“YOU ARE SO BEAUTIFUL,” Niko says as his hand slips under the hem of my shirt.
“You’re distracting me,” I say as I scroll through the TV menu looking for something to watch. I’m about to throw on Netflix if I don’t find something soon. Then again, I love Niko’s hands on me and I’ve learned that the longer I ignore him, the more persistent he gets. The more persistent he gets, the better it is. I just have to hold out, which is a very difficult task.
He hums against my neck, his breath warm, lips ghosting across my skin.
“That’s your fault for being so enticing.”
“I wasn’t so enticing ten years ago,” I remind him. “What if I looked like I did then? You wouldn’t have looked twice at me.”
He pulls back. “Are you calling me shallow and saying I only like you because you’re beautiful?” I nod. “Not possible.”
“Why is that?”
“Because right now you have no makeup on, you’re in an oversized T-shirt and baggy pants, your hair in a messy ponytail, and you are so cute I can’t keep my hands off you.”
I stare at him, watching him, waiting for something like “Just kidding,” but it doesn’t come. His eyes are soft and he’s looking at me like I’m the only woman in the world. I jump at the feel of his hand cupping my face.
“I was a stupid kid.”
I reach over and pick up my glasses that I use when working on the computer and slip them on. “How about now?”
His eyes widen. “Jesus . . . do you have a pencil skirt because you are the naughtiest naughty librarian I’ve ever seen.”
I shake my head and roll my eyes, partially to cover how much I want to kiss him and am holding back. “I still don’t think you would have noticed me.”
“You’re wrong, Ev. My dad told me that one day I’d meet a woman who would knock me on my ass, and he was right. It’s more than your looks that blew me away, it was all of you.”
I stare at him, processing what he just said, unable to comprehend it. Me?
His hand slips under the waistband of my panties, his fingers sliding against my clit, making me jump and suck in a sharp breath.
“I never knew a pregnant woman could turn me on so much, but fuck, baby, watching your stomach grow, knowing I did that. That’s my baby growing in your body,” he growls, pushing his fingers in deeper as he pulls me closer. “Our baby boy.”
I can’t help but reach up and grab onto his shirt, my forehead in the crook of his neck. “Niko,” I whimper against his skin before a moan slips out.
This is what I was waiting for. The way he touches me is somehow more intense, his desperation spreading like wildfire across my skin. This isn’t about just his wants, his needs. It’s about intimacy and a relationship and two people trying to make it through the roller coaster of life together.
It’s so much more than “just fucking” and I can feel that with every swipe of his tongue, every touch, and every kiss he gives me.
My hips rock into his hand without thought. Sheer drive for pleasure moves me. Desire takes over, spiraling me down.
“Niko . . . Niko,” I whisper against his skin over and over. His hand speeds up, driving his fingers faster and faster until I’ve got his shirt clenched in my hands and my muscles tighten, pulling him closer.
“Come on, baby.” He runs his lips along my shoulder before I feel his teeth sink in at the base of my neck.
My eyes pop open, a silent scream as I come undone in his arms. His fingers slow before retreating, leaving me a boneless mess. I’m still coming down when he yanks my pants down my legs and spreads them apart.
He wastes no time settling between my thighs. I draw in a sharp breath as he pushes inside me before a low moan spills out. Nothing ever will feel as good as Niko. Reaching up, I cup his face in my hands and pull his lips down to mine as he sinks all the way in.
His hips retreat, but as his arms wrap around me, pulling me closer, he slams back in.
“My belly is starting to get in the way,” I say before losing all thought as he continues. His hips rock in a slow, sensual motion.
“Guess we’re going to have to get creative,” he says.
I love it when he’s like this. While sex is always fantastic with Niko, when he’s slower, tender, I feel a connection with him on more than just a physical level, which is already extremely strong.
His eyes are locked with mine, and each thrust makes words I’m not sure I’m ready to say to him sit at the edge of my mouth.
I love you.
I love you. I love you. I love you.
A mantra just for me, for now.
It’s not just the moment, it’s the truth. I can feel it in my heart and in every fiber of my being. I fell well and truly in love with Nikolas Callahan. No longer an unfulfilled teenage crush.
His breath mingles with mine, his eyes dark as his brow furrows. A groan leaves him and he presses his lips to mine while his movements speed up.
I grab onto him, pulling him closer, holding him to me as he slams into me one last time. Erotic groans fill my ears, and I can feel each twitch of him inside me.
“That was just for now,” he says after a minute.
“For now?”
“Oh yeah, I still owe you a hate fuck for earlier.”
My eyes widen as I stare at him, a smirk on his lips. Soft and sweet or hard and dirty—it doesn’t matter. I am his forever.
“Let me see, let me see,” my mom squeals as soon as I walk in the door.
“Hi, Mom. Good to see you, too.”
Dad laughs from behind her. “She’s been so excited. I think she just can’t wait to figure out what she’s shopping for.”
“Oh, hush, Richard. This is our grandbaby.”
I pull out the sonogram pic from my purse and hand it over to my mother’s greedy hands.
“Oh, my goodness! Look at . . .” She reads the print on the picture. “Baby boy.”
“All I see is a blob,” Dad says as he steps back to grab his coffee cup.
Mom rolls her eyes, which suddenly go wide as she stares down at the picture.
“Let’s just go frame this,” Mom says, suddenly dragging me and the sonogram away from my dad.
I glance at Mom, then back at Dad who just shrugs at me. We move through the house about as far away from him as can be before slipping through the door leading to the basement. She makes sure to close the door behind us, and once we’re down, she pulls me further from the stairwell.
“Are you okay?” I ask her, completely confused by her behavior.
She turns on me, her eyes wide. “Baby Boy Callahan?” she asks, her voice on the edge of shrill as she points to the typing on the sonogram.
My mouth goes slack. Shit. How did I not remember that? When Niko called him baby boy Callahan, the technician must have written that when I wasn’t paying attention.
“Is that why you wouldn’t tell me who the father is? Because it’s Niko’s?”
I can feel the tears well in my eyes. My mind is entirely blank. I hate these hormones. Unconsciously I start to rub my stomach. I don’t know if it’s because it feels like the baby is doing somersaults or to soothe me.
“Everly Cassandra Hayes, answer me.”
I nod. “Niko is the father of my baby,” I say. It’s almost freeing as much as it is frightening telling my mom.
“Cameron doesn’t know, does he?”
I shake my head. “I don’t want them to fight.”
“Sweetheart, he’s going to find out.”
“I know, and we’re going to tell him,” I tell her. We will, we just haven’t yet, and I know it’s my fault. I’m the one dragging it out.
“How long has Niko known?”
“Since right after I found out.”
“Everly . . . it’s been months.”
“I know. Cam told him I was pregnant, and he figured it out pretty fast. I didn’t even get the chance to tell him.”
“Cameron still thinks it’s Tate’s. He and your father . . .” She trails off.
“What? What are they doing?”
“I don’t know, but I do know they are keeping an eye on him. You need to tell both your brother and your father. Now.”
I shake my head. “Niko has to be here.”
“Sweetheart, you’ve weaved yourself a web of lies that need to be cut down.”
“I know, and we’re going to tell him, but together.”
“Everly.” She’s getting that stern tone to her voice. The one that used to snap Cam and me back into behaving.
“We are, Mom, but he wants to be the one, so he has to be there too.”
“Okay, but this isn’t my secret to tell, and I won’t lie to your brother. Tell him, and tell him soon. It’s not fair to put others in the middle of this.”
“I know, Mom. We are going to tell him.”
She nods her head at me and then smiles. “A little boy! How wonderful!”
“It is. For a while there it didn’t seem real. Then I heard the heartbeat. That was something, but seeing your baby, even if just on that ultrasound screen, it’s just amazing.” I sniffle, trying to hold back more tears.
It seems all I do these days is cry. Happy, sad, neutral, hungry? The answer is to cry.
“Oh, sweetheart, you are going to be a great mother to this little boy.”
“What if I screw up? What if I break it or something?”
She laughs and hugs me. “Don’t be silly. You won’t break him. You’ll see. Once he’s born, your instincts will kick in. You’ll know what to do, and what you don’t know, I’ll help you with. You’re not alone. I have to tell you, though, I feel so much better now that I know that Niko is the father,” she says, and I lift my head from her shoulder, wiping away my tears.
“You are?”
“Of course I am. I mean, this is my grandchild so I will love him no matter what. I already do, and he’s not even here yet, but when you first told your father and I that you were pregnant, well . . .”
“I know. You were disappointed in me.”
“Not disappointed, Everly. Worried.”
“Worried? You didn’t think I could do this on my own? I mean, I know you expected more from me, but I’ve been doing things on my own for a long time, Mom. I haven’t even touched my trust fund. Well, I did to put the down payment on my house, but I paid that back when my house in California sold. I work my butt off every day, and I can take care of myself and this baby if I need to. On my own.”
“We know that. That wasn’t why we worried.”
“Well, then why?”
“Because you shouldn’t have to do something like this on your own. This should be the happiest thing to ever happen to you in your life, and you should be sharing these moments with someone who cares and loves you. Someone who will love you both. Having your brother and then you after is something your father and I will always treasure. Even the hard times. I don’t know what I would have done without your father by my side the whole way. I was a mess the entire time I was pregnant with Cam.”
“You were? You always seemed so natural at raising us. Why were you a mess?”
“There is no parenting manual. There is nothing that tells you that you are right or wrong when it comes to raising your children. Once you start a family, you just have to wing it. Follow your gut and your heart. Your dad was the one that was cool as a cucumber. I think I hyperventilated the entire first and second trimester of my pregnancy with Cameron.”
I can’t help but laugh at her. “Well, in all fairness. You were carrying a little devil. Maybe that was your body’s way of telling you that you should be scared.”
“Everly Hayes, that is not nice,” she says sternly, but her lips twitch. “Not nice, but not untrue. Your brother was a little terror as a toddler. Even worse as a teenager.” She shudders, and I can’t help but laugh. “If your father were not around to help me keep your brother on track, I don’t know where Cameron would be right now. That, and his friendship with Nikolas. Once those two became friends, Cameron changed, and for the better. Some of his friends before Nikolas used to make your father and I cringe. He just hung around with everyone no matter where they were from or what they did. Scared the shit out of us both.”
“Mom!”
“What? It’s not like you’ve never heard me cuss. Besides, I’ve heard you and Alyson say much worse, so hush.”
I hold my hand up, pretending to lock my mouth with a key and throw it behind my back. She’s right. I’m afraid to ask what she’s heard Aly and I talk about over the years while I was still at home. Alyson was a wild child and pretty much talked me into everything we did. I was always the big chicken, afraid to get caught.
“Anyway, knowing that it’s Niko that is the father makes me breathe a lot easier. I know your father will feel the same way.”
“What if it were Tate’s?”
“I didn’t know Tate very well. What I do know about him now, I don’t like. We have known Nikolas for a long time. He had a tough time after his father passed away. His mother moving back to Greece was also hard on him, but he stayed here. Stayed in college, finished and followed your brother when he became a fireman. That wasn’t what your father and I wanted for Cameron, but we raised you both to follow your own path and respected his decision. Nikolas did too, and apparently felt the same way Cameron did. My point is, he was always a good boy, and he’s an even better man. Give him a chance to let you see that, and you’ll know what I mean about not doing this alone.”
“Niko has been great. I was prepared to do this alone, but he’s been there beside me since day one.”
That seems to surprise her, which confuses me after all the hype she was throwing his way.
“That shouldn’t surprise me, but at the same time, I know what he and your brother have been up to. So, I have to ask again, now that I know who it is, do you love this man?”
I blink at her. Do I? It’s a simple question, but an answer I only seem to know when he’s inside me. I’ve kept from thinking about because I’m still afraid I’m not enough for him. That little, geeky Everly Hayes will never be enough for him. No matter how much I’ve changed, deep down I’m still the same.
“Yes,” I say in a strangled whisper, a tear slipping down my cheek.