“Be careful, Axel. Right now you’re asking to be really late,” I warn, opening my legs up for him to walk closer to my body. My dress pushes higher up my thighs.
My belly pushes into his hard stomach. He barks out a laugh before pressing his lips to mine and making my toes curl with the heat of his kiss. “Princess, I could take you right now and you wouldn’t even fucking care if we missed that appointment, and don’t think I don’t know you’ve been crossing the days off until this one.”
He is not wrong. We have our twenty-week baby appointment today and we are finally going to find out if we were having a boy or a girl. Axel is firm that it is a boy. I keep going back and forth, but deep down, I hope it is. I can just picture a little version of Axel running around the house.
I curl my hands into the fabric of his shirt, humming my agreement, and lean in for another kiss. Right before his lips hit mine, there is a sharp kick against my belly. Axel snaps back and looks down in complete shock. We have been trying to get him to feel the baby kick for weeks now, but either the baby wasn’t having it or Axel just wasn’t there when the baby was active. Either way, this is the first time he has felt any movement.
He looks down at my rounded stomach and then quickly back up to my eyes. The look of pure wonder in his eyes brings a smile to my lips. He is completely transfixed with this little person in my belly.
I reach down and grab his hands before placing them on the center of my bump. The baby kicks a few more times. I keep my eyes glued to Axel’s face, watching the emotions play across his handsome features. Shock, awe, and enchantment. He is fascinated with this feeling—feeling of our baby.
“What are you thinking?” I ask him after a few minutes.
He looks up at me with his smile wide and his eyes bright. “How fucking lucky I am.” He leans down and gives me a kiss, not once removing his hands from my active belly.
“Hey!” we hear Dee yelling up the stairs. “Where are y’all?”
Axel groans and helps me down from the counter. He might have offered for Dee to stay with us, but I can tell she is starting to get under his skin. She has a knack of knowing right when things are heating up. I love her, but right now, she is my little happy cock blocker.
“Play nice, Daddy.” I laugh and slap him on the ass before walking around him and out of the bedroom.
I slide my feet into some flip-flops and walk down to meet Dee in the foyer. She looks stunning in a long orange maxi dress that fits tight to her body.
“You suck, you skinny bitch,” I say and smile up at her. Of course she towers over me in her four-inch heels. I’m the midget around the giants. These days, the only thing that feels good is flip-flops.
“Whatever, Iz! You look beautiful! Doesn’t she, Axel?”
He snorts but keeps walking down the stairs.
“Where’s G?” I ask them. It’s debatable who was more excited about the baby when we told everyone, Dee or Greg.
We told everyone together when we had a small ‘family only’ party at the house to welcome Greg home. He had stayed in the hospital for almost two weeks after the shooting but was one hundred perfect healed now. When we told them, Dee broke down in tears, Maddox gave me a rare smile, Coop praised Axel on his super swimmers, and Beck offered a polite congratulations. Greg, however, had hollered his excitement and pulled me into a big hug, which earned a growl from Axel. Greg just laughed and hugged me tighter.
From that day on, he’s called daily and checked on my progress. He has bought baby books and is constantly filling us in on baby info. I knew he would be happy for us, but he is over-the-moon excited to become an uncle.
“He said he was running late. Something about an appointment and would meet us at the office,” Axel calls from the kitchen.
I look over at Dee and she just shrugs her shoulders.
I follow Axel’s voice and find him in the kitchen checking his emails on his phone. He looks up and I stop when I see the hunger in his eyes.
“Look good enough to eat, Princess. Can’t wait to get back here so I can drag you back to the bedroom. Need to be buried deep, baby.”
“Oh my god, Iz! That was seriously hot!” Dee says from behind me. I close my eyes and hear Axel let out a string of curses.
“How’s the house hunting going, Dee?” he asks, and I laugh at her puzzled expression.
“We love having you here, Dee, but have you thought about finding a place yet?”
She looks down and goes silent.
“Dee?” I prompt.
“I don’t know if I can do it yet,” she says after a few seconds of silence.
I give Axel a pointed stare, and he gets it. Dee’s been struggling since the Brandon scene. She has trouble feeling safe and usually sticks close to one of us. She has been working more and more at Axel’s desk in the home office than he is.