Page 30 of Soaring and Saucy

“I’m not one of those pigs that makes his girl wait on him hand and foot…”

“Well, goody for you…” she retorted, crossing her arms and glaring at him.

“I’m a modern man.”

“I’m a modern woman – and this is my house.”

“It’s an apartment,” he corrected, knowing he was getting under her skin. “Don’t you have something to do? Put your feet up and get with the babymaking…” he uttered, waving at her still flat belly. “When do you start to show?”

She tossed her hands in the air in frustration, stomping off and muttering under her breath at him words that could even make him blush – and he’d heard a lot of salty talk from the guys. They usually keep it pretty clean because Pasteur and Ohio would both get this look on their faces. The guys played hard, but deep down, they were both Boy Scouts.

Not him.

Peeking around the corner, he started jerking open cupboards and drawers, looking for any hints or clues as to who she was deep down inside – and how to reach her. There were little tidbits that gave away a person’s true nature and he wanted to know hers.

If a person had a ton of cleaning solutions, chemicals, towels, wipes, and other things – they were probably a germaphobe or a clean freak. If someone had a bunch of diet food in the fridge… but eight boxes of Girl Scout cookies in the pantry hidden at the top, they were insecure about their weight and struggled with willpower – and understood.

Thin Mints were his weakness.

Lance opened a cabinet and hesitated before smiling broadly.

Jackpot.

There, in the cabinet, instead of cups and dishes… his girl had several tattered romance novels that looked well-loved. The spines were cracked, several pages folded at the corners, and mauled from an avid fan who obviously read and re-read them repeatedly. He gingerly plucked the worst looking one from the shelf to look at it.

“Please don’t be a billionaire…” he muttered, “because I’m sure not.”

Historical – more specifically – it was a book about knights and King Arthur sorta junk. Yeah, he could do the whole chivalry, wooing, damsel in distress stuff that would make her head spin. He might not be able to conjure up a horse or a sword, but he could definitely romance his woman.

Hearing her moving around, he quickly shut the cabinet and moved to make them something to eat. It would need to be something easy and fast to bake because he was pretty sure Stephanie would be popping her head around the corner any minute now. Grabbing a can of biscuits, a package of hot dogs, and a bag of shredded cheese, he set to work.

Five minutes later, as he was sliding the tray into the oven, Stephanie appeared – just as expected. He arched an eyebrow at her, staring pointedly as he fought back a smile.

She had changed into a pair of pajamas, complete with a fuzzy robe over them. Yeah, she had no intention of trying to make this easy on him or impress him. She was waving the ‘mom’ card… hard. If she thought he was going to run away, she would have been right a few weeks ago. Now, seeing her like this made his palms itch to touch her stomach knowing his baby was growing inside of her.

“Yes?” he drawled.

“What are you doing?”

“Cooking my wife something to eat.”

“About that,” she began, and he felt his stomach sink at her very uncomfortable look written all over her face. “We never signed the marriage license, so it wasn’t filed with the state. We’re not married.”

“Uh, yeah, we are,” Lance retorted quickly.

“Uh, no, we’re not,” she mocked, using his same tone.

“Where is it?”

“Why? So you can shred it?”

“Why would I do that when you are having my child?”

“Look, I’m trying to let you out. We can be friends and be civil about things. We’re both adults. Well, one adult and one sort-of adult…”

“I’m an adult,” he replied quickly and decided to turn the tables on her bickering. This would go a lot smoother if she weren’t trying to pick a fight or goading him. “I’m very much an adult. You should have told me that arguing and fighting with you turned you on. Baby, if you want it rougher between us, I’m all for that. Arguing, fighting, makeup sex, a little spanking…”

“WHAAAAT?”

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