Page 19

We drove separately to headquarters and met at my desk in MPU.

Midday on a Saturday meant we had the bullpen to ourselves.

If other teams were working, they weren’t in the building.

We ate while I wrote up the warrant, requesting access to Jude Marigold’s finances and ensuring I made my reasoning sound enough I wouldn’t be denied.

The sandwich was good, despite the niggling devil on my shoulder, giving an exaggerated PowerPoint on its nutritional content. Despite not feeling hungry, I did my best to ignore the pest and finish the meal.

The coffee was glorious and rejuvenating.

Warrant completed, I skeptically eyed my husband.

“What?” he asked with a mouthful of sugary donut. He’d smartly not bought me dessert .

“Any chance you still have ties with Madison?”

Aslan, who had kicked his feet up on Jordyn’s desk while he ate, laughed. “Do you mean do I still flirt and crank up the sexual tension with my judge friend to curry favors? No, hot stuff. My husband would kill me. He’s insanely jealous.”

“Ha ha.” I narrowed my eyes. “Out of curiosity. Did you ever sleep with her?”

The asshole smirked and wiggled his brows. “Wouldn’t you like to know.” He popped the last piece of donut into his mouth and chewed, barely able to contain the amusement on his face.

I glared with a level-ten sneer that did nothing for me. It was for show, and he knew it, but it got me an answer.

Aslan swallowed and licked frosting off his lips, purposefully being seductive.

When I didn’t take the bait, he submitted.

“No, Quaid. I never slept with her. It was a mutual game between us. It was about the possibility of an incredible night together. It was heavy flirting. Innuendo. Teasing. She was attracted to me at one time. I played the attraction to my advantage. Sleeping with a judge would have been career suicide. I might have been stupid back then, but I was not that stupid.”

“Is she still attracted to you?”

He pff ed. “Who isn’t?”

I rolled my eyes. “Your ego is disgusting.”

Aslan was nothing but proud. “I have no idea if she still thinks about me with no clothes on. I stopped playing the game when I got hitched.”

“Before that, I hope.”

He chuckled. “Correction. I stopped when we started dating. Happy? ”

“Yes and no. I was hoping you could pull strings and get this warrant signed. Otherwise, I risk an eighty-year-old cranky judge who should have retired eons ago and doesn’t want to deal with me on the weekend. I swear they run when they see me coming.”

“It’s your endless charm.”

“No, it’s this face.” I sneered.

“That sexy thing?” He cupped the goods and groaned. “Not possible.”

“Only you like it.”

He lowered his feet to the ground and held out his hand. “Give ’er here. I’ll chat with the lovely Judge Madison and try not to fall into bed with her.”

“Thanks. I appreciate it. I’ll call Costa and try not to suck his dick over the phone.”

Aslan snorted and swung my chair around to face him, bending and planting a lingering kiss on my lips. “I love when you talk dirty, but I know your stance on phone sex, so I’m not that worried.”

“You should be.” I kissed him back, longer and with a seeking tongue. “Costa hates it when I talk dirty. It makes him squirm out of his skin, which only compels me to do it more. I might break my phone sex rules for him.”

Aslan hummed, his tongue lacing with mine, drawing me deeper and eliminating my desire or ability to talk. His advance set my blood on fire, and I secured a hold of his T-shirt and drew him down until he almost lost his balance and fell into my lap.

Laughing, he pulled back enough to say, “You’re a little shit sometimes.”

“You love it.”

He scanned the room. “There’s no one around. ”

“Uh-huh.” I dragged his mouth against mine. More kissing. Lots of tongue.

Hands joined the mix, and I fondled his semi, enjoying the feel of it growing under my touch.

Aslan groaned and dropped the warrant on the desk, tugged my dress shirt loose from my pants, and grazed his palm over the heated skin along my abdomen. “We could take this to the supply closet,” he said against my mouth.

I laughed as his fingers danced over my ribs, venturing higher. His thumb brushed my pebbled nipple.

I hissed at the contact, trying and failing to shove him off. “After yesterday’s disaster, I will never get busy with you in there again.”

Aslan growled and nipped my lower lip before resting his forehead against mine with a heavy sigh. “Your partner’s got to go and ruin everything. Ignore her.”

“I can’t.” I wanted to undo his belt and suck his cock, but in the middle of the office was too dangerous. Anyone could show up at any time, which would mean my job. Instead, I snuck my hands under his T-shirt and smoothed them along his lower back. “We really don’t have time.”

“I know.” We shared a final kiss as he reached blindly for the warrant. “What do you want me to do with this once it’s signed?”

“Take it to Costa. He’ll be expecting you. I’m going back to the Davises’ house.”

Aslan straightened and made a point of adjusting the obvious mound in the front of his jeans. I was in a similar state, heat flooding my veins and pooling south.

“I can’t believe you’re sending me off horny and half-hard to see a hot judge. Christ. Who are you?”

I chuckled. “Do try to control yourself. ”

Aslan winked and tapped his chest over his heart before heading to the elevator.

Blood on fire, shirt untucked, and halfway hard myself, I spent a few minutes catching my breath and straightening my clothes before calling and updating Costa.

His girls sang Disney songs in the background.

Random shouts of Daddy, look and Daddy, watch me and Did you see me, Daddy? filled the line.

“Tia’s home,” he said. “I’m going to the office to have some peace and quiet. Tell your husband he can find me there.”

After we hung up, I couldn’t erase the smile from my face.

Hearing the sounds of laughter, life, and family was like glimpsing into my future.

I couldn’t wait until the four walls of our home were filled with the sounds of children.

I couldn’t wait until it was my child vying for attention and calling me daddy.

Before racing back to the house, I quickly called Bryn. Aslan had called her earlier, but I needed to hear for myself that she was doing okay.

“Hi, Quaid.” I could hear the smile in her voice.

“Hey, beautiful. Are you going to have my baby, or what? I’m getting tired of waiting.”

She laughed. Bryn’s uninhibited laugh made anyone in her vicinity smile. She was a fiery redhead with a vibrant personality to match.

“Oh, Mylanta, if I could give this kid an eviction notice, I would. This body is stretched to capacity. I hope you’re prepared.

You have a bouncy, wiggly, never-tired-or-sleeping baby on your hands.

They move constantly. All day and all night, jabbing my ribs, poking my bladder, and bouncing off my kidneys or whatever organs they can reach.

Doing somersaults. Jumping jacks. I’m pretty sure there was a burpee in there last night.

He or she will probably be into sports. Something with kicking or using a trampoline. ”

Happy tears filled my eyes, and my voice came out gruff when I spoke. “I can’t wait. Tell me more?”

She did. About the sixteen-bazillion times she got up to pee the previous night.

About the elbow or heel or knee causing a lump on the left side of her belly that no amount of poking resolved.

About the baby getting hiccups, which I didn’t know was possible in utero until a few weeks ago.

About how she couldn’t see her feet anymore.

About her insatiable craving for sweet potatoes that lasted three days before ending abruptly, leaving her with such an aversion it made her want to vomit.

No one was around, so when a single tear escaped, I let it fall. “Thank you, Bryn.”

“Anytime, sweetie. Everything is fine and dandy. I promise.”

Bryn and I had a special relationship. She knew of my anxieties and constant need for reassurance and never hesitated to indulge me with how the pregnancy was going, sometimes to the point of extreme exaggeration, but I didn’t mind.

She shared everything, knowing there was no detail too big or too small that I wouldn’t want to hear.

Most of all, she made me laugh and eased my fears.

We were lucky to have found someone so kind and patient to be our surrogate.

“I hear you caught a case.” She tsk ed. “You were supposed to be done by now, mister.”

“I know. I’m going to wrap it up as fast as I can. I promise. It will not interfere. No contractions yet?”

“A few Braxton Hicks, but nothing regular. I’m keeping a close eye.

Arden and Iggy are hovering to the point of annoyance.

I’m just glad my mother is three hundred kilometers away.

Trust me. I’m well taken care of, and Iggy’s a paramedic, remember?

I could give birth on the bathroom floor, and he’d know what to do. ”

“Yeah… maybe don’t do that. ”

She laughed. “I don’t plan to.”

Knowing there was a paramedic near her at all times alleviated a lot of stress. I worried about Bryn getting to the hospital when her time came.

Arden was Bryn’s younger brother, and Iggy was his husband.

Several years ago, when Bryn had found herself unexpectedly pregnant, she’d decided to give the baby up for adoption to a gay couple in Southwestern Ontario, where they were all from.

After such a positive experience, seeing the joy she’d brought the two men and the family she’d helped create, Bryn decided to become a surrogate.

Her brother and his partner had moved to Toronto for work, and she was down visiting until she gave birth.

My call-waiting beeped, and I checked the screen.

Jordyn.

“I have to let you go. Duty calls.”

“I’m here anytime.”

“Give the baby some love from Daddy.”

“I will.”

I switched to the other line and barely got a word out when Jordyn announced. “World War III has begun. I need reinforcements.”