Page 118 of Code Violation

I pin my bottom lip between my teeth, watching Silas type out a reply.

Silas

Because I’m standing at the bar and you aren’t here.

Me

Caught me.

I’ve barely locked my phone before I hear Silas’s familiar footsteps getting louder as he heads toward the staff room. It’s funny how we memorize every element of the person we love, even the way they walk.

I hold my breath, waiting for his handsome face to appear in the doorway.

“Is that water bottle even hot anymore?” He steps into the staff room, plucking it from my bump. “Ves …” he drawls, setting the cool bottle down on the table.

Almost instantly, I’m sitting next to it, and Silas is standing between my thighs. He takes my head in his hands and brushes a kiss across my lips. My eyes flutter shut, and I fight back a yawn.

“Come home and curl up on the couch with me.”

The yawn eventually breaks free as I go to reply, “I can’t leave Julian on his own. He’s the only other staff member on tonight who can mix cocktails.”

“With the greatest respect to cocktails”—Silas kisses my jaw, and I melt into his body—“I don’t give a fuck who gets served a Manhattan, cosmopolitan, or a margarita. You are exhausted. Every night, I feel you tossing and turning, trying to get comfortable in bed.”

He smooths a palm over my large bump, and I find myself wondering whether we’re having a boy or a girl. Truthfully, I don’t much care. I’m having Silas’s baby, and that’s all that matters.

Dropping the I’m fine facade, I let my head flop into his chest before I blow out a sigh that’s been building inside me since the first day I started experiencing pelvic girdle pain.

“Why did no one ever tell me how hard pregnancy would be?”

Silas wraps his arms around my body in a bear hug I absolutely needed. I can tell by the black track pants and training top he’s wearing that he came here straight from the gym. The entire hockey community constantly talks about Will and his commitment to the sport, and they’d be right; he is an incredibly dedicated athlete. Whereas Silas Stanton will go about his business in quiet, racking up gym time behind closed doors and even in the offseason. He deserves to lift that Cup one day, and I’ll be the first one on the ice to celebrate with him.

He sets a kiss in my hair and pulls me into his arms. “You know what I’ve learned about life and especially over the past five months?”

I gaze up at him, turning his baseball cap backward. “What’s that?”

He just smiles in a way that renders me so weak that I’d collapse in a heap if he wasn’t holding me up.

“That nothing good ever comes without a struggle or a fight. I had to fight for you, Vesper, and now I’m going to be the happiest man for the rest of my life. This baby …” He drops to his knees in front of me and hitches my red sweater to just below my bra. My stomach is covered in stretch marks, but Silas kisses each one like they’re the most precious thing on earth. “I know it’s taking a toll on your body, and I know you’re trying to push through each day like it’s a blessing to be pregnant in the first place.” He plants a kiss below my belly button. “But it’s okay to ask for help once in a while or to admit that you need to slow down when your body is telling you to. I can support you. Whether you quit working now or need some time to recuperate. I swore that I’d give you everything, and that’s what I’m going to do—if your stubborn ass would let me.”

As it transpired, my “stubborn ass” finally gave in and let Silas take it home to lay on the couch and feel sorry for itself.

Only I couldn’t feel less sorry for myself if I tried. How can I when I have a hockey-playing god between my thighs, eating me out like he’ll never get to taste me again?

A languid swipe of his tongue through my already-sensitive pussy has me crying out his name into our darkened living room, thrusting my head back into the cushions. He’s already made me climax twice, and now I’m tumbling into a third high.

With one hand resting over my swollen stomach, Silas pushes a black silicone vibrator inside my entrance, switching it to its first setting. Between his mouth on my clit and the vibrations pulsing through my core, I won’t last thirty seconds like this, and I’m not mad about it either.

I’ve never had the kind of sex I have with Silas, but then again, I’ve never let my guard down in a way that’s allowed me to relax into the moment. The feel of his mouth, the touch of his fingers as they caress my aroused body—it all massages away the pain I was feeling earlier today.

Silas has a habit of soothing away discomfort—emotionally and physically.

“You look so fucking sexy like this,” he praises, hitting the next setting on the vibrator.

My hips buck, and all I want is his cum.

“Fuck me,” I plead.

“Maybe in a little while,” he teases against my pussy, circling his tongue around the sensitive bundle of nerves.