Seven weeks later

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I stood next to the crib, smiling down at our little Hope. She was fast asleep after her feeding and angelic. For now. Soon, she’d be awake again and in need of a change or a feed. Having a baby was amazing, of course, everything I’d dreamed of, but man, could a woman get some sleep?

The nursery door creaked open behind me, and I turned toward it. The hall light was on, and light streamed in, slanting across the floor.

Noah’s silhouette filled the doorframe, and my heart warmed instantly. I tiptoed toward him, and he drew me into a tight hug, pressing me against his white coat. “Hey gorgeous,” he whispered. “Is she sleeping?”

“Yes,” I replied, just as quietly. “For now.”

He chuckled at that, then walked me backward a couple steps. “Good. I’ve been itching to get some time alone with you. Sorry I had to leave today.”

“It’s work,” I said, as we headed down the hall toward his bedroom. Our bedroom.

We’d gotten the deposit back on my apartment and moved into his, transforming the guest room into a nursery and babyproofing the whole place. The suite wasn’t chic-bachelor anymore. It was all family and filled with our atmosphere. Our happiness.

There was no place I’d rather have been.

Noah placed his hand on the small of my back and guided me into the master bedroom. He let out a sigh as he stripped his lab coat off, then covered his mouth as he yawned. “What a day.”

“What a month and a half. Almost two months,” I said. I still had some of the baby weight on, but a lot of it had dropped off, even with me eating like a horse. Breastfeeding had seriously taken it out of me.

And in the past few weeks since the birth, Noah and I had had very little alone time. None at all, in fact, since I hadn’t gotten the go-ahead to have alone time until a week ago.

I sat down on the edge of the bed and watched as he stripped off his shirt, then his jeans. My insides tightened up, and I licked my lips, the familiar swarm of attraction rising.

“I missed you,” he said softly, as he stepped out of his socks.

“I miss you still.” I walked over to him and slipped my hands around his waist.

He looked down at me, brushed the backs of his fingers down my cheek. “Do we have time?”

“Let’s make time.”

It was all the permission he needed. Noah’s lips descended on mine, and I gasped on impact. Desire strode through me, took me over, and my knees turned into jelly. I collapsed against him.

“Easy,” he said, catching me, holding me upright, and peppering my cheeks, my forehead, my nose, and even my eyes with soft kisses. “Easy, baby.”

“When you touch me it feels like I’m going to pass out, I swear.”

“It’s been too long,” he groaned and walked me back. He sat me down on the bed, bent in front of me and stripped off my pants. He tore off my shirt but left my bra on—the breastfeeding kind—which I was privately grateful for. “Lie back, quick.”

I did as I was told, and he parted my legs, gently, trailed kisses up the insides of my thighs and toward my pussy. I throbbed for him, ached.

“You’re swollen,” he said, his voice hitching. “You’re so ready for me.”

“I know,” I hissed. “I need you, Noah. Don’t make me come first. Just get inside me, now, fill me up again.”

He ignored the request and lowered his lips to my clit instead. He sucked it into his mouth, noisily, and groaned again, like he was a starving man, and I was a slice of warm apple pie. He rolled his tongue over that tight bundle of nerves, sending shockwaves through me.

I shook on the spot, grabbed a fistful of his hair and tugged. “Oh god.”

He chuckled against my pussy, and pressed two fingers inside, slowly. I clenched around him and he growled. “Fuck, Erika, you’re so fucking wet. You’re so wet.”

“Uh-huh.” I couldn’t speak properly with him inside me, licking me, owning me. He worked my pussy at a pace that suited both of us, like he remembered from all those months ago exactly which buttons to push.

I was putty in his hands, melting into him, gripping at his hair, then the sheets, twisting them, mouth open, noises escaping.

“Quietly,” he said, then feasted on my clit again. “Come for me, but quietly. Now, baby. I can’t wait a second longer to be inside you. Give it to me. Give me what I want.”

I broke against his mouth, against his hands. White-hot pleasure skewered through me, and I pulsed through my orgasm, riding wave after wave, my body centered on Noah. After an eternity of pure bliss, I descended to Earth. Flopped down on the bed, my legs shaking.

“That’s better,” he said, and crawled up my body. “That’s what I wanted.”

“Mmm.” I licked my lips. “Now, take what you need.”

“I love it when you talk like that. I love you,” Noah said, positioning the base of his engorged cock at my entrance. “Fuck, Erika, you were made for me.”

“I need you.” I wrapped my legs around him, my arms looped around his neck. I pressed my fingernails into his back and held onto him. Before, I’d been so keen to push him away and protect myself, and now, he was my everything. My fiancé, my man, my protector, the father of my child. “I love you.”

Noah slipped into me slowly, kissing every inch of skin he could reach as he did so. “Oh god, that’s fucking good. Christ, you’re so warm.” He lost his breath, pumped into me once, fully, and grunted. “Fuck.”

“It’s too good,” I said, my legs quivering all over again.

Two seconds of him inside me, and I was already close to another orgasm. It was the same as it’d always been with us. Except, no, it was different. It wasn’t driven by pure lust anymore. It was all love now.

“Fuck, Erika,” he whispered, nipping at my earlobe. “I’m already so close.”

“I want it.”

“What?”

“Your cum. I want it. I want it inside me.” And if we had another child? Another miracle baby? God, yes, I wanted that. “Please.” The last bit came out as a whine.

He swore under his breath again and quickened the pace, lifted my right leg by the thigh, gripped it so tight his fingers bit into my flesh. He pressed his forehead to mine, stared into my eyes, warmed me with his gaze, with his love.

“I’m coming,” I whimpered, angling myself into him, my ass lifting slightly off the bed. The waves crashed over me again, and Noah’s breathing turned jagged.

“Baby,” he whispered. “Erika, baby. I can’t hold on, I’m gonna—” He broke off, shut his eyes, and pounded into me, released everything he had inside in five long thrusts, each punctuated with a moan. “Oh fuck,” he said on the last thrust. “Oh my god.”

I came down from the peak with him, wrapped in his arms, and giggled quietly. “Think we were too noisy?” I asked.

We both fell quiet and listened, our ears practically swiveling on our heads. Blessed silence. Hope was still fast asleep.

“Good,” Noah said, and kissed the tip of my nose. “Maybe there’s time for round two.” He pulled out of my slowly, gasping as he did, then lay down on the bed beside me. He dragged me into his arms and crossed them over my chest. Noah kissed my temple. “Gorgeous. You know, this is the happiest I’ve been in my life, hands down.”

“For real?” I asked.

“For real, for real,” he replied. “You in my arms, the baby sleeping peacefully in her crib, another day of this tomorrow. It’s like a dream come true, every single day.”

“I feel the same way.” I snuggled up against his chest, buried my nose in the crook of his neck. “I could stay here forever.”

A plangent wail started up from the nursery. Hope’s telltale feed-me-Mommy cry. “Well,” I said, “maybe not forever.”

“I’ll get her,” Noah said.

“You will?” I propped myself up on one elbow and raised an eyebrow. “I forgot how you had mammary glands.”

“I meant to bring her here,” Noah said, but looked around at the ruined sheets and the clothes on the floor. “Never mind.”

“The sex sucked out all the brain cells?”

“Pretty much.”

We dressed quickly and strode down the hall together, him once again with his hand on the small of my back. Together, we entered our daughter’s bedroom. We took her out of her crib, and I fed her while Noah cooed and tickled her tummy, brushed her little downy hairs across her forehead.

“Isn’t she perfect?” I asked.

“You both are,” he replied, sparing one kiss for her soft forehead, and then one for mine. “Perfect and my forever.”