Live Wire

by Cristin Harber

  “Looking good, Boy Genius.” Sugar rested a hand on her stomach and let Jared pull her into the hall with the other.

  “Sugar’s exhausted. We’re out,” Boss Man said. “See you mañana?”

  “You got it.”

  Lexi pushed her way into the hotel room as Parker continued to chat with Jared, dead set on collecting Parker’s bag so they could go home as well.

  But… Parker came back into the room, gathering his wallet and a set of keys. “Ready, sexy?”

  “Anyone else have a key to this room?” Lexi leaned against the edge of the bed.

  A smile curled on his cheeks as he turned to see her sitting with her best come-hither grin. “Nope.”

  “Just you and me. Those glasses, and—”

  “Those yoga pants.”

  His hungry gaze went straight to her stomach, then below. If she’d been turned on before, then her husband had just lit a fire with a look. “You like?”

  “It’s a nice change of scenery.” Parker strode forward.

  “You’re kind of like the professor right now.”

  His brows jumped predatorily. “I am?”

  Lexi nodded. “Or maybe Mister CEO. The boss. Either way, super sexy.” She ran her hands up his stomach, enjoying the feel of the starched shirt and his rock-hard body. Parker loosened his tie, and her hands dropped to his belt. “Can we play?”

  “Undo the belt, Lexi.”

  Her stomach flipped into her throat. Anticipation she hadn’t experienced before jumpstarted her already-raging arousal.

  “Yes, sir.” Slowly, Lexi unfastened his belt, letting the clasp clink, and then unzipped his pants.

  His bulge made her come alive. Holding his hand out, Parker backed into a chair and beckoned her forward. Lexi dropped to her knees, pulling his pants and boxer briefs down as she went. Kneeling between his thighs, his massive erection in her hand, she leaned forward and licked from the base of his shaft to the tip of his crown, lingering as Parker groaned. His sexy glasses and his tousled hair looked like her fantasy come true, and she wanted to make sure he knew it.

  She kissed the top of his cock, slowly sucking, and watched his eyes flutter shut, his jaw hinge open. Lexi inched down, swirling her tongue, groaning as his thickness filled her mouth and touched the back of her throat.

  “Shit, Lex.” His hips bucked up as she wrapped her mouth around his head, still watching him.

  What a gloriously beautiful man. He opened his eyes, and she took him in, relaxing as best she could, loving how Parker filled her mouth, how her hands wrapped his shaft and worked him. Their eyes were connected even when hers watered.

  Her tongue swirled the crown, and he spread his legs, trapped by the pants, letting his powerful thighs hug her. Lexi bobbed her head, worked her hands. His fingers threaded into her hair, and his hips found a rhythm with her mouth.

  “Lex.” Parker’s voice went gravelly and sent shivers down her spine.

  He was going to come, and she would make him love every second of it.

  It was something about the damn glasses. Seriously. He even had a lazy, sated grin on his face that might’ve been one of her favorite looks ever.

  Lexi rocked back off her knees and—

  “Where do you think you’re going?” he asked.

  She blinked. “Um, I—”

  “On the bed, Lex.”

  Her heart jumped. Wherever that sated, lazy grin had gone, it was g-o-n-e. Glasses or not, she knew that tone. That was the sound of Parker on the hunt. “Yes, sir.”

  He kicked off his shoes, followed by his pants. Parker untied his tie, letting it hang around his neck as he walked to where she sat on the bed. His nod was his unspoken command, and she unbuttoned his shirt.

  Carefully, reverently, Lexi undid each little white button with shaking hands. His powerful physique stood godlike, and even if he wore clothes like this every day, she wasn’t sure that she’d ever get used to it. She didn’t want her normal Parker to change one bit, but this was luscious.

  “Good,” he said. “Very good.”

  Goose bumps sparked across her skin at the praise. “Thank you.”

  He snaked the tie off his neck in one quick pull, letting it drop to the ground. Lexi’s eyes went wide as her core clenched. Parker shrugged off the button-down shirt and tore off the white undershirt until it was just him in glasses. “All for you, Lex.”

  She didn’t want to wait for whatever Parker had in mind. She kicked off her shoes and tugged off her socks. There was too much fun to be had.

  “Slow down, sweetheart. You’re my package to unwrap.”

  “I can’t. You’re killing me. And you’ll never get a sports bra off of me.” Which was true. He was naked, and she wouldn’t stay clothed—no way, no how.

  “On the bed, baby.”

  “Thank you, Jesus.”

  He snickered, shaking his head, and crawled up to the headboard, pulling her with him. “I’m going to take the glasses off now.”

  She had her fill—his dark hair sprawled out on the pillows, him reaching for the glasses. Who knew this was what it would take for her to go to heaven happy?

  “Fuck it.” He growled. “Look at me like that, and they’re never coming off.” He attacked her neck with kisses, teeth scraping, tongue lapping. His rock-hard erection pressed between her legs as his body burrowed between her thighs.

  “God, Parker.”

  She used her hand to guide his cock, and he pressed against her slick slit. Holy… shit. He hadn’t touched her all day. But she was more than turned on, and as he thrust inside her body, Lexi moaned and clawed his back, biting his shoulder, needing his cock to fill her.

  He inched back and thrust again.

  “Yes,” she said, panting, her body adjusting to the invasion. “Again. Please.”

  He did. Deeper. Harder.

  His chiseled body was a machine. He moved as though he knew her every breath, her every thought. Parker drove into her, gritting into her ear, cursing her for how good her pussy felt, how tight she felt, how hot she made him. Lexi arched into him, needing it all—the words, the rhythm, the intensity.

  She wrapped her arms around his neck, and he buried his head against her hair. They were lost in each other, and as their orgasms slammed together, the only thing she could think or feel, the only thing she could remember as the stars exploded, was how Parker murmured in her ear how much he loved her.

  Whispering and catching her breath, she felt her world begin and end with the man in her arms. “Love you too.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Jared could count only a few times in his life he’d been legitimately confused, and they included the last few hours. He popped a couple knuckles and tried to make sense of what he’d been watching and came up clueless.

  “Are you cleaning?” Jared eyed Sugar. For the third time, she rearranged a shelf in the kitchen pantry. It was notable since she didn’t rearrange anything that didn’t have ammo associated with it, and if she went into the pantry, it generally involved eating. None of which was happening. So he was lost.

  “Nope.”

  He continued to watch, wondering what the hell had happened to his wife. “Organizing, then?”

  “No.” She didn’t turn around.

  “What is it that you’re doing?”

  “Asal wants Jell-O.”

  That was not what she had been doing for the last few hours. “Do we have Jell-O?”

  “I have no idea.” Finally, she pivoted, exasperated. “But I’m not going to find the answer if you keep asking.”

  “Why don’t I go and get some?” he said, thinking it might be a solution. Solutions were what he did best, but then again, this was not a well-defined problem. Jell-O was a symptom. Of what, he had no idea. Literally, there was no way Sugar had been looking for Jell-O for hours. Or had pregnancy made her lose her mind?

  Sugar tugged a bright-red lip between her teeth. “And can you get some sour cream? That stuff is chronic on Cheez-Its.”<
br />
  “Check the fridge, Baby Cakes. You’re fully stocked.” He high-fived himself mentally.

  Asal skipped into the room. “Check again, Dad. We’re out.”

  Well, shit. How had he missed that search-and-destroy mission? “Okay. Back in ten.” He grabbed his keys, kissed his girls, and headed for his garage, hollering over his shoulder, “Anything else?”

  “Yeah,” Sugar called. “Just one of everything.” He heard them giggle and scoot out of the kitchen. “Come on, let’s go play in the baby’s room.”

  Apparently, in the last two days that meant folding and refolding everything, but whatever. Sugar liked it, and Asal was excited for the baby to arrive.

  As he punched the garage door open, he couldn’t wipe the smile from his face, knowing that his badass wife, the one someone might mistake for a “biker bitch,” was nothing more than a softie playing dolls with her kid and fussing over teeny baby outfits until they were just perfect.

  And no one knew that despite Jared’s growl and bite, those two girls and the one on her way could bat their little eyelashes, and he would bend God’s will to get whatever they wanted. He was mush for them. And proud of it.

  ***

  The baby kicked her uterus again, and Sugar winced, trying not to curse in front of Asal. “Whoa, popsicles.”

  Popsicles. Not a creative curse word. It was probably an homage to her ever-rumbling stomach but was better than any number of things that could have come out of her mouth.

  “I’m going to rock the baby like this.” Asal had a doll in her arm and swayed back and forth.

  “Awesome, honey.” Sugar slowly made her way to the glider and eased herself into it. Asal propped herself on the footstool, fussing over the baby doll’s clothes, then went to the changing table and pretended to change her doll with one of the newborn diapers.

  A small contraction hit. As Braxton-Hicks contractions went, this one was light. They’d plagued her for the last few weeks, and while they were supposed to be the practice ones, they still sucked.

  Buzz. Buzz.

  Dang it. “Asal, hon. Can you grab my phone?” She was not standing up at the moment.

  Dutifully scooping her baby doll into her arms, Asal grabbed Sugar’s phone—the buzzing had stopped—and handed it to her. Missed call: Jared. She hit redial. If there was a shortage of sour cream, there was a good chance she was to blame.

  “Hey.”

  “Hey, Baby Cakes. I hate to ask you this.”

  Sugar grumbled the same time another not-so-light contraction hit. “What’s up?”

  “I have a two-woman field team about to run an op for Delta. They have no gear, and Brock’s over near GUNS. Can he swing by for a quick shopping spree?”

  Brock was the commander of the Delta team. His wife, Sarah, was Sugar’s business partner, and she ran her gun store and range while Sugar took it easy and prepared for maternity leave. “Yeah, yeah. Take what you need. Put it on your tab.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Want to tell me how a grocery run turned into an order to fully outfit”—she shifted to alleviate the discomfort in her back—“two women I don’t know?”

  “All in a day’s work.”

  “No juicy details, huh? I can’t even live vicariously.”

  “Delta’s rescuing a Honduran cartel wife.”

  “Ah.” That probably had something to do with the shitstorm Delta cleaned up a few weeks ago in Central America. “Give me details later.”

  “You doing okay?” he asked.

  “Of course. Just nosey.” And uncomfortable and crampy. Maybe contraction-y. Definitely. Another contraction started. She checked to see how long they’d been on the phone. Not that long. “Did you get my snacks?”

  “Roger that. And Jell-O.”

  “Sweet. And you’re on your way home?”

  “Yeah. Why? Actually, I might stop—”

  She took a short breath. “Hey, come home.” Her voice had dropped. Asal paused with her doll.

  “Mom, you okay?”

  “Yes, honey.” Smiling at Asal, Sugar shifted again, using the glider—unsuccessfully—to try to ease the discomfort. “Jared.”

  “Already on my way.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Gravel spun under the tires as Jared skidded onto the shoulder and then righted his SUV from the U-turn. Sugar wasn’t one to panic. The woman would rather sit on a grenade and save a small town than let a modicum of sweat dampen her brow. That tinge of get home quick in her voice meant she was in pain, and there were very few times he’d heard his wife in a vulnerable state before. She’d be past the level of uncomfortable and likely timing a contraction or two before she’d let him in on what he already knew.

  The woman was in labor.

  He pressed the gas pedal, his heart pounding, and reached for his phone, dialing Mia Winters.

  Mia answered on the first ring. “Please tell me Sugar’s having a baby!”

  He grumbled at Mia’s over-the-moon excitement. His own excitement bordered on high blood pressure.

  Everything was under control. He’d mapped all possibilities out. Everything had a plan. The plans had contingencies. He would be cool under pressure as always. But his wife was about to deliver his daughter.

  He cleared his throat, cracking a knuckle for good measure. “She didn’t say that.”

  “Why would she?” Mia rounded her kids up off the phone before coming back. “It’s Sugar. On my way over.”

  “Could be nothing.”

  “Could be a baby!” Mia gushed.

  When she said it like that, Jared’s stomach jumped the way it had when he was that high-school freshman called out for varsity football. He had known it was coming, but when it did, it still shocked the hell out of him. But on the scale of exciting life events, varsity football versus a baby, the baby was magnified about a thousand times over. “Grab Winters.”

  “Colby’s already wrangling Ace into a car seat.”

  “Good.” Jared floored the gas when the light ahead turned yellow, ignoring what was certainly a heart palpitation in his throat. “Could be nothing.”

  “Then we have a pizza party with Asal, and Sugar can complain about heartburn.”

  “Right. See you soon.” He hung up and tossed down the phone then thought better of it, pulling it closer in case Sugar called, as though those extra inches between him and the phone would make a difference. He cracked a knuckle and cleared his throat.

  Sugar. Was. In. Labor.

  Minutes later, Jared screeched into the driveway and jumped out. He left the garage door up because why waste time if he would haul ass out again? He burst inside, groceries in hand just in case he was blowing Sugar’s tone of voice way out of proportion—although he knew he wasn’t.

  Asal’s huge grin met him. “Mama’s having the baby!”

  Sugar hovered on the edge of the couch arm, not exactingly sitting, a forced smile on her face, gritting her teeth more than saying hello. “Think so.”

  For one long-assed second, all of his plans went out of his head. They stayed locked in a look until Asal clapped. “Clara and Ace are here!”

  Jared blew out a breath. “Backup. Alright. Good. They’re here.”

  “Honey,” Sugar said, taking a deep breath and turning her head to look at their daughter. “Colby and Mia and the kids are spending the night.”

  “I know.” Asal rushed to the front door to let them in. “You guys have only been over the plans a thousand times.”

  This was true. They were nothing if not well prepared. Though in the eyes of a ten-year-old, that was likely as boring and annoying as Asal had just made it sound.

  The brood walked in. The kids went a million miles an hour. Winters made a joke. Sugar threatened to kill him. Mia smacked her husband and went to Sugar to start timing the contractions. They were close but not close enough to head to the hospital. Jared turned on the oven, per Mia’s instructions, that little drill sergeant, and took the bag of frozen pizza tha
t she had brought over for the kids.

  Clara and Asal ran through the living room with Ace in the back of a giant dump truck. “Don’t dump your brother face-first on the floor,” Winters yelled. He smiled and made his way into the kitchen.

  Jared crossed his arms over his chest, watching their two families’ lives unfold as Winters propped next to him against the counter.

  “This is some crazy shit,” Jared mumbled.

  “Pretty damn awesome, huh?” Winters agreed.

  Pride swelled in Jared’s chest. Hell yeah, it was. He nodded at his guy, who went to grab a beer, and Jared went to his wife. Sugar had still opted to sit on the edge of the couch arm instead of the actual couch cushion, and she and Mia were lost in conversation about Delta team and the new Titan recruits.

  He wrapped his arm around Sugar’s shoulders, settling on the back of the couch, and she leaned her weight against him.

  Ten years ago, if Jared had been offered a million dollars to predict the future of his household, there was no way he could’ve guessed correctly. Yeah, maybe he could’ve nailed the fact that Winters would settle down. Maybe him too. But that his fortress of a house was… a home? He took it all in: Happiness bounced off the walls as a pizza baked in the oven, and his impatient wife waited for a phone app to tell her it was time to head to the hospital.

  Could he have foreseen this? Never. He couldn’t have dreamed anything this great.

  “Okay. Press that little damn button,” Sugar growled to Mia, who hit the start button on the phone. All four adults watched the timer. Actually, three—Jared watched Sugar.

  Ding. Ding.

  Mia’s eyes danced. “Baby time.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  The overhead lights in the hospital’s reception room glared. People milled around as though something momentous were not about to happen. Jared was on edge. He knew adrenaline. He knew anticipation. He wasn’t at all prepared to sit and wait on paperwork, contractions, and a waiting area. Of all the places to have a waiting room, a hospital birth center seemed wrong. If he ran the joint, staff would be stationed there, directing traffic, giving orders to move at appropriate times. He’d have constant intelligence updates and live-streaming stats—where the doctor was, what the nurses were doing, when the rooms were ready.