Chapter 30

THIRTY

Sleeping in a king-sized bed was a novelty I could get used to. Especially when my cat slept above my head and a warm, half-naked guy was beside me.

I vaguely remembered curling into him, but the lure of sleep had been far too strong, and I'd slept right through until dawn.

Now Nolan was in his usual climber's pose. This time, his arm was under my pillow as if he was reaching for me in his sleep.

It was a rarity for him to be comfortable enough to leave off a shirt. I had to admit he'd surprised the hell out of me when he'd whipped off the shirt during his...confession?

Maybe that was a dramatic word for it, but he'd literally stripped himself bare for me.

There was far more pain wrapped up in him than I'd even first imagined. It had taken everything in me not to wrap myself around him and beg him to stop telling me about him being alone in his workshop.

What if he'd actually bled out? He would've become one of those stories in a magazine about an artist who'd died before his time.

I slid my hand over my stomach. And there wouldn't be this baby.

Definitely not in my plans, but I was already attached to the idea of it. But what if I was like Harriette?

What if I lost this baby even before we began?

"Why are you thinking so loud, so early?"

I jumped.

He opened one eye, his face smashed in his pillow. "You have a very noisy brain."

"I was just thinking about Harriette."

He rolled onto his side and his scar was on display. It snaked down his clavicle and along his ribs to disappear under the sheet. "What about her?"

"What if I'm like her?" I gripped my fingers in the soft undershirt I'd found in his mini closet. "What if this is just a tease?"

He brushed my hand away and pushed the shirt up to show off my still flat belly. Well, mostly flat. I had enjoyed fries quite a bit in the last few weeks. He inched down to kiss my stomach. Then he rubbed his bearded chin along the skin above my panties. "Listen here, Little Bean, you stay exactly where you're supposed to. You have much cooking to do."

My eyes burned as I pushed his hair out of his eyes. "Think that's all it takes?"

"Can't hurt, right?" He shifted back up to lay next to me. "Reading those diaries would worry anyone."

"Yeah," I whispered.

"Pretty sure between the two of us, that baby will be even more stubborn. It's not going anywhere."

"But it could?—"

He lowered his mouth to mine, kissing the words away. "It could be fine."

"Okay." I tried to push the fears back. Was Harriette warning me of trouble? Or just letting me know the baby was here?

He rolled onto his back and draped me over him. "Touch me, Hellcat."

I gripped his shoulders. "All of you?"

He licked his lips and tucked one arm behind his neck. His hand fisted and I could feel the tension radiating off of him, but he nodded. "Anything you want."

Gizmo opened one green eye then he leaped off the bed.

"Guess he knows you're going to debauch me too." Nolan grinned and some of the tension slipped out of him.

I pushed the sheet out of the way and slid my leg over to straddle him. I felt his cock grow behind me, lengthen with interest, but I ignored that for now. Instead, I spread my fingers over his shoulders and down his free arm. I grasped his hand in mine, lacing our fingers as I pushed his arm up to follow the other one. "Stay there."

Like he'd done to me that first time.

He dragged in a slow breath, and those watchful midnight eyes made me burn. Was it just chemistry? Or was it more?

Even when he'd hidden himself from me, he'd been overwhelmingly generous. Holding me down while he'd made me insane. No part of me had been safe from his mouth or the delicious cock that was being very insistent against my ass. I ground down on him lightly as I trailed my fingertips over his pecs. I scraped lightly through the heavier hair there and beside the puckered skin of his longest scar.

Little horizontal scars showed where he'd been stapled back together. Just how much damage had been done to him?

I lowered my mouth to trace the lightning bolt fissure. He hissed out a breath but stayed still. A few spots on the scar were raised with a pink color. Where his body had resisted the healing and left an extra bit of flesh. I took extra care there and as I explored the grafts that covered his left side.

"Does it hurt?"

"Sometimes."

I paused. "Now?"

"Only when you stop."

Gently, I caressed the shiny skin to the top of his boxer briefs. I inched down his legs and rolled them down to see all of him. The slash above the coarse hair at the top of his shaft and the wicked slash along the muscle of his thigh made my eyes prickle with heat.

His body was rough and muscled, tough and beautiful.

He'd gone through so much to heal—but he'd done it on his own. I couldn't imagine the pain he'd been in.

"Hellcat." His voice was sandpaper. "I'm okay now. Ugly as sin, but okay."

"Don't say that." I inched up him and gripped his sides with my knees. "I was just thinking how strong you had to be to heal from all these rips and tears. Even when your body was this broken, you came back from it."

His lashes starred at the tears he was holding back.

I cupped his face. "Not ugly. Strong and so fucking beautiful. Would you say I was ugly if I have a scar from our baby?"

"What? No."

"If I have to have a C-section and they cut me open."

"Don't say that. You could never be like me."

"And if I was? If I had an accident, you wouldn't think I was ugly, would you?"

"Of course not." He frowned and unwound his arms to grip my hips.

"Then stop with saying you're ugly. You're strong. Nothing about you is ugly to me—except maybe your mouth some days."

He lifted his hands to cup my face as he laughed. "I don't deserve you, Dahlia."

My heart rolled. Dammit, why did it have to be this man that caught my attention? And my stupid heart.

I leaned into him and covered his mouth. He sucked in a breath and as usual, he took over. This time, there was nothing between us. He tugged the shirt up over my head and his mouth raced over my neck and shoulders, then coasted down to my breasts.

I arched and hissed out a breath.

"Do they hurt?" He cupped me carefully, brushing his thumbs over my nipples.

"Sensitive."

He dipped his head and lightly curled his tongue around one tip. "Easy like this?"

I slipped my fingers into his hair. "Like that."He covered the nipple and sucked until my knees clenched along his hips. "So good."

He did the same to the other then he cupped them together and drew his beard across the top. "Waking up to find you in my bed, curled in my sheets, wearing one of my shirts. Nothing could be better."

"You sure?" I moved against his very happy cock. "Seems like there's one more thing that might cap that."

His hand lowered to my ass. "Well, that's just the way to wake up, this is the way to start the day." His eyes met mine. "Every day, all day."

My mouth dried. "You expect a lot from the morning. What happens if I'm not a morning person?"

"I'm not either, but it's looking better and better from where I'm sitting." He nipped my chin and trailed his mouth down my neck to my shoulder. "Now if you'd just get rid of these..." He snapped the waistband of my panties and I yelped. "They're cock blocking me—literally."

I rose onto my knees. I wasn't used to this lighter Nolan. Was it just a trick until he got me where he wanted me and then he'd go back to?—

Good grief, those hands.

He pushed the lace down my legs then he lifted me. "Get these off."

Again, he had me off-balance. I knew he was strong, but not dead lift me strong. I kicked out of my underwear, and he set me back down on his lap. The warm, silky tip of him slid across my pussy.

"I've never been inside anyone bare."

My breath stalled out. "I've never let anyone."

He brushed his nose along mine. "Will you let me in, Hellcat?"

Somehow it felt like that question was about much more than just sex. Part of me wanted to say no.

There had to be a condom in this place. It was too much, too close, too intense. I was already so on edge with him.

The edge of so many things.

New baby.

New life.

New... love.

It was already here. All I had to do was take it.

I reached between us and positioned him, then I tipped my hips forward, taking him inside me ever so slowly. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and leaned in for a gentle kiss just as he was fully seated.

His big hands gripped my hips. "Ah, Hellcat." His lips were soft, and the whiskers of his beard added to the comfort. As if there was no rush, no breakneck speed toward the end.

Just him and me moving together.

Helplessly, I lost myself in the rhythm of us. The way he filled me like no other.

My breasts tingled as the friction between us grew. Breath to breath, chest to chest, joined in the most intimate way I'd ever been with someone.

He caught the back of my head, tangling my hair in his fingers. His eyes locked on mine and the motion tripped me into that space between frenetic and gliding. He rocked up into me then he closed his mouth over me as the first orgasm blindsided me. I'd been so focused on holding onto him, on the sweet and the connected way we were moving it sneaked up on me.

My nails dug into his shoulders, and his name spun out against his lips.

His hand slipped down my spine, guiding me through another tumultuous tipping edge of pleasure.

His mouth crushed over mine, and I felt the growl rise up between us. His hips drove him up into me until I was so full I couldn't breathe around it. There was no end, just the two of us chasing that next pinnacle.

I wrapped my arms around his neck as I took each thrust. I threw my head back, and he took full advantage. Teeth, lips, and his beard all abraded my skin.

"Mine."

My body shuddered and my thighs quivered with the runaway train that was us together.

His voice echoed in my head.

"Mine."

And this time, when he emptied himself into me, there was no denying the connection.

He was mine too. Come what may.