“I don’t know why I’m crying, you’re obviously fine.” I roughly wiped my cheeks. “I’m just pregnant and tired and my house is so far from being put back together and—” I hiccupped again. “You had so much blood on your face.”
“I know. I’m sorry it was scary.”
I sniffled.
“You’re the one who’s hurt, you shouldn’t have to be comforting me.” We both gave little laughs, mine pitiful.
“Thanks for worrying about me,” he whispered. Junior decided it was a good time to make his appearance, walking up the front of the pregnancy pillow and demanding I scratch him. “I think Junior worried about me, too.”
“It’s so crooked that he likes you more than he likes me. I saved him from the literal streets, paid his vet bills, nurtured him back to health.”
“He doesn’t like me more,” Barry denied, but Junior was purring extra loud now that he could see Barry on the screen. “He’s just got recency bias.”
I closed my eyes, still smiling, the emotional roller coaster of the evening thoroughly caught up to me. I didn’t even try to say goodbye, certain he would say he wanted to stay on. And if he didn’t, I might have asked on my own.
As my breathing evened out, I knew he’d have said yes.
CHAPTER 29
HOMECOMING (PART 2)
I knew Barry was coming home in the middle of the night and went to sleep excited to see him the next morning—only, I woke a few hours later to the press of gentle kisses on my bare shoulder.
“Barry?” I asked, still half asleep.
“Hi,” he said, and kissed me. I was too tired for it to be well-coordinated, but he didn’t seem to mind. “I missed you.”
I didn’t tell him I missed him too, it felt obvious that I did. I tried to make out his face in the shadows of the dark room, not quite able to see where he had stitches beneath a bandage. He smelled like him—that warm, woodsy smell that had become so comforting to me—and I wanted to press my face directly into his neck and inhale.
When did that happen? When did being near him start to feel necessary?
“What were you dreaming about?”
“What?” I blinked, my eyes still bleary.
He lowered his voice to a whisper. “You were moaning in your sleep.”
I covered my face with my hands, embarrassed though he couldn’t see me clearly in the darkness. He chuckled, lightly shushing me while scooting closer behind me. I didn’t remember my dream, only that I had been having lots of sex dreams about Barry, usually involving me wearing a nightgown I did not own and his large hands sliding said garment up my thighs. Among other things.
“I was dreaming about a very good meal,” I said into the night.
“I’ll bet,” he whispered, then lightly kissed my ear and back down my neck and shoulder. His hand brushed over my stomach, down my hip, my thigh, my calf, all with quiet reverence before following the path back up. He squeezed one breast, then spanned his whole hand across my chest, feeling me breathe for a moment before sliding down and beneath my shirt, his skin casting goosebumps all over mine. My breathing had gone shallow, little puffs of breath with the tension settling heavy in the air around us. In contrast, his breath left him like an unsteady engine, rattling out of him while his caresses moved from featherlight to firm—a hunger in his touch that made me dizzy.
He pressed light kisses down the side of my neck, almost chaste, a dozen little pecks to my skin, but they grew longer, then punctuated with a light lick of his tongue between each. They made me lightheaded and horny, my pussy clenching, aching for him to justtouch me there.
“Barry.”
“I missed you,” he repeated before I could beg.
“You already said that.”
“No, I mean that I really,reallymissed you. Every time I go on a road trip, I wish I could bring you with me. Keep you nearby. Sleep in bed with you after every game.”
“Because you miss having sex with me?” I asked, not nearly so bold as I sounded. I felt his laugh puff against my neck, and my eyes fluttered shut at the sensation.
“That, sure, but not nearly as much as I miss everything else about you.”
“Like what?” I managed, even with his fingers pinching my sensitive nipples in a way so distracting I’m amazed I could speak at all.
