The light glinted off one of Susannah’s curls—that glorious strawberry blonde hair—as she twirled it around one of her fingers. She traced swirls with another fingertip in the damp moisture on her water glass.

I took another long drag from my beer. She was so fucking gorgeous. Staring into her wide blue eyes, I recalled how hazy and dark they were when she was in the throes of going wild in my arms. My cock twitched.

This was ridiculous. Here I was getting hard over a woman who just told me she was pregnant. What. The. Fuck.

I scrambled for some sanity. I was stunned. I was a damn Boy Scout about using condoms, always prepared. Hell, I’d never even had unprotected sex. Not once. Ever.

Even when I was a teenager, I’d been responsible. I might not have thought it through much, but I damn well knew it was important not to have unprotected sex. So I hadn’t, and it didn’t even fucking matter in the end.

Susannah was pregnant.

It was obvious she was anxious about telling me this. Hell, she should’ve been. No matter what I thought, I didn’t think she had planned this. She looked as rattled as I felt. She’d been just as dedicated to making sure I got those condoms on too.

I knew there were no guarantees in life, certainly not in sex. This was definitely not something I had ever expected to be dealing with though.

As I stared at Susannah, contemplating what the hell to say, our waiter arrived with our food, setting the plates in front of us. “Need anything else?” he asked.

“Another beer, please,” I said.

“Be right back,” he replied before spinning away.

Susannah appeared to be waiting for me to say something. I hadn’t said much since her explosive announcement. An image flashed in my mind – Susannah pregnant, her belly round, and her breasts—her perfect plump breasts with dusky pink nipples—even fuller than they already were.

Damn. My cock hardened at the thought. What the hell was I thinking?

“Do you want to talk about it?” Susannah finally asked, clearing her throat when her voice got gravelly.

I tried to think of how to talk about this, but I was stumped. “I don’t know what the hell to say, so maybe we should just eat right now.”

She looked at me for a long moment, her brow furrowing. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“Well, I mean, I know you didn’t plan on me getting pregnant.”

“Just like I know you didn’t plan on getting pregnant,” I countered.

My level tone belied the confusion spinning in my mind, but at the moment, I didn’t think I could think through the jumble, so I focused on the concrete.

A look of relief crossed her face and her shoulders went with a sigh. “No, no I didn’t,” she said softly.

Our waiter arrived again, taking my empty bottle and handing me a fresh beer. I took a swig, setting it down and holding her gaze. I might not know what the hell to say just now, but if she wanted to talk, I’d try to muddle through. “If you want to talk…”

Her lips quirked as she shrugged. “It’s okay. It’s as much of a shock to me as you. I’ve had a few weeks to get used to the idea.”

At that, she lifted her burger and took a bite. I followed suit, quickly discovering that the casual dinner fare here was incredible. The salmon burger was glazed with maple syrup and honey mustard. It was obscenely delicious.

Janet, who I’d now met a whopping two times, joined us for a bit. She basically interviewed me about my entire life up to this point. If I hadn’t considered it before, I was coming to learn people here had no hesitation at barging into my life. She eventually meandered away, squeezing my shoulder and all but ordering me to stop for coffee every day.

“You’d better get used to that,” Susannah said as she pushed her empty plate away after Janet left.

“I can see that. I grew up outside Bozeman, Montana. It’s much bigger now, but when I was growing up, it had a small town vibe. I’m used to people being all up in my business,” I offered with a shrug.

Curiosity flickered in her gaze, her brows rising slightly. The moment passed, but I realized that this baby—!—meant I might have a shot at something I’d never had. My mother had been the only person I could truly count as family, and she’d been there in every way possible. But the rest—my absentee father, my greedy stepfather and my resentful brother—I could have done without them. Maybe I couldn’t recreate my own past, but I could build my own future. I skipped past that train of thought, not ready to contemplate those implications just yet.

After we finished eating, we returned to my truck, and I let Susannah in. After I got in on the driver’s side, she glanced my way. “You’re quite the gentleman, Ward.”

I met her gaze, arching a brow.

“Getting the door for me. Not a lot of men do that these days,” she explained.

As I stared at her, I was again envisioning her pregnant. A sense of protectiveness and concern that I had never experienced in my life caught me in its grip.

I tore my eyes away with a shrug. “Habit. It’s called manners.”

I started the truck up and drove away. Without thinking, I started driving to my place rather than returning her to her car at the station.

After a moment, she spoke. “Are you taking me back to my car?”

Hell no.

I couldn’t be near Susannah without wanting to be buried inside of her. I’d thought my attraction to her during our training together would fade. Not so. I was in worse shape now than I’d been back then. All I could think was I didn’t need to worry about protection and how that meant I could be as close as physically possible to Susannah. I didn’t even look her way. Shifting in my seat, I adjusted my jeans with one hand to deal with the aching ridge of my cock.

“Let’s go to my place,” was all I finally said.

“Should we maybe talk?”

“Well you told me what’s going on, and I appreciate that. We have plenty of time to talk. None of that changes what I want and what I know you want,” I said flatly.

Her breath drew in sharply. I flicked my eyes to her, a wave of satisfaction rolling through me at the sight of her cheeks flushing.

Reaching across the console between us, I dragged my palm along her thigh, nudging her knees apart and cupping my hand over her mound. I almost groaned at the feel of her damp heat through her jeans. When I exerted subtle pressure just over her clit, she gasped and her hips arched into my touch.

It was hard to imagine she wanted this as much as I did, but our bodies seemed capable of having an entire conversation without a word being spoken. As it was, we didn’t say much else.

“All you have to do is say the word if you don’t want this,” I murmured, flicking my eyes to hers again, my attention half on the road in front of me.

The flush on her cheeks deepened, and her eyes met mine, the blue darkening. She said nothing.

“I’ll take that as a yes then,” I said as I dragged my thumb back and forth across the fabric above her clit. With each pass, her hips flexed into my palm.

I kept my attention ahead now, absorbing our surroundings as I drove. Willow Brook was in the foothills of the Alaskan Range with the mountains in the distance one way and the ocean another. There were fields of green grasses mingled amongst swaths of spruce forest.

I’d bought a place here before my mom passed away. I hated renting, and there was plenty of property up here with views so spectacular it bordered on ridiculous. I found a nice chunk of property a few miles outside of downtown Willow Brook with a gorgeous timber frame home. It had more space than I needed, but I liked it. Rolling to a stop in front of the house, I finally removed my hand from between Susannah’s thighs, instantly missing the heat of her.

Holding the door for her, I watched as she climbed out, my body wracked with need. Kicking the door shut with my boot, I curled my hand around hers and strode quickly inside. I meant to yank her to me the moment we walked in the door because I was that fucking desperate.

For her.

I was a bit of a mess inside, a clusterfuck in my mind. Susannah was pregnant. With my baby. Something I definitely hadn’t planned on. I had all kinds of feelings about it, but rising through the scrum of confusion and uncertainty was one word, flashing like neon in my mind whenever I was near her.

Mine.