Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 74844 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74844 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
He rubs my hip as he removes his finger. He kisses my back, my shoulder, then my neck before whispering, “One second.”
I don’t move as he cleans us up and then gathers me in his arms. I press my face into his pecs, kissing the words along his chest as his nose gets lost in my hair. I close my eyes when he moves his hand down my ribs to my belly. He leaves it there as we both catch our breath. I can feel his breathing evening out and I know he’s about to fall asleep, but I need him to know something.
It’s hard to voice, but it needs to be said. “Thank you.”
I feel him tense beneath me. “You’re not thanking me for sex, are you? Because I think I should be thanking you. I haven’t come like that in six months.”
A grin pulls at my lips, but I shake my head. “No. Though, yeah, same. But anyway…” He laughs, and I smile. “Thank you for being there for me today.”
I feel his heart pound in his chest as he gathers me closer to him. “I always will be,” he says against my hair. “Even when you don’t want me to be.”
I want him there.
Really bad.
More than I want my next breath.
CHAPTER 24
Alex
“So, will you strap the baby to the top?”
I glance over at my girl and give her a smirk. Elliot looks like a walking dream in a flowy green summer dress, with her hair in two French braids. She has a small bit of makeup on, but it isn’t her style or looks—it’s her smile that has me breathless. It’s been shining since game one of the series with Texas, and I can’t get enough. I crave it.
Even with her smiling a lot more, I know she’s sad about her peepaw. I offered to go to dinner with them, or even lunch, so she’d feel comfortable. I asked if a meeting would be better, but she turned me down. She doesn’t want to talk to him yet. I get it, but I feel it needs to be resolved before the baby comes. I don’t want her to stress over the what-ifs when we can get it taken care of.
Thankfully, nothing has happened with her job. She gets new requests from her peepaw in her email daily. She may be upset with how he handled finding out, which probably was no thanks to me, but she hasn’t stopped working. Like now, even when she is talking shit to me, she is working.
With a sneaky grin just for me, she looks back down to the post she’s writing about our win last night. We all got in pretty late, which is why she’s just now making her big post. Last night she only posted a story with the score and the three stars of the game.
I was number one.
As I should be.
Laughter is in my voice as I say, “I can’t strap it up there when I have the top down.”
“So, you’ll be riding with the top up?” she asks cheekily, but she doesn’t spare me a glance.
“Maybe I’ll leave my nagging woman at home so I have room,” I tease, and she gives me a dark look.
“Nagging, huh?”
“Just a bit,” I say, poking her ribs. “I bought this car as a gift to myself for being awesome. I don’t want to give it up. You don’t like my car?”
“The only vehicles I actually care about are food trucks.” I can’t help but snort at her. She flashes me a wide grin. “I need you to have room for the baby. Which means, I guess, we’ll be driving the baby in my car.”
I don’t give two flying fucks what we drive. She said “we’ll.” It feels like my heart is being squeezed to shit as I shrug. “Or I can go buy another car, and this can be our date car.”
“Date car?” she asks, looking up at me. “We need a car to go on dates?”
“Yeah. So no matter what, it’s only us two.”
Her lips tip up. “I like that. Though, that means no one would watch over our baby when we’re dancing.”
I scoff. “I won’t trust anyone with our baby, especially not some randos at a restaurant who were eye-fucking each other the whole time.”
Her cheeks fill with color, but she nods. “I think I was stroking your cock with my toes.”
“You were,” I say with a wink, and she snorts. “It was a damn good night.”
“It was,” she agrees, and when she drops her hand from her phone, tucking it between her legs, I capture her hand in mine. I thread our fingers together, and I feel her looking at me. “You could have just told me to put my phone down.”
I shake my head. “Not when you’re working. I can be patient.”