Page 9 of Beneath His Vow (Knocked Up and Locked Down #1)

NINE

LEXI

I’m four months pregnant. Sixteen weeks. And the way my husband’s hands are on me has me moaning like I’m not carrying extra weight, exhausted, and living on the edge of nausea all day long.

I’m lying on the couch in his office at the back of the clubhouse.

I can hear the low rumble of music coming from the main bar.

It’s comforting, familiar in a way that allows me to relax.

Everything seems to be great right now. James has kept his distance at work since he locked eyes with Casey, and finally I feel like I can breathe again.

Or I would be able to if I wasn’t moaning like a needy bitch in heat.

I tip my head back against the arm of the couch, and close my eyes. Casey’s touch swings between light and heavy, too good and yet not enough. “I swear,” I moan, “the only reason I got pregnant was for this.”

He presses his thumbs harder into the sole of my foot, hitting a sensitive spot and rubbing away the pain in my arch.

His brow kicks up. “If I’d have known foot rubs were the secret to getting my hands on you every night, I’d have knocked you up sooner.”

He has no fucking idea how good this feels. My body isn’t heavy yet, not in the way I’m expecting it to feel as my belly grows bigger, but every part of me seems to ache.

Especially around my hips and my thighs.

But today, my feet are on fire. It feels like someone stretched the bottom of my foot to breaking point.

“You say that now,” I drape my arm over my eyes, “but what about when I’m eight months pregnant and my feet are three times their usual size. You’re not gonna be so enthusiastic then.”

“You think I’m going to let you leave this couch once you’re round and heavy with my kid?

” His voice drops low, like gravel scraping over glass, and his eyes heat the same way they do every time I talk about my belly getting bigger.

I swear my husband is so obsessed with my changing body it borders on feral.

“Baby, I’ll rub every inch of you for the rest of our fuckin’ days.

There ain’t a single part of you that doesn’t belong to me.

These feet. This belly.” His hand moves to my obvious bump, pulling my leggings down over the soft swell.

Then he touches every one of the stretch marks that have appeared on my left side, like he’s mapping them in his mind.

“These too. I love every part of you even more than I did before.”

I don’t know how he always knows what to say to make me feel like the most beautiful thing in his world.

Tears prick my eyes, and I blink rapidly to clear them.

I will not cry.

I’ve already cried twice today—once over a cat reunion video and once because we were out of yoghurt. Both times Casey kissed me, told me to jump in the shower and by the time I finished my yoghurt was waiting on the kitchen table.

“You’re legally obliged to say that. We’re married.”

“The only thing I’m legally bound to is my obsession over you,” he counters.

I don’t speak for a moment, just lost in the feel of him, in this peaceful moment that seems so at odds with the gruff man he is.

He’s talking about how much he needs me, loves me, wants me, when a flutter beats along my left side. I place my hand over the spot. What the hell is that? It feels like air bubbles moving around inside me. I swear if I have gas?—

I feel it again.

It’s not gas. It’s… movement . My heart swells bigger than I thought possible. It’s our baby.

My hand flies to my side as I sit up and wait to feel it again.

“Lex?” Panic threads through his voice. “What’s wrong?”

I breathe—or try to. “I think… I think I felt the baby moving?—”

I don’t finish before his hand is on my stomach, pushing mine aside and then we wait. The seconds drag on, the silence heavy.

Casey scans my face, and I’ve never seen the look he’s wearing right now. Like his world is in front of him. Like it might disappear if he blinks too long.

“Is she doing it?” he asks after the quiet drags between us.

I frown and shake my head. “No. And she?”

He shrugs. “I just gotta feelin’ it’s a girl.”

The idea of him with a daughter is enough to melt my ovaries. “She’ll never be able to date,” I tease.

“She can date—after I vet her boyfriends.”

“And threaten them?”

He snorts as if it’s obvious that’s going to happen, then moves his palm to the side of my bump. “She’s gone quiet.” His disappointment shreds me.

“Don’t get stage fright on me now, kid,” I murmur, gently pressing my fingers against my stomach, as if I can make our child react to my touch. Seconds drag into minutes, neither of us moving, just in case. “Maybe I imagined it,” I say eventually.

He rubs his thumb over the stretch of my skin. “It’s only early in the second trimester and already our kid is causing trouble.”

I laugh. “Did you expect anything different, considering she’s ours?”

If our daughter was dealing with a jerk like James, Casey would bury him so deep even archaeologists wouldn’t find him.

If Casey knew I’m being harassed…

I lock that thought down. James has backed off. Everything is fine right now. Don’t borrow trouble.

The baby flutters again, and I drag his hand to the spot. “Did you feel it?”

His brows come together, and his mouth slack. “No.”

My shoulders sag. “I’m sorry. Maybe that’s not what it was.” He doesn’t speak, but his eyes are locked on my bump, as if he’s trying to see through to my uterus.

There are tears in his eyes, and the way his throat bobs tells me he’s choked up.

“Casey?”

“I’ll feel them when it’s time, but… Lex? That’s our baby in there.”

My throat clogs with emotion. I’ve never seen him like this—not in all the time we’ve been married. “It makes it feel more real, right?”

He bends down, kissing every inch of my stomach where our baby moved inside me. “Hey kid, it’s your dad.” I blink back my tears as he delivers those sweet words. “I ain’t even met you yet and I already fucking love you.”

I blink, swiping at my cheeks. “They’re lucky to have you,” I say, meaning every word.

This baby is going to be loved so much, and not just by me and Casey, but our entire club family.

“I fucking promise you, I’m going to be the best fucking father possible.” He splays his hand wide, covering as much of my stomach as he can. “Ours. Fuck .”

He’s so undone and I’ve never loved him more than I do in this moment.

I shift clumsy and ungraceful, but I end up in his lap, my knees on either side of his hips, my ass on his thighs. My fingers thread through his hair as I claim his mouth. He holds my back, steadying me, our baby between us as our tongues tangle.

My body feels alive, alert.

He lays me down and kisses up my thighs, every touch of his mouth igniting a fire inside me.

Then he crawls up my body to pull my shirt down, my bra too, so he can latch around my nipple. His mouth is hot and wet as he swirls his tongue over the hardening bud.

“I can’t wait for these to be full of milk. To watch you feed our kid.” He squeezes my tits between his fingers, licking and sucking both of them in turn.

“These are growing too.”

He sucks my breasts like he’s feeding from me, and my back arches off the cushions, my pussy clenching. “Casey.” His name is a ragged plea. I need him. Inside me. Filling the ache within my body. I try to grind against him, trying to ease the need building between my quivering thighs.

“I’m going to fuck you so good, baby.”

My leggings end up around my ankles and my panties are pulled to the side, giving him just enough access to flatten his tongue against my clit. My hips jerk as electric need pulses inside me, but he holds them down while he swirls his tongue through my wetness.

“Every part of you is mine,” he repeats his earlier sentiment. “This baby in your belly, this pretty fucking cunt. All of it.”

My orgasm hits me like a tsunami. I’m so sensitive since I became pregnant and my pussy is still clamping around air when he pushes his thick shaft inside me.

He doesn’t bother to take my panties off. He’s still holding them to the side, giving him just enough room to enter me.

I spread my thighs as wide as I can, trying to give him more space, but my leggings around my ankles are chains. It makes it feel so tight when he thrusts into me.

Shit. I’m going to pass out.

Fucked into oblivion by my husband.

Heat pools in my belly as my climax grows, begging for release. I want to wrap my legs around his back, pull him deeper inside me, but all I can do is lie there and take what he gives me.

And he gives me good.

Every thrust feels like he’s trying to become one with my body. He’s careful to keep his weight off me, his eyes never leaving mine as he rolls his hips and pushes deeper inside me.

“This pretty little cunt was made to carry my kid.”

This man, this beautiful man, who I love with every cell in my body makes love to me like I’m holy and then destroys me with his filthy words.

I groan, as he slams into me over and over, gripping the arm of the couch over my head, like a lifeline.

“Say it. Say who you belong to, Lexi.”

“You.” I rasp the word. “I belong to you. Always.”

“Damn fuckin’ right you do.”

He slams into me a final time and we both topple over the edge, his seed filling me as if he can put another baby inside me, even though I’m already pregnant.

His eyes crawl to my face, soft beneath the stone before he growls, “Mine.”