41. Halliday
41
HALLIDAY
“Let’s wait until Mum and Dad arrive tonight before we do another,” I say to Sterling as he walks barefoot around our kitchen, fixing me breakfast, the same way he’s been doing every day since we came home from hospital a few days ago.
Sullivan, Sinclair, and Mal have all been around nonstop and this is the first day we’ve had to ourselves.
“Good idea.” He lifts his warm blue eyes to mine, and they crinkle at the corners.
“What?” I twist my lips into a smile as he gives me a knowing look.
“You sure you can wait?” He arches a brow.
“Um, I think it’s you who can never wait.”
He chuckles and tips his head to one side. “You got me.”
The toaster pops and he takes the bread out and butters it. I love watching him in the kitchen like this. He seems happy and relaxed when he’s doing things for me. I still make his coffee every morning for him, but he’s been insistent on making me breakfast.
“I know they’re excited to see.” I grin at him as he puts the toast onto a plate and then spoons two perfectly poached eggs on top.
“I’m sure they are.” He places the plate in front of me on the breakfast counter and watches as I pick up my cutlery.
“They thought I was joking when I said you’d bought an in-home ultrasound machine.”
“I want to see our baby every day,” he replies seriously, his eyes on me to make sure I’m starting to eat.
He’s become obsessed with making sure I eat properly, saying the baby needs it. He’s actually become obsessed with everything baby related, and my heart melts more each time he places his hand over my stomach and talks to it or presses kisses to it when we’re lying in bed.
And then there’s the ultrasound machine that arrived the day we came home from hospital. He’s been insistent on checking on the baby frequently even though it still resembles a blob.
A blob with a heartbeat.
I smile at him as he watches me eat.
“I’ll come with you to the airport to meet them,” he says.
“Don’t you have a meeting about the repair work at Seasons?”
Sterling pulls the stool next to mine out and sinks into it, his body facing me.
“I rescheduled it.”
He wraps an arm around my waist and dips his head to kiss my shoulder.
“You sent your private jet to pick them up from England. I’m sure they won’t expect you to miss work to collect them too.”
“I sent your private jet, Hallie.”
“Oh yeah. How could I forget? My jet that you bought three of so I could choose my favorite.”
He chuckles and presses another kiss to my shoulder as I shake my head at him with a smile.
“I like to give. You’d better get used to it, because it’s not long until you vow to agree to a whole lifetime of it in front of our family and friends.”
“We need to decide where to have it first, otherwise there won’t be a wedding.”
His eyes take on the intensity that they get when he’s about to say something important.
“What is it? Do you have an idea where we could have it?” My voice lifts in hope. I’ve been looking for places, but nothing has stood out as special enough.
“I do,” he murmurs. “But I’m not sure how you’ll feel about it.”
“Tell me.” I place my cutlery down and turn, giving him my full attention.
His eyes search mine as he exhales slowly.
“Cape Town.”
“Cape Town?”
He falters, his brow creasing as apprehension passes through his eyes.
“It’s where the worst day of my life happened. And call me strange, but I want it to be where the best day happens as well. I feel like my son will be there with us.”
“Sterling.” My voice breaks as I jump up from my stool and fling my arms around his neck. “You’re not strange. I think it’s perfect.”
“You do?”
I pull back to look into his eyes. “I do.” I nod, dusting my fingers along his jaw, hoping to ease the tension in it.
He rests his hands on my hips as I position myself closer, standing between his spread thighs.
“How does it make you feel when you imagine us all there?”
He drops his eyes to my stomach and rests his hand on it.
“It feels right, Hallie. It feels so damn right.”
“Then we do it in Cape Town.” I press a kiss to his forehead.
“We do it in Cape Town,” he echoes.
We look at each other for a few moments, the air sparing between us before Sterling breaks my gaze and looks at my half-eaten breakfast.
“I haven’t finished yet, I promise,” I say, biting my lower lip.
“No, you haven’t.” He kisses me on the lips before guiding me back into my seat. “You’re still healing. And our baby needs Mommy to eat.”
A goofy smile spreads on my face. “Mommy sounds weird.”
“Mommy sounds damn perfect to me.” His eyes twinkle as he stands from his seat and starts tidying up.
My eyes fix on his butt in his suit pants as he turns his back to me.
“Eat, Hallie. Or I’ll feed you myself,” he says with a deep rumble.
“How do you know I’m looking at you?”
He chuckles. “It’s my job to know everything when it comes to you.”
I push a forkful of toast and eggs into my mouth and chew, my appreciative gaze still glued to his ass.
“Okay, then, Mr. Know-it-all. What color theme are we going with for the wedding?”
He hums as he wipes down the counter in the same spot for a third time. He knows I’m still checking out his ass, and I swear he gets off on me eye-fucking him as much as I do.
“That’s easy.”
“Oh yeah?” I muse, happy that we’re joking and everything is starting to feel good again.
Rory was arrested for starting the fire at the club. He wanted revenge, and a chance to destroy the photographs Mal took, which Sterling told me about. But the safe is fire-proof, so Rory’s plan didn’t achieve anything. He’s unlikely to be given bail before his trial. And Sophie said from a legal standpoint she doesn’t think he has a hope in getting off.
He’s going to jail.
Lavinia, on the other hand, will get off lighter if her involvement is investigated which I’m sure it will be soon. Rory will be slinging around accusations like sprinkles in a cake factory if he thinks telling the cops she gave him the security code will help deflect attention away from him. But as of two days ago she set off overseas on a charity mission and stepped down as board member for all the charities she was involved in in New York.
She isn’t planning on coming back unless she’s made to.
“Go on, then, if it’s so easy,” I say to Sterling.
He turns to face me, his lips flat and serious.
“Silver.”
“Silver?” I arch a brow.
“The shade of that dress of yours I love you in so much.”
“Oh? You mean the sterling silver one?”
He shakes his head and strolls around the counter, stopping next to my seat.
“No. I mean the one that showcases your nipples like a damn work of art.”
I drop my mouth open in mock outrage. “You said you were a gentleman.”
He chuckles. “I am. But I also know my girl loves it when I lose all decorum around her.”
“Oh, she does.” I stand and wrap my arms around his neck.
“That she does,” he rasps, dropping his hands to my hips.
“I can’t wait to marry you,” I whisper, rising on my toes and press a lingering kiss to his lips. My stomach flips at the way his grip tightens on my hips as his breath melts into mine.
“I’m so blessed to have met you, Hallie.”
I bite my lower lip. “You want to spend the day showing me how blessed you feel before we leave for the airport?”
“Baby Girl,” he groans as I drop one hand to palm his growing erection.
“Yes?” I say sweetly.
“Are you still sore from last night?”
I shake my head. He fucked me so deep from behind last night, stopping each time I got close, that the volume at which I cried his name when he finally let me come even surprised me. I’m pretty sure it’s why Sullivan vacated the guest room at the crack of dawn this morning and announced he didn’t think we needed help with our recovery anymore, and he was off to collect Molly from her sleepover at Mal and Trudy’s.
“In that case, hold on tight.” Sterling chuckles.
I squeal as he lifts me into his arms and strides toward our bedroom.
The bell at the front door halts him mid-step.
“Ignore it,” he says.
I shove him in the chest playfully. “We can’t. It could be important.”
I press a kiss to his jaw. “It’ll only take a minute. We can continue this after.”
He sighs, lowering his mouth to catch my lips in a kiss.
“It better be important.”