Matt towers over me, fists clenched to his sides. With his newly regrown beard and longish hair, those impressive broad shoulders and muscular chest, he’s pretty intimidating. “No,” he growls.

I tap a hand on his pec and grin up at him. “Yes.”

“Tay… You should stay here.”

“I want to go with you.”

“But the baby. You shouldn’t tire yourself.” His voice is gruff, his eyes concerned, and aw, I love this guy so much.

“Look…” I press myself to him, and his arms automatically come around me. He nuzzles my hair. “I’m fine. I promise I’d tell you if not. Besides, you’re not going cross-country horse-riding or anything. You’re going back to Destiny, my town. I would like to visit.”

He pulls back just enough to look down at me. “Is that the real reason?”

Those dark eyes can see to the depths of my mind, and I feel heat spill over my cheeks. “Yes.”

“Sure?” He brings a hand up to my cheek, his palm cool on my flushed skin. “Look at me, Tay.”

Crap. I meet his eyes, and sigh. “That’s mostly it. Truth is… I wanted to check on Ross.”

His gaze darkens, thick brows knitting. “That again? I don’t fucking get it. He hurt you. Why do you care how he is?”

“He’s my half-brother.”

“Tay…”

He doesn’t get it. I can’t blame him. He punched Ross on my behalf, protecting me from Ross’s taunting, and he can’t forgive him.

Neither can I. But what Mom told me… And that bad dream I’ve had twice so far… “Trust me?”

He groans, gathers me again close, kisses my lips. Against them he whispers, “If anything happens to you…”

“Nothing will happen to me. To us.” I take his face in my hands. “I need to go with you. Call it a gut feeling. I’ll be careful. I’ll be with you. I need this, Matt.”

He crushes his mouth to mine, kisses me hard, licks inside my mouth, like he can’t get enough of me. When he draws back, he’s panting, his eyes blazing, his body trembling. “You’ll have everything you need with me. I’ll always do my best. That I promise.”

“I know,” I whisper, swallowing a lump in my throat, because I know it’s the truth. “I do have everything I need with you. You are everything I need.”

My big, bad caveman is the best man in the world, not to mention the sexiest, too, and he loves me. I’m so lucky to have him by my side.

Now if only I can make sure my big, bad half-brother is okay so that I don’t have to worry about him… life would be perfect.

* * *

Cole peeks inside the bedroom as I place folded dresses and sweaters inside my suitcase. “You’re leaving, too?”

There’s apprehension in his blue eyes. It tugs at my heart.

“Come here.” I sit down on the bed and pat the space beside me. “Sit with me?”

He nods and climbs up on the bed. He’s still so small, though he had a growth spurt last year, and his baby cheeks are all gone now. I put my arm around his thin, narrow shoulders and tug him to my side.

“You’re going back home?” he asks.

“My home is here, now. With you, and Mary, and Matt.”

“And the baby?”

I put my other hand over my stomach. It’s startling to feel the small bump, to know there’s a living person in there, dependent on me. “Yes. And the baby.”

“What is his name?”

I laugh. “How do you know it’s a boy?”

Cole’s eyes go round. “Don’t you? Like you know I’m a boy. Can’t you also tell he is one?”

I blink at him. “That’s… interesting logic,” I whisper, amused and somehow touched, and exasperated all at once. “But I can’t see the baby, so I don’t know yet if it is a boy or a girl.”

“Well, I do. It’s a boy, and he is my brother.”

Aw shucks. The way he says it… My eyes sting, and I haul Cole closer, mashing his small face to my boob. “Yeah.”

Inhaling Cole’s fresh scent of shampoo and child, I remember when I first saw him, held in his father’s arms. So tiny, and curious, and soft, and sad. He’s grown now, and he almost never has that sad look in his blue eyes anymore. I’m so glad for that.

“Are you happy, Cole?” I allow him to pull back a little, to breathe. “With me?”

“I love you, Tati,” he says, his little boy voice ringing with honesty, that uncomplicated childish fervor in his expression.

“Love you too, baby.”

He’s never called me Mom, nor Mary, and I never thought to ask them that. Their mom is in heaven. I just hope I replaced her in all the ways that count, and that they will keep turning to me for affection and help as they grow older.

“How long will you be away?”

“Just a few days.” I kiss the top of his dark head, the color of Matt’s hair, my hair. I wonder if my baby will have my color, too.

“Can I come, too?”

“You have school. Another time.”

“Are you coming back?”

I frown down at him. “Of course we’re coming back. Did you think we wouldn’t?”

He shrugs. But yeah, it looks like he did.

He burrows closer to me. “I don’t want you to go.”

A band tightens around my chest. “Cole…”

“Mary is sad, too.”

Of course she is. I didn’t think the kids would take our going so badly. “Is your sister okay? She seems… unhappy lately.”

“She’s just in a mood. Girls.”

That makes me smile. “She’ll be okay. But you’d tell me if anything bothered her, right?”

“I s’ppose.”

I kiss his hair again. “God, I love you guys so much. How could we live without you? There’s no way!”

He pouts up at me. “Can’t you stay?”

“There’s something I need to do. But we’ll talk on the phone every day. We’ll be back before you know it. And you’ll have fun with Grandma and with Gigi. She promised to take you to the movies. Won’t that be nice?”

“Guess so.”

I laugh at his put-out expression. “Run along now to play. I need to finish packing.”

Dutifully he hops off the bed and runs away. I hope Matt talks to them, especially to Mary, before we go. I should talk to him about this, but he’s been busy at the shop, in the Mancave, with Kaden, putting in a bit of extra work before we leave.

I think he’s worried Kaden won’t manage to keep the business running without him. Matt worries so much, all the time, about all of us. He’s worried about me, although my pregnancy has been easy, and about Gigi who has many admirers flocking around her, and about Merc who seems undecided as to what to do with his life. About my mom who gets bad sciatica pains sometimes, about his own mom who had pneumonia last winter… And all that on top of running the shop and taking care of all of us.

Maybe I should talk to Mary myself. She is my daughter, too, after all, if not in blood. Would she talk to me?

I’m not sure it’s a good idea. I sense I’m the one she’s really upset with. The thought hurts. She’s my little girl. I’d do anything for her.

So then why?

* * *

“There you are.” Matt steps inside the bedroom much later and finds me staring critically at my overflowing suitcase. He slips an arm around my waist. “How’s the packing going?”

I look up at him with a smile. “Terribly. How was your day?”

“Long and godawful, until I saw you.”

Aw.

He turns me around and kisses me, a sweet kiss, and I melt in his arms. Pressed to his muscular chest, enfolded in his strong arms, his taste on my tongue, I’m right where I want to be, always.

And then he groans in my mouth, tugs on my lower lip with his teeth, and the sweet turns hot. Fire courses through my veins.

“The kids?” I whisper.

“Watching cartoons downstairs.”

“Won’t they hear? Matt, you should talk to Mary, she’s—”

“I’ll talk to Mary tomorrow. Now,” he walks me backward, pushes me down on the bed beside the open suitcase, “I’m going to undress you and lick every inch of you.”

His big hands stroke my legs as he pulls down my soft yoga pants, letting them drop to the floor and then he hooks his fingers in my panties.

“What happened at the shop?” I ask.

He pulls my panties down and nuzzles my thigh, his beard scratching my skin, sending shivers of anticipation through me. “Shh. Let me work.”

“But I’m just…” I gasp when his tongue licks a long, hot path between my legs, over my clit. “Just worried. You’ve been so stressed about leaving the shop with Kaden.”

“You’re still way too coherent,” he growls, and looks up at me, dark eyes flashing with amusement and arousal. “Clearly, I need to up my game.”

He pushes my legs wider and presses his face between them, his tongue stabbing into me, his fingers stroking, pushing into me as he sucks on my clit, and holy crap, he’s hellbent on making me scream loud enough for the kids to hear.

“Matt…” I push at his massive shoulders, hovering on the edge of release, my legs shaking, my core clenching tight.

He draws back instantly, brows knitting. “What? Did I hurt you?”

“No, I’m fine. Just…” I struggle to catch my breath. “I want you inside me. And naked. On the bed with me.”

His gaze softens, then the flames in his eyes flare. “I like the sound of that.”

Reaching behind his head, he yanks his dark sweater and T-shirt over his head and throws it down, then starts on his belt, and I sit up to watch, heat spreading through me at the sight of his inked, muscular chest and arms. My gaze travels down his bulging pecs to his defined abs and the bulge in his pants.

I lick my lips, my skin too hot, a fever of desire sweeping through me. God, this guy gets sexier every time I look. With his silken dark hair falling on his forehead, long black lashes like soot on his cheekbones, soft lips parted, he’s so handsome my heart aches.

He glances up, catches me looking, and winks. “See something you like, Mrs. Hansen?”

“Maybe.”

He makes a show of unbuttoning his worn jeans and pushing them down his narrow hips. “I should make you pay for this peepshow.”

“Wives get in for free,” I inform him, reaching for him. “Let me.”

“I’m the one who’s getting inside,” he mutters, eyes going heavy-lidded as I slide his briefs down his legs, letting his heavy cock spring free. “Inside you.”

Oh yeah… “Come here.” I wrap my fingers around the thickness of his cock, loving the feel of him, so hard and long and throbbing in my hand. “I need you.”

A sound escapes him, a low groan, and it tightens everything in me with desire. My skin feels too tight, too hot, my pulse beating in my throat, in my wrists, deep inside my belly.

He pulls back, in two movements gets rid of his boots, socks, pants and briefs, and is on me, his mouth pressed to mine, warm and demanding. When his tongue demands entrance, I part my lips.

I slide my hands over his broad shoulders, his thick biceps, my body arching up in appreciation. He shifts, pressing his hard-on between my legs, and it’s too much. I feel like I’m going to come just from the pressure where I need him most.

His hands are frantically working on the small buttons on the front of my blouse, but eventually he curses against my mouth and sits back, tugging at the hem of said blouse. “Take it off, or I’m gonna rip this damn thing to shreds to get it off you. Need to touch you.”

Skin to skin. I know how he feels. It’s always the same with him. We only made love yesterday, and I slept in his arms all night, but it’s as if we’ve been apart for months and can’t wait to get our hands on each other.

Together we pull my blouse off, and he stares at my boobs, his eyes darkening.

“You’re so fucking sexy,” he breathes reverently, and reaches behind me to unclasp my bra, letting my boobs spill out. “Holy shit, you’re so beautiful.”

He means it. I see it in his dilated pupils, his uneven breath, his twitching hard-on, the shaky hand he lifts to push me back down on the mattress. He loves my swollen breasts, my rounded belly, the few extra pounds I put on since I got pregnant.

He loves me.

“Tay…” he whispers.

I close my eyes, overcome with emotion, and he leans over me. “Need you. Now.”

“You have me.” I open my eyes to find him lowering himself over me, one elbow braced by my head, cupping one boob with the other. His mouth curves up on one side in a sexy, crooked smirk. “But you’re not ready for me yet.”

“Of course I’m ready—ooh…” His mouth closes over the tip of my breast, sucking, teeth teasing, and pleasure shoots straight down, right where his hand is now sliding, slipping between my thighs, teasing, stroking. “Matt…”

He switches to my other breast, licking my hardened nipple, blowing cool air on it, sucking lightly, and it’s so sensitive these days the pleasure mingles with pain.

“Oh God…” I twist away, but then arch up again, seeking more. He’s driving me insane with lust. “Please…”

His fingers are slipping in and out of me, and I’m right on the edge of an orgasm again, so very close… and then I gasp as I come on his fingers, his mouth on my breast, my insides tightening with the force of it. My hips lift and fall, riding the waves of pleasure.

He lifts his head, giving my nipple one lingering lick that has me moaning, while I try to gather my scattered wits. “This is what I’m talking about,” he murmurs.

All I can do is pant and squirm.

Then he pulls out the two fingers he had inside me and licks them, slowly, his gaze never leaving mine.

Getting me all hot and bothered again.

“Now you’re ready for me,” he says, and reaches down for his cock. Before I can regain the power of speech, he strokes his hard-on over my clit, making me gasp.

And he pushes into me.

My world splinters, breaks, narrows down to this man leaning over me, pushing into me, claiming me. His hands are braced at my sides, and powerful muscles bulge in his arms as he lowers himself in an inverted push-up to lick at my mouth.

Then he pushes himself up again, pulls out an inch or two, and thrusts into me with a heartfelt groan.

Pleasure sparks down my spine, spreading like liquid fire in my belly, and I bite my lip to muffle a moan. It feels so good. His hot gaze lifts to my face, and in his eyes I can see it all—his need, his love for me, his desire, and the control he has over himself drawn taut and about to snap.

Because of me.

He’s rocking his hips now, pistoning in and out of me, a beautiful beast of a man, his small nipples drawn into tight points, his abs clenched into a crazy six-pack. Sweat gleams on his smooth skin, in the strands of his short beard, his dark hair stuck to his temples as he grunts and his rhythm stutters, his cock swelling more inside me.

He holds my gaze, his face tightening with what looks like pain or intense pleasure. “Tay…”

Just the sound of my name in that raw, raspy voice as he’s about to come, and my core clenches around his cock.

“Matt…” I whisper, and arch up as I come again.

Love you.