Page 63 of Defending Casey

“Yeah,” he agreed and grabbed at her hands before she could touch him. “If you touch me with those hands now I won’t last, Casey. I want to be inside you again.”

“I want you inside me too, Hale. I feel like I’ve been waiting forever.”

“You’ll never have to wait again, baby. I don’t think I’m going to let a day pass after this.”

The fight went out of her arms, knowing that as much as she wanted to touch him, she had time to do that later.

With a maddening grin, Hale lifted her hands and leaned over, pressing her against the bed.

She smiled up at him. “Getting the upper hand?”

He leaned down and loved the pressure of his chest against hers, as sensitive as her nipples were, she swore she saw stars at his touch.

His lips slanted over hers and she found herself torn between the distraction of his mouth and the teasing brush of his chest against her breasts.

She squirmed.

She wiggled.

And when his lips lifted from hers, she was half-drunk with passion. “Hale-”

He licked his lips and with the light of the moon shining in his window she saw a silvery glimmer of moisture on them.

“Two.”

Her brow furrowed and she let out a rough exhale as she struggled to understand. “What?”

“Two.” He leaned back, releasing her hands that stayed above her head on the bedding. Bracing his hands on the bed beside her shoulders he leaned down and touched a kiss to her chin and then her throat, tipping her head back. “I want two more.”

His mouth placed a line of kisses down the column of her throat, and she lost the ability to speak a coherent word.

“Or more,” he swept the tip of his tongue into the delicate hollow at the base of her throat, “I just want to have the family we always talked about having.”

He touched his chin to her chest and looked up at her and she saw the darks of his eyes had almost swallowed his irises.

How had she gone ten years without him in her life?

Nora.

She’d kept loving him in her heart and raised their child enough for both of them.

“Let’s start with one… for now.”

His smile all but broke her heart.

“I missed seeing you pregnant.” Moving further down her body, he trailed the tip of his nose down over her belly and turned his head to kiss her skin.

Case adjusted her head, trying to see what he’d found. “Hale? What-”

Then she wished she hadn’t asked, because she could see the slightly silvered lines of a stretch mark when he lifted his head. Tears gathered on her lashes. “I’ve changed.”

Hale looked at her with more than a hint of concern in his eyes. “You carried our child, Casey. You took care of her, nursed her, raised her. If you think marks like this would change how much I want you, then maybe you’re right.”

Her lips flattened into a thin, tight line.

“I think I love you more.”

He turned his head and rubbed his cheek against the side of her stomach. “Any chance you sleep naked when you’re pregnant?”

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