Authors: Lorhainne Eckhart
“No
, I’m just...” She couldn’t think of what to say when her brain suddenly blanked out. That always happened when Andy stood so close to her and watched her with compelling blue eyes that could set her soul on fire, so she shut her mouth and shook her head.
He sat
right beside her on the bed so his hip pressed into hers. She knew all too well what those slim hips and tight abs looked like naked and pressed against her hips, nestled between her thighs. It was almost too much heat for her, so she squirmed and tried to slide over and away from him.
“You all right?
You look uncomfortable.”
He wouldn’t even look away.
Uncomfortable, hell yeah. And it was all his fault. “Just stiff is all.”
“Can I?” He rested his hand over her swollen belly
, where the babies had been kicking furiously for the last hour.
He was connecting with her babies. She wanted to scream and yell at him
, “Hell no! Keep your hands off!” but her body was betraying her. The reality was that she wanted him to touch her, to run his hands over every square inch of her.
He didn’t wait for her to say anything
, but then, she couldn’t get her tongue to move. The damn thing had thickened, and her throat had completely dried up as he invaded her space. My God, he even smelled good, and his scruffy jaw...she longed to reach up and run her hands over it.
His touch sent shockwaves through her
, and the babies responded in kind. She’d swear they jumped from his touch, as if they knew that Andy was their daddy. He smiled that charming, boyish grin she’d only seen a few times. Never once had he smiled just for her.
“Wow
, that’s amazing. Did you feel that?”
For a moment
, she felt herself being pulled into his joy, just like a little boy’s first Christmas, but she had to look away, to move away from his touch, because she’d never again be treated as if she was nothing. Andy Friessen could turn on a dime, and she’d never play second again. “Yeah, I did. Listen, I’m tired.” She scooted over and lifted his hand off her belly. She couldn’t look at him even though she could feel the sharp change in him as if she’d just ripped away all his joy. So why was she feeling guilty? She wasn’t the bad guy here.
Andy stood up and stepped back.
“I’m going to have a word with Jed. I’ll be right back.” He said it sharply, and it took her a minute to realize his meaning.
“Aren’t you going home?”
He gave her a questioning glance that she couldn’t read. He shook his head. “No, I’m not going anywhere.” Then he turned and left down the stairs, and she could do nothing but listen like a stunned woman as the door at the bottom of the stairs opened and shut behind him.
Chapter
8
H
ow the hell was she supposed to relax if he wasn’t going to leave? She bolted straight up, which was a mistake, as she felt a sharp jab in her ribs. As gracefully as she could, she stepped out of bed and over to the window above the kitchen sink, which overlooked Diana and Jed’s house. She watched as her long-legged husband, all lean and sexy, strode over and up to the wraparound front porch Jed had recently built. It was one of many upgrades, including the extension that had added three more rooms and a family room to the back of the house. Jed stepped out, and a minute later Diana did, too.
Jed didn’t allow his wife to linger beside him
. He always swept her close to him, his arm around her shoulder, hugging her to him. That was what Laura envied about Jed and Diana, their love. Just being around them, she was pulled into that radiance. She wanted that, but Andy had never once treated her that way, because he loved Diana. She wondered if Jed knew where his cousin’s thoughts went. Laura was pretty sure Diana didn’t have a clue, but she’d never asked. Andy’s concern for Diana had always been over the top. In the beginning, she’d chalked it up to the fact that she was family, but, come to think of it, that was just plain stupid. Andy wasn’t just overly concerned about his cousin’s wife—it was obvious he had the hots for her.
It took a second for
Laura to realize that all three of them were staring at her from where they stood. Andy looked none too happy, and his normally neat dark hair was sticking up here and there as if some woman had just run her fingers through it. The thought made her blood boil, but she was embarrassed for staring out at them, so she stepped back away from the window, feeling as if she’d just been caught doing something she shouldn’t. Well, actually, spying on Andy, Diana, and Jed was a pretty low thing to do.
Laura glanced at a now sleeping Gabriel
, tucked into his cozy single bed with the comforter pulled up under his chin, and had taken one step back to bed when the door opened and footsteps pounded up the stairs.
“What are you doing out of bed?” Andy
snapped in a low, sharp tone as he glanced at Gabriel, who was still soundly sleeping.
Laura couldn’t think of what to say
, because blurting out that she was standing there ogling him was the last thing she wanted to admit. Instead, she crossed her arms, tucking her fingers into the warm brown sweater, and said, “You’re still in love with Diana, aren’t you?”
There
, she had said it, but she felt like an absolute idiot as he said nothing, glancing away as if he couldn’t figure out what language she was speaking.
“No
, I’m not in love with my cousin’s wife.”
S
he wanted to yell and scream and hit him, but instead she squeezed her fists tighter in her sweater and stepped around him “Bullshit,” she whispered as she stepped back to the bed, but Andy, being Andy and never walking away from a fight, was right behind her. Hell, he was right in her space again, her tall, muscular, very male husband. Inside him lurked a strong alpha and dangerous predator that he controlled on a very loose leash. She could feel it sizzle now, just below the surface, and she knew she was provoking it in him much as a fool would poke at a poisonous snake. She kept her back to him and pulled back the covers of the bed, doing her damnedest to remain calm, but inside she was shaking so hard she wondered if he could feel it.
He didn’t just touch her
; he slid his arms around her, one just under her breasts and the other over her hips, just under the swell of her belly. He pressed her against him, and she could feel the hard ridge of him pressed into her. She froze as he pressed his lips against her and whispered, “Does this feel like I’m in love with Diana?” He brushed his lips over her ear and into her hair.
L
ike an inexperienced fool, she gasped and leaned into him, and he didn’t stop as his hand pressed lower into her curls and over her sex. He held her like a prisoner against him. She couldn’t have stepped away if she wanted to, as her legs would have given out. His warm breath was a whisper on her neck, which she couldn’t help but offer to him. Then he stopped in an instant, his arm loosening under her breasts from where he had held her up. The hand that had touched her so intimately fisted at his side as he stepped back, but when her knees buckled, he scooped her up as if she didn’t weigh more than a feather and set her on the bed with ease.
“I’m sorry
,” he said. He didn’t try to touch her now, stepping back and pressing his fingers into the space between his brows, shutting his eyes for a second. Good. Maybe he was as rattled as she was.
“I’m tired. I’d like to go to sleep.”
“Fine. I’ll get in the shower.” His tone had a rough bite to it.
“You can’t stay here
, Andy. You have a home, a big one, to go to.” She was feeling desperately overwhelmed because she feared a long, sleepless night, and the last thing she wanted was all that male hardness pressed up against her in this small, cozy double bed, not because she feared him or didn’t want him but because she was freaking out inside. She wanted to toss out the window all her self-respect and say to hell with fighting him, hiding from him, and running away from him. She wanted to sleep with him, to touch him, to be with him, but when she looked up at him, he wasn’t smiling. His handsome face seemed to be made of granite, immovable, and then he leaned forward, putting his face just inches from hers so she shared his breath.
“No
,” he growled, and then he was gone into the bathroom.
S
he listened as the shower flicked on, and she sagged as if releasing her breath. “Oh my, now what?”
T
he cold hard fact was that she was about to get her wish, the one thing she shouldn’t have wanted.
Chapter
9
To say it had been a
frustrating night for Andy, as he lay pressed against Laura’s sweet, tight ass, going through pure and absolute torture, was like saying Mount Everest was a little big. He had never experienced that kind of agony, ever, and it had turned a mild case of insomnia into a long, painful, and sleepless night.
After all
, he wasn’t a monk. He never had been. Even before he married Laura, he’d had a healthy sexual appetite, and he sated it often. Having Laura, who was young and gorgeous, with a slim waist, tight ass, and full, high breasts that he’d sampled often, had been a welcome and appreciated perk. He could have kicked his ass now for not treasuring her. The fact was that he cared for Laura. He just hadn’t realized how much until she was gone. The last six months, he’d seen no relief. Andy had always had women falling at his feet, racing across the street just to get his attention, tossing him their phone numbers, and he knew he could have snapped his fingers and had a woman on her back in two seconds, ready and eager to satisfy his insatiable needs, but he just couldn’t do it.
A
s he watched the sun come up, feeling as if sand had scraped the back of his eyelids, Laura rustled beside him and snuggled in closer, her head resting on his shoulder, her hand pressed into the soft dark hair of his chest. His babies poked into his side. She slid her leg over his, and he thought he’d go blind in agony as he groaned with need. It took him a minute to realize she was awake. She stiffened, and her hand moved lower, over his tight washboard abs and lower still, as if she was trying to seduce him.
Andy kissed the top of her head
and grabbed her hand. “Laura, stop.” He pulled away, attempting to slide out of bed, and didn’t miss the tears that glistened in her eyes. “What the...?”
Her cheeks
glowed a light shade of pink. Hell, he was embarrassed. With his maleness prodding into her, she had to be humiliated, but he couldn’t take how she seemed to pull into herself as she tried to scoot upward, casting her gaze at the bed and away from him.
“Laura
, don’t do that.”
“Do what
? I don’t know what I was thinking. There must be something wrong with me. I thought you wanted me.” She refused to look at him when she spoke, and this time she did slide off the bed onto the cold floor.
W
hat did Andy do? Well, he reacted as a man exhausted and emotionally pushed to the brink. Gone was any attempt that mildly resembled diplomacy as he ripped back the sheet and stalked naked, fully aroused, around the bed. Laura gasped, and her face burned brighter. She should have been terrified, and maybe she was, as her eyes flared with something that resembled shock. He backed her up to the bed until the back of her legs bounced off the mattress and she fell back as he loomed over her, one arm on either side of her.
“The only thing I want to do is throw you back
on this bed and bury myself inside your softness, to ride you like an animal to give myself some relief. But I won’t. I can’t do that to you, because the last thing I want to do is hurt you. If you think for one minute I don’t want you...” He growled and grabbed her hand, wrapping it around his hard length, which nearly blinded him and brought him to his knees, further proving that his brain had obviously taken a sabbatical. “That’s all for you, baby,” he snapped.
“Andy?” Gabriel rustled in the
other bed behind him.
Andy yanked the quilt off the bed and wrapped it around his waist, and Laura gaped
, her face pink. She scurried off the bed and into the bathroom, shutting the door with a sharp thud.
Gabriel rubbed his eyes
. “I’m hungry.”
“I bet you are. Let me just
...” Andy flexed his fingers through his short hair, spiking it more, and snatched the clothes he’d tossed over the kitchen chair.
When
Laura came out of the bathroom, she glanced shyly at Andy, still wearing that long worn nightgown. In the morning sun that streamed through the window, he could see the outline of her slender legs. Her nipples and full breasts were pressing against the tight bodice.
“Let me grab a quick shower”
—
a cold one
—“and then I’ll get you and your mom some breakfast.”
“Andy
, I can make breakfast. I’m pretty sure there’s cereal and milk. I can do that much.” She was fidgeting, rubbing her bare arms, glancing over his shoulder in a very obvious way, too embarrassed to make eye contact.
“No
. Back to bed, and then we’re going home.”
Gabriel squealed and leaped from bed
. “
Yeah!
” he cried, and he started jumping up and down in front of Andy. “Home with Andy!”