“Jax?” I yell out, walking up the stairs toward our bedroom. “You up here? I need to talk to you about something.”

“You know, Little Flick, you never did submit your testimonial to V-Bay,” he says the moment I open the door to find him on the edge of our bed with nothing but a towel wrapped around his hips and his attention buried in his phone. The renovations to his condo were completed three months ago. When he asked me if I’d make the move from the penthouse at The Brighton to his Lake Shore East home, I had agreed without thinking twice. By that point, I was already spending every night with him so it made sense. 

We make sense. 

Living with Jackson is exhilarating, perfect, and occasionally, I still catch him staring at me in wonderment, his gorgeous bronze head tilted to one side. He always says he’s become so domesticated he’s scaring himself. 

“You haven’t brought up V-Bay in months,” I point out, peeling my shirt off and tossing it toward the entrance to the bathroom. His eyes drink me in as I walk toward him, and desire pools in my belly because he’s a magnet that never dulls. My eyebrow shoots up when I get close enough to see he’s looking at an email from V-Bay. “Planning on making a bid, Mr. Cade.”

He snorts, reaches out and tugs me to him by my belt loops and in one expert movement, pins me beneath him on the giant bed. “My hair smells like fry oil,” I warn him, but he kisses my protests away, his wet hair brushing my forehead. 

“Does it look like I give a fuck?” he demands, and I release a soft breath when he whips away the towel to press his hard erection against my thigh. “Does it feel like I care, Little Flick?”

“You’re filthy,” I drawl, and he slaps the inside of my thigh.

“You wouldn’t want me any other way, sweet.” He kisses the top of my head and inhales. “But trust me, you’re still the sweetest thing I’ve ever smelled, even after working all day.”

I scaled back my school schedule to meet the demands of owning my own business. I’d officially taken over ownership of York’s at the end of last summer. After the millionth time promising my father that I wasn’t angry at his decision to sell, he had taken off on a long vacation—his first since my mom’s death. It had taken Dad a few months to get used to me being in a relationship with Jackson Cade, but he’d accepted it. I’d left him no other choice.

“I swear you’re sexing me up because I just caught you in the act of bidding on another cherry to pop,” I tease, then lose the ability to think clearly when he jerks my jeans down my legs and rubs the entrance of my sex. 

“They sent me an email, sweet,” he explains, circling the head of his cock over my clit until my pussy feels like it’s throbbing and I scoot closer to him, anxious for what he’s promising. “The only reason I looked was because I’m a cocky motherfucker that wanted to see if you wrote to them about how good I fuck you.”

“How good you fuck me, huh?” I demand. 

He nods his head, then plunges himself deep inside of me, making my back arch off the bed. It’s been months since he took my virginity, introducing me to his body, and I still can’t get enough of his. He always has something new for me—a new position, a new way to get me wet, and I live for the thrill of him. “It is good, sweet,” he points out, and it’s not a question but a clear statement. As if to demonstrate, he rocks his hips against mine in long, swift thrusts that make me clench my teeth.

“Maybe, but I think V-Bay is looking for something different than me telling them you fuck me good.”

He reaches between us and pumps my clit between his fingers, squeezing harder when I close my eyelids because he likes to look into my eyes when I come. Complying with the demand he makes with his hand, I sigh and lift my hips to meet him. “I guess I could write them and tell them that I paid off my student loans and saved my business.”

He smirks and spreads my legs further apart, allowing him to plunge deeper inside me. I can barely form my lips around the words, so I dig my fingers into the sheets as I continue, “Or that I fell truly, madly, deeply in love with Conquer&Please, my cocky motherfucker of a bidder.”

“That’s better, sweet,” he murmurs, but he keeps moving and I feel the climax starting to build. For a long time, the only sound in our bedroom is our bodies crashing together and our moans mingling together as we orgasm. After we’ve both come, I lay against the pillows, breathless and trembling as he rests his head between my breasts.

“You know, there are a couple more things I could tell V-Bay in that testimonial,” I say softly, and he turns his head to look at me. 

“Oh?” He skims a circle around my nipple with his tongue. “That your cocky motherfucker of a bidder always follows up with seconds?”

Clearing my throat, I shake my head. “That Conquer&Please is going to be a daddy in about seven months.” His tongue makes another lap around my nipple as what I just told him sinks in, but then his shoulders tense and his blue-green eyes widen. “I just found out this morning, and—”

He pulls me up into a sitting position, framing my face with his hands as he bends so close to me we’re nearly sharing a breath. “I’m going to be a father,” he says slowly, and a grin that makes my chest flutter tilts his lips. 

“I know it’s sooner than we both had wanted,” I start, but he crushes his lips to mine and hushes me. He kisses me passionately—like a man half-starved—and when he draws away, I’m dizzy. 

“This is what I want,” he says, feathering his thumb over my cheek with one hand and trailing the other hand down to possessively cover my belly. It’s still flat, but knowing his child is growing inside of me had stopped me in front of every mirror I passed today. “You’re what I want.” 

Then his lips are on mine again, taking and tasting and giving. 

Falling against him, falling crazier in love with him as he promises me between kisses that he’s going to make me—us—so happy, I take everything he gives me.

* * *