Rex was officially a man of mystery. I couldn’t seem to get a handle on him or his intentions anymore. If someone had asked me, a year ago, to conjure up a perfect boyfriend, Rex would have won hands down. He was nothing but attentive and sweet, romantic and considerate. He was absolute perfection, well we would be perfect if he meant all the romance. But he didn’t and that’s what had me so confused. The way he acted, like the perfect boyfriend, made it easy to lean into the lie, to smile with my whole heart whenever I saw his handsome face smiling back at me, without a care about whether the smile was genuine or not. It was easy to accept the warmth and safety of his embrace as my due, as his woman.

Even though I knew none of that was true.

But no days like today, when was bone tired and he greeted me after a long day at work in nothing but a pair of jeans and a gingham apron, it was hard to give a damn that none of it was real. “I smell stew,” I said instead of anything else that would make me sound smart and pretty and sophisticated.

“You do. Bread too. You look tired,” he frowned and I frowned back, then he beamed one of those damn heart stopping smiles. “Beautiful as always, of course, but tired. Go take off your clothes and get ready to eat.”

And just like that I suddenly wasn’t feeling all that tired. “That sounds dirty. I like it. Let’s go with it,” I told him and licked my lips as his blue gaze tracked my tongue.

In three steps he was in front of me, cupping my jaws like I was some precious treasure and his mouth sent me to heaven and back, kissing my mouth, nibbling my bottom lip and my shoulder. The tops of my breasts. We were both naked in seconds, frantic and hungry for one another. There we stood, chests heaving, in the small space between the living room and the kitchen before we attacked again, coming together in a frenzied kiss filled with a wild tangle of hands and arms, moving and touching everywhere. Unable to get enough. Close enough, deep enough. Just enough.

He pulled back again, staring at me for a long hot moment and his hands went to my breasts, brushing his thumbs across the oversensitive nipples that hardened under his touch. Rex dipped low and wrapped his mouth around one nipple, sucking hard and soothing it with a soft lick. “Fuck, Rex. Yes,” I moaned as his mouth went back and forth, bringing me to the absolute edge of pleasure without letting me go over. I clawed at him, eager and greedy for him, but Rex took his time, exploring my breasts before—thankfully—moving lower.

His hand slid down my belly first and his eyes flashed recognition the moment he felt the new swell. He looked up at me, eyes filled with wonder and glee. He pressed a kiss to my belly, so tender and soft that it shot straight to my heart and dusted the place off so Rex could take over. I knew I was in trouble but when his tongue slid between my thighs and parted my swollen, sensitive lips, I didn’t give a damn. I didn’t want to think, I wanted to feel, to act, to participate in this chaotic coming together that felt hotter than anything ever had in my short life. My hips moved against his mouth, somehow knowing exactly how to get the most pleasure out of every stroke. One hand fisted in his hair as I moved harder against him, chasing my pleasure right beside him and out of nowhere my orgasm washed over me, and his name was a shout on my lips. “Fuck me, we’ll have to do that again real soon.”

I grinned but I was beyond words, beyond complete sentences. “Please. Need you.”

With a smug grin he grabbed my ass and lifted me up, carrying me to bed where he laid me gently down so my ass hung over the edge and he plunged deep inside my still pulsing body. “Fuck, Lena. Such a tight little pussy.” The way he grunted those words out, like I was causing him that kind of discomfort, did something to me, took me out of my body and I became a pleasure seeking entity. He stood between my thighs, cock buried as deep as it could go, and pumped into me like I was the answer to his prayers. He squeezed my breasts as he pumped harder, giving the nipples a small squeeze just to tease me.

“Yes, Rex. Fuck me. Please.” He grinned but it was a dark, sexy grin that hit me all over as he pinched my nipples again.

“You ready to come,” he asked in a voice that was pure honey and I nodded. His hips stroked deeper and harder, but slower and I moved my hips to add more friction.

“Yes, Rex. Please.”

He slid out and pounded into me hard and fast, hitting that one spot over and over, that made me see rainbows. “Not yet.” His cock slid in and out, stretching me and filling me up and making me feel wicked and wanton. “Not yet,” he said again, pumping hard into me with each word.

My muscles began to flutter around him and he grinned, slowing his strokes as he shook his head to tell me not yet. Again. “Rex.”

His thumb found my clit and began to move in slow circles, the same as his hips, leaving me breathless and straining to reach that pleasure that was just out of reach. “Okay Lena, now. Come now, he commanded, grabbing my clit between two fingers and rubbing it fast as his hips increased until our bodies smacked together and another orgasm shook my entire body.

The orgasm was all-consuming, heating up the top layer of my skin while my blood slogged through my veins like hot lava and my body vibrated with warring emotions. “Oh my god. Oh my god.” I shook and shook, trembling under Rex as he found his own pleasure and dotted kisses against my overheated skin, pulling more shivers from my still shaking body. “Ah, fuck.”

He grinned and ran a finger down the side of my face. Such an affectionate move compared to the hard and dirty way he’d just taken me. “You’re good for my ego, Lena. I love that about you.”

I tried to quiet my stupid heart, already up and panting with pleasure at his words. I couldn’t blame my heart when my own mouth split into a satisfied smile. “Thanks.”

His grin widened at my easy acceptance of his praise. “I love a lot of things about you, Lena. Your sexy body, those green eyes that say everything you want to say but don’t, your smart mouth. Your food. Pretty much Lena, I just love you.”

He what? I shook my head, unable and unwilling to believe him. I was ready to tell him that he was crazy and that it was a low trick to use love on a pregnant woman who’d just had the longest, most powerful orgasm of her life, but he kissed me because he probably saw all of that in my tattletale eyes. Apparently. “I do know what I’m saying,” he told me when he finally pulled back, looking down at me with real love shining in his eyes. “I’ve thought about it and I think I should credit for not saying so a month ago. Two months ago.”

I frowned. That couldn’t be. “But I’m four mon-,”

“I know, Lena.”

“But that means, all this time…you.” It couldn’t be. It was so ridiculous I couldn’t even say it out loud.

“All what time?”

He grinned and I squirmed, needing space so I could process what he was saying, but Rex had other ideas. “Oh my god, are you hard again?”

He shrugged and flexed his hips. “I like you all feisty like this. It’s kind of hot.”

“Jerk.”

“Maybe,” he said, leaning forward and kissing me hard on the mouth as his hips stroked slow and deep, turning me on all over again. “But I’m a jerk who loves you and I’m going to keep telling you,” he pushed in slow and deep again, “until you believe me.” He grasped my hips. “Until you see how much I love you. And our baby.” He stopped moving and pulled me up so we were chest to chest and he turned so I sat on his lap with him buried so deep I didn’t see how we’d ever part again. “That’s much better. Now I can see the way your eyes change colors as I make sweet love, to your sweet, sweet pussy.”

I grinned happily. “That’s a lot of sweet,” I managed to choke out around my arousal.

His grin nearly split his face as he pushed up into me, making my muscles squeeze and contract around him. “You have no idea how sweet you are, Lena. But you will. Now, do you have anything else to say?”

“No, why?”

“Because I’m going to say one thing and then nothing else, not one fucking word until you shout my name and come all over my cock.” He grinned when I pulsed around him, liquid flooding my core and adding wicked, sinful friction.

“What’s that?”

“I love you, Lena.”

And then he made good on his promise.

Really fuckin good.