Cory smiled and kissed her lips. “You distract me, too. I missed a board meeting at the clinic because of you.”
“What’d I do?”
“Really? You can’t leave me packages with your panties in them on my desk when I know you’re only two blocks from me.”
“That wasn’t planned.”
“You’re a liar. How do you feel about it, if you are pregnant?”
“I don’t know yet. My mom will freak.” The thoughts of the lecture she would endure scrambled in and out of her mind.
“She will? Am I going to get shot?”
“It’s a good possibility. I can’t imagine my brothers are going to be very happy with you, either.”
Cory did the deep breathing that time. He plopped to his back and stared up at the ceiling, too.
“There’s nothing we can do, Cory. Worrying about it isn’t going to solve anything.”
“I’m not worried for me. I can handle it. I’m happy about it. It’s you I’m worried about.”
Alexis rolled over and straddled his waist. “Okay, there is nothing I can do about it tonight. Might as well get distracted, right?” she asked while she lifted her shirt over her head. Shaking her hair loose, she held Cory’s wrist while they traveled to her breasts.
“You’re no doubt pregnant, Lex.”
“Hmm, you noticed that, too, huh?”
“Not until this very moment. They’re distracting me,” Cory admitted with a grin, caressing the firmer, fuller breasts in his hands. Alexis was pregnant. Holy shit. Alexis was pregnant.
***
Cory sat at the table with Riki eating pancakes and sausage when Alexis joined them at the table for breakfast.
“You look like hell. Did you sneak out and get drunk after our distraction?”
“Oh lord. I feel like I did,” she admitted as she raised her arm for coffee. Her eyes glanced to the syrup on Riki’s plate and quickly back to her steaming cup. The smell of the coffee was just as strong, burning her heightened senses. “Can I just have water?”
“Yeah, feeling pretty bad, huh?”
Alexis refrained from answering. Didn’t she just say that? “Do you have to do that, Riki?” she asked instead.
“Me wike it,” Riki countered while dipping her sausage link in syrup and sucking it off.
Cory sat down and did the exact same thing.
“Oh God, Cory, please don’t eat that,” Alexis begged with a distasteful snarl and her hand covering her mouth. She tried to talk herself out of not being sick. That lasted for two more seconds before she was off running for the toilet. Cory followed, ready to step up and take care of her. The only problem with that was, Alexis didn’t want his help.
“Cory, just go eat. I’m fine. I can get my own washcloth.”
“I want to be here for you.”
“Be here for me out there,” she begged. Nobody wanted anyone to see them making love to the toilet. He didn’t need to be there for that.
Cory ignored her request and handed her the warm cloth. “Here, stop being like that. There’s nothing you could do that I would find revolting. Ewww, except maybe that.” The dirty look was followed by laughter, but only his. “I’m kidding, Lex. Take this.”
“Just get me some Pepto,” she pleaded while taking the cloth and covering her face, letting her body sink to the floor.
“No, I’ll get you some crackers. You’re not taking Pepto until we find out for sure whether we have a little nugget growing in there or not.”
“I was so drunk I could barely stand up last week. I don’t think something to soothe my stomach is going to hurt me.”
“You’re still not getting it and you won’t have to worry about any alcohol for a while.”
Alexis groaned and took Cory’s hands. He pulled her to her feet and handed her a toothbrush. “I’ll get you some crackers and some Coke. It’ll help.”
“Me wike a dwank Coke.”
Alexis looked down to Riki and lifted the sticky shirt over her head. “You’re all sticky. Did you get any in your belly?”
“Me fingers all sticky.”
Cory lifted Riki to the sink and undressed her. The bathtub was the best place for this mess. The one she left in the kitchen was even worse. Not only was syrup running off her plate, it ran off of Cory’s and Mr. Dog’s, too. She emptied the entire bottle in five, unsupervised minutes.
***
Alexis couldn’t keep her mouth shut when Sam asked what was going on. Cory stood in the yard with Doug and the girls, shooting small talk while Alexis handed Sam Riki’s bag.
“Nothing, really, I mean yeah, it’s something, but I don’t know for sure yet.”
“What, Lex?” Sam questioned.
“We’re going to the office to take a pregnancy test.”
Sam’s hands covered the gasp. “Wow, Alexis. How late are you?”
“I haven’t had one for two months.”
“I’m here for you. Call me as soon as you know. Don’t worry about Riki, we’re making pumpkin cupcakes.”
Cory never let go of Alexis’s hand. The ride into town was full of uneasy apprehension and angst. They both knew the answer to the test, but wanted the proof to solidify it.
Alexis peered over Cory’s shoulder to the specimen cup. “What does that mean, Cory?” Her voice was as shaky as her knees. This was it, the proof she needed.
“It’s positive, Lex.”
“Positive I’m pregnant?”
Cory nodded.
“I need to sit down.” Cory pulled a chair away from his desk and Alexis sat. She knew it before she took the test. Why was it hitting her like this? Wow. She was really pregnant.
“Lex, I am so sorry, I don’t even know what to say,” Cory said, squatting in front of her, taking both her hands in his.
“Maybe it’ll go away.”
“Go away? Where do you think it’s going to go, Lex? It’s not a rash. Do you want it to go away?” he asked quietly, fearfully awaiting her response.
“No, I just don’t know how to process this, Cory. We’ve known each other for like a minute. How could this happen?”
“Let’s get out of here,” Cory coaxed in a reassuring tone, pulling her to her feet. He kissed her lips and promised everything would be fine.
The ride home was quiet. Alexis could do nothing but stare out the window, lost in thought. She did smile a warm but scared smile when Cory reached over and took her hand. How could she be so stupid? She wasn’t ignorant when it came to this stuff. She had a huge family. She also knew that Paige was the product of a conception from the use of antibiotics while her mother was on the pill. She felt like a real idiot. One does not grow up on a farm without knowing how babies were made. Now what the hell was she supposed to do?
Alexis went right to the kitchen to clean up the sticky mess that wasn’t so important before the test. Cory followed, trying to be there for her. He just didn’t know how.
“What are we going to do, Lex?”
Alexis placed the dishes in the sink and turned to him. Her hands went to his ribs and her head dropped to his chest. With the same sigh that had recently become a part of her expression, she opted out of trying to speak. Cory lifted her chin and wiped tears with the pads of his thumbs.
“Please don’t cry, Lex. I’m so sorry this happened.”
A small smile formed with the exhale that time. “You’re not going to leave me?”
“Are you serious? God no, baby. I’m not going anywhere, ever,” he promised.
“Then I guess we’re going to have a baby.”
Cory kissed her long and hard, putting every emotion he felt behind it. “I was hoping you felt like that. It’s ridiculous how much I love you.”
“I love you, too,” she said while holding back tears and kissing him back with just as much intensity. “Make love to me, Cory,” she whispered. She needed something. She needed to occupy her mind, feel him, feel anything that would calm the four tornados twisting around in her mind.
“Because I knew you were going to do that,” she replied while unfastening her own jeans.
“What? This?” he questioned in a gruff tone as his fingers slid seductively through the elastic on her panties.
“Yes,” she said in a moan, trying to put all other thoughts behind her.
“You’re all wet.”
“You make me that way.”
Cory slid two fingers from front to back, spreading her moistness to the throbbing between her legs. “I love it that I make you that way.”
“Are you going to love it when I’m fat and ugly?”
“You could grow five heads and I’d still think you were beautiful, and you’re not going to be fat, you’re going to be pregnant.”
“No, not going. I am. I’m pregnant right now, Cory.”
“Shhh, think about this. That’s it, okay, Lex?” Cory flattened his hand against her mound while he pressed three fingers firmly into the pulse between her legs. Steady circular motions of ecstasy were felt throughout her body, traveling slowly to her mind. Her body relaxed against his chest and a small whimper was heard when Cory added the painful twisting sensation below her shirt. “Do you feel that, baby?” Cory asked as he leaned forward to dip two, maybe three fingers, deep inside her. His thumb never left her swollen nub and her fingers continued with the pinching twist, now freed from her bra.
“Hmm, yes, I feel it.”
“Stay right there. Think about my fingers making you come, think about how good this right here feels,” Cory said while speaking soft words to her neck and shoulder.
“What if I don’t want this?”
Cory’s fingers stopped and his hot kisses froze. “But you told me—”
“I do, I want this, just not this. I love this. I love it when you do this, but that’s not what I meant when I asked you to make love to me. I just want to be close to you. Can you understand that?”
Cory withdrew his hand and led her upstairs to the bedroom without a word. He knew exactly what she meant, and he felt like an idiot for not picking up on it. Of course, she didn’t want kinky sex bent over the kitchen table.
The first tear escaped when Cory whispered that he loved her to her lips. Alexis stood before him exposed, but not from him sliding her jeans over her hips. She was raw, exposing everything that she was to him. Doing that seemed to be a given around Cory. The second tear escaped when he squeezed the back of her neck and pulled her lips to his in a fervent, erotic kiss. The backs of her knees stopped her when she hit the bed. Scooting back on her elbows, Cory held onto her, never letting her body lose the contact with his.
He moved her back a little more, spread her with his legs, and entered her. His thumbs held her chin, forcing her to look at him while his lips kissed away every escaping tear. Alexis had never felt so vulnerable in all her life. Raw and undone, she caved to a man that brought her to her knees. Alexis McKinley didn’t do this. She’d spent too many years building a safe, predictable life to let this happen. What the hell did she do? Of all the people on earth, Alexis was queen of fairy tale, bullshit. She didn’t believe in fairy tales, and she sure as hell didn’t melt when a man came near her. Except this one. Cory was her undoing. Cory turned her into someone she wasn’t when he was around. Cory made her want to do things she knew she didn’t want to do, and love it. Cory made her feel things she never knew existed, and Cory did this—
Whether it was the emotional tears mixing with the orgasm or not, Alexis felt something she’d never felt before, something deeper and cosmic. It started with the curl of her toes, and then the tightening of her pelvic muscles. All the stars, the moon, the sun, and the earth, collided into one intergalactic universe and her head thrashed from side to side. Her hips writhed into Cory’s, and damp warmness enveloped her entire body. Shudder after shudder of static shock, shook her from the inside out.
His eyes penetrating hers was the first thing she saw once the last wave had surged.
“Cory.”
“What, baby?”
“I’m pregnant.”
“We’re pregnant. I promise, we’re going to be fine, Lex.”
“You can’t promise that.”
“I can. I don’t think you realize how much I love you.”
“How can you even say that? People don’t fall in love in two months. We barely know each other. I’ve changed everything I do since you and Riki have been around. Like I’m not even me anymore.”
Cory tilted his head and rolled to his side. His hand lay flat on her belly and his thumb brushed back and forth. “What does that mean? I have never asked you to change for me. I love who you are.”
“You don’t know who I am. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. This is not me. I don’t do this. I have a routine and now it’s all messed up.”
“Like what?”
“Like this,” she said while picking up the sexy, uncomfortable bra. “I hate underwire.”
Cory sucked his bottom lip into keep a laugh at bay. “I never asked you to wear that.”
“Yeah, but if I took off my clothes in front of you wearing a sports bra, you’d be off chasing someone like that blonde from the pizza shop.”
Cory almost gave her name, but luckily stopped that notion. Alexis didn’t need to know that he remembered her name. “I find you sexy as hell in sports bras, especially when you’re wearing nothing but that and a pair of shorts. I don’t care if you don’t wear sexy undergarments. I’m going to take them off anyway.”
“But I’m not saying you want me to do any of this. I’m saying you make me.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Like, I don’t know, like, I’m lucky to make it to three o’clock at work now, because I miss Riki and can’t wait to get her.”
“But you’re leaving work because you have two capable hands, and you’ve built a business that allows you to do that now. If that makes you happy, I don’t see the problem.”
“This is so new. I mean, I’m used to getting home at eight, nine o’clock at night and eating leftovers from my mom. I think I have cooked every day since I met you.”
“Hey now, I just cooked Tuesday so you could take Riki to see the new Paddington movie.”
“I’m being serious.”
“I know, love. And I get it, I think.”
“I don’t think you do.”
“You’re trying to tell me that you would rather work to keep from having feelings, you know, just in case you get hurt again. You’re trying to tell me that you would rather eat dried up chicken than engage in three-year-old conversation over chicken fingers and macaroni and cheese. You’re trying to tell me you’d rather wear those short boy shorts and a sports bra over lace and garter belts. You’re trying to tell me you’d rather be watching CNN and working on your laptop than snuggled up with me and Riki watching, Doc McStuffins. You’re trying to tell me that you would rather sleep alone in your raggedy Brady County Dragon’s tee shirt than you would naked in my arms. You’re trying to tell me—”
“Okay, okay, I get it. When you put it like that…”
“Are you happy, Alexis?”
Alexis glanced to the side and then back to Cory. “Yes, I am very happy.”
“Then believe that this is real. We’re a family, I don’t care who thinks it’s too soon. I don’t, Riki don’t, and I know you don’t. You feel what I feel. I know you do. Stop analyzing it and admit it.”
“Admit what?”
“Admit that I am your undoing. Admit that you have been attracted to me since day one. Admit that you’re so in love with me, you can’t see three feet past me.”
“Arrogant much?” Alexis teased.
“A little, come on. Let’s go for a hay farm.”
Alexis laughed with that one and let Cory pull her to her f
eet.
Twelve
Riki ran to the Jeep as soon as they pulled up to the barn. Cory picked her up and listened to the excitement.
“Me cut a pumpkin wif a knife, come see, Wexis,” she said while her body twisted, squirming to her feet.
“Here, wait a minute,” Alexis said, stopping her in her tracks.
She slid her arms into the warmer jacket she’d brought and listened to the overzealous banter, too. They were going to put a candle in it at dark time, her and Emily made cupcakes with ghosts, and when it got dark time she was going for a hay farm. Alexis didn’t even bother correcting it for a hayride again. There was no use.
“Wow, that’s a lot of pumpkins,” Cory exclaimed. Alexis held his hand and strolled the fencerow while they looked at all the McKinley jack-o'-lanterns.
“This one mine, Daddy,” Riki said with outstretched arms, wanting picked up to the fencerow.
“I love it.”
“Him have a candle.”
“I know. I can’t wait to see them lit up.”
“There’s Bernie. Can I tell her, Cory?” Alexis asked.
“Yes, of course. Here, give me your salad. I’ll take it inside.”
“Thanks, I’ll only be a minute.”
“I love you.”
Alexis smiled and walked away.
“Hi, Lex,” Travis called while she erased the distance between her and Bernie.
“Hey, Travis.”
“Are you ready to tie one on?”
“I don’t think so. Let’s take a walk, Bernie.”
“What’s wrong, Lex?” Bernie asked. The weary concealed her face. Something happened. If Cory screwed up, she would kick his ass.
“I need to talk to you.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I just need my friend,” Alexis admitted with a smile.
“Now I know something’s up. What’s going on?”
“How did it go today, were you busy?”
“Not too bad, what’s going on, Lex?” She wanted to talk about work? Really?
Alexis stopped at the fence pastoring cows and did that deep breathing thing again. “Bernie, I’m pregnant.”
And in Time... Page 26
