Chapter 38

Amber

He kisses my eyes, my cheeks, my nose. When he reaches my neck, I moan softly. He freezes. "Don't make sounds like that," he nearly growls at me.

"Why not?" I ask breathlessly.

"Because that will become my new addiction in life—finding ways to make you make that sound over and over again."

He kisses me on the lips then, and I sink into the kiss, letting my body fall against his. He's prepared; he doesn't budge as he takes my weight. His hands drop to my hips as he tugs me closer. I laugh when he tries to reposition us because of my belly. "Okay, so we'll have to get a little creative; but we'll get it." The baby gives me a pretty good kick on my side.

"She must like you," I say pulling back.

His eyes are dark. "Are you talking about you in the third person?"

"No," I laugh. "I mean the baby. She kicked right after you talked."

He looks down at my belly. "Can I feel?" he asks softly.

I nod. When he puts his hands carefully on my belly, I move them to where she's moving. "Talk again," I tell him.

"Hmm. Talk on demand. No pressure." Sure enough, she gives me a good kick. His eyes widen in shock. "I felt that." He holds his hands there a little while longer, but we don't get anything after that.

"Hopefully she's sleeping now," I tell him.

"That was amazing, Amber. I can't wait to meet her."

I bury my head in his chest. "Me too." He tugs on my hand and pulls me down onto his lap as he settles on the couch. "Rico—"

"Shh," he cuts me off. "I've dreamed about this for a long time; I don't want to wake up from this dream."

I lay my head on his firm chest. "It's not a dream, Rico."

"I wish you would have just told me everything from the beginning."

"Yeah, well I couldn't let you give up hockey. But we already covered this," I say, covering his lips with my finger before he can plead his case again. "I can think of something we can do instead."

He smirks at me. "Oh yeah? And what is this grand idea of yours?" he asks in a low voice.

"You know what? I actually need to get home." I push away from him like I'm going to stand, but he stops me with a firm hand around my waist.

"No, you don't." He leans forward and kisses me. When we're both breathless, he pulls back. "Are you hungry? Did you eat yet?"

"No, I wanted to get over here right away to talk to you."

His eyes soften. "I'm glad you did." He gives me one more soft kiss. "Come on, let's find some food. I'm starving." He pretty much lifts me to my feet before standing. He takes my hand and leads me into the kitchen. "What are you hungry for?" he asks as he leads me to a chair and then walks over to the fridge.

My phone dings, and I look down at a text from Bri.

Bri- check this out

I click on the link and read a post from early this morning. I'm still staring when Rico comes over. "Hey, you good?" Without a word, I turn my phone around and let him read.

"Wow, your brother is really scary."

I just nod. "Yeah, I wonder what in the world Noah said to him to get him to say all that." I look up and meet Rico's eyes. "I think I'm going to be free of him now. I mean, he'll always be my baby's birth dad, but..."

Rico nods. "Yeah." Then he grins. "I should probably tell my mom and sister before they read this online."

"Yeah, my mom too," I agree.

He leans down and puts his arms on the table on either side of me, locking me in the cage of his arms. "You know, Adam did all the hard work for us. He just told the world that we're together now and that he's staying out of your life to do what's best for us." He uses air quotes for the last part of it as he smirks. "We both know your brother made him say that."

I grin. "Yeah, he can be really good in situations like this. It's kind of his specialty."

He leans forward until our lips are almost touching. "You know what my specialty is?" he asks softly.

"No," I whisper, leaning forward ever so slightly.

"Scrambled eggs," he says with a smirk, pulling back.

I narrow my eyes at him, and he laughs. "That's not where I thought you were going with that."

He smirks. "Oh, I know."

I shake my head as I stand to my feet. "What do you want me to do?"

"Just sit and relax."

I wave him off. "I want to contribute. I'm not a great cook, but I can bake. What do you have to bake with?"

"Probably not a lot but help yourself to my pantry."

"I will; thank you." I look over in his pantry and take quick note of what he's got to work with. I start taking out ingredients—oats, peanut butter, pecans, honey, cranberries. I start carrying them to the counter.

"What are you making?" he asks curiously.

"Breakfast cookies."

"Breakfast cookies?" he asks with a grin. "Is that just cookies you eat for breakfast?"

"No, Smartmouth. They're actually breakfast cookies because of the ingredients they have in them."

"Well, have at it," he says, moving out of the way. I start looking in his cabinets. "What do you need?"

"A big mixing bowl." He pulls one down for me. I look around again. "What else, Love?" I smile to myself at the endearment. "Do you have a speaker for music?" When he gives me a funny look, I grin. "I need motivation music. I always listen to music when I bake."

"On it."

Within minutes, he's got music cranking through an in-house speaker system. "Wow, fancy. I approve." He gives me his sexy smirk, and I get to work.

I'm not sure when I've had a better morning. Working in the kitchen next to Rico is like everything I always wanted but didn't know. By the time we sit down to eat, my stomach hurts from all the laughing I've done. I take a fresh batch of breakfast cookies out of the oven and pull one off once it's cool enough to touch. "Here," I turn to Rico. "Try this." He leans forward and takes a huge bite. I stare at him. "Were you trying to eat it all in one bite?" He shrugs, and then his eyes widen; and he eats the whole rest of the thing in one bite.

"Those are amazing. What's in those?" I smile, feeling pride as I start listing all the ingredients. He turns around and snags another one off the tray. "Do me a favor."

"What?" I ask, curious.

"Don't tell my teammates about these."

"Why?"

"Because they would demolish these. We can actually eat these without feeling too guilty, and they would plow through these." I make a mental note to make a big batch sometime when I have a chance. He groans. "You're totally going to make some for them, aren't you?"

"You just gave me the idea," I defend.

He snags me around the waist and pulls me close. "Yeah, but you made these for me ."

"Didn't your mother ever teach you to share?" I scold teasingly.

"Nope." He tugs me closer and puts his hands on my hips, something I'm learning he loves to do. "There are some things I don't share." His voice is low and serious.

"Whoa, that just took a dark turn. Are we still talking about the cookies?" I ask.

"What were we talking about?" he asks right before his lips descend on mine. I sigh against his lips. He takes full advantage and deepens the kiss. He uses one hand to pull me closer, while the other pulls on my hair to change the angle of our kiss. He bites me lightly on the lip, and I give him what he wants. He groans when our tongues touch, and I feel myself lose touch with reality awhile. When he pulls back, it takes every ounce of my self-control not to pull him back to me. "I knew you would be the death of me." His voice is hoarse. "I'm never going to get anything done again." I laugh; I can't help it. He smiles, and it's so devastatingly handsome. "Come on; let's eat before the food is cold." When we sit at the table, he pulls my chair so it's close to his.

"When's your next game?" I ask.

"Tomorrow night."

"Is it home?"

He sits back in his chair. "It is."

I nod. "I'll see if I can get a ticket."

"Don't get a ticket; Chloe can get one for you. As many games as you want to come to, you'll always have a ticket. I can get it next to Bri and Stephanie if you want." He watches me carefully like I'm going to bolt.

"Okay."

"Yeah?" His voice is hopeful.

My heart tugs. "Rico." I put my hand over his. "I wanted to be with you. You know that, right?"

He turns his hand over and squeezes mine. "Yeah, Baby. It just is taking some getting used to."

"What is?"

"Knowing that you're mine finally."

I return his hand squeeze. "Well, get used to it because I'm not going anywhere." I look away for a minute.

"Hey, where'd you go?"

I shake my head, trying to clear it. "Just thinking."

"About?" he pushes.

"Just everything going forward. Christmas, New Year's." I hesitate. "The baby coming."

"I'm going to be with you for all of those, Love. You're not on your own anymore. You want to do Christmas at your house? I'll be there. New Year's? Wherever you want. Whatever you want to do. I just want to be with you, Amber. And when the baby comes, I'll be there."

"Wait? Like in the delivery room?"

He gives me a weird look. "Yeah."

"Rico, you can't come in the delivery room with me."

"Why not?"

"Because we're not married."

He shrugs. "I'm sure we're not the first couple who's been in the delivery room together who's not married."

I laugh. "Well, yeah, but we're not..."

"We're not what, Amber?" he asks, his eyes twinkling.

"You haven't seen all this," I motion to my lower half. "And the first time you see all this is not going to be when a baby is slitting me wide open."

He throws his head back and laughs, and I can't help but join in. When he finally stops, his eyes are twinkling. "We'll figure it out, but I'm not sending my girl in for labor by herself," he says softly.

I take in his words but don't say anything. We have some time to figure that all out. His phone buzzes, and he picks it up. "My sister's here." A smile lights his face. "Do you mind if I let her in?"

"Of course," I wave him on. "It's your house."

"I'm so glad you get to meet her," he calls out over his shoulder.

"Uh...yeah," I respond.

Rico comes back a few minutes later with his sister trailing him. She cocks her head. "You're here."

"I am," I respond. "Hi, Peyton."

She sighs. "Hi, Heartbreaker."

Rico looks between the two of us, obviously confused. "You two know each other?"

"Oh yes. Peyton and I met when she came to the library to introduce herself. We were besties at first glance," I say sugary sweet.

"Yes. I couldn't wait until we met again," Peyton says in a dry tone.

"Your sister came to see me and…" I pause. "Set me straight about her little brother."

Rico turns to Peyton. "You did what?"

She plops down into his chair and starts eating the food still on his plate. "Relax. It's not like it didn't work. She's here, isn't she?"

"You and I are going to have a long talk later," he says before reaching out and taking the plate she's eating from. "That's my food."

"Hey, I'm hungry," she argues.

I laugh softly and get up to make her a plate. When I put it in front of her, she stares at it. "Is it poisoned?" I laugh again because she's awesome.

"No, I didn't think that fast."

She eyes me before she picks up the cookie first. Unlike her brother, she doesn't question the validity of cookies for breakfast. She closes her eyes after the first bite. "Oooh, these are good. You couldn't have made these, Heartbreaker. They're way too good."

Rico smacks the back of her head, but I can tell it's not hard enough to hurt her. "You're awful."

She grins, and a few cookie crumbs fall out. "Just doing my job as your older sister, little bro."

"Rico, maybe we should hook her up with my brother," I say innocently.

He turns to me, a big grin splitting his face. "Oh, I think that's a great idea."

I laugh, and he joins in because we both know they would kill each other.