Chapter 33
Chapter thirty-three
Pregnant. The word rattles around in my brain as if I’ve never heard it before. I sit back on my heel, my hand falling from Isabelle’s cheek to drift down her arm and hold her hand in mine.
“Pregnant?” I say slowly, making sure I’ve understood.
Isabelle chews her bottom lip, giving me a barely there nod.
“How do you know? When did you find out?” I ask, rubbing my thumb back and forth over her fingers.
“I’ve been feeling tired this week, but I thought it was just from the crash and not sleeping well.”
Both of those were my doing. Determination consumes me like fire. She’ll never be made to feel like that again if it’s the last thing I do.
“I was at my parents’ house earlier for breakfast, and my sister was complaining about cramps.
I’m usually quite in sync with my sisters, and that’s when I realised I hadn’t had a period for a while.
I couldn’t think of why I would have missed it, and then I remembered I had food poisoning a few weeks back.
I picked up a few tests on my way home this morning.
I’ve done three over the last eight hours. ”
“Then you messaged Beth to see if I was home.” Understanding dawns on me.
“I messaged Caleb, then he put us in a group chat. They had both noticed something changing between us over the last few months. I didn’t have it in me to keep denying things to them, and I didn’t want anyone knowing this before you did.
So, yeah.” She smiles. “I had to pull out the big guns and enlist their help to corner you.”
I groan and drop my head to her lap. “I’m such a shit.”
“No. None of that,” Isabelle says without room for argument as she brushes her fingers through my hair.
I start to lift my head to look at her, but my eyes pause over her stomach.
A baby, half Isabelle, half me, is growing inside her at this very moment.
My eyes turn glassy as I take a breath, then meet her waiting blue gaze.
I’m going to be a dad? Am I ready for this?
Responsibility over another person. It’s exactly the kind of thing I’ve avoided for so long, unable to trust myself to protect someone, to make the kind of choices that keep them safe.
Looking into Isabelle’s eyes, I don’t feel so alone, though.
I almost feel like I can do it. No. I will do it. I’ll look after them both.
“What do you need me to do? Do we find a doctor first? Are you sick? Do you need some tea, maybe?”
Isabelle chuckles, then lays a hand against my cheek.
“I feel fine. I did some research earlier, after the second positive test. I need a referral from the GP, and then I need to try and get in with an OBGYN around the eight-week mark.” She grimaces. “The ball was about seven weeks ago, so I may already be behind.”
I pick both her hands up in mine. “We will not be behind. We’ll get you into a GP tomorrow, and I’ll find the best OBGYN, and they’ll fit us in as soon as possible for whatever it is they need to do.”
“Oh, really? You’ll just snap your fingers and demand the best?” She grins.
“Did you forget I have enough money to do almost anything I want? ” I wink at her.
“Kinda,” she chuckles. “You’re so quiet in your billionaireness compared to your siblings.” Her brows crease in sudden thought. “This isn’t going to attract tabloids or something is it? Going to a doctor’s office together?”
I flick my lip ring with my tongue as I contemplate how to get around that particular snag. Isabelle’s right. The wrong person wouldn’t honour our privacy, not when they hear the Heart name.
It’s not often our family gets mixed up in scandals, but it’s not never.
Luckily, Grams has a PR team so lethal we barely notice our names being spoken about unless it’s for something good.
“I can ask Anna, one of our family friends. She’s the one who helped Dylan with the rush paternity test when he needed it.
She’d surely know someone who’s good at being discreet. ”
The relief Izzy blows out makes pride swell in my chest. Seeing the signs of her ease directly because of something I’ve done for her, because I’ve looked after her, is invigorating.
“I’ll message her right now.”
“It can wait until morning.” She leans forward, resting her head against mine. “Can’t we just stay like this a little longer. I’ve missed you.” She sighs, letting go of my hands to rub her palms over my biceps, my shoulders, and then finally winding them around my neck to hug me.
My arms circle her back, eyes closed as I breathe her in. My sunshine. The mother of my child. My everything.
“Can you stay the night?” I whisper.
“I’d love to.”
I inch back enough to see her face, our lips almost touching, and it’s been too long since I’ve felt them pressed against my own.
Slowly, I lean in. Like the air I need to survive, I inhale her perfume as I fuse my mouth to hers. She instantly kisses me back, warm, soft, and tender. Her fingers run up and down the back of my head, making my eyelids flutter at the hypnotic sensation her touch has over me.
I press my body further into hers as my arms drag her in closer, her legs bracketing my hips.
“Grim?”
I groan into her mouth, loving when she calls me that. “Yes, baby?”
“Can we go to the bedroom?”
I swallow hard as I nod against her, then lean back. Fuck, how am I going to get off the ground with this stupid cast?
“You need some help?” The way she looks at me now, with nothing but playful affection, makes me want to play with her.
I place my palms on the couch cushions on either side of her legs, leaning back before catapulting myself forward, pressing her chest with mine so she falls against the backrest. I jump up onto my good foot and nuzzle her neck as she squeals.
“I would love nothing more than to throw you over my shoulder, but I’m aware of my limits right now. So I’ll just have to show you in other ways how capable I still am.”
I press a kiss against her forehead, then lean over to pick up my crutches, hopping to the kitchen. I grab two water bottles from the fridge, holding them between my fingers so I can still grip the handles and lead the way to my bedroom.
I stop in the doorway when I see Tiny sprawled out in the middle, all four limbs bent in the air.
Isabelle giggles behind me, making him snap onto his belly, wondering what the unfamiliar sound is. He’ll have to get used to it.
“Off,” I tell him. He stretches out his long legs and pushes back before casually jumping down from the bed with absolutely no hurry.
I close the door once we move into my room, then place the bottles on my bedside table and lean my crutches against the wall.
When I turn around, Isabelle is sitting on the side of the bed, looking like she was always meant to be there. In my bed. In my home. In my life.
I lean my hands down to the bed, kissing her again. Her hands come up to frame my face, pulling me harder against her. I walk my hands back, guiding her to lean back so I can hover over her.
She scoots further up the bed, and I place my good leg on the mattress, so I can align my body with hers. Her hands claw at my T-shirt, pulling it up my back. I’m ready to help her, when I remember the new ink I got the other day.
“Ah, wait.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” I shake my head, full of nerves. “It’s just, I got another tattoo the other day.”
“I’m so sorry, did I hurt you?”
I quickly kiss her in reassurance. “Never, baby. You just might want to, ah—prepare yourself.”
“Well, that’s vague.”
I twist so I can sit on the edge of the bed, my casted leg still leaning against the floor. Putting my hands behind my neck, I pull my shirt over my head.
Isabelle’s eyes instantly lock on my chest, where her name sits over my heart. Buttercups and leaves are woven around the letters, like the sunshine she wraps around me.
“You—” She blows out a breath as her eyes well with tears. “You tattooed my name on yourself?”
“As close to my heart as I could get.”
My fingers tap against my leg as I wait for her to say something.
Anything. Instead, she crawls onto my lap and seals her lips against mine, stopping only to pull her jumper off.
I bury my hand into her loose curls as the other comes behind her back, unclasping her bra.
We both pull at the straps, moaning together as her bare skin touches mine.
Our hands explore, desperate to feel everything.
Declaring our intentions with every touch—promising safety, respect, honesty, love.
Our kisses become urgent. Ravenous. It’s not enough to simply feel her against me. I need to be inside her. I lean back on my arms, dragging us up the bed and falling against the pillows, with Isabelle still seated on my lap.
She shifts her legs between mine, then guides her lips under my jaw in a move that has me curling my toes.
She kisses down my neck. My hands find her waist, squeezing at the smooth skin there as if there’s any hope of restraining the need I want to give in to.
She moves to my chest, paying careful attention to my tattoo before taking my nipple between her teeth.
I gasp as my cock thickens and twitches in my shorts.
She looks up at me from under her lashes, fully aware that she’s turning me to putty with the way she teases me.
Her lips move down my ribs, my stomach, my hips until she reaches the waistband of my shorts.
Dipping her fingers inside, she starts tugging.
I lift my hips, allowing her to undress me, all while anticipation makes sparks prickle over my body.
Isabelle carefully works my clothes over the cast, then tosses them over her shoulder, before stepping off the bed to pull off her leggings and underwear. Standing at the foot of my bed, she looks like a dream I couldn’t conjure with my wildest imagination.