Elliot couldn’t sleep. He glanced at Mandy lying beside him. She looked tired even while dreaming. There were telling faint purple bruises around her eyes that he didn’t like seeing there. He brushed a few honey-colored strands away from her face and just watched her.

Mandy laid on her side with one arm curved protectively around their baby. He could hardly believe that he was going to be a father soon. In truth, he could hardly believe that this gorgeous creature was even know sleeping in his bed.

Elliot loved the way that her eyes had lit up at Dr. Robert’s office when he was hooked up to that infernal machine. He would have endured a hundred times more just to see her happy. He was in deep, and he didn’t care that the guys at poker night would be invoking is man card.

Who needed a man card when you had a goddess sleeping next to you?

Elliot thought about the ring that he and Nate had purchased earlier. Well, Elliot had bought a ring. Nate had some crazy scheme that involved a bunch of jewelry. Elliot would gladly shower Mandy with jewelry if he thought she would want it.

She barely wanted to accept her salary as it was. She kept going on about how her living expenses should be taken out. Elliot hoped that the money wouldn’t be such an issue once she married him. He wasn’t having her sign a prenup. It seemed insulting, and he knew that Mandy would never be the type of person who would try and take advantage of him.

She was refreshingly honest and straightforward. He knew that she still felt guilty about keeping the baby from him, but he didn’t blame her—not any longer.

Mandy’s eyes fluttered open, her dusky lashes brushing against her cheeks.

She was beautiful, shit, she took his breath away.

“Is everything okay?” Mandy asked reaching a hand out to touch his arm.

Elliot couldn’t help the sudden urge to gather her tightly against him. As he did so, one of his hands covered hers on her pregnant belly. He felt a definite kick and reared back in surprise.

Mandy laughed and lifted her shirt so that they could watch the baby kick or punch, visible through her skin.

“It’s getting a little crowded in there,” she explained shyly.

“Does it hurt?” his question was a hushed whisper.

Mandy shook her head, “Not usually. There are times when it feels like the baby gets caught in my ribcage and that doesn’t feel very good, but I don’t know what is really happening in there. There are other times when the baby gets the hiccups, and my belly bounces with every time.”

Elliot was fascinated by her stomach. His large hands covered the delicate skin, and he delighted every time the baby moved.

Mandy was trying not to feel self-conscious about the red stretch marks at the bottom of her baby bump. She had used lotion every day, but they had come anyway. However, Elliot didn’t seem to care. His hands touched them as reverently as he did any other part of her.

“You are so damn beautiful, sometimes it hurts to look at you,” he whispered.

Mandy blushed, her hands coming up to cover her cheeks. “I am as huge as a hippopotamus. My ass has spread, my nose has spread, and I hardly recognize myself in the mirror.”

He looked up into her face and gently pulled her hands away, “You are gorgeous, Mandy. The fact that your body is swollen with my child makes me want to put a dozen in you. I love the way that you look, don’t ever doubt that.”

Mandy blew out a short laugh, “A dozen, Elliot we are going to need to negotiate on that number!”

He kissed her bare belly, “Fine. I can knock it down to ten.”

Mandy felt her smile widen, “I was thinking three.”

“Eight is my final offer,” he teased.

“Well, one is a nice number,” she winked at him, and he moved up to kiss her lips.

Slowly he lowered his head until their lips touched in the softest and sweetest of kisses.

“How about we get to three and then leave the possibility of negotiations open?” He growled and kissed her a little harder.

Mandy sank her hand into his hair, pulling him closer to her. She kissed him back hungrily. She hadn’t thought that she would still be so sexually attracted to him at this stage in the pregnancy. But she was starting to realize that as long as they were both breathing, she would want him.

“Do you have a deal, future Mrs. Brand?”

Mandy froze for the briefest of moments—she had agreed to be the future Mrs. Brand. It was as if the reality of it was hitting her for the first time. And what was even more surprising is that she didn’t want to run away from it. She loved this man, and she was almost sure that even though he hadn’t said the words to her that he loved her too.

“Elliot,” her voice was hoarse.

He frowned and then kissed her temple, “Am I going too fast?”

Mandy shook her head, “No, it’s not that.”

He tipped his head to the side, “Then what is it, sweetheart?”

“I-I need to tell you something,” she stammered, “And I don’t want you to say anything. I just feel like I need to tell you. I don’t want to force you into anything that you aren’t ready for.”

His lips twitched, “Mandy.”

“No,” she hurried on, “Don’t say anything! I will lose my nerve and then who knows when I will get it out again. I just wanted to tell you that-well, Elliot I am terrible... Damn it, why is this so hard?”

“Mandy,” he said more forcefully this time, but she wasn’t finished.

“No! I need to say this. And I am not just telling you because you saved me, or because I like working with you, which I really do. And it’s not because you have an amazing apartment or that Mrs. H and Robert are like the family Kim and I never had.”

“Mandy!” he demanded, and she blinked at him in surprise.

“What?”

“I love you, too.”

The words hung between them until she grasped them with all of her heart.

“I love you, Elliot Brand. I love everything about you. And I want to be your wife, whenever you want to do it.”

It was Elliot’s turn to be surprised, “You will?”

She nodded, her eyes filling up with tears, “Are you sure you love me?”

“Oh, Mandy, so fucking much, you have no idea.”

There was something a little bit more when he kissed her this time. The depth of his emotion was urging him onward until he had to have her—now.

His hand slipped between her silky thighs, and he stroked her wet heat. Mandy was more than ready for him. He turned her so that her back was against his chest and she lifted her leg and placed it over his. His massive cock bumped against her soaked folds, and she gasped and pushed her hips back trying to get him to enter her.

Elliot moaned as his dick became coated with her juices, and he thrust himself inside of her.

His hands were coming around to stroke her breast as he moved back and forth in a delicious slow dance that had her crazy with need.

The more that she tried to get him to speed up the slower that he took things until she finally submitted to him and let Elliot control their lovemaking. His strokes were long and deep. She could swear that she felt every inch of his hard length and she never wanted it to end.

Elliot pinched at pulled at her nipples, loving the sounds that she made as she hurled closer and closer to her release. He started to go a little faster and changed the angle slightly until he heard that hitch in her labored breathing. The one that told him he had found her sweet spot. And then she was clenching him, crying out, her hands reaching back to dig her fingers into his skin. Her tight pussy milked him until he couldn’t hold back any longer and he came inside of her causing another orgasm to rip through her.

Elliot had known a great deal about sex, hell. Some would say that he was a master. But what they had together was so much greater, and more fulfilling than he even knew was possible.

He was a man in love and didn’t care who knew it.