Chapter Four
Sunny woke and stretched, noting that every muscle in her body hurt.
She felt like she had run a marathon, but came to accept that the tiny human growing inside of her was the main cause of her discomfort.
Sunny was ready for her daughter to be here, but she was also starting to come to terms with the reality that she was nowhere near ready for the baby.
Aaron saw the meager items that she purchased, and she was pretty sure that a teddy bear and a handful of pink outfits weren’t going to cut it. He was right, and that pissed her off.
Sunny could only deal with one problem at a time, and right now, she needed to check on her bakery to make sure that everything was running smoothly.
She hired a young woman named Justice who had just moved to town and seemed to be down on her luck.
She was nice enough and had a clean record, but Sunny got the feeling that Justice was hiding something or from someone.
Still, Sunny always rooted for an underdog, and Justice was the sort of person she would bet on.
She had been working for Sunny for a few months since her belly started getting in the way of her baking.
Justice was an excellent baker and claimed she learned everything from her grandma, which sealed the deal for Sunny since she inherited the bakery from her grandmother.
She rubbed her belly, loving the feel of her daughter’s little foot pressing up against her hand.
She couldn’t wait to meet her little girl; she was already completely in love with her.
Times like this made her miss her grandma, Bea.
As the oldest of eight kids, Sunny often felt like she switched places with her mom.
Both of her parents were free spirits, raising their kids to be the same.
She was often faced with hard choices and knew that neither of her parents would offer her any guidance.
They would tell her to walk her path or find her truth.
When she needed some hardcore advice, she could turn to Bea, knowing that she would get the truth from her grandmother.
She could use some of that truth right now, especially when it came to what to do about Aaron Steele.
God help her, last night she wanted to say yes to everything he asked of her, but she also knew that she couldn’t let him break her heart again.
Because that is exactly what he did last April when he used her for one night and then pretended like she didn’t exist. What hurt even more was losing the friendship that she had come to depend on from him.
They knew each other for years, ever since he moved to town.
She was there for him when he lost most of his company in that horrific forest fire over five years ago.
He never let her in like he did Tag, but she saw how that loss devastated him.
He seemed to withdraw from everyone around him, only letting Tag get close, and that gutted her.
She wanted to tell him that she was there for him, but he never gave her the chance.
When they started hanging out again after Tag and Piper got together, she jumped at the chance to have him in her life once more.
She enjoyed the ease that they seemed to find around each other, liking the way that they could tease and play.
She wasn’t expecting him to want to take things to the next level until she got trapped at his house during a freak spring blizzard.
The weatherman called that storm all wrong, and by the time anyone knew what hit them, they were trapped.
That was the night that Torren was stranded on the top of the mountain with a group of college kids, and Tag set out with Search and Rescue and Aaron to bring everyone down safely.
Before Aaron got the call that Torren was in danger, she spent the evening in the very bed that she was lying in now.
That night seemed so long ago, but rubbing the baby that now resided in her body, she realized that it was just eight months prior.
She showed up at Aaron’s to share a pizza and watch a movie.
Tag and Piper just moved in together, and they were both feeling a little lost without their best friends to hang with, so they decided to make it a pity party for two.
They commiserated about feeling like a third wheel any time they were with their couple of friends, and one thing led to another.
Before she knew it, she was lying on top of Aaron with her shirt off and her breast in his mouth.
God, that man was built for sin. Just thinking about him now made her body ache with need and her panties wet.
Over the past eight months, her pregnancy hormones were driving her half-crazy with lust. Now she was so big and uncomfortable that she barely thought about sex, but being in Aaron’s bed had her body in overdrive.
She remembered how he stripped her bare and settled between her legs.
How he licked her pussy and made her come over and over again as the local weather station droned on about the snowstorm that raged outside their windows.
By the time they passed out in his bed, exhaustedly tangled up in each other’s bodies, Aaron’s cell rang with Tag frantically trying to put together a team to go after Torren.
Of course, being the friend that Aaron was, he got up and dressed to help his best friend.
That was one of the last times he talked to her or even looked in her direction, for that matter.
She looked over at her cell phone to check the time.
Realizing that the sun probably wasn’t up yet, she decided to try to get some more sleep.
If she was going to go shopping with the demanding, sexy-as-hell father of her baby, she needed a few more hours of sleep.
Her bra was digging into her back, so she unhooked it, groaning at how good it felt to have her boobs free.
Everything about her felt swollen and tingly since Aaron pressed his almost naked body against hers.
She rubbed her sensitive nipples and moaned in pleasure.
Her breasts were much bigger now from the pregnancy, and she wondered if Aaron noticed.
He seemed fascinated with her belly, but he didn’t seem to notice any of the rest of her.
She was worried that he was sticking around for their daughter, and that thought scared her.
She wanted him to want her too, but wasn’t sure that he felt the same.
She could feel the heat between her legs, thinking about the way his erection bulged out of his sweatpants as he pulled them on.
Every fiber of her being wanted to shout to him to stay with her and get his ass back in bed, but that would have been a mistake.
First, they needed to work a few things out, namely, if he wanted her or just their daughter, because they were a package deal now.
She wouldn’t let him play with her heart again, and there was no way she would let him toy with her daughter’s emotions.
She wished she could erase the sexy images of Aaron from her mind.
The way his muscles bunched in his abs as he pulled his T-shirt down his body, and the sight of him, made her want to explode.
She knew that she needed to find her release; otherwise, she wouldn’t be able to sleep again.
She stretched her arm around her belly and snaked her hand into her already wet panties.
She knew that Aaron was sleeping just down the hall, and that thought had her trying to hold in a lusty moan.
She wished that his fingers were in her pussy right now, or better yet, his lips.
She plucked her nipple, wishing his mouth was covering it, warm and soft.
Another moan escaped her, and she froze, worried that Aaron would hear her.
How would she explain to him if he walked in to find her masturbating, eight months pregnant, in his bed?
Better yet, how would she explain that she was imagining him doing all those naughty things to her that he did back in April?
Her finger circled her clit, she was so close.
She shut her eyes and saw Aaron’s face smiling down at her.
She wanted to reach up to pull him down on top of her, but froze at the sound of the soft knock at the bedroom door.
“You okay in there, Sunny?” he asked. She didn’t want to answer but knew that her silence would be his invitation in. He would find her almost naked and touching herself, and that wasn’t acceptable.
“Fine,” she stuttered. She cleared her throat, trying to calm her racing heart.
“I’m fine, Aaron.” God dammit, she still sounded like a lusty schoolgirl.
Aaron tried the doorknob, and she squealed.
“Aaron, I’m naked—please,” she begged. But it was too late.
He stood over the bed, looking down at her as she tried to cover herself with her hands.
She kicked off the covers in her sleep and had nothing to hide under.
She grabbed the pillow from his side of the bed and pulled it over her giant belly.
“Fuck,” Aaron swore. “I was going to ask what all of the moaning was, but I’m pretty sure I can guess.
” He looked her up and down, almost as if he could see through the pillow, causing her to squirm.
Her traitorous body didn’t get the memo that Aaron barged in on her just before she could come.
It wanted a release and didn’t care about anything else.