Baby Mine (Stubborn Texas Siblings Book 1) (9 page)

The next few weeks leading up to Madeline’s six week checkup seemed to drag on forever. Eric was spending more time outside with the animals than he had before he’d given in to the need to kiss her the first time and with every day that went by, she found that she missed him a little bit more.

After the exam was over and they arrived back at the ranch, he tugged her into his arms. “What do you say, we put Lillie Rose down for a nap?” he asked huskily, leaning down and nibbling seductively on her earlobe.

“Mmm,” she hummed happily. “What did you have in mind, there cowboy?”

“Doc said you were healed,” he answered, moving his lips down to the curve of her neck. “I bought some condoms in town last week, too.”

Her eyes snapped up to meet his and her heart began to hammer in her chest. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” she asked nervously.

“I am if you want me too… if not, tell me right now and I swear to you, as hard as it would be for me, I’ll walk down that hall and go to bed by myself and not say another word, right now.”

Madeline shifted the baby in her arms and looked up at him, licking her lips as anticipation zinged through her. “What would it mean?”

“I thought we’d made that pretty clear the last time we came close,” he answered, settling his hand on her hip.

“Humor me,” she whispered softly.

She could visibly see him swallow the lump that had formed in his throat. “Why don’t you put the baby down first,” he answered; his voice breaking on the words.

Madeline nodded her head and turned to walk to the nursery. Her legs felt like a couple of wet noodles and she wondered how she was able to put them in front of each other in order to actually maneuver down the hall. It felt like there were butterflies in her stomach as nerves and anticipation warred with each other for supremacy. She had such high hopes for the talk Eric wanted to have with her, she felt lightheaded just thinking about it.

Lillie Rose was so sweet and cute when Madeline settled her in her crib and laid her soft pink blanket over her, all she wanted to do was sit down and look at her little angel. If she didn’t want to hear what Eric had to say more, she would have done it too. Instead, she turned on the baby monitor and left the room, quietly clicking the door shut behind her.

Eric was standing in the hall, leaning against the wall just outside the nursery. He’d shed his western shirt in the short time she’d been in the other room and her eyes went wide when they landed on his massive bare chest. This man was entirely too sexy for his own good and it was difficult to concentrate on his words when she had to look at so much bare skin. All she could think about was touching him and maybe licking the expanse of skin she could see just to see if it affected him as much as it did her when he’d used his mouth on her.

He couldn’t help the smile that overtook his facial features when he saw the way her eyes had settled on his chest. It did him a world of good to know that the severity of his desire for her was a two way street. “Shall we go out to the living room to chat?” he asked, holding his arm out in that direction, waiting for her to walk that way before he followed close behind, struggling to keep from wrapping his arms around her waist.

He settled his big body on the couch and turned to look at her when she sat beside him. Her eyes moved up to the portrait that hung on the wall over the fireplace and he allowed his eyes to follow hers. A half smile crossed his face as he looked up at it. Memories of the day it had been taken flooded his mind and tears filled his eyes. He blinked them back and looked back at Madeline.

“I honestly never thought I’d feel this way about another woman,” he began shakily. “The day that was taken… the day I married the only girl I’d ever even noticed was female… I figured she was it for me. When she died, I thought she’d taken the biggest part of me to her grave with her.” His voice was shaking but he forced himself to go on.

“Imagine my shock when I heard that the embryos I’d ordered destroyed had ended up implanted in your uterus. I freaked out; knowing that it meant I had to find a way to live again, for my child’s sake. Then when I went to confront you… I took one look at you and I knew I was a goner,” he admitted, smiling at the memory. “The more I got to know you, the more you confirmed that knowledge for me. You
MUST
know how much you’ve come to mean to me, Maddie,” he said, his eyes searching hers for confirmation.

“I know how much I want to believe I’ve come to mean to you,” she answered breathlessly; her throat feeling as if it
had closed up from the nerves that were threatening to take her down.

“I’ve fallen
ass over tea kettle in love with you,” he whispered softly, using his forefinger to push her bangs out of her eyes and tuck them behind her ear. “I’m scared out of my mind, but it’s the God’s honest truth. I’m not sure I’d survive if I had to watch you walk out that door and never come back. With or without Lillie Rose; and you know how I feel about her.”

“Oh Eric,” she sobbed; tears running down her face as she launched herself into his arms, flinging her own around his shoulders and burying her face into his neck.

“I want to build towards making a portrait like that of our own,” he admitted, looking back at the picture that hung over the mantle. It felt odd saying that. If anyone had told him even a year ago that he’d ever even consider asking another woman to marry him, he would have told them they were off their rocker and deserved to be locked away in a padded room somewhere.

Madeline looked up at it and
offered him a teary-eyed smile. “She was a very lovely bride… and you were an incredibly handsome groom; but I must say… I rather prefer you in blue jeans, a western shirt, cowboy boots and a Stetson over that tuxedo you’ve got on in that picture.”

Eric relaxed with his arm thrown across the back of the couch, wrapped around her shoulders, chuckling lightheartedly. “Sweetheart, if that was a yes, I’ll wear whatever your big old heart desires when we say our vows.
Just as long as when they’re said and done, I’ve got you and that sweet baby girl in the other room for the rest of my life. I might even go as far as to allow you to go back to work at the hospital if it’s what you really want to do. I’m not looking to change you in any way,” he assured her softly. “I’m pretty crazy about you exactly the way you are.”

“I would like to go back to work when my
maternity leave is over,” she whispered as a tear of happiness rolled down her face. “But if you’re serious, I’d say it’s a safe bet to say, you’ve got yourself a bride… I don’t ever want to take Victoria’s place,” she told him, turning her head to look at the portrait again. “But I would feel better if I didn’t have to look at such a huge reminder that your heart belonged to another woman before it belonged to me… At least not every day. Perhaps, you wouldn’t mind moving that into your office?”

Eric’s hand shook as he took hers in it. “I’ll move it first thing tomorrow morning. By the time you get up, it’ll be out of sight, you have my word,” he assured her before sucking in a stabilizing breath and asking her the question he desperately needed the answer to. “Now then… I need to know how you feel about making love… to me… before the wedding… as in… right this very minute.”

The radiance that shown on her face as she smiled at him and lifted her hand to his chest to play with the curled hair she found there was so brilliant, it would have been blinding if Eric’s vision wasn’t already clouded from the extremity of his need for the woman in his arms. “I think you’re sweet for asking,” she answered, dragging her fingertip slowly down towards his waistline. “But I also think you are spending entirely too much energy talking and asking questions I’ve already given you the answers to. I told you I wanted to be with you weeks ago. Do I have to remind you, we would have already made love several times over, had you not put a halt to things because you were afraid I was going to end up hurt?”

Eric groaned and had to suck in a quick gulp of air and close his eyes when she used that same finger to unfasten his jeans and then drag it slowly down his suddenly very hard length.

His arm that was around her clutched the side of her hip and the other grabbed on to the arm of the couch to keep from putting his foot all the way down the accelerator and taking things entirely too fast for a woman who’d never been with a man before. When she reached inside his underwear to wrap her hand around him, Eric was sure his patience was going to snap and he had to mentally do math equations in his head to keep from embarrassing himself.

Then, Madeline bent over and wrapped her mouth around his hard length and a colorful curse word that he hardly ever used flew out of his mouth as he moved the hand that had been on her hip to her head, desperately seeking a tie to Earth by grabbing onto a fistful of her hair in a death grip.

It took about ten seconds for Eric to lose the thin strand of patience he’d been clinging to before he moved to yank her shirt off over her head and then quickly rid her of her bra. His hands moved over her torso, worshiping every curve they came in contact with before lowering to her slacks. There was nothing gentle, sweet or slow about the way he rid her of her clothing. It took all of about twenty five seconds before he had her naked and he was hovering over her, breathing so hard, he wouldn’t be surprised in the least if he hyperventilated.

“We have to go back to my room,” he whispered, pressing a hot kiss to the curve of her neck. “I don’t have protection on me … but there’s some in my nightstand drawer.”

“I don’t care… I don’t want to wait or move. Make love to me… here and now, Eric.”

“Are you sure?” he asked, settling his body between her legs. His heart was beating so hard and fast, he was afraid he wouldn’t last long enough to make it good for her. It had been a long time since he’d been with a woman and his body was crying out, demanding immediate release now that it was so close to the Heaven he knew awaited
him once he thrust into her heat.

“Yes,” she gasped, rotating her hips to press the moistened tip of his erection against the lips of her opening.
Eric groaned and grasped her hip with his hand, holding her still.

“Sweetheart, you have to slow down, or I’m not going to last long enough to make this good for you,” he begged desperately as he slowly, painstakingly began to push into her a
n agonizing inch at a time until he was fully seated within her body.

Groaning; he reached up and laced their fingers together, holding both of her hands in his as he began to move over her as slowly and carefully as he could. His body was screaming for release already and he bit his bottom lip in an effort to keep from spiraling into an early orgasm.

When she experimentally moved against him, Eric had to bite back the curse that threatened to come out. “Maddie,” he moaned instead; the desperation in his voice was clear enough that there was no need to say anything more.

“I love you,” Madeline murmured, lifting up to press a hot kiss against his lips while tightening the grip she held his hands with as well as the stronghold her thighs had his hips locked in.

“Oh God, Maddie… I love you too; so much,” Eric answered in a shaky graveled voice; giving in to the need to move his body faster, lengthening his strokes at the same time as making each thrust come harder, with more power behind it as he sped towards the finish line.

Sparks of color and light seemed to go off in Madeline’s head and she could have sworn she heard bells as her body shook with the climax that had been building took over. In that moment, she didn’t care if she survived the experience or not. The satisfaction she’d found in Eric’s arms would be well worth any price she had to pay for it. She suddenly understood why her friends all made such a big deal about sex. Of course, what had just happened between herself and Eric was a lot more than just sex. She was glad she’d saved herself for him, it had made it that much more special; knowing that she had given him such a precious gift.

Eric’s body stiffened above hers and he let out a loud grunt of pleasure as his body erupted deep in her heated core, filling her almost to overflowing with his semen. When the last of the aftershocks finally passed, he rolled off her, forgetting they were on the couch and promptly fell onto the floor with a hard thud.

“Ouch,” he grumbled, chuckling. “That’ll teach me for losing my patience on the couch…. Next time, we hold off until I’ve got you someplace more comfortable; where I can pass out after you’ve milked me dry.”

Madeline lazily rolled her head over sideways to look at him. “Are you alright?” she asked, her voice coming out sounding smoky and sexier than anything he could recall ever hearing before.

“Me? I’m so much better than alright, I’m not even sure there’s a word for it… You?”

“Exhausted,” she answered truthfully; yawning widely to make her point.

Eric jumped up to his feet and gathered her body in his arms, striding down the hall without bothering to pick up their clothes. He needed to get Madeline bathed, soaked in a nice warm bath and then settled into bed so that she could get some decent rest before Lillie Rose woke up wanting her Mommy. After getting a little sleep himself, he had livestock to tend to… and then, after that, the two of them had some wedding plans to set in motion.

With a wide grin and a spring in his step, he sped his steps up. He’d never been so damn glad to have listened to his pain in the butt little brother in his life. He really had needed to move on with his life, and now that Madeline had agreed to marry him, he was going to do just that.