by Shay Savage
I didn’t respond.
“Liam?”
When I still didn’t respond, she grabbed my arm and tried to turn me to look at her.
“Did you…?”
“I said almost,” I reminded her.
Tria went still and silent for a moment as she glared at me. I looked down at my hands and twisted my fingers around each other.
“You’re serious,” she said. “When was this?”
I looked over and realized she feared the worst.
“Long before you ever moved in with me,” I said.
She huffed a breath out her nose.
“What?” I asked.
“I’m trying to decide if I can believe you,” she said honestly.
I rolled my eyes at her.
“At this point, do you really think there is anything I’d bother to lie to you about? You’ve seen my worst. I don’t think there’s much point in hiding anything else.”
“I can’t argue with you there,” Tria admitted.
“It was before we were together,” I said, “but I knew you. I already…well…I think…”
I sighed again. Whether she had seen my worst or not, talking about another woman to Tria was awkward to say the least.
“What?” Tria demanded.
“I saw her at the bar. She came on to me, and I took her into the locker room to fuck her. My dick was already pretty much obsessed with you and wouldn’t even consider giving her a chance.”
I looked her in the eyes.
“Nothing happened,” I told her. “My cock is a moody little bastard, and even back then, he only wanted to work for you.”
“Little?” Tria raised a brow.
I copied the motion and added a smirk.
“Figure of speech,” I said.
Tria shook her head but didn’t seem pissed anymore. I scooted over to her again and tossed an arm around her shoulders to pull her close. I trailed my fingers over her cheek, and Tria’s slipped her hand up my arm to grip my bicep. Our lips met briefly and softly, and when we parted, our eyes remained locked for some time.
The moody little bastard must have heard us talking about him because he thought it was a pretty good time to make himself a little more conspicuous.
“It feels like it’s been forever,” I said quietly.
“It has been forever,” she agreed.
“Michael and Chelsea won’t be back until later.”
I was surprised we didn’t knock over anything expensive in our rush to the guest bedroom where we were staying. Tria was lucky she was quick in removing her clothes—I might have just torn them out of my way if she wasn’t. As it was, they ended up all over the floor between the door and the bed. I tossed my jeans and shirt to the floor next to the bed as I pounced on her.
Other times I would have waited and savored the moment with extensive foreplay but not this time. The need I had for her was too much, and considering how she reached down and grabbed my cock to position it, Tria must have felt the same way.
“Oh fuck, baby…” I moaned as I sunk into her. “Almost forgot…how good…”
“I didn’t,” she breathed into my ear. “Missed this…so much…”
“Ugh!”
“Oh, God!”
I started to pull back and slam into her, but I paused as I suddenly panicked.
“What about…what about the baby?”
“I read it was okay,” Tria said.
“You looked that up, did ya?” I might have sounded unconcerned, but I was breathing a huge sigh of relief.
“It was one of the first things I researched,” she giggled. “Later on in the pregnancy, the movement can actually rock them to sleep.”
“Well then,” I said, “goodnight, baby.”
Deciding caution was still a decent idea, I didn’t plow into her like I wanted to but opted for long, deep strokes, which had her moaning and thrashing under me within a minute. I used my mouth to give each of her nipples some attention with my tongue. I growled into her skin as she dug her fingernails into my shoulders. Pleasure mixed with the pain.
“Liam…please…more…”
“Anything you want,” I replied.
She pushed against my shoulder, and I took the cue to roll over until she was on top of me, straddling my cock and moving at her own, faster pace. I covered her breasts to keep them from bouncing all over the place, and her fingers moved between us. She circled herself with two digits.
“That’s so fucking hot,” I told her. “Rub yourself more. Fuck, baby! It’s so beautiful when you do that.”
She let out a long groan but didn’t say anything. She preferred to keep the talking to a minimum even though she loved listening to my dirty mouth.
“Ride me. Ride me hard, baby.”
She obliged, placing her hands on my chest for a little more leverage as she moved up and down over me. I just watched my cock moving in and out of her and wondered if there was anything better than this.
Needing the control, I sat up and flipped her over. I made trails of kisses from her throat and over her jaw as I went back to slower and deeper thrusts. She wrapped her legs around my waist and cried out as she pulled me down into her with her feet.
“Nothing else feels like this,” I whispered against her ear, and she moaned again in response.
I didn’t think she really understood what I meant, but it didn’t matter. This right here—being inside of her—was far better than heroin. If I could just have this, everything would be fine. I only had to keep myself from doing anything else stupid.
The heat from my breath fanned out over her shoulder as I rocked against her slowly and gently. I ground down against her hips and listened to her soft moans as she came apart around me, moaning my name.
I didn’t increase my pace but kept it slow and steady. I didn’t want to rush through this even though I knew she had already been satisfied. I didn’t want it to end—not ever. Maybe it was possible to keep this single moment alive forever. If I could only do that, I wouldn’t have to worry about all the other shit that went on outside this bed.
Naturally, it couldn’t last forever—not when it had been so long since the last time I had been inside of her. Trying not to be too loud, I whimpered into the skin of her neck as my balls tightened and my cock shuddered. Tria dug her heels into my backside while holding me against her body, and I filled her.
I rolled to my side and held her tightly to keep our bodies together. My muscles let go and allowed me to sink into the mattress—exhausted but content. Tria sighed softly as she pressed her cheek against my shoulder. She rested her hand against my face.
“That was really nice,” she hummed.
“Fucking awesome, I thought.”
Tria giggled, and my cock twitched at the sound but quickly gave up and decided a nap was in order.
I covered her bare stomach with my hand, fingers outstretched. It was hard to imagine that there was some little being growing in there, just hanging out and waiting to get big enough to come out and live on its own. There wasn’t much of a bump or anything to show for it yet, but according to the doctor, it was definitely there.
“It’s weird, isn’t it?” Tria said softly.
“Yeah,” I agreed.
More than anything, it was familiar. Familiar in a way I didn’t like at all.
Though it was all new to Tria, I had been here and done this before—the initial terror that flowed into growing excitement for the possibilities to come. The problem was, I couldn’t get past the terror now.
“What are you thinking?” she asked.
“That I’m fucking scared shitless,” I admitted.
Tria nodded.
“I am too, you know,” she said.
“You are?” My heart started to pound, and I felt like a total shit for making her worry.
“I don’t think we’re afraid of the same things, but yes—I’m scared.”
“What are you scared of?”
“Being a parent,” sh
e said. “I have no idea how to be a parent. I mean, my dad was great, but we had so little time together. My mother is hardly an example of awesome parenting skills to be followed. I haven’t had much of an example.”
I touched the end of her chin and turned her head to face me.
“You will be a fabulous mother,” I told her. “You’ll even compensate for how fucking clueless I am.”
She smiled and shook her head a bit.
“I mean it,” I insisted. “You’ll be wonderful.”
“I’m glad you have confidence in me,” she replied. “I’m not so sure. I mean, I’ve never even changed a diaper.”
I laughed.
“Me either.”
“We’re screwed,” Tria said with a succinct nod.
“Totally fucked,” I agreed.
She settled back against my shoulder, and I continued to rub the not-quite-there-yet belly-bump while my mind wandered through my own childhood.
The most predominant theme of the memories was my mother.
I thought about listening to her read when I was dozing off and the way her hair felt when I tugged on it. I remembered how careful she was to always make sure I had my seatbelt fastened tightly before moving the car and how she would make me order my own food in a restaurant even when I was feeling shy. Most clearly, I remembered her laugh and her smile.
I also remembered the look on her face when I got up from the table and left the house for the last time and how she covered her mouth when I dragged Tria from the dance floor at Ryan’s reception.
I had to start thinking about something else.
“When do you need to see the doctor again?”
“Not for a couple of weeks,” Tria said. “The main problem will be during the summer because the school clinic closes for the whole month of July and part of August.”
“We need to find you another doctor,” I said.
“We really can’t afford anyone else.”
I frowned and held her a little closer. I clenched my fingers over her abs.
“I’ll be making more steady money in a couple of weeks. I mean, I don’t get my first paycheck for a while, but it should be enough to cover a doctor.”
“Liam, be serious,” Tria sighed. “Trying to pay for a pregnancy and birth without insurance? There’s no way to do that without going through a clinic. I could probably try the free one over by—”
“No!” I said. “No fucking way!”
“Why not?”
“Have you been there?”
“No.”
“I wouldn’t take a pet cockroach to that place. Why do you think Yolanda always drove me downtown if I needed stitches or whatever? You aren’t going there.”
“Well, that leaves the clinic at the school.”
I growled in frustration.
“There are other options.”
“Don’t start again.”
“We can get married,” I said. “You’d be on my insurance in thirty days, and we’d all be covered with a real doctor and shit.”
Tria sighed.
“Liam, tell me something,”
“Anything.”
“Would you be asking me to marry you if I wasn’t pregnant?”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“Then stop it,” she said.
I released another frustrated sigh.
“Tell me this, then.” I sat up in the bed and looked down at her. “What are we going to name the baby?”
“I don’t know,” she replied. “We haven’t really talked about it. I thought if it was a boy, you could choose—”
“I mean what last name will we give it?” I interrupted. “Teague?”
“I…I don’t know…”
“Lynn?” I pushed. “Lynn-Teague? Teague-Lynn? Tea-Lynn? League?”
She laughed.
“Not the last one!”
“So, there’s another reason to get married,” I concluded.
“You are assuming I’d take your last name,” Tria said. “What the heck is a Teague, anyway?”
She snickered, and I tickled her sides until she begged me to stop.
“Say you’ll take my last name!” I insisted as I trailed the backs of my fingers over her sides again.
Tria squirmed and laughed.
“Fine!” she cried. “I’ll be Tria Teague!”
I ceased with the tickling and pulled her close to me again.
“Is that a yes, then?”
“It’s a maybe,” she said.
“So what, you’re just going to change your name without getting married? Isn’t that a little odd?”
Tria let out a long, slow breath and then looked over at me.
“Why would I say yes when you’ve already admitted you wouldn’t be asking under other circumstances?”
“I want us to be a family,” I said. “I want us all tied together in every way possible, including legally.”
“But you don’t really want to marry me.”
“That’s not what I meant,” I replied with a sigh. “I wouldn’t be suggesting it now. I would have wanted you to finish school first—figure out where you want to go and what you want to do with your life before asking you if you wanted to settle around here.”
“And it’s different now,” she said.
“Yeah, very different.”
“I still want to finish school.”
“Of course,” I said. “You will. I’ll do whatever I can to make sure you finish school. And then if you want to move away somewhere, we will. I’d go wherever you got a job or wanted to live.”
“Which you might not have done if we didn’t have a child together?”
“I would have wanted to give you the option,” I said quietly. “I’ve never lived anywhere but here, though.”
“And I’m a country girl,” Tria said with a smile.
“You ain’t no city girl, that’s for sure!”
“I think I like the city better,” Tria said. “I can’t even say exactly why, especially since I haven’t exactly been in the nicest areas. I like all the options, though. It gives me more opportunity to see how economics impacts the different areas of town.”
“You have weird hobbies,” I said with a smile.
“It’s what interests me,” she said with a shrug. “I could probably use your experience as part of my thesis, you know. Going from all of this”—she waved a hand in the air—“to the slums.”
“Yeah, I suck at interviews, though.”
Tria snickered and tucked her head against my chest. I wondered how she would feel if she saw my parents’ estate. Compared to their home, Michael’s house was a double-wide.
“You still need health insurance,” I reminded her. “The school is only going to cover so much. If we get married, both you and the baby are covered. I don’t make enough for a separate policy for you.”
“We’ll figure it out,” Tria said. “I don’t want you to feel pressured into marrying me just because of…of this.”
She patted her stomach, and I placed my hand over hers.
“I’ll get money for insurance from Michael then,” I said quietly. I didn’t like it, not at all, but Tria needed to be taken care of now, and I wasn’t going to let something stupid like money get in the way of her getting the best fucking care she could.
Maybe if I had done that with Aimee…
My throat tightened up a bit.
“I’ll get it from Michael,” I repeated.
Tria suddenly moved her hand to the side of my face.
“You’re going to ask Michael for a handout?” she asked.
“If that’s what it takes,” I said. “I was going to go with a loan, though.”
She looked back and forth between my eyes.
“You mean it,” she said. “You really are going to ask him for the money.”
“Yeah, I mean it,” I said as I narrowed my eyes. “Why wouldn’t I?”
Tria sat there and eyed me for a long moment while a slo
w smile spread across her face.
“Okay,” she said.
“Okay?” I asked. “Okay what?”
“Okay,” she said again, “I’ll marry you.”
I was never one to actually whoop for joy, but I couldn’t really help myself.
Chapter 12—Tie the Knot
With Tria under me, wrapped tightly in my arms in the bed we shared at my uncle’s house, I could almost feel at peace.
Almost.
The cool air from the air conditioning—God, how I had missed AC—mixed with the sweat on my back from the recent exertion made me shiver a bit. Tria still breathed heavily as she closed her eyes and leaned her head against the mattress. Afraid of crushing her, I moved to the side and collapsed to the sheets with my arms still wrapped around her.
I reached for her stomach automatically. I couldn’t help either the action or the intrinsic fear that accompanied it.
“What are you thinking?” Tria asked.
“Nothing,” I lied. I shook my head and tried to clear it of thoughts.
“Yes, you are,” Tria argued. “Tell me.”
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before looking at her face. For a long moment I didn’t speak but just looked at her. I tried to focus my thoughts on anything but red streaks on the floor, the acrid smell, and the sound of my own screaming in my ears.
Tria’s eyes bored into me, but as she touched my cheek, her eyes softened. I couldn’t help but think about all those songs where people claimed they could see into each other’s souls. I figured as long as she was looking at it, I might as well bare it.
“Every time I think about…about it…” I paused and collected myself. My fingers tensed over her belly for a moment before I spoke again. “I see you…and blood. I can’t make it stop.”
Her fingers traced the edge of my jaw.
“I’m fine, Liam. Everything is going to be just fine.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I believe it.”
“Not the same.” I looked away from her and buried my face in her shoulder.
She used her hand to tilt my head back to look at her.
“What can I do?” she asked. “What can I do to make this better for you?”
I shrugged. If I had any idea, I’d definitely tell her.
She blew a breath out her nose and scrunched her eyebrows together as her fingers tickled my cheek.
