“Having a baby doesn’t mean you will have to give up your plans.”

“No. Not exactly, but I’ll have to amend them, affecting my friends. I’ll tell them, I promise. I just need a little more time.”

“When?”

“Soon. In the meantime,” Dillyn pleaded, “can’t we just keep this between us?”

Reluctantly, Ben nodded. “Fine, but I’m happy about this. It’s hard not to share with my family.”

Dillyn’s stomach was in knots. She felt a lot of emotions when it came to being pregnant, and she was sure excitement was wrapped in theresomewhere. At least, it had been when she’d first found out. Only something changed, and she couldn’t pinpoint what or when.

Ben spotted the waitress serving Dillyn’s table out of the corner of his eye. He called out to her as she walked past with a tray of drinks. “Hey, Becca! Are those for my lady and her friends?”

She smiled brightly after recognizing Dillyn. “Oh, well, yeah! Palmer just told me after all that dancin’, y’all were ready. They were out of lemons at the bar, so I had to come to the kitchen. I was returning to your table to drop them off.”

Ben lifted a shot glass from her tray, tossed it back, and then sat it down. “Think you can keep this one filled with sparkling water or something?”

Suspiciously, she glanced between Ben and Dillyn before the light bulb in her head turned on. “Um . . . yeah, of course!”

“Good. That one belongs to her. Make sure it doesn’t get mixed up with the others, and bring me the bill at the end of the night. If you can do that, there might be an extra hundred or two waiting for ya.”

Becca’s grin split her face wide open. “No problem. I’ve got it covered.” She started to head back toward Dillyn’s table before turning around. She lifted the back of her hand to her face and whispered behind it, “Congratulations!”

Ben winked at her, and Dillyn released a forced smile. After Becca had gone, she turned to Ben. “Way to keep it between us. By morning, the whole town’s going to know.”

“Not the whole town.” He grinned and leaned down to kiss her again, this time so thoroughly Dillyn’s knees went weak.

Ben dipped his head low and captured her lips in a kiss. Dillyn’s quick intake of breath was enough for him to slide his tongue inside adeptly. He skillfully tasted her sweetness. After only a moment of kissing, something happened, and the kiss went from sweet to blazing.

Dillyn wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back with a passion and desire that surprised her.

The tight control Ben usually had . . . slipped. He wrapped his hand in Dillyn’s hair to draw her even closer. He could feel her nipples pebble and harden underneath her dress. His other hand captured her ass.

He greedily sucked and thrust his tongue in and out as he made love to her mouth.

Ben was aroused, and the thought of being inside of Dillyn caused all the blood to rush to his cock, making it quite obvious to anyone who might pass by them.

They were standing in the hallway of Franks, devouring each other. Dillyn’s thong was useless at this point and drenched. She was on fire and needed some relief. The space between her thighs was clenching at an emptiness that she wanted Ben to fill.Maybe we should sneak out to the car.

Their kiss had officially gone out of control. Ben had almost forgotten where they were until someone cleared their throat. “Get a room!”

It was an old high school buddy joking with them. Still, Dillyn immediately broke their kiss. Her face was flaming red from embarrassment. Ben didn’t give a shit who saw them, but he respected her enough to understand the rules were different for women than for men.

His eyes said it all, “Let’s get out of here.”

“God, I want to but we can’t. Not yet.”

“An hour. One hour! That’s it. No more and we are out of here.”

Dillyn couldn’t hide her impish grin, “Make it forty-five minutes.”

Chapter 6

Dillyn spent until late evening in her bedroom, trying to recuperate from her night at Franks. They didn’t get home until the early morning, and then Ben had the nerve to stay over for their own private party, leaving just before dawn. Dillyn would always find the energy for him, but now she was paying for it. If Ben hadn’t called to say he was on his way over, she would still be buried under her covers. Exhausted, Dillyn didn’t feel the least bit guilty about clinging to her bed all damn day.

The house was quiet when she finally emerged from her room. Palmer and Cat were still cocooned within the confines of their bedrooms too.

Dillyn chuckled.The little lushes.This was the one time she was grateful not to have had any wine or whiskey! She could only imagine how they were recovering.