by Jillian Neal
"I promise I'll never tell him, but thank you for saying that. I know it's been fast, but your family has been so great. I have no idea how anyone could hurt Ford the way Meritt did. I've never even spoken to her, and I really want to bitch-slap her. I'm normally anti-violence."
"Oh honey, trust me, slapping her would be the least of what I'd like to do to her. I was too young back when it was all happening to realize she was lying to him about the baby, but even when I was ten I knew she was fifty gallons of trouble in a ten-gallon drum."
"I think Meritt being trouble might be why he's so protective of me. Maybe he’s worried about her being mean or something."
Meridian gave her a genuine smile that stretched the width of her face. "That's not why he's so protective. His protectiveness is in his blood, but bitches don't change their stripes. For twenty years, he was constantly waiting to see what stunt she was going to pull next. That's probably a hard thing to quit doing. But you don't seem like the kind of woman who would ever hurt him. Just give him a chance to really get over all the shit she piled him in."
"I promise I'm not rushing him into anything. I'm happy just the way things are."
"Yeah, well, don't let him rush you into anything either. I swear that Holder brand he's got on his arm might as well be on his brain. Wanting to do the right thing even when it's wrong is how he got in deep with Meritt."
Once Meridian had gone, Callie got to work on her surprise for Ford. She moved the tripods and her camera remote to Ford's bedroom, stripped off her own clothes, and grabbed a quick shot of the smirk she was sporting. She wanted to prove to him how much she loved him, and this level of intimacy was even deeper than the amazing sex they shared. She knew he would see that in the photos.
Ford leaned down to stare into his open refrigerator. He grinned when Callie traced her hands over his ass and then pinched him. Standing, he raised an eyebrow and shook his head at her. "You're gonna get yourself into all kinds of trouble, sugar."
Unfettered delight glimmered in those gorgeous eyes of hers. "I'm hoping."
He slammed the refrigerator door shut. "I was going to offer to fix you supper, but something tells me you might be hungry for something else."
"I'm hungry for both. Plus, I have a surprise for you."
Wondering what she was up to, he took her hands and jerked her into his chest. "You don't need to get me surprises. I have you. I don't need anything else."
Her grin expanded against his chest. "I wanted to get you this. It didn't cost me money or anything. I promise. I am kinda hungry, though. Can we have supper and then I give you your surprise, and then if you like the surprise it might lead to other things?"
Assuming she'd gotten some kind of naughty lingerie to wear for him, Ford tried to think of the fastest possible thing he could make for them to eat. Cereal? No, that probably didn't count as real supper. Plus, he was starving. He had to figure out how to have some patience, but damn it felt like he'd spent more than half his life waiting on her. Now that she was here, all of his ability to wait for anything at all was gone. "Sure, baby. What do you want?"
"Will you make me one of those burgers you made the other night? Those were so good. I've been thinking about them for days."
Chuckling at that, he pulled a pack of meat out of the fridge and created patties like he was being paid by the burger. "How'd it go with Meridian today?" He sure as hell didn't want to hear about his cousin getting boudoir shots, but Callie had been buzzing most of the evening. She must've had fun taking them.
"It was so great to not be taking pictures of dogs in costumes."
"Come again?"
Callie giggled. "I like it when you say that to me in bed."
"I'll say it again later, but repeat what you just said. Something about dogs in costumes?"
"Yeah, that's pretty much what I did in LA. I used to take pictures of all of Derrick's mom's friends’ dogs in awful costumes that the dogs hated. It was terrible, but it paid okay. Plus, his mom wasn't a fan of me taking boudoir shoots. She was okay with me doing weddings as long as it was for the daughters and sons of her friends. I did one on my own, and she got all upset because she didn't like the aunt of the bride. There are all these weird rules out there about who you can talk to and be friends with. Tori only wanted me to be seen with the right people. It's like a whole different planet sometimes. But Meridian was great. I think she's trying to get back at some guy. She asked me to take a few photos she planned to use to make a point."
"Jack Decker," Ford supplied as he flipped the patties on his griddle.
Callie's eyes expanded with her excitement. "Ohhhh, who is Jack Decker?"
"The district attorney for Holder County. He beat her out for the seat, and she's still pissed."
"I thought she was the DA?"
"She's a deputy district attorney. Jack's several years older than her, and people around here get a little uneasy when they think our family holds too many county seats. But none of that matters to Meridian. Girl's got bigger balls than most of the rest of us combined, but never tell any of them I said that. She's a hellcat on fire most of the time. She needs to simmer down, but I'm sure as hell not going to tell her that."
Ford loved to watch Callie when she was fascinated. She did this adorable thing with her mouth where she kind of twisted it to one side, and her eyes held all of the wildfire he loved about her. "But even if she's mad at this Jack guy that doesn't mean she'd let him see the photos I took unless they've already slept together, don't you think?"
Trying not to shudder at that, he shrugged. "I do not keep up with all of Meridian's conquests. I don't ever even think about them. Keeping her out of trouble is Maddox and Canaan's job. But I've been in the room when she and Jack were both there. I've seen more than one prairie fire get away from the ranchers doing the burning, and all of those fires were more containable than the two of them. If they ever do get together, the whole damn state might go up in flames."
Callie seemed delighted with his assessment. "Meridian's hair does kind of look like fire."
"Yeah, well, God knew what he was doing, I s’pose. Girl got a double helping of stubborn and spiteful."
"Can I give you your present now?"
Just like always, his baby jumped to the next subject in a flash. Yet another thing he loved about her. That mind of hers was fascinating.
"I wish you would," he informed her as he laid the patties on the buns and started chopping onions.
She gnawed on that lip while she disappeared to his bedroom. He set the plates on the counter and located the spicy ketchup they both liked.
When she returned looking three parts terrified and one part ashamed, he abandoned their supper. "What's wrong, baby?" He eased the even stack of four by six paper from her hands. It took him a moment to realize they were pictures.
The first was a full-length shot of her standing by the window in his bedroom. She was wearing a sheer robe that showed far more than it concealed. His heart pounded out its adamant approval. "Damn," choked from his throat. "You're so fucking beautiful."
The next photo was her laid out on the bed completely naked. His cock swelled to a standing ovation, and his mouth went dry. "So goddamn beautiful," were the only words that he could produce. "I can't believe you did this for me." His eyes took in every square inch of her pale smooth skin. Those California tan lines were almost completely faded, but they created a stunning frame for her tits and her pussy.
"Do you like them?" she whispered.
"Like them?" He managed to take his eyes off of the photos and forced them to hers. "Baby, these are incredible. I love them. I love you." There weren't words. There weren't any words at all that could adequately describe what this meant to him. He was going to have to show her with his body. But something about the next photo—with her on her side and her right leg covering that wet haven that he needed to fit himself to—somehow managed to stop time. He swore the whole fucking world stopped spinning as his mind screeched to a halt some
where between delight and panic.
If he hadn't been so incredibly addicted to her body, so intimately aware of her every curve and hollow, he never would've noticed how swollen her breasts appeared cast in the shadows of the dimly lit photos, or how her hips were just a little wider. Her soft sweet belly might've even been just a touch swollen as well. Maybe he was just imagining that part. Maybe he'd seen it in his mind's eye so many times, wished for it, prayed for it, that he was lost somewhere in that hunger. But her hips and her tits, there were definite differences there. He knew. He was staring at the evidence.
Glancing back at her, he debated how to proceed. Did she know? Surely if he knew, then she did. Maybe. Was this how she wanted to tell him? Callie, his sweet precious baby girl who never managed to keep things from anyone, couldn't possibly have kept this from him. Could she? She said everything that came into her head. He stared at her intently. If she wanted to tell him this, he needed her to say the words. "These are stunning, baby. How are you feeling?"
That question knitted her forehead. "I'm fine now. I was just kind of a little bit intimidated to show these to you because I've never done shots of myself. It's good that I did this though. It gives me a lot of empathy for my clients. It's a way bigger deal than I ever imagined it being. I was having a really good boob day, and still I was so judgey about my body. I wanted to give them to you, and I didn't want to all at the same time."
"So, you managed to connect your beauty to yourself this time." He set the photos on the counter and cradled her gently to his chest. She had no idea. My god. She didn't know, and he did. How often did that happen?
"Thank you for saying that." She squeezed him hard enough to make it difficult to breathe, but he sure as fuck wasn't complaining.
He planted a kiss on top of her head. All of the patience he'd been so certain he'd lost since he'd met her returned tenfold. He'd wait. He'd let her tell him whenever she realized it and was ready. His mind tallied out a list of things he needed to do before she finally understood what had happened. He needed to make a trip to Tulsa. He needed a ring. Part of him wanted her to have the ring before she realized that they were going to have a baby.
"Uh," he cleared his throat, "let's eat, okay? And then I'll show you how much I love this and just how much I love you."
She gave him a quick nod. "Perfect. I'm starving."
Chapter Forty-Three
"Come here to me," Ford soothed as he lifted her into his arms and carried her to the bed.
"You don't have to carry me." She snuggled her face against his neck, which gave her words no credence at all.
"I love to carry you. Now, let me put my baby to bed." Babies, he mentally corrected. Standing her on her feet, he painted gentle kisses from the sweet spot behind her ear down her neck. She gave him a delicious shiver and let her head loll to the side granting him a larger canvas.
As he kissed and suckled, he worked through the buttons on her blouse. Gently, he cradled the weight of her breasts in his hands. Fevered heat spilled into his palms. The satin cup of her bra did nothing to ease the heat and nothing to contain their heft.
Using his fingertips, he delicately slid the shirt off of her shoulders and down her arms. He let it spill into a soft flannel pile on the floor. As he freed her from the bra, she sighed in relief. There were harsh red lines from the straps marring her skin, but he said nothing. He just administered his suckling kisses there, trying to ease the pain. He longed to care for her in every possible way.
The roll of her body caused her breasts to sway in a mesmerizing dance all for his eyes. "Please," she whimpered. "Please...they hurt."
Damn, damn, damn. He sank his teeth into his tongue to keep from telling her why and simply cradled them in his hands trying to ease the tender ache. "I'll make them feel better, baby doll. I promise." That's what he would've said if she'd never shown him those photos. For tonight, he needed to be the man he'd been a half hour ago, before everything in his entire world had somehow gotten even better than it had been before. He prayed she'd be as thrilled as he was.
He eased her jeans down her long legs and let his hands explore her hips. The soft, needy moan she gave him erased a little of the gentleness he'd been trying to cling to. He sank his lips to her, devouring the sweet, spicy flavors of Callie. He tasted every inch of her mouth, every plump curve of her bottom lip, every corner, the pull of her cupid's bow. He wanted it all and would never get enough.
Lifting her back into his arms, he laid her out in the bed and stared down at her. The moonlight from the window split her almost in two, but it crossed there at her womb so he began his kisses just over her adorable belly button and trailed down through the light.
He traced his fingers back and forth through the tender curls over her mound that concealed her slit. She shook with the hunger he would feed. "That little honeypot already sweet and creamy for me, baby?" Her breath stuttered from her lungs. "I want my taste," was his only warning before he spread her legs all for himself and let his tongue dance up and down her slit.
"Yes," gasped from her. He spun his tongue deep in her opening and then back and forth over her clit. There was a ripe edge to her nectar tonight. If he wasn't so addicted to her pussy, he never would’ve noticed, but it was there. Like a starved man set before a feast, he devoured those flavors, that reassurance that she was indeed full of his baby.
Her hips locked around his jaw as he worshiped her with his tongue. All of that spicy cream dripped down faster than he could catch it, and he damn near lost his mind. That familiar impatience churned through his veins, but he banished it. That night he had to be gentle. There was just too much at stake.
"More," she fussed. "Please, please more."
Torn between giving her what she was begging for and being easy with her, he debated. Both. Couldn't he do both? Surely, he could figure that out. "My naughty girl gets so impatient for me. Let me make you wet, honey."
"I'm soaked," she fussed. "Please."
He certainly knew she was soaked, but Christ Almighty he wanted to drown in her essence. That wasn't what she wanted that night, and he would always give her every single thing she needed.
Standing quickly, he shed his clothes and then ascended her body. His fingers stroked over her pussy as he made his climb, but that wasn't what she wanted either. The needy impatience shook through her. Her hand wrapped tight around his cock. A raspy growl rumbled from him. It pleased her. Ford could see.
With a molten look, she licked her lips. "All for me," she cooed.
"Every fucking inch, sweet baby. You sure you're ready for that."
"So ready."
Incapable of denying her anything at all, he swiped the head of his cock through the juices coating her pussy and eased himself inside. She bucked bringing him deeper against his explicit permission, not that he'd scold her for the needy motion.
Her pussy nursed at the head of his cock rendering him mindless and breathless. He pressed himself to his hilt and reveled in her low hum of pure satisfaction. Oh, his baby loved to be full. He knew. He eased back and then sank low again, achingly slow. He picked up pace on the next thrust until he was moving to the rhythm of her.
Catching her hands in his own, he pinned them to the mattress over her head. He swore he could feel every needy nerve ending in her channel. He filled every silky crevice like she'd been made for him alone. He was certain she had.
"Listen to me," he managed in a half-grunted plea. "I love you," he swore.
Her eyes flashed open. "I love you, too," she managed in a tender whisper, while his body made promises all its own.
Another thrust in and out. "I will always be here. No matter what." His voice turned gritty under the choke of arousal. "Fuck...so good." Before he lost the ability to talk at all, he forced himself to go on. "Always, baby. Always right here."
"I know," she moaned out a soft sound of longing and lifted her restless hips.
He abandoned his vows and mastered her body. Desire and love ran
thick and urgent through his veins. "Gonna fill you full," he warned. "So damn full of me."
"Yes, yes." Her body tensed under his. He released her hands, and she wrapped them tight around his back holding him to her so nothing at all could exist between them, nothing but their child.
He pressed until he knew he'd reached that wild, untouched depth of her, the one that belonged to him. She came in a rush of frantic pulses and desperate cries.
The hot tide of cum surged through his cock. He couldn't hold it back. Gripping her hips with more force than he'd planned to use, he slammed inside of her and filled her just as he'd promised. He drenched her in his seed and let that knowledge sate him.
After he'd tenderly cleaned her up, he cradled her on his chest. "I was trying not to be rough with you," he admitted cautiously.
"Why?" She grinned up at him. "I like it when you’re rough."
"I know. That's just another thing I love about you."
"You still wore me out though. I'm crazy tired."
Swallowing down a half-dozen things he longed to say, he pulled the covers over them even though it was really too early for bed. "Then let me hold you while you sleep, sweetheart."
"It's barely eight," she yawned out the words.
"Yeah, but," he scrambled for a reason beyond the one that was obvious only to him, "you worked hard today and like you said, I just wore you out."
"I guess I did." She slipped her leg between his knees and nuzzled into his chest, like the final piece of his puzzle to make him complete.
While she slept, he let the worry take hold. What if she wasn't ready for a kid? What if he'd been too rough? She was awfully young. Was she already late and just hadn't thought much of it, or was it really that early? Maybe her cycles weren't regular or something. He didn't know. It had only been a couple of months that they'd been together. How the hell had it only been that long? It felt like forever in all of the best possible ways. He'd all but forgotten all of the years he'd been with Meritt. It should've been sad that she was so replaceable, but that was how life worked, wasn't it? The bad was easier to wipe away than the good would ever be. No one ever regretted losing the shitstorms when the sunshine itself replaced them.
