Page 33 of Falling for His Best Friend

‘I’ll be fine,’ he said. He was wearing tracksuit pants and a T-shirt that he could pull over his head with one hand. They weren’t difficult clothes to get out of. In fact, perhaps it wouldn’t be a bad idea if he didn’t get undressed.

Kitty changed into an oversized T-shirt and swallowed a couple of painkillers. If she’d imagined she and Joe would be sharing a bed she would have packed a pair of pyjama bottoms but she didn’t currently have any that fitted comfortably. Her expanding waistline made everything too tight. She climbed into bed after first working out what side Joe slept on—there was a charging dock for his phone and a couple of books on the left-hand side of the bed, so Kitty opted for the right side—and pulled the covers up to disguise the fact that she was almost naked.

* * *

She woke to find herself spooning in Joe’s arms. His left arm was draped across her, resting on her stomach. He was warm and she was comfortable and she couldn’t see the harm in lying there for a few moments while she enjoyed the feel of him. She imagined she could feel his heart beating against her back. She wondered if he was awake. She listened to the sound of his breathing, trying to judge. She was tempted to roll over. Tempted to see what he was wearing.

She could feel his breath on her neck and his stubble was rough on her skin. She liked the feel of it. She was aware of everything. She could even feel each of his fingertips through her shirt where they rested against her belly. It felt good to be lying in his arms. Too good.

She wondered what would happen if she rolled over. They would be lying inches apart. Less.

What would happen? Would he kiss her? Would he back away if she kissed him?

The baby moved, interrupting her train of thought and bringing her back to reality with a sharp and carefully placed kick. She felt the baby push against her belly. Against Joe’s hand.

‘Was that the baby?’

He was awake.

Suddenly she was more conscious of the position they were in. It had felt comfortable when she’d thought he was asleep, but now she was aware of how intimate it actually was. But it was too late to worry about that now.

She could feel the baby’s leg pushing sideways, distending her belly. What would the old Kitty have done in this situation? She summoned up those memories of a simpler time and interlaced her fingers with Joe’s. She moved his hand slightly, holding it over the baby’s foot. ‘She’s doing her morning exercises,’ she told him.

Joe could hear the smile in Kitty’s voice. He hadn’t meant to wake in this position but he wasn’t complaining. As always, she fitted just perfectly into his embrace, even if this position was far from their usual.

He’d been awake for several minutes, lying quietly, enjoying the feeling of having Kitty in his arms, trying not to wake her. He had no idea if he’d ever get this chance again.

She smelt fantastic. He closed his eyes and breathed in her familiar vanilla scent. She smelt like she felt—warm and soft and sweet. He wanted to bury himself in her. Inhale her, breathe her in, not let her go.

He’d expected her to wake and move out of his arms immediately. He’d expected her to be flustered, embarrassed, affronted, all manner of things, but he hadn’t expected this. This intimacy, this easiness.

Her hips were pressed in against him. Or he was pressed against her. He could feel his erection nestled in the cleft in her buttocks, but as far as he could tell Kitty hadn’t noticed. Perhaps she was too distracted by the baby’s movements. It was incredible to think that Kitty would be having this experience several times a day. That she had a tiny human growing inside her.

Even though he was doing his best to be supportive, he still wasn’t thrilled about the fears for the future that this pregnancy brought up, but he had to admit he was grateful to the baby right now. If it hadn’t started moving he suspected Kitty would have been up and out of bed before she’d even woken properly once she realised the position they were in, but half-asleep and still relaxed, she seemed happy to lie there.

He could feel her body heat radiating through her shirt and into his hand and against his chest. She was like a little hot-water bottle. He knew the pregnancy was raising her body temperature. His was raised too, and he knew what was causing that. Heat and desire surged through him.

Waking in this position felt extremely intimate. Intimate and sensual. It made him think about waking like this every morning and how that would feel. He never usually thought into the future like that. He lived in the moment as far as intimacy was concerned, never imagining that his relationships could develop into something permanent. He knew that was one of his major character flaws: an inability to commit.

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