I woke up when Cole lifted me andcarried me inside. I heard Chief’s claws clack on the hardwood as he followedus through the dark house. I didn’t want to open my eyes to see the overturnedfurniture or any other proof of my earlier ordeal. Instead, I wanted to slideinto oblivion--which is exactly what I did when Cole placed me into bed.
When I woke up, sunlight was streamingthrough the blinds and I discovered it was after 11amwhen I looked at the clock. Well, it had been a very latenight. I could hear Cole’s deep voice and I realized that was probably what hadwoken me. He sounded pissed and I couldn’t resist the urge to open our door totry to eavesdrop a bit.
“Endangering not only my woman butalso my fucking child!” he was saying. “Whatever we’ve been doing needs to bestepped up tenfold, and that needed to happen yesterday,” he ordered.
Well, I guess we were telling peoplewe’re expecting. I rolled my eyes a bit at that.
“I hear you, son,” Cal’s deep voicereplied. “How is she?”
“I don’t know, freaked probably,” Coleanswered sharply. “A maniac broke into our house where she thought she wassafe, attacked her, and threatened her. She was scared about the baby,” Cole’svoice broke a bit with emotion and my heart lurched for him. “But she handledherself well, like she always does.” And I could hear the pride in his voice.
“How are you, Bud?” Cal asked, histone gentle. I felt bad for eavesdropping but I couldn’t seem to stop myself.
“I’m thrilled as hell I knocked herup,” he said as he chuckled. “I think she’s freaked about that, too, worriedabout how I really feel about it, probably getting used to the idea herself,but we’ll be fine.” He sighed, sounding tired. He had to be, it’d been a longnight for him, too.
I moved back into the bedroom andcurled up on the bed to give them the privacy I should have granted them allalong. It wasn’t long before I heard the front door close and a Harley roar tolife out front.
Cole peeked his head in the room andsmiled when he saw I was awake. He was just in his boxers and my eyes traveledhis body hungrily. “Come lay down with me,” I requested quietly.
He strode into the room with Chief athis heels. “You and Chief friends again?” I asked with an amused smile.
“It would appear so,” he nodded whileclimbing up onto the bed and pulling me into his reassuring warmth.
“How are you?” he asked quietly, hisfingers moving through my hair.
I shrugged. “Okay I guess, though Idon’t feel like anything has really set in yet. I kind of feel like I’m livingsomeone else’s life at the moment or something,” I tried to explain.
“There’s a lot that needs to sink in,”he agreed quietly as his fingers traced over my belly. He’d done that severaltimes since he’d learned the news, and I found the gesture to be incrediblysweet and comforting.
“What if we went away for a few days?”I asked shifting my body to meet his eyes. “Just you and me.”
His brows rose at the suggestionbefore he turned contemplative. “We could do that, it’s a great idea actually.Any particular place you want to go?”
“Surprise me,” I invited.
“I know just the place,” he replied,nuzzling in my neck.
Cole and I spent the whole daytogether, wanting to be close, whether we were watching TV on the sofa orreading side by side. I wasn’t sure if it was the incident with Jake or thepregnancy, but either way I welcomed the contact. I felt more connected to Colethan ever.
We were seated side by side on thecouch as he worked on his laptop and I watched some guilty pleasure reality TV.“What are you looking at?” I asked and laughed when I looked over and noticed apicture of a baby on his laptop screen.
“Just doing some research,” he saidwith a bashful grin.
“Oh?”I quirked mybrow at him.
“Yeah, did you know right now the babyis the size of blueberry?” he asked seriously.
“I didn’t know that,” I answered,trying to keep a straight face. The sight of my formidable biker pouring overpregnancy websites was beyond adorable.
“You need to be taking folic acid. Areyou?” he asked.
“Yeah, babe,” I assured him. “I didsome research of my own and talked to the doctor when I first went in. I’ve gotit covered,” I assured him as I patted his thigh.
“I want to go to every appointmentfrom here on in,” he told me sternly. He clearly wasn’t happy that he missedthe first one.
“Deal,” I agreed softly as he wrappedan arm around me and hauled me into his body to look at some pictures of whatour blueberry might look like.
Later that evening I was justfinishing up getting ready in the bedroom. It had taken some convincing, butI’d been firm with Cole that I still intended to go to the barbeque. As much asI enjoyed our cocoon, I wanted to see everyone.
