Lisa ducked into the ladies’ room to get Kelsey washed up and presentable again while Evan waited in the hallway, and by the time they emerged she looked just as fresh and lovely as she had on the beach.
“Sorry,” she whispered to him, her expression pained. “It’s the smell of the food. Even though I want to eat every bite of it.”
“Yep,” Lisa said, nodding in fond remembrance.
“Honey, I’m sorry you’re having the day spoiled for you like this.”
“Oh, no! It’s not spoiled. Nothing could spoil today for me.” She put her hand on her belly and smiled at him. “It’s worth it.”
Lisa erupted in tears and pulled them both in for a hug. “Oh my God, y’all are so sweeeeet!”
“Lisa,” Kelsey wheezed around the shoulder in her throat. “I’m the hormonal one. I know it’s usually the other way around…”
“Oh, shut up.” Lisa released them, wiping her streaming eyes. Evan handed her his handkerchief, which she took and dabbed at her cheeks. “I’m just so happy for you. You don’t even know.”
“Sure we do, I just hope I’m not going to bother you too much, calling you and asking about every little thing.”
“I don’t care if it’s four in the morning, call me. After having three, I’m like the expert. And I’d better be one of the first ones you call when the time comes, too.”
“You will be,” Evan assured her. “Godparents are always high on the list.”
Lisa only dissolved in tears again at that bit of news, burying her face in Evan’s handkerchief, and it took several minutes of soothing for them to get her to stop the waterworks. “So when are you telling everyone else? Because I’m about to burst here,” she asked when she was capable.
“That’s obvious,” Kelsey said dryly. “I wonder if there’s anyone in the room who doesn’t know by now, thanks to you. We’re thinking right after we get back from the honeymoon, though. Can you last till then?”
“It’ll be hard, but I think I can.”
The view from their suite bedroom was spectacular, even better than the year before. Kelsey stood at the window, watching the crystal blue waves roll in on the beach where she and Evan had just stood becoming husband and wife. The sun caught on the whitecaps, turning the surf to diamonds. It sparkled almost as much as the one on her finger. The ring hadn’t left her hand since Evan slipped it on there at Christmas in Florence, standing outside the Duomo.
She still couldn’t believe it.
Absently stroking her hands over her belly, she heard him enter the room behind her and turned to smile at him. “It’s even better than last year, I think.”
But he was quite possibly the most beautiful sight she’d ever beheld, wearing white slacks and a loose white long-sleeved shirt buttoned up under his lei. His hair was still wind-tossed, and he raked a hand through it as he walked over to put his arms around her from behind, his hands joining hers on her stomach. “How are you feeling?”
Anticipation shivered through her. “Really good right now.”
“Mmm. You feel really good to me, too.”
She giggled and tilted her head as his lips trailed over the side of her neck. “I’m so happy. It was beautiful, don’t you think? Perfect.”
“It was. But all it needed was you there to be beautiful and perfect.”
“Sweet talker.” She turned into his embrace. “So what if someone had told you just before our first trip here that we would be back in a year, getting married, with a baby on the way?”
His lips grazed the tip of her nose. “I wouldn’t have believed it, but I’d have thought, ‘Damn, that would be incredible.’”
“Really? You don’t…wish we could have waited a bit?”
“Ten years, Kelsey. Don’t you think we waited long enough?”
“Oh, I definitely think so.”
Her law school dreams had been put on hold for a bit, but it was okay. As she’d told Evan when she first discovered she was pregnant, another dream of hers had always been to have a family, to be a mom. It didn’t really matter to her which came first, but fate had decided for them. And though the baby was unplanned, he or she was definitely not unwanted by either of them.
Evan kissed her, his lips soft, his tongue gently exploring. She could swear every time he kissed her was like the first time, unleashing a flock of fluttering wings in her stomach. She tangled her fingers in his hair, reveling in this sweetness. Ever since Kelsey had told him about the baby, it seemed everything about him had gentled. The way he touched her, kissed her, looked at her, made love to her.
He drew her back to the bed and sat on the mattress. Smiling, she hiked her dress up to her thighs and straddled him, sinking back into his kiss once she had settled on his lap. His fingers skimmed her thighs, roamed up to brush her br**sts. Slowly, carefully, he pulled her dress down while she drew away and bit her lip at the friction of the elastic rubbing over her too-sensitive n**ples, even through her strapless bra. His fingers brushed her back as he made quick work of that as well.
“Oh, thank you,” she murmured once that itchy aggravation was gone, replaced with his soothing caresses. She had to smile at how mindful he was of her tenderness there. His tongue gently laving her swollen flesh was like a warm balm. He didn’t have to tell her that he enjoyed all the swells and curves pregnancy had blessed her with. He’d shown her almost every day, if only in the way he looked at her.
“Thank you,” he said after a moment, and lifted his head to nuzzle against her neck.
“Evan, I love you so much.”
“I love you. My wife.” He smiled at her before taking the dress bunched around her midsection and lifting it over her head, leaving her in nothing but her lacy white panties.
My wife. Those words sang through her. She pulled off his lei and began working the buttons on his shirt, eager to bare all that smooth, hard male flesh to her feverish hands. The bottom button slipped loose and she gave his c*ck a long, languid stroke through his pants that made him hiss in a breath. He shrugged his shirt off his shoulders and she stripped it the rest of the way.
She couldn’t be bothered with disrobing further. She freed him from his pants and he tugged her panties to the side, his urgency tempered with trembling care as she lifted her h*ps and sank onto his straining length. “Honey—”
“I want you. Now. I won’t break,” she whispered, bearing down to take more of him and nipping at his ear.
“I know, but oh, God, I might.”
She started to laugh, but it turned into a moan when he moved his h*ps beneath her and her need ran rampant, bringing every nerve ending to sizzling life. It was always this way with him. Her bones evaporated and her muscles melted into him until he was all that was holding her up. “Evan, I…”
He slid his hands under her rear and shifted so that she was on her back and he was braced above her. Much better for the times when he turned her into melted butter. And this, their first joining as husband and wife, had effectively done just that.
Later, as they lay nak*d and exhausted across the bed, Evan’s hand spread across the swell of her stomach. She loved how he did that, a sweetly protective gesture. They fell asleep like that every night, and usually in the morning she opened her eyes to feel him caressing her there. Like he couldn’t keep his hands away from her. “Gorgeous,” he murmured.
She chuckled. “Think you’ll say that in five months or so? When I waddle like a duck and you have to tie my shoes for me?”
“I’ll say it then and forever. I can’t wait to see you in five months. You’ll be even more beautiful. I never realized what a miracle it is.”
It was, indeed, a miracle. Like them getting a second chance at doing things right. She wouldn’t waste time thinking about the four years she’d spent married to the wrong man. Those years only made her all the more appreciative toward the one who loved her now. Made her thank God for him. Things truly happened for a reason.
“Hey,” he said suddenly, just as she was about to drift off. “Now that we’re married, I have something to tell you. It’s been bothering me for a long time. It’s time I got it off my chest.”
Ordinarily, after what she’d been through, a statement like that would have sent her into a panic. Not now, not with him. She was curious, but not frantic with worry, riffling through a dozen mental images of him betraying her in some way. She had that much trust in him. “Oh?”
“Remember that first night at my house last year? When you got drunk?”
“How could I forget?”
“Did you by any chance have a really hot dream…?”