Evolve Series Box Set (96 page)

“121! Very nice!” the nurse exclaims, interrupting Emmett’s tongue lashing.

I wink at the struck silent Emmett, offering her my hand. “What? So I pay attention? Come on, dear, right this way.”

The nurse leads us to a room, quietly chuckling to herself the whole way as Emmett tries to break my hand.

“Don’t embarrass me,” she hisses quietly.

Once the door is closed and it’s just the two of us waiting for the doctor, I start whistling “Savin’ Me,” casually flipping through an exhilarating edition of Parents. Holy shit! Did you know the biggest baby ever born that survived weighed 19.2 pounds? Good Lord. We won’t be sharing that little tidbit with the already petrified Emmett.

I can feel her angry stare boring a hole in the top of my head, but I keep on reading, holding back a laugh. Why is it that aggravating her makes my heart do a jig in my chest?

“You’re lucky I can’t whistle, or I’d be busting out some choice songs for you right now,” she warns.

Huh, microwaves do not pose a threat to the fetus, despite rumors. Fascinating.

“I know you hear me,” she throws at me and I can tell she’s seething.

Guess what she’s not doing right now? Freaking out, shaking her leg, or fidgeting with her hands. Worth it. Keep ‘em coming, Shorty. I can distract you with my infuriating appeal all day long.

“You announce my tit growth out loud, but I’m being ignored? Unbelievable,” she sneers, shaking her head and trying desperately to kick me from her perch on the examining table.

Yeah right, with her short legs? Not happening. Ah, but dynamite comes in short sticks, and she’s getting off the table to come over and attack me when I’m saved by the knock.

“Knock, knock.” The doctor peeks around the door. “Emmett? I’m Dr. Greer.” The woman doctor (you bet your ass I got a woman) shakes Emmett’s hand, then mine. “And you are?”

“Sawyer Beckett, the love of Emmett’s life.”

“Oh yes, I’ve been told you’re quite the character.” She clears her throat. “And how are you doing, Emmett?”

At first she mumbles her answers, never looking up from her lap, but after about ten minutes she starts to feel more comfortable and things start going smoother. I’m surprised to learn Emmett’s had a lot of abdominal tweaks and lower back pain. Neither of those sound good to me, but the doctor says it’s her body stretching, making room for bubba, and quite normal.

“Okay, let’s get you in a gown and we’ll examine you. Let me step out and give you time to change.”

“I’ll, uh, step out too. Good luck,” I kiss her cheek, “you’re doing great.”

“Sawyer.” She grabs my shirt and pulls me back.

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.” Her eyes mist up, her voice shaking.

“My pleasure.” This time I bend my head and kiss her lips. “Have them come get me when you want me back in here. Don’t be afraid to speak up.”

She nods, her smile holding more confidence now than it has all day.

***

“Mr. Beckett?” I look up from my phone when my name is called. “Emmett’s ready for you to come back.”

I follow her, an odd feeling in my chest. Knowing she really does want me there, that she sent for me, is severely fucking with my heart. When I walk in the room, Emmett’s lying back on the table and immediately holds out her hand for me to take. “March tenth,” she says with a smile. “We’re about to hear the heartbeat. Do you want to?”

“Yeah, babe,” I kiss her forehead incessantly, “I’d love to.”

“Okay, Emmett, this will be cold.” The lady on a stool warns as she squirts sploog all over her belly.

“What the—”

“Sawyer,” Emmett squeezes my hand, demanding my eyes on her, “no comments.”

“I wasn’t gonna.”

“I know you, you were so gonna.”

My argument is stopped cold in my throat as a loud whooshing sound fills the room.

“Nice and strong,” the nurse comments. “146 beats per minute. Perfect.”

“PERFECT? FOR A FUCKING STROKE!” I scream.

“Sir,” she chuckles with a broad smile. 

I’m not sure what the fuck is so funny.

“That’s absolutely normal for a fetus. It’s in the ideal range.”

“We’d like a second opinion. Can you go get Doctor Down Under, please?”

“Dear God,” I hear Emmett mumble. She sits up, hands covering her face for a second. “I am so, so sorry. We’re having him tested for Tourette’s.”

“I think it’s adorable he’s so protective over his baby. Trust me, the daddy stories we could tell,” she laughs, “they’d make your man here look calm.”

“You ladies do realize I can hear you when you talk out loud, right?” I butt in. “I wasn’t kidding. I want to hear someone else tell me that’s a normal rate.”

“Of course,” the nurse stands, “here’s a towel to clean up with, Miss Young.”

Emmett thanks her, wiping the lube from her tummy blindly, because she’s staring at me. “You are insane, and blunt, and embarrassing,” she hisses.

“Em, I—”

“Ah, let me finish. And I love it all. There is no one I’d rather have here with me today.  Come here.” She opens her arms and kisses my cheek, hugging me fiercely. “Love you.”

It’s not the same as “I love you,” but I’ll take it.

CHAPTER 15

As Great As It Gets

***Emmett***

“Did he rob Disneyland?” I ask Sawyer where only he can hear. The K looks like… well, Disneyland.

“Laney wants, Laney gets.” He laughs like it’s no big deal. Apparently Dane making Laney’s fantasies come to life is the norm.

“Hi!” Laney floats across the room in a white gown, rivaling Cinderella. “Emmett, you make an even hotter Belle than the real one!”

I open my mouth to point out that there is no real Belle, but Sawyer quickly shakes his head at me and squeezes my hand in his.

“Sawyer Landon Beckett, what the hell are you wearing?”

“I’m the Beast.”

“Those are you BKE jeans,” Laney points, “and a ball cap? Really? And a—a t-shirt?”

“Shorty, tell her. I’m a beast in any outfit, right? Happy Birthday, Gidge.” He picks her up and twirls her around.

“Oh, here,” I cut in, extending out her gift bag. “Sawyer and I got you something, together. We hope you like it.”

“Thank you!” She takes the bag and gives me a big hug. “So basically, Sawyer put in some money and sent you shopping?” she jokes, jabbing him with her elbow.

“Actually, no. We went shopping together and he helped pick it out.”

“Birthday girl burn!” Sawyer goads, pinching her nose. “Enough about how awesome I am though, where’s Prince Pansy? Shouldn’t he be carrying the back of your dress or something? Is he wearing tights? Please tell me he’s wearing tights.”

“No, he’s no fun either. Go find him, you’ll see,” she pouts.

“Am I really not fun, baby?” Dane sneaks up behind her, slinking his arms around her waist. “Emmett, tell the truth, can you not tell who I’m dressed up as?”

He steps around her, wearing jeans and a t-shirt that reads “Prince Charming” across it. I can’t help but snicker, giving Laney “I’m sorry for breaking girl code” eyes. “Prince Charming?”

“Prince fucking Charming.” He points and me and winks. “See, baby, they all know who I am.”

Laney huffs and grabs my hand, dragging me over to the cake table. “We are officially playing hard to get. Don’t look back at them.”

“Okay.” I fight to hold a straight face, helping myself to a glass of punch.

As the rest of the guests arrive, the night peps up with Dane refusing the birthday girl’s attempt at playing hard to get, and Laney almost pulling off “miffed.” It didn’t hurt his case any that all the other guys showed up…not dressed up.  Evan’s in regular clothes with a hook on one hand, the Captain Hook to Whitley’s adorable Tinkerbell.  Tate’s wearing an eye patch…cause Bennett’s Ariel? We all took a turn explaining that yes, Ariel is a mermaid, but that doesn’t make Eric a pirate, but he argued and told us all to fuck off, repeatedly. And Zach? Zach looks like John Smith anyway, and the girl he brought with him as Pocahontas? Yeah, she’s a head-turner for sure.

All the princesses in the land hate her.

“Looks like you got a Pocahontas after all,” I grumble as Sawyer and I dance. I’m standing on top of his boots to even make it look reasonable and suddenly feel short, and fat, and pregnant…

I should have come as Winnie the Pooh.

“Who are you talking about?”

“The hot, half-naked, Amazonian girl with Zach? What do you mean who am I talking about?”

“Not you?”

“Are you on crack? No, not me.”

“Then I have no idea who you mean. Eyes on Emmett, always. Belle of the ball.” He kisses the end of my nose.

I rest my head against his chest, pretending for only a moment this is real, he is mine and I am his, that I’ll always be the only girl he sees. “When can we go home?” I yawn into his chest, the rhythm of our bodies swaying and him holding me up suddenly making me very sleepy.

“Now, if you want. You want?”

“Uh huh.” I nod, kinda hoping he’ll carry me and rescue me from this ridiculous dress.

“Let’s go say goodbye and get you home.”

“Are you sure?” I protest. “I can go alone. I don’t want you to leave your friends because of me. Stay.”

“Do you ever hear me, Emmett? When I tell you how I feel, do you ever really hear me?”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing.” He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. “Let’s go home.”

“You awake?”

He doesn’t answer my whisper and there’s no flinch of his body, entwined with mine, to indicate that he heard me.

I’m not sure what’s changed, but there’s something in the air that hasn’t been there the weeks of other nights we’ve slept in my bed together. Tonight I can’t find sleep and each breath is a struggle. Tonight my clothes feel like a barrier rather than armor and my nipples are hard, aching for his hand to come up and caress them.

“What are you thinking so hard about over there?” His sleepy rumble makes my body respond even more.

“I thought you were asleep?”

“Don’t change the subject.” He manipulates my body like his favorite toy, gently but determinedly guiding me to my side so I now look into curious midnight blue eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m trying to understand what you’re getting out of this. You have great friends, so you don’t need me. And don’t you need to uh…”

His sultry laugh draws my eyes back up to his, the mischievousness in them confirming I have indeed been caught staring down at his dick. “Whatcha lookin’ at, Em?”

“Nothing.” I feel my cheeks flame, darting my eyes to the far wall behind us.

“Nothing huh? I don’t think it was nothing, I think you were checking out my—”

“Stop!” I slap his chest and he doesn’t miss a beat, placing his hand over my own, securing it there on his taut, heated skin.

“No, you stop. Stop denying this, us.” He touches our foreheads, teasing my lips with his. “You know I want you, Emmett, and I think you want me too, but you’re scared. Tell me why. What exactly are you scared of?”

Is he serious? Why am I scared? Oh, I don’t know, maybe because I’m pregnant, about to be a mother, and sleeping with him will only make what I already know a too harsh reality. I don’t want to know for sure what I can’t keep. What I’ve conjured up in my sweetest dreams, ached for in the depths of my unknown, is bad enough.

I’m afraid of what would happen after, when he leaves. I’m terrified I’d never recover, and I’d spend the rest of my life comparing any chance of reasonable happiness with each and every minute of sheer perfection I had with him. But then another voice in my head speaks louder, the voice that says even if I find a very nice man one day who will love me and my baby, they won’t ever be able to make me feel the way Sawyer Beckett with only his voice, his looks, his care. So more, allowing my body to take from him what my heart’s already latched onto, it’s just not smart. If you had to choose between one night of ecstasy or a lifetime of comfortable…which would you pick?

It’s inevitable that one day all too soon, I won’t have him anymore, that I’ll be left with only my dreams and memories to keep me warm at night while he’s warming another woman’s sheets. I’ve told him my secret, so he’d be going in eyes wide open; would it really be so bad to allow myself to give in? If only this once, I want to know how it feels to make love with a man, fully aware and wanting. I want to see the passion in his eyes as he takes me and accepts all that I so desperately want to give him.

And being real with myself, it’s gonna happen; you don’t sleep ever night in the same bed as a man as virile as Sawyer, madly attracted to him, and never give in. So I might as well quit kidding myself and free fall.

“I’m not scared if you’re not,” I finally answer.

“Liar.” He smiles sweetly, kissing my nose, each of my cheeks, then lastly my chin. “But I am too. You scare the shit out of me, beautiful Emmett, with how fast and how hard you completely mesmerized me. One day you might figure out I’m an ass and run screaming, but I’ll chance it. I’ll risk anything to keep myself by your side as long as possible.”

As long as possible. He means on or about March tenth, and I get it, I do.

But right now? Right now it’s September.

I take a long, deep breath, turning off the battling voices in my head, letting only my heart and body guide me now. Slowly, I run both hands up his chest, wrapping them around his neck. “Kiss me like we have forever,” I whisper, moistening my trembling lips with my tongue.

Tentatively, his eyes flick back and forth between mine, making absolutely sure, and then his arms tighten around my waist. I close my eyes, feeling his breath so close it mingles with my own as he finally delves into my mouth. I moan at the contact, relishing his tender but dominating lips, their large coarseness moving lazily, then fast, open and tasting, teasing with small sucks and bites.

“Emmett,” he groans, sliding a hand up my back and into my hair. “So damn sweet.” His tongue claims entry, curling around my own. His fingers tangle in my hair, tilting my head, and he eats at my mouth, the ravenous hunter inside him making me feel so alive.