The Baby Contract

by Amy Brent

  “You’re so impatient, baby. Just let me touch you. Let me feel you.” Jonah’s warm breath and the scruff from his day-old beard tickled my neck, sending another wave of chills through my aching body.

  “I can’t wait, Jonah,” I panted out the words through labored, needy breaths, “I need you now. You need me too. You can’t deny it.” My voice dropped a sultry octave as I reached out one hand and dragged it down the hard muscles of his abs until I found the evidence of his desire.

  Jonah let out a breathy hiss as my fingers wrapped around him, my hand barely closing around his thick cock. It had my own pulse spiking at the thought of having it deep inside me, where I so desperately needed him.

  “Please, Jonah.”

  “Temptress.” Jonah choked out on a gravel rough groan. The muscles of his jaw tensed in time to my fingers tightening around him. He held himself still above me, his arms trembling on either side of me where he propped himself up. Time seemed to stop for a long, tense moment but then he was moving, swooping down towards me like a hawk diving for its prey and I willingly let him catch me.

  Jonah’s mouth slammed over mine, all that delicious tension exploding over me as his tongue swept passed my lips to tangle with my own. His kiss was hard and fast and left me no room to hold anything back. Just the way I liked it.

  I knew I looked like a delicate porcelain doll, petite and slim with big bambi eyes. And everyone treated me that way. It was good for me, in a way. Good for my job. No one who took one like at me assumed I was tougher than nails and dangerous. Their mistake. I had bagged more than one bounty because they had underestimated me. But not Jonah.

  From the very first he’d always seen me for what I truly was. Strong. Resilient. And needy as hell.

  Jonah’s mouth angled, drawing the kiss deeper as he grabbed my wayward hands. His fingers easily encircled my wrists, drawing them up and over my head. He pressed them into the pillow above me, holding me there, immobile. Unable to move. Trapped.

  The feeling of restraint pushed every nerve ending in my body into hyper drive. I writhed beneath him on the bed, tugging at his grip but he didn’t budge. He just continued his assault on my mouth, taking every panting breath, swallowing every moan and cry that escaped my lips.

  Slickness coated the inside of my thighs as a heaviness settled deep inside me. I felt so empty but he seemed to sense exactly what I needed, holding both of my wrists in one hand while he trailed the other one down my writhing body.

  His hand didn’t stop until he parted my thighs and I let out a gasp as the cool air hit my pussy. I was so wet that his fingers slid across my skin, dipping inside me easily with one finger. He teased me for a long moment, drawing out the pleasure before adding another finger.

  With a slow, steady rhythm he drove his fingers deep inside before pulling them all the way out, only to repeat the process all over again. Red flashed behind my eyes and I arched my hips, begging silently for more, harder, faster, but he just kept the same slow pace, driving me insane with every thrust.

  I tugged at the grip he had on my wrists but he didn’t move. I couldn’t even touch him. I couldn’t move. All I could do was feel. Every movement of his fingers. Every nerve ending that he brushed against.

  My hips arched off the bed when he brushed across my clit with his thumb, slow and feather light, in time to his thrusting hand until every muscle inside me started to tighten as the pleasure threatened to have me coming apart in his arms.

  He must have felt the tremors start deep inside me because just as my orgasm started to tear through my body he was moving, lining the head of his thick erection at my soaked opening and then he rammed home.

  I threw my head back as pleasure so intense it stole my breath away wracked me. My entire body felt like it was on fire, a million sparks of ecstasy lighting across my nerve endings all at once and every time he pulled out and thrust his hard cock deep inside me it sent another tidal wave over me until I was drowning in him.

  “Oh god, yes. Jonah! Fuck me harder.” The words fell from my lips but I wasn’t even aware of them. My entire world had narrowed to the place where our bodies joined.

  “I’m going to come.” More words. Just noises. All that was left was pleasure. Pleasure, and Jonah.

  “I want you to come, Sabrina. I want to feel you come around my cock.” His roughly spoken words were all that I needed to have me unraveling. Wave after wave of pleasure choked me as every muscle tensed. I could feel Jonah shudder above me and then we both grew still.

  My eyes were still squeezed tight against the sharp pleasure that rocked through my body like a lighting storm. Every time he moved, every small hitch of his breath had another spark lighting up nerve endings that had gone beyond sensitive. I felt the feather light brush of his lips against my neck shatter across my skin. Every muscle inside me tightened in response to the aftershock and Jonah let out a hoarse chuckle that set me off all over again.

  Hours could have passed, just lying there entwined with him, feeling the familiar pressure of his body against mine, or it could have been seconds. I couldn’t really tell. When my heart beat finally returned to normal I blinked open heavy-lidded eyes, satisfaction rolling through me as I stared up at his beautiful face.

  I never really thought of men as beautiful. Handsome, sure. Striking, yeah okay. But Jonah Moore really was the most beautiful man I’d ever seen in my life. His dark blond hair was streaked by the sun and hung over his wide forehead. His nose was strong and just a little bit crooked from a bar fight years ago. He’d gotten it broken and it never had quite healed right.

  The memory made me smile. It was me he’d gotten into that fight over. Defending me from some drunk asshole that thought he could get a little handsy with me. Jonah had stepped in, swinging at the guy, but he’d taken one hell of a punch before finally landing one of his own. Of course, that was before Jonah figured out I was more than capable of taking care of myself, let alone taking care of one drunk douchebag.

  I continued tracing his face, a face I knew so well it made my chest ache. A face I knew better than I knew my own. My gaze wandered across his square jaw and up over the slight jut of his chin to land on his lips. They were relaxed now, one end curved in a small, lopsided grin that had my own mouth answering in kind.

  I continued my journey across the planes of his cheek, sharp and chiseled, finally making my way to sandy brown eyebrows that slashed over the brightest, clearest green eyes. Jonah’s eyes always seemed to be laughing at something. At some unheard joke. Some inner secret that no one else knew about. They were filled with laughter now, the light green of his iris reminding me of warm summer. A look I wanted to sink into and never ever leave.

  “I love you, Sabrina.” Jonah said, his voice so soft and gruff that I could hardly understand them.

  “What was that?” My gaze flicked back to his lips, desperate to see them form the words again. Jonah smiled slowly before he opened his mouth and I held my breath, impatient and waiting.

  “Beep! Beep! Beep!”

  “What the hell?” I pulled back, staring at him in confusion as a shrill, ear piercing ring tone came out of his mouth again and shattered my dream.

  I blinked my eyes open, my confusion slowly fading as the run down, shoddy motel room came into sharp focus around me. I was covered in sweat, the sheets tangled around my legs from tossing and turning in the night. I glanced out the window. It was still night.

  The incessant beeping pulled at my attention once more and I grabbed my cell phone off the scratched night stand with a muttered curse. It took several tries to get the damned noise to shut off and another few minutes for my bleary vision to make sense of what I was seeing.

  “Shit.” I swore sharply as I untangled myself from the sheets, “Finally.” I stared at the screen, not taking my eyes off it as I dug my notebook out of my bag and grabbed a pen. I scribbled a quick note in my unreadable scrawl. Jonah called my handwriting chicken scratch.

&
nbsp; The thought of Jonah had memories of the dream swirling in my mind.

  “It was just a dream.” I reminded myself firmly, even though my body still felt heavy and achy with need. It had felt all too real. But I knew better than anyone else that it would never be real again. I’d made sure of that the first time I had left Coral Springs.

  I glanced at the screen again, trying to focus on that instead. I’d been chasing a bounty across the entire state of Iowa for the past week and now I finally had my first real lead. I’d tagged his credit card to alert me if he was dumb enough to use it, and lucky for me, he was.

  I tapped the button to open the alert, quickly scanning the charge and location. He’d checked in to some bed and breakfast a few hours ago. Victory rolled through me, that same surge of adrenaline that always swept me up right before a good chase. The same adrenaline that always had me searching for the next mark. The next case. The next bounty to hunt down.

  But as I typed in the name of the bed and breakfast and the address registered, dread sank low and sharp in my gut. I knew I’d been getting closer to Coral Springs, a piece of knowledge that ate at me. Hell, it made sense. It was the only sizable town within an eighty-mile radius. But damned if that didn’t make it any easier as I stared at the GPS.

  The place was all the way on the outskirts of the town. With any luck, I could avoid any unnecessary run ins. I winced at the cold thought as I threw my few belongings into the black back pack and left the room, heading out into the damp fall night. The black sky was just starting to spit out fat drops of rain.

  It didn’t take me long to toss my bag in the passenger’s side of the truck and get the engine going. My palms were sweaty as I pulled out of the parking lot and onto the highway that would lead me straight towards Coral Springs. The last place on earth I ever thought I’d end back up in.

  I hated the shaking in my arms and gripped the steering wheel even tighter, refusing to give in to the weakness. That’s what Jonah Moore was. That’s what he’d been since the first time I’d met him almost three years before. A weakness. The only man, hell the only person, who’d ever made me want to stay in one place. Settle down. Start a family.

  I let out a rough chuckle but there wasn’t much humor in it. A family. Yeah. Right. That life wasn’t for me. I had figured that out a long time ago. It had taken longer for Jonah to figure it out, but even he’d had to let me go, in the end.

  You didn’t exactly give him much choice in the matter. You left, remember?

  I shrugged off the uncomfortable thought as I drove, peering through the rain that was falling steadily now. If I was lucky, I would find my guy, book him, get my cash, and get the hell out of Coral Springs before Jonah even knew I was there. For some reason, the thought didn’t make me feel any better.

  Chapter 2

  Sabrina

  The rain that had hounded me all the way from the dingy highway motel had turned into a full-on monsoon by the time I pulled into the long drive that lead to the bed and breakfast. I almost missed the turn off completely but saw the sign at the last minute. It didn’t do a damn thing for my mood.

  After I parked my truck I sat there for a moment, watching the sheets of rain falling from the still dark sky. The clock on the dash flashed the time in neon red. It was just after two in the morning. I looked back through the window. And it was still pouring.

  “Well, I’m not going to get anywhere just sitting here.” I muttered to myself, grabbing my backpack. I threw it over my shoulder as I opened the driver’s side door and rushed out, kicking it closed behind me before making a mad dash to the front door and the blessedly covered porch.

  It didn’t matter. I was already soaked through by the time I reached it. I glanced down at myself, dripping soddenly on the painted wood slats beneath me and grimaced. God, I hated nature. I hated the outdoors. I liked cities and bright lights and being indoors, where it was warm and most importantly, dry.

  All I could see were dark shadows where the windows should be. There wasn’t a light on in the entire large, sprawling farmhouse, at least none that I could see from where I was standing and I didn’t want to venture back out into the pounding rain just to see if I was wrong.

  I hated being wrong almost as much as I hated the great outdoors. With one final irritated sigh, I walked up to the door and tightened my hand into a fist as I raised it, wrapping sharply on the hard surface.

  I wrapped my arms around myself as I waited. And waited. And waited some more. Still no answer. Not even a tiny sound of movement coming from inside.

  “What the hell.” I whispered harshly. Less of a question and more of a statement of annoyance at finding myself stranded outside at night in the freezing rain. I knocked again, banging on the door for several moments until my knuckles grew sore.

  “Come on. Someone open the god damn door. It’s raining cats and dogs out here!” I waited, standing on the tip toes of my boots but I still couldn’t see through the small panes of glass at the top of the door. Sometimes I hated being short. “Damn it.”

  I slammed on the door one last time, more out of frustration than at any real hope that it would catch anyone’s attention. The sound of the rain drowned out almost any other noise, and the rumble of thunder in the distance sure as hell didn’t help either.

  I squinted my eyes, peering into the darkness, made even more impenetrable by the rain but I could just make out the shape of a large tree. It grew right next to the front siding of the house, it’s upper branches reaching towards a darkened window. Odds were it was locked but with the lock pick I had in my back pack, that was a bed I would take.

  I eyed the tree up and down, weighing my chances of slipping off the branch and breaking my neck but shuddered as chills raced down my body. Anything was better than standing out in the frigid rain for the rest of the night.

  “Well, here goes nothing.” I whispered, shooting the front door one more hopeful look before taking off towards the tree. I wasn’t going to get in the easy way. I would just have to get inside another way.

  ***

  Jonah

  “There you go, Mrs. Markel, that should take care of any leaks,” As if there were any leaks to begin with. The thought crossed my mind as the older guest leaned forward, a suspiciously lascivious gleam in her eyes, shooting at me from behind her gold rimmed glasses.

  “Oh, are you sure, Mr. Moore? Maybe you should take a look at the other window too.” She paused, a smile curving her red stained lips, “It’s just over by the bed.”

  “Uh. You know what, the other window looks just fine,” I stuttered, taking a quick step back. “The windows in here are brand new. I’m sure there won’t be any more leaks. Especially if you remember to keep them closed during a thunderstorm.”

  Mrs. Markel gave an unabashed shrug. “Oh, you know how old women can be. So forgetful.”

  “Uh huh.” That’s what she calls it, I snorted silently. Forgetful wasn’t exactly the word I would use. She was staring at me like I was a piece of meat. “Well, you have a good night now.”

  “Sweet dreams, Mr. Moore.” She said with another shrug and tiny wave as I hastily made my way from the room. I took a deep breath as I closed the door behind me. Mrs. Markel was seventy years old if she was a day but that didn’t stop her from calling me up to check on various things throughout her stay.

  The water pressure. The faulty lamp. It had just been unplugged, but I played along. This was getting ridiculous though. It was the fifth time she’d had a ‘problem’ since checking in two days ago.

  “I hope you’re having fun, Quinn.” I muttered to myself, shaking my head as I turned to head down the hallway. My little sister, always causing me problems. Even now, all grown up and taking care of a baby of her own, and she was still a major pain in my ass.

  The thought was tinged more with affection than annoyance. It had been hard for Quinn last year when she’d come back to Coral Springs. The last place on earth she wanted to be. This pl
ace, the Mayhew property, the bed and breakfast, it had all been her dream. And despite everything, she’d made it happen.

  The property had been nothing but a rundown pile of timber and plaster but she’d turned it around, worked her ass off, and turned it into something truly amazing. And just in time for the tourist boom that the Springs drew in. The springs the town was named after. I shook my head, remembering when Quinn and I would go down to the springs, playing for hours in the water. And now people paid to stay here, paid to go on guided hiking tours. And paid well.

  The Mayhew Bed and Breakfast had been officially open for six months and already they had rooms booked out for the next year. I shook my head again. I should have known better than to doubt my sister. She was even more stubborn than I was and when she put her mind to something, she made it happen. But damned, she sure picked an inconvenient time to have a baby.

  The thought was more than rueful. I was still getting used to the idea of my best friend and my little sister being together, let alone having a baby and getting married. I was happy for them, even though a part of me still wanted to kick Leo’s ass.

  They’d gotten a little house together down the street from the bed and breakfast, closer into town but still close enough in case of emergencies. I’d moved in to the small one room apartment that was attached to the office downstairs while Quinn was resting at home with Leo on maternity leave.