Page 56 of Blueline Baby

“Chloe.” He drops his forehead to my shoulder. “You’re soaked.”

“I’m aware. It’s a standard response to…”

“Don’t finish that sentence.” He slides two fingers into me, curling them until my hips lift to chase his hand. “Not while I’m trying to be romantic.”

“This is romantic?”

“Give me a minute.”

He takes several. He works me with his fingers until I’m gripping the sheets, and when I finally get a hand into his boxers and wrap it around him, the sound he makes is barely human. “Jack, please. I need you.”

“I’ve got you.” He settles between my thighs and pushes into me in one slow roll, and the stretch of him empties my head of every thought I’ve ever had.

“God.” His voice comes out strangled. “You have no idea what you feel like.”

He moves slow and deep, still careful, still watching my face.

“More,” I breathe.

“Yeah?”

“Jack, please. More.”

“I’m going to take my time fucking you,” he says against my throat, and rolls his hips deep enough to make his point.

“Language, the baby.”

He grins against my jaw. “Doesn’t have ears yet. Your words.”

He laces his fingers through mine and pins our hands to the pillow beside my head, and the pace stops being patient.

“Eyes on me,” he says, low. “I want you to watch.”

I open my eyes. Holding his gaze while he moves inside me is more intimate than anything else we’ve done tonight, and it sends me right to the edge. He slides his hand underneath me, splays it across my ass, lifting me up against him, and the new angle is so deep I cry out.

“Right there. Don’t stop.”

“Never.” A harder thrust. His hand flexing against my skin. “Come for me, Chloe. I can feel how close you are.”

I shatter. My thighs clamp around his waist and I cry out. He kisses me through it, swallowing the sound, holding me up and dragging it out until I’m trembling everywhere.

Then his rhythm turns ragged, and he comes buried deep, his arm underneath me shaking as he crushes me against his chest.

He stays inside me, resting his weight on his forearms, and kisses the corner of my mouth.

“I love you,” he whispers. “And I’m sorry I sprang a proposal on you like that.”

27

JACK

HOCKEY PLAYERS HAVE AMAZING NAMES

Chloe is sitting quietly in my passenger seat as we drive to her twelve week appointment. I’ve learned over the past month that this kind of quiet isn’t her being upset, it’s her thinking of everything that can go wrong today so that if it does none of it catches her by surprise. There’s no talking her out of it once she’s started, so I do the next best thing.

“Wayne is a great name,” I say as I pull onto the highway.

She keeps looking out of the window, but I catch the corner of her mouth twitch.