She’d given me my life.
She was my life.
I’d never known happiness like it.
And in the eight months since Jupiter and I had put out our joint statement, aside from the excitement of the studio opening,the press had mostly left us alone. Richard had also been let go from Mercy hospital. It turned out that the reason he’d left California in the first place was because he’d been rejected from the Sports Surgery Program at L.A. Gen. He’d taken the temporary position at Mercy while he tried to bribe his way into the Sports Surgery Program at Columbia Pres by using Jupiter’s name, and for that, he also needed Emerson. Since his medical license had been revoked, he was forced to leave New York State, and our lives. What a fucking brilliant day that had been.
Jupiter started his season and we’d been out to watch a few games, visiting Emerson’s family whenever we were there. We’d even become friends, like actual bros who enjoyed hanging out. And before he’d been back playing, he’d even come to New York and hung out with me and the boys, watching the games and keeping Felix company while he waited impatiently until he could get back on the ice.
I picked the frame up, my fingers running over her beautiful face. Her freckles were back in abundance since the start of the summer, especially after the vacation I’d insisted we take at the end of the season. She been working so hard to set the studio up she’d barely had a break, and I knew she wouldn’t take another one any time in the first few months, so I’d whisked her away for a week to a private villa in Anguilla.
We returned with absolutely no tan lines whatsoever.
My head spun at a noise behind me and I found her leaning against the doorframe, watching me, a soft smile creeping up, her eyes dancing as she looked at me. Her tan made them appear bluer than blue, the golden flecks on fire. She was wearing one of her Body by Luck branded pants and sports bra, in my favorite shade of green. She was fucking breathtaking, and she still consumed me with her magic every damn day.
I held my arms out wide and she walked over, flicking the lock behind her. I pulled her to sit in my lap, my fingers running up and down her warm, damp spine.
“I’m all sweaty,” she half protested.
“I could give a fuck.”
My mouth took hers captive, her soft lips opening up under mine like second nature so I could roam my tongue around her mouth, tasting every inch of her, because each time was different. I cupped her boobs through her bra, running my thumbs along the outline of her nipples, trying to contain my excitement at how fucking huge they were about to get.
She pulled back, sensing what I wanted. What I always wanted. What I needed.
“Okay. I have to shower. How long have I got?” She twisted the watch on my wrist. “Twenty-three minutes.”
She stood up, my lap immediately missing her weight and her warmth.
“Can I come?”
Her laugh wrapped around my body like a comfort blanket.
“No, we don’t have time.”
When this place had been built, I’d insisted she had her own space to work, an office big enough where I could just come and hang out sometimes so I could be near her, and that had also included a shower, somewhere I could join her on occasions that I took her classes.
“I’ll be quick,” I said, looking at her eagerly.
“We both know that’s a lie.”
I gave myself three seconds to watch her fine ass walk away from me and into the bathroom before I followed her in and perched on the vanity unit. Now she’d been in my sight, I couldn’t bear to let her out of it if I didn’t have to. She stripped off and stepped into the shower, standing under the water until her thick mane of dark bronze waves was completely saturated.
“How was your class?”
“So good,” she grinned as she squeezed shampoo into her hand, before rubbing it into her head. “They loved the music today.”
I watched, mesmerized, as the suds started to flow over her body, trying to imagine how it would change. How her taut muscles would soften and bloom.
“Was it a hard one?”
“Not too hard. I’ve done harder.”
I swallowed the urge to tell her I knew for a fact she’d definitely done harder. “And you felt okay?”
“Yes, baby. I felt good.”
Over the past week she’d been complaining of not feeling great, as well as exhausted, and she’d been falling asleep almost as soon as she got home. We’d put it down to the stress of opening the studio. It was only yesterday when she realized she’d missed her period that we bought some pregnancy tests. When the sticks in the first packet came up positive, I went out and bought another ten boxes… all of which read the same.
