Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
TOBIAS
Eva was naked in the shower. She’d come home from dinner at her sister’s place minutes ago, complaining that the smell of bacon cheeseburgers was stuck in her hair. So she’d retreated to her bathroom for a shower while I sat rigid on the couch, staring unfocused at the TV, because my attention was rapt on the woman occupying the other end of my house.
I glanced at the clock. Eight seventeen. In the two days since she’d come to stay here, I’d been watching the minutes pass too quickly.
She was leaving in four days and we had yet to talk about the baby. Or the kiss. The topics might not have earned a voice but lingered in the air, weighing heavy on our shoulders.
I hadn’t wanted to bring it up yesterday when she’d been hugging the toilet and retching her damn guts out. Eva hadn’t gotten sick today, but before I could broach the baby topic, she’d left for work and to visit her dad over lunch.
We needed to talk. Except I wasn’t sure what to say .
Stay? Don’t move? I hadn’t asked her to stay after the proposal from hell. There hadn’t been a point. Her mind had been made up then, as I suspected it was now.
No, our conversation needed to be about custody. Every time that word rang in my head, I cringed. I was going to push for the baby to live here. To be in Montana full-time, surrounded not just by my family, but hers too.
That was the only option. She had to know that was the only option.
“What a clusterfuck,” I muttered.
“What?”
I spun around, seeing Eva halfway between the hallway and living room. Her hair was wet and twisted in a knot. Her slender body was covered in a set of baggy gray sweats.
“Nothing.” I nodded to the TV where ESPN was playing football highlights. “My team lost,” I lied.
“Oh.” She sighed and came around the couch, curling up in the same end where she’d napped yesterday.
“How was dinner?”
“Okay.” She shrugged. “Elena focused on her girls and cooking. Her husband and I answered Mom’s questions. You know how she is. And I guess she moved.”
“She did? Where?”
“Salt Lake. Good thing I didn’t send a Christmas present to her old place in Florida.”
I shook my head. Eddy Williams was a damn good man. Elena was sweet and kind. But I could do without Michelle.
Eva had patience for her mother, more than Michelle deserved. In four years of college, she’d come to see Eva once. We’d gone out to dinner and Michelle had asked so many questions I’d felt like it had been an interrogation. It was like she’d wanted to cram years of missed conversations into a single meal. One dinner, then she’d flown away, off to her life in the sky, and then occasionally sent Eva a text to check in.
From the sounds of it, nothing had changed. Michelle lived her life. Everyone else was ancillary.
“Elena and I decided not to tell Dad she was in town. It bothers him.”
“Do they talk?”
“I don’t think so. She called him after his stroke, but otherwise... not that I know of.”
“Do you talk often? You and your dad?”
She nodded. “Almost every day. I usually text Elena a few times a week and FaceTime with her and the girls on Sundays.”
Is that why she didn’t think living across the country with my baby was going to be a problem? Because she’d made it work with her dad and sister?
This was not the same situation. Eddy might be okay with it because Eva was a grown woman, but I refused to have a relationship with my child via FaceTime. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her exactly that, but instead, I reached for the remote and changed the channel.
Yeah, we needed to talk.
But I didn’t want to.
There was no way this discussion ended happily.
“Feel like a movie?” I asked.
“Sure.” She curled her legs into the seat, sinking into a toss pillow. “I might get a snack. I wasn’t really hungry at dinner.”
“What do you feel like? Chips? Cookies? Carrot sticks?”
“Hey, watch your language.”
I blinked. “What did I say?”
“Carrot sticks.” Her face soured. “How about popcorn?”
“Popcorn it is. You pick the movie.” I tossed her the remote and retreated to the kitchen, needing some distance. That sweet, soft scent was too enticing .
With a bowl of popcorn for us to share, I put it between us and handed her a throw blanket. “Here.”
“How’d you know I was cold?”
Because I knew her. Or I had once. “Are you?”
“Yes.” She swiped it from my hand, draping it over her legs. Then she grabbed a handful of popcorn and turned up the volume on the TV. “We’re watching a Hallmark movie. This one just started.”
“Seriously?”
“It’s December, Tobias. They only play these once a year.”
Which meant she’d watch Hallmark or nothing.
“Fine.” We’d have enough to argue about shortly. Tonight, I wasn’t going to bicker over A Cowboy Christmas .
Eva inhaled the popcorn, eating most of the bowl before she’d realized I hadn’t had a kernel. “Do you not want any?”
“Nah. I did my workout already.” I’d come home earlier to an empty house that smelled like Eva. I’d needed to burn some energy, so I’d turned around, climbed back in my truck, and headed to the gym.
“Afraid you’ll lose the six-pack?” Her gaze dragged down my body, her eyes darkening.
Eva loved my six-pack. She loved the definition at my hips and the strength of my arms. And that look on her face... fuck. That was the look that usually landed us in bed.
I scooped a handful of popcorn and shoved it in my mouth, willing myself with every crunch to stay on this side of the couch. Except I wasn’t hungry for anything but her.
She squirmed, inching closer to her own armrest. We both faced the TV just in time to see the couple on screen kiss.
Fuck my life.
I hadn’t been this sexually frustrated since I’d been sixteen at a friend’s house party where all of the senior-year cheerleaders had decided to skinny-dip in the hot tub .
But there was nothing to do but suffer. The movie dragged on and on, and about an hour in, Eva set the empty popcorn bowl aside, then shifted, moving closer to the middle of the couch.
She yawned three times and with each, inched my way. On the fourth, she let out a groan.
“What’s wrong?”
“I can’t get comfortable.”
I threw an arm over the back of the couch. “Come on over.”
She didn’t hesitate. The space between us vanished and she curled into my side. It took all of sixty seconds until she was asleep.
The remote was too far away for me to reach without waking her up, so I sat and watched the rest of the Hallmark movie, enduring this fictional couple’s journey to a happily ever after while Eva’s wet hair soaked my shirt.
When the movie was over, I leaned deeper into the couch and stared at the ceiling. What if this was our life? Was it really so bad? Couldn’t she be happy here?
No. She’d had her chance at this and had walked away. I wouldn’t make the mistake of getting on one knee again only to be kicked in the face.
I blew out a deep breath and shifted, tucking my arms beneath her knees and shoulders. Then in one swoop, I stood from the couch, Eva in my arms, and carried her to the guest bedroom.
“Is the movie over?” she murmured, her eyes still closed.
“Finally.”
“Was it good?”
“No.”
“Liar,” she whispered. “You love Christmas movies.”
I chuckled and stepped into the dark room, taking her to the bed. “Sleep tight. ”
With a quick kiss to her forehead, I moved to step away, but her hand snagged mine.
“Tobias?” Her eyes opened and those hazel pools were my undoing.
She didn’t say another word. She didn’t have to. We’d done this dance a hundred times.
I swept her into my arms, shifting us both deeper into the bed.
The moment my lips hit hers I fell into the deep end and drowned.
Eva let out a small mewl as my tongue tangled with hers, her sweetness mixed with a hint of salt from the popcorn. I licked and sucked and nipped until she was clawing at my back, tugging at my shirt.
I settled into the cradle of her hips, pressing my arousal into her core and swallowing her gasp before tearing my lips away. “Babe, tell me to stop.”
“Don’t stop.” Her hands trailed lower, her palms molding to the curve of my ass before she gave it a hard squeeze.
I arched into her, earning a moan, then trailed my lips down the long column of her throat. My hands slipped beneath the hem of her sweatshirt and skimmed up her ribs. My knuckles grazed the swell of her breasts. “Eva.”
“Tobias.”
My name in her voice, laced with heat, and my cock throbbed. “Last warning.”
She answered by letting go of my ass to cup my erection through my zipper. “Don’t. Stop.”
I lifted off of her, working my shirt free. Then I yanked the sweatshirt from her body, sending it sailing to the floor. Her pants and panties came next until every inch of her smooth skin was on display.
Eva lifted and frantically loosened the buttons on my jeans. She freed me from my boxers, wrapping her hand around my shaft.
“Christ.” I savored the feel of her hand for a few strokes before I moved away, standing to strip.
Eva watched my every move, her eyes flaring with lust as they dragged down my stomach. That look right there was worth every minute in the gym and each mile on the treadmill.
I planted a knee on the bed and settled between her thighs before trailing a hand over her thigh and down her calf, taking it in my hand and hooking her leg around my waist. “What do you want?”
“You.”
I was one second away from thrusting deep and hard when my gaze landed on her belly. My baby was in there. Ours. In months we’d have a baby.
“What?” Eva propped up on an elbow.
“This. Us.” I nodded to her stomach. “You good with this?”
Eva dropped her leg and shoved up to a seat. Then with a fast shove, pushed me over and onto my back until she straddled my hips. One hand stayed planted on my sternum while she positioned me at her entrance with the other, sinking down until I was sheathed.
“Fuck.” I thrust my hips up, burying myself in her tight heat.
“Oh, God.” She squeezed her eyes closed as her inner walls fluttered.
Every fucking time it was amazing. Like her body had been made to fit mine.
“Move,” I ordered, taking her hips and lifting her so she could slam back down.
The worries, the fears, were all shoved aside as she rode me, over and over until her legs began to tremble.
With a twist, I reversed our positions, putting her back to the mattress so I could work in and out of her pussy, stroke after stroke until she writhed beneath me.
Her hands fisted the bedding. Her teeth held her bottom lip. Her limbs tensed.
“Let go, Eva.”
She shook her head. “Not yet.”
“Goddamn it, come.”
“Together,” she breathed.
I growled and thrust faster until the pressure was too much to resist. “Come.”
One touch of my thumb to her clit and she detonated. She pulsed around me, her orgasm triggering my own, and I poured into her, long and hard until we were both boneless.
I collapsed on the bed beside her. “Damn.”
“Wow.” Her chest heaved as she regained her breath.
The stars in my eyes took minutes to clear, and after my heart stopped racing, I jackknifed off the bed and went to the bathroom, getting a cloth to clean her up.
Instead, her footsteps followed. “Take a shower with me.”
“We could go to mine. It’s twice this size.”
She shook her head and turned on the water. It took only seconds to warm since she’d been in here not that long ago, and when she took my hand, I followed her willingly beneath the water.
Her hands slid up and down my body as steam surrounded us. She lifted to her toes, wanting my mouth.
She didn’t get it. Instead, I spun her around, gripped her hips and slid inside once more, losing myself in the woman who had me twisted in a knot.
We fucked slow and deep until we both came on a cry. Then I squeezed some soap on the shower puff and scrubbed our bodies clean.
The mirror was fogged when we toweled off. I kept one tied around my waist as Eva retreated to the bedroom to pull on her clothes.
She climbed into bed, patting the space beside her. “Will you cuddle with me, baby?”
It had been a long damn time since she’d called me baby. Not even during our night six weeks ago had she let that old endearment slip. And that single word sent a jolt of ice through my veins.
“What are we doing?” I whispered.
“Huh?” She yawned.
“Eva, what are we doing? You’re calling me baby . We’re fucking. Cuddling. What are we doing?”
Her shoulders fell. Her gaze dropped to the blankets over her lap. “I don’t know. We’re in a pickle, aren’t we?”
“Pretty much.” I huffed. “We have to figure this out.”
“Would you move?”
“To where? London?”
She shrugged. “It would be an adventure.”
“I don’t need an adventure.” This baby would be undertaking enough. I opened my mouth to ask her to stay but clamped it shut before the words escaped.
I wouldn’t ask. Not when I knew the answer.
Eva stared at me, waiting. Like she could see my restraint. Like the unspoken question floated through the air like the scent of the shower. When she realized I wasn’t going to say anything, she dropped her gaze again. “So then I guess it’s FaceTime and Santa’s sleigh.”
My throat felt tight as I moved to sweep up my clothes and stalk out of the room.
FaceTime. Airports. Long-distance. Those were her solutions. What the hell had I been thinking tonight? Sex was complicated and intimate and... it made sense .
Why couldn’t she see how much sense we made? How good our life could be? How good we were together?
I was a fucking fool. She’d leave me again. Just like she had before.
This time, with my child.