Total pages in book: 37
Estimated words: 35982 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 180(@200wpm)___ 144(@250wpm)___ 120(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35982 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 180(@200wpm)___ 144(@250wpm)___ 120(@300wpm)
“How many honeymoons have you two had? About a dozen.” Grams nods and continues knitting. “Keep it up.”
After the whole incident with the cult, I took a while to accept it all—and to accept that my mother was truly gone. It was a gut punch, really, especially when I look back over the years and notice how she was grooming me all along. Keeping me sheltered. Keeping me ‘pure’ as she believed. I don’t know when I lost her to the cult, but sometimes I think I never had her, never had a real mother at all. That’s why I’m so thankful for Grams and Rowan. Once the shock wore off about who Rowan really was, I realized his past didn’t matter any more than mine did. We’d found each other. No matter how unlikely and strange, we met our match.
“Something on your tongue, pretty girl?” Grams asks, a twinkle in her eye.
Rowan stands behind me, his comforting hand on my shoulder.
“Yes, actually.” I tangle my fingers together. “I’m–”
“Look!” Grams holds up her knitting. It’s a knit hat in rainbow colors. One far too small for me. Actually, it’s the perfect size for … a baby. “You know?” I gasp.
“I know lots.” She shimmies her shoulders. “And you two do the dirty enough to have already been pregnant five times over.” She cackles. “The ducts in this old place carry sound pretty darn good.”
Rowan groans. “Too much information, Edith.”
Tears prick behind my eyes as Grams takes my hand and squeezes it, her fingers warming the diamond bands on my ring finger. “You’re going to be an amazing mother. You’ve got the kindest heart and the gentlest touch–so much so that sometimes I wonder how we’re related.” She winks.
“Don’t sell yourself short.” I squeeze her hand. “I couldn’t wish for a better Grams.” I swear her eyes water a little before she leans back and gives Dudley a pat. “We’re going to have a little one scampering around here soon, Dudders. Someone to play with you and pull your tail. I can’t wait.”
“Come on. Let’s get to bed. It was a long ride home.” Rowan comes around and helps me up.
I roll my eyes. “You act like I’m nine months already.”
“Let the boy dote on you.” Grams waves a needle at me, then starts humming WAP and continues knitting.
“She took it well,” Rowan says as he helps me up the stairs and to our room. “I knew she would. Can you imagine how much trouble she and our child are going to get up to? We’ll have to notify the authorities so they can keep a lookout.”
I laugh and cup my growing tummy. I don’t show much, but it’s enough. It feels … hopeful. As if that’s exactly what’s growing inside me and getting bigger by the day. Hope.
“I’ve got it!”
“What?” He closes the door behind us.
“A name. If it’s a girl, I want to name her Hope.”
“Sounds good to me.” He comes to me and backs me to the bed. “Now lie back. You’re tired, and I’m starving.”
My eyes widen. “But Grams just said she can hear us through the–Mmph!”
He’s put his hand over my mouth as he lowers me all the way to the mattress. “Then you should be quiet, because I’m going to enjoy this with or without an audience.” He drops to his knees and pulls my panties off. With no warning, he gives me a long lick, sending sensation ricocheting all along my skin. “Rowan!”
“You’re getting loud, Bunny.” He laughs against my sex, the tingling almost unbearable, then he licks again.
I’m already pregnant-horny, and his touches are almost too much to bear.
“I know what you like.” He slides two fingers inside me, and I give up on trying to be quiet. While he focuses on my clit, he uses his fingers to stroke me just right. In only a matter of a minute, my lower back arches off the bed as I come, his name on my lips as he draws the pleasure from me with practiced ease.
When I can finally breathe again, he kisses up my body and nibbles my bottom lip. “Now get some rest. I’ll be hungry again in no time.”
“You’re a bad man.” I kiss him.
“I’m your bad man.” He adjusts me in the bed and drapes me with a quilt Grams made. “And I’ll always be here.”
I look up at him, love in his eyes as he stares back.
I thought I came to Grams’ house to find myself. Instead, I found the one man who understands me better than I do. A thief who came here to find jewels but instead made off with my heart. Not a problem for me, though, because I never want it back. It’s safe in his hands. Forever.