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17

Jared

It was a good thing Liam said I was allowed to be happy, because I couldn’t imagine trying to tamp this down. Not once he’d confirmed the truth.

“I’m going to be a dad!” I said again in awe, as if I had to repeat it to make sure it was real.

“Hold that thought,” he told me, his voice breathy and excited. “I’ll be right there.”

While I was totally willing (and more than ready) to run all the way to Liam’s place to wrap him up in my arms, he said he would come to me instead, then hung up the phone so he could leave straight away. It was getting late, but neither of us wanted to wait. Receiving this kind of news was the time to be together. We had a lot to talk about, but honestly, I just wanted to hold him.

I watched from the window, so I knew the moment he’d arrived, and I was waiting in the hallway for him when the elevator doors opened. Liam’s eyes were already teary, and he leapt into my arms, wrapping his arms tight around my neck. “You promise you’re not mad?” he asked, his voice mumbled against my skin where he’d buried his face in the crook of my neck .

“Are you kidding me right now?” I spun him around a few times. “I’m thrilled !”

He made a gurgling sound and kicked his legs until I put him down. He looked a little green around the gills. “Careful,” he warned. “There was a reason I took that pregnancy test. Spin me like that again, and I might provide a demonstration.”

Concern tempered my joy, but only a little. “Come on, let’s see if I can help with that.”

I led him to the kitchen. “Have a seat,” I told him, expecting him to lower into one of the chairs at the small table, but instead, he pulled himself up to sit on the counter, and I secretly loved having him this close. I reached over and squeezed his thigh before getting to work.

He glanced around my apartment with curiosity while I peeled and crushed some fresh ginger and threw it into a pot of water on the stove and set it to heat. “Didn’t you say you had a dog?”

“I do, sorta. I share custody of Lulabelle with my ex, Ridley.”

“Oh. That’s… weird but nice.”

He was watching my actions, but I was mostly watching his face. “You’re sure you’re okay?” I didn’t just mean his nausea, and his gaze flicked up to meet mine.

“I mean, this whole thing is a little scary,” he said. He was trying to be brave, but I could hear the slightest quiver in his voice.

“It’s okay to be scared, as long as you know I’m here for you.” He nodded, and I hoped that he believed me. Next, I took a fresh lemon out of the fridge and started to slice it, the fresh scent filling my kitchen.

Liam took a deep breath and smiled. “I love that smell.”

I cut him a little wedge and passed it to him. “Suck on it.”

“That’s what he said,” he joked under his breath. He arched a brow but took the wedge and put it in his mouth. His face puckered at the sour flavor. “Why am I doing this?”

“How does your stomach feel?” I asked, hopeful for his answer.

Liam blinked a few times as he assessed. “Huh. It might be a bit better, actually.”

I nodded, smug as hell. “Hugh’s husband, Charlie, had really bad morning sickness with both his pregnancies. I’ve picked up a few tricks.”

“What else have you got?” he asked, and I could’ve sworn he was hinting at things beyond the kitchen.

After the ginger tea was ready, we got settled on my couch, with Liam’s bare feet in my lap.

“You’re a miracle worker.” Liam moaned, almost orgasmic, as I massaged my thumb along the ball of his foot and through the arch, tracing the acupressure points for his stomach. None of these tricks were guaranteed to work for morning sickness, they weren’t magic, but I was so grateful that I could bring him some relief.

“Anything I can do at all, consider me at your disposal.” I hadn’t meant it to sound dirty, but now that it was out, there was no pulling it back. Suddenly, my hands on his feet felt so erotic, stroking, squeezing.

Liam’s eyes cracked open, and he gazed at me for a long moment. His hand was resting on his stomach where our child was growing. Just weeks old, it was too soon to plan, but my brain was already conjuring images of what they might look like, of who they might become.

“I am happy, but… I can’t help but regret how they were conceived,” Liam whispered, his eyes a little glassy. “Hate sex in a backroom, up against a shelf.” He laughed at himself, brushing away a tear before it could fall .

I moved my hands up his legs to hook them under his knees and dragged him toward me until he was in my lap. He squeaked in surprise but came willingly, letting me cradle him against my chest. “That was not hate sex,” I corrected firmly. “It was unbridled passion. Never once did I even consider hating you.”

He gave me a sniffly laugh. “Does that mean you don’t wish we could have a do-over?”

“Well, I mean, we could always have sex again and pretend…” I squeezed his hip, and there was no way he couldn’t feel me stiffening the way he was pressed against me.

He was close enough that I heard his breath hitch, felt it on the skin of my neck. “You mean, you would… breed me?” His eyes flicked up, full of heat and a playfulness that drove me wild.

Without another word, I gathered him up in my arms and stood, taking him with me to the bedroom. If we were doing this, it wouldn’t be on my narrow couch. He wanted it to be done right, and that definitely included being in a bed this time.

I set him down in my bedroom, and he turned in a circle to look curiously around the space. Until he choked out a gasp. He spun around and glared at me, wide-eyed. “You kept them?”

Liam had caught sight of the row of dolls he’d kept leaving in Crave for me to find.

“Was I not supposed to?” I asked in confusion. I would keep anything he gave me, even if it was meant to be a joke. “They watch over me while I sleep.”

“I have no doubt about that.” Liam shuddered and then one by one, turned them to face the wall. “I kinda thought you’d salt and burn them after exorcizing the demons. ”

“Aw, seriously? But look how sweet Haunted Holly is?” I picked up a doll in a white lace dress and tilted her back and forth to make her long-lashed eyes blink. “We could put them in the nursery.”

“Never!” he shouted playfully, then leaped at me, tackling me to the bed behind me. I let myself be taken down, loving the weight of him pressing me into the mattress.

Chest to chest, I could feel his heart beating, fast like he was running a race, and then he lowered his lips to press them to mine.

This was night and day compared to our first time. It was slow and patient. There was no rush to enjoy each other, and it was like neither of us ever wanted this to end. The passion was still there, burning us with fever, but it had been leashed. We were the ones in control this time.

Instead of tearing off our own clothes like last time, I hovered over him and undressed him slowly, exposing one inch of flesh at a time. I was determined to kiss every single part of his body before this night was through.

Once we were both undressed, I settled on my stomach between his spread legs and looked along his body at him. This was the only thing I regretted about our first time. We’d been rushed for time, interrupted before I could fully appreciate everything about him.

Now, though, I inspected every crease with great detail. I delved my fingers through his slick crack and probed at his entrance until he moaned. I lapped across his taint and relished the aromatic flavor, teased my tongue across the ridges of his balls, and laved at his velvety-smooth shaft. He was already writhing as I enveloped his length with my mouth, his precum salty in my mouth.

I could very easily spend the whole night here, edging him for hours just to hear all the sounds he would make, but all too soon, his fingers wound through my hair, pulling me off even as his hips arched off the bed, searching for more.

“I need you, Jared,” he panted, clinging at me to drag me up the bed. “Please.”

Moving up his body, I paused to nudge his erection aside to kiss just below his belly button. “Is it too soon to say I love you?” I asked softly, not sure if I was speaking to Liam or our baby. Both of them, I guess, but the love I felt was very real, expanding my heart in my chest until it hurt with the pressure of it.

“Yes, but say it anyway.”

“I love you,” I said as I kissed his stomach.

“I love you,” I said as I kissed his chest over his heart.

“I love you,” I said as I trailed kisses up his neck and along his jaw.

And when I got to his lips, it was Liam who took my face in his hands and said, “I love you, Jared.”

Sliding into him felt like the most natural thing, like it was exactly where I was always meant to be. Like that day when I was 17 and told my mom I was staying behind, it was because I’d had the first glimmer of the future that awaited me here. Liam and I were never rivals; we were simply not yet ready to see the truth written on the wall.

I was his and he was mine, and together, we were everything .

We kept the pace slow for as long as we could stand it, making love as I rocked against him, stretching him with care. But all too soon, Liam had wrapped his legs around my waist, urging me to go faster, harder. Heat began to build, sweat dripping, gentle hands turned grasping.

“Jared!” Liam tipped his head back and shouted out his release, spilling his cum between us.

When I released my seed inside him, my knot expanding to seal it inside him, I closed my eyes, groaning, and imagined getting him pregnant, a do-over, just like he’d asked. One day , I told myself. We have a lifetime to do this all again, on purpose next time .

Without the risk of getting caught, we lingered, speaking softly and kissing gently, and I stayed inside him even after my knot loosened, cum leaking around my softening shaft. And then once I got a warm cloth and cleaned us both up, I crawled back into bed beside him and pulled the blanket over us.

Liam was draped across me in a way I could easily get addicted to. “Call in sick tomorrow,” I whispered. I was already dreading the moment I had to let him go.

“I already did,” he answered, smiling.

“Oh, thank gods,” I groaned, rolling until he was under me once more, his laugh making me feel so alive.