by Nalini Singh
"I'm fine now." His wife began to unbutton her pajama top, her teeth sinking into the lush fullness of her lower lip.
Abe couldn't take his eyes off the smooth richness of her skin as it was revealed inch by inch. Then she shrugged off the pajama top, exposing the full mounds of her breasts, her nipples deliciously tight, and he had to squeeze his eyes shut.
Jaw clenched, he said, "Sweetheart, you're killing me."
"I am so aroused right now, Abe. Please fuck me."
That was it. Sarah never said things like "fuck."
Going around the counter at light speed, he scooped her up in his arms and resolutely avoided her kiss while carrying her to the bedroom. If she kissed him, it was game over and he was damn well going to get her to a comfortable bed before he lost it. He dropped her gently on that bed short seconds later, came down over her.
Stroking his hands up her rib cage, he molded her breasts with his hands, sucked on her nipples. He was a little rough. Sarah moaned and twisted under him, her hands gripping at his shoulders. Brain hazed, Abe moved down her hot fucking body, pulling off her pj bottoms as he went. Spreading her thighs, he would've licked her, worshipped her, but she said, "Abe, please, please. Now."
He gave up trying to get off his shirt. Undoing his belt, he managed to shove down his pants and underwear enough to release his cock, and then he was pushing up Sarah's thighs and sinking into her.
Despite his own blazing arousal, he found the willpower to go slow, loath to hurt her, but she arched her back and pressed the heels of her feet into the backs of his thighs, urging him to go deeper, harder. "Sarah!" Releasing her thighs, he pressed his hands on either side of her head and bent down to kiss her.
Wet, deep, all tongue, it was sex with their mouths.
Wrapping her legs tightly around his hips when he came up for air, Sarah rocked up.
He groaned, pulled out, thrust back. And then his brain exploded and there was only the molten pleasure of satisfying the demanding woman in his arms. He felt like a god when Sarah screamed and clamped down tight on his cock as her body spasmed in orgasm, her throat arched and her breasts pressed up hard against him as her nails dug into his biceps through his shirt.
AFTERWARD, FLOPPING OVER ONTO HIS BACK so he wouldn't crush her, he threw out an arm across her. Taking the invitation, she snuggled her head on his shoulder.
"Why are you still dressed?" She began to unbutton his shirt.
Wrecked, he lay there and let her. "Are you going to have this much energy the entire pregnancy?" he asked when he could finally speak. By which time Sarah had successfully unbuttoned his shirt and was stroking his chest while dropping kisses wherever she could reach.
A wicked smile from the hellaciously sexy vixen in bed with him. "Can't keep up?"
"I'll make the effort." He ran his hand up the slope of her back... and Sarah's face changed without warning.
Jumping out of bed, she ran to the attached bathroom.
Abe heard her retching, got by her side ASAP. He hated watching her suffer, but there was literally nothing he could do but keep her hair off her face and hold her when it was over.
CHAPTER 34
THE NEXT FOUR WEEKS WERE HELL FOR SARAH. She spent most of them throwing up her guts. There were a few more instances of scalding arousal that Abe turned into bone-shattering pleasure, but mostly she felt miserable.
Only two things made it bearable: Dr. Snyder's assurance that the peanut was fine... and Abe.
A small, wary part of her half expected him to give up as the morning sickness continued without pause, but he stuck. He got her food when she needed it, held her though she looked like death warmed over, touched her with tenderness and love, was there no matter what. She was his number one priority.
Even Lola was moved to grudgingly admit that maybe Abe was different this time around.
One week, two, three, and Abe stayed. Not only that, he never made her feel anything but wanted and loved. Even after she woke him up six nights in a row by racing out of bed. He was always there. Until Sarah no longer expected him not to be. Until she relied on him to cuddle her after and make her feel better.
It wasn't until the end of week four that her body decided it had made her miserable enough. She woke up feeling fresh and happy and starving and snuggly warm. Abe was like a furnace--Sarah had used to sleep under a comforter. With him spooning her as he usually did in bed, she didn't even really need a sheet.
Stretching out against him, she gently stroked her bump. It was a far more defined curve than she could've imagined a month earlier, as if the baby had decided to change position and plonk down in front of her belly.
Hang on, Peanut, she said silently. Just a few more months.
A bigger hand joined hers, Abe's breath warm on the back of her neck as he said, "Baby, we're still in bed." It was a drowsy rumble.
She smiled, that smile cutting deep into her cheeks. "We are."
"It's light out. I don't remember waking up in between."
"You didn't." Laughing, she turned to face him. "I didn't throw up once, and I feel so good. Let's go eat."
"We've been here before," he said darkly.
"This is different." She pressed her lips to his. "I'm starving. I want pancakes with syrup and berries and all that good stuff. I know a place."
Abe cuddled her close. "Gimme one more minute."
She kissed his chest, waited. "Okay, minute's over. Wake up."
He called her a torturer but rose, stumbled into the shower after she'd already jumped in and out. He did dress quickly afterward though, and they were ready to go fifteen minutes after waking up.
She'd worn loose clothing to hide the bump, but the one good thing about morning sickness was that she and Abe had gone out so little over the past month that the media had lost interest and wandered off to juicier pastures. As a result, the drive to the breakfast place went by with absolutely no paparazzi intrusion. Once there, Abe let her order for them both. She made sure to add bacon and eggs and toast to his order of pancakes, then after a thought, asked for fruit salad as well.
Abe was a big guy and he burned energy. Especially given how much he exercised--with her so sick over the past weeks, he'd stopped going to the gym. Instead, he'd taken to working out in her backyard so he'd be close if she needed him--and wow, he was incredible to watch when he got all hot and sweaty.
Fox, Noah, and David had come over to hang and work out with him, but though every member of the band made nice eye candy that she was perfectly happy to admire, Abe was the only one whose body made her mouth water.
She had to feed that muscle.
For herself, she got a giant heap of pancakes with berries and syrup.
Their waitress, an older bleached blonde named Betty, beamed as she brought over the food. The hair might've been an incongruous shade for her age, but her bones were the kind that meant she'd be beautiful until she died. "You two were so cute together at the awards." Plates on the table, she patted Sarah on the shoulder with the familiarity of old acquaintance, though this was the first time they'd ever met.
Sarah smiled at the genuine warmth in the other woman's tone. "Thank you."
"I saved the clippings for our walls just in case you two ever came in."
Those walls bore all kinds of memorabilia and articles about the celebrities who'd eaten at the diner.
"Really?" Sarah hadn't given a thought to the media coverage of the awards. She'd been too busy trying to keep down her food. "Can I see them?"
Abe, who'd already started to eat, scowled. "Forget that shit, Sarah."
"I want to see." She glared at him. "I looked really good that night and so did you."
"Yes, you did!" Betty hurried off to get the clippings.
Digging into the pancakes in the interim, Sarah moaned. "These are so good."
Abe stared at her mouth. "Stop making those sounds or you won't get to finish the stack."
Shivering, Sarah licked her tongue playfully over her lips.<
br />
Betty returned with the clippings before the smoldering rock star across the table could pay her back for her teasing. "I'll leave you to look at them in peace," she said with another friendly pat on the shoulder. "Just holler if you need anything."
Sarah had really only wanted to see the pictures, but Betty had brought the articles too, and wow, the media had actually portrayed her in a positive light--not simply as an accessory, not as a throwaway groupie. No, she'd been listed as Abe's ex-wife and "a rising business mogul."
She giggled. "Mogul. Ha! Someone likes hyperbole."
"Hey, you'll be a mogul before you're done," Abe responded. "I'll be your boy toy forever."
Laughing and blowing him a kiss, she continued to look through the clippings. "I told you--we looked amazing." She held up a photo of that moment when he'd made her laugh by commenting on her breasts. The photographer had caught them in the instant before they faced the cameras. Instead, they were looking at one another, their smiles deep and their eyes full of light.
"I want this photo," she said to Abe. "Do you think Thea could get me a copy?"
"She can probably twist someone's arm." Abe took the clipping from her. "Yeah, this is a good one." His eyes went from the photo to her. "You're so damn beautiful, Sarah."
Her heart kicked. This man, he-- "Oof."
Abe's eyes lit up. "Peanut's kicking again?"
"Your peanut has taken up break dancing I think." Their baby's movements had become increasingly more vigorous over the past month. Sarah loved it, loved knowing their child was happy and healthy and growing inside her.
And as always when the baby moved, Abe came around to place his hand on her belly, see if he could catch a kick. When he did...
No fear of the past could compete with the raw joy in her heart. "Not that long to go now."
"I can't wait."
THEA CALLED THEM TWO HOURS after they returned home. "A sweet photo of you two is doing the social media rounds as of an hour ago," was her opening statement. "It's of Abe kneeling by your chair, Sarah, his hand on the bump."
"Tabloids?"
"No, original tracks back to a personal account. Looks like a fan caught you two being adorable together and snuck a pic to squee over. It went viral pretty quick."
Sarah's phone buzzed right then, Thea having called on Abe's. When she swiped the message, she saw that Thea had forwarded her the photo. One look at it and her heart, it melted right into the soles of her feet. "It must've been that young couple sitting by the door that took it."
"Angle's right," Abe said, his eyes on her, his face unsmiling. "You okay with this?"
"I knew it was coming--the bump's hard to disguise these days." Sarah stroked his arm. "Do you think this'll escalate, Thea?"
"I don't think so." The publicist sounded like she was moving as she talked. "Give the photographers a few more chances to take shots, then you should be home free until the birth except for the odd paparazzo hoping to get a scoop of some kind. At which point it'll become an arms race to see who can get the first shot of mini-Abra."
Scowling, Abe said, "No one's taking photos of the peanut."
Sarah nodded firmly.
"Leave it to me," Thea said, tone steely. "Shark, remember?"
Fully trusting Thea to take care of that situation when it arose, Sarah turned to Abe after they ended the call. "Are you mad?"
"About the photo?" He shook his head. "You're right. It was going to get out, and this way at least it was a fan excited about the news rather than someone out to make a buck."
And she realized he really didn't care that the photo had exposed his heart to the world. Because while his hand had been on the bump, he'd been looking into Sarah's eyes in that shot. No one could miss the tenderness in his expression, the potent love that underlay it.
Marry me again.
Sarah parted her lips, closed them before speaking the words that wanted to escape, fear having taken a clawed grip around her heart. Too happy, she was too happy. And it had only been just over six months. Half a year.
It could still all go horribly wrong.
Her baby could die.
Abe could fall back into addiction.
Life could shatter.
CHAPTER 35
TWO WEEKS AFTER THE SUDDEN STAB of panic that had terrified her and nothing had gone wrong--though Sarah couldn't quite forget the fear, the scars life had left on her psyche far too deep. She kept reminding herself that their baby was perfectly healthy with a strong heartbeat, while Abe and Sarah, they were an interwoven unit. He pretended to snore when she went to do her business paperwork, but more often than not, he'd play his keyboard to keep her company.
That keyboard now had a permanent spot in her house, but they also went over to the music room at his place several times a week so he could play the piano or jam with the guys. Sarah usually spent the time catching up on her own work, and if Lola or one of the other women was free, they'd meet for lunch out by the pool.
Abe hadn't brought up where they'd live after the baby was born and neither had Sarah. She adored the home she'd created, but quite aside from being much bigger, his place was far more secure. If she did move in there, Sarah thought, she'd be bringing her furniture and artwork.
No more blending into the woodwork like she had last time around.
"You look like a warrior about to go into battle," Abe said as she began to climb the ladder of the private jet that was to be their ride to Bali.
Sarah glanced over her shoulder. "I was telling myself I'm a business mogul now and I need to act like it."
Abe bowed from the waist. "Boy toy at your service."
Her fear pushed away by a deep wave of love, she smiled and continued into the plane. Noah and Kit had entered just before them, and the four of them chatted as they grabbed their seats and settled in.
They were the only ones on this flight.
Fox and Molly had left a week earlier, as Thea wanted her sister to spend time with her family. David, of course, had gone with Thea.
"I'm so glad the morning sickness subsided in time for this and that Dr. Snyder cleared the trip," she said to Abe after they were underway. "I would've been so bummed to miss David and Thea's wedding."
"Yeah, me too." Abe's response was absentminded, his attention on the magazine he was reading. "Bastard would've held it over me forever too."
Sarah just stared. The two of them had missed Charlotte and Gabriel's wedding because she'd been shaky with her pregnancy not past the first trimester, but this was another matter altogether. David had been Abe's best friend since they were thirteen. But it was clear that Abe was serious. He'd have missed his best friend's wedding had she still been feeling like crap. He'd put her first. Again.
This man would never again leave her behind while he went on tour.
Swallowing rapidly, she turned to face the window, the plane pillowed on fluffy white clouds. It felt like she had wings of her own, lifted aloft by the emotions inside her. The fear wasn't dead, would remain until she held their happy, healthy baby in her arms, but the hope that had been dented by that fear? It was back, and it was glorious.
BALI WAS AN EXPLOSION OF GREENERY, huge flowers, lavish scents, and heavy humidity. Living in Los Angeles meant Sarah was more than ready for the heat. It was the humidity that took some getting used to, but the baby seemed to like it well enough after a day settling in.
"You're just like your brother, you know that?" she whispered to the peanut a couple of days after their arrival as she stood on the balcony of the lovely little hotel Thea had arranged for the closest friends and family. "He kicked like a champion too."
The baby's response was another kick.
She smiled and returned to the suite to pull back her hair in preparation for visiting Thea's family. It was just too hot to leave it down. "Up, lazybones," she said to the gorgeous man who was sprawled in their bed, the white sheet just barely covering his butt. "What time did you get in last night?" She'd woken when he a
rrived, but only long enough to exchange a kiss.
There'd been no alcohol on his breath, no sign he was anything but dead sober.
"Ass crack of hell," Abe muttered and pulled his pillow over his head. "I hate being the goddamn sober driver."
Unable to resist her lover even when he was grumpy with lack of sleep, Sarah sat on the bed and pressed a row of kisses down his back. Where before she'd have been sad and angry and terribly lonely if he'd spent nearly an entire night away from her, last night she'd had a delicious dinner with the women, then curled up to watch a movie.
She'd been about fifteen minutes into it when Abe sent the first message: David, Noah, and Fox just had these evil drinks. Now they're telling the worst jokes I've ever heard and laughing their heads off.
It had made her laugh, write back: Make sure you get David back in one piece or Thea will murder you. Thankfully the wedding wasn't today, or all four men would've been in the doghouse for how late they'd gotten back.
"So the bachelor party was a success?" she asked, continuing to stroke his warm, muscled body just because she could. It was on her second downward stroke that she brushed something at the top left of his butt.
Frowning, she nudged down the sheet to reveal a gauze adhesive pad. "Abe."
"It's a freaking daisy," he muttered, his head still under the pillow. "Noah decided we should all have daisies tattooed on our asses."
Sarah fought valiantly against her laughter. "You were supposed to be the sober influence."
"We were all in such a good mood. I didn't want to be the party pooper." He finally pulled away the pillow. "How bad is it?"
Peeling away the bandage, Sarah pressed a kiss close to the edge of the reddened skin. "You clearly had a tattooist who liked you. It's teeny, maybe half an inch. But it's definitely a daisy." She patted the bandage gently back in place. "Did you all get it in the same place?"
"I'm pretty sure David's is actually on his butt cheek. At least it's not yellow," he muttered. "Fucker wouldn't shut up about wanting it to be yellow-as-the-sun, and Noah was egging him on, telling him orange would be a better choice. Whatever the hell was in those drinks, it turned all three of them into lunatics."
Sarah gave up trying not to laugh. Snorting with it, she was still giggling hard when her phone buzzed with an incoming message. It was from Thea: Abe had ONE job. ONE job!
