Page 5 of Beneath His Vow (Knocked Up and Locked Down #1)

FIVE

CASEY

My thoughts are wild as I drive. I cast sidelong glances in Lexi’s direction, trying to figure out what the hell is going on with her.

My wife.

My girl.

My whole fucking heart.

Her words ricochet through my brain.

Something is wrong. She said she’s okay, but the rest of what came out of her mouth doesn’t make me feel at ease.

My hand wraps around her thigh, grounding her or me, I’m not sure, but I don’t let go other than to shift gear.

By the time I guide the car onto the driveway every inch of my body is itching.

Lexi climbs out slowly, and I can see the nerves rattling through her. It doesn’t do anything to calm my own.

I unlock the front door, opening it so she can step inside, and she heads to the kitchen. I follow after her, watching every move she makes, as if it will tell me what the fuck is going on.

“Talk,” I say, unable to bear it any fucking longer.

Her palms rest on the counter, her shoulders sagging. “So… I haven’t been feeling myself. I figured it was a virus or I was coming down with something, but I went to the doctor during my lunch break.”

My eyes narrow, my chest caving open.

“You went to the doctor and didn’t say a fucking word to me?”

Is she fucking serious?

Her shoulders dip even further, so I rein in my temper. She is already anxious without me making it worse.

“I didn’t want to say anything in case it was nothing.”

“I don’t care if it’s nothing. You fuckin’ tell me, Lex. You don’t do this kind of shit alone.” I don’t point out that she obviously thought it was something, or she wouldn’t have made an appointment. “Did the doctor find anything?”

Fear is punching through my gut. Whatever it is, we’ll handle it, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t on edge as I wait for her to tell me.

“Oh, yeah. She found something.”

I’m moving before I even think about it. I grab her face between my hands, pretty sure I’m shaking. She said she was okay. I cling to that like a fucking life raft. “Darlin’, if you’re sick, we’ll deal with it, but you need to tell me what the fuck is going on.”

Tears cling to her lashes, and her lips wobble. My chest caves in and it feels like the room takes a breath.

“I’m pregnant.”

For a moment all I can hear is static in my ears. I blink. My hands tighten on her face. She’s… She’s pregnant?

Lexi is carrying my kid.

She’s having my baby.

My eyes drop to her belly, hidden beneath her blouse and pants, as if I can see it growing there. Fuck. My lungs stutter, the air trapped behind the lump in my throat.

We talked about kids, did it before we got married, but neither of us were ready.

Now that she is standing in front of me, our heartbeat in her body, I don’t know why we waited.

“You’re pregnant.”

I repeat it, even though I know I heard her clearly.

She nods as much as she can in my grasp.

I drop to my knees in front of her, shoving her blouse up to expose the soft skin beneath. She doesn’t stop me, doesn’t do anything. She just lets me do what I need to.

Her stomach doesn’t look any different. Still soft, that slight curve she’s always had there. But it’s different. Everything about her is.

“Casey? Are you okay?” Her voice is small, like she’s in uncharted territory with me.

“I put a baby in you,” I murmur. “ Fuck , I put a baby in you.”

Her fingers trail through my hair. “The doctor thinks we may have dislodged my IUD when we were having sex.”

I don’t give a shit how it happened. I only care that it did. My palm stretches over her belly, like I can feel the baby beneath it. I don’t know whether to lock her in the house or chain her to me for the next nine months.

“This is all mine,” I say, pressing my forehead to her stomach. “You, this baby. Mine. You’re never leaving my sight again.”

I know she’s probably rolling her eyes, but I don’t give a fuck. Every protective urge inside me is firing the highest alert.

“I’m pregnant, not dying. I don’t need a bodyguard.”

I don’t care what she thinks she needs. I’m going to take care of her how I need to. The thought of something happening to her while she is pregnant unravels me. I hold her hips and kiss under her navel, my hands shaking.

“No one gets to look at you, breathe near you, exist in your sphere.”

I sound unhinged. I fucking feel it. I’ve always been obsessed with her, loved her harder than is healthy, but this creates vulnerability I didn’t expect.

“Casey.” She takes my face between her hands, lifting my chin. “Please don’t go crazy on me.”

“I was already crazy, Lexi. This baby has dialed that up to a hundred. You’re carrying my name, my baby, my entire fucking legacy in your body. You’re mine now, in every way possible. Every goddamn inch of you is mine.”

I can’t stop kissing her stomach. Can’t stop touching her either.

“I’m glad you’re taking it so well,” she deadpans, then blows out a breath.

“I have a scan booked for Thursday. You don’t have to come.

It’ll probably be really boring. They need to check where my IUD ended up, if it’s still in there—and date the pregnancy.

” Her nose wrinkles. “It feels really weird saying that.”

I snap my gaze to her. Why in the fuck would she think I don’t want to be there for all of it? “I want to come. Every scan, every appointment. I don’t give a shit if all you’re doing is peeing in a cup, I’m there.”

Her expression softens as I stand. I tower over her, just as I always have, but right now she seems smaller, like she needs my protection more. “I wasn’t sure if you’d be mad.”

I shake my head, claiming her mouth. “How could I be mad about you giving me a child?”

“We didn’t plan this. We didn’t want this now.”

“I want this now. I wish we’d had this before,” I add. “I’m gonna go run you a bath.”

Her brows come together. “You don’t need to do that.”

I touch her stomach again, unable to stop myself. “Woman, don’t argue with me. I’ll win.”

I kiss her nose. And then head upstairs to run the bath.

Two days later, we’re in a sterile room that makes my skin itch. I fucking hate doctors, and from the way my wife is glancing around, so does she.

I grip her hand, and her eyes come to mine.

“Breathe, baby.” The gown she’s wearing drowns her, and she’s naked beneath it, which has my fingers flexing with the need to redress her. I swallow down my own feelings, because this is about her now, not me, not my bullshit.

“You try breathing when you’re about to have your legs in the air and a stranger between them with the fucking probe.”

The muscle in my jaw flexes, and for a split second I contemplate dragging her out of the room.

But then the door opens, and the doctor steps inside. Her gaze darts from me to Lexi, her expression warm.

“Lexi?”

“That’s me.”

“My name’s Callie. I’ll be doing your ultrasound today if that’s okay. We’ll see if we can find your IUD, and we’ll take a look at your baby.” Her lips quirk as she says it, and I feel Lexi relax a little.

“I didn’t even know that was a risk of having an IUD.”

“It doesn’t happen often. Can you lie down for me?” Callie says, grabbing the machine and pulling it closer to the table.

Lexi lies back, her hand instantly finding mine again. I thread my fingers through hers, telling her without words that I’m not going anywhere.

Callie helps guide Lexi’s legs into stirrups and then parts my wife’s thighs wide.

I almost growl.

I don’t like seeing her like this, spread open for a stranger. I don’t give a fuck that she’s a doctor.

Lexi squeezes my hand, as if she can sense where my thoughts have gone, and when I look down at her, her expression says I’m okay. Don’t panic.

I drag breath in through my nose, trying to calm the storm inside me.

“Okay, so we’re doing a transvaginal scan. The probe looks big and scary, but you’ll barely feel it.”

The fact she doesn’t make a joke tells me how nervous she is, so I press a kiss into her hair, stroking her head.

Callie glides the probe into her, and Lexi tenses for just a second before she unbunches her muscles.

Callie focuses on the screen in front of her, one hand in between my wife’s legs. “I’m just going to take some measurements and have a look around, and then I’ll explain things. So don’t worry if I’m quiet. It doesn’t mean anything is wrong.”

Lexi nods, her eyes focused on the ceiling overhead. I don’t think I breathe as the silence spreads between us. My thumb strokes over her hand as the minutes drag on.

What if something is wrong?

What if I damaged Lexi fucking her like a demon?

Callie sits back a little before she speaks again. “Well, the good news is there is no sign of your Mirena in your uterus. It’s not embedded in the way of where your baby is, but that’s also the bad news.”

“I didn’t think I’d be playing hide and seek with my birth control,” Lexi mutters.

“Your doctor might want to do a follow-up scan, just to make sure it’s not gone anywhere else, but I’m not seeing any sign of it where it’s going to cause problems for your pregnancy.”

“So there’s a good chance we flicked it out when we were… You know ?”

Callie’s lips twitch. “It’s possible. Rare, but possible.”

She glances toward me, a smile tugging at her lips, but my chest feels heavy. Lexi is lying here with a probe shoved inside her while she’s run down and stressed because my dick booted her birth control out of her body?

The hand not wrapped around hers curls into a fist, my jaw locking just as tight.

My beautiful wife glances up at me, a soft smile on her face that I don’t deserve. “You literally defied all the odds of not only getting me pregnant while on birth control, you also did it so completely they can’t even find where it went.”

I want to laugh, but all I feel is fucking guilt that I might have hurt her, that she is having something invasive done because of me. Because I fuck her like an animal.

But then Callie says, “And there’s your baby.”

My words die on my tongue. On the screen there is a flicker of something. A kernel of hope. Of a future I didn’t think I would get.

And then she pushes a button and the room fills with the steady thrum of a heartbeat.

The world tilts sideways, the floor beneath me vanishing.

Lexi lets out a strangled sound, as if her world is also not steady beneath her feet. I’ve never seen anything so fucking perfect, and I can’t even tell what the fuck it is.

“That’s our fucking baby,” she whispers.

Ours. Mine and Lexi’s. Our kid. “Fuck. You don’t understand what you’ve given me,” I say, my lips pressing to her temple.

The way she looks at me, the love shining on her face, undoes me. I’ve never loved anyone the way I do her. I didn’t think it was possible until I saw that little flicker on screen. Now, my love is divided between them. And they will never want for anything.

“Is everything okay with the baby?” Lexi asks the question I should have fucking thought to.

“Everything looks good. You’re measuring right on track at around seven weeks. Gestational sac is well positioned, everything looks normal and there’s a strong fetal heartbeat. No signs of free fluid or abnormalities.”

Seven weeks… Seven fucking weeks. Now I’m coming apart for a completely different reason. “Two months you’ve been carryin’ my kid without knowing while I fucked you on every available surface like a fuckin’ animal.”

Lexi’s eyes widen and Callie suddenly busies herself with the machine.

“Casey!” She hisses my name, but all I can think is I should have been more careful with her. I could have hurt the baby.

“I put you on my bike. Put you at risk.”

The fight drains out of her at my words. “You didn’t. You just heard her say the baby is fine.” I scrub a hand down my face. “Hey,” she grips my cut. “You didn’t put me at risk, Casey. You put me first. Always. You loved me. Don’t rewrite that.”

“She’s right,” Callie says gently. “Baby is fine. A bit of rough and tumble isn’t going to do anything. This little one looks absolutely perfect and exactly how I would expect at this point in your pregnancy.”

Lexi bursts into tears, her chest dragging in ragged breaths as she tries to control herself. I capture the first few as they fall. “We’re really having a baby, Casey.”

I’m pretty sure my eyes are wet too, as I place my hand over her stomach where our kid is growing.

“I’m going to take care of you both.”

And I mean every word. I’ll raze cities to ashes if anything tries to touch her or the miracle she’s carrying.