And talk about torture. It’d been nearly impossible to keep her hands and her mouth to herself. Why pregnancy should have evolved to make a woman horny out of her mind was something she did not understand. I mean, the deed is already done! Why saddle a woman with an increased urge to mate? And then, while Dan had been out hunting for hot dogs with extra peppers and she’d been lying on the sofa trying to find a comfortable position—and cursing Dan’s name for doing this to her—she’d had a grand epiphany.
“I want you to make love to me,” she told him now, dragging him with her up the walk and the stoop. Pulling him inside the bottom-floor apartment.
“Excuse me?” he asked after he booted the door closed. “I thought you said you—”
“Shit, I know what I said,” she groused. “But forget about it. I don’t care about any of that right now. The tacos from last night didn’t work. The Thai food for lunch didn’t work. These extra peppers on the hot dogs aren’t going work. That old saying about spicy food must be a myth. And I’m tired of not being able to get comfortable. I’m tired of being fat—”
“You’re not fat.” He smiled, his eyes roaming over her as if he’d never seen anything so beautiful. She wanted to punch him in the face. “You’re gorgeous and glowing and—”
“And I’m tired of waiting for this kid of yours to decide that he or she is ready to make an appearance.” She grabbed his lapels and yanked him down until they were nose to nose. “Sex can induce labor. So let’s have some sex.”
“Penni”—he curled his hands around hers, forcing her clawed hands to release the leather of his jacket—“you’re not thinking straight. You’re exhausted and—”
“Damnit, Dan!” she hissed. If she could have shot fire from her eyes, she would have set his hair ablaze. “You put this thing inside me. Now you help me get it out!”
He stood to his full height, hooking his thumbs in his belt buckle so that his fingers made a frame of his man bits. The man bits she was trying to make use of. Glancing at his face, she saw his lips quirking.
She pointed a finger at him. “Don’t do it. Don’t you laugh at me.”
He rolled in his lips, his big chest quaking.
“You really don’t want to test me right now,” she warned. “I’m this close”—she held her thumb and forefinger an inch apart—“from taking out my frustration on various and sundry parts of your body. Starting with your smiling mouth.”
“Ahem.” He studiously wiped away his smirk, trying his best to compose himself. “Come here,” he said, herding her toward the couch. Yes, herding. Because she was as big as a cow. Thanks to him. The bastard! “Let’s sit down and let’s talk about this.”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” she growled. “I just want to do it.” Still, she sat on the sofa, jamming a pillow behind her aching back and putting her swollen feet and ankles up on the coffee table. Cankles. She never thought she’d see the day she had cankles.
“Believe me,” Dan said, sitting beside her and putting his big, warm hand on her belly. He always did that when he came to visit her. Sat with his hand on her stomach as if he wanted to touch her and the baby at the same time. “I wanna do it too. Jesus, Penni, I’ve been dreaming of doing it for the last six goddamn months.”
“So what’s the problem?” she demanded.
“The problem is I promised myself that if we made love, when we made love”—she narrowed her eyes because the way he said it made it sound like it was a foregone conclusion. Now she added the word “arrogant” in front of the word “bastard” when she silently cursed him—“that it would be because you’ve accepted that I love you. And you’ve admitted to loving me too.”
“Dan,” she said, sighing, “I’ve already told you—”
* * *
“I know what you’ve told me, damnit!” Dan cut Penni off. He’d tried to play nice. Play it cool. Tried not to broach any of their issues because every time he did, her face twisted up like someone had shoved a porcupine up her tuckus, and he worried what her stress could do to the baby. But he was done being patient. They were having their heart-to-heart right goddamned now!
“But you’re wrong,” he said. “You think you’re a rebound, but you’re not. It wouldn’t have mattered if I’d dated and slept with fifty women between Patti and you, or zero women between Patti and you, because the moment I met you, the moment I saw you, I knew. I knew you, Penelope Ann DePaul. And I knew I wanted to be with you.”
“Dan, I—”
“Shut up and let me finish,” he growled, pinning her with a fierce look.
“Continue,” she allowed with a sniff. And she was so damned beautiful, she made him ache. Pregnancy looked good on Penni. It made her round and soft. All dewy and pink. It’d been torture these past few months keeping his dick in his pants, but that’s what he’d done. Because that’s one of the rules she’d imposed when she agreed to move to Chicago.