Page 91 of Stone Rules

“Thanks for a wonderful dinner, sweetheart,” I say.

I immediately look for her reaction.

She wrinkles her nose and gives me a small shake of the head. “Makes you sound like your dad,” she says. “I’m pretty sure you don’t want me thinking about him when—”

“Enough said,” I tell her, holding out my hand to stop her words. I mentally cross that one off the list.

“Jesus, will you just go already,” Chad says. “You two and your dinner foreplay are killing me.”

~ ~ ~

Two hours later, I crawl into bed next to Charlie. She’s sleeping, but still she gravitates over to me. When she places her head on my chest, I inhale her scent. I swear since she’s been pregnant, she smells even better than she did before.

In the moonlight, I watch her sleep. She’s so peaceful. More peaceful than I’ve ever seen her. It makes me wonder if being in New York is part of the problem. Even if the Zach Thompson issue goes away, will she ever be comfortable living so near the place of her childhood nightmare?

She seems to love it here in Santa Monica. We’ve gone for long walks on the beach every day. I’ve taken her to see the sights. We even went up to the Wine Country. She insisted we go even though she was unable to partake.

I think she’s even put on a few pounds which is a good thing. I was beginning to worry, as was her doctor, that she wasn’t gaining enough weight. Everything feels better here. Lighter. Happier.

But I know leaving New York right now isn’t really an option. And I’m not sure I could ever tear her away from the Mitchell clan. They are all so close. They seem to be making up for all that lost time together when Charlie and Piper were traveling abroad.

My family is here. My parents. Chad. Everyone but Kyle. They could be her family. I think about how well she’s gotten along with them. How close they’ve all become in a few short days. I sense Charlie loves the parental attention she has been missing all these years.

It makes me think of her dad. She’s told me a lot about him. And although he’s not going to win any Father of the Year awards, I’m not sure he’s as bad as she makes him out to be. The guy was being abused by his controlling wife. Charlie was so young, only twelve, when he left. She could be confused about things. He could have had every intention of taking her, but maybe her mom threatened him. Maybe there were circumstances she didn’t know about. He claimed he didn’t know she was hitting Charlie. I’m willing to give the guy the benefit of the doubt until I hear otherwise.

I’d like to meet him and see for myself. But I won’t. I promised Charlie I wouldn’t do anything like that again without consulting her. She trusts me now. She loves me. And it’s the best feeling in the world knowing she will put her life in my hands, her child’s life, and know I will always take care of them. It’s taken a long time to get to this point and I’m not willing to jeopardize that for anything.

Before I know it, the sun is coming up. I think I’ve watched her all night without sleeping.

She makes an adorable squeaky yawning noise and then she opens her eyes to catch me staring. She smiles, but then she narrows her eyes at me, looking worried. “You look tired,” she says. “Were you up late working?”

“I was up late,” I tell her. “But I wasn’t working. I was watching my beautiful fiancée sleep.”

“Oh, God,” she says, throwing an arm over her face. “I hope I didn’t snore. Or drool.”

I laugh. “There is nothing you could do that would turn me off, Charlie. But no, you looked like an angel. So peaceful. I wish I could bottle it up and take it with us back to New York.”

“Me too,” she says. “Everything just seems . . . better here.”

I smile wondering if maybe in the future, we could make a life here. A life with our child. I push the thought of moving here aside for now, thinking I’ll bring it up again if we really do get to come back here for the premier of Chad’s movie.

“Everything?” I ask, pulling her so close she can feel what lying next to her does to me.

She reaches down, touching me through my boxer briefs, making me even harder. Needier. “If I recall,” she says with a wry grin, “you promised to make something up to me. I’m curious as to just how you plan to do that, Stone.”

“Unnngh,” I growl though her long strokes across the thin fabric separating us. “Any way you want me to, baby.”

She stops stroking me.

“What, not ‘baby’ either?”

“Nope.” She thinks on it for a second. “I actually don’t mind it when you’re deep inside me, about to come. And now that I think about it, I really don’t carewhatyou call me during those times. As long as it’s not Gretchen.”

I cringe. “You had to go and ruin a perfectly good erection by bringing her up.”

She slips her hand under my boxers. “I think we can still salvage it.”

I tug them down to give her full access. Her eyes go wide and hungry as she stares appreciatively at my naked body, making me want to pound my chest.

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