Surprised by a Baby

by Mindy Neff

  A scream of frustration built within her.

  What she couldn’t get out of her mind was the un-inhibited, wild way he’d made love to her before.

  She wanted that again.

  She hooked her leg around his thigh, gripped the back of his neck and arched her hips against him. “Quit pussyfooting around.” A wash of heat stained her cheeks. She hadn’t intended to verbalize the thought.

  He looked down at her, arousal and amusement in his eyes. “You don’t like my technique?”

  “I just meant…I won’t break.”

  He studied her for a long moment, his breathing as unsteady as hers. “I don’t want to dredge up any bad memories.”

  “The memory I’m wanting you to dredge is just a little over two months old. I want what we had last time. I need…”

  His eyes flared, and he rolled with her until she lay on top of him. “Then take it. Whatever you need. All of me, or as much as you want. Show me how you want to be touched.”

  And she did, blanking his mind, sending him right to the edge of madness, nearly making him regret his suggestion.

  Skin to skin, their bodies pressed from chest to toes. She writhed against him, never still, her hands and lips racing over him. He felt as though the top of his head was going to come off, held on to his control by sheer will.

  She continually surprised him. She was so sensual. A man would be lucky to have this woman in his life. Forever.

  He didn’t know how much more of this achingly erotic torture he could stand. Her breasts slid against his belly as she moved lower on his body. He read her intention and rolled her onto her back.

  “My turn now.”

  “Oh, no you don’t.” She flipped him back over and took him in her mouth before he could even think.

  His hips shot up off the bed and he groaned, part shout, part prayer. He reveled in the feel of her slick tongue against him for just a instant or two more, then he swept her beneath him and covered her mouth with his. Maybe she needed the control, to prove something to herself, but she’d just have to hang on a little longer—at least until he took the edge off this mind-blowing desire that had built to an inferno inside him.

  He filled his palm with her breast, kneed her legs apart and worked his way down her body, nipping, tasting, toying until he’d reached exactly where he’d intended to go.

  Cupping her hips in his palm, he tilted them and made love to her with his mouth, determined to wring every drop of pleasure from her.

  Donetta fisted the sheets, arched right up off the bed. The orgasm that ripped through her was incendiary. She screamed. Begged. With an utter loss of control, her entire body jerked with spasms that went on and on.

  And then, while her womb still squeezed and pulsed, he shifted and thrust inside her in one long powerful stroke.

  Colors burst behind her closed eyelids. He didn’t move, just pressed, pressed, pressed…harder, higher, letting her ride the crest to completion and beyond.

  And then he pulled back—slowly, oh, so slowly—and thrust again, setting a tempo that took her right back over the top. Heat scorched her. She couldn’t draw in a deep-enough breath.

  He snatched her legs up and around his waist, reached beneath her and supported her hips with his forearm and let go. She felt him swell incredibly hot and hard inside her. The room narrowed to just the two of them, as their bodies strained to appease and be appeased. And this time, when he shot her over the edge, he followed, soared with her, held her within the safety of his powerful arms and caught her as she fell through the exquisitely, mind-numbing freefall of bliss.

  DONETTA AWOKE TO BIRDSONG. She lay quietly and listened as the birds announced their presence to the world, boasting of their status, impressing their mates.

  She glanced at Storm’s beautiful face, relaxed in sleep. He’d definitely impressed her. Time and again during the night. Her body felt both exhausted and renewed, tender and strong.

  Carefully slipping out of bed so she wouldn’t wake him, she went into the bathroom across the hall and brushed her teeth, finger-combed her hair and donned the silky robe that hung on the back of the door.

  The building inspector was supposed to give the final okay on her salon today, which meant she’d be moving back to her apartment. Why did that thought cause her heart to sting? Last night she’d had another taste of what her life could be, yet she was still terrified that something would happen to change the closeness she’d shared with Storm and his family for nearly as long as she could remember.

  A failed relationship headed that list of “what if.” Couples always started out with good intentions. But too many times, when passion dimmed, troubles brewed.

  If she could just see into the future…

  But she couldn’t. She only had the past to guide her.

  She went back across the hall and had barely crossed the threshold when she ran smack into Storm. Her hands shot out and connected with his bare chest. Without her shoes, the top of her head barely came up to his chin.

  He swept her all the way into the room, backed her against the wall and kissed her, bringing alive the exquisite rush of sensations and recall of everything they’d done during the night.

  When he lifted his head, they were both breathing hard.

  “I thought I’d have to send out a search party for you.”

  She shook her head, her heart racing. “I’m still here.”

  “Are you okay?” His hands smoothed over the silk of her robe, inflaming her anew.

  “Much better than okay. If there was a guarantee we’d have that kind of intensity for the rest of our lives…” She nodded toward the bed. “I’d be a happy woman. And we’d both be dead.”

  He grinned. “I feel pretty healthy. You look pretty healthy. We’ve got a good seventy years’ wear-and-tear left in these bodies.”

  “You think so? Didn’t you pay attention in Sunday school? God’s got a book of names up there. If He’s accurate enough to know when to expect us, then you can be darn sure we were each assigned a carefully calculated number of heartbeats. I don’t know about you, but I used up an extra two years of my supply in that bed last night. And that’s not counting what we did to each other early this morning.”

  “Well, now you’ve got me good and depressed. All I have to do is look at you—hell, just thinking about you gets my heart pumping overtime. Add the couple of times I’ve had a little flutter or two on the job and I figure my clock’s running backward and I’m living on borrowed time.”

  He hooked his arm around her waist, and she shrieked when he tossed her on the bed. He landed beside her and soul-kissed her until her heart was as tangled up as their limbs.

  Sobs gathered in the back of her throat, but muffled laughter escaped. “Is that any way to treat a pregnant lady?”

  She might as well have poked him with a hot curling iron. He sprang off her in an impressive move that didn’t appear to have any help at all from his arms and legs. His deep green eyes were full of remorse and concern as his hand immediately covered her stomach.

  “Are you all right? Did I hurt you? Man, I can’t believe I forgot.” He pressed his ear to her stomach.

  Just that quickly, everything inside her melted.

  The familiar sting of tears flooded her eyes, accompanied by the ache in her throat that wouldn’t let her swallow. She loved the baby growing in her womb, was even fascinated and awed by the changes in her body.

  But she hated these unpredictable hormonally induced mood swings that were merrily having their way with her emotions and laughing in her face because she couldn’t stop them.

  She scrubbed the sleeve of her robe over her cheeks, then indulged herself for a few moments, spearing her fingers through Storm’s thick, silky hair. She meant to steal only a moment, but instead of sliding out from under him, she wanted to bind him to her, hold him just like this for as many heartbeats as they each had left.

  “He’s a tough guy,” Storm said, his breath warm against her stoma
ch, his sensuously soft baritone causing her skin to vibrate, the sensation spreading through her body in ever-widening circles like ripples on a glassy lake.

  “He’s laughing. Either that, or your stomach’s growling…His head jerked up. “I didn’t make you sick, did I?”

  She lifted her wrists. “The bands are still doing their job, thank goodness.”

  “Maybe you’re past the morning-sickness stage.”

  She sat up. “We’ll see after breakfast. I need to run them through the wash. So far, every time I’ve done that I’ve been pea green by the time the dryer stopped. But hey, who knows. Maybe these little acupressure things have got all my chi flowing on course,” she said flippantly.

  “Now, look-a-here. Don’t be knocking something that’s clearly working. I’m a guy who sees things in either black or white. If I can get on board with misaligned cells and blocked chi, a flashy, damn-the-torpedoes trailblazer like you can, too.”

  “I’m not knocking them.” Trailblazer? Oh, she liked that. “I might not understand the process, but that’s okay as long as they keep doing their thing. We need to find out where Ray got them, though. I could use a couple of extra sets.”

  “We could try hypnotism again.”

  She gave him a bright smile, patted his cheek, then attempted to slide out of the bed. “No sense taxing your strength. These are fine.”

  Storm captured her wrist before she could get away. “Marry me, Donetta.”

  She closed her eyes, took a deep breath.

  He knew he’d made a big mistake even before she opened her eyes. Achingly bittersweet sadness radiated back at him, along with resistance and unshakable resignation.

  “No,” she said softly.

  He erupted in white-hot frustration. “So, what’s your plan? You go your way and I go mine, and when one of us has an itch, we fall into bed and scratch it?”

  “You don’t have to be ugly.”

  “Damn it, Donetta. We’re having a baby, and you’re being totally irrational about the whole situation.”

  “No. I’m not. You’re the one who’s not seeing clearly right now because you want your way, and that’s all you can focus on.” She snatched her wrist out of his hold, jerked the lapels of her robe closed and tied the belt at her waist. She crossed the room and sank onto the chair by the window, dropping her forehead into her hands.

  “Netta—”

  When she lifted her head, tears were tracking down her cheeks. He swore and went to her, knelt in front of her. “Come on, darlin’, don’t do that.”

  He cupped her face in his hands, and the tear that dripped onto his wrist was like a splash of acid stinging his heart. He kissed her eyelids, her cheeks, the corners of her mouth. “I’m sorry. Tell me what to do. Tell me what you need.”

  “I need to be free,” she whispered. “You have to let me go, Storm. If I married you…” She shook her head, tears still spilling over her lower lashes. “All I’ve ever wanted is the freedom to be myself, to have a home and a family to love. I thought I had that once, and went into the marriage trusting the way any other normal person would. Maybe…maybe if it had been you, things would have been different. I would be different. But it wasn’t you.”

  She skimmed her fingertips over his face, pulled back and swallowed hard. “I love you, Storm.” Saying the words to him nearly sent her over the edge. She took a breath.

  “But if I allowed myself to have what my heart wants, I’d be taking the chance of losing it, as well. And I can’t do it. I just can’t do it. Please,” she begged softly. “Please try to understand.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  “I don’t understand, Donetta.”

  “That’s because you’re reacting to the chemistry between us,” she said. “As am I. It’s new and different, something we haven’t experienced between us in all these years. But the heat of desire can cloud issues, Storm. It doesn’t last forever. The fire burns down—believe me, I’ve had countless clients in my chair reiterating this very thing. So, what happens between us when the flame goes out? Would we have anything left?”

  “Of course we would.”

  “You say that now. But you can’t promise. It’s too risky to put our friendship on the line. Anything that affects us negatively will ripple down to too many others.”

  “You want an escape route,” he said. “To share our child and our family, yet for each of us to keep our own space.”

  She nodded. “I’m sorry.”

  “Yeah, me, too.” His voice was like sandpaper on a rough board. He stood up and jerked his T-shirt over his head, tugged on his jeans.

  “Storm—”

  “I’m not like him, Donetta. I don’t have a deep dark side I’m hiding, waiting until I have you legally bound to me to show it.” He raked a hand through his hair. “Hell. I hate the fact that I halfway do understand where you’re coming from. I’ve been blown away more than once when I’ve found out a guy I knew and liked was actually a sick creep behind closed doors.”

  He turned and looked at her, flinched when he saw the near relief in her eyes, knew he’d hit at least part of the mark.

  “That newsclip that played over and over on TV, which made it look like I was roughing up a citizen, left a powerful image in a lot of people’s minds. I didn’t use excessive force on Shantelle Kingsley, Donetta. The woman had an accomplice standing by with a video camera. The confrontation was staged, and the film was altered. It could have happened to any of the officers on the force, but I was the one in the wrong place at the wrong time. She wanted to sue the state in a big splashy trial, cash in on some easy money. Thank God the case didn’t go that far. Roy exposed the evidence before I’d even completed two full days of suspension, and I was fully exonerated.”

  She sat silently, listening to him. He doubted his explanation would change her mind. But he needed to tell her anyway.

  “I have proof—and it’s over there in my computer if you want to see it.” He went to the table and scribbled a sequence of numbers on a pad of paper, ripped off the page and handed it to her. “This is my password and access ID number.”

  “I don’t need to look at it, Storm.” She tried to hand the piece of paper back to him, but he wouldn’t take it. “Why didn’t the news stations tell the real story?”

  “Because I asked the department not to release it. I was back to work and I didn’t want any more attention drawn to the whole fiasco. I just wanted to forget it. The department handled any inquiries that came in on an individual basis. A couple of the channels gave a five second sound bite when additional charges were filed against the Kingsley woman. That information in the computer is as much proof as I can give you—other than my word.”

  “Thank you for telling me, Storm. You didn’t have to.”

  “Maybe not. I can’t imagine ever getting to the point of irreconcilable differences with you, but I know that’s a genuine worry of yours. You can at least rest easy that any disagreements between us would never involve violence.” He had to get out of this room. He could only be noble and self-sacrificing for so long before he put his fist through a wall and scared the hell out of her.

  Because he knew there was nothing he could do to give Donetta the peace and emotional safety she sought. Except to let her go as she’d asked.

  “I’ll help you get your stuff back in your apartment as soon as Blane gives the go ahead.”

  HE HADN’T SEEN Donetta since he’d moved her back to her apartment three days ago. It was all Storm could do not to go to her, to demand that she come to her senses and acknowledge that they belonged together.

  Sitting at the counter in his mother’s café, he laid his fork down and pushed away his uneaten meal. Sunny, who’d been helping out with the customers tonight, poured herself a cup of coffee and leaned against the wall, obviously taking a break. He went over to her.

  “Hey, big brother.” She reached out and gave his arm a compassionate squeeze.

  He shoved his hands in his pockets, unsure
how to formulate the questions he wanted to ask. “Do I know you?”

  She gaped at him. “Did you have a lobotomy you forgot to mention?”

  “Not like that. I know you’re my sister. But do I know you. If we went on one of those family game shows—how would we do?”

  She grinned. “Because of your gender, I’d have the advantage over you.”

  “I’m not real happy with women-versus-men stuff just lately,” he warned.

  She set down her cup, touched his arm, then pulled him farther toward the kitchen, away from listening ears. “This is serious, isn’t it.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay, I can only speak for myself here, but if we were on a game show, and I had to answer questions about you, I’d probably get around seventy-five percent right.” She shrugged. “You keep a lot to yourself and we were apart for a number of years—”

  “But we’ve always been a close family. You can’t deny that, or the love.”

  “No. The love was never in question. But that’s a different subject. You can love someone for years and not know what’s buried deep.” She gave him a shrewd look. “Donetta had no idea Tim was an abuser. She dated him close to a year. Saw him every day. Kind of scary when you think about it.”

  His eyes narrowed. “I’m getting pretty sick of being compared with that son of a bitch.”

  “I’m not comparing you, Storm. And neither is Donetta. After she stayed with me in California for a while, when she was ready to face things, we flew to Dallas to see Tim’s mother and sister. They’re nice people. Normal people. They seemed totally surprised by Tim’s abuse.”

  He folded his arms across his chest to keep himself from punching the nearest wall. He didn’t doubt the Dildays’ shock. His own mother didn’t know what Donetta had gone through, and Donetta was as close to Anna as her own daughter.

  “I probably shouldn’t be telling you any of this,” Sunny said.

  “Please, Pip. You’re not breaking a confidence. I know about the baby she lost—how she lost it.” His hands fisted. He uncrossed his arms, tried not to show his knotted tension. “And the perfection Tim expected. I know how he broke her spirit—at least she thought he broke it. I’ve never met a stronger woman.”