His Distraction (Assured Distraction Book 2) (26 page)

“She’s not that bad. She slept a lot when she got home from work in the beginning, but she seems right as rain now, especially after she finished her first trimester.”

“Yeah, about that, Hayden. I told her that Peri and I would start coming over once a week to have dinner with her and do shit she needed to be taken care of before the baby was born.” He studied Peri for confirmation of his statement, and she simply nodded her head.

He hadn’t mentioned this to Peri. She was surprised that he made the suggestion. Maybe he did care about his ex and the baby more than he let on, which came as a surprise, too. She knew if the baby were his, he would care for it. But he had loved Krissy before, so would having the baby bring them back together eventually? What about
her
baby? She could see Krissy now, trying her best to entice him back into her life, and maybe even back to her bed. Peri trusted him, but if Krissy were the mother of his child, they would bond over the baby. Would he bond with their child as well?
Stop it, Peri. You’re freaking yourself out at something that hasn’t even happened yet.

“That would be good. She’d probably like having the company now, and I won’t feel guilty about not going home after work.” Hayden had a big smile on his face.

“Dude, it is not your responsibility to care for and entertain her. She’s a grown-ass woman and can entertain herself.”

“I know, I know, but I don’t mind. Now that she’s better, she cooks pretty good. Some of that shit, though. Ugh! I don’t even know what the hell it is until she tells me, and then I’m afraid not to eat it ‘cause it’ll piss her off. She’s got a temper, you know.”

Everyone at the table started laughing. They had all been the recipient of Krissy’s outbursts at some point.

“Hayden, you don’t have to put up with her bullshit. Just walk away.” Ryan knew he owed a lot to Hayden and now was the time to step up. He supposed the once a week thing might need to be more often the closer she got to delivery.

“It’s fine, really.”

Peri listened to this banter and complaints about Krissy’s faults and decided maybe she had read his decision all wrong. He didn’t seem that excited to spend the time with her but knew it was the right thing to do. She felt better than when she first learned the news. But some of the nagging thoughts were still running around in her brain.

They reminisced for the remainder of the evening about their times in Europe and contemplated details about the upcoming tour. Peri was not excited about telling the group and Cash about her pregnancy. No one even brought up Krissy’s baby, so she wanted to let that go for now and enjoy the evening, but the heat and the fried food smell set her hormone-sensitive stomach turning. She hated the feeling but what could she do?

When the waiter slid steaming hot pizza on the table, the pepperoni ended up directly in front of Peri. It was dripping with its usual orange grease, and she felt an instant wave of nausea at the sight of it. The smell alone was enough to make her stomach churn. She immediately jumped up and said, “I think I’ll wash my hands before I eat.” She almost ran so Chandler decided to follow her out of the booth.

“Yeah, I think I’ll go, too, before I start on that greasy monstrosity.”

In the restroom, Chandler heard distinct sounds of gagging before Peri exited her stall to wipe her mouth at the sink. Chandler watched every move in the mirror.

“What?” Peri asked, questioning the stare Chandler gave her.

“You tell me, Peri. You haven’t told Ryan yet, have you?”

“Told Ryan what?”

“Peri, you can’t lie for shit, girl. You’ve lost weight, but your boobs are bigger and perkier than ever. You always wore your shirts tight, but now they are straining the buttons, which I’m sure the guys are enjoying. You’re throwing up at the smell of something that you’d normally find delicious. Ryan said you’re tired all the time. I’m not an expert on all of this, but all these signs only point to one thing. How long have you known?”

Peri exhaled a deep breath and viewed Chandler’s reflection as she wiped her mouth. “Since we went to the ER. The doctor ran the test with all of the others but Ryan wasn’t in the room when he told me.” She was not ready to share this news with the others, but it felt good to be finally able to talk to someone about it, and she knew Chandler would never divulge anything.

“Why are you keeping it a secret? Y’all are in love and living together, so what’s the problem?” Chandler knew she was prying, but her concern for her friend holding in this huge secret warranted it.

“I don’t know. He’s never told me he loved me. Yes, we are great together, and we enjoy all of our time together, but love? I don’t know about that. He’s already dealing with all of Krissy’s stupid shit. He’s going to have two babies, three months apart. I guess…I guess I’m afraid.” A lone tear escaped down her cheek as she turned to Chandler, who wrapped her arms around her.

“You have nothing to be afraid of, Peri. Have you seen the way he looks at you? I’ve seen it a lot, and let me tell you, the guy is in love even if he hasn’t professed it to you yet. He loves you, and he’ll love this baby. I guess the question is, do you love him as much as I think you do?”

Tears streamed down Peri’s face. “Damn hormones.” She swiped at the tears. “Yes, I do love him. I love everything about him, Chandler. He’s kind and thoughtful in everything he does for me. He’s completely generous with his time. He always puts me first in everything he thinks about doing. And then there’s the way he makes love to me. I can’t even come close to explaining how great a lover he is.”

Maybe they could do this. Maybe Chandler was right, but she needed to hear those reassuring words from Ryan - when he was ready to say them - to feel good about this pregnancy.

“I can’t help but worry about how this is all going to appear - two babies, by two different women – born so close together?”

“Who cares what anyone else thinks? As long as you two are happy, and your baby is healthy, who gives a flying fuck what others think?” Chandler patted Peri on the back. “It’s going to be fine; things have a way of working themselves out. With everything that’s happened to me this year, and you’re worried about this?” Chandler gave her worried friend a pointed look as if either of them needed to rehash the rollercoaster Chandler’s life had been on in the past several months. She continued, “But you’re going to have to find a way to tell him soon, Peri. Y’all have a lot to plan for, and you need time before things start to pick up with the new album and the next tour…” She reached over and wiggled her index finger between the strained buttons of Peri’s blouse. “Besides, he’s going to notice these soon enough. I bet he’s going to love it.” Chandler smiled at Peri, and she nodded her head with a half-hearted smirk.

“Yes, I’m sure he will. I promise I’m going to tell him soon. We better get back to the table before they eat all of the pizza. Hmm… that could be a good thing for me.” She cringed and then laughed as she opened the door.

“Yes, the gluttonous pigs, they are!” The two made their way back to the booth and found most of the pizza devoured, and Peri was silently thankful she was able to sit at the table without turning green. She put a slice on a plate and picked at the outer crust. That was her favorite part anyway, so maybe no one would notice she failed to eat it all.

Ryan followed Peri home, and they walked in together. “Hey, I wanted to talk to you about what I told everyone about Krissy’s night each week.”

“Okay…” As much as she did not want to
have
a “Krissy’s night”, she would rather skip hearing any more about it and just go to bed. She decided she needed to be supportive, so she sat down next to him on the sofa.

Ryan repeated the conversation for Peri, which ended with him still not believing he was the father of Krissy’s baby.

“How can you be so sure, though, Ryan? Y’all were sleeping together.”

“Yeah, but hardly before we left for Europe. She knew we were leaving again, and that was her way of letting me know what I was going to be missing. To top it all off, she was supposed to be taking the pill.”

Her not doing what she said made him even angrier. They discussed it and agreed to their birth control method early in their relationship. He never forgot to wrap it, and Krissy was the first woman he had gone bareback with, but only after she showed him the pill packet. She assured him that she was a regular at taking them as prescribed, and she had no interest in getting pregnant anytime soon. He wanted children eventually, but not when he was this young. Not when he was trying to kick off a music career, and certainly not with someone that he had a tumultuous relationship.

“You know pills aren’t a hundred percent, though, right?”

“Yeah, I know, but we were together over a year, and it had never happened, so why now? I’ve thought about her doing it on purpose, to try and force me to quit the band, but as I’ve said before, that’s never going to happen.” He pulled her close to him and kissed her softly on the lips.

“Now when we have babies and don’t get me wrong, I want to have babies with you, Sunshine, we will be taking them with us until they start school and then we might have private tutors on the road with us during the school year.” She laughed at him openly but cringed inside.

“Uh, well. I think you are getting a little ahead of yourself, aren’t you?”

“No, I don’t think so. I mean, I do want to have my children with me when I travel. I don’t want to miss out on their childhood.” Ryan’s answers were heartfelt and sincere.

Not wanting to make this seem as though they were doing anything more than dreaming of the future, Peri played along with his flow of conversation.

“Is that so? Do I not get any say so in this matter?” He took Peri’s teasing in jest. Peri did not. She knew this might be a good time to spill about their little nugget growing inside her, but she was still hesitant.

“Sure you do. You can interview and hire the nannies.” He laughed out loud at his disingenuous answer.

“Oh, really?” She leaned in and kissed him sliding her tongue over his bottom lip seeking entrance, which he gladly gave. She did not want this talk to go any further.

Ryan pulled her to straddle his lap and slid his hand under her shirt, pushing it up as he tugged the demi cups down to bare her nipples. It felt so good to touch her and have her so responsive to him. She moaned when he gave the slightest touch or tug on the hoops in her stiff peaks.

“Babe, you’re nipples are super tight, and I fucking love this bra. I swear it pushes your tits up making them huge.” Peri’s mind started reeling. How could she respond without telling him?

He kissed down her neck, starting below her chin working his way to the buttons, abandoning her full breasts just long enough to relieve the buttons of their duty. Peri’s desire for him escalated rapidly, and she could hardly wait for him to get his clothes off. She ground her core against his erection creating friction where they both needed it the most, but it wasn’t enough. Not wanting to wait for him to undress her, she started working her jeans. She wore her clothes tight but was thankful everything was still mostly fitting.

“Fucking hot for me, babe?” he asked, kissing her lips again. “Let’s get out of all this.”

“Yes, please, Ryan. Now.” She started divesting him of his clothes, as well. “It’s been too long.” She stripped off everything and as soon as he pulled his jeans off his feet and leaned back, she straddled his lap. Without the encumbrance of clothes between them, she again rode long strokes up and down his thickness.

“Slow down, babe.” He tried to control her movements by taking her hips. He leaned her back enough to take her nipple in his mouth. Her tits were perfect already, but what the hell happened to them? They felt fuller when he palmed them-
Damn!
He was fucking in love with them as he buried his face between them kissing every bit of skin his lips touched.

Peri was having none of it, though. Her raging hormones wanted to dictate how this was happening. She wrapped her hands around his swollen, rock hard cock and pumped up and down the smooth skin until the head was dripping with pre-cum. She gathered his wetness with her thumb as she stroked back down the length of him with a tight squeeze the way she knew he liked. He moaned appreciatively from between her breasts.

With him still lavishing kisses and bites to her tits, she rose up and lowered herself on him. They both paused for a moment and gasped, and then their lovemaking turned into a frenzy of hungry movements. It was a plain and simple, hard fuck and she loved every solid minute of it. She could not seem to get enough of him, another side effect Ryan would enjoy.

Since he had taken control of her hips, she took control of manipulating the rings in her nipples. “Damn babe, I love it when you work to get yourself off.” His thumbs found their way to her clit and applied enough friction and pressure to send her headlong into a hard, rough orgasm that seemed to last forever.
This
was a side effect she would enjoy. He always made her come, but now, it was an entirely different degree of orgasm.

He continued to hold himself off, though. “Damn, Peri, that was beautiful. I want you to come again.” Slower this time, he lifted her hips and pulled her slick sheath back down on him. The more times he pressed inside her, the more she began to take over her movements again, until she was grinding down and rolling her hips first forward and then in a circular motion, working to touch every sensitive spot of her pulsing walls.

It didn’t take long before they were both cresting in the nirvana they were chasing at their wild pace. Screaming his name, she came again, releasing her orgasmic cream over his swelling cock.

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck, Peri!” He yelled and joined her in the euphoric pleasure they had only experienced with each other.

She fell forward onto his chest, and he wrapped his arms around her body pulling her close. “God, Peri that was something else. I fucking love it when you get all aggressive like that.”

“Dayummm. That was great.” She agreed between panting breaths. “That’s all I can say right now.” Ryan kissed her forehead, he laid them over on the sofa and reached for the soft throw blanket on the back.

Waking up several hours later, Ryan stood up and scooped her from the sofa and carried her to bed. When Peri woke up the next morning, she was lying on her back with Ryan was sprawled out face down on the bed with his arm stretched across her middle. She felt alright but hungry, and she knew that was never a good way to wake up. She slipped quietly from the bed and headed downstairs to the kitchen. She decided on some tea and toast to sooth her stomach, and she prayed he would sleep long enough for her to get it down so she wouldn’t have to explain her early morning snack.

Unfortunately, the smell of toast woke him. He slid on gym shorts and came down for coffee, but there wasn’t any made. “No coffee, Sunshine?” he asked, a touch of his sexy East Texas accent carrying his confusion.

“No, since you weren’t up I didn’t want to make a pot, so I decided to have tea instead.” She kept her eyes on the toast on her plate as she spoke.

“Oh, Okay,” was all he said. He could sense something was wrong. She always made coffee for them both. She was addicted to coffee like it was crack. He hadn’t been getting up with her every morning but on the days they were up together, she made coffee. How long ago had it been since they’d gotten out of the habit?

He sat down across from her and pulled her hand over to him. He wanted her to face him. “Peri.” He waited for her eyes.

“What?” she said quietly.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“What do you mean? Nothing. I was hungry so I got up.”

“That’s not what I mean, Peri. You fucking love coffee, and you’re not drinking it.”

“So, I can drink other stuff, too.” She dropped her eyes to the plate.

“Look at me, babe.” She slowly raised her eyes to his. “Last night when they sat the pizza in front of you, your face turned an awful shade of green, and you almost ran to get away from it.” Now that he thought about it, he was getting nervous. Something was wrong; he could feel it. Still holding her hand, he moved around to kneel next to her chair and turned her face toward his.

“Babe? Please, tell me what it is. Whatever is wrong, we’ll face it together.” All kinds of horrid illnesses were running through his mind. Did that doctor in the ER tell her something when they were there? Had she been to the doctor without telling him since then? Panic was beginning to set in.

“Peri? Please, baby. You’re starting to freak me out.” His voice sounded pitiful to her. She knew he was worried.

“I’m fine, Ryan, but I do have something to tell you.”

Jumping up, he paced the floor, his worry spilling over the edge as he started ranting and raving. “I knew it. I fucking knew it. Babe, whatever is wrong, we’ll deal with it together. We can find the best doctors. We’ll go to Houston if we need to. The best doctors in the world are there.” He was pacing the floor, talking, and waving his arms, anxiety all over his face.

She stood and grabbed his hand to stop his frantic pacing. “Ryan, calm down. I’m fine, I promise.”

“Just tell me, Babe. I can take it. Together, we can do anything. What is it? I just need to know you’re okay before I flip out here.”

Smiling, she held his hand and put it on her tiny little bump and looked back at his face. “I’m pregnant, Ryan. We’re having a baby, in about thirty-four or so weeks.”

He paused for a moment searching her eyes as her news sunk in, his nerves and panic melted away as a joyful grin overtook his handsome face. “Oh, Thank You, God! I thought you were dying or something. A baby, we can do a baby, but I can’t lose you, Babe. I can’t fucking lose you.” He picked her up and swung her around as relief washed over him. Finally setting her down, he gazed into her face. “We’re having a baby,” he whispered reverently, as though it finally dawned on him what she told him.

“Yes, we are having a baby, and I’m as shocked as you are.” Sitting down, she started to cry a little, relieved of the weight of her secret. She explained about her blockage and what she had been told by her LA doctor years earlier.

“How long have you known, babe? Have you been to a doctor yet? We need to find out what’s wrong. You’re sick all the time, aren’t you? That’s what’s been going on. Hey, is this what that prick doctor in the ER told you?” Now the odd things that happened over the last few weeks started to make sense to him: the doctor kicking him out of the ER exam room, all her prolonged nausea and fatigue.
Why didn’t she simply tell him?

“Yes, he couldn’t tell me with you in the room because we weren’t married. And after my initial shock, I convinced him that even though it was your baby, to let me tell you on my own. And he suggested I get to the doctor soon, too. I have my first appointment at the beginning of next week.”

“Fuck me. I’m having two babies at the same time.” Tears burned the backs of her eyes, and she tried to blink them away. The reaction was not the one she wanted from him. She could see the wheels turning in his head.

“I was hoping to keep it from Krissy as long as we can. I don’t want to cause more trouble for you, and I don’t want to steal her thunder with her baby.”

“Peri, I understand you don’t want to cause a problem with Krissy, and it’s very generous of you to feel that way, but why should we not tell everyone our fantastic news?”

“Is it fantastic, Ryan? Are you truly happy about it? I know it’s not what we planned, and it’s poor timing for the band and all.”

“There is never a poor time to have a baby. My mom always said babies were gifts from God, and our little one will be no different.” He rubbed his hand over her still flat tummy.