Page 9 of Shameless
She sighed, and when I slipped a finger inside, she was clearly ready. She held me more tightly and said, “Forget the condom.”
For a second, I didn’t move, but then I realized that was one more step toward having her always. So I pressed myself in where we were both full.
She closed her eyes and moaned as I entered.
Being with her was like being in a world everything was happy. I continued to take her, over and over, until I joined her in heaven.
Chapter Three
Britney
* * *
I’d woken up next to Michael in my bed three times the previous night. I tried to be calm, but then our bodies touched, and I was in another world.
The last time I woke up, I curled into him as he lay there but then slowly disentangled myself. Then I saw the light of early morning. I grabbed my phone and read my text messages from the previous night and that morning. Isabel had asked, When do we get to plan your wedding?
Stop, I texted back.
Kelly was first to fire back. He’s hot, cute, and you love British accents.
That wasn’t enough.
Hope wrote next. And he’s rich where you get to live the good life you always wanted.
I cringed. Michael probably thought I was only taking him more seriously because he was rich. I took a deep breath. Having a baby meant I was starting over and needed to change again. And I needed to show Michael it wasn’t about the money.
I wrote back, Talk to you later girls.
I pressed a hand to my stomach and whispered to my baby, “You’ll never be a burden, okay? I don’t know why you think I’m mother material, but we’ll have to figure this out.”
I thought I felt bubbles in my belly, but that was probably just the last night’s dinner.
Then Michael yawned next to me.
I hugged my knees to my chest and said, “Michael, can we talk?”
He sat up without his shirt, revealing all those muscles of his. “Let’s try. If you sit over there and I sit here, we'll see how it goes.”
Fair enough. He’d tried to talk to me, and I’d distracted him. I wasn’t sure how to apologize. Now my heart was racing. “Did you mean what you said to my friends?”
“That I wanted to marry you? Yes.”
I wasn’t prepared to change into a woman of wealth, never mind one with a title. I’d spent my life hustling so that no one would take a deep look at me. A shiver raced down my back since I had nowhere left to hide. “Why would you want that?”
“Because my sister is here to prove how I should be kicked out and she should be the next duchess.”
I narrowed my gaze. “And that’s bad?”
He took my hand, his fingers sending a thrill through me. “Bernadette doesn’t care about anything except herself. Part of why I was so hell-bent on ensuring I had my own fortune was to improve the lands of my ancestors one day.”
Once he saw the real me, though, we’d never be anything more than friends, and even that was a stretch of the word. I took a deep breath and hoped I wasn’t trembling. “Well, I need to go home to my parents in North Carolina and make amends.”
He narrowed his gaze. “Amends? Did you do something wrong?”
Other than leading the charmed one into her bout with drugs, which led to her getting her stomach pumped when I'd barely graduated high school? I’d had no idea she’d ever do anything like that.
I shook my head and said, “I… no. My sister is perfect. She’s smart. She’s funny. She’s charming. She’s married and has two perfect children. My parents always wanted me to be like her, but I’m the burdensome one. So I moved to New York, changed my name, and all I've thought about since finding out I was pregnant was going home with some crazy wish they’d care what happened to me.”
