* * *

Jayce announces to everyone that we’ll be right back because we need to go clean up the kitchen before it starts to smell. It’s an odd excuse, given that we already cleaned up most of the food, but everyone is too drowsy to seem to notice or care. If Darla had been able to come, I’m sure she would’ve had some sarcastic comment right about now, but she’s still too obsessed with Matt, the dark haired EMT she met the night I got Cade arrested. She hasn’t made much time to hang out with me since they got together, but I can’t be too upset because she actually seems happy for once.

Jayce half-drags me through the kitchen, where he shakes a pot in the sink around for a few seconds and then takes me outside on the darkened patio by the pool.

“What are you doing?” I laugh.

“Shh,” he says. We move outside and he doesn’t waste any time pinning me to the wall of the house, just out of view from the windows. “What I’m doing,” he whispers, “is fucking my dirty wife, who doesn’t know better than to tempt me.”

I close my eyes and lean my head back because I know how he loves to kiss my exposed neck. Just like I expect, the warmth of his mouth finds my neck and takes my breath away. “God,” I gasp. “You always know exactly what I need.”

“Quiet,” he growls. “I don’t want to have to fuck you in front of my brother, or yours.”

I bite my lip to stay silent, but the idea that he needs to fuck me so badly even after he has had me so many times makes my heart flutter. “Then hurry up,” I whisper in his ear teasingly.

He grunts, lifting me by my legs and pinning me harder to the wall. He pushes my dress up and pulls his pants down within seconds. In his hurry to have me, he just yanks my panties to the side and guides his cock in. I was worried I hadn’t had enough time to get wet for him, but as usual, I’m already soaked after only a few words and a few moments of contact.

I squeeze my eyes shut, not even needing the extra layer of excitement BDSM brings, and apparently he doesn’t either. Over the last couple years, I’ve found that sometimes we both seem to enjoy just normal, vanilla sex--though it always feels miles beyond just sex with Jayce. Whether he’s binding me and punishing me or just holding me as he uses my body, there’s a tender, possessive quality to his touch that only gets more addicting with time.

He treats me like his most prized possession, like the thing in the world he would do anything and everything to protect and keep. When I’m being held by him like this, even when he’s driving his length into me again and again, drawing my orgasm closer with every thrust, my world feels right. I can feel his love for me in the way his fingers thread through my hair and he never seems to stop caressing and touching me, exploring my body like it’s the first time he’s ever felt me.

I’m his. He said it when we first met, and he has never stopped making me feel it. “Oh God,” I whisper. “I’m going to cum.”

“I fucking love you,” he breathes into my ear. He tenses, filling me with his hot cum. My own climax comes as soon as I feel the kick of his cock inside me, making my walls tense and pulse, my whole body filling with a warm, fuzzy heat.

I slump back as he pulls himself out and slides back into his pants. All I have to do is shift my panties and shimmy my hips to fix my clothes. “There’s something I want to tell you,” I say, barely able to hold in my excitement. “I was going to try to wait until I was more sure, but I think I know. It feels the same as it did last time…”

Recognition sparks across his features. He frowns and smiles at the same time, lips parting into a confused smile.

“We’re pregnant again. My period was due a few days ago and the tests are coming up positive already. I’ve already taken four.”

Jayce picks me up like a sack of potatoes, throws me over his shoulder, and runs inside. I try to tell him to stop being a maniac and put me down, but he doesn’t hear me because he’s already shouting the news to everyone. “We’re pregnant!” he yells as we come around the corner into the living room.

Everyone looks up at us, but Rachel is the first to speak. “I think you’ve got to give it more time than a few seconds to happen, hotshot.” She winks knowingly.

My cheeks flush red to think that Rachel knew what we were out there doing.

“No,” says Jayce, who’s clearly too excited to get her joke. “She already took four tests. All positive!”

“I guess we’re telling everyone,” I say a little sarcastically. I’m not irritated though. I’ve never been much for keeping secrets like this--except when I thought Jayce was going to hate me for being pregnant, at least. I definitely didn’t keep it a secret when I got word that Cade was going to be behind bars for at least fifteen years because two other women came forward about the way he abused them. “Could you put me down now?” I ask.

Jayce seems to realize he’s still hoisting me on his shoulder and eases me to the ground.

“Baby?” asks Amelia.

“Yes, sweetie!” I say scooping her up and hugging her tightly. “You’re going to have a little sister or brother.”

“Brother,” says Jayce. “Definitely a brother. Or mommy’s not done getting pregnant.”