I was dancing around the kitchen of a much larger cabin, wondering which was better, a good time with clothes on or clothes off, when I saw Tony was calling my phone. I picked it up as I put biscuits in the oven. Mrs. Mallory, now Jane to me, had started the sausage.

“You’d better hurry, breakfast will be done soon.”

“Girl, I’m outside. I just wanted to give you a warning in case you had that man of yours naked again. I learned early on, remember?” I went through the house to find him smirking at me from the front door. He kissed my cheek before he came in, his eyes looking around. “I love what you’ve done with the place.”

We’d expanded the cabin and now lived here full-time with his grandmother. I’d graduated and passed my bar exam, and we were celebrating. We had so much to celebrate, I’d tell them all just how much shortly.

“Did you get the wedding photos yet?” Tony asked me, and I picked up the album on a cabinet he’d made for us as a wedding present. “Oh, these are good.”

He was flipping through the pictures taken only a few weeks ago, one of the happiest days of my life. We’d married on the beach, my parents there, and his gran. Tony, his now steady boyfriend Lane, Kelly, and David also came, along with other friends we had. It had been an amazing day of love and a night of wonder for us both.

We’d had a classic pig roasting, but we’d also had fire dancers, fireworks, and a lot of laughs. The pictures captured it all as well as the more tender moments. The moment when my mother gave me her mother’s pearls to wear. The moment Jake slid his grandmother’s wedding ring on my finger and I smiled at her in gratitude. The moment we’d kissed after the wedding was done. It was all there in beautiful pictures I’d cherish always.

The one of all of us staring in amazement as the fire dancers twirled their flaming batons was now hanging on the wall above the fireplace. I’d still had on my flowing lace wedding gown, far different from the one I’d worn on the show, with my hair free and blowing in the ocean breeze, just the way Jake liked it, all of us smiling in glee. His gran and my mother had been looking at us both, their faces full of contentment. It was just too good to hide in a book and represented what mattered most to us: each other, our family, and our friends.

“Hey, baby, I’ve got the tickets ready now.” Jake came in, a grin on his face as he bent to kiss me. “Hey, Tony, how are you, man?”

“Much better now that your friends are buying my work. Thanks for the hookup, Jake.” He gave Jake a fist-bump and I went to check the biscuits.

“Y’all heading out tonight?” Jane asked, her eyes watching the sausage carefully.

“Yeah, we won’t be gone long this time, Gran. It’s just to pick a site.” We were going to one of the islands that had suffered from a hurricane this past summer in the Atlantic. Every building had been destroyed, and we were going to use some of Jake’s vast bank account to help start rebuilding.

“Well, just be sure to take mosquito repellent. I’m not sure Laney should be going down there in her condition.” Jane looked at me pointedly and I gaped at her.

“How did you know?” I turned to her and hissed the words out quietly, hoping the boys hadn’t noticed.

“A granny has her ways,” she said mysteriously and grinned at me before she gave me a peck on the cheek. “Tell him now.”

“What are you talking about Gran? What condition, Laney?” Jake looked at me concerned and Tony just looked amazed.

“You going to give me a niece, Laney?” Tony asked quietly, his eyes hopeful.

“Yeah, I am actually,” I said happily, stroking my still flat belly happily.

“What? What are you talking about, Laney?” Jake came to stand in front of me, his eyes wild with confusion. “Are you... are you pregnant?”

“I am,” I responded, watching him for his reaction. I didn’t have to wait long because he’d picked me up before I finished speaking and twirled me around.

“Jake, dear God, don’t swing pregnant ladies around like that. It was bad enough watching her puke all over the place on live television, I don’t want to see it in person!” Good old curmudgeonly Mrs. Mallory.

“A baby. My god! A baby. Should we cancel the trip, Laney? Maybe you should stay here.” He looked panicked, but I put a hand to his cheek to get his attention.

“It’ll be fine. I know how to take care of me and junior here. I’ve been to the doctor to find out what I need to do. I just hope your private plane can hold enough water.”

“Laney, wow. A baby.” He settled down and looked at my stomach. “A baby.”

He looked stunned, probably as much as I did when I realized it was true. We’d planned to wait another year or two, but now was just as good. It was what fate had decided for us and we’d learned not to fight against fate too hard. It had brought us together.

Much later, a long flight later, we were in one of the last remaining hotels on the island and looking out at the destruction around us. “It’s just so sad, Jake. How are they going to recover from this?”

“I’m working on it. The government has all but abandoned them, but we’re here and others are coming. We’ll make it right again.”

I could see campfires out in the distance belonging to people trying to cook evening meals on the hills they’d run to in order to escape the floods and hadn’t left yet. Jake took me in his arms, his hands finding my belly as he did so.

“Don’t get too stressed, my love. I know you want to help, but you have more than just you to worry about now.” He tucked me against the front of his body delicately, lovingly.

“I just want to go and buy a department store and plunk it down in the square there to give away.” I could see the square still littered with debris and the ocean in the distance.

“If that’s what you want to do, babe, I’ll call my PA in the morning, get him started. Now that we can see exactly what’s needed here, we can get started.” He pulled me to the bed, and I followed, the exhaustion of a day of travel and then witnessing all of this was taking its toll on me.

I was asleep before I knew it, wrapped in Jake’s protective arms. I’d spent a year learning him, loving him, and now I didn’t know what I’d do without him. Falling asleep with him was as natural as breathing now. At first, sleeping next to someone had taken some getting used to, but now I couldn’t sleep if he wasn’t near.

The sun had gone down when I woke up and Jake was behind me, his hands wandering over my back. I felt him hard and thick at my bottom and smiled. Even now, he wanted me. Maybe even as much as I wanted him.

I moved against him to tell him to go deeper, further, and his lips were soon at the back of my neck, doing that thing to me that only he could do. Just a certain spot that he could nip at, bite, or kiss and I was jelly. But only his.

His hand came up to cup a breast, swollen with my new pregnancy, and his soft heat soothed the ache away just as he made a new ache, the ache of desire when his fingers grasped my nipple gently. His touch was different, far gentler than was normal for him, and he was generally quite gentle with me. Except for those times we got lost in a little roughness. I smiled and held my hand over his, letting him know I wanted more, harder.

“I love you, Laney Mallory.” He nuzzled the words into my hair before he went back to kissing that spot.

“I love you, Jake Mallory.” I pushed my bottom back into him, knowing he loved it.

I wanted to turn into his arms, but this was one of those lazy sessions, those times when you made excruciatingly slow love, and it was perfect. His fingers went down my side, the tingle of skin against skin made me glad I’d gone to sleep naked.

I loved to have my husband touch me and he did it so well. I sighed, content and full of desire as his fingers slid down my thigh, before his fingers were between them, exploring me. I put my right thigh over his, to make room for his wandering fingers. He found the spot he knew I liked the best and started a slow tantalizing circle that soon had me panting.

I concentrated on his fingers, on the sparks he created within me. He left me breathless as his lips found that spot and I let myself go with him.

“Jake, you’re so good, baby.”

I didn’t know what I meant, but he didn’t care, he just kept circling, teasing, as I shook in his arms, slow and easy, a soft pinpoint of pleasure. I sighed through it just as softly, letting it pulse through me, a sweetly erotic moment.

“I love hearing you sigh like that. I love feeling you shuddering in my arms.” He whispered it at that spot. That one spot that only he had ever found.

“Jake...” I sighed, turning to kiss him, not done at all. I could never get enough of this man.

I might have never known him. I might have ignored Mrs. Mallory’s hints about her available grandson. I’d thought she was just trying to get the man out of her basement, I’d had no idea of the gift she was trying to give us both.

He needed to shave but I didn’t mind as I found his jawline and cupped it, our tongues meeting as his hands pulled me close. I wouldn’t have known what this felt like, to wake up to sex with this incredible man now far more than just my lover. I looked into green eyes when he pulled away and smiled at him.

“Are you worried about the baby?” I asked him as he hesitated, his need clear, but worry clouded his face.

“A little. I know it won’t hurt the little thing, but, well, I can’t help but worry, can I? You are the love of my life and I have a feeling this little gift we’re about to get is going to create even more love. I have to protect you both, you know?” His fingers stroked my cheek and I smiled again.

I was always smiling with him.

“It will be fine, Jake, and I’ll tell you if anything hurts, alright? Don’t worry now, just love me.” I pulled him over me, my thighs falling open to take him into me.

He slid in without guidance, our bodies came together like that now. As if they were each other’s home.

I pulled him down to me, I needed to feel surrounded by him, and he came without question. He held me close as our hips moved in time with each other, and my lips found his. I held my hands to his face as he kissed me and our breaths grew ragged together.

Jake was mine, had always been mine. We’d found the perfect rhythm together. I knew, somehow, that we always would.

Jake’s pace changed as he drove into me, going deeper, faster until he flipped us, and followed, still merged, to lean back on my hand balanced on his thigh.

“I think we’ll have to get used to this position as my belly grows, you know.” I gave him a grin and he cupped my breasts as my grin turned dirty. “Apparently pregnancy can make you very horny.”

“That’s impossible. We’ll never be out of bed! All of our friends tease us at it is.”

We’d been caught out a few times, at home, in Jake’s office, at a gala dinner held at a hotel that we’d had to rent a room in because we just couldn’t wait long enough to get home.

“What can I say? You’re a sexy guy.” I found the perfect angle and the perfect rhythm and started to grind on Jake, the feel of him stretching and stroking all of the best places within me was too much to ignore.

“Or maybe it’s that you’re one fucking incredible woman, Laney. Fuck, do that again.” I’d squeezed him with my muscles and he loved it. I knew he did.

I let my walls flutter around him once more and arched my back, my breasts prominent now. “Touch me, Jake.”

I begged my husband for his touch, his soothing stirring touch. Fuck, he drove me insane with it.

We moved together, his hands teasing my nipples, mine propping me up as I fucked him fast and deep until we were both panting as we cried out with shock as pleasure rocked through us. I felt Jake exploding just as I began to pulse around him and we drove each other higher.

I heard him calling my name and squeezed his thigh as he thrust up into me, hard, deep, and I ground my teeth together to keep from screaming out his name. Fuck, he felt so good!

I gave a whine of frustration with being constrained, but I didn’t clamp down on my pleasure, I let it roll through me, to the same pace as Jake’s driving cock.

Jake made me strive for more, but in a different way to how I’d driven myself my whole life. Instead of driving to be perfect, I sought it out in other forms, in ways I could only achieve with Jake. Ways like this, where we became a whole and I didn’t feel so alone. I was perfect already, he’d made me realize, in the way that humans can be perfect, meaning I was more myself now and I was happy with that. He’d made me whole, just as I’d made him whole again.

This is what we were made for. Each other. Nobody could change that. Ever. They could try, but nobody would ever succeed. Not when you had perfect love like this.