Marin

The ultrasound technician arrived a few minutes later, and despite our assurances to one another that everything would be fine, Jasper and I held our breath as the woman performed a vaginal ultrasound on me. The pregnancy was too early to register with a traditional ultrasound, so she had to do it internally. As soon as the probe was inside of me, I saw a tiny gray speck in the sea of black that was my uterus.

She pointed to a small computer screen hanging on the wall. “That is your baby.”

“He’s so tiny,” Jasper said.

“He or she is actually being magnified quite a lot right now,” she said.

I was too busy staring at the gray bean to care about size or gender. “Is there a heartbeat?”

She moved the probe around a bit, hit a few buttons on her keyboard, and then the most beautiful sound in the world began to play out. It sounded like a rhythmic wind blowing through a set of very old speakers.

“That’s a healthy heartbeat,” she said. “165 beats per minute.”

Jasper squeezed my hand. “Perfectly healthy,” he repeated.

I began to cry. Relief washed over me in uncontrollable waves. The technician tried to talk to me, but I couldn’t stay quiet long enough to listen, sobs bursting out every few seconds. Finally, she congratulated me and left.

“Our baby is fine,” Jasper said, pushing my hair back from my face and kissing my forehead. “You are both safe.”

I ran my hands over my smooth stomach and looked up at him. “I love you, too.”

He bent down and kissed me. It was warm and tender, and everything I needed right then. He laid down on the bed next to me and held me until we were discharged.

***

“Do you need anything else?” Jasper asked for the fiftieth time in the last hour.

I looked around the bed at the pile of extra blankets he’d brought me, the two keeps of tea, one of which was now cold, and the huge stack of books I would never have enough time to read. “I’m fine.”

He sighed. “I know I’m being annoying, but I just want to make you comfortable.”

“I’m lying in the comfiest bed ever, in a house that is decked out in the most high-tech security, looking at the most handsome man I’ve ever seen. I’m as comfortable as comfortable gets.”

He laughed. “The security guy said I’m the only person in Houston with their newest motion sensor cameras and lights.”

“Your house is basically Alcatraz, so why don’t you come lay down with me and relax.” I patted the pillow next to me.

“You’re sure you aren’t hungry or anything?”

Jasper had been so reserved with me before the incident with Angel, but now he gushed over me. He was caring and considerate, nothing like the man I’d stripped in front of.

I patted the pillow more aggressively, my face pulled into a serious mask.

He held up his hands in surrender and smiled. “All right, all right. Whatever you say.”

As soon as he laid on the bed, I curled my body into him. I had spent the last several days decked out in a set of silk pajamas Jasper bought for me, eating dinners delivered from some of the best restaurants in the city, and watching romantic comedy after romantic comedy. It would have been the best weekend ever if Jasper would let me touch him.

Even though he’d clearly been straining against his pants in the emergency room, once we were discharged, he would barely look at me, let alone have sex with me. I knew he was trying to be sensitive to the trauma I’d endured, but if anything, I was in need of a distraction, and his abs were certainly distracting.

I ran my hand down his chest and found the hem of his shirt. My fingers drew circles on his bare skin, and then my index finger pressed beneath the waistband of his fitted sweatpants.

“Are you thirsty or anything?” he asked, sitting up a little, so he slid away from my hand.

I lifted myself to my hands and knees, crawled over his body, and slid my fingers into his pants. “I’m parched,” I whispered, my lips pressed against his ear. I knew my pajama shirt was unbuttoned very low, so he had a clear view down my shirt. I wiggled from side to side, allowing gravity to swing my breasts. Jasper groaned but still didn’t touch me.

“I can get you water or more tea,” he said, slightly strained.

I pushed my hand lower into his pants and wrapped myself around his length. He was already hard, and he twitched in my hand.

“I think I have some lemonade powder.” His voice was husky, and I knew he was seconds away from giving in.

I looked him in his eyes as I stroked him once up and down. That was all it took. Jasper placed his hands on either side of my face and pulled me into him, so our lips crashed together. I opened myself to him, and our tongues swirled around one another. I continued stroking him inside of his pants as Jasper unbuttoned my pajama shirt the rest of the way, my chest fully exposed. He pinched one of my nipples, and then the other until they were both standing at full attention.

Then, he ran his hand down my chest, across my stomach, and down into my pants, leaving warm trails behind him. His finger found my entrance immediately, and he pushed inside of me.

I moaned against his mouth as he slid into me. I was already wet and ready. I had been thinking about and waiting for this moment for days.

He pulsed in and out of me, pushing in as I slid my hand from the tip of his penis to the base, and then pulling out of me as I slid my hand up and off of him. We pushed each other closer and closer to the edge, staring into each other’s eyes as we worked in tandem. He began thrusting into the circle of my hand, and I was bucking my hips against his fingers, begging for more.

Finally, Jasper pulled his fingers out of me and rolled me over onto my back. He slid out of his sweats, and then pulled my pajama shorts and panties off in one swift move. I was waiting for him to lift my legs over his shoulders or roll me over so he could enter me from behind, but instead, he just pushed my legs apart and hovered over me, his weight warm and reassuring on top of me.

We didn’t need any special positions or twists. The connection between us was hot enough on its own. I wrapped my legs around his waist, and then he pushed himself into me. I threw my head back and moaned as my body accepted him inch by inch. He stretched me in all the best ways, and I used my legs wrapped around him to pull him into me further.

Finally, our bodies were flush with one another, and Jasper pulled back and looked down at me, his pupils blown wide with passion. He looked animalistic and wild, but then his head turned to the side, and he studied me, roving over my face and my body.

“Will you marry me, Marin?”

I didn’t know what I expected him to say, but it certainly wasn’t that. Jasper wasn’t the kind of man who casually proposed marriage. We would talk about it, plan it out, work out every detail to ensure it was a good idea. I stared up at him, wondering whether I’d imagined the whole thing, but then he repeated himself.

“Will you marry me?”

“What?” I asked, eyebrows pulled together, needing a longer explanation. I needed him to tell me what the catch was. Why was he doing this?

“Marry me,” he said, his lips pressed against my mouth, though I noticed it was no longer a question.

My body was aching for him. I wanted to feel his length sliding in and out of me, I wanted our bodies to slap together until we were both shaking with pleasure.

“Can we talk about this later?” I asked. “We’re kind of in the middle of something.”

He smiled. “I won’t finish until you answer me.”

“You won’t finish?”

He nodded. “No more sex until you answer me.”

“You’re joking, right?” Horniness was making me cranky. I’d been waiting for this moment for days, and suddenly he was holding out on me. I raised an eyebrow at him and then quickly jerked my hips against him to force him into continuing, but he was too fast. He slipped out of me, leaving my body empty and hungry. I whined. “This isn’t fair.”

“Just answer the question.”

I shook my head. “You don’t really mean it. This is just because I’m pregnant, right? I already told you there is no pressure. You don’t have to commit to me just because I’m carrying your baby.”

Jasper rolled over, opened the drawer of his bedside table, and pulled out a tiny velvet box. He opened it in front of my face, revealing the largest, most magnificent diamond ring I had ever seen. It was a large circular-cut stone, surrounded by smaller stones on a thin, white gold band.

My mouth fell open. “How long have you had that?”

He grinned. “Remember when I ran out for ice cream last night?”

“When you took three hours finding ‘the perfect mint chocolate chip’?” I had wondered when he’d suddenly become so specific about his ice cream. He had actually been buying a wedding ring.

He set the ring back in the drawer and hovered over my naked body. “Marry me.”

“This is ridiculous,” I said, my heart pounding against my rib cage.

He pressed himself against my opening but didn’t push inside of me. “I want this, Marin. I almost lost you, and it made me realize I didn’t want to spend another day without you. I’m excited about the baby, but this isn’t about that. This is about you and me. Marry. Me.”

“You are really serious? You’ve thought this all the way through?” I asked, desperately trying to keep myself from thrusting my hips against him. I wanted him, badly. I needed to feel his length inside of me.

“You know you want me,” he said in a deliciously seductive tone. “Answer, and I’m all yours.”

I closed my eyes, trying to clear my head. Did I want to marry Jasper? Well, of course I did. But now? He reached down and rubbed my sensitive spot with his thumb, forcing a groan out of me. My body was flushed and aching for him. It was impossible to think straight with him naked and sweaty on top of me.

“Marry me, Marin. Say yes,” he purred out in my ear.

I bit my lower lip. Then, he rubbed himself along my slit, toying with me. My back arched and I pressed myself harder against him, begging for it. My mind was turning the possibilities over and over, working to decide what I should say, and then all at once, Jasper pushed inside of me.

Pleasure exploded, warm, sexy pain lancing through me, and I clawed at his back in ecstasy.

“Yes,” I moaned out. He slid out of me and slammed in again, his hips flat against mine. “God, Jasper. Yes.”

Jasper stopped, still inside of me, and grabbed my left hand. He reached for the velvet box and pulled the ring out, sliding it on my finger. “You said yes.”

I wanted to argue that he’d tricked me, but suddenly he was pumping in and out of me, and I no longer cared. He pushed himself all the way into me and then slid all the way back out before doing it all over again. Warmth built like a bonfire in my chest, growing hotter and hotter by the second, flames of pleasure licking down my limbs and up my spine.

My whole body was shaking as he grabbed my hips for more leverage and pounded into me. Then, his hand slid from my hip to my center, and the second his thumb massaged me, I broke into a pile of useless limbs. I threw my head back, my arms draped over my face. Jasper thrust into me at a crushing rhythm, and my orgasm clenched and unclenched my muscles. Suddenly, he was groaning, too. His pace slowed, and I felt his warmth flooding inside of me.

When he finished, he rolled to the side and kissed my left hand. “That was incredible, Mrs. Black.”

I wanted to tell him that I needed more time to think about it, that I wasn’t ready yet, but hearing him call me Mrs. Black pushed the thought from my mind. I wanted to be his wife. I wanted to wake up next to him every morning and fall asleep next to him every evening. I wanted him to be the person who unwound me, who made me cry out with pleasure, who broke me apart and built me back up.

I wanted Jasper Black to be my husband.

“You weren’t so bad yourself, Mr. Black.”

He kissed my forehead and pressed my left hand into the flesh above his heart.