by Taryn Quinn
Erica lightly stroked the dark hair swirling around the crown of his head. “I might be a little biased, but I agree.”
I peeked over Gabby’s shoulder and my heart melted. His little eyelids were still swollen from the whole birthing thing. He was a golden pink and utterly perfect—even if he looked a bit like a wrinkled old man.
His little fingers had ridiculous nails already. They curled tight against the skin of my sister’s breast.
“Guess he took to the whole food source thing quick, huh?”
“Boob man like his dad.”
I giggled and a tear slipped down my face. I didn’t even realize I was crying until it dripped off my chin. “You did good.”
Ric gave me a soft smile. “Little Leo was in a hurry to be born. His mama didn’t even get to have any drugs.” Her voice was soft and singsongy.
“Oh, no.” Gabby shoved Erica’s legs over a little so she could sit cross-legged. She patted the bed for me to join them.
“Yes. It was…we’ll go with rough. Understatement times a million but,” she sighed. “I got this little guy.”
“Worth it,” I whispered.
“Definitely.” Erica couldn’t drag her eyes away from her son.
“Leo?” I asked.
“Yeah. Like it?”
“It’s a beautiful name.”
Suddenly, the baby coughed and sputtered.
When she tried to get him to re-latch and there were only screams, my sister laughed. “Well, guess he’s done.” She handed him off to me. “Can you hold him for a second so I can cover up before I have a horde of firemen in here? Mills won’t leave me alone long.”
Instinctively, I took him and adjusted his impossibly tiny body into the crook of my arm. The tears kept going. His little arm flailed a little as he gave out a mighty cry. I stood and started rocking him as I did with Sami. They were markedly different sizes, but the rocking motion seemed to be just what he wanted.
Gabby leaned forward, still in the cross-legged pose. She propped her head up on her hands. “Look at you. Playing house with the sheriff has you full of a whole host of skills.”
“It’s been a crazy few weeks.” Finally, little Leo seemed to settle, his milk-drunk head lolling against me. “He’s perfect.”
Erica shifted with a wince. “Perfectly big head, gotta say.”
Gabby grimaced. “Man, no more details. I’ll never want to have one.”
“Can’t say I’m in a rush to do it again. Especially considering where I have a few stitches.”
Gabby and I both made a hissing pull of air between our teeth. “That’s no good.”
Erica gingerly slipped out of bed. “Be glad you got the kid without all the birth and blood. You definitely made out.” She padded to the bathroom, so she didn’t see the quick wash of tears return.
I’d give anything to do this. To carry a little one and feel it growing inside me. Jared’s little boy or girl. There was no doubt that if I could dream up a child, it would be his.
“Look at you getting the baby fever. You’d think a three-month-old would have you too tired to even want it.”
“I’ve always wanted one.” I stroked the back of his chubby cheek with the side of my finger. “More than you could ever know.”
Gabby hopped off the bed. “Hannah is the same. Well, she had the Cove water before she knew better. But now her world is crazy, and she’s happier than I’ve ever seen her.”
I sniffled and kept swaying.
“Hey, is there something going on? Everything okay with Sheriff Hottie?”
I shook my head. “Nothing’s wrong. Just being emotional.”
“Oh, God, he didn’t knock you up, did he?”
“No. I wish.”
“You wish?” She rocked back on her heels. “Mami will be super stoked to know you want to get all in with the babies. Then maybe she’ll leave me alone.”
Our mother bustled in. “I can hear you in the hall, Gabriela. I don’t appreciate it. You don’t have to give me a grandbaby. I only want what’s best for you. And you could use some settling down.”
“Ma, please.”
“I second that,” Erica said from behind us. “Now someone come over here and help me back in bed before I pop a freaking stitch.”
“Go. Help your sister.” My mother gently took Leo from me. “I need time with my nieto.” She settled him on her chest, propping up his little butt. “There’s a beautiful boy. Already sleeping for your mami.”
I hurried around to help Ric. Anything not to think about the hollow ache in my chest and belly.
As promised, the bedlam began in earnest. Jake came in with two firefighters in tow. They didn’t know the meaning of the word whisper, but already the baby was sleeping through the ruckus.
“Babe, what are you doing up?” He came around the bed and pushed us out of the way. “I got her.”
“If you caveman-lift me up right now, I will put your nuts in a jar.”
Jake chuckled. “Come on, Freckles. We’ll get you situated. Is our boy all fed?”
Erica’s face softened again. “Yes. I didn’t have to even fight it. Just was all ready for me.”
“There’s a love.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “As if it would be any other way. Leo knows exactly where he wants to be.”
She boosted herself up on his massive forearm and hissed out a breath as she slowly settled on the mattress. “They make these things for tall people.”
“Instead of little feisty women.” Jake pulled the blankets back. “There you are.” He tucked them around her and settled just behind her on the bed. “We’ll never get him back from your mother.”
Erica snuggled into him. “Probably not.”
I quietly shuffled my way around the crowd of onlookers trying to get a look at the baby. The voices were a hum of pure happiness and awe. The guys from the firehouse weren’t quite sure what to do with a baby, but they were happy to crowd around my mother. And Bonnie was more than happy to preen as she showed off her grandbaby.
I spotted Jared out in the hallway. I looked back at my sister to see if she needed me. I knew she didn’t, but it was my job to make sure. I was the baby of the family, but this was a big day. One full of bright gold bubbles of happiness.
And I wasn’t really sad. Okay, maybe a little sad. Childbirth might never be a part of my life.
That was just the way it was.
I caught Erica’s gaze just before I slipped through the door. She gave me a little finger wave and blew me a kiss. I did the same and closed the door behind me.
I spotted a nurse shaking her head as she came charging down the hall. “That is more than the allowed visitors.”
Jared grabbed my hand and we both escaped down the hall. “I should stop in and see my dad.”
He shook his head. “He escaped to the back of the building. Adam smuggled in a Cuban cigar.”
“Why, Sheriff, you allowed smoking laws to be broken?”
Brooks shrugged. “I’m off-duty.”
“Well, well, a new Sheriff Brooks is in town.”
“I already broke with protocol by bringing you in my cruiser and using the lights and sirens. What’s a little stogie off the property lines?”
I shoved down all the twisted emotions that had been barreling through me for the last four hours. My best friend looked happy. His shoulders were usually so stiff with the weight of the town on them. But this Jared had crinkles near his eyes as he stared down at me.
I needed to take this minute—maybe an hour—and just love him.
While I still could.
“Luna told me I could pick up the baby at seven. They were introducing her to the very old version of Rudolph and maybe the Grinch.”
“Sounds like a party.”
I stepped closer to him. “Think you can play hooky for a while longer?”
He curled his hand around my hip. “What did you have in mind?”
“Take me home and find out.”
Twenty-Three
It took us a few minutes to get out of the birthing center. We were able to sneak by the waiting room, but the next wave of Ramos family members caught us as we were getting on the elevator.
Bee was interrogated for details and dutifully explained how perfect and beautiful Leo Enrique Mills was. Naturally, a bit of the Ramos family lineage got thrown in there with the very Anglo-Saxon name of Mills.
And of course there was talk of a bet as to how long the baby took to be born. I tried to block out the details.
Like Bee’s cousins, I winced at the talk of stitches and drugs—or lack thereof.
Finally, we were set free in favor of getting a look at the actual baby to settle the bets on size and the like.
We finally got to the lower floor and I hauled her down a side hallway near the bathrooms to avoid the slew of Spanish voices coming through the front doors. Bee took it upon herself to use the tight space to get a hold of my secondary firearm.
“Bee,” I groaned as she cupped my rapidly hardening dick through my starchy uniform trousers.
“The faster you get me home, the faster I get my lips around you.” She went on her toes and tightened her grip as she nipped my earlobe. “Maybe even before we get home.”
I swallowed hard. I wasn’t sure what had gotten into her, but I was all for it.
I took her hand away from my painfully erect dick and pulled her down the hallway and out to the parking lot. She raced behind me, laughing.
When we reached my cruiser, I didn’t want her in the back. The thought of her back there while I was driving was a big ol’ nope.
Instead, Bee was inventive as always. She could decorate my house in a day, so the metal arm that held my laptop and was blocking her from sitting up front was child’s play. She flipped it out of the way and slid inside. “Drive.”
I swallowed thickly and made sure my dash cam was off. Was this the famous baby fever talking? Crescent Cove seemed to thrive on the baby pheromones that were forever ringing the town like fog in San Francisco.
Or was it just for us? For me?
When she slid across the console to get a hold of me, I let out a harsh groan. “Bee.”
She grinned up at me as she flicked out the end of my belt from the loops. “Let’s find out how well you concentrate under duress, Sheriff.”
I should have stopped her. This was an official vehicle that shouldn’t be defiled with…
Her strong, capable hand drew me out of my uniform pants. “Sweet Jesus.”
Then again, we weren’t in Crescent Cove right now. I pulled out of the parking lot and hit the fucking lights.
She hummed a little groan-slash-laugh around my dick, and I was pretty sure I was going to kill us on the way home. I slid my fingers into her hair. I should have pulled her away. I definitely shouldn’t have let her enact such wickedly glorious ideas.
Did I do either of those things?
Oh, no, I did not.
Instead, I guided her ridiculously talented mouth to exactly where I needed her. When she tucked her fingers under my sac, I stepped on the gas.
She was definitely going to kill us. And holy shit, where did she learn to do that?
“Baby,” I panted out.
She looked up at me with those huge brown eyes. They were like molten chocolate, glassy with lust.
With relief, I took the exit to my house instead of to town. There was no way I was going back to work right now.
My road had become the longest one in history. Each bump and rock felt like a crater. I hissed out a breath when she took me deeper.
I parked the cruiser crooked along the side of my house, and then hit the lever under my seat and kicked it back as far as it would go. I cupped her chin and drew her away from my aching shaft. “Bee.”
Her mouth was swollen, her eyes a little feral. She climbed over the center console and straddled me. Her rough work pants scraped across me, but then she was wild in my arms and any pain I felt faded under her incredible mouth.
She reached down between the door and the seat and reclined my seat enough for her to seat herself on my thighs. Those quick and strong fingers had me a second away from embarrassing myself between us.
I cupped her face and tried to slow her down, but she wouldn’t be deterred. She swiped her thumb along the underside of my sensitive head. In between, she gripped me tight. She knew what I liked and more importantly, what I needed. We’d been together for a scant few weeks, but she knew me better than any woman had in my past.
My impatience hit an all-time high and I dragged her shirt up and off.
It was too cold to be doing this in the car—especially when I had a perfectly good house a few steps away—but fuck, I was so damn close.
I grabbed her ass, tugging her up enough that I could get my mouth on her incredible breasts. Cool to the touch, her nipples were tight under the cotton of her bra. I rubbed my beard across the smooth, round tops that flowed over the cups. Slid my teeth and tongue along any part of skin I could get to— nothing was off limits as I chased her to the same height of madness. Her hand shook as she tipped her head back.
I peeled her bra down and scraped my teeth over the tight tips of her breasts.
“Look at me.”
She twisted her hand around the base of my cock and settled those glassy eyes on me again.
“I want to make you come, and I can’t get to you like this.”
She nodded. “I want that too. After you come for me.”
I shook my head. “Not here.”
“Yes.” She leaned forward enough to catch my mouth and bit my lower lip. “Come for me. Come on me until I can get you inside me.”
“No, I can’t—” My brain was fried, but still there was a kernel of responsibility trying to strangle the eye-crossing pleasure.
She leaned back on the steering wheel as she dragged the wet tip of my cock across the golden skin of her belly. “You’ll never drive this car without remembering me.”
I frowned, but I was too close to coming to be able to decipher exactly what that meant. Of course I’d remember. She was a part of every bit of my life now.
She tugged on me until I had no choice but to acquiesce.
I lifted my hips as my vision blurred around her and darkened before the relief punched the breath out of me. My release flowed over her fingers, and a stripe lashed across her breasts.
Her breath came in a rush and her chest heaved as she rubbed it into her skin. She let out a relieved breath and sagged back again. Enough that she hit the horn on the steering wheel.
Startled, she laughed, and then reached for her shirt in the passenger seat and wiped me away.
The baser part of me almost growled out my displeasure. I’d never been the guy who needed to mark someone like that, but right now, I wanted her splayed out and screaming my name. Only this time she wouldn’t be able to wipe me away.
“I think we could use a shower.” She opened the door and nearly fell outside.
“Bee—”
She caught herself and tossed a devil-may-care grin over her shoulder, then unhooked her bra and threw it at my face before running for the house.
I didn’t know what had gotten into her, but I was not done with her yet. I needed a second to stuff my abused cock back into my pants.
Damn, she was quick.
She’d left the door open and was already upstairs when I crossed the threshold. I took the stairs two at a time. Her shoes and work pants were on the floor in the hall followed by a ridiculously small bit of white cotton just outside the bathroom.
The water was running and steam billowed out from the glass enclosure. She was a shadow in the frosted glass, but already her hands were up into all that hair, making quick work of a shampoo.
My getting undressed required a bit more work, but I enjoyed the show as I unlaced, unholstered, and stripped away the sheriff part of me. Though Gina had definitely done a good job of that in my police cruiser.
“Are you going to just be a cre
eper out there or get in here with me?”
I smiled as I tucked my gun in the hamper, just in case. I opened the door and stepped inside. “Is there any hot water left?”
She was using one of those crumpled net things to smooth soap across her belly. “You snooze, you lose.”
I stole it from her and filled my fingers with the gingerbread-scented soap before turning her against the wall so I could get some water on my neck and back.
I kissed her shoulder while I brought my hands up to cup her breasts. “You always smell so damn delicious. I love having all your potions in my shower now.”
She tipped her head back against my chest. “Eventually, I’ll need to actually stay at my apartment.”
I bit her shoulder. “And why would you go and do that?”
She peeked up at me. “Because I don’t live here, silly.”
I plucked at her nipples, using the soap to slip around in between the firmer pulls. “You belong here with me always.”
She did this little sigh-moan combination that always made a lump form in my throat. Utter pleasure and happiness lived in that sound. Lived in me each time I heard it.
I coasted one hand down her soft belly to the apex of her thighs. “Were you wet from getting me off in the car?” I found the silky folds of her pussy and traced my lips along the shell of her ear. “Did you wash that away too?”
“Maybe.” Her voice was soft and more a groan than words.
I cupped the suds that sluiced down her skin along her belly. “When I came on you and you wiped it off, it made me unreasonable.”
She blew out a slow breath. “I’m not sorry. I liked watching you lose control.”
I scraped my teeth down her neck. “No, you like when I take control.” I gently widened her feet, so she was open for me. “Hands on the tile, Bee.”
She quickly did as I asked. Enough that I grinned into the skin between her shoulder blades. “Always so good for me.” I opened her a little more and positioned her hips so I could drag the head of my cock through her folds.
She pressed her forehead against the tile and shuddered.
“So wet for me.” I crouched a little to line us up and drove into her. “This is where I belong.”
