Page 138 of Everything After

“Alfie, we’re supposed to be watching a movie,” she chastised.

“We are. We could… multitask,” I suggested.

“And how much of the storyline do you think we’d miss if we did that?”

“Fortunately for us, we have a streaming service. We can hit rewind and voila, Adele singing the opening credits again,” I told her with a lopsided smile… the kind my wife couldn’t resist.

“But I’m so comfortable,” she remarked, pouting.

“Again, that’s lucky because you have these stretchy yoga pants on. All I need to do is slide them over your ass like this…” I said, pulling them down and lifting her hips to clear the top of her thighs. Lily faced away from me and tucked her chin on her chest. “And check something really quick,” I said. I slid my fingertips along her wet seam and grinned. “Ah, yes, you’re soaked.”

Without turning back to look at me, she said, “What do you expect? I have the hottest man in the world, exposing the most intimate area on my body, and fumbling through my folds.”

“Baby, two points here,” I informed her while sliding one finger into her pussy, pulling back then entering two. Lily gasped and a small moan left her lips. My dick twitched at the breathy sound, and I smiled. “Number one,myprivate area. Alfie only zone,” I said possessively. “And two, I never fumble. I believe we’ve made love enough times for you to recognize that I know exactly what I’m doing.”

I lined my cock up with her entrance. Lily arched her ass higher to give me more access and I slid inch by inch inside her.

“Oh, God,” she moaned like she did the second I entered her. I smiled until James Bond fought with a baddie on top of a train. It distracted me for a second, until I reached for the remote and turned the TV off.

“Thanks,” she muttered, like she’d telepathically asked me to do this. “My pleasure,” I whispered in her ear, making her shiver. “I’m going to take this slow and make it last,” I muttered into her ear.

“You’ve been taking it slow for weeks now,” she pointed out.

“I’m never fucking you hard again while you’re carrying our child. Life can be brutal at times, so I’d prefer he had a gentle and sensitive vibe at the start of his life.”

When Lily fell silent, I cupped her chin and tilted her head up, extending her neck until her upside-down view met my eyes.Passion and desire may have seared her heart, but I held back more than a little of that hungry carnal need to devour her. There was a time and a place to unleash the wants that were never far from my mind when I looked at my wife, and it wasn’t then.

However, I strongly believed the intimate connections my wife and I made while our baby developed inside her, should be soft, intimate and unhurried connections of love. In a way I suppose I wanted to prove to myself that I could put their needs before my own, and I had the right protective qualities to keep them both safe.

CHAPTER 72

LILY

THIRTY-EIGHT WEEKS PREGNANT

Delilah had been regular company at our home for weeks since she’d graduated. I’d found her both inspirational and a great person to collaborate with. During that time, we’d written a few songs together but as we played one for the first time to Alfie and Drew our nerves kicked in.

When the song finished, we both held our breath as we glanced over at Alfie and Drew. From the way Delilah clasped her hands to her chest, I wondered whether she’d set her fingers alight from the passion and pace she’d played at, or she was praying the guys liked the song as much as we did.

“That’s nothing like anything you’ve done before,” Alfie stated, pointing at the piano as if the song was still playing.

I sucked in a breath, held it for a beat, then winced. “You don’t like it?” I glanced from Alfie to Delilah.

Delilah’s face instantly fell, wiping the wide grin she’d been wearing clean off her face. Her eyes widened in disbelief that hemay not because even she thought it a masterpiece, because the music she’d just made had sounded remarkable.

Drew blinked slowly then cast a glance from Delilah, to me, and eventually to Alfie.

My husband’s expressionless face contrasted with the serious look in his eyes. “Baby, if you went out on your own with something like that, you’d have a whole new audience.”

“So… no?” I asked, let down by his response, especially since multiple hours of work had been put into the song, and how proud we felt about it.

“No… I mean, hell, yes, it’s…” Alfie huffed, and it was the first time I’d seen him look flustered about giving his opinion on a song. “I think that’s the best song you’ve ever sung, I love the music score, the arrangement, the melody, the lyrics, it’s fucking genius. What did you think Drew?”

“Speechless.”

“Is that it?” Alfie muttered, pushing for more.

“I don’t even know what I heard there but like Alfie said… genius. The vibe between you two is insane.”