Eric
Good. Lord. If you’d told me six months ago that I’d be having steamy hot sex with a very pregnant friend, I’d have laughed my ass off.
But nobody is laughing now. I’m too busy catching my breath, and then easing us down onto the pillow together. Eyes closed, I tuck Alex’s head under my chin. I can feel the rise and fall of her chest as she floats down from the same high I’m on.
And I’m more at peace right now than I have been in weeks. Maybe ever. Maybe it makes me a sap, but none of the bad shit matters quite so much when you’re curled up around a woman who makes you smile.
I won’t lie—I’m a little startled by how much I’ve missed Alex. How badly I want her. And by how easy it is for me to picture spending a lot of time with her. I’m invested. I don’t know how it happened, but it doesn’t seem to be going away.
“Eric,” she whispers.
“Mmm?”
“What are you thinking about right now?”
“Umm…” That I might be falling for someone for the first time in my adult life. “Sleepy thoughts,” I answer, because it’s not entirely a lie.
“How’s the knee?”
“Fine,” I croak. “The same.”
“Are you ready to tell me what’s bothering you?”
“No.”
She pokes me in the side. “Eric.”
“Don’t kill my buzz, woman. It doesn’t get any better than this.” I open my eyes and find her blue ones looking at me. “I mean that. It really doesn’t.”
She falls silent. And if she doesn’t outright agree with me, at least she’s not arguing. I’ll take it.
“I’m staying over tonight,” I inform her. “I already told Duff he could leave.”
“Okay,” she says, burrowing closer. “But I have one unrelated question.”
“Mmm?” I could seriously fall asleep right now. That’s how deeply relaxed I am.
“Earlier, did you say something about cherry pie?”
I grin without opening my eyes. “I did. You want some?”
But she’s already pulling herself up and heading for the kitchen.
I take a quick shower in the posh oasis otherwise known as Alex’s spa bathroom. Then we eat giant slices of pie in her bed. When we turn out the light at midnight, I sleep like a dead man.
When morning finally comes, I wake up slowly. And I’m already happy. In the first place, I’m stretched out in Alex’s wonderful king-sized bed.
In the second place, her lips are skimming my cock. A groan comes from deep in my soul to erupt as she licks me and then takes me deep.
And to think I was having a shitty week before now.
“Baby,” I grunt as she works me over. “You better stop that before it’s too late.”
She doesn’t stop, though. Instead she just looks up and makes eye contact as she gives me a good, hard suck.
“Oh, Jesus. You are really good at this.”
She makes a happy sound and bobs up and down on my dick. The view is killing me. Red lips. Flushed cheeks. Satisfaction curls through my chest, down my spine and tightens my balls.
“Okay,” I gasp. “You’ve been warned.” With a happy sigh, I lift my hips off the bed and begin to fuck her mouth in short thrusts.
Alex moans around my cock, and that’s when I start to lose control.
Most mornings I wake up to a stiff knee, and yet I can’t even feel that fucker right now. Because Alex is sucking half of my IQ out through my cock.
I take a deep breath and let myself be pushed over the sweet edge of orgasm. The sound I make is half roar, half gasp. And then I’m spilling myself onto her willing tongue.
Afterward, she rests her head on my thigh with a sigh.
“Baby,” I rasp. “I’m trying really hard here not to fall too deeply in love with you, but you don’t make it easy.”
Alex buries her face against the messy sheets and laughs. “You are such a romantic.”
“I know, right?” I flop a careless hand onto her soft hair. But even if my sentiment lacks finesse, it’s still true.
Alex’s smile says she doesn’t believe me, though. And when she waddles off to the shower a few minutes later, I stare up at the ceiling for a moment and wonder what it all means.
The ceiling doesn’t answer.
Meanwhile, there’s only a few minutes until she’ll be back. So I hop into my boxers and T-shirt, and then scoot into the baby’s room while I have the chance.
At the risk of making Alex angry, I hang both shelves.
It takes less than ten minutes. All I need to do is change the drill bit and enlarge the holes to the proper size.
Once the mollys fit correctly, it’s a snap to screw in the supports and then hang the star and the moon where Alex had begun them.
I’m just admiring my work when Alex makes a startled sound from the doorway.
Turning around, I brace myself for her displeasure.
But it doesn’t come. Instead, her voice is sheepish. “Thank you.”
“Sure, baby.” I clear my throat. “It still counts, you know.”
“What does?”
“Hanging the shelves. You’re still using your own hands to make this room ready. Even if I helped you a little.”
“I guess. My mom used to cater my birthday parties. But then she made sure to light the candles herself.” She rolls her eyes. “I can probably bake a cake, right? Although decorating them sounds hard. If I keep up this stubborn streak, my daughter is going to have some scary looking birthday cakes.”
I’ll still eat it. The idea just leaps into my brain. As if I’d ever be invited to her daughter’s birthday.
You never know, though. Alex thinks she’ll be rid of me as soon as this latest craziness blows over. But I’m starting to think that it won’t. Craziness seems to hang on to Alex and me with both hands.
And I’m not sure I mind.
She crosses the room and wraps her arms around my waist. “You’re very patient with me,” she says quietly. “I don’t think I deserve you.”
Her belly is stretching her shirt out to a preposterous degree, so I absently place a palm on it and rub gently.
Alex’s expression goes soft. She stands on her tiptoes and kisses my jaw. I palm the back of her head with my free hand and kiss her forehead. “You hungry? I bet you are.”
“Oh definitely.” She gives me a shy smile.
I can’t stop staring into her eyes. This feels so different to me than I often feel with women. I mean—I love women, and fun is fun. But I usually have one foot out the door. Right now I just want to scramble some eggs and ask her where she keeps the coffee.
And the look she’s giving me right back wants all those same things.
“Hey, Engels,” I say, just to break the tension. “Stop looking at me that way.”
“What way?”
“Like I just hung the moon.” I jerk my thumb toward the new shelves.
“Oh, Eric.” She lets out a peal of laughter. “That is a seriously bad joke.”
“I know. But that’s why I snuck in here to do this. ‘Cause I was saving that one up. And you haven’t fired me.”
“Yet,” she laughs. “But it’s early in the day.”
“True.”
We’re both smiling at each other like crazy people when I hear a knock on the door.
Alex looks down at her bathrobe. “Can you get that? I need real clothes.”
“Sure.” I’m still in my boxers, but as usual I don’t give a crap. So we part ways, and I walk to the front door and open it.
My brother blinks back at me with a sour expression. “Seriously? Again?”
I shrug. “Is there something you need?”
“I need Alex.” He holds up her phone—the one that was hacked yesterday. “She and I need to talk.”