“She’s actually said that?” Luke asked. “Your mom, thinking sex is evil,” he clarified.
“In Mom’s defense, I think she was referring to sex outside of marriage.”
Kristen wrinkled her nose and took a drink out of her bottle. “Could be. That whole conversation is a bit of a blur.”
“What conversation?” Tera asked.
“The one where I had to tell my parents I was knocked up.”
“Ooh,” Tera said.
“Yeah,” Kristen agreed.
“If it helps, Kristen, Mom and Dad disapproved of Rachel and Sean.”
Rachel bolted upright, spilling her beer on her hand. “What? But we’re engaged.”
“But you’re not married, and you’re living together.”
Sean turned around from where he’d been facing the television and scowled. “That’s BS.”
“I agree,” Rachel said, lying back down.
Elise shrugged. “I agree, too. But it is what it is. They’re old-fashioned. I’ve given up on trying to bring them into the twenty-first century.”
“Yeah, well, they don’t have to make everyone else’s lives miserable, too,” Kristen muttered.
Elise frowned at her sister. Is this because she’s on the brink of divorce and our parents wouldn’t understand?
Rachel’s phone made a noise, so she picked it up from where it was lying beside her on the floor. She looked at the display. “Oh my God,” she said as she jolted upright again. “Shelly had her baby!”
“What?” Heidi said. She worked at the same school as Rachel and Shelly. Heidi scrambled off the floor and grabbed her phone out of her purse. “Oh my God. That baby is so cute.”
Rachel stood up. “I want to go visit.”
“Doesn’t she need to rest?” Elise asked.
“Nope. It says Virginia Rose was born at eleven fifty-two p.m. last night and that mom and baby spent the day resting, so visitors are welcome,” Rachel said. “She said we’re all welcome.”
Elise was excited. She didn’t know Shelly that well, but she really wanted to go and see the baby.
“If you guys go, then I’d better bug out since I’ve never met her,” Kristen said as she stood up.
Elise got up from her chair and walked her sister to the front door. She gave her a hug. “Thanks for coming and helping. I appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome. That’s what sisters are for.”
Elise squeezed Kristen’s hand. “Call me if you need anything. Otherwise, let’s have dinner sometime this week.”
“You’re on.” Kristen hugged her again.
Kristen took off, and Elise walked back to the family room.
Tera stood and stretched. “I’d better go, too. I don’t know Shelly either. But, if you guys come back here and drink some more, give me a call.”
Nate stood. “Same here. She probably wouldn’t appreciate some strange guy showing up in her hospital room.”
Elise walked the two of them out, thanking them for all their help and promising to call later.
“Is it really okay if we go visit?” Elise asked when she rejoined the rest of the group. “And should we shower and change first since we were working all day?”
Rachel waved off her concern. “Nope. I told Shelly we were coming, and she can take us as we are.”
Luke stood from near Elise’s entertainment center. “Just in time, too, seeing as how we finally got the TV set up.”
Luke smiled as Elise fawned over Virginia Rose.
“She is so precious.” Elise ran her hand over the baby’s head as Rachel held her. “And look at all this red hair.”
“I told you I couldn’t wait to see their little ginger baby,” Rachel said. “And look at those blue eyes. I know they’ll probably change, but they’re so beautiful.”
Shelly and Joe laughed.
“I knew we’d have a redhead, obviously,” Shelly said, “but I had no idea she’d be born with so much hair. I figured she’d be bald until she was two. And we thought the same thing about her eyes. I’m secretly hoping they stay that way.”
Elise held out her arms. “Can I hold her now?”
Rachel pouted. “Okay, fine,” she relented as she handed the baby over.
“Hi, sweet pea,” Elise said. “I haven’t held a baby in a long time.” She looked up at Shelly. “You know, anytime you need a babysitter…”
Shelly smiled. “Good to know.”
“Me, too, of course,” Rachel said.
Elise bumped her hip into Rachel’s. “We can do it together.”
“Yay! We’d have so much fun.”
“What about you guys?” Joe asked. “Are you going to offer to babysit, too?”
Luke and Sean looked at each other.
“Uh…” Sean said while Luke didn’t say anything.
“I’m kidding,” Joe said.
“Whew, because I have no idea what to do with a baby.”
“Well, you’d better learn soon.” Rachel kissed the top of Virginia’s head.
When she looked up, everyone was staring at her.
Elise spoke first, “Rachel, are you trying to tell us that you’re—”
“What?” Rachel looked confused at first until realization dawned. “No. I’m just saying that, as soon as the ring is on my finger, bye-bye goes the birth control.”
Luke and Joe laughed at Sean’s deer-in-the-headlights expression.
“You might as well start preparing yourself now, man,” Joe advised him.
“It’ll be entertaining for sure to see Sean with a baby,” Luke said.
“Me? What about you?”
“I can handle a baby just fine,” Luke bragged.
He didn’t have any nieces or nephews yet, despite having three siblings, one of whom was older. But he’d grown up with a lot of cousins, and he’d had to do plenty of babysitting of them and his younger siblings.
Everyone looked at Luke like they didn’t believe him, which kind of chapped his ass. First, Sean had thought he was going to use Elise, and now, everyone thought he was a baby hater. Today was not Luke’s day.
At that moment, Virginia started to fuss, and Elise’s attempts to calm her weren’t working. “Is she hungry?”
“I don’t think so,” Shelly said. “She just finished nursing right before you guys got here. She’s been doing this on and off, and we can’t seem to calm her down.” Shelly sat up better on her bed and winced. “I can take her.”
Luke stepped closer to Elise. “Give her to me.”
Elise doubtfully looked at him. Luke tried not to let her uncertainty bother him, but it still rubbed him the wrong way.
He made a come-here motion. “Let me hold her.”
Elise looked to Shelly, who nodded, and then Elise gave him the baby.
Instead of cradling the baby in the crook of his arm, he placed the baby on his chest. Luke was wearing a V-neck T-shirt, and he pulled it down, so little Virginia’s head was on his skin. He turned away from everyone and began shushing her over and over as he bounced lightly on his feet. After several seconds, she settled down, closed her eyes, and went to sleep.
When Luke turned around, everyone was staring at him again.
“What?” he asked.
“You’re, like, a baby whisperer,” Joe said. “I’m calling you first to babysit.”
“Screw that. I’m calling you in the middle of the night,” Shelly added.
Luke smiled. “It’s not that hard to do. I put her on my chest, so she can hear my heart beating, and I moved my shirt down, so she can have skin-to-skin contact. And then either rock her or bounce her as you make a shh noise.”
“Nope,” Joe said. “You’re still a baby whisperer.”
Luke laughed softly so as not to wake Virginia as he continued to bounce her in his arms. He kissed her downy head before looking up at Elise, and when he did, he couldn’t quite read the expression on her face, but she looked like she was in awe.
Elise ran her hand down Luke�
��s bare back and nude butt as she lay on her side, facing him, until she reached the sheet just under his ass and then went back up again. He was lying naked on her bed, facedown, with the leg opposite hers bent and one of her pillows covering the top of his head. She wasn’t sure if he was falling asleep or just resting, and she didn’t care either way as long as she could keep touching him.
He was so beautiful to look at. His back was muscular and tan, as was his butt. He had a slight farmer’s tan where his shirtsleeves hit his arms and even where his shorts hit his waist, but it wasn’t significant because he was already dark. She wondered if he had any idea how gorgeous he was.
Oh, he knew he was good-looking, but she didn’t think he understood that he was perfection. She wanted to take a picture and put it on display at an art museum so that everyone would be graced with his beauty. Yet, at the same time, she wanted to take a picture and hide it away, so she didn’t have to share it with anyone else.
Elise braced herself on one elbow and continued to skim her fingers over his back and buttocks, enjoying the feel of him. “Hey, Luke?”
“Yeah?” he said, his head still under the pillow. He was facing away from her, but his mouth was free, so she could make out what he’d said.
“You were great today.”
“What part?”
“All of it. Being patient with my niece, helping me move all my crap, the laundry room, and the way you calmed Shelly and Joe’s baby.”
He didn’t say anything at first, but she could see the corner of his mouth tip up.
She leaned over and kissed the middle of his back. “You’re amazing. I hope you know that. I don’t know what happened between you and Sean, but I know you were bothered by it.”
Luke moved the pillow to under his head and rolled over, bringing the sheet up enough to cover his groin. He grabbed her hand that she’d been using to touch him and linked their fingers together while putting his free arm behind his head to prop himself up more.
“Sean knows about us.”
Elise let herself fall back down on the bed. “Yeah, I figured.”
“Are you upset?”
She looked into his face, and he seemed genuinely worried.
“No,” she told him. “It was bound to come out sometime.”
Her words seem to calm him.
“I don’t think he’s going to tell Rachel. That will still have to come from you.”
“Darn it. Here I thought, I was getting out of doing it. But, at the same time, my phone hasn’t been ringing off the hook, so I’m not surprised.” Elise turned toward him. “I know Sean finding out isn’t what upset you.”
He gave her a half-smile. “You’re right.”
“Want to tell me what happened?”
Luke sighed with frustration and ran his hand over his face as he gazed at the ceiling. “Sean thinks I’m going to break your heart.”
“What?”
“Yeah. I was insulted that he would think so little of me. I got upset and yelled at him because everyone thinks that I’m some womanizer who only cares about himself.” He turned his head toward her. “For the record, I have no intentions of hurting you.”
“I know,” she whispered.
And she did know that. She one hundred percent knew that Luke wouldn’t hurt her. On purpose. It was the accidental heartbreaks that people needed to be wary of.
“What did he say then?”
Luke grunted and returned to staring up. “I didn’t give him a chance to talk. I yelled at him about the fact that I dated someone for two years, but nobody knew because everyone just assumes I’m an asshole.”
“No one thinks you’re an asshole,” she told him. “And I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For being one of those people who thought that you were a player. When I heard you were coming to dinner back in June, I immediately thought of how you were in college, despite several years having passed.”
He picked up their twined hands and kissed the back of hers. “Thank you.”
It was Elise’s turn to sigh, but hers was due to anxiety. She’d wanted to ask Luke about Ava ever since Nate brought her up, but she didn’t know how. She hadn’t wanted to seem pushy or clingy. And, now that Luke had opened the door, Elise saw her chance and took it even if she wasn’t sure that she’d like the outcome.
“This two-year relationship…was that Ava?”
Luke’s head swung toward her. “How did you hear that name?”
“Nate.”
“That fucker.”
Elise laughed but was bothered at the same time. Did Luke not want Elise to know about his ex? “If you don’t want to talk about her, I understand.”
“No, she’s not a secret or anything. It’s just that, that guy has a way of always sticking his nose in other people’s business.”
“Oh,” Elise said, mostly because she didn’t know how else to respond.
“I met Ava about five years ago. Her father is a surgeon at the hospital. He introduced us while I was still in my residency, and I thought things were great between us. Then, she started dropping little hints about how much money her dad made and how he could get me into the surgical program. I told her that I was sticking with emergency medicine. I didn’t choose it because I wasn’t good enough to be a surgeon or something else. It’s what I wanted to do ever since I was ten years old and broke my leg. She didn’t get it though. Eventually, she broke up with me. Last I heard, she got herself that surgeon husband, and they live in some mansion.”
“Oh, Luke.” She squeezed their fingers.
To be made to feel like you weren’t good enough by someone you cared about was a horrible feeling. Especially when you were more than good enough.
Poor Luke.
He shrugged. “I’m glad I got out while I could. If I had done what she wanted, I could only imagine what would have been next. I have a feeling that nothing would have ever been good enough for her.
“And I wasn’t raised that way. My parents taught me to be happy and appreciative. Ava was always looking for something better. At first, I thought she was driven, but now, I see that she was constantly unsatisfied. I actually feel bad for the poor shmuck who married her because I doubt he makes her happy either.”
They lay in silence for a few minutes.
Then, Elise asked the second question she’d been wondering about since she heard Ava’s name, “Did you love her?”
He shrugged again. “I thought I did. Of course, now that I’ve been out of the relationship for two years, I see things in a new light. And you know what they say about hindsight. Plus, I’m really starting to see things differently.”
“How so?”
Luke extracted his fingers from hers and rolled on top of her. “How about we don’t talk about her anymore?”
Elise had about fifty more questions, but she could see that Luke was done, and she didn’t blame him. She didn’t want to talk about her exes either. At least, not for very long and not with the guy she was currently, literally, in bed with.
She reached up and ran her fingers through his hair. “What do you want to do instead?”
Luke smiled at her. “Well, we have several rooms left to christen.”
Elise laughed. “Maybe we can hold off on that. I’m a little”—she looked down—“sore.”
They’d had sex twice in her basement and then twice after they got home from the hospital. And, considering that Luke wasn’t a small guy, she was feeling it down below.
Luke grimaced. “Sorry, baby.”
She put a finger to his lips. “No apologies.”
She didn’t want him to feel guilty. She’d been a full and willing participant. He didn’t need to apologize.
“We’re not really going to have sex in every room in my house though, are we?”
Luke smiled. “The hell we aren’t. I have some pretty creative ideas for your closets and pantry.”
“Oh, really? Do tell.”
“No way. You
’re just going to have to wait to find out.”
“Well, if it involves you, then the wait will be worth it.”
“Damn, woman, you always know the right thing to say.” He leaned down and kissed her, slowly and gently.
She opened her mouth, and he slipped his tongue inside. She loved the taste of Luke. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him closer. She continued to kiss him as she spread her legs, so Luke could settle between them. His cock hit her right on her clit, and she rubbed against him.
Luke groaned and moved to roll away from her, but she held him tight.
“Don’t go.”
“Lise, I have only so much control.”
Elise didn’t answer. She just kissed him again. She arched, and the head of his penis slipped inside her.
Luke broke their kiss and put his forehead against hers. “Elise.”
“Luke.”
“Are you trying to kill me? I’m going to die from the worst case of blue balls.”
“We can’t have that now, can we?” She tilted her pelvis, taking him more inside her.
“Jesus Christ. You are trying to kill me.”
Elise laughed and coyly bit her lip.
“Baby, I love playing with you, but I really have to move to the other side of the bed now.”
“But I don’t want you to go,” she said seriously.
“You said you’re sore. I don’t want to hurt you.”
It was true. She was tender and swollen, but she still wanted him again. “Just go slow, okay?”
“Are you sure? Because, if you’re not, you need to tell me now.”
She touched his face, stroking his cheek. “I’m sure.”
That was all it took for Luke to push the rest of the way inside her. She bit her lip again because there was a quick bite of pain, but it passed right away.
“You okay?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
Luke kissed her again and softly moved, testing how much she could take. He tenderly shifted inside her, not thrusting, only moving their bodies enough to create a slight friction. He kissed her on her mouth, her neck, and her breasts, all while he rocked into her over and over again. He was sweet and gentle, and Elise was surprised but not really when Luke brought her to orgasm this way, too.
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