Mattie felt the iron-hard evidence of his need thrusting into the cradle of her hips through the confines of their clothes and moaned breathlessly. "Can you.. .ah, Joe! Can you make it to the bedroom?"
"No..." Joe's hands had already unzipped her slacks, and his hand slipped inside to find the hot moist throbbing he had aroused. "So sweet..." he whispered, caressing the flowering bud until Mattie's legs gave out and she began to sink to the floor.
"Touch you..." she told him hungrily. "I want to touch you, too."
"Can't stop... I can't even stop to get my clothes off!"
"Let me..." Mattie pleaded helplessly, her thighs shifting and tautening as she melted further into the heady passion he aroused in her.
Within seconds they were naked. Mattie's skin was almost painfully sensitized to the feel of the soft carpet brushing against her back and the wiry hair on Joe's chest caressing her breasts. She felt him everywhere, she thought dazedly. Inside and out, she felt his heat, his hardness, his need. She could only writhe as he went into her, taking him deeper and deeper into her body, as the beauty of the act of love brought tears to her eyes.
"I love you so much!" she cried on the crest of their passion.
Joe trembled, stopped breathing and released his iron control. "Love you..." he whispered back, his lips moving against hers with every word. "Belong to you..."
It could have been hours later when they finally moved. Mattie stretched luxuriously against Joe, feeling him in every muscle and sinew.
"My God!" Joe muttered, stunned. "On the floor! I couldn't even control myself long enough to do it right."
Mattie snuggled closer, laughing silently.
"I've got news for you, Joe. If it had gotten any 'righter,' I would have passed out."
Joe didn't even seem to hear her. "It won't always be like this," he told her urgently, his eyes desperately wary. "I can control what I feel. You won't always be obligated—"
"Obligated!" Mattie repeated, stunned. "You still don't understand, do you, Joe?" She tried to draw away, but Joe's hard arms closed on her and urged her back against him. "You're a part of me. I love you."
Joe flinched, and Mattie rolled on top of him, pinning him beneath her. "Did you hear me? I love you. It's not a word I take lightly. I love you. Don't you see? I've always loved you! I called it friendship, because I knew friendship could be good. I didn't know love could be. I thought love could only hurt, and what I felt for you healed."
"The baby..." Joe began.
"Yes, the baby. I love our baby, too, Joe. But that's not why I came back. I knew about the baby a month ago—"
"A month ago?" Joe's shocked question made her smile.
"There are some pretty definite signs, you know. Maybe I wasn't a hundred percent sure, but almost. And I was happy, Joe.,Ecstatic."
"Mattie—"
"But I didn't come back to you then, Joe. I could have, if it was only for the baby. But I was determined to come back to you a whole woman, without ghosts, without the past hanging over us. You deserved so much more than the frightened child I was when I left you."
"Oh, sweetheart." Joe choked on the words as he read the love in her eyes.
"I'm coming to you a woman, Joe. Not because of the baby, but because I love you. The child you met is gone. Do you want the woman she's become?"
"Yes.. .oh, God, yes. Mattie, I love you." Joe's voice was shaking with emotion, the love he spoke of shining unashamedly in his emerald eyes.
"And you don't mind about the baby?" she asked solemnly.
"Mind?" Joe repeated incredulously. "Are you nuts?"
"Possibly," Mattie conceded, smiling at him until Joe's face turned grave again.
"Mattie, have you seen a doctor?"
She smiled wryly. "Several."
Joe immediately panicked. "Several? What do you mean, several? Is there something wrong? Something you haven't told me?"
"Stop worrying, Daddy," she told him gently. "I only meant that I have been to see two doctors. One about the baby—who is perfectly healthy," she stressed. "And Dr. Wright."
"Dr. Wright? Jim Wright?"
"The same," Mattie confirmed. "I guess I needed to test my newfound maturity on someone."
Joe pressed a soft kiss to the corner of her mouth. "I couldn't bear to lose you now, Mattie. Are you sure about the baby?"
"I'm sure," she interrupted firmly. "We're both fine. You won't lose me. Not ever. I'm a part of you, remember? And you're a part of me." She pressed his hand to her heart. "You've filled up all the empty spaces, Joe, and taken away the scars. I love you more than anything else in this world. Love, Joe. The good love. The only love."
Joe's eyes glittered with what suspiciously looked like tears. "The only love," he repeated softly, his arms tightening on her. "The only love."
Six months, three weeks and two days later, the Barons and the Ryans met on the steps of the hospital. Mattie and Jassy looked at each other and burst into laughter. Cole and Joe momentarily abandoned their wives to prop each other up. It was a toss-up as to which one of them was the palest.
Two hours later Joshua Cole Baron was born. Cole waited until he had seen his wife and child before he passed out.
A half an hour after that, Amanda Leigh Ryan made her appearance. Strictly in the interests of equality, Joe passed out, too.
Just Joe Page 16
