Our breaths were ragged as we stared into each other’s eyes, our foreheads touching, my dick already swelling for round two.
“So what now?” she asked between pants.
“Well, we have a couple choices.” My fingers bit into the soft skin of her hips. Of course, I needed her again. I never got enough of her.
“I’m listening.” She swirled her hips.
“Either you move in with me,” I offered with a kiss. “Or we need to go furniture shopping. We’ll pop that air mattress in a heartbeat.”
She laughed. “I don’t know. I mean, I already unpacked the glasses.”
“Truly a sacrifice.” I kissed her nose, her cheeks, and finally her lips.
“I choose you. Your place. Your heart. All of it.” She kissed me sweetly. “As long as I have you, I’m good with anything. You get traded, we’ll go. You want to visit South Carolina, I’ll make sure my dad doesn’t bust in on us in my bedroom.”
I laughed, my heart lighter than it had ever been. “Actually, I took the house off the market. So your dad will have to know the gate code before he busts in on us when we visit.”
“Even better.” Her smile was brilliant. “Now let’s go pop the air mattress. Just for fun.” Her eyebrows wiggled, and I shook my head at how much I loved her.
Then I took her to the bedroom.
The air mattress didn’t make it.
We did.
Epilogue
Savannah
Three Years Later
Laughter filled Hendrix’s and my home as I hurried around the kitchen, preparing snacks as quickly as I could. We had a full house today, and Hendrix was already in the backyard on the grill. I was covering the snacks and drinks. Teagan and Roman and their daughter Rosa had come up for a visit, as had Nixon and Liberty, Nicole now toddling her way around the backyard.
I shimmied my way through the sliding glass door, smiling at our little tight-knit family as I set out the chips and drinks on the glass table underneath the patio awning. I relished the sound of my friends’ laughter and the soft giggles of the children. We were celebrating the official adoption of Rosa by Teagan and Roman, but I couldn't help but beam for another reason.
A secret reason.
My world shifting once again—even though it had been the best three years of my life. I had settled perfectly into my job with the Hurricanes, my best friend doing her thing with the Reapers, and my husband, Hendrix maintaining his best wide receiver in the NFL title.
Life was perfect.
Absolutely perfect.
And of course that meant everything was about to change.
I took a minute to appreciate the gorgeousness of my husband, the way his jeans hugged his muscular thighs, the way that white T-shirt hugged every inch of his gorgeous chest. Showed off the muscles beneath, even with the black apron slung over it. He clicked the tongs back and forth, laughing at something Roman had said. But his eyes snagged on Nicole running away, giggling as Nixon chased her.
I crossed the distance, sneaking up behind Hendrix to run my fingers over his back.
"You look happy," I said as he turned around to hug me.
He set down the tongs on the counter beside the grill, closing the lid so the heat wouldn't get to us. "How could I not be? I have the best wife in the world, and I finally got my old teammates to come hang out with us. "
"We have made this a quarterly thing," Nixon chimed up from where he chased his baby girl around the yard.
"Still not an everyday thing," Hendrix teased.
"We can’t all get traded," Roman teased. "Some of us actually like being Raptors."
Where those words used to sting, nothing but love radiated from him now. Hendrix was absolutely happy with his team, as I was with life here. The life we’d built together.
I swallowed a ball of apprehension, smoothing my hand over my still flat stomach. Watching as Hendrix’s blue eyes lit up as he continued to watch Nixon play with Nicole in the backyard.
Hendrix worked his hand down my back, holding me close. "Maybe it's time we start thinking about our own family," he whispered in my ear, and I had to bite back my smile as he looked down at me. "What?" he asked. "I think you would look phenomenal carrying our child. Not to mention if we have a boy, he’ll be a shoe-in for wide receiver. And if we have a girl, she’ll be the biggest little badass we've ever seen."
Tears threatened to fill my eyes, but I shook my head.
"What is it baby?" he asked suddenly, concern filling his eyes.
I grabbed his hand and smoothed it over my belly, grinning up at him. "You always have to be first, don't you?" I teased.
For a few seconds, he didn't understand, confusion coloring his eyes. But then something hit him over the head, and he jolted, looking from my stomach to me and back again.