She curled her lip up in the cute little sneer that he loved and he kissed her again.
“Think you’re going to be able to eat?”
“So far so good.” She turned to go inside, looking back at him with an almost grin. “Evidently, tomatoes and cheese are on my good list so far.”
Surprised that she actually owned up to something regarding her pregnancy, he followed her inside. So far she’d been very careful not to even discuss it as something actually happening to her. More like it was something to deal with.
It made his chest ache every time.
After spending the last half hour reading articles on the first trimester, his head was spinning with information and symptoms that now made so much more sense. Her sensitivity during sex was something a lot of women experienced. Either they were about as excited to have sex as getting waxed, or they were pretty much insatiable, with a few different levels in between.
Harper was definitely on the hypersensitive side.
Holy shit, was she ever. The first few days of their honeymoon had been a lust filled haze. Not such a bad side effect. He’d quickly sidelined into research about sex and pregnancy because…well, he’d never had sex with a pregnant woman before. They hadn’t exactly been careful either.
Christ, they’d practically killed each other on a few of the rounds that first night.
But it was normal and they didn’t have to worry about that until much later in the pregnancy.
If they got there.
Deacon rubbed the heel of his hand over his breast bone, pushing that thought to the back of his mind. They were still figuring things out.
He scratched his neck, his beard just on the edge of unruly. Images from all the websites and videos were playing on a loop in his head. There were videos on positions to make it good for her for fuck’s sake. He didn’t even want to think about the pregnancy porn out there. But beyond that, there were do’s and don’ts by the truckload.
Harper got plates and put two slices on one, four on the other. When she put the two slices in front of him, he laughed.
“What?”
“Hungry?”
“God, yes.” She folded her foot under herself as she curled into her chair. She took a bite of her slice and chewed. “Food has tasted like crap for days now. I could house this pizza by myself.”
“Well, from what I’ve read, the food thing is pretty common. It’s usually followed by morning sickness though.” He lifted a shoulder. “Which you don’t seem to have.”
Harper’s gaze lowered to her plate and she started ripping at her crust, dunking it in the extra sauce that oozed from the cheese. “What else did you read?”
He took a bite from his pizza, moaning a little before chewing and swallowing. The woman could probably make cardboard taste like heaven. “Some smells might make you nuts. Could trigger a getting sick deal.”
“Great.”
“Yeah. Not great, but the good part is your super nose is evidently to make sure you’re not around toxins that could hurt the baby. So you kinda become the great baby protector instinctively.”
Harper stood, transferring one of her pieces to his plate before returning to the kitchen.
Shit.
Fuck. Would he do anything other than bungle this stuff? He crossed the room, finding her gripping the edges of the island.
He came up behind her and caged her in, covering her white-knuckled grip. “What’s wrong?”
“I’ve done nothing to protect this baby. What if I hurt her or him? I wasn’t doing anything right for the last few weeks. No sleep…” She took a shuddering breath. “Drinking,” she said on a hoarse whisper.
Deacon whirled her around into his arms, holding onto her tight. His chest constricted. They’d hit the tequila hard the other day. And they both had been enjoying her wine lessons that she’d been taking.
He’d never thought he’d be a wine drinker, but between the both of them, they were becoming quite the enthusiasts.
“Well, from what I’ve read…the wine deal has actually been added to a lot of doctor’s okay-to-drink lists.”
She sniffed. “Really?”
“Yeah.” He drew her over to the bed and pushed pillows up to the headboard. He sat down, scooting back until his shoulders were resting against it. He drew his phone out of his pocket and opened his legs.
She was gnawing on her bottom lip, frowning at him.
“C’mere.”
She crawled onto the bed, situating herself between his legs. They’d spent many a night on the bus like this and always ended up sliding down on either the couch or his bunk and falling asleep eventually.
He was hoping to do the same thing now.
He wrapped his arms around her, drawing her closer. Flicking his phone to life, he went to the last website he’d been reading. “This would be easier on our iPad, but I didn’t bring it.”
“More like Jazz confiscated it.”
Deacon kissed her temple. “Because Simon busted three of them now. Idiot.”