I must have dozed off. I have no idea when or for how long, but I do know it is dark now. Dragon is beside me, his front is to my back, spooning me. His arm is loose over our child, cupping my stomach.

“Dani?” I whisper, already knowing the answer, but hoping against hope I am wrong.

“She was already gone, Mama,” he says softly, the words seeming to haunt the room.

I can’t stop the sob of pain that escapes my lips. I feel his breath against my hair as he kisses my ear, gathering me closer.

“We’ll find her, Nicole. I promise you, baby, we’ll find her.”

I want to believe his words, honest, but I can’t seem to. All I feel is that Dani is in trouble and neither one of us may survive this, because I have to help her.

“I’m scared, Dragon.”

“I know baby. I know.”

He turns me to my back and his large hand brushes along the side of my face.

“I’ll make this right. I promise. I will make this right for you, Mama.”

He’s breaking my heart. He’s blaming himself and he shouldn’t. It was my secret; it was my lies that brought us to this point. I touch his lips with my fingers. My man. How empty my life was without him…

“I love you so much, Dragon.”

“I feel the same Mama, right down to the…”

“Marrow of my bones…” I say with him, a weak smile on my face.

“We’ll get through this. There’s nothing we can’t handle when we work together.”

I wish I could believe that. I can’t. I feel defeated.

“Do you trust me, Nicole?”

“You know I do.”

“Then believe in this,” he says, and his eyes bore into mine.

I lean up and let my tongue dance over his nipple, he groans. I suck it into my mouth, while letting my fingernails drag along his side.

“What are you doing, Mama?” he asks his eyes closed.

“I must not be doing it right if you have to ask me,” I whisper against his skin.

“Mama, you’re upset and tired. You’ve had a rough day,” he protests, but even I can tell his heart isn’t in it. Which is good, totally good.

I stop and look up at him so he can see the truth in my eyes.

“Dragon, I need you tonight. Poncho said I was fine. I just need to feel you holding me in your arms, so I can forget about everything but us. Give that to me, please?”

He pulls away from me, and for a moment, all I can feel is disappointment. Total disappointment.

Then he pulls the covers from me. Up until this point his eyes have never left mine. Now they do. Now, they travel the length of my body, and I feel the heat of embarrassment flush my face.

I’ve always had image problems because I wasn’t skinny. Dragon has slowly made me appreciate my curves, but since I got pregnant, I cringe at how my hips have grown, my stomach is so big these days I feel like I waddle, and I still have three more months to go. There is nothing sexy about my body, nothing at all. Every time I see a Twinkie get close to Dragon, I want to go running like a banshee, screaming and clawing her eyes out. Luckily, he never gives another woman the time of day. I think if he did, part of my soul would wither.

“Stop it, Mama,” his gruff command sends chills through me.

“Stop what?”

“You are beautiful. Fuck, woman, you take my breath away every day. You have since the beginning,” he says, sliding off the bed at an angle so he’s stretched along the side of my legs. He runs his hands up my calves and the warm feel of him creates a friction that instantly makes me hungry for more.

I arch my head back as I feel his tongue slide along the inside of my kneecap. Who knew that was an erogenous zone? I think maybe with Dragon my entire body is in that zone. He kisses along the outside of my thigh now, at the same time his hand is brushing on the inside. I know he can feel the wetness and the heat he has created. In that, I feel no embarrassment. He owns my body.

When his fingertips brush against my center, teasing the fine hairs that rest there, I can’t stop a whimper from escaping.

“Nicole.”

I hadn’t realized my eyes closed until I hear my name. Slowly, I open them to find him looking down and smiling at me.

“I’ve wanted you and no one else, from the first moment I set eyes on you. The fact that you’re carrying my child only strengthens that, Mama.”

“You just wanted to get laid, Dragon. You even scoped out Dani,” I argue thinking back to that day at the gas station, where I met him.

His eyes darken, somehow, and his face becomes harder. I know that look, and I might be in trouble. Dragon’s hands pull my legs farther apart. One hand moves to my pussy and instantly starts teasing my clit. No slow build up here, just an immediate punch of adrenaline and need. He must have decided I was wet enough to accept him, because without another thought, he lifts himself over me and thrusts inside, all in one fluid motion.

“How many women have I sunk my cock into since we met, Nicole?”

I bring my legs up so they cradle him on each side, and just that simple adjustment takes him deeper inside. Not as deep as I want, because Dragon is bracing himself above me, but still deep enough that the fact he is not moving, drives me crazy.

“Dragon, move, baby,” I urge.

“How many women have got my dick since you came into my life, Nicole?”

I try to move for him, but without his help it just won’t get us there. I groan out in frustration.

“Will you move?”

“Answer the fucking question, woman.”

“None!”

“And how many women have I looked at since that night at the Wolf’s Den when I finally had you.”

“Finally? Dragon, you fucked me pretty soon after we met. I was kind of a horn dog around you.”

“Bullshit. You were magnificent. But it was not soon, Mama. Each day was a fucking waste,” he argues, holding himself over me with one arm, while tangling his free hand in my hair.

“Dragon…”

“I’m only half alive without you Mama, it was true then and that hasn’t changed. Hell, if anything, it’s just stronger. You’re my soul, woman, my very fucking soul.”

Finally, he starts to move, his body an instrument that plays mine completely. His thrusts are measured, slow and methodical. When he moves his free hand down to torture my clit in unison with them, I can’t hold back.

I disintegrate into a million pieces. Screaming out his name so loud, I figure they can hear us three states over. It doesn’t matter, nothing matters except Dragon. I want to wrap my legs around him and pull him tighter. I want to feel his weight rest on me. I can’t have that, so I do the only thing I’m able to do at this moment.

“I love you. No matter what, I’ll always love you, Dragon.”

That seems to satisfy him because, with a moan of pleasure, he starts going over the edge and I watch. I watch every feeling, every drop of emotion, every small piece of happiness and pleasure that reflects on his face, I watch and commit it all to memory. I’m going to need it, because I’m scared Michael is going to win.