Chapter 24

Today was a good day. No, today was an awesome day. I slept insanely well in Bennett's arms, woke up early after hearing him leave the house, and went for a swim with Kenna. I ate breakfast—the first time I've done that in three days—and then saved two people"s lives. Oh, and I'm pregnant.

The only flip side to that is that I didn't see Bennett much all day. It was surgery after surgery rolling in for both of us, so I didn't get a chance to talk to him at all. Hell, we hardly had a passing glance in the hall. Now I'm making enchiladas—Owen's dad Carter's recipe—for Paula so Bennett and I can tell her we're pregnant.

I'm so excited for it. I realize I should cool my jets because it's still so early, but I can't seem to. Where I was an exhausted, emotional, overwhelmed mess last night, today I feel… clarity. Awake. Alive. Jubilant.

Still, I was hoping Bennett would be home early so we could talk before his mother arrives. We have so much to get worked out.

Bopping my head from side to side, I sing along to the music I have blasting from the Alexa as I pile on the cheese and set the casserole dish in the oven. The rice and beans are cooking on the stove, and Paula should be here in about twenty minutes.

Everything is set. The table, the wine—which I can't drink—the food.

I have just enough time to run up and take a super quick shower since I splattered myself—including my hair—with enchilada sauce.

"Alexa, sto—ah!" I'm swirled off my feet, spun in the air, and then plopped directly on the kitchen counter. "What in the hell?" I yell, ready to kick and scratch my feisty way out of here until I meet the dark blue eyes of the man who positions himself right in my face. "Jerk." I smack his shoulder. "You scared me. How about next time warn a girl before you attack her from behind. You're lucky I didn't take a butcher knife to your favorite appendage."

He scoots me to the edge of the counter and steps between my parted thighs. "Maybe if you didn't have the music so loud and weren't singing along at the top of your lungs, you would have heard me open and close the door and call your name."

"Maybe, but that'll never happen. You're late," I tell him, changing the subject. "I was hoping you'd be home an hour ago."

His eyes brighten. "You were?"

"Yes. We have stuff to talk about."

His hands meet the counter on either side of my thighs, and his expression grows serious. "We do. We have a lot to talk about." He licks his lips, his eyes all over me. But he doesn't say anything, and it's too silent. Too tense. And I need to tell him. I need to tell him so much, so I open my mouth and start with, "Listen," just as he spits out, "I love you."

"What?" we both say at the same time. I blink and he does the same. "You go first." "You love me?" Again, at the same time.

He growls and runs his hands over his face before dragging them through his hair and making it stick up all over the damn place. "I wasn't going to blurt it out like that, but then you were sitting there with your pretty eyes all over me and it just slipped out." His hands meet my knees and run up my thighs. "I'm not taking it back though, Katy. I know this goes against everything we agreed upon, but I don't care. Fuck the contract. I love you. And I know you don't feel the same way about me. I know that's not where?—"

"Bennett—"

"Just let me say this," he cuts me off. "I didn't want to fall in love again. Not ever. It didn't matter though because I've been in love with you all along." His hands cup my cheeks. "It's always been you, Katy. From the moment I first saw you all those years ago to the moment I saw you again, it's been you. No one has ever felt right the way you do because I have never loved anyone the way I love you." Our foreheads meet, and his nose runs along mine. "You're not looking to fall back in love, and you don't trust your instincts. I get it. We were both hurt, and when your trust is broken the way ours was, it makes you call everything into question. But God, sweetheart, don't you see how perfect that makes us for each other? I'll never break your trust. I'll always protect your heart. And I'll do whatever it takes to prove to you that no two people have ever fit together more perfectly than we do."

He pulls back slightly, his hands on my cheeks holding me like he's afraid to let go, his blue eyes so intense on mine.

"Don't give up on all that we could be just because you got spooked."

I rest my palm on his cheek. "Are you done?"

He swallows hard and nods nervously.

"Good. I love you too."

He tilts his head, staring incredulously at me. "You do?"

I laugh. "Yeah."

"But…" He pauses and shakes his head, squinting at me as if my words don't make any sense to him. "Last night you called me your friend."

I sigh, wrapping my arms around his neck and dragging him back to me. "I know. That sort of slipped out and then I didn't take it back because, well…"

"You got spooked."

I give him a sheepish look. "I did. But then I saw your face when I said it and watched you storm out of here, and then when you came home a little drunk, it got me thinking."

"It got youthinking? I just spilled my heart out to you."

I laugh at his wounded expression. "It was a really good speech. An epic speech."

"Yeah?"

I smile and kiss his lips. "Definitely. If I hadn't already been in love with you, I sure as hell would have been after that. But even before it, I was going to tell you I'm right there with you. All this time, I didn't allow myself to go there. For one, we've both been through it with our exes, and we have so much at stake with this situation. I was afraid to put my heart on the line again because if I fell for you and you didn't love me back..."

He presses his lips softly to mine. He gets it. He gets me.

"Last night when I slept in your bed with you wrapped around me, it was as if everything clicked into place, and all the things I had been so afraid of, all the bullshit, no longer mattered. I felt your heart beating against my back, the same rhythm and tempo as mine, and I just knew. I knew we were Surprise Baby for the Billionaire Doctor, complete with our own HEA in the making."

He laughs, relief dancing across his features, lighting his eyes, softening his brow, and bringing the most breathtaking smile to his face. "I was prepared to throw you into the deep end with me and force you to swim."

"Huh?" I laugh the word.

"I was going to pull out all the stops. Sweep you off your feet. Do whatever it took to make you fall as hopelessly, endlessly in love with me as I am with you."

"Damn. That sounds pretty good. Maybe I shouldn't have put all my cards on the table so quickly. Maybe I should have played this out to see all I could have gotten from you."

He pinches my side, making me yelp and giggle. "Brat."

My fingers trail up the back of his neck and into his thick hair. "No wooing needed, Bennett. I'm already yours. It is rather undeniably convenient that not only do we both want a baby, but that we fell for each other too. Almost like we're meant to be."

"We are meant to be. There's no other explanation. I love you," he whispers against my lips, his body pressed against mine as he steals a kiss.

"I love you too," I say hungrily against him, tilting my head and deepening the exchange. "So much, Bennett."

His tongue dives in, his hands all over me, ripping at my shirt, forcing it from my jeans so he can reach beneath it. "God, Katy. You're mine. You're finally mine. Both of you." His fingers caress my lower belly, and that's it. His love is a match, but his devotion is what sets me on fire. It has me tearing at his shirt, jerking it up and over his head before hauling him back against me. My legs wrap around his waist, and his mouth consumes mine.

His searing groan ripples into me like an electrical current. There is no air I want to breathe that isn't his. Any space between us is too much space. My shirt hits the floor, and we maul each other, our mouths moving fast and frenzied, our lips and teeth clashing. I rock against him, desperate for friction even as certain things start to hit my senses. The smell of overcooked cheese, the sizzle, hiss, and pop of liquid hitting the flame on the stove.

"Bennett—"

He cuts off my plea with another devastating kiss that scrambles my mind, making it impossible to focus or think about anything other than him. That is, until the fire alarm goes off, blaring an ear-splitting siren through the air at the same time his mother walks through the back door.

Bennett and I jump apart like two caught teenagers. I tumble off the counter, dropping to the floor in a heap, scrambling for my shirt, and throwing it back on. Bennett goes after the stove first, shutting off the burner before he does the same with the oven. A billow of acrid smoke plumes into the room, coating the ceiling and dulling the lights as he waves at it with an oven mitt.

"Mom, keep the door open," Bennett commands, not seeming to care that he's shirtless and that his jeans are unbuttoned. Finally, the alarm shuts off as the smoke filters out the door, swept away by the cool night air. He removes the enchiladas and sets the burnt remains on the stove beside the charred rice and beans.

"Well, this certainly wasn't the greeting I was expecting," Paula deadpans, a gleam in her eyes and a Cheshire grin on her lips.

I sigh.

And then I laugh. Because really?

Bennett snatches his shirt from the counter and puts it back on, then rebuttons his pants. "You know you had that on broil, right?" he says to me, his lips twitching indulgently.

"No, I had it on bake…" I trail off because that's not the first time I've done that with his super fancy oven, and now that he mentions it, I don't remember putting in the temperature. "Shit. I'm sorry. That's not how this was supposed to go."

"Well, I for one am very happy it is." Paula crosses the kitchen, gives me a big hug, and then tugs on something at the back of my neck. "Katy dear, your shirt is on inside out. You might want to fix that before we go out for dinner. Unless you'd like me to leave so you can finish what you were doing when I arrived."

Bennett makes a noise. "You'll never let us live this down, will you?"

"Never." She pats his face and kisses him on the same cheek. "Where would the fun in that be?"

She has a point.

"We should go out for dinner since that's now unrecognizable," I say, pointing to my ruined masterpiece. "Bennett and I can finish what we were doing later."

He throws me a look, and I give him a wink that makes him laugh. Strong arms band around me and he kisses me again, right here in front of his mother. No tongue or frenzy this time. Just a seriously good kiss, and when he's done, he turns to his mother and announces, "Katy and I are pregnant, and I love her like crazy."

"Oh, Ben." She brings a trembling hand up to her lips and stares at him with watery eyes. "Really?"

"Really," I confirm. "He's in love with me, but I can't stand him."

We all start to crack up, and his mother embraces both of us in a warm hug and then plies Bennett with kisses all over his face that eventually has him shoving her away with a "Ma, stop it."

We take her out to dinner, but the second we get back through the door and she drives off, we can't keep our hands off each other. He whisks me off my feet and tosses me over his shoulder, taking off for the stairs.

I make a squeal of protest that ends with a hard smack on my ass, quickly followed by another on the other cheek. Everything feels different now. There is no lingering tension. No unanswered questions. No what-ifs. No we shouldn't do this. Everything is light, fun, and easy.

That is, until he gets us into his bedroom—a place I have a feeling I'll be spending a lot more time in—and lets me slide down every hard inch of him. I reach up to kiss him, but in his next move, he flips me around, throwing the front end of my body onto the mattress and forcing my ass up in the air.

With a reach around, he undoes my jeans and then slides them along with my thong down my hips, leaving me fully exposed to him and the cool rush of air from the room. I shiver, my teeth sinking into my lip as he silently stands behind me, my pussy and ass bare and at his mercy.

Large, strong hands run up the backs of my thighs and across the globes of my ass, momentarily splitting them and getting a peek of my forbidden hole.

"This is because you didn't take care of yourself when you should have."

"Wha—Ah!"

A sound smack lands straight across my backside, spreading fire and warmth through my muscles and making my pussy clench. My eyes flash open, and a rush of air surges into my lungs with a harsh gasp.

Before I can make sense of what he's doing, another swat hits my other cheek, equally as hard and just as deadly. My body rocks forward with the momentum of the strikes, and a moan slips past my lips. I've been spanked before, but never like this. Never as a means of punishment where the spanking is a delicious form of wicked torture. Where it's so deliberate and methodical I can't do anything other than allow him to dominate me.

But that's Bennett.

He's been holding back on me.

Scared to cross the line and allow himself to fully escape. He mentioned this side of himself—the rough side. The side that wants to play. And we did some of that in the bath and on a few other occasions, but nothing like this.

Now I have his trust.

And his trust is everything I've ever craved. It's such a potent drug—pure euphoria—knowing precisely what this means for him, for me, and for us, that I'll go as far as he wants to push me.

I might not have a limit. Certainly not one he's reached yet.

I know he'll always take care of me. My safety—and the safety of our growing child—is his castle. The walls he'll live and breathe and die to protect. So I surrender. Taking each firm strike with the devotion of a woman who can't get enough. Because his punishment is turning into my heaven. Softening my limbs and sweetening my mind.

The pain is erotic bliss.

"You're soaking," he rasps, dragging his fingers up the inside of my thighs. "You feel this. Your cunt is leaking." He bends, forcing my thighs wider, and licks up the inseam on each inner thigh, tearing a loud moan from my lips. "You have the prettiest pussy." His finger swirls around my opening, playing with my arousal before sliding straight in, as deep as it can go. "And so fucking tight. What will you do when I tie your wrists to our headboard and eat you till you can't stop coming?"

Lose my mind, hits me first, but my body responds before my mouth can, and I rock back into him, wanting that so badly I can't even think beyond it.

His chest crawls up my back, his hot skin sliding along my spine until his mouth reaches my ear. "Such a filthy whore, aren't you?"

Holy shit. My eyes roll into the back of my closed eyes, and I rock again, seeking, needing friction. No one has ever talked to me this way and I swear, I'm going to come just from that.

"The sexiest fucking woman I've ever seen. You own me, Katy Barrows. You always have. But tonight, I'm going to own every inch of you." He licks the shell of my ear. "Don't move, or I'll be forced to punish you in a way you won't enjoy as much."

"As much?"

Two fingers shove straight into me. "Do you enjoy that?"

I give him a jerky nod in response.

"How about this?"

He takes those two wet fingers and uses one of them to start playing with the tight ring of muscles at the back before plunging in and making my back arch and a high-pitched gasp squeal past my lungs.

It's tight and it burns, but in that good way. In a way that ignites fire in my core and wreaks madness to my senses.

I turn my head over his shoulder and meet his eyes. "That the best you've got to give?"

His hand runs along my ass, giving it a firm squeeze with his finger still inside me there. "Oh, sweetheart. You have no idea what I'm about to give you."