* * * * *
When Andi arrived at the hospital, Tony was there, reassuring Gray that his caseload would wait…that trials would be continued. “It’s a good thing, when you look at it this way. You’ll have time to get well and prepare cases, Hank and the paralegals will be able to pour on billable hours’ worth of research, and I’ll have more time to spend with Krissie and our little boy. Hey, Andi. I told him you’d be coming along soon.”
“Congratulations, Daddy. How’s Krissie? And the baby?”
“She’s beautiful. Happy. We’re both thrilled with our son. Thanks for the flowers, by the way. You know how much Krissie loves those fluffy white things.”
“Carnations.”
Tony grinned. “Whatever. Look, I need to get back across the street before Krissie thinks I’ve deserted her. Call and let me know how the surgery goes.”
“Will do.” Andi turned to Gray, prepared for more of the angst she’d left him with this morning. “Dare I guess you’re okay with this now?”
“Come here.”
She put her purse on the table and sat on the edge of the high, narrow bed, reluctant to say anything that might break Gray’s hopeful mood. Instead of talking, she reached out, ran her fingers across his scratchy jaw. “You need a shave.”
“What I need is a kiss. And I need to hear you tell me again that you love me, that this is going to be all right.”
“I love you. Brett loves you. There’s no way either of us is going to ever let you go.” Andi braced her hands on either side of Gray’s head, bent, and brushed her lips slowly over his. “You’re going to have this operation and however it turns out, it’s going to be good between us. So good.” With her tongue, she traced the seam of Gray’s lips, coaxing them open, trying to persuade him with her touch what he had never before believed when she put into words. “I…love…you. So damn much. Open your mouth and let me in.”
When he did, she plunged her tongue inside, sliding it over his teeth and tangling it with his tongue. He tasted so good, like mint and man, in contrast with the medicinal smell of the linens beneath his head. His hands cradled her cheeks, warmed her, then moved lower to cup her breasts when she lifted her head, took in a gasping breath.
“You’re so damn beautiful. So perfect. Damn it, I want so much to watch you come, see your pretty blue eyes darkened with passion. Baby, I love you so much I’m scared to death of having this surgery…maybe ending up not being able to do more than this.”
He loved her. And he thought she—ordinary Andi with the red hair and freckles across her nose—was beautiful. “If it turns out this is all you can do, it will be enough. You big lug, I’ve told you a hundred times, a thousand ways, that it’s you I want. Sure, I love the feel of your big, hard cock in my pussy, but there are other ways…other things we can do to make us both feel good.”
“It’s not fair to you—”
“Hush. It is if I say it is. And I do. Relax now. Let the meds do their thing. When you wake up, I’ll be here. I’ll always be here for you, loving you.”
Gray closed his eye, but kept Andi close with gentle pressure on her hand. His breathing slowed, and she felt his chest muscles relax beneath her hand. Soon he’d nod off to sleep and they’d wheel him away to surgery.
When he spoke, his words were slurred, but his smile warmed her heart. “Love you, baby. You better make an appointment with Sam. I’m having him do his thing while I’m out. Too chicken to do it awake. No matter what happens, you’ll have a chance to have…” His words trailed off. Then he opened his eye and squeezed her hand. “…our baby.”
When Andi watched the orderlies take Gray down to surgery, she tried to stem her tears, but deep emotions swept her along. Hope…fear…love. Yeah. Love. Love for the man who’d finally gotten it through his stubborn head that it was his heart, his mind…his soul…that made him the man she loved. And that whatever happened, she’d just keep on loving him more each day. Him…their son…and the baby he’d finally found enough hope for the future for him to give her.
“He’s going to be fine,” her friend Sandra said when she came into the waiting room a couple of hours later. “I thought I’d come by here and say hello. Rocky’s still staring through the nursery window at all the babies there. If he gets his way, we’ll be having another one before too long.”
Andi smiled, though she was beginning to worry because it had been so long. After Sandra had visited with her for a few minutes, Dr. Rodriguez strode out of the OR and greeted her with a smile.
“He came through just fine. I got the cyst out without compromising the spinal cord any further. Kaplan’s doing his thing now. We won’t know for sure for a couple of weeks, but my guess is that Gray’s going to be a whole lot better off than he was.”
* * * * *
“Come on, Gray. You need to rest.”
He’d rested for a lifetime, it seemed. Too long. “What I need to do is make love with you. Come here.”
“It’s only been three weeks. The doctor said—”
“It’s not the goddamn doctor whose cock is about to burst. Or who’s dying to know for sure this hard-on’s not in my mind. Come on, baby. Strip for me. I’ll go so far as to let you ride me so I won’t mess up the doc’s handiwork.”
Tonight Andi wore nothing sexy—just a pair of dark-green silk pajamas not a whole lot different from the ones Gray wore the bottoms of. Not much to strip off for his pleasure, but then from the way his cock felt already, she didn’t need to stimulate him much. “Do it.”
Smiling, giving him just a bit of what he asked for, she slowly worked at the covered buttons on her long-sleeved pajama top. Pop! The top button came loose, letting the fabric slide away, tease him with a touch of cleavage that really wasn’t all that much in the scheme of things…wouldn’t have gotten him hot as a firecracker if he hadn’t known how sensitive those small, round globes were, how tight her rosy nipples got at his slightest touch.
She tackled the next button, then the next. His breath caught in his throat when she let the dark-green material slide down her satiny arms, over her fingers to puddle on the floor. “Come here and let me play.”
When she moved closer he smelled her arousal—unmistakable. She wanted him, probably as much as he wanted her. He fondled her sex through the silk of her pajama bottoms, found her wet, warm. Her labia felt puffy, swollen, incredibly inviting.
If he didn’t get inside her soon, he damn sure would explode.
“Now?”
“What?”
“Do you want me naked now?” Her question poured over him like honey, inflamed him even more.
“Oh, yeah. Get those PJ’s off and come here. I’m so damn hungry.”
His tongue felt like velvet on her pussy. Hot and soft and ever so arousing. Andi spread her legs farther apart to give him better access. The familiar pressure built inside her, growing and expanding in every direction until she could barely breathe and her heart beat in double-time. It was going to take very little of this to make her come. “Gray!”
He looked up at her, his eye dark with passion. “What?”
“I’m gonna come. Jesus, it’s been forever.”
“Three weeks, four hours, and…”
“Too damn many minutes. Lie back and let me fuck you.”
“Not a chance. This time I’m doing the fucking. And you’re going to love it.”
“Gray, you promised you’d let me—”
“Sssh, baby. I changed my mind. Do what I say.”
She obeyed, both of them trembling as he flipped her to her back.
Taking control, he mounted her, and pushed inside her until he felt her silky outer lips caressing his scrotum. “Feel good?”
“Oh, yes. Yes, yes, yesss. Gray, I’m coming. Come with me.”
He pulled back once, twice, three times, pounding her harder with every stroke. The twinges in his back hardly registered, and when she clamped down on him and convulsed around his heated flesh, he let go and shot his load. Over and over, spurting jets of hot seed that felt different. More complete.
The afterglow stayed with him for hours as he cradled Andi in his arms. This time, his homecoming had been all sweet. No fear. And no more bitterness for what he’d lost, for he’d found his home…his heart…his love.
Epilogue
Eight months later
Andi lay back against the cushions and watched Gray and Brett playing water polo in their pool with Kristine and Tony. She’d have joined them, but Brett’s little sister was doing cartwheels in her belly and it felt too good, just lying here and feeling the sun bringing out freckles on her sensitive skin. Besides, she needed the practice of watching out for a baby, and little Anthony was definitely a good subject. He never stayed still unless he was sleeping, which he was doing now in the playpen beside her.
Gray leapt up to catch Brett’s pass, making Andi smile. Though he wasn’t a hundred percent and never would be, the surgery had gotten rid of his awful pain—and given him back enough muscle control that he’d been able to trade in the heavy braces he’d worn for lighter, more flexible ones. She couldn’t remember the last time he’d resorted to the wheelchair, and as often as not he used just one forearm crutch to steady himself.
“Are you okay?” Kristine asked, wrapping herself in a big towel and sinking into a chair beside her son’s playpen. “Anthony has a way of wearing a person out.”
“I’m fine. Just looking forward to the baby being born. I don’t recall that Brett was quite this active.”
Kristine smiled. “The last months are the hardest. I’d like to ask you something, but feel free to tell me to mind my own business. You had to have gotten pregnant awfully soon after Gray’s surgery.”
Andi laughed. “Three weeks after, if you want the exact date.”
“Oh. I’ve never known exactly when we conceived Anthony—or this one. Did you…?
“No. We did it the old-fashioned way. I found out four weeks later when we went in to have Sam Kramer do the artificial insemination with Gray’s sperm. He had a long laugh when he saw the result of the pregnancy test he always has done before he does one of his fertility procedures.”
“I bet Gray was thrilled.”
“Oh, yeah. I’d thought he couldn’t get any cockier than he’d been that week already, after beating Marcy in his first criminal trial. When he heard his surgery had resulted in restoring his fertility as well as getting rid of his chronic pain, he was walking on air.”
“Wow! Are you going back to work, or has Gray persuaded you to become a stay-home mom?”
“I don’t know. Right now we’ve compromised. I’ll be starting a six-month leave of absence next week, and we’ll decide after the baby’s born whether to make the retirement permanent. Like Sandra, I’ve been working a long time. She’s beginning to go stir-crazy staying home, even with baby number two on the way.” At the moment Andi was leaning toward retirement, but she imagined she might change her mind once she was no longer toting around thirty extra pounds with summer lurking just over the horizon.
“Sandra’s going to work for Winston Roe. Tony told me this afternoon. She’s going to work three days a week.”
“How?” Judges were notoriously unsympathetic with lawyers whose schedules had to be catered to—especially defense lawyers.
“She’s going to do research and negotiate plea agreements. That way she can keep a regular schedule. More regular than the trial lawyers keep, anyhow.”
“Tell me about it. Gray’s taken six cases to trial in the past three months. I wish he’d been able to plead some of them out.”
Tony came up behind Kristine, scooped her out of the chair and into his arms. “What are you two scheming about now?” he asked, his trademark grin as wide now as it was when he was zeroing in on an unsuspecting witness.
“Nothing. I was just telling Andi that Sandra will be joining your firm. And that I hoped her being there would give you more time for me and Anthony.”
Brett scampered into the house, signaling Andi that it was four o’clock—time for his favorite cartoon show. Gray heaved himself out of the pool, shaking off his wet hair before grabbing his crutches and joining Andi on the couch.
“What were you two talking about?” he asked.
“About Sandra coming to work with you and Tony,” Andi said, sitting up and planting a long, hard kiss on his smiling lips. “And about how much has changed since this time last year…since you came home. Have I told you lately how much I love you, how glad I am that we’re finally a family?”
“Oh, yeah. You let me know every night.” He lowered his voice and spoke close to Andi’s ear. “I love you, and our son, and this little girl who can’t seem to quit pounding her mommy’s belly.” Gray laid his hand over the mound that was their baby and looked over at Tony and Kristine. His contentment was evident in his smile. “I love my job and my life, and having good friends like you two have become.”
The lines had softened around his mouth and eye. His scars, though still visible enough to make strangers stare, were fading. Even the eye patch looked less stark, almost as though he wore it to make a statement instead of to cover the evidence of horrors that never would completely fade. Andi loved the way he smiled now, often and sincerely. The taut, fit tone of his deeply tanned skin made her want to stroke its satiny surface. She loved the forceful yet tender way he loved her—his protectiveness, attentiveness.
Andi could hardly wait to have their baby. Gray’s gentle, loving touch made her feel cherished—but she longed to see his eye darken with passion again. Hear him tell her what he wanted in that deep, mesmerizing tone she loved so well. Immerse herself in him until she existed only to serve him, to earn the exquisite pleasure he gave her as her reward for accepting his dominance.
Yes, she was lucky. Very lucky indeed. It had taken eight years of waiting, but her weekend fling had grown into a love to last a lifetime.
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Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.