A low growl came from my throat at the thought. “Not even over my dead body.”
“Make that noise again,” she said.
My response didn’t come fast enough for her, and she repeated the comment but phrased it as a question instead. “I can go outside naked?”
“If you want it rough, just ask, Scarlett.”
Her back came up against the wall from the force of my body, and I made the noise deep in my throat as my mouth seized hers. She was close. I read the signals from her body like I was reading from a book that I only understood the words to.
“I am,” she breathed out, pulling my hair, “so close.”
“Not yet.” I picked her up and carried her to the bed.
She whined like a child. “Hurry!”
“Do we have plans?”
“Smart—mouth!”
I grinned. “Smart a—”
She covered my mouth with her hand. “The baby can hear.”
I stopped moving. We gazed at each other.
“I want you so much,” she whispered. “And not just to induce labor.”
“So romantic.”
“I’m being serious, Brando.” Though she grinned. “Have you ever felt a change? A crux—a turning point? I mean, things change so slowly sometimes that we don’t realize how much of a change until one day we wake up and wonder… how did I even get here?
“This change doesn’t feel subtle to me. I know it’s coming. It’s already started. After we leave the hospital, we’re not going to be the same people who walked in. I want to remember this. One day, I want to be able to remember the people we were in this moment.”
I leaned down and kissed her forehead. “Yeah. I understand, baby. More than you know.”
I had always known that she would change over the years. She would develop and grow. I made a vow to love her through all of them. My only hope was that somewhere in the core, where certain parts of us never changed, our love lived there with her steadies. I lived there with her, in our home.
What started off as impulsive became slow, but soon raged again. Her emotions were all over the place. One minute she was confessing her undying love for me, another, she was crying, accusing me of enjoying her body more now than before—her breasts were bigger.
I couldn’t lie to the woman, but I had to get specific. It wasn’t her breasts alone; it was her. She was so ripe—all over. It was harder to maneuver with the stomach, but it was a small hiccup. All of her shapes drove me insane with lust. The main point being, my want always came fromher.
She hadn’t stopped moving, though, even through the doubt and tears. Then she laughed, claiming that she wasa mess.
The most gorgeous mess I’d ever fucking seen.
Then we were back to lioness.
“Who’s doing this?” I demanded. “You or me?”
“Oh God. Keep moving.Please!Oh God! BRANDO!” She shouted my name again, and at the same time, we both came, so powerful that a feral noise came from my throat at the sight of her coming apart at my touch.
Mine.
When my heart was back to a normal rhythm, I carried her to the shower, and after I washed her, she slept. She didn’t do much of that lately. Her light snore reminded me of bees humming.
Reassuring.
She’s going to be all right, her and the baby.
