Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
“And you were right,” I said. “Her last wish is to see us happy.”
“Are you marrying me because she wants you to?” he wondered.
Kind of.
“No,” I lied. “I’m marrying you because I’ve wanted to be yours since I was sixteen.”
He inhaled swiftly.
“I’m sorry for leaving you.”
He reared back like I socked him in the jaw.
“What?” he croaked. “You didn’t leave me.”
That was a lie and we both knew it.
“I ran out of here like my tail was on fire,” I disagreed. “I was scared and hurt. I didn’t know how to handle your mother. And I didn’t know how to get better knowing that she would be that close. It was either giving you up, or making myself miserable, and I chose to give you up. I’m sorry.”
He caught my face and very seriously said, “You don’t apologize for keeping yourself safe. That’s all I’ve ever wanted, Antoinette. You happy. I don’t care about anything else in this life but that.”
I leaned forward and buried my face into his neck, inhaling his scent.
“I’m stronger now,” I pointed out. “Plus, your grandmother called me a dumbass. I’m not a dumbass, Bart.”
He squeezed me in closer, our torsos smooshed together, as he said, “If you were a dumbass, I was an even bigger dumbass. But we were kids, Net. Those were some adult issues that our brains didn’t have the capacity to navigate yet. We’ll do better.”
“We better.” I snickered as I spoke against his neck, my lips moving against the racing pulse I could feel and see. “We have little Margery Junior on the way, and she’s bound to be tougher than the original.”
Speaking of our little MJ, she chose that moment to start kicking up a storm.
Boone stilled, his body all but melting, and he felt our baby kicking his abdomen.
“This feels unreal,” he admitted. “Every time she kicks now, I feel like a little piece of my heart just flies away, never to be returned again.”
I leaned back and yanked off my shirt.
His eyes went to my breasts, barely being held down with the bra that had once fit like a glove.
Now, the girls spilled over the fabric and you could almost see my nipples over the top of the cups.
He blinked, his mind rerouting to other things.
I smiled and reached for his hand, placing it on my stomach.
I didn’t have a belly yet.
I still looked thick around the middle and that was about it.
“Look,” I pressed.
He did look, his eyes on his hand.
We waited for the kicking to start again.
And it did, but not against his hand. In the small space that was just to the right of his hand.
The tiniest of outward bumps could be seen.
It was so stinkin’ cute.
“Whoa,” he whispered, his eyes enraptured.
Tears filled my eyes, as they were wont to do lately thanks to the hormones that were running rampant through me.
God, I was so stupidly in love with this man.
With his face and his smell. With his too-big heart and never-giving-up attitude.
This man was the entire package.
I threw myself at him, covering his lips with mine.
The hand between us moved automatically to catch me, and when my tongue licked at his, that hand tightened around my hip.
My hands went to his face, and I held it in place, fingers sinking into his beard, as I gave it all I had.
All that I had still wasn’t anywhere close to the power that Boone held, and when he deepened the kiss, I all but lost control of my limbs.
“Do you know how beautiful you are?” he rasped.
“Such a poet,” I teased as I pulled away, pulling at the bra.
He tried to still my hands, but when the clasp at the middle wouldn’t be defeated, I decided to yank it over my head.
Something snapped, probably the plastic clasp, but I didn’t care enough to find out.
His hands came up and cupped my breasts. “My god.”
“They’re big,” I agreed. “And sensit…”
His lips went in for the kill, sucking my sensitive nipples between them and lapping at them with his tongue.
“Oh, God,” I breathed.
“Not God.” He smiled against my nipple. “Just Boone.”
I caught the pillow next to his hip and whacked him with it.
It knocked him off my nipple with a laugh, and then he was switching our positions, coming on top of me with a practiced ease of years doing just that.
This was, however, one of the first times lately that one or the other of us wasn’t plied with alcohol. That was usually when our worst intentions came out to play.
But anything with Boone could never be a bad thing.
That was why I always came back to him.
Subconsciously, I knew that he would always protect me, even in my most vulnerable state.
His mouth moved down my throat. Down my collarbone. Lower, lower, lower until he was right at my shorts line.