“I won’t say no to that.”
“I’ll be right there with you. I have no doubt you’ll do great, and you’ll make the prettiest baby ever. He or she will be so lucky to have you as their mom.”
“And you as their dad.”
“This is the best day of my whole life, and not because Flynn Godfrey played me in a movie.”
Kara laughed and brought him all the way down on top of her.
“I don’t want to squish the baby.”
“The baby is fine.” She curled her legs around his hips and pressed against his hard cock. “But your wife could use some attention.”
“My wife has my undivided attention.”
Once upon a time, Kara had thought she would marry a man named Matt, before she found out he’d been secretly dating her sister at the same time he was leading her to believe they were headed toward marriage. Now Kelly was married to him, and Kara was thankful every day that they’d betrayed her, because they’d led her, indirectly, to this perfectly imperfect man.
“What’re you thinking?” he asked, studying her in the intent way he had of making her feel seen and adored.
“About the long and winding road that brought us together and how thankful I am for the people who stabbed me in the back and led me to you.”
“I’m thankful to them, too, even if I still want to stab them for hurting you the way they did.”
“No more stabbing. We’ve had enough of that.” She took hold of the hand that had been sliced open at their engagement party by a knife-wielding Jim Sturgil and kissed the pale white scar that ran the length of his palm.
“Are we really having a baby?” he asked, his expression still awestricken.
“It appears that way.”
“When can I tell people?”
“Not for a while. We want to make sure it’s going to take.”
He’d been rocking against her suggestively until she said that. “What’s that mean?”
“A lot of pregnancies end in miscarriage. Surely you must know that much.”
“Don’t even say that word. Nothing is going to happen to our baby.”
“Still… Let’s keep it between us for now.”
“Ugh, if I have to.”
“You do know it takes, like, forty weeks to have a baby, right?”
“That’s a long-ass time.”
“Yes, it is, and you can’t be extra the entire time.”
He pushed against her suggestively again. “I’m always extra, baby. That’s one of the things you love best about me.”
She rolled her eyes and gave his hair a gentle tug. “How about less talk and more action?”
“Action is my middle name.” He slid a hand under her skirt, encountered the thong and froze. “Well, what have we here?”
“You’ll have to take a look and see.”
“Don’t mind if I do.” He pushed himself up so he could help her out of the dress and then sat back on his heels to admire the skin-tone bra and thong Tiffany had chosen for her. “Could I please have a picture of how you look right now? I swear no one else will ever see it but me.”
Kara laughed to cover her nervousness. “Sure.”
Dan bounded off the bed to get his phone. “Don’t move.” When he returned to the room, he stopped short at the sight of her… hair loose around her shoulders, propped on her elbows, legs slightly apart.
Before him, she wouldn’t have had the courage to put herself on display that way. But he loved her so much and made her feel so desired that it was easy to do things with him that wouldn’t have happened with anyone else.
He took a couple of quick photos, tossed the camera aside and hastily undressed before rejoining her on the bed and kissing her with the kind of wild desire that had become part of her everyday life. “Want you so bad, sweet Kara, love of my life, mother of my baby.”
“I want you, too. Always.”
He was in such a rush, he didn’t bother to remove the thong, but rather moved it out of his way and took what they both needed. “Yes. God, I was dying for you all night.”
No one had ever said things like that to her before he did. He made love to her with urgency and reverence. “Look at me, sweetheart.”
She looked up at him.
“Tell me the truth.”
“About what?”
“You’re not picturing Flynn Godfrey right now, are you?”
Sputtering with laughter, Kara spanked his ass. “Shut up and finish what you started, will you?”
“Gladly.”
Chapter 6
On Saturday morning, Dara Watkins stood on the ferry’s bow and watched the island come into sight as the sea spray brought back memories still so painful, she almost couldn’t bear them. Lewis had loved the ocean and their annual trips to North Carolina’s Outer Banks, where he’d chased the seagulls, dug holes in the sand and splashed in the surf.
The beach had been one of their happiest places, although everywhere had been happy with him.
Now…
Now she just didn’t care.
Oliver had applied for the lighthouse job without consulting with her first, figuring it was a long shot. And when the Gansett Island Town Council had chosen them from all the applicants, he’d been excited about something for the first time in a year of dark despair. So she’d gone along with his plan because it was something to do other than obsess about what used to be. But she simply didn’t care. She didn’t care about anything or anyone, even Oliver.
She didn’t know if he knew that and didn’t care if he did.
If it was possible to be completely dead inside while continuing to live, she was the epitome of the walking dead. Her child was gone. Her life had lost all meaning, and a year in a lighthouse on Gansett Island wasn’t going to fix what was so irreparably broken in her.
It certainly wouldn’t bring Lewis back, which was the only thing she really wanted, to go back to that fateful Sunday, to the peaceful hours before their lives had been shattered. Since that couldn’t happen, what else mattered?
Nothing. Not even the husband she’d once adored. Everything inside her was dead, even her love for him, and she didn’t care.
With their dog Maisy’s leash looped around his wrist, Oliver approached her, holding two coffees, and handed one to her.
She took it from him. “Thanks.”
“Does it look familiar?” he asked of the island view.
“Not really. I was twelve the one time I came with my friend’s family. I don’t remember much about it, except there was ice cream.” Even the words ice cream were painful now. Lewis had loved ice cream.
Dara fixed her gaze on the rugged coastline of the island and sipped from the coffee cup. For a time after they’d lost Lewis, she’d wanted to end her own life. She’d gone so far as to think about how best to achieve that goal. But then her parents had come to visit, and her mother had tuned in to Dara’s deepening despair.
“Please don’t put me through what you’re going through,” her mother had said tearfully. “No matter how bad it gets, please don’t do that to me.”
Dara had had nothing to say in response to that, but her mother’s pleas had ended those thoughts. Since then, she’d been forced to figure out how to stay alive while wishing she were dead so she could be with her baby again.