My head flew back, but Ren drove a hand into my hair and tipped it forward.
I gasped. I bucked. I gave him a show he liked and I knew it when his arm wound around me and ground me down. He shoved my face in his neck and I took his groan in mine.
My whole body shivered.
Sweet, God, my man, so sweet, after he came down, his lips and tongue worked my neck as his hands slid lightly over my skin. His mouth ended at the guitar pendant dangling at the base of my throat and I felt his tongue sweep it inside. I knew he sucked it deeper when I felt the gentle tug at the chain around my neck.
Another whole body shiver.
While he did this and after I felt him release the pendant, I returned the favor with lips and tongue and hands (without the pendant part, of course) and we did this for a while.
Finally, I lifted my head, put my hands to either side of his neck and announced, “If it’s a boy, he and I get mother son time.”
Ren went still.
“And we’re naming him Darius.”
Ren stared up at me.
“He, or she, depending, will be here in seven and a half months, give or take a few days.”
Ren didn’t move nor speak.
“I’ll be clearing certain cases. I’ll tell Daisy she needs to refer out now inappropriate ones. And I’ll talk to Lee about agreed limitations. But after Katie, they know the drill.”
Ren kept staring at me.
By the way, I wasn’t alarmed at his reaction. When I told him I was carrying Katie, he behaved the same way.
He liked the news he was going to be a daddy (even part two), and liked it so much it made him speechless.
“I like to think it happened during that time on the stairs. But according to the doctors, I think it’s that time in the sauna.” My eyes wandered away. “Or on the landing.” I tipped my head to the side. “Or the dining room table.”
“Baby, look at me.”
I looked at my husband.
“You’re the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Oh my God.
I stopped breathing.
He wasn’t done.
“And you keep getting better.”
God.
Seriously?
I.
Loved.
My.
Man.
I loved him for many reasons. One of them was because he said shit like that to me all the time.
And I never got used to Ren Zano taking my breath away.
I dipped my head so my lips were to his and only then did I grin and whisper, “You happy?”
Ren didn’t whisper back. “Fuck yeah, I’m happy.”
That was when I smiled, and right before I kissed him, I said softly, “Righteous.”
*
The next morning, Ren walked into the bedroom just as a tater tot went flying past him.
Katie was in a “feed Payton” mood, which occurred daily, three times and was, I suspected, why Payton doted on Katie.
I lounged next to my daughter in our bed, phone to my ear, lips curled up as I watched my husband watch the potato treat fly and land on the floor in the landing.
He then ignored it, and Payton chasing after it, and continued into the room with two fresh mugs of coffee.
I bit back laughter as Indy asked, “So can you pick it up?”
“Yes,” I answered.
“The cake’s kinda important,” she told me.
“Uh… duh,” I told her.
“You forget things,” she informed me.
My back snapped straight.
“I totally don’t forget things,” I informed her.
“Lee’s birthday that year,” she said.
“Uh… I was kinda in the middle of pushin’ out my kid two days before Lee’s birthday that year,” I reminded her. “I think Lee gets I had my mind on other things.”
She was not deterred. “The balloons you were supposed to pick up for that thing for Sam.”
“I didn’t forget. I just didn’t do it because Vance told me not to. He said at the thing for Max, Jules had so many balloons, he was running into them for days and stepping on them for days after.”
“Ally, you’re a Rock Chick,” Indy snapped. “You don’t do what the Hot Bunch says.”
“Indy, I work with Vance. I was around when he was balloon cranky. You do not wanna be around when he’s got a newborn, two hellions, otherwise known as male species toddlers, and balloons all over his house. Trust me.”
“You’re always picking the Hot Bunch over the Rock Chicks,” she complained.
“That’s because they keep me from getting shot at,” I retorted.
I felt eyes and looked to Ren who was now lounging on his side across the bottom of our bed, keeping an eye on Katie feeding Payton. I caught his expression and made an, I’m lying to make a point face with a shake of my head even though I wasn’t and, instead, was silently lying to Ren.
He sighed and turned to Katie.
He knew I was lying.
I returned my attention to Indy when she murmured. “Crap, Tod and Stevie are here. They’re early and I haven’t done my hair.”