The Knight and Maggie's Baby

by Lisa Mondello

  She was trembling. When Jonah tilted her chin up to look at her, tears streamed down her cheeks, and his heart nearly shattered. Oh, God, he never should have gone to England and left her alone.

  Frantically brushing her hair away from her face, he said, “What's happened? Why are you crying?”

  She sniffed, taking in big gulps of air in an effort to control herself, but she lost the battle and wailed, “I'm fa-a-a-a-ttt!”

  “Wha, what are you talking about?”

  “I came...in...to...your room tonight.” Maggie sniffed a few more times and hiccupped some sobs back before going on. “I didn't have anything...comfortable to wear...anymore and I thought...”

  Jonah glanced down at her clothes and for the first time realized that Maggie was wearing one of his white dress shirts. She was naked beneath his shirt! Even as pregnant as she was the shirt left room to spare and hung dangerously low off her bare shoulders. The sleeves were cuffed a few times and bagged on her arms.

  Jonah's insides jumped into overdrive, making his groin grow hard. He couldn't believe just how impossibly sexy Maggie could be eight months pregnant wearing a plain white cotton shirt. He longed to run his hand over her thighs like he'd dreamed of doing so many times when he'd lain awake at night in this very room without her. And now she was here, in his bed and naked beneath his shirt. Oh, Lord, have mercy!

  Trying to ignore his aching arousal, he stated the obvious. “Of course you're going to get bigger. You're pregnant.”

  She threw him a cynical look and sniffed, wiping her nose with the back of her hand. “No kidding. It's kind of hard for me to forget.”

  He couldn't help but laugh, but stopped the instant her sobs erupted again. He scooped her into his arms.

  She wailed against his bare shoulder. “I came in here tonight because I...nothing fit me and I thought...I'd be able to fit into one of your shirts.”

  “That's okay. You look...” Oh, Lord, he was in trouble. What could he possibly tell her that would help? Hey, Maggie, you're the sexiest creature I've ever seen and you're driving me insane right now? My whole body is tight and aching because I want to make love to you? Right now. I want to be inside you right this damned minute!

  Somehow he didn't think telling her the truth was going to help.

  “Huge! That's what I look like,” she finally said. “I'm big and fat and-”

  “What on earth are you talking about?”

  “Look at me. I'm as big as a house!” she sobbed, throwing her hands down the front of her to reveal her ample belly.

  Jonah pulled her back into a tight embrace, reveling in the feeling of her body so close to his, feeling the swells of her full breasts press against his bare chest, knowing that nothing lay between them now but the thin cotton of his dress shirt. It was driving him insane. And right now, he decided sanity was way over rated.

  With her head tucked under his chin, he chuckled at the lunacy of it. She didn't have a clue what she did to him.

  “Maggie, I wish you could see yourself through my eyes.”

  “Believe me, I do. I'm getting so wide I'm filling up the mirror.”

  “Don't be like that.”

  “How can I not? How can you possibly look at me and not be completely turned off?”

  A wry grin tugged at his mouth. “Were you hoping I would be turned on?”

  Pulling away, she averted her gaze. Even in the darkness, he could tell she was blushing. And he wondered just how much of her body was blushing. Oh, how he wanted to know.

  She sniffed back another sob and flipped a lock of hair behind her ear. But it was no use, with her head bent down it fell back into her face.

  Jonah tipped her chin up, then brushed his fingers along her jaw. “Because if that's the case, then you got your wish.”

  “What?”

  He laughed nervously, feeling the slipknot that held his emotions for Maggie in place come completely undone. “You are the most amazing woman I've ever met. If only you could understand how incredibly sexy you are right at this very minute.”

  She lowered her gaze. From the moonbeams shining on her face he could see in her expression that she was unconvinced. He felt more than heard her sigh.

  “That's really sweet of you. But I know you're just saying that to make me feel better.”

  Just saying that? He'd never said it to any woman before or meant anything he'd ever said quite as much. How could any man look at Maggie in bed, wearing nothing but an oversized dressed shirt and not be totally on fire? His body was ready to go into a complete nuclear meltdown and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

  Cradling her face with both hands, he forced her to meet his gaze. Her dark blue eyes were starry with tears. “When I look at you I see the most beautiful woman in the world.”

  She eyed him again skeptically, but kept her gaze steady on him.

  He opened his mouth to speak and found it dry as cotton drying in the sun.

  “I mean it. Every night since I've been gone, I've been waiting for the moment I could turn around and come home to you. I'd close my eyes and all I saw was your smile. In the dead of night I kept hearing your laughter. I scarcely slept on the plane because all I kept thinking about was coming home to you.”

  He took a deep breath and filled his chest with air, feeling his whole body tremble. That's what she did to him. She turned him completely inside out and back again. He couldn't ever remember feeling as raw and naked as he did right at that moment.

  “How many women in this world can say they had a man race across the ocean just to hold them? Just to see them smile?”

  Her lips lifted to a tremulous smile. “Really?”

  Jonah brushed the hair away from her moist cheeks with his fingers and kissed her softly on the lips. They were as soft as a velvety rose petal and as sweet as he remembered, exactly what he'd been longing for.

  As much as he'd tried to keep their relationship strictly platonic, his feelings had changed. It had become increasingly hard to keep his original intentions true.

  No matter what Maggie thought of herself in her present condition, Jonah wanted her with every ounce of his being. She was the most beautiful, desirable woman he had ever met. How he'd last this long without her touch, he didn't know.

  Call it selfishness on his part, but he didn't want her to leave. He wanted her in his life and not just for a little while. But having her in his life meant raising her baby as his own. He hadn't a clue if he could love this child as much as if it were his biologically? Nor did he know if he could be a father at all?

  All he knew is how desperately he wanted Maggie.

  He didn't need to be married to Maggie anymore. He knew he wasn't wrong about her feelings for him. She wanted him too. But just because the situation that brought them together had changed, didn't mean Maggie would suddenly want to change the agreement as well. No matter what he felt for her or the baby, Maggie had made it perfectly plain she had no intention of remaining married after the year was through. By holding on to the coffee shop despite the need and his insistence that it was no longer necessary, only proved her feelings about staying hadn't changed.

  And what if he was wrong? What if what feelings she had right now were wrapped around hormones raging out of control? He'd read enough of those maternity books she'd kept lying around the house to know that women's hormones were out of whack during pregnancy and their moods swings were volatile. He couldn't take advantage of her or accept that the way she was kissing him back now, or the way she was clinging to him, holding him as if he was her lifeline was what was truly in her heart.

  But he couldn't help himself. With her soft body pressed firmly against his, Jonah delved into the sweetness that was uniquely Maggie. His adorable Maggie. He held her in his arms and savored the way her soft body molded against his hardness.

  They collapsed side by side on the bed and their kiss deepened. Her hair was silky soft in the palm of his hand, just like he knew it would be.

  He
felt her stir beneath his touch as his hands roamed from her shoulders down the length of her side. A small gasp escaped her lips as his hand teased her breasts. She clung to him, digging the fingers of one hand into his hair and the other in his shoulder. Cupping her bottom, he pulled her closer to him so her full breasts and hard belly were pressed against him.

  “I want to make love to you,” he whispered in her ear.

  Maggie's hand stilled on Jonah's shoulder. She closed her eyes against the darkness and held him. This was good. This was right. Jonah wanted to make love to her and she knew it would be as wonderful as she'd dreamed.

  Except…she was pregnant. In all of her wildest fantasies of her and Jonah, she hadn't been busting at the seams pregnant. But hadn't Jonah just told her how beautiful she was, how much he wanted her?

  He seemed to sense her hesitation.

  “Did your doctor tell you not to? I mean, I don't know about such things—”

  “No,” she said, quickly. She hadn't confided with her doctor that she and Jonah hadn't been intimate. At her last visit she was assured that marital relations were okay up until the last few weeks of pregnancy.

  Maggie ran her hand down his bare arm, felt the strength of his biceps and lingered, caressing his skin as a lover would. Just like she'd dreamed.

  “It's just…I'm so big. It may be a little hard to…you know, coordinate things.”“

  She started to giggle, the uncertainty and self-consciousness she'd felt earlier seemed to slip away with the laughter.

  His hot breath against her skin tickled as he laughed softly.

  “I think we'll be able to find our way around that.”

  Jonah angled over her so that she was lying flat on her back. As he kissed her neck, his mouth leaving a moist trail as he journeyed toward her breast, she sucked in a deep breath of anticipation. With a quick flick of his fingers the buttons of her shirt—his shirt—popped open.

  It would have been easy to let Jonah take the lead, but Maggie felt her body quickly surging out of control.

  She needed to touch him, to feel her skin against his, feel his hands on her. She eased herself closer, pressing her breasts against his bare chest and he pulled her ever still closer, cupping her full breast with his hand.

  It was exquisite torture, the way his skin felt pressed against hers, the way his thumb rubbed against the hard peak of her nipple with just the right amount of gentleness and urgency to lift her right off the ground. Maggie arched against his hand and he answered it by lowering his head and flicking the tip of nipple with his tongue.

  There was so much heat raging hotter by the seconds that Maggie thought she'd self-combust. With her hands placed on both sides on his face she guided him to her lips. She kissed Jonah deeply, possessively, like she'd never dared do before. Like she had in her dreams. She opened up to him, savoring the taste of his lips that still held a hint of toothpaste.

  Jonah eased the shirt off her shoulders, trapping her arms by her sides.

  “Are you comfortable lying back like this?” Jonah whispered, his low, sexy, voice like a drug to her senses.

  Except for the heaviness of her stomach as she lay on her back, she was more than comfortable. She was on fire, feeling things she'd never dreamed possible. Not even in her wildest imagination. And in these last few months with Jonah, she'd imagined a lot.

  “Yes. Oh, yes,” she said, in some far away voice that sounded like hers.

  Reality paled to her fantasies of this man. Jonah made a journey down the center of her chest and paused, lavishing loving her breasts until the buildup of pressure below her belly was too much for her to take. With urgency, she stroked his shoulders and moved lower to where her fingers itched to explore.

  He groaned as she stroked his skin with what limited mobility she had and she loved knowing that her mere touch could have that much of an effect on him. Still, she was restricted by his pressure against the shirt that suddenly felt like a strait jacket, keeping her arms anchored by her sides.

  “I want this off.”

  “Me, too, love. But not yet,” Jonah whispered against her ear now. With his teeth, he tugged on her earlobe, the excruciating sensation turning her mind to mush.

  “I want to touch you. All of you.”

  “You will. When I'm done loving you.”

  She shook her head, half in a daze, half lifting off the bed. “No, together.”

  She wanted to feel herself against him, flesh on flesh, heat against heat until she couldn't take any more.

  Jonah's laugh was a little like a growl. “Let me take this off you then.”

  Maggie arched her back enough for Jonah to help her out of the shirt she'd taken from his closet. It amazed her how totally uninhibited she felt lying naked next to him now that they were making love. With her arms now free she began to explore the bends and swells of his body.

  He still had his pajama bottoms on and suddenly it felt like too much. Beneath the fabric she felt the swollen evidence of his arousal pressing hard against hip. Maggie wanted to feel him. Needed to feel him deep inside her.

  She cupped him through the fabric and he threw his head back with a strangled growl.

  “Maggie, hold on.”

  She smiled as his lips met hers. “Two can play at this.”

  “That's what I intend. But I need to rid myself…”

  She helped him, pulling at the waistband of his pants and briefs until they were side by side again, glorious naked together.

  Jonah rolled onto his back. “I think this might work better if you were on top.”

  Maggie lifted one leg over Jonah's body until she was straddling him, his hard erection teasing the soft folds between her legs. With his thumb, he gently rubbed her sensitive spot where she was wet and hot and needy. With her head thrown back, her fingers dug into his shoulders as the tension built higher and ever higher until Maggie thought she would scream.

  And then, with one quick thrust, he was inside her and it was all she could do to keep from crying out his name. Her orgasm ripped through her body in wave after tumbling wave of pleasure.

  Jonah gripped her hips and stoked her insides and she was lost in the joy of it all. As she tumbled back to earth, she felt his seed spill deep inside her like warm rain.

  For a brief second, her heart seized with the wish that it had been Jonah's seed that had given her this baby she was now carrying. But she let the thought fade away. There was no room for regret here in this bed. Not tonight.

  Jonah cupped Maggie's cheek and pulled her down for a kiss. His chest rose and fell with each burst of air as his breathing steadied. In all his life, Jonah couldn't believe just how amazing making love with Maggie could be.

  He eased Maggie down to his side and cradled her up against him.

  He'd left England in such turmoil and now he felt as if he'd died and gone to heaven with Maggie. He'd gladly die a thousand deaths if it would keep her right here in his arms.

  He was about to tell her so when he felt an unmistakable kick. There it was again.

  Maggie pulled back, caught her breath and chuckled softly. “Wonderful timing. He always wakes up around this time. I can never seem to get back to sleep afterward.”

  Jonah brushed the hair from her face, then slid his hand to Maggie's hard protruding belly, watching her face in case she protested. She didn't. She would share this moment with him.

  As if on cue, the baby kicked again, just like he had the day he kissed Maggie at the piano. He couldn't feel the baby move then, but now it was unmistakable. There was a whole person living and growing inside this incredible woman. Life was all around them.

  Life he wasn't a part of.

  He wanted her to stay. Lord, did he want to make love to this woman again. But so much lay between them, not the least of which was Maggie's baby.

  “I should go back to my room and let you get some sleep.”

  He couldn't keep his disappointment from creeping into his tone. “What about you? You have to slee
p, too.”

  She gave him a half grin. “It's going to be getting a lot lighter soon and I'm not sure I want you to see me--”

  “I don't want you to stay just to make love to you. Although, I can't deny that a repeat of what we just shared wouldn't please me enormously. I just want you to stay with me. So I can hold you.”

  She touched his cheek, running her fingers delicately across the light stubble on his chin. “I'm going to be getting ready for work in an hour or so anyway. You need to get some rest.”

  He started to protest, but she placed her fingers over his mouth. He kissed her fingers, distracting him from what he wanted to say.

  “Jonah, if I stay here neither one of us is going to get any sleep.”

  “I suppose you're right.”

  The heat simmering in her blue eyes was undeniable. “I know I'm right. And you know it, too. Things are...pretty complicated with us as it is. And we've just made it that much more so.”

  She eased off the bed and slipped into her shirt. His shirt. For the first time he caught a glimpse of her creamy thighs with the promise of daylight coming through the window. His fingers itched, wanting again to touch her there, to run his hands over her smooth skin until he found the place that would make her heart sing.

  “We have to talk about something,” he said when she reached the door.

  “Tonight. We'll talk when you get home from work. I promise I'll try to stay awake for you. Right now you need to sleep.”

  She opened the door a crack and turned back to him. The light from the hallway sliced into the room, bending over her body in a silhouette. “Jonah?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “For what you said a little while ago. I really needed to hear that.”

  Jonah lifted up and rested himself on his elbow. “I didn't just say it, Maggie. I meant every word.”

  She stood in the doorway, staring at him a moment. A coy smile played on her face, then grew until it stretched from ear to ear. Dipping her head just a bit, she said, “What?”

  “I'm enjoying every minute of you standing there in my shirt,” he growled, his voice thick with desire.