Page 27 of Embattled Ever After

That flash of pain excited him, and in spite of the pain in his hips he settled into a deep, hard rhythm that had her panting beneath him. She undulated, her hands roving all over him, then holding his hips when he settled into time. Her panting breaths accelerated and her pussy clutched at him, then suddenly she jerked beneath him and gave a high, keening cry.

Duncan rode her orgasm, absorbing every nuance of her shuddering pleasure, before he finally released the hold on his own control and allowed the heat to swamp him. It fired through his blood and swallowed him under. For several seconds there was no room, no house, no pain, just the release contorting his body. And her arms. Her arms were there to hold him tight as the wave of pleasure tried to drown him.

Duncan had enough consciousness to prop his elbows over top of Alexandra so that he didn’t crush her. When he blinked down at her, his body spent, she smiled up at him with a Mona Lisa smile. “That was so fucking hot,” she told him firmly.

Grinning, he tried to go up on his arms above her, but they quivered like jelly. With a final kiss, he pulled out of her sweet heat and rolled to the side.

Almost immediately his own body began to ache, unused to the activity. “I think you tried to kill me, woman.”

She giggled and rolled up onto an elbow to see him. “No, you tried to kill me first. I’ve never had orgasms like that before.”

Duncan took her words with a grain of salt. It had been a long time for him, and he didn’t have the flexibility he used to. Or the experience. Alex, on the other hand, seemed like a woman who knew what she wanted and did everything she needed to get it. He loved that confidence in her.

She suddenly leaned up and planted a kiss on his lips. “You’ve got that pensive look on your face, like you’re rethinking everything. Don’t. I have to go clean up.”

With a sexy grin, she rolled off the bed and turned to face him. Wetness glistened at her thighs. “This is all your fault, babe.”

Duncan grimaced at the reminder that they hadn’t used any kind of protection and he forced himself to sit up. His body screamed in protest.

Alex stepped in front of him, hand on his shoulder. “You don’t have to get up and I was just pointing out our combined pleasure, nothing else. I have an IUD in and I’m completely clean. You have to have sex to catch a disease and it’s been a very long time for me.”

A knot of tension eased in his gut. “Same here. I certainly didn’t have the presence of mind to grab anything.”

She leaned down and kissed him, nibbling softly. “I’m going to shower. Why don’t you keep the bed warm? You’ve had an exhausting day. We both have. I’ll be back in a few.”

Turning, she padded to the bathroom, her tear-shaped ass swaying. She’d barely cleared the doorway before Duncan fell back to the bed and let exhaustion take him.

***

Shannon cooked Johnan awesome breakfast that morning, though he noticed she didn’t eat it. She picked at a few pieces of pineapple from a container in the refrigerator.

And if he studied her objectively, he could see where she’d gained a tiny bit of weight. Her breasts seemed just a little fuller, and there might be a rounding to her tummy. It was so barely visible, though, he could easily attribute it to his mind playing tricks on him, showing him what he wanted to see.

The shade of gray she turned when she cut the sausage, though, was very visible. “Are you okay?”

She’d nodded, turning her head away to breathe through her nose for a minute. “I’m fine. There are just some things that bother me now.”

“And how many of those have I not noticed?”

John was furious with himself. How in hell could he call himself a lover, when his didn’t even notice changes in his partner? The person he was supposed to be closest to in the world?

Shannon seemed to sense he was brooding because as soon as they cleaned the breakfast dishes away she made herself a cup of tea and sat at the table with him. “I don’t think we have time for you to mope about what you didn’t know.”

John sighed, knowing she was probably right. They had a lot to plan for. “So, where do we even begin?”

The morning sun made her eyes shine brilliantly with excitement. “I want to go shopping for baby furniture and clothes and all the millions of little things they need. We need to sign up for Lamaze classes, register with a hospital.”

All of the food he just ate sat like a brick in his stomach. They had several months, at least, but it suddenly sounded like just the blink of an eye. They had so much to do. They needed to renovate one of the other rooms into a nursery. “When do you have doctor appointments?”

A thoughtful look passed over her face. “I have one in a few days. It’ll be about the ten week mark. Once I go to the twenty-week checkup, that’s when they do the ultrasound. I think it’s every month until the last month. Then it bumps up to every week or two weeks. It depends upon how my pregnancy progresses.”

He nodded and wondered if it would be ridiculous to take notes on his phone. “When is the baby due?”

“Mid-July. Or thereabouts.”

She smiled and rested a hand on her flat tummy. John’s throat tightened at the emotion he could see on her radiant face. This had already made her so happy. “I’ll be there for every one.”

She shrugged as if she wouldn’t be put out if she didn’t show up for every one, but John made himself a promise in that moment. He would be there for every appointment. This was too important not to be there.

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