Chloe's Donor (10 page)

That was when she noticed the plant on the kitchen table. It hadn’t been there when she’d gone to bed, and she couldn’t imagine Jay visiting at -- she glanced at the clock and saw it was four AM.

The small clay pot held greenery that looked more like a bush than a house plant. When she looked closer, she could see little maple shaped leaves surrounding small purple flowers and unripened berries. A small card was tied to a branch with a purple ribbon.

Chloe dropped into a chair and noticed that her heart started to beat faster. Dev? She removed the envelope and opened it with trepidation. All the card said was
Raspberry – the flower of remorse
.

Tapping her fingers on the table, she analyzed her emotions. She was hurt and angry that he had left and that she had not heard a peep from him. If he thought he could just slink inside of her house and buy her forgiveness with a lousy plant, he’d soon learn differently. On the other hand, she had practically pushed him out the door. And more importantly, her heart argued,
he was back.
She felt the ache in her gut relax and a little thrill shot up her spine.

Trailing her fingertips over her pregnant belly, Chloe realized that her jolt of happiness needed to be tempered with practicality. The only way Dev was going to get back in permanently was to work at it. He needed to demonstrate he was capable of staying. She would not go through this again.

* * * *

The next night, long after her lights were out, Dev stood at the door to Chloe’s room and felt the vise on his chest ease just as it had last night when he’d watched her sleeping peacefully. The tightness had been with him ever since he’d driven out of Atlanta two weeks before.

Of course, he was by no means over the hump. His fiery Chloe had left a few surprises for him tonight. And though Dev chose to view them in a positive light, he admitted that their meaning could be open to interpretation.

For instance, the rat traps that had been set in front of every window and door had taken her a lot of time and effort to set up, but anyone willing to expend that effort must still care, right? If she didn’t, she could have had her brother sitting inside the door with a sawed off shotgun. Simpler and much more effective.

And the dried flowers on her kitchen table? The flower was coxcomb, which wasn’t real hard to interpret, especially since the red flowering portion was demolished in a heap of dust. Since he wasn’t an idiot, the meat pounder sitting next to the demolished blossom momentarily caused his balls to suck up into his abdomen. Her note confirmed his assessment of her emotions. It said
Kitchen Mallet – a tool used to beat meat to a bloody pulp; Cockscomb - the flower of foolish action
.

Well, he couldn’t deny he’d been a fool. So he turned around and began to arrange his own surprise for her. Of course the last thing he did before he left was to hide the hefty kitchen mallet high above the refrigerator, just behind a container of Christmas cookie cutters.

* * * *

Chloe awoke to the sweet smell of carnations. She found the first one just outside her bedroom door. It was sitting across the rat trap that had been disengaged. When she walked around the rest of her house, she found a flower on each unset trap and gathered them one by one, enjoying their sweet fragrance. She felt her lips quirk with amusement at the thought of him dismantling each trap in the dark and went to get her coffee going.

Another surprise was on the kitchen table. A huge bunch of pussy willows was tied together with a blue ribbon. The card on the table was larger this time. It said
Red Carnations – the flower that says Alas for My Unhappy Heart
and
Pussywillows – the flower of motherhood
. On the bottom of the note, a small addition was scrawled in his handwriting.
You don’t need traps to catch me – I’m yours.

Hmmm. Maybe. Chloe put the pussy willows and the gathered carnations in vases, and stared at the note over coffee. She decided that the time for games was over. She took a large red marker and circled ‘
I’m yours’
and then wrote three words in big bold letters beside it, leaving it on her kitchen table for him to find this evening.

* * * *

FOR HOW LONG
? Dev set down the note with a sigh. He didn’t blame her for asking, but he had no trouble with the answer. He lingered in the kitchen long enough to make certain that the meat mallet was still safely tucked away, stopped to straighten the painting he’d replaced on her wall, and then padded into her bedroom on bare feet. The three dozen red tulips he had with him were on the bulky side, but the clerk had assured him that they were an
avowal of true love,
and that’s what he hoped to convince her of tonight.

He began to drop them one by one, starting at her bedroom door, trailing over to her bed side table, and ended with at least a dozen blossoms on her bed. He took the last one and rubbed it across her lips. Chloe blinked a few times, then rolled on to her back and opened her eyes. She didn’t look surprised or openly hostile, so Dev optimistically sat down beside her. “I brought you tulips.”

“So I see.” She sat up and rearranged her pillow behind her, all the time holding the sheet to her chest. Since her shoulders were perfectly bare, he had to restrain himself from unveiling what was hidden by the sheet.

“You don’t have any kitchen utensils hidden under your pillow, do you?”

She narrowed her eyes. “Could be. I think I’m being stalked by a florist.”

Dev blew out his breath. “Sounds like you need a husband in your bed instead of a kitchen utensil.”

“I tried that once,” she whispered. “Not very reliable.”

His gut clenched. “He was an asshole.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You think you could do better?”

“I know I can.”

“Why?”

“I’m a little slow on the uptake when it comes to this stuff, but even I figured out that I’m crazy about you. And life without you seriously sucks.”

“What am I supposed to do when you change your mind?”

“I won’t. I couldn’t.” He handed her a tulip. “They tell me this is a symbol of love.” He reached into his pocket and brought out a small box. “But I thought I’d hedge my bets.”

She opened the jeweler’s box and her eyes widened. “They’re beautiful.”

He reached into the box and removed one of the earrings and pulled her closer. He smoothed the hair behind her ear and inserted the first post through her ear before kissing her earlobe. Dev pushed the gold bells with his finger and heard a faint tinkle. “I had them made for you. They’re bluebells.” He fitted the other ring to her ear and gently held her face. “They represent gratitude. And constancy.”

“You’re sure?”

“Oh yeah. I want us –and our son—to have a life together, Chloe. And you need to know, I’m going to switch out of the unit that takes me away so much. But we might have to leave Atlanta. I can’t ask you to marry me again, but I can ask you this. Will you take me again as your husband?”

She smiled brilliantly. “Yes.”

He lifted her onto his lap and kissed her. God she felt good. The skin of her back was so soft. Her bare breasts pillowed against his chest. Her soft bottom was nestled up tight against his perpetually hard cock when in her presence. His arms had been so empty. He couldn’t believe she had forgiven him so easily for his stunt with Rick. “Listen, about the note Rick left you.”

She ran her fingers across his chest. “Was he supposed to give me a note from you?”

Her fingers were now beneath his t-shirt and it was getting more difficult to think of anything besides her lush body. “No. Um, his note.”

She was kissing his neck, licking her way up toward his ear. “I didn’t see any note from him. What was he supposed to have said?”

Talk about tiptoeing through a minefield. He was going to kill Rick. The asshole hadn’t told her anything, he’d just wanted to make Dev miserable. Of course, it was real hard to care right now with a naked Chloe in his arms. “Nothing. He just enjoyed his visit with you.”
Too god damned much.

She leaned back and looked at his face. “And that’s okay with you?”

Hell, no. But it was his own damn fault
. “Sugar, only an idiot would have sent a guy like Rick to you instead of staying where I belong. As long as you want me as your husband, I’ll be the happiest man alive.”

“Then you’ll be happy for a long time.” Chloe untucked his black t-shirt and began to open the zipper on his pants. “Now, what are you going to do about the fact that you’re not in the right uniform for this room?”

Oh, man. Dev had never thought so before meeting her, but he was one lucky bastard. He scooped her off his lap, placed her back into the bed and took all of five seconds to get naked. He crawled up and surrounded her with his legs and arms, keeping his chest off of her belly. “How’s junior?”

“Restless. Kicking a lot.”

“I’m looking forward to feeling the runt do his somersaults.” He rolled onto his back and lifted her on top of him. “Of course, there’s something else I’m looking forward to.”

She reached forward and took him in her hand. “I can see that.”

He hissed and reached for her breasts. “I can’t wait to hear those earrings sing while I’m deep inside of you.” He swept his fingers down and felt her plump lips and weeping pussy, then lifted her down until he was buried inside. He began to help her move her hips and felt himself grow harder, reveling in the soft jingle of her earrings.

“No matter where we are,” he rasped, and increased the pace, already feeling her tightening around him, “every time I hear those bells ring, I’m going to think of how much I love seeing you come.” He pinched her nipples lightly and Chloe stiffened and contracted around him. He followed her over the top.

A long time later as he was spooned against her, she lifted her head. “Dev?”

“Yeah, sugar?”

“I just thought of another benefit of being married to you.”

“Besides the fact that you’re crazy in love with me?”

“Yeah. And besides the fact that I get full time access to your truly buff body.”

“What’s that sugar?”

“I’ll a have a free lifetime supply of gold medal-winning sperm.”

He felt himself rising again. “I’ll cooperate, but only if you test the product real often to make sure it meets your standards.”

“I was hoping you’d say that.”

Epilogue

Dev had to be honest. Even at one day of age, his son was a wrinkled, red, splotchy, wiggling mass of humanity. Cute he was not.

Young Quinn Gallagher was currently howling blood-curdling screams, but Dev couldn’t care less. The kid was spectacular. He was healthy. And he was theirs. Dev’s throat had been swollen with emotion since the delivery and it was still nearly impossible for him to talk without choking up. He had been relieved when Jay had finally left this morning after keeping vigil during the delivery.

He paced the room and cuddled his son to his chest, a little intimidated and a little amused at the power of the rage and impatience in the boy.

“Knock, knock.” The door opened before any response could be given and Rick and Dev’s ‘little’ brother walked into the room. Connor and Dev looked quite a bit alike, but Connor was an inch taller and a little bulkier than Dev from all his construction work.

While Dev had been in his groveling mode with Chloe, she had encouraged him to patch things up with his brother. It sucked to have to apologize to a man for being angry that said man had slept with your fiancé, but since the end result was that Dev had ended up with Chloe, he muddled his way through. It was good to have his brother back.

Connor froze. “Man, I never thought I’d see the day.”

“Come meet your nephew.”

Connor moved closer and narrowed his eyes. “He doesn’t seem too happy right now.” He reached his large hand out and touched the little Quinn’s fist. Connor had to clear his throat before he could talk again. “I’ll wait for the next shift.”

Since Dev knew exactly how Connor felt, he gave him time to pull himself together. “It probably would be better to wait until he’s eaten.”

He glanced at the bed just in time to see his beautiful wife bare a truly perfect breast to try to appease their little beast. Only he could really see her, but that didn’t stop him from wedging himself between her and Rick.

Rick smiled. “Why don’t you let me say hello to your wife?” The bastard knew that Rick’s friendship with Chloe drove him a little crazy.

“Why don’t you just hold your godson instead.” That wiped the smug grin off of his face. “Meet Quinn.”

Rick clenched his jaw, took a deep breath, and then gingerly took the baby from Dev. After a minute, Rick’s posture relaxed and he strolled around the room with him. Quinn stopped crying. “Hey. I’m a natural.”

“Yeah, you’ve got a definite aptitude for fatherhood.” Dev had been fooled several times by his son’s momentary breaks from screaming, but then he realized that the respite was only because the little sucker had managed to find his fist and get it to his hungry mouth. “In fact, I think you should seriously consider finding your own woman and start a family.” It couldn’t happen soon enough to suit Dev.

“Yeah, it’s past time that you two old men settle down,” said Connor.

“Your day will come, bro.” At least Dev hoped so.

“Not if I can help it.”

Dev turned and saw that Chloe was ready. The sight went a long way toward making it easy to ignore Rick and Connor’s needling. He sighed with pure masculine appreciation and leaned down close to Chloe. “Sweetheart, have I told you lately how jealous I’m going to be of our son?”

Even though she still looked plum tuckered out, she pursed her lips and whispered back. “If you’re a good boy, momma might give you a treat now and then.”

The lower muscles on his abdomen tightened and his rampant cock woke right up, stretching and lazily surveying the area for some action. “After the night you just had, how can you still manage to do this to me?”