The word lands like a lightning strike. Bright and sudden and impossible to ignore. I blink, stunned. Charlie just watches me, calm and steady. No judgment. Just quiet knowing. And that’s the moment I realize she’s right.
The rest of the evening is a blur. Around nine, Will and I slip outside unnoticed by everyone. The moment we’re out of the house, I breathe easier.
Charlie’s words still echo in my head, soft but heavy:It’s not lust. It’s love.
Love.
God.
I’m not even sure how we ended up out here. Just that Will caught my hand while everyone else was distracted and tugged me around the side of the barn, then toward the gravel driveway where his truck sat half in shadow, half in moonlight.
“Come on,” he murmurs, voice rough and low.
We slip into the back of the cab like thieves. The doors click shut, the air thick with summer heat and tension. He slides across the bench seat and grabs me like he can’t wait another second. Our mouths crash together, all lips and teeth and need.
“Been watching you all night,” he growls, dragging his hands under my shirt. “That little smile like you don’t know what it does to me.”
“I know exactly what it does,” I whisper, straddling him.
He groans when I sink down onto his lap, our mouths finding each other again, sloppy and desperate. His jeans are rough beneath me, my panties already soaked through from just the look in his eyes.
“You always get like this around babies?” he teases, voice thick.
My body jolts.
Because seeing him holding Sam Jr broke something open inside me.
And now I’m here, grinding against him in the dark like I can’t help it, because Ican’t.
“You looked good with him,” I whisper before I can stop myself. “I keep thinking how you’ll look with our baby.”
Will stiffens under me, just for a second. Then his hands tighten at my waist.
“You trying to kill me, sugar?”
“No,” I murmur. “Just thinking.”
“Dangerous.”
I nod. “Feels like everything with you is.”
He slips one hand down my shorts, under the lace, fingers dragging through heat and slick.
“And yet, you keep coming back.”
I roll my hips, moaning softly.
“Yeah,” I breathe. “I do.”
The words are right there pressed against the back of my throat like they’ve been waiting for their moment.
I love you.
I open my mouth to say it.
And he thrusts his hips up against mine, grinding hard, swallowing my gasp with a kiss.
“I want you to come like this,” he mutters against my lips. “On top of me. In my truck. While your skin smells like my sweat and your thighs still shake from the last time.”
