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“Yes, she does, but not to raise. I believe you know that now.” He nodded and looked so sad that Gibb found himself wanting to hug him, telling him that it would be all right. “What are you going to do, Danny? I want you to know that once we leave here, if you decide to pursue this, you’ll never see him or the woman who gave birth to him.”
“Rusty Crawford. I liked her. Even after doing an extensive background check on her, I still liked her. Not only did I find out why she’d risk so much in doing this for Paige, but she also has a good heart. My thinking now is that she hadn’t any idea what Paige would have done. Or she wouldn’t have done it. She’s desperate to pay off her loans, but she’s far from stupid. Rusty is doing this for the sole reason of paying off her student loans. I suppose you know where she is, too.” No one said a word. “You know, I don’t know that I would tell me either. I won’t help Paige, but I guess it would still take more than my word to convince you of that. I would love to see him, Joey, I mean. I also know that’s not going to happen either. But if Rusty or Joey need anything, you tell me, and I’ll get it to them.”
Jamie handed him her cell phone. Danny just stared at what he was sure was a picture of Joey for the longest time before he started to sob. Telling them that he looked so much like Howard that he could have been his twin made them all laugh a little.
After he handed back her phone, Danny said that he was going to take care of things right now. He also gave them the phone number and address of Howard. Telling them again that he was a good man who had been duped. After Danny left them, telling him that he’d be in touch, the other women left him, and it was just him and Maddy.
“I want to have a baby with you. Soon. Like, I’m thinking that we can start on that today if you’re not too busy.” He signaled for the check, which made her laugh. “I love you so much, Gibb Cross. I love too that you’re so good to me and the kids.”
“I love you. And I love them. But if we don’t get home soon, we’re never going to be allowed in this place again. I’m going to toss you to the floor and take you right here in front of everyone.” She stood up and smiled. Once he had the check paid, leaving a larger than normal tip to the staff, they were headed out the door. His cell phone ringing when he got in his car had him whimper.
“Can we stay all night at Uncle Frazier’s house tonight? He said that he’d even take us to school in the morning so you don’t have to come and get us.” He asked Thad if he’d spoken to his mom. “Yeah, she was weird about it too. She said to ask you, and you’d better say yes. Why didn’t she just say yes? I’ve said this before, I think, but women are weird.”
“Yes. You can spend the night. But you make sure that your uncle knows that if something comes up, he can call, and I’ll take you guys.” He said that he’d tell them. They were going to work in his studio tonight. “That reminds me. We have the builders coming out this weekend to have the building put up for you guys and your mom. She wants to put an office out in it so that she can have a separate place for working. All right.”
After hanging up with Thad, Gibb found himself whistling all the way home. He’d been waiting for this day for what seemed like years, and he was going to be good at it. Stopping by a couple of the specialty shops, he picked up some champagne, chocolate and even a tray already made up of cheese and crackers. It wouldn’t be his family’s brands, but it would hold them throughout the night. He hoped so anyway.
~*~
Maddy didn’t have any idea what was sexy anymore. She was the mother of ten-year-old triplets and hadn’t been on a date…well, she’d never been on a real date since before they’d been born. A couple of work meet-ups. A function that she’d ask a co-worker to, and that was about it. She didn’t count blind dates. They usually had the man thinking that it was him paying for dinner and her being so grateful that she’d fall right into bed with him. Nope.
Gibb wouldn’t care, she supposed, about what she wore to bed. She’d been putting the man off for a while and figured that he’d just wam-bam, thank you, ma’am, and that would be all for some reason that had her giggling. Gibb didn’t strike her as rushing through anything once he set his mind to it.
Finally giving up on how to pose herself, she stripped down, popped into a quick shower and wrapped a towel around her. It was, she figured, about as sexy as she could look without having a nighty or something like that.
She was still in the bathroom, blowing dry her hair, when she heard Gibb come into the room. He was either talking to her or himself, so she had to turn the dryer off to hear him. Stepping into the bedroom with him, Maddy watched what he was doing for several minutes while he fussed around the room.
He had a bouquet of flowers in his hand, trying his best to stuff them into a too-small vase. Under his arm was the largest box of chocolates that she’d ever seen. She thought she saw that it weighed eight pounds but figured that had to be wrong. Eight pounds of chocolate? Then there was the ‘thank you’ bag filled with who knew what that was lying on the bed. Going there, she dumped it out to see what it was.
“I got us some cheese and crackers. But on the way home, I tried one of the crackers and had to spit it out. I think I’ve figured out all on my own why the homemade crackers that we sell are such a hit. Those are, simply put, nasty. And don’t get me started on the cheese.” He came to her, digging something out of his pocket. “Here. Let me cut you a piece, and you tell me what you think? If I’m right, I’m going to have you double the amount of crackers at the shop while putting some of these next to them. People will be buying them in bulk.”
The cheese wasn’t that bad. But then, she’d not had any of the stuff they made here on the mountain. The crackers were bad. They were stale, first of all, and flavorless. Putting the entire purchase back in the bag, she dumped it into the trash. Then she took a good look at the chocolates.
“This says there are eight pounds in here, Gibb. Do you even like chocolate enough to eat eight pounds of it?” He said he got it for her. “Ican’teat eight pounds of that either. I’d be as big as a motel.”
“Oh, no. You’ll not gain any weight now that we’re mates. I don’t know if it has anything to do with us burning up more energy or something like that, but you won’t gain any weight until you have a baby. And that goes away really fast. Or so I found out.” She asked him who he’d asked. “Mark. But he’d asked Granny and Grandda. We don’t have a lot of information about raising cubs because our parents weren’t around. Also, the only contact that I’ve had with cubs are usually in the park. However, they’re just cubs and not shifters. You look good enough to eat right now. You’ve not changed your mind, have you?”
“No. I was debating on how to look sexy for you. I don’t know that I pulled it off with just a towel. What do you think?” He asked her to model her towel for him by turning around full circle. “Well? Too much? Not enough? I was thinking how I haven’t tried to look good for a man in a very long time.”
“You’d look sexy to me if you were wearing sweats and a tee shirt. I think you are absolutely the most beautiful woman in the world. No matter how you’re dressed.” She felt her heart melt a little with that. “It’s not your body that I want. Well, that’s not true. I do want to make love to you. But not because I’m this horney teenager but because I love you and want to show you how much by worshipping every inch of you. Even if I never entered you, came deep inside of you, your pleasure is all that I care about. You’re my very next breath. The beating of my heart. You’re also the most important person to me and will be forever. I love you, Maddy. With all that I am.”
“I love you too, Gibb. And that was by and far the most sweetest declaration of love that I’ve ever heard or read.” She moved toward him, dropping the towel as she moved. “I want us to make love. To become whole.”
Gibb picked her up. Holding her high enough in front of him so that he could kiss her. As he moved her more upward, he tasted more of her. Her breasts, her skin beneath. Holding onto him as best she could, Maddy tangled her fingers into his hair and massaged his head, all the while wanting more from him. To do more to him. When he sat her down on her feet, she looked up at him and saw, just for a few seconds, his bear.
“I can see him.” Gibb nodded as he continued to stare at her. “Someday, I’d like to see him, touch him. If that would be all right?”
“Yes.” This time, when he picked her up, he gently laid her down on their bed. It was bigger than any bed that she’d seen before, and she knew that they’d give the mattress a good workout before morning. Sitting up on her elbows behind her, Maddy watched as he pulled one button at a time from his shirt and striped it off. Then his belt.
She wasn’t going to make it, she decided, when he pulled his belt from the loops of his pants. Slowly, like he was weaving a magical spell for her to be enchanted by. The way that she was feeling in that moment, Maddy could have come and come hard just by looking at him.
Gibb had the body of a god. His muscles were well defined, and his arms were strong, unlike a bodybuilder, but naturally and fully formed. Even his fingers that were touching her face were strong and callused. His work around the farm had made him into someone who would be both envied as well as worshipped. Gibb was an Adonis.
He got to his knees then, pulling her naked, over-warm body to the edge so that her legs dangled off from the side. As he massaged her feet, then calves, as well as her thighs, he never took his eyes off of hers. Even as he gently pulled her legs apart, exposing parts of her body that she felt wetting even more, she could have no more denied him than she wanted him to stop. Her need to have him touch her in any way possible was beyond her control. And she loved it.
The lick to her thighs couldn’t have prepared her for his next move. As he slid his hand up to her apex, he licked her entrance until she cried out with the pleasure of it. Spreading her legs even more, giving him all that he wanted, Maddy fell back on the bed, her body suddenly weak with the need to scream and scream out her releases.
He nibbled at her clit, suckled it as well. Even as his fingers slid in and out of her, she rode his hand. Every time that she felt the slight tingle of release, even when her body seemed to ready itself for him, she would cry and beg him for more. And he obliged her.
