“I know.”
He groaned against my skin and his body trembled. “Take it, Laney, and get there.”
“I’m there, honey, don’t stop.”
“Delaney!” he roared, and I screwed my eyes shut as the most magnificent orgasm I’d ever experienced rushed through me. “I love you so goddamned much, baby.”
* * *
I came awake and the room was pitch black.
Carter had now asked me to marry him eight times. Eight times he’d rocked my world. Eight times he’d made my dreams come true.
He was right, I knew I was going to marry him.
One day I’d say yes, but until then I was enjoying him asking.
I fell back asleep with my head on Carter’s chest, his hand on my naked hip, and a smile on my lips.
One day.
27
Carter
The last couple of days had been crazy.
Nick had given a copy of the profile he’d worked up to Ethan’s captain and had passed the report around to the rest of us. Clearly his team concurred with Nick’s initial thought. Delaney had provided a list of four names of people who had been mad with her.
I’d been surprised she’d come up with that many. Everyone liked her. Not only was she simply downright likeable she was also generous and gave of herself and her time to anyone who needed it. She tutored her current and former students for free. Both after school and at the library on the weekends. She donated to every fundraiser the school put on.
She cheered her students on and counseled them when they needed it. There was a lot to like.
The four names: two students, one parent, and the basketball coach were all part of the same incident. And all of them were equally pissed at her. The two students had failed a project which had lowered their grade in her class, lowering their overall GPA, and making them ineligible to play sports. It was basketball season, the team had gone to regionals and had a shot at taking State. Those dreams were dashed when the two best players had to sit the bench.
The student athletes were furious, one parent threatened to do what he could to have her fired, and the coach flat out called her a bitch and blamed her for not padding the kids’ grades so they could play.
None of the four fit Nick’s profile of the unsub.
I’d added Steve Deaton and Natalie Whitefield. I didn’t tell Delaney I’d added their names. I doubted she’d care too much about Natalie but she’d be furious about Steve. I didn’t give the first fuck she thought the asswipe was nice. She didn’t understand there were people that only showed you what they wanted you to see. And a man who had been asking out a woman for two years, finally gets a taste of what he’s been fantasizing about only to have it taken, could turn on a dime. Nice or not, that kind of rejection was a hit to his ego and pride.
That woman being Delaney, beautiful, sexy as hell, sweet, funny, smart. That hit would be a hundred times worse. So I didn’t give a shit she’d be mad, I wanted Steve’s life combed through.
Natalie was a given. Not only did she creep Laney out, she’d lied. There was no Natalie Whitefield matching her age and description. Not in any database I searched and that included the Department of Motor Vehicles in all fifty states. When I ran the phone number she’d given Delaney, it was a burner, untraceable. Only thing I got from that was it was purchased at a Stop and Go in Georgia. No help there.
Delaney’s house was being monitored twenty-four seven and there’d been nothing. Jasper and I had personally combed over the footage. No cars passing by multiple times, no one sitting outside her place watching, no one approaching the house. We had nothing.
The only thing left to do was be vigilant and wait.
Unfortunately I wasn’t known for my patience and had never been keen sitting on my thumbs doing nothing. Irritation was building and I was getting antsy. I wanted this shit over.
And Delaney had enough going on she didn’t need some fuckwad fucking with us. As the days had slipped by, she was putting on a brave face. We’d gone on another date, this time to dinner and a movie. Some chick flick she’d picked about a book club and within the first five minutes I’d felt my balls start to shrivel and by the end my dick was protesting and demanding explosions and mayhem to confirm my manhood.
Through all of this I smiled and held her close while she giggled and watched the movie.
Hearing the sound of her laughter and knowing she was happy was the only thing that had made it perfect.
She was also dealing with the fallout of telling her parents, mine, and her sisters about the baby. Each of the women called her approximately fifteen times a day. During most of these calls it was Laney making sure they were okay, and not the other way around. Silver lining was, even though she’d always known they loved her, there was no missing it now. They loved her, they were worried, and they wanted her close. Even if it was over the phone.
My mom and hers had a quiet word with Aunt Blake and Aunt Reagan and told them she’d been pregnant and we’d lost the baby. My mom had reported to me both of my aunts were torn up over the news and would have a word with their families so neither Laney or I would have to tell them. Everyone understood and no one had taken offense that they hadn’t heard it directly from us.
Not even an hour after Lily had told Aunt Reagan, she’d called Delaney and invited us over. She did this under the pretense of a family barbeque. The get-together wasn’t unusual, my family spent a lot of time with each other. However the short notice was. There were a lot of us, and coordinating schedules normally took a few weeks of planning. But not this time. Miraculously everyone had been free with a few days’ notice. Unheard of.
But that was our family. They’d clear their schedules and break plans if need be.
Delaney shifted in her sleep and as much as I appreciated my family’s efforts, a naked Delaney in bed all day sounded better than a barbeque. Way fucking better. So much better there wasn’t a scale to measure it by.
I glanced at the clock, and if I woke her up now, we’d have just enough time.
“Good morning,” she whispered.
Her sleep-rough voice hit me straight in my dick. Or more to the point, the reason why she was groggy and had slept in was what had hit me. By the time she’d shuddered under me and screamed my name in pleasure it was late. And that was because I’d asked her to marry me five more times, drawing out when I’d allowed her to come. She’d said no five more times. I was finding I didn’t mind her turning me down. The more she did so, the more times I got to ask. And I was finding I liked asking her to marry me a fuck of a lot.
“It’s not good yet, Laney, but it’s gonna be.”
I rolled her so she was on top of me and she smiled down at me.
Christ, she was beautiful.
My hands travelled up her thighs over her stomach, stopping there for a moment, praying I’d planted my baby there, and went higher still until I cupped her tits.
“Just good, huh?” she asked as I rolled her nipples between my fingers. “Carter.” She arched her back and rubbed her naked pussy against my hard-on.
“It’ll be great once you slide down on my cock.”
She continued to rock, getting herself worked up and her wetness coated my cock. I knew she could get off just from this, she’d done it in the past. It was sexy as all hell watching her masturbate, but her using my dick to do it never failed to get me so hot the second I got inside of her and with minimal effort on her part I’d shoot off.
“Stop fucking around, Laney,” I groaned when the head of my dick bumped her clit.
I knifed up and pulled one of her nipples into my mouth, still pinching and pulling the other one. She had her hand on my dick, lining me up, then she slammed down, taking me fully inside of her.
“Goddamn.” I’d barely caught my breath when she started moving. “Take us there, Laney. Hurry, baby.”
That was all the encouragement she needed. She rocked, she pulled up to the tip and drove down, and she did it hard. A
ll I could do was enjoy the show as she rode my dick fast and wild on her quest to find it. And when she found it her tits were in my hands, her pussy was clenching my cock, and she took me with her into ecstasy.
Fucking beautiful.
* * *
By the time we’d made it to Uncle Clark’s there was a crush of people milling in the backyard. Everyone was there minus Liberty. It was going to be nice having her back stateside so she’d have the opportunity to come around more. Not that she’d have a lot of time, heading to selection then at some point to Ranger school. But at least she’d be back in Georgia for a while.
“Hey, my sweet girl,” Aunt Reagan said, pulling Delaney into a hug.
“Y’all went all out,” Delaney noted the spread of food and smoke coming from the grill.
“Eh, nothing special. Same as always. There’re a lot of mouths to feed.”
Carson came running toward us and skidded to a halt before she slammed into me. “Guess what, Uncle Carter?”
“What, Princess?”
“We have an announcement to make.”
“You do?”
“Yep. And it’s a big one. I’m so excited. Wanna know now?”
I looked down at my niece who was rolling up and down onto her tiptoes, vibrating with excitement.
“Nope. Wanna wait for it like everyone else.”
Her smile faded and she put her hands on her hips. Damn, my poor brother. My niece was ten and she’d already perfected the teenage girl attitude. Which incidentally grew from there into grown woman attitude.
“No one will let me tell them,” she grouched.
“Come here, darlin’.” I knelt in front of her and turned my head so she could whisper to me. “Go ahead and tell me.”
“I’m gonna have a brother,” she sorta whispered.
“Are you excited?” I whispered back.
“Yes. But I want Mommy to have another one so I can have a sister, too.”
I clenched my teeth and tamped down the pain the conversation about having babies was causing.
“I bet she will,” I told her.
My brother would have ten more kids if that’s what Honor wanted.
“Me, too.” She smiled.
Carson was all Ethan. She looked like him, acted like him, but now that Honor was in her life she was taking on some of her traits, too. My niece had always been surrounded by love, but with a mom in the house, she beamed. I glanced over Carson’s shoulder and saw my uncle Clark coming our way so I stood to greet him.
“She suckered you, didn’t she?” he asked.
“Come again?”
“Carson. She’s been at it for twenty minutes, trying to tell someone. Everyone else told her to wait. She said that when her uncle Carter got here, he’d let her tell. Seems she was right,” Uncle Clark explained.
“I’m always right, Daddy says so. And Uncle Carter always listens to my secrets,” Carson said with more sass than I’d ever heard. “He says, there’s no secret I can’t tell him and he’ll always keep them, forever and ever. He pinky promised. And Uncle Carter never breaks a promise.”
I heard Delaney suck in a breath and I knew she understood what Carson had unintentionally said.
My arm went around her and I pulled her close.
Both Uncle Clark and Aunt Reagan’s eyes got big before they both smiled.
“Damn good to finally see that,” Clark commented, and Laney tucked her head under my chin and cuddled in closer.
“About time,” my uncle Levi walked up.
“That it is,” I returned, looking around the backyard full of family.
“You guys doing some new landscaping?” I asked Aunt Reagan.
Her body went solid and she gave me a funny look. I glanced back over at the new sapling that had very recently been planted and staked. Loose dirt was piled next to it and there was a second hole dug but nothing planted.
“That’s for you,” she whispered.
“Me?”
“Well, you and Delaney.” I still wasn’t understanding so she went on. “You know how we planted a new tree for every new…it just…everyone gets a tree.” Her eyes brimmed with tears as realization slammed into my chest. “There’s one for you, Ethan, Nick, Jackson, Jason, Delaney, Quinn, Adalynn, Hadley, Liberty, Carson, baby Nolan, Ariana, and now your baby. The other tree with be planted after Honor and Ethan have their little one.”
I was speechless and when a sob tore from Laney, Aunt Reagan jerked back.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t—”
“Means a lot, Aunt Reagan. More than we can tell you. Thank you for remembering.”
“Remembering? Sweet child, none of us will ever forget. Now she has a tree with the rest of you. She’s where she belongs—with family.”
Laney choked out another sob and sniffled. “I love that. She’s with family. Thank you.”
“I hope you don’t mind, but after we saw what Mom and Dad did, Tuesday wanted to plant a tree in her orchard,” Jackson remarked.
“A beautiful cherry tree among the apples,” Tuesday added. “It will be the prettiest tree in the orchard.”
“Thank you,” I croaked, fighting back the tears that threatened.
“So, we were thinking,” my mom said when she and my dad approached. “None of us were keen that there wasn’t a service for the baby or a place where we could go to visit. So Emily and I decided she’s gonna be with all of us. Reagan and Tuesday have their trees. The grandparents have new angel statues that are just perfect. The rest of the family have wind chimes. Every time there’s a breeze we’ll remember.”
“Jesus,” I muttered and swiped my face. There was no use trying to hide it, my emotions were flowin’ freely for my family to see.
“That’s so perfect,” Laney whispered, seeming to have recovered before I did.
“Today we’re celebrating. Baby Lenox, who will forever be loved,” Mom said.
“And you two idiots, who finally decided that the rest of us weren’t as stupid as you thought and finally came out of hiding,” my brother added.
“Thought you had an announcement. Are we celebrating that?” I jabbed back.
His arm went around his wife and he beamed. “Yeah, we’re celebrating that, too. For those of you Carson didn’t tell, we’re having a boy.”
And just like that, loud whoops and hollers were called out.
Damn, I loved my family.
“We’re naming him Oscar!” Carson yelled and silence fell.
“Oscar? Like Oscar the Grouch? The green furry thing?” my mom asked, her voice rising as she spoke. “That’s a nice name.”
My brother chuckled, Honor laughed so hard she had to hold her big belly that was jiggling so hard I was afraid the kid would slide out by the sheer force of shaking.
“I take it your mom doesn’t like the name?” Laney looked up at me and asked.
“That’d be a fair assumption.”
“Just kidding!” Carson shouted. “His name is Carter Hudson. But we’re gonna call him Hudson so we don’t get him confused with Grandpa Carter and Uncle Carter.”
“Christ,” I muttered and looked from Laney, to Carson who was back to dancing around, and finally to my brother.
His eyes locked with mine and there was so much being said without a single word being said.
“Good, solid name,” my dad said.
“Yeah, it is,” I agreed. “Don’t know what to say.”
“Nothing to say, big brother. I wanted my son to have a strong name, one that he’ll be proud of. There’s no two men I know who are stronger.”
I was too choked up to speak so I nodded.
Delaney nuzzled closer, tucked in close, her hand over my heart, and I looked back at her and watched her scan the crowd.
My aunt Reagan used to call it controlled chaos when all of us got together. Back then I thought she was wrong, there was nothing controlled about ten kids running around causing mischief. Now, I still thought she was wrong—it wasn’t controlled a
nd it wasn’t chaos.
It was everything.
28
Delaney
“Marry me,” Carter grunted.
He was close, I was closer, and I didn’t have it in me to answer.
“God, Christ,” he moaned and I exploded.
* * *
I was pouring Carter a cup of coffee in a to-go cup when he hit the kitchen freshly showered.
“You want me to pick up a test on my way home?” he asked.
“What’s that?”
“You’re late, Laney. Want me to get a test?”
“I am?”
I handed Carter his cup and went to my purse and pulled out my day planner.
Sure as shit, I was three days past the day with a red circle around the date.
How did I not know? It was summer, that’s how. I didn’t have a job during the summer and everyday was a Saturday. After my lunch with Honor I hadn’t had plans with anyone else that would necessitate me needing to look at a calendar.
“Shit.”
“Laney, baby, stay with me.”
“I am.”
“Then why do you look like you’re either gonna pass out or run outta the room?”
“Because I might.”
“Then you’re not with me.”
“I am, honey, that doesn’t mean I’m not freaking out.”
“Nothing to freak out about. Either you are or you aren’t. If you are, you’ve made me the happiest man in the world. If you aren’t, I’m still the happiest because I have you. It’s a win-win, either way.”
“You know, after all these years you can still surprise me.”
“Glad to hear it.” He smirked, his thoughts on the wrong thing.
Damn, he was smug.
“Not talking about your abilities in the bedroom.”
“Oh. Yeah, I guess that wouldn’t be surprising since you’ve always gone off like that for me.”
Adoring Delaney: The Next Generation Page 21
