“I want that too,” she says, and the words absolutely sideswipe me. Never in a million years did I ever think she felt that way back. I was gearing up for the fight of my life. “I know I’ve made it hard for you. I know I’ve been resistant at every turn. But it’s only because I was afraid of how right everything between us felt from the start and I didn’t trust my judgment. I’ve been walked out on, left behind, and disregarded so many times. All by people I loved who were meant to love me back. I couldn’t handle that from you too.”
With that, I scoop her up into my arms and carry her down the hall to my bedroom. Our bedroom now. I set her down by the window, kissing her neck before taking a step back. “Strip for me.”
Her hands meet the thin straps of her dress, lowering one over her narrow shoulders and then the other. The material falls away, catching on her hips until she does a little shimmy and then it falls away completely, pooling on the floor.
I stare at her, drinking up every inch. So inconceivably beautiful it hurts to look at her. Mine. Then I’m on her, my mouth covering hers in a stolen kiss before I kneel to the ground, kissing up her thighs, over her mound, to her belly.
I look up into her eyes. “I hadn’t seen you in years. I was doing my residency in Virginia, and you were either in New York or here. In truth, I hadn’t thought about you much prior to that. You were Oliver’s best friend and three years younger than me. But when I saw you on my first day as an attending, it was like the breath had been knocked out of me while someone simultaneously smashed me over the head. I was screwed and I knew it. Day by day, no matter how hard I tried to fight it, I fell harder and harder in love with you. It was miserable. You weren’t mine to have.”
Her hands thread through my hair, brushing back the strands from my face.
I swallow thickly and add, “But now you are. Now you’re mine and I’m never letting go. I love you. I’ve loved you for so long, even when I had no right to. Grace Hammond, I’ve fallen so hard in love with you.”
A tear glides down her cheek. “I used to pick fights with you just to get you to react to me. To talk to me and notice me. Janet has been starving for you, and I hate her for it. But you never looked at her. Never noticed or cared about her advances. You watched me and I loved watching the heat in your eyes as you did. The way you’d look at me in those few, rare moments, I was able to crack through your shell. I had no right to love you either. But I think part of me always has. I certainly do now. Carter Fritz, I’ve fallen so hard in love with you too.”
Grasping her hips, my lips plant into her belly. The belly that’s growing our baby. She told me in the car on the way home that her labs looked good. She told me all about her appointment with her neurologist yesterday morning. Fingers crossed things continue to stay on course. This is a time when being a doctor, a fucking OB-GYN at that, sucks.
I know every potential thing that can go wrong.
But wow. Fatherhood. I’m going to be a father.
There is a tiny life that is half Grace and half me. She and I are total opposites, features-wise. I’m dark hair and dark eyes and she’s blonde with blue eyes. Who will this baby favor? Her, I hope.
Then I trail lower, kissing her where she wants me to, parting her thighs, my tongue sneaking out to lick her clit. We’ve been worked up all night—for days—for each other and now, after knowing for sure she’s mine…
Two fingers slide into her as I ravenously eat her pussy. I can’t get enough. I’m greedy for her. Insatiable. She moans, grinding herself deeper into my face. Rocking forward, her hand pulls on my hair as she works to keep herself upright. I move her backward, pressing her back and ass against the glass of the window and then I take her legs and swing them over my shoulders so I can deepen the angle.
“Jesus, Carter,” she cries out, but I don’t stop. I keep going, increasing the pressure of my tongue, fucking her with it over and over again. One of her heels slips from her foot, dropping to the floor with a clunk. Her other digs into my back, spurring me on. When I bought this pretty dress for her and those shoes, this is exactly what I envisioned doing to her.
“You taste so good.”
“Inside me,” she begs on a choppy breath. “Carter, please. I need you inside me.”
With a growl, I suck her clit between my lips before I release it with a wet pop, lowering her feet to the ground and standing up to take her mouth as I undress. I hold her against the window and in one motion, I have her legs back around me and I’m inside of her.
Forehead to forehead. Eyes open and holding. Breathless gasps tumble from us both, my lips layered with hers. I set a sensual pace, swiveling my hips, stroking every inch and nerve ending inside her.
Soft hands grip my hard shoulders, her nails burrowing into my muscled flesh as I gradually increase our pace, our passion building, no longer able to be contained. Her legs clamp fiercely to my hips as she holds on, unable to do much else other than get fucked. The windows rattle and shake as I drive into her harder, deeper. Grunts and groans of pleasure escaping me as I build us up, bring us higher.
My hands are everywhere, gripping her ass, rubbing her clit, pinching her nipples, squeezing her tits. She moans, writhing against me, her head tilted back against the window as I plow into her like a man on the edge of his sanity. So tight. So warm. So wet.
So fucking made for me.
Her body clamps to mine, begging me to take her harder, deeper.
Our skin is slick with sweat, our bodies entangled, and I give her exactly what she wants, wrenching a cry from her throat. Sinking her teeth into her lip, she grinds against me, getting the friction she needs on her clit, and I stare down in awe, watching as my cock slides in and out of her tight pussy that grips me like a fist. As she starts to come all over me, convulsing with tattered screams.
Violent tremors shake through us, twisting her body and arching it into me as she loses herself completely. My lips claim hers, wild and messy, losing precision as I nibble at her while her moans grow louder and louder.
“Fuck,” she cries. “Carter!”
“Yes! I’m there with you.”
Losing my breath and my sanity, I fall apart. A throaty groan my only sound as I clench my teeth and fuck her through her orgasm that seems to go on and on, prolonging mine with it.
Just as she sags against me, I walk us over to the bed, collapsing us both while staying inside her. My hands roam her body. Her face. My eyes following each movement. I can’t stop.
Forever, that’s all we do with each other. Kiss and touch and caress and make love. Over and over, our bodies stay coiled. One.
“You’re the only one who has me, Grace. Now. Always.”
And just as Grace falls asleep in my arms, a sweet, contented smile on her lips, I send up a silent prayer asking for this to last forever. Begging whoever or whatever this is where we start, never to end. All I know is one thing for sure, no matter what, I can’t lose this. Not now that I’ve finally gotten her.
35
“I have to deal with a few things this morning,” Carter says as the elevator car slows. “Will I see you for lunch?”
I shrug. “Who knows?”
“Let me amend that, sweetheart. I will see you for lunch. In the cafeteria. With Oliver and Rina.”