Willow raised her knees and gripped his sides. “Same.”
Home.
Everything about her felt like home. Doe eyes filled with love for him. The way her body anchored him, held him safe. The way she took him as he was, knowing when he was at rock bottom, and being with him every step of the way back to the top.
“Will,” he groaned as his pace increased. “Never been like this.” The words felt punctuated, grunted out between breaths.
It hadn’t. It was overwhelming, terrifying, and yet the most natural thing in the world.
“Come with me,” he said, before kissing her, tangling his tongue with hers. Tasting her. Savouring her.
His balls tightened. God, he needed to come. Shifting his bodyweight slightly, he cupped her arse, holding her open to him.
Willow’s eyes went wide, her mouth formed an O as she came again, her channel squeezing the life out of his cock, sending her over the edge with him.
For a moment, everything outside the two of them ceased to exist.
Her breath brushed his cheek as she gasped for air.
Slowly, he eased both of them down, then playfully pulled her into a bear hug so he could nibble at her neck. “Can’t keep my hands off you,” he growled as she squealed.
“Luke, stop. Please,” she gasped, trying to fend off his hands as he tickled her.
“No. That got heavy. And now, we need this.” The sound of her laughter filled the room. When she managed to tug the pillow from beneath her head, she started to smack him with it.
“Watch it, Warner,” he said, rising to his knees and grabbing his own. “Oof,” he grunted as she caught him good on the side of the head. He swung his pillow at her, catching her softly in the shoulder.
“Hey, you’re going to knock me off the bed,” she cried.
He tossed his pillow away and grabbed her again, settling them down on the bed. “Never. I’ll never let you fall.”
Her hand touched his cheek. “I know.”
“I feel happy. Like, deep down in my bones happy. And it’s been a long time since I felt that way. When I said I love you, I meant it. I truly do.”
Willow sighed as she smiled. “I’m glad you’re happy. I think you’ve earned it. Happiness. Our love,” she said, putting her hand on her stomach. “I feel your world is changing for good. I just hope when you get through all this, you still want me.”
Luke placed his hand over the top of hers. “It’s because of you and this that my world is changing. And whatever it looks like at the end, if you aren’t there, then I don’t want it. I know those are just words, but I promise, Willow. I’m going to spend the rest of our lives showing you just how much I’ll pick you a thousand times over.”
“It’s not rock ’n’ roll enough, is it?” she said to Chaya who stood next to her.
“Erm. There’s a chocolate fountain.” Chaya’s hair had been blow-dried pin-straight, and her smoky eye was perfect.
“Are you saying it’s too much?” Willow asked. She glanced down at her black halter dress that had just enough support for her breasts and hugged her bump. Currently barefoot, she planned to shove her feet into heels just before the boys arrived.
“Chill, mate. It’s really freaking sweet.”
She’d had the idea to throw them a family party to celebrate the album release as they’d driven home from Brighton. But she’d found their venue, The Midland Hotel, after getting off the tram at St. Peter’s Square to hit the Starbucks. The wonderfully ornate hotel was nearly a hundred and twenty years old. She’d become obsessed with its history.
A call to Simon, the band’s manager, had confirmed he could get the band there by seven. Then, she’d texted everybody but the band to make sure they could come.
“I should have booked something in a nightclub.”
Cerys wandered over to them, looking gorgeous in her gunmetal grey dinner jacket with nothing underneath and slim pants. “What should you have done in a nightclub?”
“This,” she gestured around furiously.
Cerys shook her head. “Nan probably wouldn’t have come if you’d held it at the nightclub.”
Chaya looked to where Nan sat in a floral dress. Next to her were Ben and Alex’s parents, both of whom looked subdued. “And then, we would have missed out on the fairy cakes with our initials on it.”
“They are so freaking cute.” Willow had taken a photograph of them. Two fairy cakes for each person with their initials on it in little silver balls. There were even a little CE and CH to make sure Cerys and Chaya didn’t take the wrong ones.
“Watch when the lads get here,” Cerys added. “They are like putty when it comes to Nan’s fairy cakes. Rumour has it she has extras in that ginormous shopping bag of hers.”
“It looks beautiful,” Zoe said as she joined them.
“Thank you,” Willow signed in response. She couldn’t expand much beyond that because she’d only just started to learn sign language, but she wanted to try whenever she could.
“Shouldn’t you be sitting down or something?” Izabel said as she bounced over in a pretty pink dress.
Willow laughed and pointed down to her toes, which she wiggled. “I’m living up to the whole barefoot and pregnant stereotype.” Her phone vibrated in her palm. “Oh, this is probably Simon letting me know the guys are on their way. One second.”
She answered her phone as she stepped away from the group. “Hello.”
“Willow, it’s mom.”
Tears pricked Willow’s eyes, and the same time, anger churned in her stomach. “Mom. You haven’t called or replied to any of my texts. I’ve been worried. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, sweetheart. But I’m worried about you. All of this is so unlike you. Everyone is worried.”
“Why didn’t you call me back? Did Dad tell you not to?”
There was a pause, too long.
“It’s complicated. The lawyers and things. You understand.”
“No. I don’t understand, Mom. You had to know. All the money I earned paid for your lifestyle. Please, help me get what’s mine. I won’t leave you broke and out on the street. That’s not what I want.”
“It’s not what I want, either. I want us all back together . . . well, I . . . you have to stop this lawsuit. It’s not good for the family. And I saw your post. I can’t believe you didn’t tell us in person that you were pregnant.”
“Did you know what Dad was doing?”
Another pause. “Your dad didn’t do anything wrong. We gave you every opportunity to film when you were younger. It’s only right that we were entitled to some payment at the time for the sacrifices.”
“Do you really believe that, Mom?” She’d always hoped that her mom loved her. For who she was, not what she could do for her. To hear her confirm that she’d been in it for the money severed the last thread of hope Willow ever had.
The pause was long, but this time, as the noise in the room ebbed momentarily, she heard it. A whisper so faint she almost missed it.
“Dad,” she said, realising her mom sounded hollow because she must be on speaker phone.