comfortable. Like a hug.
I padded back into the bedroom. I gasped softly when I realized Auggie was already there, standing large and imposing in the already large and imposing room.
He had his back to me. He wore only pants, the black dress pants that made up his official royal uniform of Aldayne. The muscles in his back rippled under the skin as he reached for a shirt. In a flash, I remembered how he had lifted me up in his arms in that barn in Georgia. He carried me through the pouring rain, dodging dangerous lightning, to get me to a doctor, to save me and my little Peanut.
I thought back to the moment when he had wrenched Christopher off me after his ruthless and unnecessary attack. Auggie was my hero. My protector. He was every bit a prince.
He was every bit a king. My king.
I was saying no to this, why?
“Hello,” I said softly.
He turned to face me. “Hello,” he repeated. It still caused a chill to surge through my body.
I unwrapped the towel slowly before I let it fall on the floor. His eyes darkened as he approached. I took him readily into my open arms.
“Do you have an answer for me?”
“I want to be yours,” I said simply.
He lifted me up, wrapping me around his strong body. “You already are.” He punctuated his proclamation with a blazing kiss as he walked us back over to the bed. We toppled together, in a tangle of arms and legs. His possessive kiss could not be denied.
I ran my fingers across his skin. Though we had yet to make love, there wasn’t an inch of his body I didn’t know personally. When he broke our kiss to nuzzle my sensitive, delicate neck, I did likewise. Our hunger had mounted over the past few months, intensified by a growing need to be completely one. When I wrapped my legs around his waist, he groaned. I knew he could feel the heat from my body through the fine fabric of his trousers.
He growled as he kissed me hard, rubbing his hardened body against me until I whimpered underneath him. His beard raked across my skin as he buried his face near my ear. “I would give anything to be inside you,” he murmured. My whole body shuddered. “But I won’t risk Jack.”
I watched him as he lifted away. His concern only made me love him more.
He spread his large hand over my baby bump. Our baby bump. “Save your answer,” he murmured. “You were right to be concerned. This life comes with many complications. A good mother would have reservations. You’re a good mother, Pea. And a good woman. You’re worth the wait,” he said as he bent to kiss me softly. Tenderly. He held up my right hand where his mother’s ring now rested. “Wear it here until you’ve decided.”
I clasped his hand with mine. That he understood where I was coming from inched me so much closer to ‘yes’ than he even knew.
“No matter what you decide, you don’t have to do any of this alone. You’re mine. This baby is mine. Forever.”
When he bent for a kiss, I pulled him back down on top of me. He crushed me against him as our need for each other set us both on fire. With great difficulty, he tore himself away. “Should I fly Dr. Hamish to Ademar?” he smirked.
I giggled. My next appointment would tell the tale of whether we could resume a physical relationship. I would get my next sonogram, which should give Dr. Hamish an idea if the placenta was still located too close to the cervix.
If it even remotely risked Jack, sex was out of the question. Even with a prince. Even with the man I loved.
“I’m already scheduled to see her on Friday,” I dismissed easily. “There’s no need.”
He rubbed himself against me, his body so hard and full of promise. “Oh, there’s a need,” he growled.
I ran my hand down his body. “Let me take care of it,” I said, my hand closing around the impossibly hard shaft I could feel through his pants.
He pushed my hand away. “Not until you are cleared for me to take care of you,” he said. “If you have to wait, so can I.”
I hugged him close. “I love you, Auggie.”
He lifted my face to look into my eyes. “And I love you, my princess. My queen.”
I shuddered again as he kissed me. It was a long, tender, explorative