by Zoey Parker
She pulled open the door. “You really wanna be the first to know?”
He nodded.
She looked back at the countertop where it lay, unassuming and life-changing.
“How about we look at it together?”
“Fine. How much longer do we have to wait?”
She smiled wryly. “Someone’s impatient.”
“Sam, this shit is killing me. I need to know.”
She tugged at her hair. “I know! Me too! Okay, let’s just look now. Are you ready?”
Trent’s incredulous look was the answer she needed. He wouldn’t be ready. Neither of them would be ready. Not really, anyway.
“On the count of three, we’ll look,” she said, tension and excitement and something else bunching together inside of her. She grabbed the test and held it behind her. “One… two…”
“Three,” Trent said.
Sam brought the test between them, and they both peered down at it. It took her a moment to recognize what she was looking at. The tiny window. The blue lines.
The unmistakable plus sign.
Her eyes went wide. And then they found Trent’s. She had a feeling their expression was much the same right now.
“Well,” she finally croaked out. “They said it would be unmistakable.”
“Sam,” Trent said, the word coming out breathy. “You’re pregnant.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
“It sure looks like it,” she said, gaze drifting back to the test in her hands.
This whole thing felt surreal. Made even more surreal by the fact that Trent looked… elated.
He whooped suddenly, scooping her up into his arms. She received the hug but was taken aback. He rocked back and forth for a few moments, hugger her tighter than ever before.
“I can’t believe it,” he said, releasing her so he could peer at the test again.
“I can’t either,” she whispered.
Here it was. The final proof. The confirmation she’d both been craving and dreading. This changed everything. But more than that, Trent’s excitement changed everything.
Maybe she wasn’t staring down this new, scary, twisting road alone. Maybe she had the partner she’d been too scared to hope for.
“Are you… excited?” she finally managed to ask.
Trent scooped her hands up in his. “I’ve always wanted to be a father.”
“That kind of surprises me. Don’t take that the wrong way.”
He shook his head. “I never thought I’d get the chance. I don’t know. Wasn’t looking to be one, really, but also, just never thought the right situation would come up.”
“Huh.” She fingered the shiny buttons on his dress shirt. “Imagine that. Never thought this would be the right situation.”
“You are,” Trent said, leveling her with an intense gaze.
The bright blue of his eyes held her captive, and suddenly she was swept away and drowning in him. Drowning in the depth of this connection. The intensity behind their relationship. The possibilities and trials and excitements that lay ahead as parents-to-be.
“This is the right situation,” he added.
Still, it seemed crazy to her. But maybe that was just the practical side of her speaking. The part of her too rigid and willing to hang onto what was comfortable, what made traditional sense.
Maybe part of the beauty of the future was that it required letting go. Succumbing to this new reality that was equal parts absurd and fulfilling. Just embrace it, even if it didn’t quite look like what the magazines told her to want. Even if she and Trent had their own rocky start.
Sam laughed, squeezing her arms around his neck. He lifted her then, spinning in a slow circle.
“Well, we better pick out some names,” she murmured into the reassuring heat of his neck.
“Yeah. Maybe he can be a junior.”
“Oh, we’re having a boy?”
Trent nodded, setting her down gently. “Yep. Already decided.”
“And what if a girl comes out?”
Trent smirked. “Then I guess she’ll be the biggest daddy’s girl this side of Rockies.”
“Yeah. That’s what I thought. Don’t act like some big bad guy. A daughter is going to bring you to your knees.”
Trent rested his hands on her hips, a heartbreaker smile toying with his lips. The kind of smile that had made her fall for him damn near the second she’d laid eyes on him. The smile she hoped their baby would inherit.
“Yeah, you might be right. But that’s okay. If she has her mommy’s beautiful eyes, then she’ll get away with murder.”
Trent surged forward, pressing a kiss to her lips. The tenderness she found there made her throat tighten. Nearly sent her to her knees. His rough, warm hands cupped her face, another kiss emerging, this one somehow more tender, more potent.
His tongue pressed into her mouth, finding hers, a thorough kiss that made her core tighten with need. This man – the father of her unborn child – could wind her up anywhere, anytime. This connection they had felt like a gift. One she hadn’t been expecting. One she barely knew how to unwrap. One that had led to the biggest surprise blessing of her life.
Trent’s hands traced a hot trail down the sides of her body, fingers tripping over the sequins of the dress until he found the hem and tugged it up, up, up. The dress slid off easily, and he tossed it aside. It landed in a sparkly heap next to the kitchen island.
“That was fast,” she commented.
“All this talk about making babies,” Trent murmured into the hollow of her neck, “has me wanting to make another.”
“I can’t be pregnant twice,” she chided, swatting his shoulder.
He hoisted her by the hips easily. Her legs splayed open and folded around him. He let out an appreciative grunt as his gaze cascaded over her half-naked body.
“You don’t need to be. Pregnant once looks damn good on you.” His gaze had soldered to her swollen breasts, which spilled out of her C-cup bra. “Am I imagining this or did your tits get bigger?”
“They got bigger,” she said with a giggle as he carried her into the bedroom.
He set her down gently – more gently than usual, at least – and while she bounced softly on the bed, he toed out of his dress shoes.
“Part of the pregnancy perks,” she added.
“Hmm. Are there more?”
“I might be hornier than usual.”
He grunted, undoing each button on his shirt until it hung open, revealing his washboard abs and that dark smattering of chest hair. “Then it sounds like we won’t be doing anything but fucking.”
“In between puking, maybe.” She laughed.
He crawled onto the bed a moment later after he’d shucked his pants and boxers. His cock bobbed heavily as he sat back on his heels. She reached out for it, caressing the velvet-wrapped steel.
“Mmm.” He tugged at her panties, taking them off slowly, his gaze going hooded as she fisted his cock. “Nine months of that to look forward to then?”
“The fucking, maybe. Not the puking.”
Trent leaned down, his biceps bulging as he supported his weight on his palms on either side of her. They kissed sloppily. Hungrily. There was something in the air between them now that made this feel… new. Like it was the first time all over again, but with the familiarity and intimacy they’d come to cultivate. It almost didn’t make sense. Until Trent unhooked her bra, sliding down the straps gingerly, leaving her nude and wanting on the bed, that’s when it hit her.
This was the first time all over again.
Their first time as permanently united lovers.
Their first time as this couple that had entered an entirely new chapter of life.
Their first time as parents.
Trent pressed himself between her legs, the heat there sending shivers through her body. It was like the man was made of static electricity. He skipped kisses down her neck, over her collarbone, until he reached the valley between her breasts. Then he took each ni
pple between his teeth in turn, coaxing each one to a pebbled tip until his kisses wandered back and forth between the valley.
Sam’s skin prickled. They didn’t usually go so slow if he wasn’t eating her out or if she wasn’t sucking him off. This extra attention felt somehow special. Thorough. Like he was worshipping her at the same time he was consuming her.
“Taking your time, huh,” she said breathily, running a hand through his thick tresses.
He nodded, mouth covering her nipple. “Need to take my time with you now. Go slow with my baby mama.”
She giggled as his kisses left a damp trail over her belly. His big palm smoothed over the swell there.
“This is gonna be growing soon,” he said, then pressed a kiss just below her belly button. “I can’t wait to see you fat and pregnant.”
“Fat?” She laughed, squirming beneath him.
He was so close to her pussy that it drove her nuts, but the tenderness made the wait worth it. She loved this new side of him. This protective, proud daddy. If anyone had told her three months ago that she’d be here, knocked up by the mafioso, she’d have called them out of their minds.
But now?
It made perfect, harmonious sense.
“You know what I mean,” he said, kisses drifting lower, skipping over the jutting bones of her hips. “Full of my baby.”
She laughed, but it died quickly once his head wandered between her legs. His tongue slid between the damp folds of her pussy – because she was always wet for him, always wanting it – and when he nicked the tight nub of her clit, she tensed, all other thoughts evaporating.
Trent licked and slurped and savored her clit, purposefully and methodically. She came quickly, the orgasm shivering through her warm and fast. When she lay panting, he sent her a knowing smirk.
“I didn’t even fingerfuck you.”
“Musta been all that nipple play,” she teased, tugging at his shoulders. “Now get up here and give me what we both want. What we both need.”
Trent complied, wiggling himself in between her legs. His cockhead found her dripping entrance easily, almost slipping in. She let a breathy sigh, smoothing her hands over the flat planes of his chest. His weight and heat grounded her. Made her desperate for him.
Eyes locked, Trent pushed himself inside her, never breaking their gaze. Something heavy shivered between them. Heavy and powerful. Tears choked her throat as he surged forward, claiming every last inch of her.
“Yesss!” Sam dug her nails into the ridge of his shoulder.
“Oh, fuck.” Trent’s voice shook as he claimed the last inch of her.
And then he rocked against her, the base of his cock rocking up against her throbbing clit. He started a slow rhythm, something slow and meaningful, but somehow more intense than if he’d been fucking her brains out. She clamped her ankles together behind his back, arching into it, arching into him.
She wanted every last drop of him. Every last bit.
“Come inside me,” she begged as the friction mounted. “Please, babe.”
Trent grunted in response, sweat beading on his brow as he rocked against her, his gaze pure fire. She didn’t have to beg for long. Trent drilled into her, the slapping of their moist skin a metronome of their lovemaking. Soft grunts escaped her as he fucked her, the base of his cock rubbing against her clit, sending her near the dizzying edge once more. Trent filling her and fucking her – this was her favorite place on Earth.
Heat pooled and then burst; everything went bright and black behind her lids, and she was falling, falling into a second, more explosive orgasm. A strangled, animalistic noise escaped her, and then Trent stilled, drilled balls deep into her, his abs flexing hard as he came inside her with a gravelly, guttural moan.
“Ohhhh, fuck.” He groaned, his abs giving one last spasm. He drew a ragged breath as a droplet of sweat dripped from his forehead to her breast. She sighed happily, dragging her fingertips over his chest.
He didn’t move, just stayed buried inside her, his gaze heavy on her.
“That was intense,” she finally whispered.
He jerked his head into a nod, then slowly eased himself out of her. Dribbles of semen mixed with her own fluids coursed down her leg as he pulled out. He pushed her gently so that she rolled onto her side, then formed his body to hers.
“Let’s take a nap,” he murmured, pulling her into his arms.
“You mean fall into a sex coma,” she corrected, nestling into his strong embrace.
“Call it what you want,” he said, voice getting lazy. “But it’s happening.”
Sam giggled, wiggling her bare but against him. With any other guy, in any other instance, she’d be bolting out of bed and rushing to shower. Eager to clean off, get the guy off her.
But not with Trent. It had never been that way with him.
And as far as she was concerned, it never would be.
She wanted to bathe in this man, be drenched in him. And a damn good start would be by having his baby.
She drifted off to sleep with a smile lingering on her face.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Trent woke up later that night, around midnight, thoughts tossing inside his head. Sam in his arms – this was how he liked to wake up. He watched her sleep for a while, a smile crossing his face.
Their big news earlier that day had rocked his world. And now, sated and satisfied, reality had started to creep in, crowding the edges, making him wonder if his jubilee wasn’t a little premature. He was questioning how they were supposed to move forward, trying to decide what the right path forward was.
Everything clanked together, bulky and awkward, but one thought rose above the rest: he needed to get out of this shit show with Mueller. He couldn’t drag on this charade forever, and after what he’d learned at dinner the night before, there were too many murky things in the deal.
Strange how having a kid changed things. Even before he had one. Trent blinked, holding Sam tighter. They’d been parents for less than twelve hours – parents-to-be, he supposed – and already everything felt different. All his choices were coming into question.
And he needed to figure his shit out. If not for himself, then for their unborn baby.
Which meant that he was going to call it off. As Trent lay there, mind churning with possibilities, it was the only thing that made sense. He needed to bow out, and it had to be immediately.
But one thing that wouldn’t change was Sam. Their marriage of convenience might have just been for show, but she was attached to him now. Forever. And that wasn’t gonna change.
He didn’t think Sam would have a problem with that. He smiled, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. She stirred in his arms, mumbled something, and then fell quiet again.
Trent stayed up for another few hours, thinking and wondering and imagining. No aspect of his life was untouched in his mind’s eye. Occasionally, he’d run a palm over Sam’s tiny belly, wishing he could already feel something inside there, hoping that the baby really would get Sam’s eyes.
Trent finally managed to drift off to sleep, but it was restless. He woke up again around eight and realized he couldn’t put this off any longer. His brain wouldn’t let him. He needed to go see Mueller now.
Trent dressed quietly in the early morning rays cresting Sam’s cozy bedroom. He let himself out of the apartment quickly, tugging his leather jacket tighter against the crisp mid-November morning. Everything, everywhere, looked somehow more hopeful, more inspiring. Was this what having a baby did to everyone? If so, he wasn’t surprised why people got off on having so many kids. Fuck, just the idea of a couple of cells in Sam’s belly was enough to make him turn his world around. This shit was magical.
Trent hummed as he drove across town to Mueller’s. He pulled up the same cul-de-sac as last night, knocked three times on the front door, and waited.
And waited.
Nobody answered, so he tried the door. Locked. He pounded harder on the door, and after a moment, it creaked op
en. Darla watched him suspiciously, partially hidden behind the door.
“What do you want?”
“Jeez, Stepmom. Thanks for the warm greeting.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“But you are my stepmom.” He stepped through the threshold, forcing the door open wider.
Darla stumbled backward, her breath catching.
“I am not, and we both know it.” She crossed her arms over a flimsy silk robe she was wearing. It wasn’t tied tight, and the fabric fell to one side, exposing the healthy curve of a breast. “Besides. You’re not supposed to fuck your stepmom.”
