I might have told her that we couldn’t be physical again, but right now, I’m feeling weak. If for some reason Ana decides she wants to get closer than dancing tonight, I’m not going to be strong enough to resist. I want her. And I really hope she wants that too.
When I take her hand again and nudge her toward the dance floor, she’s laughing.
“I never took you for someone who likes to dance,” she says, her brown eyes glittering at me.
I lift one shoulder. “Believe me, I’m not. You in this dress, though . . .” I give her a heated look. “Let’s just say it’s inspiring me.”
She laughs. “Stop.”
“If you like.”
Her lips twitch.
She moves her hands up to my shoulders, and mine settle onto the dip in her waist. I put a couple of inches between us, needing a little distance so she doesn’t feel my body’s response to hers.
As we dance together in the center of the floor, I notice a few of my teammates watching us, but I don’t care. Let them wonder. What’s happening between Ana and me is no one else’s business.
“Tonight’s been fun,” she says softly, her eyes moving from the three-piece band up to meet mine.
“It has.” I nod. “I’m glad you came.”
“Me too.”
We continue swaying together while I fill Ana in on my upcoming travel schedule. Next week I’ll be in Saint Louis and then Dallas, but this week I’m mostly home, except for a quick trip to California.
“Hobbes will be happy,” she says, brushing a piece of lint from my shoulder.
“As important as Hobbes’s happiness is to me, the reason I told you is just so you know you’re more than welcome to stay there, even while I’m gone.”
“Grant,” she says sternly.
We’ve been over this. I really do want her to feel welcome.
“I’m serious. I’m gone at least three nights a week. Ana, I want you to stay. For as long as you want. I like knowing you and Hobbes will be there when I get home.”
She softens, leaning in even closer. “I know. And you’ve been so incredible. I can’t thank you enough.”
“There’s no need to thank me.”
• • •
The rest of the evening passes in a blur, and then Ana and I are stepping out of a cab and riding the elevator up to my condo. Electricity still thrums steadily through my veins. It’s like every moment has been swamped in anticipation, every look has been heated. I don’t know if it’s just me, or if Ana feels it too.
“I had a good time tonight,” she says softly, moving inside the condo and setting her purse on the counter. Hobbes gives us a sleepy look from the couch where he’s curled up, but doesn’t move. “I guess I’d better go get out of this dress.”
But when she turns to head down the hall, my fingers catch her elbow and I lightly tug. She turns, falling into my arms, and lifts her mouth to mine. And I can’t resist for even a second longer.
Closing the distance between us, I press my lips to hers. A surprised gasp escapes Ana as I deepen our kiss. She brings her hands beneath the lapels of my jacket to touch my chest, and for a second, I’m mentally preparing for her to push me away. But she doesn’t, she just strokes the muscles in my chest and groans into my mouth.
I go from half hard to fully hard in an instant.
I held back at the gala, but now that she’s in my arms, touching me, my self-control vanishes faster than a hockey puck into an empty net.
“What do you want?” she murmurs, her mouth busy kissing a hot path along my freshly shaven jaw.
“You.”
It’s only one word, but the effect on her is instantaneous. Her hands drop to my belt buckle, which she begins tugging at in an effort to free my erection. My cock presses painfully into my zipper.
“Bedroom,” I choke out, panting, almost dizzy with need.
Ana’s only taken two steps forward before I decide I’m too impatient to wait out the ten-second journey to my bedroom, and sweep her up in my arms instead. A breathless sound pushes past her lips the second I set her feet on the floor inside my bedroom. Two seconds later, she’s stripped out of her dress and looking up at me with need-filled glittering eyes.
I brush my knuckles across the top of one of her breasts. “Take those panties off for me.”
Ana complies, pushing her fingers into the sides of her thong until it slides down her hips so she can step out of the scrap of lace.
“On the bed. Let me look at you.”
She crawls onto the bed, moving up toward my pillows and then lies back, her knees slightly parted.
Lust scrambles my brain as I move closer, leaning over her so I can kiss her sweet mouth again. Her tongue touches mine, and I groan, low in my throat. Using my thumb, I trace a slow circle around her clit while she squirms.
“Take these off,” she murmurs, her fingers dragging down my zipper to free my cock.
While I shove my pants and boxers down and kick them off, Ana works on the buttons to my shirt. My jacket is somewhere on the floor. Then we’re both naked and falling into the center of my bed together.
Ana’s delicate fist curls around my cock, and she strokes it slowly. A wave of pleasure crashes through me.
“Grant,” she says on a groan. She caresses my abs, and the muscles involuntarily clench at her touch.
“What do you want, baby?” Baby?
She doesn’t so much as blink at the endearment. “You.”
With pleasure.
I grab a condom from the drawer in my bedside table. I have no idea if we need one, or what possesses me—God knows she can’t get more pregnant. But now doesn’t seem like the time to have that conversation. And I want Ana to trust me, to know she can feel safe with me. So, condom it is. Every time. Until she tells me she wants it bare.
I suit up, and then I’m kneeling between her parted thighs, teasing her with the head of my dick. She shivers and presses her fingernails into my thigh.
“Tell me,” I murmur, reaching down to pinch and tease her nipple. “What you want.”
“Your cock.”
I grip myself in one hand and ease in slowly. I’ve read that sex during pregnancy can be challenging, that she might feel sensitive from the extra hormones. So I move in slow, steady strokes, letting Ana dictate our pace.
“More,” she says, whimpering, canting her hips up toward mine.
I don’t want to be too rough with her, and force myself to keep my pace even, no matter how badly I want to drive hard and deep.
“Harder,” she moans. “You’re not going to break me.”
With a rough caress, I hitch her thigh around my hip so I can drive in even deeper. She groans, and the sound hits me square in the chest.
My mouth finds her neck, and I leave hot, sucking kisses all over her skin. I’m trying to last, but I can’t hold out much longer. She’s reduced me to a trembling, groaning wall of pleasure.
“Need you to get there for me.” I breathe hard, rubbing her clit with my thumb. My self-control is practically nonexistent.
Her body tightens around my shaft, and I groan.
A few more pumps and she comes apart, gripping me as she falls over the edge, pleasure ripping through her sweet body. Seconds later, I follow her, emptying myself in hot waves into the condom while I gather her close.