“You gonna give me what I need?”
I stared into his eyes and whispered, “Always.”
On a groan, his mouth took mine as his hand slid away.
That was when I moaned in disappointment against his tongue.
But I felt him working between my legs and then I lost his mouth when my neck arched, my head turning to the side, as he drove in and filled me.
“Arms around me, brown eyes,” he grunted, plunging hard and fast.
I wrapped my arms around him and lifted my knees high.
He pounded in deeper.
“Fuck yeah,” I breathed.
Merry’s fingers curled around the back of my knee, sliding down to my ankle. He swung it in at his back and kept it there.
His other arm braced under me, he lifted up slightly, and watched my body jolt on his dining room table each time I took him.
I slid my hands up, both of them diving into his hair and clenching as other parts of me started doing the same thing.
“Hold on, Cherie,” he grunted.
“Yeah, baby.”
He knew it was happening when my body tensed around him, under him, my pussy grasping when he repeated, “Hold on tight, Cherie.”
I held on tight as I came hard, and I kept holding on tight as he took me harder, driving himself to his own orgasm and taking me along for the ride.
It way didn’t suck, feeling mine hovering while I also felt Merry get his.
It took its time and left both of us, but we didn’t move. We didn’t speak.
So Merry’s face was in the side of my neck when, minutes later, he yet again repeated, “Hold on.”
I squeezed him with everything (which meant everything) as I pointed out, “I am holding on.”
“No,” he whispered against my neck, and the way he said it, it was my heart that squeezed.
He shifted his lips to my ear.
“No,” he said again.
He lifted his head and I righted mine so he could catch my eyes.
He did and he was looking deep when he finished.
“Don’t let go.”
When he said that, that was when everything I had didn’t squeeze.
It spasmed.
We stared at each other and we did it awhile before I lifted my head from the table, touched his nose with mine, then dropped back.
“No flowers,” I whispered.
He closed his eyes slowly.
I held on.
He opened them.
“You’re never gonna get those from me, baby.”
“I can live with that,” I replied instantly.
“My job…anything can happen.”
“I can live with that too.”
“We go the distance, Ethan’s gonna be it, Cher. Don’t want kids. Never did. I see your brown eyes in his face. He’s a great kid. That works for me.”
This was shocking.
It was also a bummer.
Because if we went the distance, I wanted to see his beautiful blue eyes in our kid’s face.
But if he felt he needed to protect our child from the loss he suffered by not having one, I could get that.
Still…
“Is that a bottom line deal breaker, or is that open to discussion at a later date?” I asked.
He started to close down. “Baby—”
I held on tight.
“Merry, I get you need to know I’m where you need me to be. And I promise to do my best to be where you need me to be. But I also gotta know you’re gonna do what you can to be where I need you to be. And there’s a lotta things I like about you, gorgeous. And high on that list is your eyes. You got mine times two. Don’t close the door on me gettin’ the same thing.”
“Even if we made a kid, you couldn’t be sure he’d get my eyes,” he pointed out.
“Your eyes are so beautiful, Merry, it’d be worth the shot.”
Those eyes flashed as his lips grunted, “Jesus.”
“Just sayin’, he or she doesn’t get yours, they’ll get mine, so you’d get that times three.”
Something else flashed in his eyes, surprise and unease.
I’d know why when he asked, “She?”
“I know you’re a badass, babe. But so is Tanner and he made three, one of ’em a girl. And Cal’s one too. He’s made three…so far…and repeat on the girl. It happens. Even a badass’s swimmers can make girl babies.”
“We need to stop talkin’ about this.”
I didn’t let go as I asked, “Why?”
“’Cause I’m bent over my dining room table with my dick inside you, your kid’s at home bein’ watched over by an old lady, and you’re talkin’ about girl babies. I watched Cal endure the torture of helpin’ to raise Keira before she caught Jasper, and Jas didn’t manage to calm her ass down. He just managed to give her a man at her back while she was goin’ wild so she didn’t court too much trouble. And Vi’s sweet as pie. You gave your mom shit. You get a girl, karma’s gonna bite you in the ass and I’d be that girl’s daddy. It’s been a rough night. You took care a’ that. Now you’re practically guaranteeing nightmares.”
I grinned at him. “I’ll take it from this that the door is open to discuss babies at a later date.”
He looked over my head, muttering, “Fuck me.”
“Merry?” I called.
He looked back at me and lifted his brows.
“You mean the world to me,” I whispered.
His eyes flashed again, the emotion rolling over his face, and his hand, still at my ankle holding it around him, tightened.
“I’m not gonna let go,” I promised. “I’m not gonna let you push me away. I’m keepin’ you with me.”