Page 117 of My Knotty Mountain Men

As if the knight in shining armor was reading my mind, there’s a knock at the bathroom door.

Opening it, I find Nolan standing there with a bucket of ice cream and a jar of pickles.

“Oh, thank fuck,” I breathe out, crying out with relief.

“I thought you might need a little pick me up,” Nolan says, joining me in the bathroom.

I quickly lock it, as if to hide ourselves away in here like we’re doing something bad.

In a way, I guess we are.

“You’re the best,” I sigh, taking the items from his hands and placing them on the countertop.

“How are you, Sweets?” Nolan asks, wrapping his arms around me from behind. His hands go to my belly as he presses a kiss to my throat.

I sigh, leaning back into him and letting my eyes flutter closed. His touch took all the panic away for the moment.

“It’s hot as balls in this damn house,” I groan.

He chuckles, chest moving as he does. “Good news, the new air conditioning system is being set up as we speak. It’s why I was able to sneak you the contraband.”

The guys didn’t have much of a cooling system before now, only an air conditioning unit in the pack bedroom and the living room. Nowhere near enough to cool the whole house down. But with them working all day and never being home, they didn’t have much use for them until they were either relaxing in the living room after work or sleeping in the bedroom at night.

Once summer hit, they realized how that needed to be changed. I felt bad because what they planned to do was hook it up to the vents so that it could be filtered through the whole house. It was going to cost them a pretty penny, but Aiden said it’s what an Alpha needs to do for their Omega. And with the baby on the way, having an overheated house was not a good idea. They had to special order it. So, I guess it’s ready to be installed.

“You make it sound like we’re criminals,” I laugh.

“Bonnie and Clyde, baby.” He grins, pressing a kiss to my cheek. “Now, go on and eat. I know you want to, and that ice cream is going to melt.”

Grinning, I quickly open the cookies and cream ice cream and uncap the jar of pickles.

Not even caring about using a fork, I dig in with my fingers, pull out a pickle, and use it to scoop up some ice cream.

Taking a bite, I moan as the pickle crunches. Sweet and sour mix together, and I sigh in happiness. “So good,” I mumble around a mouth full, quickly chewing and swallowing before going for another bite. By the time I’m on my second pickle, I catch a glance of myself in the mirror and pause.

The sight has me dropping the pickle and instantly sobbing.

“What? What's wrong?” Nolan’s on his feet and at my side. “Sweets, what's wrong?”

“Look at me,” I cry out, grabbing a towel to wipe the mess off my face. “I’m a fucking slob. God, I’m in the bathroom scarfing fucking pickles and ice cream. How the hell can any of you want me? I’m disgusting.”

“What?” Nolan’s eyes widen. “No, you are not.”

“Yes, I am.” I’m full-on sobbing now. God, I bet that’s adding wonders to how bad I must look. “I feel fat and ugly. I can’t even look at myself in the mirror without hating the image looking back at me.”

“You are fucking gorgeous, Violet.” Nolan grips my chin, his eyes boring into mine. “You have no idea how hard it’s been keeping our hands to ourselves.”

“Really?” I whisper.

“We’re obsessed, Sweets. Fucking obsessed. From these full tits.” He grabs a handful, and I whimper as he softly squeezes. “Down to this plump ass.” He reaches behind me, cupping my ass cheeks and giving a harder squeeze making my pussy flutter. He glides his hands up to my belly. “To this round belly. Seeing you pregnant with our baby, knowing you're growing a life inside you, has us fucking feral. The only reason we’re not rutting you twenty-four-seven is because we know how hard this pregnancy has been on you, and we don’t want to do anything you're not comfortable with.”

Looking down at the now-melted tub of ice cream and half-eaten pickle in the sink, I feel a wave of nausea. “I wish I could see what you see,” I whisper.

Nolan gathers the evidence to get rid of it, and I’m suddenly hit with a wave of exhaustion, so I head into the bedroom to lie down for a nap. Not uncommon for me these days. I can’t seem to do much of anything without needing to sit down and take a break.

After my nap, I force myself up and out of bed, hunger driving me to the kitchen. Not that I got much of a nap with all the work going on in the house.

“Hey, Baby Girl,” Thomas greets, pulling me into his arms when I step into the kitchen.

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