Worth the Fall(74)

“Matt—”

“Humor me.”

“Fine.” She checked the back door and walked to the front. “It’s locked.”

“Thanks for checking.”

She heard the words coming from the phone, but she also heard— “Matt?”

“What?”

“Matt!” She unlocked the door and nearly threw it off its hinges.

There on the bottom step stood a gorgeous Matt, his cell in one hand, a pint of Phish Food in the other.

“What are you doing here? I thought you had to train or—”

“I did. I do, but I heard someone here was desperate for ice cream.”

She was kissing him before he even got in the door. Attacking him, not caring if they were in or out.

He walked her through the doorway, closing the door behind him with his foot and reaching back to turn the dead bolt.

“Don’t you want your ice cream?”

She took it from his hands and dropped it on the floor. “I’d rather have you.” Abby tugged his head down for a kiss. But it didn’t take much. Matt’s lips were hot on her skin, his teeth scraping against her neck. Then he took her mouth, hard and completely, the same way he’d taken everything else.

—

Hours later Matt held her against his side, listening as her breathing returned to normal. Outside the bedroom walls she was a buttoned-up mother of four, but in bed…holy God. He’d never forget how wild she’d been, riding him, breasts swaying, a smile on her face. Greedy. Impatient. The look of shock and pleasure when she came around him. The vision was forever burned into his brain. He’d have it to call upon all the nights they were apart. Too many nights.

Abby stretched languidly, rubbing herself against him. “I never knew it could be like this. You’ve turned me into a sex fiend.”

“But only for me.”

She raised her head and laid a hand against his face. “Yes, only for you.”

Then she kissed him and his heart nearly wept. He would have laughed at some of the lines men used in movies, but one was too true. It hurt. He loved her so much his heart actually hurt.

“You’re so beautiful,” he said against her mouth, then, needing more, rolled her to her back. He slid down her body and touched his lips just below her belly button. “You’re bigger.”

“Yes. So you keep saying.”

“You know I love it.”

She smiled and ran a loving hand over his hair as he laid a cheek to the top of her stomach.

He caressed the smooth, warm skin covering the hard ball.

“Do you think she can hear me?”

“Yes.”

Matt imagined the tiny body, turning and flipping. Would she be a quiet, pensive little girl who wore braids and liked to read? Or another little chatterbox with big eyes and curls? Either would be perfect. Anything his little girl wanted to be. And she should be his. He’d felt her move. Watched her grow. She was part of Abby, and Abby was a part of him. “Do you think she sucks her thumb?”

“Maybe. I’ll be having another ultrasound soon. Sometimes you can see the baby sucking on a thumb or fingers.”

He lifted his head. “When is that?”

“Next week. Monday, I think.”

Another thing missed. He kissed his way back up her body, laid a lingering kiss on her forehead. “I can’t be here. I have to leave in the morning. Early.”

“Okay.”

He didn’t expect her to ask him to stay, felt guilty for wanting her to. He propped himself over her, evenly held her gaze. “Where’d you get the flowers?”

She rubbed her legs against his. Her fingers danced absently over his chest. “Hmm?”

“I got a drink earlier.” And he couldn’t miss them, gracing the island as they were. “There are flowers in your kitchen. Who are they from?”

“It’s nothing.”

It wasn’t nothing. It was a damn bouquet of flowers and they weren’t from him.

“It was a thank-you for some work I did for the school.”

“The card didn’t say from the school. It said from William.” Damn that man. Now he wished he’d done more than squeeze the life out of his hand. Who the fuck did he think he was?

“Yellow is for friendship,” she said, blinking up at him, a slight furrow between those gorgeous eyes.

Yeah, right. “I should have sent you flowers.”

She slid her fingers over his shoulders and into his hair. “I don’t need flowers.”

She was his heart, and he’d never even sent her flowers. Because it seemed such an insignificant gesture. An entire garden wouldn’t be enough. But he sure as hell didn’t want any other man doing it. He caressed her baby-soft cheek with the back of his hand. “There’s not enough flowers in the world to say how much I love you.”