Faithful (53 page)

I went faster and squeezed him tighter, and the moment he started to say my name, I came. Jeff captured my cries with a kiss as he rolled on top of me. Just to feel his body on mine was pure heaven.

He pulled away and smiled. “Four weeks?”

I laughed as I nodded. “Four weeks.”

Jeff leaned down and kissed me gently on the lips. He whispered, “I love you, Ari. So damn much.”

When I heard Grace starting to whimper, I let out a small laugh.

“My sweet baby girl…giving her mommy and daddy their time together,” Jeff said with a wink.

He jumped up and headed into the bathroom. As he turned on the shower, he called out, “Close your eyes, babe. I’ll be two seconds, and then I’ll grab her and take care of her while you get some sleep.”

“Oh, thank you, Jeff!” I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep, dreaming of quilts, oak trees, and making love to Jeff.
Pure heaven.

I sat in my car and took a deep breath. I had dropped Alex off with Grace and Jack, and I’d made sure again that it was okay if they kept her for the night. I hated leaving her all night, but I wanted to spend some time with Gunner.

I wasn’t expecting him to be back home so soon, but with Jeff and Josh both helping him tag the cattle, they must have finished up sooner than expected.

Why in the hell am I so nervous about telling him that I’m pregnant? It’s not like we weren’t trying.

I looked at myself in the small mirror.
Oh man, I look like shit.
My hair was pulled up in a ponytail, and I was wearing an old Longhorn T-shirt with cutoff blue jean shorts. It was not how I wanted to greet him.

After I opened the car door, I slowly got out and made my way into the house. It was so quiet, but I could hear our shower running. I smiled as I got an idea. I quickly made my way to the bedroom, and then I started to take off my clothes as fast as I could. When I heard him humming in the shower, I had to smile. I loved it when he would sing.

I opened the bathroom door, and I walked into the bathroom, naked. I peeked in and saw his back was facing me. I stepped inside the shower and wrapped my arms around him.

“Hmm…I was wondering where you were.” He lifted up my left hand and kissed my wedding ring.

“I dropped Alex off at your parents’ house…for the night.”

Gunner turned around and smiled at me. “No shit?”

I laughed and nodded. “No shit!”

His eyes turned from love to lust in a matter of seconds, and the ache between my legs grew stronger. He reached up and pushed a piece of my hair behind my ear as he gazed into my eyes.

“I’m going to make love to you all night long.” He gave me that damn crooked-ass smile of his.

“Drew?”

He was kissing my neck. “Yeah, sweetheart?”

“May third.”

“Mmm…what about it?” He continued to kiss my neck as he moved his hands all along my body.

“It’s, um…well…it’s kind of an important day.”

He pulled back and looked at me. “Oh yeah? Why’s that?”

“’Cause it’s the due date.”

He looked at me, confused. “Due date for what?”

I picked up his hand and placed it on my stomach. It took about ten seconds for it to click.

He gave me the most beautiful smile. “Ells…you’re pregnant?”

I nodded. He let out a yell as he picked me up and hugged the shit out of me.

“Oh god, Ellie, you’ve just made me the happiest man on earth!”

He pushed me up against the wall and looked into my eyes.

“I’m going to make love to you, sweetheart…slow, sweet love to you.”

I bit down on my lip and wrapped my legs around him. As I felt him slowly enter my body, I put my head back against the shower wall and lost myself…body and soul…in his lovemaking.

I sat on the back porch, wrapped in a blanket, listening to the night sounds. I closed my eyes and thought back to the one moment that had changed everything. It was the first time Gunner had put his hands on me and took me to heaven and back.

I placed my hand on my stomach and silently thanked God for this baby. When I heard the back screen door open, I looked over to see Gunner walking out onto the back porch…butt-ass naked. I let out a laugh and shook my head.

“It’s a damn good thing that it’s three in the morning. You never know when Garrett will be walking up.” I smiled at him.

He winked and sat down next to me on the swing. He wrapped himself up in the blanket with me. “What are you doing out here, Ells?”

“Thinking.”

“Thinking about what?”

“How blessed we are. How happy you make me.”

“You make me happy, too, Ellie. More than you’ll ever know.”

“I know we should probably wait to talk about this, but I’m thinking after we have this precious little gift…” I glanced over at him as he looked at me. “Well, I’m thinking two is the perfect number. What about you?”

He put his arm around me and pulled me closer to him. “Two sounds like the perfect number.”

I slowly let out the breath I had been holding.
Why was I so scared to tell him that?
“Gunner? Will you do something for me?”

“Anything, sweetheart.”

“Will you take me inside and make love to me again?”

The next thing I knew, he was picking me up and carrying me back inside. On our way to the bedroom, he hit his elbow on the doorjamb, whacked my head on the bedroom door, and stepped on one of Gus’s toys. By the time we made it to our bed, Gunner was swearing, and I was laughing. He threw me on the bed and crawled on top of me.

“Oh, Mrs. Mathews, so you thought that was funny, huh?”

I nodded and giggled. “Yep!”

As Gunner kissed my neck and moved down to my nipples, I looked over and saw Gus standing in the doorway to our bedroom. I tried to ignore him, but I couldn’t.

“Gunner…”

“I know, baby…I want to sugar stamp you all over your body.”

Wait. What?
“Sugar stamp?”

Gunner looked up at me with that smile of his. “Yeah…kiss you with my lips all over your body. Sugar stamp you.”

I tried really hard not to laugh, but I couldn’t help it. “Oh. My. God. I love you, Drew Mathews!”

He moved up and captured my lips with his as he slid his hand down and spread my legs open. He slowly began to touch on my clit. When his lips pulled away from mine, he made his way back down to my nipples. I looked back over to the doorway, and Gus was still sitting there…just staring at us.

“Um…Gunner.”

“Hmm…Ellie.”

“No…I mean…Gunner…” I tapped his shoulder.

“What? What’s wrong?”

I pointed over to the doorway.

Gunner turned and looked at Gus. “What? The dog?”

“Yes. I can’t do this with him watching us.”

Gunner turned and looked at me with a funny expression on his face. “Uh…it’s never bothered you before.”

“It’s like he knows…”

“He knows what?”

“Oh hell, I don’t know. I just can’t concentrate with him watching us.”

“Okay. Do you want me to shut the door?” Gunner asked with a laugh.

I nodded. Gunner jumped up, made Gus go out in the hallway, and then shut our bedroom door. As he walked back toward me, I opened my legs more to him. He smiled as he grabbed my foot and started to kiss me all the way up my leg. The moment his lips touched my clit, I just about jumped out of the bed. I grabbed his hair and started saying his name over and over again. I didn’t even realize he was on top of me and inside me until he started to move.

“Drew, I love you so much.”

He moved so slowly, in and out of me, as he gently bit down on my earlobe. “I love you more,” he whispered in my ear.

When I looked up, I saw Mindy walking on the street, heading straight toward me.
Shit! What is with this girl? And where in the hell is her husband all the time?

“Hey, Josh. How are the babies?” she asked with a wink.

Fuck me.
I glanced down the street. Heather would be coming home any second. “They’re doing great. Thanks.”

“How old are they now?”

“Thirteen weeks old.” I looked back down the street, waiting to see my truck pull up at any moment.

Mindy turned and glanced down the road. When she turned back, she smiled and winked at me. “You must be feeling…overwhelmed. Heather sure looks…tired lately.”

I just looked at her. “Yeah, she is pretty tired. It’s not so easy with twins.”

She bit down on her lip and then stuck her finger in her mouth. “I bet. She probably doesn’t have much time to…fulfill certain needs.”

Motherfucker! This is not happening.
As I looked her up and down, I noticed her tits were practically falling out of a short white dress that might as well have been see-through.

“You like what you see, Josh?”

Wait. What? Fuck. I wasn’t checking her out!
I looked her right in the eyes. “Listen, Mindy, I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing, but I happen to be very, very happily married.”

She smiled as she took a step closer to me. I took a step back.

“Oh, I’m happily married also, Josh. But that doesn’t mean I don’t like to…experiment…if you know what I mean.”

“No. I don’t know what you mean.”

“Josh, come on. I’ve seen the way you look at me. I’ve noticed you running by my house again. I know you want me as much as I want you.”

Note to self: Don’t ever run by her house again.
I glanced down the street again, looking for Heather. “Okay, I’m going to be blunt with you, Mindy, because I don’t really have time to jack around with this bullshit. I’m not interested in you, I’ve never been interested in you, and I’ll never be interested in you. I only have one woman in my life, my heart, my soul, and in my bed. That woman happens to be my beautiful wife, and she will always be my wife. So, if you don’t mind, I’d like to get back to what I was doing. You can take your pathetic, depressing, and rather sad attempt of coming on to me and turn around. Please…don’t ever bother trying to talk to my wife or me again. The next time you do, I’ll be sure to let your husband know what a piss-poor job he’s doing at keeping his wife happy.”

She stood there, just staring at me, with her mouth dropped open. She finally straightened up her shoulders, turned, and walked away.

I let out the breath I had been holding and shook my head.
Next time I see her husband, I think I’ll remind him about that house he was interested in on Barons Creek.

I walked back over and started messing with the fence again. I wanted to have it up and done before Heather and the kids came back. When I heard my truck coming down the street, I turned and watched Heather pull into the driveway as she smiled at me.

Tomorrow was the big birthday party for her, Ells, and Ari out at Ellie and Gunner’s place. They all were twenty-one now, and they were more than ready to get legally drunk, except for Ells, who couldn’t drink because she was three months pregnant.

Heather jumped out of the truck and shut the door. She gave me that smile that just about dropped me to my knees. She leaned back against the truck and raised her eyebrows. I waited for her to turn and get the kids out of the back. When she didn’t, I looked at her funny.

“Um…Heather…don’t you think it might be getting kind of hot to keep Libby and Will in the truck?”