Long fingers grasp my hand, warmly covering my skin and stroking against my palm. I wiggle mine back, slowly mapping the pores covering Clint's extremities.

I'm not sure what hour it is, it must be morning but it’s still dark. The hustle and bustle outside has quieted to one off ambulance sirens and the occasional weekday employees drunk and stumbling home from a very extended happy hour.

He was the last person I expected to see when I went to answer the booming knock on Chloe's front door. I'd actually been rendered speechless at first. And then pissed as hell because I was definitely going to have to give Miles a face full of knuckles. I can't believe both he and Chloe had spilled to everyone. The only person who hadn't been here yet was Owen, and I was guessing Golden Boy wasn't far away. He couldn't resist thrusting himself upon this situation.

But for as hurt and betrayed as I've been feeling towards Clint, I can't deny that I've missed him. Seeing his face, so broken and hurt when I'd opened the door, was like a breath of fresh air. I hadn't realized how much I'd needed to just be in the same room, sharing the same air. My body had normalized in seconds, even if I'd still been a raging bitch.

And he wanted the baby too. That did weird things to my heart, and had tears springing instantly to my eyes. Or maybe that was the hormones. That thing about pregnancy being an emotional roller coaster? More like a sky dive straight into the pit of female hysterics.

I still didn't trust him completely, mainly because I was a self-proclaimed independent woman who needed to defend and stick up for herself. But I did believe him. I never truly thought Clint was out to betray me or go behind my back. My past issues had just caused me to freak out, to flee. And all along he'd been trying to protect me from getting hurt in the first place.

"I love you." It was a barely a whisper that left my lips. I hadn't even realized I'd said it out loud until Clint was rolling me over and climbing on top of me.

He presses his forehead down on mine, his overgrown 5 o’clock shadow tickling my chin.

“What…what did you say?” Clint’s voice is a mix between pain and relief. His muscles tense and contract above me, and I can feel the love and desire rolling off him in waves.

The butterflies in my stomach were fluttering so hard that I almost couldn’t speak. I’d never said those words to anyone, not even Chloe and Minka. I hadn’t even meant to say them now, but they were the truest syllables I’d ever uttered.

“I love you.” I smiled sheepishly, giving him exactly what he wanted to hear. And exactly what I needed to say.

Clint doesn’t wait a second before his lips are meeting mine, stroking and kissing my battered soul while pouring all of the love within him into me. Our tongues dance in an erotic and slow tango, lapping at each other until we are so breathless the room is spinning.

Clint breaks it off, inhaling deeply. "Wait. Wait. Let's...slow down. We need to talk."

I grab the back of his neck and bring him in again. I've gotten a taste of the drug that has me hooked, and I need more. It’s been too long.

I grind my aching sex against him and feel his hard, hot cock twitch even between all of the layers we have on.

He breaks off our kiss once again. "Kels, hold on." He can't help but grind into me as I lift my hips up to meet him. A groan of pleasure and pent up horniness rips from his throat.

"We need to have a real talk about this. About us, our future." He lays a hand on my stomach in a way that has my heart melting into a pile of girly mush. "About the baby."

A strangled noise comes out of my throat and I realize I'm close to tears again. But really, I've cried enough to fill Niagara Falls if there were ever to be a drought that horrific.

"Clint, I know we do. But right now, please, please let me work this out in the way I know best. Sex. Please, have sex with me. We can have all of the heart-to-hearts you want later. But right now, my hormones are insane and all I want you to do is put your dick in me. Okay?"

His eyes are wide but I can see the carnal lust swimming in his baby blues. I don't even give him the chance to answer. I start molesting his mouth and grinding into him like a possessed feline. We begin ripping at each other's clothes, frantic and sweaty I can't get close enough to him, can't feel his skin in the way I want.

He frees me from my clothes prison and begins biting and clawing his way down my body. There is nothing gentle or loving about what we're doing; it’s just blind lust fueling us forward until we both reach exactly the place we want to be. It’s been too long for slow and steady, I need this. I crave it.

The whole room smells like sex, and Clint can't get inside of me fast enough. He's moving down my body to warm me up, sticking his magical tongue in places that make fireworks explode in front of my eyes. But I stop him.

"I'm ready. Please..."

He knows what I need. In the snap of my fingers he's out of his clothes. That big, Thor-like body looms over me. My protector, my sex god. Just seeing his naked flesh after this long has me close to the edge, panting with my impending climax.

Clint pinches the head of his cock, almost painfully, and I know he's close too. "Is it, uh, okay to be doing this?"

He stares at my stomach like an alien may pop out of my body at any second. I roll my eyes. "Oh my god, get in me before I scream."

Grabbing onto to those strong hips, I drag Clint's body forward until he's fisting his cock and shoving into me.

"Fuck..." We both hiss as he enters me. My body opens to him and then squeezes his tool like a vice, each of us pulsing and throbbing so hard that I can't tell which one of us is closer to release.

Clint tangles his fingers in my hair and rests his palms on either side of my face. "We'll talk later, okay? I love you."

He wants permission to make us lose our minds, and I'm more than happy to give it to him. I nod my head as I whisper "I love you."

Slowly, he drags out and pushes back in with more force, eliciting breathy moans from us both. Two more times he strokes like that, testing my slickness.

And then he starts to buck and stroke like the world is ending. I can only hang on to those big, broad shoulders, chasing the incredible orgasm high he's sparked in my limbs.

Clint locks onto my eyes, stoking the raging fire between us until we can't speak or breathe.

Clint's chest is sweaty and rapidly rising and falling as he catches his breath, but I don't mind as I lay wrapped up in him.

"Do you think that was okay to do with the...baby and all?" He's still so hesitant on the word baby. I understand, I couldn't quite get a handle on it at first either. Not that I'm doing much better with that now.

"Well if the first time didn't injure it, the second time definitely did..."

"Don't even joke like that Roo!" He pinches my ass at my bad joke.

I chuckle, running my nails lightly up and down his arm until I see goosebumps appear.

"So, do you know what it is?" Clint eyes me curiously as he holds my stomach in that way he has since he found out I was pregnant.

His obvious happiness at the pregnancy has me feeling more normalized about it too. Funny, I've spent the last four weeks dreading waking up and dealing with anything. Yet Clint has been here for less than a day and has mostly erased all of that fear. I'm still worried, but I know we are going to face it all together. I have my best friend, my boyfriend, the person I lean on for everything, back.

"Nope. It’s still too early to tell. But the sucker has one hell of a heartbeat." I gleam proudly. For as depressed as I'd been the last few weeks, that was the shining point in all of the darkness. When I'd seen the baby, just a little acorn on the black and white screen, I'd felt something that you can't describe using words. The feeling was momentous, larger than life. All consuming happiness and surety. It surpassed the English language.

"Well of course he does. Look who his mother is." Clint nuzzles my hair.

"Did you just say he?

"I'm going to think it’s a boy up until you tell me it’s not. Just think about it, a father's dream...a little ball player who will play t-ball and want to play catch." Clint's eyes go dreamy and I know I'm in trouble. But at the same time my cheeks flush and my heart speeds up because I can't believe I'm lucky enough to land the good guy. The one who is excited about this unplanned, freaking scary as hell pregnancy.

"Okay, Coach Bellows. So...what do we do now?"

Clint begins to rub my back in the way he knows I love. "Well, we are both unemployed. So there is that. We have nowhere to live. All of your stuff is in Mitchum. We've no money and no prospects."

He screams this like Charlotte Lucas in Pride & Prejudice and I curse Minka for ever making the boys watch that movie. All they did was snicker and go on about English royalty for months.

"I have money. In my trust at least..."

"But would you really use it? That's your parent's money. It’s basically blood money..."

I contemplate that. "You're right. But I also worked hard on their preserves for years. I earned most of that. Hell, I'm not one of these kids who is righteous and determined to spite my parents by being successful. Fuck that."

Clint rubs my tummy and I look down. "Sorry, I guess I have to clean the language up a bit now, huh? But really, I mean, I have no qualms over taking the blood money and buying myself a nice little place with it. Those fuckers put me through more than enough. I've earned it. And if that makes me a selfish, dirty bitch then so be it. I'm providing for myself and my kid."

When I look up, Clint has one of those goofy ass smiles of his gracing those full lips. "You're the sexiest spitfire on the face of this planet. And you make me so proud. You're not selfish and you're not a bitch. And I love your honesty. You say exactly what everyone is thinking or wished they could say out loud."

He sighs and runs his thumb over my lip. "Okay. Not that we can play your infamous strip question game, because we already pretty much handled that. But, where are you going to buy said place?"

Memories of our abandoned strip game come back to me in heartwarming flashes. "I don't know..."

Clint is silent for a second before he speaks again. "Have you thought about talking to Jackson at all?"

My muscles tense up just at the mention of his name. I feel the tingling at the base of spine, the indication that I'll have a full blown anxiety attack if I begin to tackle the biological dad issue. I had to shut it down now.

"No. And I don't want you to bring it up. Ever again. I love you and I'm glad you're here, but not one word about Jackson. Got it?"

Clint nods and I can feel the motion as I snuggle into his incredible abs. "I guess the first thing I need to do is go back to Mitchum. Go through my stuff. We can figure everything out from there."