Page 146 of False Start

“Okay, you have my attention.”

He smirked. “Everything happened so fast for us. We never really even gotonereal, traditional date. Granted, nothing has ever been traditional with us — and you know what, I love that. I fuckinglovethat our story is ours and ours alone. But,” he added, tapping my nose. “This is the last chance we have to take a moment for ourselves before we become a family of four. And while I can’t fuckingwaitfor that day, there’s nothing I’d love more than to whisk you away to a tropical island and spoil you rotten for a week before we slip into our new life.”

“Damn it, Kyle,” I cursed, swiping at the tears sliding down my cheeks. “I’m too hormonal for this shit.”

He smiled against my lips before kissing me long and slow, his hands massaging my neck and holding me to him.

“Is that a yes?” he asked.

“It’s ahell yes,” I said on a laugh. “But… when do we leave?”

“Well, at first, I wanted to leave in the morning,” he said. “But then I thought about it, and I think we should spend a few days with Sebastian first. We can take off on Saturday?”

I shook my head, pulling him in for a kiss and wrapping my arms around his neck. “God, I love you. Do you know that?”

“I do, but I’m very content to let you show me just how much, if you’d really like to,” he said with a grin, and then I was in hisarms, and his lips were devouring me on the way back to our bedroom.

Ourbedroom.

Our home.

Our life.

Finally, the storm was settling, the waters calming, the sun peeking through the gray clouds in the distance. With the trial out of the way, I saw nothing but pure gold and possibility.

I saw a luxurious week away with my soon-to-be husband.

I saw a pregnancy so unlike the first one I had, one where I was safe and cared for and loved.

I saw the birth of our daughter, the growth of our family.

I saw our wedding.

Each vision filled my heart with more joy than it knew how to hold, and I was nearly bursting with it when Kyle laid me down in the cool sheets and took his time stripping every article of clothing from my body.

He worshipped me like I was a goddess, like every inch of my skin must be touched and kissed and praised before he dared to slide inside me.

All the hell I’d been through, it was worth it.

Because I had firmly landed in heaven.

Kyle

There was something about seeing Madelyn in that hammock that put me in a wild state of being.

My eyes had laid upon many attractive women, but none so gorgeous as Madelyn James — becausefuckif I was ever going to use that man’s last name on her again — right here, right now, in this moment.

Her bright copper hair was pulled up into a high ponytail, the edges of it sweaty and greasy from sunscreen. Those strands stuck to her forehead and neck in little swirls of metallic orange. I was particularly drawn to one strand that was clinging to her plump, pink bottom lip. Her skin was freshly bronzed and sporting new freckles — ones I took a lot of pleasure in peppering with welcome kisses each evening when we climbed into bed.

She wore an oversized pair of sunglasses and a black bikini, the triangle top of which struggled to contain her breasts, and the skimpy bottom of which was barely visible under her swollen belly.

Andthatwas what turned me on the most.

How fucking cliché, I know.

I’d read it in a dozen baby books already, how expecting fathers have their own hormones running rampant — mostly when they looked at their partners and saw evidence that they’d impregnated them. It was so caveman, so fuckingbrute-liketo think that I was being run by an archaic, natural instinct.

But fuck… I really was.