Chapter 45

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

KATE

C hildbirth is a beautiful, wonderful thing, they say.

Lies. All of it. Lies.

Two days in the hospital on antibiotics for an infection after I was stitched back up, and I can absolutely say that Jensen Jones is never coming near me again.

Okay. More lies.

Because June and Will were born during the season, Jensen gets no time off. He was even fined for leaving the game partway through.

Not that he gave a fuck.

The only saving grace is he isn't due to go on an away series for another ten days.

On the way back from the bathroom, I creep through the dark bedroom and dance around all the places I know where the flooring makes a noise and could disturb either one of our sleeping babies.

We alternate which side they sleep on, and tonight, I have Will next to me. His arms are raised above his head as he rests peacefully in his bassinet.

Lying back in bed, I'm sure my husband's asleep when he rolls over and curls his body around mine. His hard dick presses against my ass, and I pulse in response. Even though I know we can't do anything, I just want to feel him.

Turning in his arms, he opens his big brown eyes and pushes my hair back off my face. "How's my queen doing?"

I smile. "Are you really going to call me that now?"

He kisses my neck. "Do you like it?"

"Princess is cuter."

"Princess, it is. But just know, you rule me."

My heart flutters in my chest. "Is that so?" I whisper.

"It is." Running his hand down my hip, he scrunches the hem of my silky sleep shorts in his hand. "I'm desperate for you."

I laugh quietly and kiss him on the end of the nose. "How many times have you, you know, in the shower?"

"None."

I pull back and stifle a yawn. "Really?"

"Waiting for you."

"Ugh, that must be killing you," I mock.

"Yes and no. Yes, because the only place I belong is inside you, trying to give you more of my babies." He smirks, but I can tell he's half serious. "But also no, because I'm used to it."

"Used to…"

"Waiting for you. It's what I do best."

"JJ, you don't need to wait for me anymore. I'm here." I push a hand through his hair.

"I know. I have it written in ink."

Lying on his side facing me, he pushes back the duvet until the side of his rib cage is exposed.

I look down at the writing again, something I've seen a thousand times but never Googled. I wanted him to tell me. Besides, I have a history of jumping to conclusions when it comes to Jensen Jones.

"Donec shes parati. What does it mean?" I ask.

He bites down on his lip and smiles. "This might be your last surprise about me. ‘Donec shes parati' means ‘until she's ready,' and tomorrow, I plan on adding the date next to it. Even though I probably shouldn't since I'm in the hockey season, but I can't wait any longer."

My heart leaps into my throat. "When exactly did you get this?"

He smiles. "Right after you told me you were expecting my babies." His eyes shine in the soft light creeping under the door. "I told you, Princess. You ruined me that night in Riley's Bar. From the moment you kissed me, I felt something I never had for anyone else, and the more time I spent around you, the more infatuated I became. But the more time that passed with you thinking I was the biggest asshole alive, the more I worried you'd reject me. The more I could see how way out of my league you were. Then you got with Tom and…yeah." He kisses me. "I tried to move on, but eventually, you invaded every part of my mind. I couldn't see past your face. You were everywhere. So when you told me you were pregnant, I knew we were soulmates. I just needed you to see it, too." He points to the tattoo. "I left a space for the date when it all changed, but I didn't want to add it until you finally fell into my world as mine."

If every nerve in my body was a bulb, I'd light up like the fourth of July. "You're going to tattoo JJ and Will's birthday next to it?"

He shakes his. "No, I'm going to tattoo the day you came to this apartment and told me you were pregnant with my babies. July sixteenth."

I don't know what to say. What can you say about a declaration like that? To love so deep it engraves itself on your soul. "I want you inside me."

He shakes his head. "No, Kate, I'll hurt you. I'll also likely get you pregnant again with the way I'd take you so deep."

"Oh, well, you'd love that, wouldn't you."

He rolls on top of me and pushes down my sleep shorts, and we both stop dead as JJ stirs in her bassinet.

"I would love to breed you every day of the goddamn week. But we have to wait."

"Fuck my throat then."

He looks at me. "Don't play with me, Princess."

"I'm not." I slide down until I'm under the duvet, and his boxers are level with my eyeline. He quietly rises to his knees and pushes them down, lust filling his features.

His huge, thick cock hovers above me as I rise onto my elbows in front of him. "Fuck my throat."

"Princess."

"Just be quiet, and don't wake them."

Reaching out, I take his dick into my hand and pump him silently before leaning forward until he's all the way down my throat.

He throws his head back and groans quietly, his ripped torso on full display, making my mouth water around him.

"I'm gonna blow straight into your dirty little mouth."

Pulling back, I look him dead in the eyes. "Then be a good boy for me and do it. Fucking mean it. I want all of you."

He wraps his hand around my throat and wastes no time as he pumps in and out of me. His taste, his feel, and his darkened, feral eyes overtake my senses as my husband takes from me what I'm only all too willing to give.

I love him with every last fiber of my being, with every part of my soul. As he watches me swallow down his release, I know he's marking me for an eternity.

One thing that has blown my mind about being a mom is my body's ability to wake me up in the dead of night to check on my babies.

This night is no different. But the bed is empty, and so are the bassinets.

"JJ?" I whisper-shout into the darkness. Nothing.

Peeling myself out of the bed, I check the time. Ugh, five a.m.

While quietly padding through to the living area, where I expect to find them, I'm distracted by a crack of light coming from under the nursery door and then a soft but deep voice.

Pressing my ear against the door, I realize he's singing to them, and my heart explodes in my chest.

He's singing the lyrics to "You Are My Sunshine" by Christina Perri.

My body aches, and my head pounds from lack of sleep, but I could stand here and absorb this moment for an eternity.

A few more lines into the song, he stops when June makes a whimpering noise I've already become familiar with.

She's hungry.

Ready to push through the door and help out, I once again stop myself when I hear the cap on a bottle pop and the whimpers die down.

"Shhh…we don't want to wake Mommy, do we? You're both going to be good when Daddy has to go away next week, yeah? Aunty Felicity and Aunty Luna will be here to help Mommy, but I know she's got this. You both want to grow up to be like Mommy, and you both want to find someone who feels the same way for you as Daddy feels for Mommy. I know you both will."

I consider leaving them in peace and heading back to bed. But I'm too desperate to see what I can only picture right now.

As I quietly open the bedroom door, I see it—my husband in his gray athletic shorts, sitting in the rocking chair, June and Will tucked under each arm, feeding from a bottle of my expressed milk.

This sight alone is enough to make me want to lay down and ask him to give me all of his babies from now until the end of time. But truly, it's the look of awe in his eyes as he watches them both fall into a milk coma that has my legs almost giving out underneath me.

"Hey," I whisper.

He looks up, startled to see me watching them.

"Hey, Princess." He smiles sweetly, but I can tell he's as exhausted as I am.

"You could've woken me. I don't have work tomorrow, and you have early an morning skate in, like…baby, in like an hour."

"I also didn't give birth a couple of days ago, Princess. Go back to bed. I'll bring June and Will back in when they're settled. I think you might be able to get a couple more hours of sleep."

I shake my head. "No. Can I get you anything? You need something to eat or a coffee, at least."

"I'm good."

"Jensen," I scold.

He raises a brow. "JJ. I can look after it myself."

Propping a hand on my hip, I offer him the same look. "You do know I'm just as stubborn as you and equally refuse to ask for help even when I need it, right?"

"Perfectly aware."

"Right. So what coffee do you want?"

He laughs silently. "You're going to be the death of me, you know that?"

"Oh, I know."

Turning to head to the kitchen, he stops me before I leave. "Kate?"

I'm always surprised when he calls me by my name. "Yeah?"

He pinches his lips together and looks around the sage green nursery, at the light wooden furniture, and at Will and June's names above their bassinets, something Jessie stopped by to gift us earlier today. He then looks back at me, a glossy sheen to his beautiful brown eyes.

"We have our whole lives ahead of us, everything to share and look forward to together and with our family. But I just want you to know, this moment right here, you standing in the doorway of our nursery, me holding our babies as they sleep. If I died tomorrow, I'd have lived a life filled with happiness many can only dream of. Thank you for letting me prove you wrong."