“Yeah.” He cleared his throat, squeezed my hand until I had to wiggle fingers to get him to loosen his grip. “I’d like that.”
“Good.” She squeezed cold jelly on my stomach, warning me first and then I laid back. As soon as her handheld Doppler landed on my stomach, nerves hit. What if we didn’t hear it? What if something was wrong?
Serenity’s brows pulled together as she wiggled it and all that remained was a static sound and those questions grew louder.
Until.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh.
“There it is.” She smiled up at me. “The little one was hiding from me.”
“Is that…?” Garrett choked over his words and they were all he managed to squeak out before he glanced at my stomach, and then gaped at me, mouth open, awe shining in his eyes.
“It’s the baby’s heartbeat. Strong and steady. A hundred fifty beats per minute, which is very healthy,” Serenity confirmed.
The sound made me cry the first time I heard it and scared me equally. Not Garrett. Of course not him. Instead, his spine straightened and his shoulders pulled back, jaw hardening as the reality settled over him. The weight of how things were changing.
Like he was a soldier, given a mission. Protect at all costs and he was preparing for the battle.
I loved this man.
21
Lizzie
“Come here.” I barely managed to drag Garrett into the kitchen before my need became combustible.
How I’d managed to restrain myself after watching his reaction in the midwife’s office, not jumping him right there and doing the deed on the exam table took herculean feats I didn’t know I possessed.
How I managed not to convince him to climb into the back of his SUV before we pulled out of the parking lot was an even greater impressive act of self-control on my part.
But now we were home, my body primed, my heart squeezing so painfully in my chest because it beat so powerfully for him.
Garrett was mine. He was ours. And there was nothing. Nothing or no one who could change that for me.
I kicked off shoes, walking backward, tripping over my shoe as I fisted his shirt. Garrett came with me, a look on his face halfway between amusement at my bossiness and a filthy look that said he was planning something I would enjoy immensely.
“Lizzie.” He shook his head, pressing his hands to my hips before I hit the counter and I was plopped on it, his legs widening mine until we were pressed together right where I was desperate for him. “I feel like we’ve been here before.”
One of his hands trailed up my side, brushed over the side of my breast so softly I could have imagined the whole thing and then slipped his hand to the back of my head, tangling my hair in his fingers and making a fist.
With a gentle tug, sparks ignited along my skin as he tilted my head back and pressed his mouth to mine.
I gasped into his mouth. “The question though, is now that we’re here again, what’s going to happen this time?”
His mouth moved to my jaw, back to my ear and in a gravelly voice that sent those sparks to a raging storm, he whispered, “I’m not doing a damn thing with you and my baby on this cold, hard counter.”
“Wha—”
Before I could ask what he meant, I shrieked, found myself in his arms like I was a bride and he was carrying me upstairs.
“You’re crazy.” I laughed, wrapping my arm around him and tucking in my feet so I didn’t bang them on the stairs.
“Only for you and this baby we’re having.”
I tugged on the back of his neck, brought his mouth down to mine and kissed him. We kissed while he walked down the hall, to his room, and I tensed, expecting him to toss me on the bed and ravage me but instead, he sat at the edge of the bed, shifting me in his hold so I was straddling him.
“You can still be rough with me, you know. I’m not porcelain.”
Sex between Garrett and I had always been combustible. As much as I loved this sweet side, I didn’t need soft and sweet and to be pampered.
“That’s good because I wasn’t planning on being gentle.” He tore off my shirt and unclasped my bra and then his mouth dipped to my breasts, instantly taking one in his mouth. He bit it. That slight sting of pain I loved so much sent a shock of fire to my core. I rolled against him, his hard erection between us, brushing against my center.
Holy crap. The way he worked me so quickly was mind-boggling. I clung to the back of his neck, rocking against him as he bent his head, teasing and playing with my nipples.
“I need you,” I gasped, writhing against him. “All of you. Inside of me.”
He kissed me again, palmed the back of my head and tangled his fingers in my hair, pulling back. The slight sting radiated arousal through my body and I gaped at him, body on fire, my sex pulsing with need.
“Please.”
“Oh. I like hearing you beg.” He stood up, taking me with him and set me on my feet. “I might have to do that more often.”
He would, too, but I’d beg for him every day if I could.
Once I was steady on my feet, Garrett fell to his knees, his hands at my waist, he tugged down my leggings. I stepped out of them, bracing my hand at his shoulder for balance, both of us laughing as they stuck to my ankles and he cursed.
And then all laughter stopped. Garrett grabbed my ass and yanked me to him, my crotch right at his face and then he devoured me. Legs spread and shaking, all I could do was hold on, throw my head back and moan through the intense pleasure his mouth on me created. Havoc racked my body as he used his fingers, licked his tongue around my clit and then dipped his tongue inside of me, using his fingers to replace his tongue. My hips bucked against him, rolled to create that perfect friction and right as I thought my knees were going to give out, he stood.
“I was so close,” I gasped, gawking at him.
He winked. The devil. “I know.”
His shirt was torn off him. His jeans dropped followed by boxers and then he climbed on the bed and laid down. “Now get your ass up here and sit on my face.”
A rush of arousal dripped to my thighs at his command.
“You’re a freak,” I said, climbing over him and getting settled.
His hands clamped onto my hips and yanked me down. “You love it.”
I loved him. Everything about him, but especially this. I clung to his headboard as he brought me right back to the precipice and in seconds, he threw me over. I bucked against him, cried out his name and white-knuckled his headboard while my orgasm crashed into me, pulled me out to sea and back again before Garrett’s adjusting us both, lining me up above him and slammed me down onto his thick length.
“Oh God,” I groaned and my head fell forward, hand to his chest. He was so big, so thick, it took a minute before I could breathe again and then I leaned down and kissed him. “I love you. So much.”
“I know.” He smirked, hair a mess, beard wet from me. “Now ride me and show me how much.”
The sun was barely up the next morning while I was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the bed. Garrett was throwing his toiletries and clothes into his bag.
Already dressed in a suit for the airplane, my fingers itched to grab his tie and yank him to me. We got out of bed last night long enough for him to feed me, went back, and then we spent the rest of the afternoon and night tangled up in each other. My thighs were sore. Other parts of me tender, but I’d woken up again without the need to hurl or the desperate need for crackers.