Page 25 of Rough Patch

“What the hell are you doing?” She stood and her nostrils flared when he stood between her and her plate. “I’m hungry. I have a baby to feed.”

He nodded and smiled. “Yes. And tonight, we’re feeding him something better than greasy sandwiches and iced tea.”

Too little. Too late. “Grier, I want my greasy sandwich and my iced tea, and I want to go to bed. Please.” There was a bite to her tone that must have swayed him because he set her plate in front of her.

He sat across from her. “I don’t know what to do here, Fi. I want to help, to make up for—” he looked down, “—not being there today. Tell me what to do.”

She stared at him, saw the fear in his eyes, the worry, the pain. And she closed her eyes. “There’s nothing we can do. We just have to wait.”

He nodded and scooted his chair closer to hers then took her face in his hands. “I keep messing this up, but I’m gonna be here, beside you. No matter what. Good or bad.”

He had his arms around her and held her. And for the first time in a long time, she felt home.

* * *

The longest three days of his life. He’d spent every moment with Fiona, absorbing every emotion she let loose on him, mostly anger, but enough sadness mixed in and he couldn’t do much more than worry and try to soothe her. Not that she’d been very receptive to the idea. More than once, she’d pushed him away and he worried about the wall she was building between them. Not that he hadn’t played his part, but it still hurt to have her so close and so far away.

Now he waited as she spoke quietly to the doctor on the phone. “Okay… okay… thank you.” She hung up and turned to him. “Baby’s fine.” A slow smile spread across her face as she threw her arms around him and wet his throat with her tears. “She’s fine.”

“She?” A daughter or hope for a daughter?

“It’s a girl.” The elation in her voice made him laugh.

“A girl.” And when Fiona looked up at him, nothing else in the world mattered but his family. He kissed her cheek first, felt her soft skin under his lips and lingered before he moved down the line of her jaw, around to her chin and to her mouth. Oh, God. He hadn’t kissed her in weeks, months and while every kiss had felt new and exciting before, this one was better, familiar, and perfect, and a hundred-percent Fiona.

She kissed him like a woman starving for affection, like someone who needed to be touched and held and loved. She pulled back and stared up at him as she lifted his shirt and pushed it up until he grabbed the collar and yanked it over his head. Then she sealed their lips together, pressured his mouth open with her tongue and let it dance with his while her hands explored his skin.

There were a hundred things he wanted to say, that he needed her to know, but the exquisiteness of her kisses, of her body pressed against his, of the whimpers in her throat, kept him quiet in the moment with her. Needing her. Wanting her.

He swung her into his arms, never breaking the kiss, and carried her to the bedroom. He hadn’t slept with her in… too long. Much too long. And she had on so many clothes; a sweater he dispensed with quickly, a shirt underneath that he took his time unbuttoning, kissing every inch of newly revealed skin, an ugly tan bra he was happy to see go, pants with a drawstring that made him ridiculously happy, and a pair of underwear that on anyone else would look ridiculous, but on Fiona made his dick hard enough to mine diamonds.

Fuck, he wanted her, in every way imaginable. He kissed her nipple, swirled his tongue until the nub hardened then sucked it into his mouth. When she gasped, he tried to pull away, but she held his head with her hands tangled in his hair. And he’d never been happier to be held.

“Oh, Grier,” she sighed his name, and he lifted his head. “No, please don’t stop.”

He smiled and kissed her softly on the side of her mouth. “Oh, I’m not stopping.” She’d be lucky if he let her out of bed at all the rest of the day. “I just want to look at my beautiful wife.”

He ran a hand over her rounded stomach and let it settle just over her belly button. “And our perfect baby.”

She pinched her lips together. “You are going to have to work on your dirty talk.” She pushed him onto his back and climbed on top of him. “Talking about the baby right now isn’t a big turn on.” Her fingers slipped the top button of his pants free but from his view, it looked a lot more seductive than opening a button. “What I’d like to talk about is what I plan to do to my husband to make him smile.”

“Ooh. I like that subject.” He liked more that she pushed his hands over his head and held them there as she nibbled his lower lip.

“Yeah?” She climbed off him.

“Don’t like that.” He reached for her and she slapped his hands away. “Come back.” Being desperate and horny made his voice an octave higher.

“I will. Just be patient.” Her fingers made short work of the buttons to his pants then his boxers. “Now that is how I like to see you.”

“Hard?”

“Oh yeah. And naked. You should definitely be hard and naked more.” She walked across the room to her dresser and opened a drawer, whatever she withdrew hidden behind her back, then came back to stand beside the bed.

“Trust me, I’m hard most of the time I’m with you.” Even recently, when he hadn’t felt worthy of her, he’d not been able to control his reaction to having her so near.

She smiled and the room got brighter. “You should mention it. I could help with that.”

“I’ll make a note.” She sat beside him and pulled a scarf from behind her back.