My body is taut with arousal, my cock rock-hard, my stomach muscles knotted, my legs shaking as I rock my hips up, thrusting into her, chasing after the pleasure. Wisps of it tease my senses. I cup her tits, feeling their sweet weight, rubbing her hard nipples, just the feel of them in my hands driving me insane with lust.

It’s hot, so damn hot that she’s carrying my baby, that her curves are so much more lush now, and her tits so much more sensitive. It turns me on like nobody’s business, makes me burn for her.

When her pussy clenches around my dick, ratcheting the pressure up, I just about lose it. Biting into my lip hard enough to draw blood, getting myself back under control, I slip my hands down her sides to grip her hips. I’ve been hard ever since she fell asleep on me on the sofa hours ago, and trying to jack off in the shower didn’t work out so well, since the hot water ran out and…

And I needed to be inside her.

Like I am now. Buried deep, seeing her, touching her, feeling her, hearing her moan my name… there’s nothing like it in the whole fucking world.

“Damn.” I lift her up, lower her again, faster, harder. Her heavy tits bounce a little, and my breath catches, whistling in and out of my lungs. My dick twitches, jerks, painfully hard. “Come with me.”

Christ, I need her to come with me, right the fuck now, I can’t hold back anymore, I can’t stop—

She groans, head falling back, pressing down on me, her pussy spasming around my dick, tightening, releasing, again and again.

Damn… My whole body arches, my thighs lifting, my hips thrusting up, deeper into her. I can’t recognize the sound coming from me, a sort of tortured growl, as the pressure snaps, and I finally let go. Razor-sharp pleasure cuts through me as I come, shooting my load inside her pussy, emptying my balls to the last drop, and then my dick jerks again, not ready to stop.

You and me both, buddy. I wish I could stay inside her forever.

* * *

“Are you all right?” a small voice asks by my ear, and I swat at it. “Hello…”

In my dream, it’s a mosquito talking to me, buzzing words I don’t really understand.

It has Melissa’s face.

Wait a minute… Melissa’s face?

I whip around so fast I almost fall off the bed—and then realize I’m buck-naked. Clapping my hands over my half-hard dick, I close my eyes for a second, gathering my wits.

“Melissa.” My voice comes out in a croak. A glance to my side tells me Octavia is still asleep. We both passed out cold after the sex. “What time is it? And don’t you ever knock?”

“I knocked. Nobody answered.”

Fuck me. Where the hell is the sheet to cover myself up? “Okay. Now go, and I’ll come out when I’m dressed, okay?”

“You’re naked,” she points out helpfully. “Octavia, too.”

“Yeah. You’re so right. Now go.”

“But why are you naked? And why did she sound like she was hurt earlier?”

Jesus Christ, am I gonna have to explain the bees and birds right the fuck now? I’m naked in bed, and Octavia is shifting behind me as she’s waking up, getting me all sorts of hard all over again.

And this little girl who could have been my own daughter is staring at me with wide eyes, probably scarred for life.

“Octavia is fine. We’re both fine, sweetheart. Now off you go…” Shit, Octavia is now pressed to my back, and my dick is trying to burst out from between my hands. I grit my teeth. “And we’ll be out soon.”

“Okay.” She gives us another wide-eyed look. “Evan asked me to come get you. He’s downstairs.”

Fuck. “Be right out.”

I breathe out a sigh of relief once she’s gone, the door closing behind her, and turn to face my wife. She’s trying not to laugh. Then my hard-on pokes her in the hip, and she gasps.

“Matt… she saw that?” Her gaze dips to my dick, then her hand slides down, closing around it, and I grunt, rocking into her grip.

“No…” Ah shit, this is good. “I don’t think she did. You should… oh fuck, girl, stop or else we’re going for a second round, and fuck going downstairs to see what Evan needs.”

“Lots of fucking involved, I see,” she teases, her tongue sticking out between her teeth.

“If you don’t stop, yeah.”

She winks at me, and before I know what she’s doing, she’s scooting down until she can put her hot little mouth on my dick.

Oh yeah. Fuck everything else but this. She gets me so hard, I can’t help myself. One touch from her, her sweet lips wrapped around my dick, and I’m gone.

But she does more than that. She’s learned what I like over the years, and she likes driving me crazy with lust. She swirls her tongue over the head of my dick, bobs her head, sucking on my hard-on like a lollipop, and suddenly my balls lift, and my belly clenches.

Despite having gone one round already, I won’t last. No way. I’m right on the edge of another orgasm, and I stroke her soft hair out of her face, my hand unsteady, to see her face, to see her sucking me in.

Her eyes meet mine, sparkling, and that’s it, what pushes me right over the edge, freefalling into pleasure.

So much pleasure, whenever I’m with her. My girl.

As I come down to earth, still trying to catch my breath, I lift her up, hold her against my chest. This woman… Loving her? There’s nothing like it. But being loved by her?

It’s everything I’ve ever wanted.

* * *

Evan isn’t anywhere to be seen when I come down the stairs, my dick tucked away in my pants, not to burn the retinas of small, innocent girls, and my shirt buttoned up.

“Melissa?” I call out, checking the living room and finding it empty, then the kitchen. “Evan! Where are you?”

Worry starts gnawing at my gut when I can’t find them anywhere. Did something happen to Evan? Or the girl? I throw the house door open, and I step outside, into the darkening evening. A cold wind whips my clothes against my body when I go down the porch steps.

A truck is parked outside the fence, and there’s Evan, Melissa holding his good hand, talking to a guy. Something about him is familiar, and an unpleasant shiver skitters down my spine.

The guy isn’t alone, either, I see as I walk down the path toward them. Two buddies of his are leaning against his pickup truck, arms folded over their chests, trying to look intimidating.

My hackles rise.

“I’m not coming back to work, Jasper,” Evan is saying, his voice barely controlled. His hold on Melissa looks painful. The girl squirms, tugging on his hand, and he doesn’t seem to notice, hunched over on himself. “I told you, I quit. Hell, I’m done with the garage, and this town.”

“You’re not going anywhere, Evan,” Jasper says, his voice a low, menacing growl, his face in shadow. He jabs a finger at Evan’s chest. “I’m not letting you go.”

“You can’t fucking stop me.”

“Sure I can. I own this town, and you damn well know it.”

“So you’ve said before. Won’t change my mind.”

What the hell is this about? Worse yet, Evan doesn’t sound incredulous at this thinly veiled threat. Only tired. And Jesus Fuck, has this happened before?

“What’s going on here?” I step beside Evan, and he glances at me, his face pinched, gaze weary. “Jasper.”

“Well, I’ll be damned. Matt Hansen? Last person I expected to see here.” If anything, Jasper’s stance turns more aggressive, chest puffed out, head tilted back, his hands clenching into fists.

Just like mine are.

“Didn’t know I had to report my whereabouts to you,” I mutter.

“Oh, that’s right. You felt you had every right to skip town and leave your friends behind.” His eyes skip to Evan, then back to me. His lifts his thinning brows.

Motherfucker. “I did what was best for my kids. Which is more than I can say about you, Jasper Jones.”

He chuckles like I’ve said something funny. “You’re dating my daughter. Was that a jab about that? You think you’ll be my son-in-law, and we’ll have beers and barbecue together, that it?”

I take a step forward, coming up short against the low picket fence. Not that it’ll stop me if I go off on Jasper Jones. “We’re not dating. We’re married with a kid on the way. But oh, I forgot, you probably don’t know all this. Because you don’t fucking care about your kids. Never have.”

“How dare you talk to me like that, you good-for-nothing dick.” Jasper’s face has darkened. I wonder if he’s stroking out. If anyone ever talks back to him since I left town. “I’m gonna beat you to a pulp.”

“I wanna see you try.” From the corner of my eye, I catch his two goons pushing off the pickup and moving toward us. This won’t be a fair fight. Evan is injured. He has to protect Melissa. So it’s just me against three.

But I have my anger. It’s burning through me, making my heart hammer and my vision narrow, after simmering low for so long.

Never thought I’d see this fucking bastard again, but now he’s right here, in front of me, threatening my friend, and the injustice of it all—him abandoning his kids, never even telling them the truth, never helping them out—has been eating at me for years.

“You put a hand on me, boy,” Jasper says, and I wanna laugh at being called a boy, but grit my teeth instead, “and I’ll have these two break your bones one by one.”

His goons are flanking him now, and I eye them, taking stock of the threat they pose. They’re heavy-set, mean-looking, rat-faced little fuckers.

This could be a problem, a small voice in the back of my head says. But my fury isn’t listening.

“Matt, don’t,” Evan says, but his voice is drowned out by the blood rushing in my ears, a dull roar. “He’s not worth it, man. He can’t stop me from leaving town.”

I’m already heading toward the gate, and I swear if fucking Jasper speaks another word, I’ll just vault over the goddamn fence and beat him bloody right then and there.

But a small touch on my back stops me. “Matt… Stop.”

Fuck.

I spin around on my heel. Octavia is standing there, wrapped in her cardigan, her hair tumbling around her face, her eyes frightened. When did she come out of the house? I hadn’t noticed—hadn’t noticed anything but Jasper’s threat.

“Tay…”

“He’s my father. Don’t….” She swallows hard. “Don’t get into a fight with him, please.”

“He never acted like your goddamn father.”

“He hasn’t,” she agrees.

“So you’re protecting him anyway? Like you wanna do with Ross?”

“No.” She lifts her chin. “He’s not worth getting hurt over. And he will hurt you, like he did with us. He doesn’t give a damn either way. But I do.” She lifts a hand, places it over my pounding heart, her gaze clear and true. “I won’t see you hurt. Ignore the jackass.”

Christ. My blood is humming with the rush of adrenaline. The urge to put my fist through his hated face has my muscles tight and trembling. “Fine. Okay.”

“How touching,” Jasper mocks, and it takes all of my willpower not to turn around and do exactly what I’d been about to do when Octavia stopped me. “She has you by the leash, huh? By the balls. Pussy-whipped, like your friend here, both of you stuck with kids you didn’t want—”

The world turns red.

“What did you say, asshole?” I’m shrugging off Octavia’s hand, marching at him, vaulting the fence, grabbing him by the front of his dirty sweater. “My kids are everything to me. I lost their mother, I didn’t leave her for no good fucking reason, like you did.”

Someone is dragging me off him, blunt fingertips digging into my arms and shoulders, yanking me away.

I turn and shove them away, pulling back my fist to deliver a punch to the ugly mug of the first of Jasper’s thugs, but Octavia calls my name, distracting me for a precious second.

The swipe of a foot under mine drops me, and I land on my back, gasping at the fire racing up my spine to my head. A fist descends on my face, snapping my head to the side, and a punch to my plexus leaves me without air, trying to curl around the pain.

Fuck.

Before the guy can land another punch, I roll and get to my feet, warily, keeping my hands loose, ready to let my fist fly into the face of anyone approaching me. I lick blood off my lips. My jaw is already swelling.

The thugs fall back. Jasper shoots me a hard look.

“I think it’s high time you took your dickhead thugs and left,” I inform him. “And let me tell you, if you even think about approaching this house, if you ever come near Octavia or Evan again, I’ll not only smash your face in, but call the police on your ass so fast you won’t know what hit you.”

“That so?” Jasper mutters. “Get him, guys.”

Octavia cries out when they both jump me. But this time around I don’t let it distract me. Octavia is still behind the fence, far from the violence, Evan with her.

I drop the first thug with a right hook and turn to deliver two more punches to the other’s face and chest, sending him stumbling back.

Finally I make my way to Jasper, who actually takes two steps back, lifting his gnarled hands. The hands of a much older man than he is, I realize, shaky, with dark liver spots. His nose is red, his eyes bloodshot, and even from this distance, his breath stinks of booze.

“Stay. Away. From. My family,” I grind out, and keep going until I’m almost chest to chest with Jasper. My wife’s absent father. My friend’s nemesis. “From Evan, from Octavia and your other kids. You know… it’s a blessing you didn’t stick around to fuck them up like you did with Ross.”

Cursing, Jasper, sidesteps me and fumbles with the door handle, letting himself into the truck. It takes him two tries to climb up inside, and I don’t move, watching him.

Did I scare him off enough? God only knows.

A scrabble to my right has me turning in a hurry, but his guys give me a wide berth as they make their way to the other side of the truck.

What, nobody ever fought back against them before? Chickenshit cowards.

“Matt!” Octavia comes out of the gate as the truck rumbles away, an arm folded over her stomach, and I blink, my brain still stuck on Jasper. “Matt.”

Then the haze clears and concern cuts through the red haze of anger. Fuck, what happened? Her face is white as a sheet. The truck pulls off the curb and rolls down the street as I turn toward her.

“Tay. You okay?” I jog over to her, pry her arm from her middle. “The baby?”

Her turn to blink. She glances down. “I’m fine. Well, I thought I was going to throw up from fear, but the baby’s okay. You? They beat you up. Your face…”

Thank fuck. A headache hammers at the back of my eyeballs. I’m shaking my head as I pull her into my arms, dizzy with relief. “I’m fine. Sorry I worried you.”

Dammit, she shouldn’t have come to Destiny with me. This was a mistake. If anything happened to our baby, I wouldn’t forgive myself.

Thank God we’re leaving. Even though I feel bad about leaving Evan alone with his problems, frankly, tomorrow can’t come fast enough.