“Ohmygod,” I breathe, nodding frantically, watching as his thickness disappears inside me. Until he’s buried to the hilt and circling his hips against mine. When he does, it hits that special spot and I can’t help the moan that leaves my lips. He grins from above me, that wicked, mischievous smirk, his long, damp hair falling forward over his brow. Sliding out all the way to the tip, he slams back in, hard. Clasping his jaw in both of my hands, I drag his mouth down to mine, his beard tickling my palms and my lips as he kisses me. His thrusts are long, deep, and fierce, and it’s not long before I’m starting to shake as my climax bears down on me. A tear slips down my cheek and I sob as I shatter in his arms, “I love you.”
“That’s it, that’s it,” he groans, pistoning his hips into mine, his mouth dragging against my own as I continue to come, shuddering against him. My inner muscles are convulsing wildly around his hardness and he hisses, “Goddamn, you come so good for me. I love you so fucking much, Teddy. Did this sweet pussy miss my cock, sweetheart?”
“Oh god, yes, Xander,” I cry out, but his mouth muffles the sound with a kiss.
“Say it again,” he rasps out the demand against my mouth.
Shoving my fingers up through the hair falling over his brow, I whisper breathlessly, “I love you, Xander.”
Dropping his forehead to mine, he groans, then his hips stutter in their thrusts as he comes, too. My fingers are tangled in his still damp hair and I hold him to me as he shudders against me, filling me.
His chest heaving, he falls to my side, dragging me with himand drawing me against his body. He smooths his hands over my hair as we work to slow our breaths and hammering hearts.
Drawing my thigh up over his hip, he smooths his palm from my thigh all the way to my waist and back before settling his palm against my abdomen between us.
“Thank you,” he whispers above me, his lips moving against my forehead. I raise my chin, my eyes finding his.
“For what?” I breathe, smoothing my fingers over his brow and then down his cheek, cupping his jaw tenderly. I can’t stop touching him. He turns his head, kissing the center of my palm before returning his cheek to it.
“For giving me everything I didn’t know I wanted and needed. For loving me,” he murmurs quietly, his fingers flexing against my stomach.
“Thank you for loving us,” I whisper back, those damn tears filling my eyes again. “Thank you for always seeing me, even when I didn’t see you.”
He turns his head again, pressing his lips to my palm once more, and then whispers reverently, “You always saw me, Teddy. We just had to wait our turn. But I’m never letting you go, and I’m not wasting a second of this life with you, mama.Marry me,” he breathes, and my heart trips over itself with incandescent happiness. “Don’t make me wait to call you my wife. Please, Teddy.”
“Okay,” I whisper, nodding, my eyes on his, my lips wobbling again. “Yes. Yes, Xander.”
I can be brave, with Xander by my side, loving me. I can’t wait for that, too. Our future together, this life, this chance. Our new forever.
SEVEN MONTHS LATER
“Look who I brought,” I say quietly, pushing the heavy door open slowly. The hospital room is quiet, early afternoon sunlight filtering through the half-closed blinds across the room.
My beautiful wife is sitting up in the bed, and she smiles wide as the four of us trek inside. Dalton has a bouquet of flowers in his hands, and he sets them on the wide window ledge like I’d instructed before we came in. Penny is tip-toeing across the polished tile floor, being as quiet as she can, just like we’d rehearsed. The little hellion has chilled out—if only mildly—in the last year.
Thirteen-month-old Bea is in my arm, her short brown curls tied up into my best attempt at pigtails. Kent and Colleen follow us in, shrinking the room and filling it with a lot of whispered chatter. Before the door closes behind them, Scottie and Cal enter. I shake my head. I think we’re at capacity for this tiny room.
I step over to the side of the bed and lean down to press a tender kiss to my wife’s forehead. She tips her face up to me, aserene, content smile pulling at her lips. Goddamn, I have the most beautiful wife.
Bea reaches for her and I slide her off my arm slowly. “Okay, remember, we have to be very careful,” I whisper to the toddler. She settles against Teddy’s side, resting her head against the slope of her breast. “How are you feeling? I wasn’t gone for too long, was I?”
“Xander, you were gone for less than an hour. I’m okay,” she laughs lightly, reaching out to stroke my cheek, her fingernails rasping against the thick stubble of my beard. I clasp her hand in mine and bring her fingers to my lips, kissing them tenderly. Fuck I love this woman. “Rowan and Vi came up while you were gone to sit with me and meet the baby.”
We both peer down at our newborn daughter, Spencer Leigh Macomb, swaddled and happily sleeping in my wife’s other arm. Penny tugs at my shirt and I bend over to lift her up gently, setting her on the edge of the hospital bed. She leans over the baby, oohing almost silently.
My heart is so fucking full. Dalton hangs back, and I step over to him. “Do you want to go look?”
“Can I hold her?” he asks, looking up at me. I look over at Teddy, who nods with a smile.
“Okay, Champ, in that chair. Let me grab this pillow—” I say, swiping the pillow I’d used the night before off the little foldaway bed in the corner of the room. I get him situated, and then move to lift my newborn daughter out of Teddy’s arm. I press a kiss to the pink hat that covers her dark head of hair—to which we can thank for all of Teddy’s hellacious heartburn the last few months—and then carefully lower her into the cradle of Dalton’s arm, supported by the pillow. “Good job, man. Such a natural.”
He rolls his eyes. “I’ve done this before.”
I chuckle lightly, nodding as I sink into a crouch beside him. Kent, Colleen, Cal, and Scottie have convened on Teddy, leavingjust Dalton and I with the baby. I watch my step-son as his brown eyes move over his new little sister reverently.
“She’s cute,” he says, and I have to agree. Teddy did a damn good job.
And we didn’t have to have an emergency home birth, thank God, though all the guys had made sure to text me to remind me of my alternate career now that I’ve retired from being a hotshot. This birth was completely uneventful, to which I’m eternally grateful. I’m not entirely sure I could have been quite so calm and collected this go around.
