“You might want to cover Flip’s ears.”
Her mouth curls, her answer amused. “Because?”
“Because fuck me, you look beautiful.”
Her dress is a deep forest green, a shade so dark it’s almost black. Perilously thin straps hold at her shoulders, the neckline kind of swagging over her chest.A bit like the ribbon on her cardigan that tormented me, all allure and suggestion.The fabric is silky looking, and it clings to all those curves like water, accentuating our compact little bump.And her magnificent tits.
She’s a modern-day Aphrodite, the goddess of fertility. Decadent, lush, and sumptuous, and all the superlatives I can think of.
“Stunning,” I kind of stutter, just in case I haven’t made that clear enough.
“Thank you,” she murmurs, leaning back on her elbow. Maybe her back hurts—if I’m lucky. Or maybe it’s more a case that she knows exactly what I’m thinking.
Breasts. Best thing in the world.
Then I remember I have feet, so I move them, crossing the room in long strides as she watches. Her gaze, it feels good. The way she’s looking at me makes me want to curl myself around her.
“So it’s okay? I can come?”
I nod because I don’t dare open my mouth, the words on my tongue not fit for this moment.Yes, you can. Multiple times, if I have anything to do with it. On my fingers and tongue and all over my Gaston-like chin. And my cock. So many times on my cock, please. Let’s make up for lost time, darlin’.
“What made you change your mind?” Before I know what I’m doing, I reach out and touch a lock of her dark, silky hair. I’m not sure that was the original plan, as in my mind’s eye, I slide that thin strap from her shoulder and press my lips there.Oops. Let’s stay in instead.
As her chest expands with a deep inhale, I remember I asked her a question.What was it again?
“I guess it’s just time.”
Right. Yes. Agreed. It’s time for things to change.
Dave, our driver for tonight, texts me when he arrives. In one of the company Bentley SUVs.
“Car’s here,” I say, sliding my phone away.
I’m not one to use a driver usually. That’s more Oliver’s, and sometimes Fin’s, style. They like to be ferried about and profess to work as the driver drives. Me, I consider driving my thinking time. Tonight, I won’t be driving, but I’ll be thinking plenty. I’ll be trying to work out the reason she’s by my side tonight. Because it’s surely something less vague than it just being time she met my friends.
Time. I worry it’s been working against us. I’ve been desperate to fix things between us and concerned that, if I don’t fix them before the baby arrives—if I don’t get Ryan to see what she means to me, and how good we could be—I’ll blow my chance at happiness. Because when he’s here, our babe, the variables will change. It’ll be a whole new wonderful and frightening game where he’ll be our focus, as it should be.
I can’t wait to see love shining from her as she holds our babe in her arms. But children change a person, they shift priorities. Realities. They bring love, yeah, but they also expose you to new fears. They take up so much time and space in your house and your car and your brain. And I just want to see a flicker of that love in her eyes for me.Before the whirlwind arrives and we get lost in it.
In my heart and in my soul, I need this. I long to spend my life complaining about her being a bed hog, and teasing that she steals all the blankets during her crocodilian death rolls. I want to seeher lift her eyes from her screen at the end of the day, all shy smiles as she realizes I’ve been watching her. I want our clothes hanging in the same closet, her lotions and potions littering the bathroom vanity. I want to complain about the shoes she leaves everywhere and have the right to tease her eternally for owning a million hair ties while never being able to find a single one.
Love fills my heart—it pumps through my veins and is embedded in my tissues.In muscle, in sinew, in bone.I want our baby. I want our life together. I want her love.
She already has mine.
“I’ll get my coat.” Ryan makes to move before pausing. She glances down to where my fingers have looped her wrist.
I want to tell her. Say the words,I love you, Ryan. Do you think you could love me?“You’ve got a bit of ...”
She inhales a tiny, shaking breath as my hand rises, as I press my finger to her bared collarbone. She’s all dark eyes and fluttering lashes as I draw it across that delicate wing.
“Something sparkly, see?” I pull that finger away, holding it up for her to examine. Maybe because I’m a chickenshit. Or maybe that wasn’t the point—maybe it was a test administered without my full consciousness. The proof in her shaking breaths that something has turned.
Where the hell are they taking us?
Dave drops us off at the address Fin supplied, along with the advice that Evie had planned the night. Fin, as our company cruise director, has been just about everywhere that’s fun. It’s literally his job to know all the hot spots, the places to entertain billionaires from every nation.Cruise director, director of client relations. Same same.
In other words, feck knows what we’re in for if he’s not in charge.
