by Peggy Jaeger
Abby whirled back to him. With her hands fisted on her hips and fury screaming in her eyes, he got so hard so fast he was actually afraid the zipper on his jeans would pop.
He laughed. “Don’t be mad at me because your cat likes me.”
She moved slowly back to the table, temper flaring. The throbbing in Rick’s groin grew painful, begging for release.
“Yesterday you had her eating out of your hand, Bannerman.” She punched his forearm. “Do you know how long I’ve been trying to get her to do that for me? To take her vet treats from my fingers?”
He deflected the next punch, his laughter rolling like thunder in the room.
“You waltz in here with this whole alpha-hole thing”—she waved her hand back and forth over him—“and you charm my cat into total submission so much so she begs from you. Begs! Do you know how unfair that is?”
Before she could punch him again, he reached out, grabbed both her hands, and dragged her onto his lap. Holding her securely against him, he could feel the anger bounding through her.
“What are you really mad at, Abby? That I charmed your cat? Or that I charmed you?”
Her body vibrated from head to toe.
“You arrogant, egotistical, contemptible—”
He silenced her with a kiss.
She pulled against his hands, but he held, wary she’d use them again to pummel him. Not that she could do any damage since she hit like a girl.
He tasted her anger as he slid his tongue between her lips, forcing her head back as he plundered deep. In the next moment, he felt the fury dissolve. When she tugged on her hands this time, he let them go. In a heartbeat, she wound them around his neck and slid to change position, straddling him, all the while her mouth cleaved to his as if she couldn’t break away.
Never had he known such fire from a woman, such naked need. With Abby, emotions and responses would always be mercurial, would keep him guessing, and because of that, would always urge him to take more, try more, push more.
She bit down on his tongue, more playful than painful. He broke the kiss and pulled a whisper away from her. Her wet and swollen lips were twisted into a smirk.
“You look at me like that, sweetheart, and I’m not gonna be held responsible for my actions.”
“There are those implied threats again,” she said, lowering her lashes. She tipped her head back and pressed her bottom into his lap.
Rick went momentarily blind while she ground against him. “Nothing implied about them. I’m a man of my word.”
She leaned forward and pulled his lower lip between her teeth. Staring straight into his soul, she whispered, “Prove it.”
He gripped her waist and lifted her up with one hand, the other shoving her work dress up as far as he could. Before dropping her down on the table, he yanked her panty down and tossed it over his shoulder toward the couch. It landed on Moonlight’s head.
“Green today,” Rick said. “Matching bra?” he asked while carefully undoing his pants.
Abby wasn’t as careful. She dragged the zipper down in one swift move he felt all the way to his toenails.
“You’ll have to find out for yourself.” She took him in her hands and, while she had him imprisoned, shimmied to the edge of the table.
Rick’s vision blurred when her hand began tugging upward, slowly torturing him with pleasure.
“I seem to remember a certain sound that spilled between your lips in the shower, too,” she said. “And I’m certainly going to want to hear it again.”
With one final tug, she leaned forward and kissed him.
Rick let her lead for a bit, opening his mouth when her insistent, wicked tongue pushed past the seam of his lips.
Without warning, he broke from the kiss and grabbed her hand, halting her.
One look at her drowsy, lust-filled eyes and he almost came in her hand. He unwrapped her fingers from around him and lifted her hand to his lips. Her gaze softened when he dragged a gentle kiss across her knuckles.
“Lie back,” he ordered.
Abby blinked through the sexual haze. “What?”
“Lie back on the table, Abigail.”
She turned and looked behind her, then back to him. “You want me to…but I eat here.”
His strangled laugh made the cat startle. “Then this will be fitting,” he told her, gently nudging her shoulders back.
“But—”
He lifted her legs, and settled them over his shoulders.
“Rick?”
“Relax, sweetheart.” With her ass cupped in his hands and a quick grin and a sexy wink, he devoured her.
“Oh. My. God!” Her loud and unfiltered gasp shot straight through him. While he licked and teased and tortured her as she’d done to him, he watched her reactions. Restless, her hands shook about her body, finally slamming down flat on the table when the orgasm wove through her. Rick stood upright and slammed into her just as it hit her full force, going over the edge himself within seconds.
****
“I hear bells,” she murmured against his chest. He was still inside her. Somehow, he’d collapsed back into the chair, taking her with him, never breaking them apart.
“I’m good, but I’m not that good,” he said. “It’s your cell.”
Abby lifted her head. Rick’s eyes were closed, his head tossed back, reclined on the dining room chair back as he absentmindedly trailed his fingers across her hip.
Her naked hip.
Good Lord! She’d just had sex—mind-blowing, heart-stopping, what-the-hell-happened sex—on top of her dining table. Where she ate.
With Rick Bannerman.
Rick Bannerman!
She stretched across the table to the counter and grabbed her phone.
“It’s Josh’s batphone. The one he uses for emergencies.” As deftly as she could, Abby lifted off Rick’s lap and tugged her dress down. A tiny spit of embarrassment shot through her when she saw her panties slung across the couch cushion next to her cat. She turned her back to Rick and hit the answer button.
“Hey. What’s up?”
“We’re at the hospital.”
“Oh, my God. Is she in labor?” Rick leaned a hand on her shoulder. She turned around to him. Kandy? he mouthed.
She nodded.
“Yeah. Started about two hours ago, and it’s going fast, just like with Ben. She’s already eight centimeters. I slipped out of the room because she asked me to notify you. Your mom’s here with us. Mine’s on the way. Can you call everyone else?”
“Consider it done. I’ll be there in twenty minutes, tops. Tell her I love her, will ya?”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
“I’m on my way.”
She ended the call and grabbed her panties, her momentary self-consciousness flown. Slipping into them, she said, “We need to get to the hospital. Can you drive while I make calls?”
“Is everything okay?”
She grabbed her keys and threw them into her purse. While she slipped back into her work shoes, her feet let her know they were pissed off she was putting them back on again. Through a little hiss of pain, she said, “Yes, but Kandy had a fast birth with Ben, and it’s happening again.”
They bolted out the door. While waiting for the elevator, Abby snuck a glance at him. He’d finger combed the hair she’d mussed back into place, shoved his shirt into his pants, and done up the zipper. You’d never know that less than five minutes before, he’d been buried deep inside her, moaning her name.
Chapter Fifteen
“I’ve been in this hospital more times in the past week than I’ve ever been in any other for my whole life,” Rick said when they alighted on the maternity floor.
It was easy to find her sister’s room since there was a crowd of people she recognized milling about in the hallway outside it.
“Hey. Any word?” Abby bent and kissed Gemma, the only adult sitting. Her husband leaned against the chair’s armrest, his hand snaked into his wife’s. On the other side of Gemma, Ka
ndy and Josh’s two-and-a-half-year-old son Ben was asleep, his thumb secured in his mouth.
“The obstetrician went in there about three minutes ago. Mom’s been out once to say the baby’s crowning.” Her gaze flicked between her sister and Rick.
“Ellie’s in there along with Josh, and both moms,” Ky said, while he shook Rick’s hand.
Abby kissed her sister Belinda next. “Brian with the kids?”
“Yeah. Declan had soccer practice, and Moira’s with Brian’s mother. Did you call the others?”
“Yeah. I left a voice mail for Daisy, but I spoke to Fallon. She and Hal just got back from a mission trip to Haiti. They said they’d be able to come up by the weekend.”
“The last I heard, Daisy was still in Italy, so it’s the middle of the night there,” Belinda said.
“She’ll get the text when she wakes up. I called Stacy, too. She, Nikko, and Melora are all on location in Texas, but they’re due back tomorrow night.”
“You got here fast,” Gemma said, staring at Rick. “Were you two together?”
Abby noticed Ky give her hand a subtle squeeze.
“What?” Gemma said, pouting up at her husband. Before anyone could respond, they heard the unmistakable screech of a baby wailing.
“Oh.” Abby’s hand flew to her chest. Rick pulled it into his, Gemma’s piercing stare zeroing in on the action.
“Baby cryin’.” Ben pushed himself up on the bench and rubbed his eyes. “Mommy?”
“She’s okay, Benny-Boy.” Belinda picked him up for a cuddle. “She’s busy right now.”
Ben shoved his thumb back into his mouth and laid his head down on his aunt’s shoulder. The door flew open, and Hannah Laine stepped into the hallway, accompanied by the sound of a very perturbed infant.
“Well, you can tell she has Laine blood in her,” Hannah said, tears slipping down her cheeks.
“She?” Abby said.
“Seven pounds, six ounces. Ten fingers. Ten toes. The fattest cheeks I’ve ever seen.”
“You won the pool, Abs,” Ky said.
“She had a fifty-fifty chance,” Gemma said, her tone vexed and grumpy.
“Yeah, but you all said boy. I was the only one who knew she was having a girl.”
“You guessed she was having a girl,” Gemma said. “There’s a difference.”
“Cranky, much?” Abby laughed when her sister squinted at her.
“You try carrying around a twenty-pound bowling ball in your stomach all day, Abigail June, and we’ll see what kind of mood you’re in at the end of the day.”
Ky pulled his wife’s hand to his lips and railed a kiss across her knuckles. In a nano-second, Gemma’s grumpy mood dissolved.
Ellie slipped through the door. Still in her surgical scrubs, she announced, “They need a little more time to get Kan and the baby cleaned up.”
“Is she okay?” Belinda asked.
“Yeah. She’s a really fast dilator. Both deliveries in under three hours. Luckily, she’s just exhausted, not torn or anything.”
“A little too much info, El,” Ky said, his golden skin paling.
“Sorry. It’s the doctor in me. Why don’t you all go down to the cafeteria, and I’ll text when she’s ready for visitors.”
“I’m staying put,” Gemma announced. “This is the first time I’ve sat all day.”
Rick squeezed Abby’s hand. “You want to go check in on your client while we’re waiting?”
“That’s not a bad idea. We’ll be right back,” she told her family.
“Where are you going?” Gemma asked.
“I’ve got a client up on the surgical wing. We’ll be back as soon as we get Ellie’s text.”
“Gemma was giving me the stink-eye,” Rick said when then got back into the elevator.
Abby rolled her eyes. “Don’t read anything into it. She’s been giving everyone the stink-eye. This pregnancy has been hard on her.”
“I think it was more because we arrived together.” He took her hand and held it again. “She probably suspects there’s something going on between us.”
“There is something going on between us,” she said, with a shrug. “You’re in alpha protection mode and I’m the protect-ee. Plus, I happen to be involved—on the fringe, mind you—of a case you’re working on.”
His eyes narrowed. “That’s not all, Abigail, that’s going on between us.”
Back to full name. Hmm. Interesting.
The elevator doors opened, preventing her from responding.
“Come on.” She tugged his hand.
****
By the time they finished their visit, Abby’s phone dinged with a text from Ellie.
“What’s with the smile?” Rick asked.
Abby laughed. “I could be really greedy and say I’m happy I just won about five hundred bucks because I was the only one who correctly guessed I was getting a niece.”
Rick grinned.
“But the real reason is because I’m so happy Kandy has a little girl. Don’t get me wrong. I love Ben with all my heart. But if anyone deserves to have a mini-me, it’s Kandy.”
Rick tilted his head while he stared at her.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
How could he tell her he’d been picturing her in his mind with her own little mini version, both in sheath dresses and heels, glasses on their faces. The image was both cute and powerful.
Kandy’s room exploded with people.
“You two do make beautiful babies,” Abby said, bending down to kiss her sister’s cheek. Kandy’s tired smile beamed up at her. “Good Lord, Kandy, she’s your clone.”
“I think I see a little of Josh mixed in there, too,” Hannah was quick to say.
“Let’s hope not. The kid’ll be doomed.” Rick smirked at his best friend, and then grinned when Josh shot him his middle finger. He bent and kissed Josh’s mother on the cheek.
For the next few minutes, cell phone pictures were taken, and the baby was passed to both grandmothers, then Kandy’s sisters.
“Your turn, Abs,” Ellie said.
“Oh, I don’t think I should since I was just sick.”
“Don’t be lame,” Ellie said. “You had a virus that’s run its course. Wash your hands. It’ll be fine. I’m a doctor. I know these things.”
“Kandy?”
“You know you want to hold her, Abs. Go ahead. I’m not worried.”
Abby washed her hands at the sink, then donned a yellow paper gown provided for visitors.
Hannah laughed when Abby tied a paper mask around her mouth and nose as well.
“Just as a precaution,” Abby said as she took the baby from Ellie’s hands. “She’s so beautiful. So precious.”
The wistfulness in her voice had his ears perking. At that exact moment, their gazes connected across the crowded room. She seemed so happy. Even with the mask covering the lower portion of her face, he could see her wide smile. It filled her glistening eyes as she cradled the sleeping baby in her arms.
Rick’s heart stuttered, the sensation jerking his head back. The image of Abby rocking their baby was so powerful, so clear, he was terrified to blink, lest it disappear. He felt his blood rushing through his body, heard his heart hammering in his ears.
He wanted that image to be a reality. Abby and him, together for life, a baby conceived in their love.
As shocking as the thought was—and it was a heart-stopper for so many reasons—Rick could actually envision it.
Christ. He was losing it. There was no way he could ever be a father. Fear of turning out exactly like his own pounded through him daily. He wouldn’t do that to a child. Couldn’t.
No, the image floating across his vision was a fantasy, pure and simple.
The moment broke when Ky asked what Josh and Kandy were naming the baby.
“Well,” Josh said, giving his a wife a smile, “since Ben was named for Granddad, we want to stick to family names.”
“I know what it is,”
Abby exclaimed. The baby startled at the excitement in her voice. “Sorry, sweetie.” She lowered her voice. To her sister and brother-in-law, she said, “You’re naming her Sophie, aren’t you?”
Kandy laughed. “First you guess I’m having a girl—”
“And I was the only one who did. Remember that.”
“—then you guess the name. Yes. We’re naming her Sophie Grace after Grandma.”
“It’s perfect,” Hannah said, grazing her fingers across the baby’s head.
“Okay, super guesser,” Gemma said with a pout. “You’re being a Sophie baby-hog. I want to hold her again.”
After passing her back, Abby removed the mask and gown and came to stand next to him.
“Not a baby gusher, Bannerman?” Her lips twitched at the corners.
It took him a moment to blank what he was feeling from showing in his expression. The swift hiss of air she pulled in and the way her cheeks heated proved he wasn’t quick enough in masking his thoughts.
The feeling they were the only two people in the room, hell, on the planet, ran through him. The urge to pull her into the nearest private area, be it the elevator or a supply closet, was so powerful, he fisted his hands into his pants pockets so he wouldn’t grab her and give into the yearning.
“What’s wrong?” she whispered.
“Nothing. I’m just…antsy, waiting to hear back from Donovan.”
He knew Abby had an excellent bullshit detector. She needed it to deal with lying witnesses and clients every day, so he was fairly confident when her eyes narrowed and she pulled the corner of her lip between her teeth she didn’t believe him. Since they were surrounded by family, though, he didn’t think she’d publicly call him on the lie.
One of the maternity nurses came in and announced visiting hours were over. While the rest of her family trooped out the door, Kandy asked Rick to hang back for a moment. A frowning Abby left them alone when Kandy motioned for her to wait outside. When it was the three of them in the room, the sleeping baby in Josh’s arms, Ben snuggled up next to his mother on the bed, Kandy shot out a hand, wiggled her fingers and commanded, “Come here.”
