regret later.” I grab my jacket. “I am having a baby, and I am doing it with one of the best men I’ve ever met. A man who treats me like a princess. A man who has patience and is kind, and who is a great dad.” I swallow down the lump in my throat. “If you can’t be there to support us, then so be it.” I look at my mother. “I won’t force either of you onto our child.”
“Zara,” my mother says, getting up from her chair, “of course we are going to support you and be there for you.” She comes over to my side as Gabriel holds my hand, his thumb rubbing my hand. “It’s just a little bit of a shock for us is all. We didn’t even know about him.”
“You haven’t mentioned him once,” my father points out, “not once since you’ve been back.”
“That’s because I was trying to figure it out,” I tell him and look at Gabriel. “And we still haven’t figured anything out, but we will.”
“You bet we will, Sweetheart,” Gabriel assures me, and I lean down, putting my hand on his face.
“You bet we will, Cowboy.” I smile at him through the tears, my thumb rubbing his cheek. “I’m sorry my father was mean to you.”
“When you have a daughter, you’ll know where I’m coming from.” My father leans back in his chair and folds his arms over his chest. Gabriel nods at him. “I’m sorry for what I said. It was uncalled for, and I know better.”
“That’s the man I married.” My mother goes back to sit by his side. “Now, maybe we could start over?”
“I would like that very much, ma’am,” Gabriel says to her, and I sit down. “I would like you both to get to know me.” He puts his arm around my chair but pulls it even closer to him. “We can get to know each other”—he looks at my father—“so you will see for yourself the kind of man I am, the kind of man my parents raised.” He leans and kisses me. “The kind of man who will do anything to ensure your daughter and my children are cared for.” He is talking to them but looking into my eyes. “It’s going to be okay,” he whispers, and I know that no matter what happens, if he’s by my side, it’ll be okay.