Page 87 of The I Do Over

“It’s a queen,” she assured him. “We’ll be fine. Lots of cuddling.”

He didn’t look convinced, but he also didn’t let it deter him. In the blink of an eye, Maddie was on her back and Knox was stretched out beside her, his hand reverently covering her stomach.

“You have no idea how much I want to make love with you right now, but are we sure that’s a good idea?”

“Knox, the doctor said everything was fine and I didn’t have any real restrictions except the hot tub.” Yeah, that had been a bummer, but now she realized it was a good thing she had been lazy all week and not used it.

“How do we know for sure? We didn’t specifically ask about sex…”

“You could always call Daniel and ask him,” she suggested and then had to stop herself from laughing at the horrified look on his face. “I’m just saying, Josie’s pregnant. If anyone would know if it was okay to do it, he’d be the guy to ask.”

“Um…”

“Or you can call the clinic and see if they’re still there. Do a Google search. Call your mom…”

“Why on earth would I call my mom?!”

“Because she had a baby. No doubt she and your dad had sex while they were pregnant with you. Besides, your mom was always very cool and easy to talk to. I’m sure if you asked her…”

“Maddie, I am not calling my mother and asking her about sex.” He rolled away from her and onto his back. “I think you may have ruined sex for me. Forever.” He added with a groan. “I don’t want to think about my parents doing it.”

“Okay, okay…that was definitely not the way to go.” Glancing over at him, he had one arm thrown over his face and it was borderline hysterical. But if they were going to get back on track, she was going to have to take the lead.

And she was more than willing to do that.

Slowly, she maneuvered herself until she was straddling him. Knox peeked out from under his arm. “Maddie…” he warned, but she wasn’t the least bit interested in listening. Instead, she leaned forward and kissed her way down his forearm and snuck a kiss onto his jaw. Then she gently nipped at his throat before setting up camp on his chest. She knew for a fact that he loved having his chest kissed, so she worked her hands under his shirt and slowly pushed it up so she could get at bare skin.

Her smile was instantaneous when she felt his hand fist into her hair as he sighed her name.

There we go…

With a hum of appreciation, Maddie did her damnedest to prove to Knox that not only could they make love, they could make love a lot.

“Tell me about this one.”

Maddie’s head was on his shoulder and they were curled up in what was certainly not a true queen-sized bed. They were reading some of her letters and rather than focusing on how distraught she sounded in them, he was encouraging her to talk about where she was when she wrote them. Most of them were written while she was in Washington and she always talked about the places she saw.

And how her aunt and uncle offered to pay for him to fly out to Washington. Apparently they had been on his and Maddie’s side and would have taken them to get married for real on her eighteenth birthday.

Just thinking about it made him sad because their lives had gone completely off the rails in ways they had no control over. It was a miracle they were here together like this, but…he couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if he’d known about the offer to join her in Washington.

“My aunt took me on a bicycle tour of a park near them,” she explained, interrupting his thoughts. “Everything was so green and lush. It was one of the first sunny days that I can remember—which was why she suggested taking the bikes out. As a distraction, it was great. Exhaustion was my friend.”

“That’s how I felt about boot camp. There were days that it felt like absolute torture, but it kept my mind occupied.” Not liking the direction of his thoughts, he held her close and placed a kiss on the top of her head. “Are there bike paths around here?”

“As a matter of fact, there are!” she said excitedly, lifting her head to look at him. “Should we see about maybe doing that tomorrow or do you have to get back to Raleigh?”

Shaking his head, he guided her back down to his shoulder. “No. The guys have it all under control. My plan is to work remotely until we know that you’re okay.”

“Knox…”

“I’m serious, Maddie. We’re going to need to get you seen by an actual ob-gyn and make sure that everything’s alright. Once we’ve talked to the doctor, I’ll make plans with the guys to see if they want to buy me out and start looking for a job in Chesapeake.”

Her head shot back up again.

“What?! Why? Are you insane? You can’t sell your share of SEAL Security!”

“Why not?” he demanded, confused by her outrage.

---