Page 36 of Baby for Dr. Damaged

This is a slow, steady joining.

Jackson kisses me the whole time, open-mouthed, licking the water from my skin and nipping at my neck and the curve of my jaw. He braces one hand against the tile of the shower, our feet slipping and sliding over the floor, but he keeps us steady, supporting me, fucking me, reminding me that I’m not alone.

It strikes me that this is exactly what I needed—a reminder that even though things are about to get terribly hard, I am not alone. We are going to handle this, together. And that’s the realization that lets me give myself to him completely, throwing my arms around his shoulders and holding on tight as he takes me, as he splits me apart from the inside out, fucking me, holding me, loving me, owning me.

All of those things at once.

I was already close before. It doesn’t take me long this time, either. Emotions twist up with the growing pleasure and pull the heat up, into my chest until I’m almost choking on it.

I barely manage to gasp out, “Jackson—”

Too late.

The orgasm washes over me, making my vision spotty and my limbs loose. Jackson groans and redoubles his efforts, thrusts growing hard and frantic as he chases after his own release.

“I’ve got you,” he promises, between planting open-mouthed kisses. “I’ve got you.”

And he does. He has me. He has all of me. Even the parts that are so wildly independent, I never thought would be shared with anyone.

Jackson kisses me, our mouths slamming together, teeth clacking loudly, though the sound is swallowed up by the pounding of the hot water. It crashes on us, around us, cascading over our forms even as he spills inside of me, a rush of searing heat in my lower belly and between my legs.

Jackson’s forehead presses to the wall beside my head. He’s panting hard. His cock slides out of me, but his arms both wrap fully around me, pulling me up against him. There’s a quiet sort of desperation in the touch, and it hits me that Jackson doesn’t want me to leave.

That’s good. I don’t want to leave either.

We stand there in the shower for the longest time, saying nothing. The silence speaks loudly anyway. I know that he’ll do everything that he can to help me save our baby. I know that he loves me. I know that he is just as gutted as I am.

In the end, we only get out of the shower because the hot water starts to run out, leaving us cold and chilled. Jackson gets a towel and dries me off, despite protests that I can do it myself.

He catches me by the hand and says, softly, “Let me take care of you.”

After that, I let him tend to me without protest.

Chapter seventeen

Jackson

Margur’sdiseaseisaterrible illness. I had already been invested in looking for the cure, but now that I know Amanda’s child—our child—is going to be born with it, the stakes are even higher. I don’t know that I can go through this again.

There was a distance with Harris, at least slightly. I know him. I know his parents, his sister. But Harris is not someone that I see on the regular. I was able to section it off into a little block, and keep it separate from the failure I feel toward my deceased wife.

This?

This is different.

There is no distance. There is just the crushing acknowledgment that if I fail to find the cure quickly enough, I’m going to lose my child. I’ll lose another member of my family, someone else that I love. And let’s be honest here—I could very well lose Amanda. Her grief will be so heavy and full, I won’t be surprised if she doesn’t want to look at me again— I know that I won’t.

And so I dedicate myself completely to the research.

Kurt catches me one day at work, looking a little concerned. “Look, I know we’re friends, but I need a few days off.”

It’s not unlike him, but the timing this time is awful. My mouth pulls into a thin line. “Now?”

“Yes, now. This is—” He waves a hand through the air. “Clearly something for you. Passion project, whatever. But I’ve got a life.”

“You have a girl that you want to fuck,” I correct. The research is for a rare disease, there is no real hurry for the rest of the world.

Kurt is fully unbothered by my comment. “Yeah, I do. And I don’t want to blow the lady offagain. Not when we aren’t in the bedroom, at least.”

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