Everything in Between (28 page)

Zae hastily swiped away tears. A helpful bystander offered her a few blue tissues, which she gratefully accepted.

“Marry me, Zae,” Chip tenderly requested. “Make me a part of your beautiful family.”

She threw her right arm around his neck and wept into his neck. She kept her left arm extended and the fingers of her left hand splayed. Laughing, Chip slid the ring onto her finger to the applause of the bystanders waiting at the elevator and staring at them through the plate glass window of the dermatology office behind their bench.

Zae cried, covering his face with kisses. “You always, always surprise me in the best ways. I’ll be so proud to be your wife.”

“Mrs. Charles Avery Kish III.” He chuckled.

“Mrs. Azalea Richardson-Kish,” she corrected.

“My rose by any name,” Chip sighed, hugging Zae so hard he lifted her from the bench.

* * *

Zae made a point to point with her left hand when she joined Cinder for lunch the next day. Not that anyone with 20/20 vision could ever miss the three-carat diamond adorning her hand.

“That thing should come with sunglasses,” Cinder remarked as Zae stirred honey into her tea. “It’s almost garish.”

“I like garish, and my man knows it.”

“Between tuition, his mortgage and that ring, I’m wondering if Chip isn’t robbing banks to finance his habit,” Cinder said and grinned.

“What habit?”

“You.”

“I don’t tell the man how to spend his money.” Zae daintily sipped her tea, wiggling her ring finger.

“I know,” Cinder said. “Gian says Chip’s a hoarder. As long as he’s known him, Chip has been tight with his money. He doesn’t spend it on clothes—”

“No kiddin’,” Zae cut in dryly.

“—or a fancy car or booze or women. He’s always saved his money. Now we know what he was saving it for—to build a life with the right woman.” Cinder sat back in her chair, studying Zae. “He really loves you, you know.”

“I know.”

“Do you love him?”

“What kind of question is that?”

“A good one. Do you?”

“Chip knows how I feel about him.” Zae set down her cup and stubbornly crossed her arms over her chest.

“Are you sure?”

“What has he told you?”

“That he loves you. You made him the happiest man in the world when you accepted his proposal. He didn’t think you would.”

Zae’s arms fell, her indignation quickly transforming into concern. “Why would he think that?”

“Maybe it’s because you’ve never actually told him that you love him.”

In a white cashmere tunic, Cinder lounged on her camel sofa with her legs tucked under her. Her dark skin glowed, and her black hair gleamed as it fell to her shoulders in voluminous waves. Pregnancy agreed with Cinder more than most women, and even though she was thirty-four weeks along, she’d gained weight only in her bosom and belly. Zae had never seen her look more beautiful even as she delivered words that hurt.

“I didn’t know you and Chip had such intimate heart-to-hearts,” Zae said.

“He wanted my advice on the ring. We didn’t talk much, but he said enough to make me wonder why you won’t tell him that you love him.”

Zae shrugged. “What matters is what I do, not what I say.”

“If it doesn’t matter, why won’t you say it to him? You tell me you love me all the time.”

“I don’t love you very much right this minute,” Zae grumbled.

“He says you won’t say it because you think it’ll jinx your relationship,” Cinder said.

“That’s…” Zae dropped her gaze and anxiously rubbed her knuckles along her denim-clad thighs. “Ridiculous.”

“Is it? You aren’t the least bit afraid that once you tell Chip how you really feel about him, that something will happen to him?”

“You make it seem as if my love is the kiss of death.”

“That’s putting it in the extreme, but yes, I do think that you have an unreasonable belief that admitting you love someone opens yourself up to loss. You never started telling me that you love me until after I nearly died. I haven’t heard you tell your children that you love them since Colin died.”

Zae leaned forward on her sofa. “Don’t think I won’t punch a pregnant woman in the face, because I will. My children know I love them. I love them more than anything.”

Cinder pressed on in spite of Zae’s threat. “You show people how you feel about them. Your kids, Chip, your friends—we all need to hear it once in a while. Don’t you like hearing it?”

“No.”

“No?”

“No! Every time someone says, ‘I love you,’ I feel like they’re waiting for me to say it back. And I can’t. I won’t. Fate is a bitch and she has it out for me! The last time I said ‘I love you’ to someone, he died. I can’t survive that again, and I won’t bait Fate into stealing another person I lo—” She cleared her throat. “I care for immeasurably.”

“Zae?”

“Yes?” she snapped, rolling her eyes.

“I love you.”

* * *

On the last Saturday in February, Chip lay on his stomach, tangled in Zae’s bedclothes. His chin propped on his forearm, he watched Zae, who stood wrapped in a fluffy white bath towel in the full-length cheval glass in the corner of her bedroom. She used a wide-toothed comb, her “garden rake,” to comb through her wet hair. Chip slithered to the edge of the bed. He hung over the side, extending his arm as far as possible to reach the edge of Zae’s towel. Catching it between his index and middle finger, he grabbed it and pulled it from Zae, who continued to comb her hair.

Chip returned to his original position and sighed deeply. “You look so beautiful,” he mumbled.

Zae’s long, dark body, reshaping itself to her pregnancy, stole Chip’s breath. The graceful line of her slender neck led to the curve of her spine, the healthy rounds of her bare backside and the long, supple lengths of her smooth legs. The gentle swell of her abdomen changed her profile almost as much as the new fullness in her breasts. Her breasts jiggled a bit as she combed her hair, her dark, upturned nipples tempting Chip like cherries on a sundae.

Chip rolled onto his side, facing Zae, his head propped on his hand. “Come over here so I can get you dirty again.”

“You’ll have to do better than that, soldier.” Zae threw a nonchalant glance over her shoulder. “Cheap come-ons don’t impress me.”

Chip scrambled off the bed and gathered Zae in his arms, embracing her from behind. Laughing, she dropped her comb and threaded the fingers of her right hand through the hair at his nape, and placed her left hand over his cast, which rested on her abdomen.

“I should get my camera and take our picture.” Zae laughed. “We look like art.”

“
You
look like art,” Chip corrected. “I look like that albino kid from
Twilight
.”

“He’s a vampire, not an albino.” Zae laughed. “And you’re more hot-blooded horndog than cold-blooded bloodsucker,” Zae told him. “Your skin is beautiful. Not as warm and radiant as mine, but it’s pretty nice.”

“These are what’s warm and radiant.” Chip lightly traced the undersides of her breasts and nipples with his middle fingers. Zae’s flesh responded, goose bumps rising and her nipples hardening.

Zae reached back to take hold of the fleshy instrument poking the seam between her buttocks. “Someone wants to join the party, huh?” She smiled, her hand lazily stroking Chip’s hardness.

His breathing came heavily in her ear as he sucked her earlobe and kneaded her right breast. His left hand moved lower, to the dark hollow between her legs. Zae widened her stance and poked her backside toward Chip, directing him between her buttocks. She gripped him with her gluteal muscles, cleverly massaging him as his longest finger parted her.

A mere few strokes against her velvet flesh, and Chip slid his finger into her, easing his way with her unique honey. He ducked under her right arm to take her nipple in his mouth. Long draws and rapid flicks of his tongue that matched those of his finger soon had Zae grinding harder and moaning louder against him.

When she couldn’t take any more, she turned and pushed Chip onto the bed. On his back with his legs hanging over the edge of the bed, Chip took Zae by her waist to help her straddle him. She taunted him, easing him into her an inch at a time, her strong muscles there giving him a torturous pinch every time she raised herself to swallow him anew.

His toes curled. The cords in his neck stood out against his skin. He strangled handfuls of the bed sheet to stop himself from grabbing Zae and plunging her full onto him.

Her hips pulsing in minute bursts designed for maximum torture for Chip and pleasure for her, Zae curled over him to lick the tiny buds of his nipples and the smooth skin surrounding them. She caressed his abdomen, luxuriating in the sensation of his hard stack of muscles bunching and relaxing under her hands.

“You’re evil,” Chip gasped. “I always suspected it, but now I know for sure.”

Her long damp hair tickling his ear, Zae voraciously kissed him. Pregnancy changed her body in so many ways. Certain scents sickened her while she craved others, her hair seemed to be growing faster and fuller, and her sex drive had increased to the point where it wasn’t uncommon for neighbors to see only a slim brown arm reaching through the doorway to snatch Chip from the front porch no sooner than he rang the doorbell.

In truth, her sexual desires were specific, not general. She wanted Chip. She wanted him
all the time
.

Zae squealed in delight when Chip, unable to withstand another second of her domineering ways, took her by her hips and raised his pelvis as he lowered her onto him, filling her in one outrageous thrust that left her dizzy. Her hands braced on his abs, she met each rise of his hips, riding him to the drunken pinnacle of carnal bliss. Chip’s loud grunt of pleasure joined Zae’s insensate cries. He shuddered and shivered beneath her, moaning her name.

Zae’s overly responsive body wrung everything Chip had to give from him, even after he had nothing left. Unwilling to leave her in need, he hoisted her off of him and onto her back. He settled between her thighs, replacing the stiffness he’d lost with that of his tongue. Zae moaned with each undulation of her hips, as if hypnotizing herself into remaining in a constant state of extreme arousal. Chip nibbled and flicked, sending tremors through her thighs and buttocks. He worked the entire length of her slippery seam, the tip of his tongue lingering at the tiny pucker between her buttocks.

That naughty gesture sent Zae rocketing to a forceful climax, and Chip heightened it by using his thumb to gently massage the candy-pink jewel peeking from its fleshy hood at the apex of her thighs. Keeping his thumb in place, he brought his mouth to her breast. She clamped one hand to the back of his head and used the other to feed him her breast. Her face buried in his blond curls, Zae cried out over and over with her release, her entire body rocked with the keenest pleasure.

As her senses returned, Chip covered her lax form with tender kisses. “You got me good and dirty again,” she panted.

Chip nuzzled her abdomen with his cheek. “I’ll run a bath and clean you up.”

“We’d better hurry. The science competition will be judged in an hour and a half. Braeden reminded me twice to be there early. I don’t know who I want to win more, him or Eve.”

“I think Braeden invited everybody—me, Gian, his parents, his science teacher from high school. He’s put a lot of work into his project. I don’t quite understand how it works, but if it does, the kid just might deserve to win.”

Zae raised herself on her elbows. Her breasts looked even more like desserts, and Chip absently licked his lips, hungry for her all over again. “You think a machine that uses radio waves to detect explosives is better than deriving usable protein from nonhuman sources? Eve’s project is sharp!”

“I’m just glad I don’t have to choose a winner,” Chip said. He rose from the bed and offered his hand.

Zae admired the elegant, muscled beauty of his arm. She lifted her left foot and used her toes to grab at the one-eyed sleeper dangling between Chip’s thighs. “How ‘bout one more li’l bit before we go? We have time.”

“No, we don’t,” Chip weakly insisted. He shifted Zae’s soft, talented toes a bit lower, tucking them on top of the spongy twins she had just depleted. Staring at the ceiling, he said, “We have to bathe and dress and get down to Missouri U.”

“What are you looking at?” Zae chuckled.

“Anything but you. You look so sexy right now, if I look at you, I’ll dive right back in.”

Ever the diabolical one, Zae caressed her nipples with her middle fingers. “Fine. I guess I’ll just have to take care of myself.” Her right hand slid along her torso and over her abdomen. A quiet moan escaped her parted lips as she hung her head back.

“Damn you, woman,” Chip grumbled. He lay himself over her, the friction of their moving hips bringing him quickly to readiness. “I hate you,” he murmured, shoving himself deep in her once more.

“I hate you, too,” Zae exhaled, burying her fingers in his hair to bring his mouth crashing to hers.