Page 25 of Mic Drop (Passionate Beats #3)

Bennett

I ’ve never not used a condom. Why did I forget this time—with my wife? She’s going to want to divorce me before our marriage even starts for being a careless, selfish bastard. Fuck.

Her tiny hand turns my head toward hers. I can’t bring myself to look into her gray eyes. I don’t deserve such closeness. “Bennett, it’s all right.”

I continue to berate myself. How did I manage to have sex bareback with the most precious woman on earth? We’ve never even talked about having kids. Her sister has two, sure, but Jenna isn’t Kara. I’m most certainly not daddy material.

“Everything’s fine.” She shakes my head.

I blink, not registering what she’s saying. My wife. “Huh?”

“I said, it’s okay. We’re married. If we get pregnant, it’s no big deal.”

I sit up. “No big deal. You were born to be a mother. You’re kind and sweet and loving. Me?” I rake my palm up and down my body. “I’m not built to be a father. Look at my role model. Oh wait. You can’t because he isn’t here.” I slam my lips into a thin line.

“Because he passed away a decade ago,” she replies in a quiet voice. Her hand taps the center of my chest. “But he was here, Bennett. With you. In you. You placed a rose on the chair to honor him. He lives on through you, can’t you see?”

My mouth hangs open. “Dad was a great man. He tried to help me in any way he could.” I shake my head. “Not me. I’m not as good as he was. Then there’s Mom.” My eyes fall to the bedding. “I didn’t even tell her I was getting married.”

Jenna slides next to me, kissing my jaw. “Your mother isn’t capable of supporting you, and you didn’t want her negativity at our wedding.” She kisses my cheek. “You can still tell her. Maybe you should before the media gets hold of the information and runs with it.” Her nose scrunches.

The last thing I want is to worry Jenna about my stupid crap. She has more than enough on her plate. “I’ll deal with Mom.” Somehow.

Ignoring how my stomach folds on itself, I bring her to my body and reiterate my initial issue. “However, I don’t want to put you at risk. Having unprotected sex was risky.”

“Do you have any diseases I don’t know about?”

“What?” I shake my head. “No. I’m clean. Luke makes us take tests on a monthly basis, just in case he has to do some clean up.”

“Oh wow.” She shakes her head. “Did any of you ever come up positive?”

I purse my lips. “All I’m going to say is one of us had to take antibiotics for a while. But he’s clean now. We all are.”

“Who was it?” Her hands tap on my shoulders.

“Not me.” I make a zipping motion across my lips. “It’s old news, Sweetheart. We had that one scare, and we all learned our collective lesson from it.”

“Fine,” she pouts.

Coop’s story is his alone, so I return to the issue at hand. “Jenna, I forgot to use a condom. What are we going to do?”

Her head tilts and she places her index finger against her lips. “I don’t know, Bennett. What do you suggest?”

There’s a pill that could take care of any complications, but I can’t bring myself to suggest this to the beautiful naked woman in my arms. My wife. “I?—”

“This is why I knew Lissa was lying, even before I heard the true story.” She hugs her body against mine. “You won’t tell me to do anything about a possible baby, and we’re married . No way would you have abandoned her back in high school.”

I frown. How did my wedding night turn into a conversation about my high school girlfriend who’s trying to blackmail her way into the spotlight? “Jenna, one thing has nothing to do with the other.”

“They both show your character.”

Women. Who can follow their logic? “Listen, I’m talking about us right now. You and me. The fact I went bareback.”

“Have to admit, it was a very memorable way to consummate our marriage.” She grins.

“That’s beside the point.” I rake my fingers through my hair. “What are we going to do if you’re pregnant?”

Her head lands on my shoulder. “Have a baby.”

Those three words would have caused my body to convulse before I met Jenna. Even now, I can’t wrap my head around this possibility. Yet, her solution seems so easy. “As in you and me plus a baby carriage?”

She giggles. “I want him to have your green eyes and amazing lips. Not to mention your personality.”

“Oh no. The only way I’d have a baby with you is if we had a girl with blonde hair and gray eyes. Whip smart, like her mother.”

She sits up. “I forgot. Our son will have to be able to sing like his daddy and perform in front of thousands of fans.”

I force myself upright next to her. “Our daughter will go to school and get her graduate degree like her mother, and set the world on fire.” I cross my arms across my chest.

Jenna laughs, a full-on sound that makes my heart sing. Her face collapses into my lap, where I stroke her long hair. After a bit, she regains her composure and leans against the headboard .

“I love that we just had a fight about whether we’re having a son or a daughter.” She wipes a stray tear away from her eye.

“It wasn’t a fight,” I correct. “We were talking about our hopes for the future. Not an immediate problem to be resolved.”

“Well.” She places her palms onto the bed and sits straight up. “What we did, we did. It was amazing.” She leans over to kiss me. “Given where I am in my cycle, it’s highly unlikely I could get pregnant. Plus, we’re married, so it doesn’t really matter at all anyway.”

I puff out my chest. “You don’t think my super sperm could knock you up, wrong time of the month and all?”

She dissolves into another fit of laughter. “Super sperm?!” Her laugh is contagious. Soon I’m fighting my own chuckles. I bite the inside of my lip, but one still escapes.

Her hands go around my naked waist. “How about this, Mr. Super Sperm?” She laughs again.

“We make sure to use condoms from now on and not worry about it. One day, whether in nine months or a few years, we’ll have kids.

Never fear, you’ll be a fantastic father.

” She crawls on her knees up to me and kisses my mouth.

This time, I don’t hesitate. If she thinks I’ll be a good father, perhaps I will. Or, more likely, she’ll make up for my poor showing by being the best mother ever. My lips meet hers again and we make slow, sweet love under the inky sky.

At three in the morning, we weave into the bedroom and Jenna yawns. “I have a few hours before the limo comes to take me away. Why don’t you get some sleep?” We crawl into bed.

Her arms encircle my neck. “I’m the luckiest woman on earth.”

I don’t respond, simply lie in bed holding my wife. Jenna is so much more than I deserve. I bury my face in her soft locks and breathe in her goodness.

My alarm goes off four hours later, and I blink awake. Next to me, Jenna stirs. I watch as she turns to her side, my fingers stroking her body. When I tweak her nipple, her eyes pop open.

“I like waking up like this.”

“Me too.” I kiss her because I can. Under the laws of New York and God, we belong to each other.

After I make her squirm, shatter, and scream, we sit up. “Shower?”

“I don’t want to wash you off my body.”

When she says something like that, I almost relent. However, it’s now after eight, and I’m being picked up in under two hours. “I don’t either, Sweetheart. But reality intrudes.” I toss the blankets off our cooling bodies.

Taking her hand, we walk into the bathroom where we brush our teeth and hop into the oversized shower. She holds onto the shelf as I pummel her from behind, and she comes all over my cock. I pull out and jerk off onto her back with a loud groan.

Once we’re washed and clean, we go to the kitchen, where she makes pancakes while I prepare the coffee. “I’m going to miss you,” she admits.

“Not any more than I’m going to miss you. But we have Zoom. And texting. And phones. We can make it through these next couple of weeks, and then I’m off for fourteen days. We can go to Secluded Rest and fuck our way through our entire new house.”

She pauses from flipping a pancake. “I still can’t believe that’s ours.” She emphasizes the last word.

“All I have is yours, Sweetheart. Including access to the band’s private jet, which I plan on using as often as possible.”

She plates a pancake and makes one for herself. “I have to stay here for Ma.” Her voice dips.

“I know. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Enjoy your two weeks with her. Make her watch our shows on YouTube.”

Jenna points the spatula at me. “What are you planning?”

“Guess you’ll both have to watch to find out.” I pour syrup onto the pancake, wishing I were putting it onto her sexy body. This fantasy will have to wait another two weeks.

She flips her pancake and my cell goes off.

LUKE

Sorry, B, time to go. The limo will be by your wedding night villa in an hour.

I don’t bother to respond because Jenna’s placing her pancake onto her own dish. Smiling like our time isn’t coming to an end. We eat our breakfast, talking in low murmurs. The rest of the world can fuck off.

Still, I want her to be safe when I’m not here. “Promise me you’ll reach out to Hayden and let the UC PR team handle anything that comes up. None of this is your fault. Your sole focus should be on your mother.”

“Thanks, Bennett. I’ll do my best. Looks like Michelle’s been pretty well shut down, though. Time will help the clinics get back on their feet.”

“I want to be as healthy as you are when I grow up.” I drag her into my arms.

“Not sure I’m healthy. Someone called me ‘controlling.’” She leans back and gives me a saucy grin.

“Controlling can be a good thing sometimes. Like when we’re naked in bed. It can be very good then.”

“Yeah, but you always usurp my power there. So not fair.”

“Hey,” I tip her chin upward. “If you were in control, what would you do?” Can’t wait to hear her dirty thoughts.

“I’d—” She bites her lip. “I’d tell you to make me come on your fingers and mouth, then I’d rock your world.”