Committed Passion

by Bonnie Dee

  “The girls are going to be waiting for me,” I mentioned as I lazily flexed my other bare foot, but I didn’t really care, and I certainly didn’t want him to stop.

  “They’ll wait.” He gave my pinkie a wiggle, then applied polish with deft strokes. For all I knew, he was botching the job, but it didn’t matter. I’d happily have clown toes for the sake of enjoying this small personal service J.D. did for me.

  I listened to him capping the polish bottle, then his breath blew on my foot again. I moaned softly and wiggled deeper into the pillows, glad we had a bed in our own room to share. And I grew even happier about it as J.D. kissed my foot, my ankle, my calf, blazing a trail up my leg with his mouth.

  We shouldn’t. We didn’t have time, as everyone was probably already gathering downstairs and ready to leave for the bachelor and bachelorette parties. Besides, we were in someone else’s house. But I didn’t protest one bit when he pushed down my panties and nuzzled between my legs. Oh, there! Right on that spot. I arched up into his touch.

  As his tongue found the perfect rhythm on my clit and his fingers delved inside me, I forgot myself and groaned louder. J.D. reached up a free hand and pressed his fingers to my lips. “Shh.”

  I swallowed the pleasured moans I wanted to let escape. I’d never been so vocal during sex with any partner before J.D. Maybe that was another part of going blind, I made up for the lack of sight by expressing how I felt—loudly. And how I felt right then was amazing. The weight of worry over my unplanned pregnancy was so much lighter when shared with J.D. It would be tough, financially, emotionally, and probably in other ways we couldn’t yet foresee, but together we’d be all right. And we were together on this. The ring, which had slipped around so the stone scraped my index finger, reminded me of it.

  I’d almost climaxed from J.D.’s steady lapping when he stopped and moved up to cover my body with his. His breath gusted against my cheek as his cock pushed into me, filling and easing that needy ache between my legs. My body was running wild with hormones. I’d read enough to expect I’d be moody and my sex drive would increase, but I hadn’t counted on how much I craved sex. Now that I wasn’t so freaked out about the little life growing inside me, I could once again relax and appreciate the way our bodies meshed.

  The weight and bulk of J.D.’s muscles flexing under my hands and against my body never ceased to thrill me. I wrapped my legs and arms around him as we became one, pushing, pulling, thrusting, and rising closer and closer to the edge.

  Mine forever, I gloated, so happy I could hardly contain my emotions. I had J.D., and soon we’d have a tiny little person in our lives. A family unit. As scary as that was, it was also wonderful. My fears were starting to crumble under the weight of joyful expectation.

  J.D.’s cock speared deep and hit a point that made pleasure burst through me. I bucked underneath him and pressed my mouth against his arm to stifle my cry.

  Knowing the others were so nearby and having to keep quiet was kind of a turn-on. They couldn’t hear and wouldn’t know what we were up to here in our bedroom. This quick, secret sex was like a pact, signaling we were both in for the long haul—on the engagement and the baby, all of it.

  Soon we’d celebrate with everyone, but these few minutes were for us alone, my fiancé and me.

  *

  Gina

  “Good God, do they think we can’t hear them?” I asked Rianna, who was sipping her first cocktail of the night, but certainly not the last. We sat on the living room couch right underneath the guest bedroom Leah and J.D. were using and waited for the pair to finish up and come—pun intended. “Maybe the guys are oblivious, but I can’t ignore the thumping.”

  “Oh, we hear it. We just don’t mind.” Micah grinned at me from over by the sideboard, where Jonah was pouring them drinks. “Or maybe we’re a little more polite than you are and pretending not to hear it.”

  “It’s fine. They’re happy and having a good time.” Rianna seemed more relaxed than she’d been since I’d met her as she stretched her legs and took another drink of her martini. “Seize the moment. I’m starting to think we should all live that way, because you sure never know what life’s going to throw at you next.”

  “Absolutely,” Micah raised his glass as if in a toast, and Rianna lifted hers too.

  They were right, I thought, recalling the unexpected addition of Micah to my life. Things really could change in a moment.

  And I wasn’t really annoyed or grossed out by the sounds of Leah and J.D. making love. My flash of irritation may have had something to do with the ring Leah showed me when Micah and I returned from our pilgrimage to his one-time family home.

  “J.D. proposed. What does it look like?” she’d asked breathlessly.

  I described the diamond solitaire set in a braided white-gold band. Leah felt the stone and the setting with a smile that lit her face. Like Rianna, her recent tension seemed to have evaporated. “I have more things to tell you, but later. We should get ready now.”

  We’d parted to go to separate rooms. I honestly wasn’t jealous. Micah and I simply weren’t at the same place in our relationship as Leah and J.D, but we were slowly getting there. Our next step would come when the time was right. Still, there was something about diamonds twinkling on every hand around me that pricked just a little. Like being up for an award you’re not too concerned about—until someone else wins it, and you realize you kind of wanted it after all.

  At last J.D. and Leah came downstairs, flushed and grinning, and the guys and gals split up to go our separate ways. Rianna clung to Jonah for a moment before we left, rising up on her toes to put her arms around his neck and give him a kiss. They were cute together. I liked this girl who’d managed to bring grim Jonah out of his shell.

  Then I felt arms around my own waist, and Micah nuzzled my neck. “Have fun, but not too much. I don’t want to have to hold your hair back later tonight.”

  “Ditto. Don’t get your brothers into trouble,” I teased. “That’s only funny in movie comedies.”

  He turned me around to face him. “Who, me? Now why would you assume I’d be the one instigating things?” He gave me a wink and a big kiss before we said good-bye.

  As I watched the three Wyatt boys head toward Jonah’s SUV, all tall, broad-shouldered, and ridiculously handsome, I knew I’d landed the best of the lot. My sunny-natured, redheaded man was the perfect fit for me. No one got me like he did, and our matching senses of humor would keep us both entertained for years to come.

  Before he got in the vehicle, Micah blew me another kiss. I caught it and slapped it on my ass with a grin.

  *

  Rianna

  Cyndi and Abbie had driven up from Sawville and met us at the first stop on our bar hop. I didn’t have any good friends yet in Lexington. So this was the extent of my bachelorette party. But I was fine with that. I was nervous enough about bringing my stripper friends and my future sisters-in-law together.

  I loved my girls, but Cyndi was crude, loud, and opinionated, while Abbie tended to ramble on about her sex life in way too much detail. Our backgrounds were similar, all of us leaving home young, choosing bad boyfriends, and barely getting by financially. Leah and Gina came from such stable, normal homes, I was afraid they’d see my friends as stereotypical hillbilly chicks and not look any deeper.

  I shouldn’t have worried. Gina and Cyndi immediately clicked like sisters from another mother. They outdid each other telling dirty jokes all night, started doing shots early and ended up, many bars later, bellowing drunken karaoke at the top of their lungs.

  I could hardly breathe from laughing so hard at the pair of them onstage. Cyndi’s bachelorette-party tiara barely clung to strands of her blonde hair and tipped low on her forehead. Gina had decided she hated shoes a few hours earlier—Leah took charge of them for her—and without heels, she was almost as short as Cyndi. They had their arms around each other, swaying back and forth and belting I Will Survive.

  Cyndi threw up her arms, k
nocking Gina in the face. “Come on. Everybody!”

  Most of the bar joined in.

  “As long as I know how to love, I know I’ll be all right,” I sang along in a happy haze. I hadn’t been drunk since I’d become a mother, so even a little alcohol affected me a lot. The last thing I wanted was to suffer a hangover on my wedding day. When somebody bought us a round, I started passing my drinks to strangers. The bachelorette party at the table beside us was happy to accept them.

  Abbie had fallen asleep, head on the table, one hand still curled around her glass. Her curly hair flopped over her face, but I could tell from the rise and fall of her shoulders she was still breathing. Leah sat near me. She was smiling at the karaoke duet, though she wasn’t singing along.

  I scooted my chair closer so we could talk about the noise. “You feeling okay?”

  “Yeah. This is fun. I’m just kinda tired.”

  I couldn’t help but notice she’d drunk virgin cocktails all evening, so it wasn’t much of a stretch to suspect there was a good reason for it. “Are you…pregnant?”

  Her brows rose. “Yeah. How did you know?”

  “Well, the lack of drinking for one thing, but I’ve noticed you taking a lot of naps since you got here. Unless you had the flu or something, it was pretty easy to guess why. Congratulations.”

  “Thanks. It’s been…” She shook her head. “Kind of a huge day. I finally told J.D., and he’d brought this along and planned to propose.” She stuck up her hand with the engagement ring. “I’m happy, but it’s a lot to process all at once.”

  “Of course.” I rested a hand on Leah’s arm, thinking it must be strange to be blind in an unfamiliar place like this and only have sound to clue her in to what was happening. “I know you guys will do fine as parents. It’s not as hard as you think it’s going to be.”

  I kinda lied on that last part. Travis could be a real handful. But why freak her out any more than she already was?

  “I haven’t even told Gina yet. I thought I’d do it before we left the house, but then we ran out of time.” Leah laughed. “If I told her now, she probably wouldn’t remember by morning.”

  I laughed too. “Maybe not. She and Cyndi are besties now. I think they—oh my God!”

  “What?”

  “Cyndi nearly fell off the stage. Gina had to catch her. But they’re okay and heading this way.”

  The drunken duo reached the table and collapsed into their chairs.

  “I love you guys, man. You know that?” Gina demanded. “Love you both so much. And we’re so lucky. We’re going to be like sisters now! I never had a sister. Just three bossy brothers and a sister-in-law who’s a mean old cat.” She made claws with her fingernails and hissed. “But you guys”—she reached out her hands to Leah and me—“you’re my girls! We’re going to have such good times together.”

  I held her sweaty hand. “I never had any family at all, really. I’m thrilled about this too.”

  “Me too,” Leah agreed. “Only child here. I always wanted sisters.”

  “What about me?” Cyndi’s lower lip jutted out. “My sister won’t talk to me. She set fire to my car once because she claims I stole her boyfriend. I want to be part of you guys too.” Tears welled in her eyes threatening to smear more mascara down her cheeks.

  “You are, Cyn. Always,” I promised.

  We’d nearly closed the bar, and I was more than ready to go home and get some sleep before my big day. Besides, Leah looked exhausted, and Abbie… Well, we’d be lucky to get her on her feet and into the limo. We dropped the girls off at their motel room and sat quietly on the drive home.

  Slumped in one corner, Gina began to snore.

  “We are lucky,” Leah said suddenly. “Not only to find the men we have but to actually get along with their girlfriends. That can be rare. I haven’t known you long, Rianna, but I feel like I can talk to you about anything and you’ll understand.”

  I smiled into the darkness and tried to remember why I’d been nervous to meet these two. Already I felt completely comfortable with both Leah and Gina. Maybe we’d been meant to meet each other just as we’d met the three brothers.

  Full of warm feelings, I blurted, “I want to tell you where Jonah and I went earlier today. Travis’s dad, who hasn’t had any contact with us in several years, popped up out of nowhere. He wants to have a relationship with Travis, but we’re not comfortable with it. He swears he’s changed, but I don’t know. Jonah’s going to adopt Travis, and I want him to be the only father Travis knows.”

  “Wow. I’m sorry you have to deal with this guy, especially right before your wedding.”

  Leah’s soothing voice made me feel a little better. Telling the news to someone who wasn’t personally involved like Jonah helped. I’d had girlfriends before, Cyndi and Abbie, for example, but already I felt a different sort of connection to Leah, who was so easy to talk to. She would be family soon, and I couldn’t think of anyone I’d rather have as a sister-in-law.

  “Thanks for listening,” I said. “I needed to talk about it.”

  “Any time.” Leah’s hand reached for mine across the seat of the limousine. “We’re almost sisters now, right?”

  Chapter Eight

  Jonah

  I struggled with getting the knot in my tie just right, but my reflection told me it was still crooked. At last, Micah let out a snort of annoyance and came over to fix it. When he was finished, he clapped his hands on my shoulders. “You’ll do.”

  I studied the perfect knot around my neck in the mirror. Micah always had a flare for fashion. Today, his suit was just a little better cut, a little classier than J.D.’s or even mine, and I was the groom.

  “Thanks,” I said.

  “No problem. You ready for this?”

  “Sure,” I said, but inside, doubts tossed and turned and made me a little nauseated. I wanted to marry Rianna. I absolutely wanted to be her husband and Travis’s father. It was me I worried about. Look at the example I’d had. Could Jesse Wyatt’s son possibly succeed at being a family man? What if I failed Rianna or Travis in some way? What if I fucked up?

  “Hey,” J.D. spoke from beside me, breaking me out of my downward spiral of worry. “You look like you’re freaking out. Don’t. I’ve never known you to fail at anything you set out to do. You got this.”

  “Ditto,” Micah said from where he sat on a chair giving a last polish to his two-tone wingtips.

  You got this, I mentally repeated as I walked out of the dressing room and into the chapel to take my place up near the altar. You’re not him. You know how to be responsible, and how to love.

  Neither Rianna nor I were particularly religious, but she’d wanted to rent a church rather than go to the courthouse. We’d chosen this small chapel near a county park. The reception would be in an open-air shelter overlooking a lake. Flowers from our own garden garlanded the altar and were strewn up the aisle down which Rianna would walk—any second now.

  I folded my hands in front of me, trying to appear at ease, but my heart thumped as I looked toward the back of the church and waited. A pianist played softly. And I waited. Then there was movement in the foyer, and the pianist began the wedding march.

  Not a march, really. We’d chosen a lyrical piano piece, and Rianna’s sole bridesmaid, Cyndi, slunk down the aisle to the tune. The woman couldn’t help it. She heard music and her hips swayed. She made me smile, and I started to relax. Then my gaze settled on Rianna, and nothing else mattered.

  She walked alone, graceful, beautiful, proud. She had no parents to escort her. Her grandmother had refused to attend, saying the several-hour trip to Lexington was “too far.” I’d suggested she might want to have Travis by her side, but Rianna had shaken her head. “You know how he is. He might get nervous or stubborn or act up. I’d feel more comfortable with him in one of the pews.”

  I’d smiled at her practicality. She knew our boy well. At four, he was unpredictable, and while he might have escorted her like a little angel, he was
just as likely to show off and make faces at the guests all the way up the aisle. Not that it would matter much. There were only my brothers and their girlfriends, a few friends from Sawville, and a few more Rianna and I had made since moving to Lexington.

  Right now, Travis sat between J.D. and Leah. He waved at his mom as she passed, and she lifted her bouquet and gave a little finger wave back. She turned her attention back to me and gave me a look with those gorgeous eyes that had seized me the first time we met and rocked my world.

  I couldn’t stop grinning back at her like a big idiot. It was literally impossible to restrain my smile. And then she was beside me, and the minister began talking. We’d stuck with traditional vows because I knew I couldn’t begin to make it through a speech about how much she meant to me. Micah handed me the rings, and Rianna and I exchanged simple, classic “I dos.”

  We kissed politely while everyone applauded. I would’ve liked to spend much more time and effort on that kiss, but tradition swept us back down the aisle and outside to greet our guests.

  Travis came barreling up and threw his arms around my legs. I scooped him up and held him in the crook of my arm. “How you doin’?”

  “Good. Are you my dad now?”

  Too hard to explain about adoption paperwork to a little kid, so I answered, “I sure am” and gave him a big kiss and hug.

  Travis reached for his mom and clambered from me to her like a little monkey. “Me and Uncle Micah got a present for you. It’s a surprise,” he announced.

  “What is it?” Rianna asked distractedly while continuing to greet guests.

  “He wouldn’t tell me ’cause he said I’d spill the beans, but you’ll love it.” Travis slipped down Rianna’s body, and Gina took his hand.