“Don’t throw up,” I coached myself as I parked in Alejandro’s driveway and smoothed the front of my sundress down. My palms were damp and my heart was racing. I lifted the bakery box off the passenger seat and exited my car.

I didn’t think I would actually puke, but after three months of morning sickness I had come to expect the urge to hit at random intervals for various reasons. Zoe had been right—it had been a lot of sperm. Even though I had thought it was a little early for ovulation I had wound up pregnant.

For three months I had kept my mouth shut because I had been terrified to miscarry after telling Alejandro, especially since I wasn’t sure what his reaction would be. So I decided to wait for the second trimester to share the news with him.

Amazed, I had been navigating the nausea and the idea that I was going to be a mother with some hard-core soul searching and healing. Alejandro’s words about Max being emotionally abusive had caused me to really dig into his emotions and my behaviors. I needed to have my head on straight before this baby was born.

I also knew that I loved Alejandro. He was a good man, who cared about people in general, and I admired and respected him.

So here I was, surprising him with a cake on his birthday, planning to make a plea that we should give it a go. My stomach flipped again. Maybe this was the world’s stupidest idea. I contemplated leaving the cake on his doorstep and bolting but that was a cop out.

His front door opened and he appeared, shirtless and sweaty. “Miranda?”

Too late to run. And I had a sudden horrible thought that he was bare-chested and out of breath because he was in the middle of having sex with a woman. A birthday bang. I cleared my throat. That would be awkward as hell and make me hideously jealous, but it was possible. Alejandro was a favorite of the club girls. I knew that.

I had to brazen it out. “Hi,” I said, walking toward him in my heels. I had chosen a white sundress with red cherries on it and stable wedge heel sandals. The dress gave me good cleavage, and I could already see his eyes drifting to my breasts. “Am I interrupting you?”

Holding my breath, I waited for his response. To my relief, he shook his head, lifting his gaze to meet mine. “No, I was just working out. Come on in.” He stepped back to let me into his apartment.

Alejandro looked sexy as hell. Hard as a rock and I remembered what he was capable of doing with all those muscles. How he had held me against the wall and driven me crazy. I felt the fluttering of desire. I stared at his ass as he walked down the hall. I had been a lucky woman to experience that body up against mine and I wanted it again.

He gestured to his couch. “Have a seat.” His voice was polite. I could tell he was curious but waiting for me to explain. He held his hands out. “Can I take that from you?”

“Happy Birthday!” I said in a cheerful singsong voice. “I baked you a cake.”

“Really?” He smiled. “Thank you. That was really sweet of you. God, I can’t believe you remembered.”

“It’s Dulce de Leche. I remember you said that’s your favorite.”

“Yes.” He looked downright excited. He set it down on the coffee table. “Can I have some now? Do you want a piece?”

“Sure.” I was going to die if he didn’t actually open that box. I was waiting impatiently for him to see my message.

Fortunately he did open the box instead of going for plates and a knife first. “Happy Birthday, Daddy,” he said. “Uh, babe, I think you gave me the wrong cake. Unless that’s supposed to be you hitting on me.”

I just waited. I knew he would figure it out and he did a split second later. His head snapped up. “Wait, does this mean you’re pregnant? Are we having a baby?”

His eyes were huge. I nodded, tears of happiness springing to my eyes. “Yes. Twelve weeks. I wanted to wait until the second trimester to tell you just to make sure everything was going to be okay. So thank you, Alejandro, from the bottom of my heart.”

“You’re welcome. Damn, I can’t believe it. You thought it was the wrong time.”

“I was wrong about it being wrong.” I reached out and touched his arm. “And I want you to be involved if you want to.” I searched his face, wanting some kind of a sign of encouragement. But mostly he looked stunned. “I want you to be involved with the baby and me, if that’s what you want.”

I had rehearsed this speech a million times and in my head it had sounded much better. Now it seemed weird and desperate. But it was out, just hanging there.

His eyebrows shot up. “Why?” he asked. “Why me?”

It was what he had asked me three months ago when I had made my request for a baby. I gave him the same answer. “Because I love you.” I leaned forward, raising my hand to his cheek. “I really truly love you. I think you’re an amazing, caring man, and I would like us to be together. Forever. With our baby. If you want to. But I don’t know if you want this, if I can have this, you and me.” Damn it. I was babbling now.

His hand covered mine and for a split second I was worried he would remove it. But instead he turned and kissed my fingers. “Baby, you had me when I was fifteen years old. You’ve always had me. People always want to know why I don’t have serious relationships and it’s always been because I was waiting for you. You’ve always been my ultimate.”

My heart soared. “Really?”

He nodded. “Really.” He pulled my face to his and gave me a soft kiss. “I love you.”

I just about jumped into his lap. I was absolutely sure I had never been so happy in my entire life. “You do?” He had told me before, but that he would tell me now, after everything, made me feel amazing. This was it. We were doing this.

“I do.” He pulled me down onto his thighs and cupped my cheeks. “You are so beautiful.” His hands drifted down to my still flat belly. “I can’t believe there is a baby in there. My baby. Our baby.”

“Are you happy?” That definitely worried me. I wanted him to want this as much as I did. “You’re kind of young to have a baby,” I teased him.

That made him laugh. “Not too young to make a baby, obviously. And clearly, I have some serious mojo in the baby-making department. So yeah, you’re welcome.”

He was having a proud man moment, his chest a little puffed up. After everything, I could certainly let him have that. “Very impressive, I have to say. I thought it would take months and months.”

“Well now we can have worry-free sex for the next six months.” He touched the swell of my breast. “And I think we should start now because I feel like you wore this dress to tempt me, and it’s working.”

“Don’t you want a piece of cake first?” I asked, already getting turned on by his finger tracing back and forth over my tender flesh.

“No. I want a piece of you first.” He bent over and sucked my breast. “Your tits are huge, baby. They were amazing before but now they are seriously like a magnet. I can’t stop looking and touching.”

“I have a lot of things you can touch,” I murmured, my head falling back in ecstasy as he pulled my nipple into his mouth.

We were impatient and eager for each other and we grappled at clothes desperately. Fortunately he wasn’t wearing a shirt and I had a dress on, so within a minute I was resting on his cock, full of him in all ways possible.

I had thought my birthday was going to be pretty ordinary. My only plans were poker with the guys later and maybe a six-pack. But I had glanced out my window and seen Miranda standing there looking like a pinup girl, and now ten minutes later she was riding my cock with some serious enthusiasm and we were together. Having a baby.

Happy Fucking Birthday to me. Literally.

“I like your cherries,” I told her, gripping her waist to help her lift up and down on my hard cock. I flicked my tongue over both her nipple and a cherry on the fabric below it. “Very juicy.”

She gave a breathless laugh. “You make me feel very juicy.”

“You are very, very wet.” Her body was an absolute thing of beauty. It should have felt surreal but it didn’t. In fact, it felt like this was the way it was always supposed to be. Like the last three months I had known we would get here when we needed to.

“And you’re so huge.” Her cheeks were pink. “Honey, this feels different, like I have more sensation or something. Oh damn, I’m going to come already.”

That made me groan. “Do it, baby. Come for me.”

She did, with her head thrown back and her breasts bouncing. She was gorgeous and I knew I was the luckiest son of a bitch alive. It didn’t take me long after that either. It had been three long months celibate, probably the longest stretch in my whole life, but I hadn’t wanted to be with anyone but Miranda. I exploded inside her.

After she stopped moving, I was overwhelmed by the intensity of what I felt for her. My woman. “Hey,” I said. “You still owe me the rest of my thirty days.”

Miranda laughed. “I think that can be arranged. I have finally unpacked so things are more comfortable at my place.”

She had told me that the guy next door was gone. He had been with vice, watching her, because he knew Max was back in town. My brother had a whole laundry list of crimes they were trying to bust him for, including armed robbery in Texas, and a homicide. He was going to spend the rest of his life in prison. Miranda said a young couple had moved in to the empty apartment and they were nice, which reassured me.

“So maybe we can finish out my thirty days and you can decide if you want to keep me around or not.” I brushed my thumb over her bottom lip.

She shook her head. “Nah. I already know. I want you with me always.”

“Then I think you should marry me.” I wasn’t dicking around. I wanted this locked in. Ten years was long enough to wait.

“I think I should,” she said, with the world’s cutest, most seductive smile. “Though I will not be telling our child you proposed to me while still buried inside me.”

I grinned. “Good point. Well, let me cut my birthday cake and I’ll do it better.”

But she just sighed and wiggled on my cock. “Hmm. In a minute. This feels so good.”

“Remember when you said you didn’t miss the heat in Miami?” I gave her ass a light spank. “You were lying.” I was growing hard again and she knew it.

Her eyes darkened. “You’re right, because I do like your heat.”

“This is the best birthday ever.”

But she just shook her head and smiled at me. “They’re only going to get better from here on out because we’ll be together. You, me, and baby Garcia.”

I couldn’t think of anything better.

I like women. But I only love one.