Page 48 of The Christmas Eve Delivery

“I adore all of your curves. The baby does not bother me at all, but if the baby bothers you, then we’ll stop.”

She swallowed hard. Her throat worked as if her mouth was dry, or there was a giant lump stuck. I knew the feeling. She slowly nodded.

I started to roll away from her, but she grabbed my arm.

“That doesn’t mean I don’t want you kissing me, though. I mean, if you want to kiss me,” she said.

I rolled back to her and began placing gentle kisses against the side of her neck and along her jaw.

“You know, if we had limited ourselves to only making out before, you wouldn’t be in this condition.”

“Stop pointing out the obvious,” she said. “Just kiss me for now and give me some time to get used to the idea.”

“I can do that,” I admitted.

“Are you sure you want to touch me while I look like this?”

“While you look like what? Gorgeous, beautiful, mine?”

“Pregnant,” she pointed out.

I shifted and kissed her belly. “This makes you even more tempting.”

With a smile, I lay back down and pulled her into my arms and began kissing her lips again. I kissed her with all the passion and all the enthusiasm as I would have put into making love to her body. She tasted sweet and perfect, and until she was ready to let me touch the rest of her, I would be content with this level of attention and affection.

We ended up cuddling until she fell back asleep.

My attention was dragged out of the dozing half-asleep state I was in by the incessant ringing of my phone. I tried to ignore it, but I didn’t want it to disrupt Lydia’s sleep. She was so tired and needed the rest.

I rolled out of bed and pulled the phone out of my pocket.

“It’s early. What do you want?” I said as I walked into her small living room.

“Miles, are you planning on ever coming back into the office?” It was Harris.

“Not if I can help it, why?”

“You have meetings this week and your admin is in a panic. You aren’t responding to your emails like you normally do. It’s one thing to take a vacation. It’s quite another to tell us you’ll be working remotely and then not work, especially when we are relying on you.”

“Fine, I’ll come back in for the rest of the week. But then I want to make proper arrangements to set up a remote office up here. It looks like I’m going to be on site in Brookdale for a while.”

I was packed and ready to leave, but I waited until Lydia woke and was dressed. I knew my leaving would only distress her further. That was something I wanted to minimize as much as possible for her.

“You aren’t leaving because of me?” Lydia asked. “Because I wouldn’t, you know… I’m pregnant. I don’t know if I can.”

I chuckled. “No, it’s nothing you did or didn’t do. I’m leaving because of work. I’ll be back. I have to go down to the city to clear up a few things. I need to set some people straight, and then I’ll be back.”

“You promise?”

She looked so scared. I couldn’t help but fold her back into my embrace. I kissed her brow.

“I’m not leaving because of anything you did, but I am coming back because of this.” I ran my hand over her belly and our baby. “I am coming back. I promise.”

“Okay, I won’t be so sad then.” She stiffened in my embrace, and I let her go.

She clenched her jaw and gave me a weak smile, but there were tears in her eyes.

I cupped her face and ran my hand to the back of her head before I pulled her to me and placed a kiss against her lips. They were so soft, so perfect, and I never wanted to leave her. I had to leave and take care of business so that I could stay. It sounded stupid and thick with irony.

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