Shield My Heart (Heaven Hill Book 9) (12 page)

D
alton sat her down softly on the blanket covering the bed. She’d had it since she was younger, and he could remember them making out on it back in the day. Everything about her took him back to another much simpler time, and he wished like hell they could go there now. He laid her down so that her legs hung off the end of the bed. It made a perfect cradle for his body between her thighs.

Standing over her, he ran his hands over her T-shirt clad torso, stopping where he could see the peaks of her nipples poking through the material.

“Sensitive?” he asked, even though he’d always heard that they were for pregnant women.

She took a deep breath as his finger circled the pebbled flesh, nodding. “Yeah, very.”

She whined when he took his hand back, working on removing his cut and his own T-shirt. He knew Mandy better than he knew anyone else, and he could tell by the way she was already arching into his touch this was something she’d wanted for a while. “You missed me, baby?” He pushed his hands up her stomach, noticing that while she’d gained a few pounds, he couldn’t tell she had a bump. Her arms obediently went over her head, letting him rid her of the shirt.

“Please.” She wiggled against the bed.

Her larger breasts jiggled over the top of the lace bra that cupped the flesh. His palms ached to grasp that flesh, so that’s what he did, pulling the edges of the lace down, exposing the darker areola to his gaze. She’d never been so beautiful to him.

Out of nowhere, he had an image of her breast-feeding their child and for the first time, and he hoped to God he’d be around to see it. Exposed to the air of the apartment, her nipples pulled tight under his gaze. He brought one hand up to his lips and licked the tip of his index finger along with his thumb.

“How you like this, baby?” he asked as he took the nipple in between his wet fingertips.

She arched into his touch so hard she sat up, wrapping her legs around his. “I’d rather have your mouth.”

He’d rather already have his dick inside her, but he wanted to savor this too, because he truly thought this might be the last time they’d be together, depending on what happened in their lives.

Reaching down, he circled his tongue over the part of her breast like she’d so sweetly asked him to do. He growled when she dug her fingers into his hair and held him there, feeding him more of her flesh. As she ground herself against him, Dalton thought he would die from the pleasure of it all.

*

Mandy needed this. “Please don’t stop,” she begged, wanting to feel the swirl of his tongue, the pinch of his teeth. “I’m so tired of my own fingers, and they don’t get the job done.”

She knew she should be embarrassed for saying that out loud, but she wasn’t. She’d missed him, and if being pregnant had done anything to her besides make her tired, it made her unbelievably horny all the time.

Pulling his head back from her skin, he gazed up at her, his eyes dark with desire. He looked dangerous like this, her favorite way for him to look. Dalton Barnett was a good guy, sometimes too good, but he was a bad boy too underneath his good-guy exterior, and she loved it all. “How often?” he asked through clenched teeth.

“What?” Her mind wasn’t following him; it was pleasure addled, and all she wanted to concentrate on was what he was giving her.

“How often are you getting yourself off?”

Heat flared on her face, matching the heat in his eyes. “Daily,” she admitted.

Those words were all he needed to hear. She watched as his fingers went to his jeans, popping the button, shoving them down his hips and thighs.

She took her own cue, wiggling out of the shorts and panties she wore. When they faced each other again, both of them breathed heavily.

“Do it,” she begged, holding her arms open to him. “If you’re not going to be honest with me and work towards us getting our relationship back on track, give us a memory or at least something for me to fuel my fantasies at night.”

He wanted that more than anything, to give them a memory to keep them going when they couldn’t be with one another and when things couldn’t be explained.

He carefully lay over top of her, supporting himself on his forearms.

“You’re not gonna hurt me or the baby,” she assured. “Let our skin touch each other. I want to feel you.”

She pulled him down so that they touched from lips to toes. She took the kiss she wanted, tangling their tongues together as he pushed himself inside her body. Mutual groans vibrated their lips as he sank home.

This was what she’d been missing. Him, and the way he made her feel. No matter how much he hurt her, this was what would keep her coming back. When he took her like this, she could feel the love between them; she could feel how much he adored her.

“I love you, Dalton,” she whispered as she separated their lips.

Two gazes met, one conflicted, the other loving. “I know,” he said as he stopped the thrust of his hips and let his head hang on his shoulders. “Goddamn, but I love you too.” He lifted that gaze back up to her. “Please, no matter what, never doubt that. Never question it. Know that I’m doing everything because I love you so much.”

She wanted to ask more questions, get answers that she deserved, but she couldn’t form any more words as he pulled out and pushed back in. He set a rhythm that kept her from thinking anymore about what was going on between them.

When the pinnacle came, they shattered apart in each other arms, gasping, panting, nails scoring each other’s skin. This time though, there were no promises made, and when they disentangled themselves from each other, Mandy rolled to the side, gathering the sheet around her chest.

“Until you can tell me what’s going on, please don’t come back.”

He knew a dismissal when he heard it, and he also knew he had to respect her for it. Quietly he gathered his clothing, put it on, and made his way out of her apartment.

She waited until she heard the lock click on her front door before she let the tears fall.

‡
Chapter Fifteen

T
he morning sun woke up a couple on the other side of town. They’d slept peacefully, even with worry on their minds—unlike the soon-to-be-parents. Denise turned in her husband’s arms so she could look at him as she spoke. She wanted to see his facial expressions, wanted to know what he really thought about their daughter and how she was acting. Not that she thought he would hide anything from her, but she wanted to see his reactions.

“Are you sure you have no idea why Dalton’s asked for a leave of absence? I’m telling you, something is going on with Mandy, but she wouldn’t tell me what it is. She asked me how I felt when I learned I was pregnant with the twins. You don’t think…” She trailed off; leaving the words on the breath she’d stopped. More than once in the last few weeks as she’d looked at her daughter, she’d wondered if maybe she was continuing the family, so to speak, but Mandy had always been her responsible child.

“No,” Liam’s voice was forceful. “Both of them know better than that shit. They’re adults, but they’ve always been responsible.” He echoed her thoughts, what she’d kept telling herself.

But at the same time, she realized exactly how old these two were. “They’re almost thirty, Liam. No matter if they’re responsible or not, things happen. Maybe this was something they wanted. Maybe they wanted a child and decided to go for it. I mean they’ve been together so long, it’s not unheard of. Maybe we’ve got this wrong and they don’t even believe in marriage. I mean we weren’t married when we had Tatum,” she reminded him. Her pregnancy with Tatum had been a completely different than it had been with the twins. He’d taught her what a real man was like when his woman was expecting.

“I just don’t see it. Why didn’t Dalton come to me and tell me that if he did?” Liam argued. His guys were the best in the world, and he’d never had to worry about any of them. They’d always been honest with him, even when it’d be easier not to be. “There’s a sort of respect he needs to give me as her dad and his pres. If I find out he’d done something he shouldn’t; there’s gonna be hell to pay.”

Denise sighed, burying her face in his shoulder. She had a feeling there was definitely going to be a lot of that, and she wasn’t sure who would be left standing in the end.

*

This was the last place Dalton wanted to be, but if he wanted answers, he knew his dad could give them. He was going to have to keep coming back until he got what he wanted. Giving up wasn’t an option, because he wanted this over with. He wanted to move on with his damn life.

“Two visits in a couple of days? To what do I owe this pleasure?” Lance asked as he had a seat across from his son. He deceptively put his feet out in front of him, acting like he didn’t have a care in the world.

Dalton was familiar with the air his dad put on; he tried to do it whenever he could too. So that others wouldn’t think he was nervous–so others would think he was in control at all times. It was nothing more than a lie. The biggest lie of them all. He had a feeling his dad was nervous as hell, and the fake relaxation gave him a little bit of a thrill—the fact that he’d made his dad nervous. It was the best gift he could have ever gotten, sick as that realization was.