Chapter 29
The water felt like the only place my body didn’t argue with me. I floated on my back in the pool, the afternoon sun warm on my face, the weight of my belly half-gone in the cool blue. The house was quiet.
After the baby shower chaos, Kasen and Steph had teamed up and strong-armed me into taking maternity leave.
“Your employees can run the studio for a month,” he’d said. “Or you can be stubborn and I install a lock on your reformers.”
I folded. Sort of.
I still checked the booking system twice a day, but I did it from a lounge chair instead of behind the front desk.
I was lazily kicking, thinking about absolutely nothing, when the speaker by the patio crackled.
“You’re supposed to be resting,” Batman’s voice floated out, amused.
I rolled onto my stomach slowly, wading over to the pool steps. “How you know I’m swimming?”
A pause.
“You’re in my camera,” he said. “Remember the state-of-the-art system you let me install? Backyard included?”
I squinted up at the nearest little black dome by the roofline and flipped it off playfully. “Creepy.”
“Safe,” he corrected. “You okay?”
“I’m fine,” I said, hauling myself out of the pool. Water dripped down my legs, my black maternity swimsuit clinging damp to my bump. “When’s your lunch?”
Another pause.
“I don’t have one scheduled,” he admitted.
I grabbed a towel and rolled my eyes. “So you haven’t eaten?”
“I had coffee.”
“Kasen Reed,” I warned.
“I was going to get something after this call,” he said, which meant “eventually” in Batman-speak.
“Mmhm.” I wrapped the towel around my waist and headed inside. “I’ll bring you some.”
“You don’t have to,” he said automatically.
“I want to,” I said. “And since I can’t bully clients right now, I’ll bully you instead. See you in an hour.”
Czar Tech always smelled like money and coffee.
I walked through the glass lobby with a takeout bag in one hand and my other pressed lightly to my lower back. The receptionist smiled the second she saw me.
“Hi, Ms. Amor,” she said. “You look beautiful.”
“Pregnant and hungry,” I corrected, but I smiled back. “He in his cave?”
She laughed. “Yes, ma’am. Straight back.”
I got the usual double-takes I always got now—some from people who knew I was “the Sevyn,” some from folks who just saw a very obviously pregnant woman in a crop hoodie and leggings walking.
I walked straight into his office and he was at his desk, dual monitors glowing, glasses low on his nose, locs pulled back. The second the door opened, his eyes shifted up automatically, and that tightness between his brows let go.
“There go my wife,” he said, voice dropping just a little on the last word.
I still wasn’t used to how that felt in my chest.
“I brought you food,” I said, lifting the bag.
He stood, coming around the desk. “You didn’t have to?—”
“Shut up and take the bag,” I said, grinning.
He did, setting it on the small round table by the window.
I reached up to kiss him, just a quick “hi” kiss, but he had different plans.
The second my mouth brushed his, his hand slid to the small of my back, another to my hip, and he caught me, guiding me backward until my legs brushed the edge of his chair.
Before I could protest, he sat and pulled me down with him, easing me sideways into his lap so my belly wasn’t squished, my thighs draped over his.
“Kasen,” I laughed, automatically looping my arms around his neck. “Your door open.”
He didn’t look away from me. His phone was still in his hand; he tapped the screen twice without breaking eye contact. Behind me, I heard the soft click of the office door locking.
He set the phone down on the desk within reach, then cupped the side of my face, thumb brushing a stray curl back.
“Hi,” he said quietly, like the last hour had been a week.
“Hi,” I echoed, suddenly aware of how fast my heart was beating.
“So…” I arched a brow. “This how C-suite lunches go now?”
He smiled. “Only with my favorite delivery driver.”
“And if your employees need you?” I teased.
His hands flexed gently on my hips. “They can wait fifteen minutes.”
The way he was looking at me made it very clear lunch wasn’t the only thing he’d been missing.
His mouth never stayed in one place for long. Soft kisses along my jaw. A slow trail down my throat. One pressed right over the pulse fluttering at the base of my neck, like he could feel how fast he had me going.
“Been thinking about you all morning,” he murmured against my skin. “Sitting in meetings like a hostage.”
“You and me both,” I breathed, fingers sliding up the back of his neck, into his locs. Every time I tugged, his hands tightened on my hips.
He kissed the corner of my mouth again, then my bottom lip, then the spot just under it. Each one chipped a little more at the restraint I knew he’d been clinging to since the bump started showing.
I didn’t want to talk about it.
Right now, my body was very clear.
So instead of asking him if he was sure, I just moved.
A small shift of my hips. A careful slide of my hand down, knuckles brushing his stomach, feeling the muscles jump under my palm. His breath caught, the kiss faltering for half a second as he realized what I was doing.
“Sev—” he started.
“Shh,” I whispered against his mouth. “Let me.”
The world narrowed to his warmth under me, the soft creak of the chair, the quiet thud of my own heartbeat in my ears.
When I finally sank down over him, we both went still.
His hands flew under me on instinct, big palms bracing gently at my hips, holding my weight so I didn’t have to. His forehead dropped to my shoulder with a low, helpless sound that made every nerve in my body light up.
We stayed like that for a long beat—just breathing. Then he exhaled, slow, and pressed a kiss to the side of my neck.
“You okay?” he asked, voice rough in my ear.
“Yeah,” I whispered, fingers tightening in his hair. “More than okay.”
He shifted his grip, one hand spreading under the curve of my ass, the other steady at my lower back—careful of my belly, careful of all of me before lifting me just enough and guiding me back down, slow.
The movement pulled a sound out of me I hadn’t heard from my own throat in weeks.
“God, I missed this,” I breathed.
His fingers flexed under me, supporting almost all my weight so I could just feel.
“I did too,” he admitted against my neck, voice strained. “More than I wanted to say.”
He lifted me again, just a few inches, then sank me back down, slowly. Every inch of the motion dragged a shiver up my spine.
I buried my face against his shoulder, breath catching. “Don’t…stop,” I managed.
“I won’t,” he said. “I got you.”
He found a rhythm—unhurried, careful, the chair rocking just a little under us. His hands never left their places, steady and sure, making it easy for me to rest my palms on his shoulders instead of worrying about balance.
Each gentle bounce made the pressure build, a warm ache that was more comfort than edge.
“You feel so good,” he murmured, like he couldn’t hold it in. “So warm. I forgot how…how much this feels good.”
Heat rushed up my neck at the same time something low in my stomach pulsed.
“I didn’t,” I said, breathless. “I been thinking about it. Every night. Every time you put your hands on me and then be all goodnight like I’m not right here.”
He groaned, grip tightening just a little. “Tryna behave.”
“Stop,” I said, lifting my head to look him in the eye. “You being inside me is not misbehaving. It’s us. I missed this just as much as I missed your mouth.”
The way his eyes darkened at that almost finished me.
“I hear you,” he said quietly. “I’m listening.”
He adjusted his angle slightly, one careful shift of his hips that had him brushing deeper, and my whole body reacted.
“Oh—” I gasped, fingers digging into his shoulders. “Right there.”
“Yeah?” he breathed. “There?”
“Yes,” I nodded, eyes squeezing shut for a second. “Keep that. Don’t change it.”
“Okay,” he murmured. “I won’t.”
He stayed right there, lifting and lowering me at the same tempo, every slow rise and fall dragging a soft sound out of me I couldn’t hide if I tried.
The steady drag, the weight of him, the low hum of his voice in my ear—it all melted into something that felt less like sex and more like remembering.
Remembering us before doctor appointments and baby showers and co-parenting drama. Remembering how easy it could be to just want each other without sorting every variable.
“I love you,” I blurted, everything bubbling up at once.
His hands tightened, but his pace didn’t falter. “I love you too,” he said with no hesitation.
He pressed a kiss to my temple, then my cheek, then caught my mouth again, swallowing the next sound as I rolled my hips to meet him, body finally relaxing into the trust I’d been trying so hard to give him.
A few hours later the house was quiet except for the low hum of the AC and the faint noise of cartoons drifting from Serenity’s room down the hall. I slid into the tub meaning to soak for ten minutes.
I must’ve closed my eyes for too long, because the next thing I felt was a warm palm cupping the back of my head and the softest kiss pressed to my forehead.
“Come on, sleepy mama,” Kasen’s voice rumbled, low and close. “Let’s go to bed.”
My eyes fluttered open to find him kneeling by the tub, sleeves pushed up, smile soft.
“I wasn’t sleeping,” I mumbled, even as I let him help me sit up.
“Mhm.” He reached for the towel, wrapping it around me gently. “You were snoring.”
“I don’t snore.”
“You do when you try to bathe after breaking HR policy,” he teased, helping me stand.
He dried me off slow, patient hands, then slid my robe on and tied the belt with that careful knot.
“Teeth, then sleep,” he said, kissing my temple as he lifted me over the edge of the tub. “I’ll get your pillow set.”
“Bossy,” I yawned, but I leaned into him anyway, letting him guide me down the hall.
By the time I crawled into bed, my side of the mattress was already turned down, the big body pillow fluffed and waiting, the bedroom light dim.
Kasen tugged the covers over me, tucked one curl behind my ear, and brushed another kiss over my forehead.
“Goodnight, Mrs. Almost-Reed,” he murmured.
“Night, Batman,” I whispered, already half under again.