Page 104 of Floored

He nipped at my fingers. "I'd love to hear about those, but no, this is quite real."

I sighed, running my hands over his chest. "I love you too," I whispered, his heart thumping strong and steady and sure under my palm.

His lips—those wonderful, talented, devilish lips—curled up into a smile. "Shall we fix you back up now? Or are we going to be late for your party?"

I ran my nose along his, grinning when he licked at my bottom lip. "They can wait a few more minutes."

"Bloody right, they can," he said against my mouth, his hand cupping my breast. My hips started rolling along with the clever circular motion of his thumb, and Jude's other hand gripped me tightly, fingers digging into my bottom, directing me with a firm motion. "That's it."

That ... was when my cell phone started ringing. "Noooo," I groaned. The shrill sound, coming somewhere from my bedroom, was Claire's ringtone.

He looked dazed, his hand pulling slowly away from my chest. "Right. Good. No, we should stop."

I gave him an incredulous look. "We should?"

"Come on, love, up you go." With a tortured sigh, he helped me to stand, staring intensely at the black lace underwear I was wearing as he carefully pulled my dress back down.

"What? Why? Why are we stopping?"

Jude laughed, kissing my forehead after he'd stood from the couch. "Because the last thing we need is to miss your shower, and me meeting your family."

Ugh. I pouted, which made him laugh. He wrapped me in a hug.

"I know you're right," I said, my head resting in the center of his chest.

He smoothed a hand down my back and leaned his head down. "We can wait a bit longer, love. We have forever."

29

JUDE

SEVEN WEEKS LATER

"This is not going to work," Lia said between helpless bouts of laughter.

"You doubt me?"

She tried to turn, which was quite a feat in her current condition—one week past her due date. "Yes!"

"What a terrible mistake on your part," I whispered in her ear once she was comfortably on her side.

On my knees over her, I marveled at the expanse of naked skin in front of me. My hands coasted over her stomach, and I smiled when I felt the hard press of an elbow or knee. When I dropped down to kiss that very spot, I caught her mouth curving in a smile.

Since the day I arrived, it had been like this between us.

Peace, sublime and sweet happiness that rolled from day to day, all wrapped up in a mind-blowing amount of time in bed.

She kept me up later than I was used to, chatting happily about her days, hearing about mine, and most nights ended with us on the couch, her head in my lap, where I could trace my fingers along the gentle lines of her face and body into the soft length of her hair.

We went out to eat, wandered the sights in Seattle, and she shrieked with laughter when I almost turned us into oncoming traffic given that Americans drove on the wrong side of the bleeding road. We talked about her upbringing and mine.

Together, we pieced together our home in the bright apartment and planned for a future one after her initial one-year lease was up. At Lia's insistence, I didn't pay more than half of the rent, but I told her I got to make the deposit on our next home.

And now, a week beyond where our little watermelon was supposed to make its appearance, we were quite preoccupied with hastening their entrance into the world.

Spicy food hadn't worked.

Neither had long walks.

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