Chapter 27

Mona

“How long has it been since we were last here?” I asked as I ran my finger along the rim of my glass.

It was only sparkling water, but they served it in fine crystal, which made me feel at least a little like I was having a grown-up drink. It had been months since I had so much as sniffed a beer, and I actually didn’t miss it nearly as much as I had thought I would.

“I don’t know,” he admitted, cocking his head and furrowing his brow as he tried to put his finger on it. “Maybe… was it when you told me?”

“It couldn’t be that long ago, could it?” I widened my eyes.

“I know, it doesn’t feel like that long ago,” he admitted.

“Jeepers, so much has happened since then.”

I leaned back and closed my eyes, thinking over everything that had transpired – the job, the townhouse, meeting each other’s families, moving in together.

“Definitely,” he replied, and there was a flicker in his eyes that I couldn’t explain.

“Come on, let’s get the bill and get out of here.” He called the waiter over, and soon enough, we had paid up, and he was helping me to my feet.

“I’m not an invalid, you know,” I grumbled, but honestly, I didn’t mind the attention. I was getting so big now that sometimes, I had trouble getting up in a hurry, and the hand on my elbow was comforting.

He wrapped an arm around my waist as we stepped out onto the street, and instead of flagging down a taxi, he turned a corner and started in a direction I didn’t recognize.

“Where are we going?” I asked, but I suspected that he wasn’t going to give me an answer.

“You’ll see.”

He flashed me a smile and raised his eyebrows playfully.

“Don’t worry, it’s not far.”

“Thank goodness,” I sighed.

My feet were already beginning to ache, but I didn’t care. I had a sneaking feeling about what was about to go down, and there was no way in hell sore feet were going to get in the way of it.

After a few minutes, we arrived outside a park. He glanced at me with a wide grin and gestured for me to go in. I did as he asked, moving in front of him, placing my hands on my stomach and sighing slightly into the cool evening air.

It was a nice night, the light from the street lamps surrounding us, bathing us in a warm, romantic glow.

The park was gorgeous. In front of us stretched a long, meandering path that led to an enormous fountain quietly babbling with water a few dozen feet away. The place was lined with trees from top to bottom.

I turned to find Oliver catching up with me, and he quickly found my hand.

“What’s going on?” I asked suspiciously, and he shrugged, playing at being casual.

“I just thought it might be nice to take a stroll after dinner,” he replied.

I rolled my eyes.

“Sure thing, Oliver,” I muttered, letting him know I knew there was something going on. I glanced around. “It’s really quiet here,” I remarked.

He looked at me with such adoration and I felt something flare up inside me. Maybe it was just the pregnancy hormones, but the urge to have him right then and there overwhelmed me in a way that I never would have expected.

“Shall we?”

He grinned, playfully, and I raised my eyebrows, questioning his seriousness.

I could have said no, but it would have been denying myself. Besides, the baby would be here in a matter of weeks. Why shouldn’t I indulge while I still had the time?

“We’ll have to be quick,” I giggled as he pulled me into the small thicket of trees that surrounded us. “Someone could come along any minute.”

“I know that,” he assured me and flipped me around, pressing me carefully against one of the thicker trunks around us, so as not to put too much pressure on my belly.

He leaned across and kissed the back of my neck, and I melted at his touch. It hardly seemed possible considering how good the sex was when we first started hooking up, but it had just gotten better and better since then.

He slipped his hand between my legs, and I parted them at once, welcoming him, needing him.

“Mmm, you’re so wet,” he purred into my ear.

I moaned softly. I didn’t care if someone walked by and heard us because, at that moment, all I wanted in the world was him inside me.

“Stand on your tip-toes,” he ordered and I did what I was told at once, lifting myself slightly out of my flats and biting my lip as he stroked my clit while he unzipped himself.

His fingers were soft and light, teasing, a precursor to the main event. Then, I felt him press himself against my opening. I cried out in pleasure, my body already sensitized by the air on my bare skin. He quickly pushed two fingers into my mouth to quiet me, and I tasted myself on his skin and sucked hard.

“Fuck,” he gasped as he entered me, and had his fingers not been keeping me quiet, I would have let out a moan that would surely have alerted the entire neighborhood.

He moved slowly, his strokes deep and long, and I flattened my hands against the trunk of the tree so I could brace myself and push back against him. I needed him deep, and I needed him now.

“I love it when you get this wet,” he moaned into my ear, the contrast of his hot breath and the cool air a fantastic sensation.

“I always want you,” I managed in response.

I had been getting better at dirty talk these days, gaining my nerve, and I knew he loved it when I talked back to him while he was taking me like this.

“Your pussy feels so good on my cock,” he groaned, leaning back and holding my hips so he could move a little faster. “Fuck, Mona…”

I closed my eyes and let myself get lost in feeling of him inside me. Something about being out here, knowing we were doing something so deviant, made it all the more hotter.

His breath was coming fast, and I could feel his fingertips digging into my sides, the pressure telling me he wasn’t far from coming. A flicker of fear passed over me as I realized that anyone could walk past, anyone could stroll by and see us, and the panic mixed with the passion of feeling him inside me formed a potent combination. Just like that, I came.

“Ah!” I yelped as the feeling tore through me.

My pussy clenched and released over and over again around his cock, the sensation rippling out over my body like aftershocks from an earthquake, and I found myself slumping up against the tree for support as my legs threatened to buckle out from beneath me.

He made three more long, deep thrusts, and then his cock exploded, buried up to the hilt in my pussy. I felt his body release, and he slowly pulled himself out of me.

I reached down to quickly pull my panties up and glanced around to make sure no one had been watching. It seemed as though we’d gotten away with it. I turned to find Oliver regarding me, all doe-eyed.

“Is that what you brought me here for?” I cocked my head in faux-scolding mode.

“Actually, no,” he admitted, shaking his head. “Thanks for reminding me.”

And just like that, he got down on one knee in front of me, in this quiet park, a slice of paradise in the middle of the city.

He reached into his pocket, and I felt my breath catch in my throat.

Oh my God, it was actually happening.

“I know it’s been a crazy year,” he began, shaking his head with that silly grin I still couldn’t resist, even after all this time. “And I know that the immediate future is going to be just as crazy. But I don’t want any of it without you. Will you marry me?”

“Of course,” I replied without thinking.

I didn’t need to think. Oliver made everything feel utterly effortless. Being with him wasn’t just natural, it was obvious. He was the one for me. There was no denying it.

As he got to his feet and slipped the ring on my finger, I felt as though my heart might explode with love for him, for our baby, for the life we had built together and the one we would build in the future.

I didn’t expect any of this when I walked into that office all those months ago. Not in a million years. I still remembered reading all those articles about him, spying those grainy back-page photos of him with other women and wondering how they could fall for someone like Oliver, how they could be so taken in by him. But then…I met him. And I understood it. More than that, I lived it. I would have appeared on a thousand back covers on a thousand papers if it meant I could be with him. Everything in my life had changed for the better since I’d been with him – my career, my love life, my future.

He’d given up so much to take on his new role as a father to our child, more than I ever expected from him, more than I ever dreamed he could give me. A year ago, Oliver was the kind of guy I’d have tried to talk myself out of a fling with. Now, he was a dedicated partner in business and in life, and was ready and eager to be the amazing father of our child. Everyone had noticed a big difference in him. It was impossible not to.

I was excited for what was to come and grateful that I had been given the chance to start a family with someone as loving, as kind, as intelligent and as incredibly sexy as Oliver Paulson. My dreams had finally come true.