Page 58 of Twenty Years Later

Chapter Twenty

Jayda

Several hours later, with the girls asleep upstairs, the house was finally quiet, and I made a cup of tea, the smell beginning to calm the hint of nausea in my stomach. I knew the first sip would take care of the rest.

Alex came into the kitchen and surrounded me with his body, his chest to my back, his arms coming around to caress my belly. "Can't believe our little tiny baby is in there," he whispered by my ear.

His words, his body, his warmth... all made it hard to breathe.

"She or he is probably the size of a pea at this point," he added. "You don't even have a bump yet, sweetheart."

He was so incredibly sweet because there was definitely a bump, or I was just bloated. I turned around to show him, lifting my shirt a bit. "There's a bump. See?"

His Adam's apple bobbed up and down while I raised my shirt even higher. Then he reached out a hand. "May I?"

"Of course."

The warmth of his hand on my stomach made me shiver as his eyes looked into mine. "Maybe the tiniest of bumps," he confessed.

I could tell he was nervous about saying it, and I could understand why. No man with any sort of brain wanted to comment on the size of a woman's stomach—pregnant or not. "You're totally scared to admit it, aren't you?"

He grinned at me. "Terrified."

The look on his face cracked me up.

"And you made me break my rule earlier today," he said.

That caught my attention as I let my shirt drop back down. "Which is?"

"I have a rule to never, and I mean never, ask a woman if she's pregnant."

I laughed so hard at that. "You're a smart man, Alex Hernandez."

The timer on the microwave went off, and I took out the teabag, putting it into the sink.

Alex sniffed and said, "What do you have there anyway?"

"I'm sure you know all of this already, but there's a ridiculous amount of things to be careful about with pregnancy. That alone is exhausting. So when I stopped drinking coffee..." I let out a pretend sob. "Well, I have a midwife friend in Brooklyn who makes her own tea, pretty much just dried fruit and ginger, and she sent me some. Because you also have to be careful about tea apparently."

Alex squinted his eyes at me. "Really? Tea? I didn't know about that one."

I took a sip. "Yep. Tea. And you know what?"

"What?"

"This time, I'm consideredoldto be pregnant." Alex shook his head, but I was sure he wasn't shocked at this bit of information. "And that's why tonight," I continued, truly depressed at what I was about to say. "Well, I'll call my doctor tomorrow and discuss it, but I've decided, until then, we probably shouldn't..."

Ugh, I couldn't even say it.

Because the reality was I wanted to jump his bones. The way he was standing there, his brown eyes soft with tenderness, his shoulders and arms straining against his shirt in a way that made me want to touch every inch of him. I bit down on my lip. This man and what he did to me.

He swallowed, probably feeling the heat and hormones coming off me, then sighed. "Are you trying to tell me I'm not gettin' to home base tonight?"

I stared at him, not sure if he was joking.

"So no rockin' the Casbah?" he continued. "No joint session of Congress? I don't get to tap that?"

I couldn't stop laughing as he lightly smacked my bottom. Shaking my head and giggling, I snatched up my tea and tried to escape him. But he only chased me into the living room, still trying to grab my ass.

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