That meant on date nights a chaste kiss on my front porch was the only outcome.
We spent time together, lots of time, and reintroduced ourselves to everything we loved about one another, and learned new things along the way. It sounded boring and it was anything but. When I knew I was going to see Ryder, my stomach fluttered with butterflies, my heart pounded with excitement and I couldn’t remove the smile from my face for all the money in the world.
We were happy again. I was me, and Ryder was Ryder. We weren’t our old selves anymore, we were new and improved versions. What we endured, not only over the last two years, but from the moment we met, made us better people. Stronger people. It solidified our bond and proved to me that we really could overcome anything.
I came to that realisation over a week ago, but I had yet to tell Ryder because I was a little afraid we would take our slow paced relationship and just run at a hundred kilometres an hour, and I didn’t want that, I loved how we were progressing, but even I knew we couldn’t stay the way we were forever, it’s why I planned on seducing Ryder and making love to him for the first time in nearly a year.
There was one problem though, and it wasn’t with Ryder, or me, it was with our little siblings.
As I was still living with Dominic and Bronagh, they both took our new outlook on our relationship very seriously, and wanted to help us as much as humanly possible… and that meant we had switched roles and they had become the parental figures. And let me say, they didn’t hold back. Once the clock struck ten when Ryder was over, Bronagh was there giving him his marching orders. When we went up to my room, Dominic would make a point of leaving the door wide open.
I appreciated them, but I also wanted to strangle them.
It didn’t help that Bronagh was thirteen days overdue on her sweet—and terribly lazy—baby girl. It added nerves and agitation to an already nervous and agitated person. The combination was not good.
It was one of the reasons why I was happy I was still living with them because I wanted to be there to help them with the baby if they needed it. Being a first time parent is hard enough, so if they needed me to help out with anything, I was on call.
Just call me Super Auntie.
I smiled at my thoughts then looked at Ryder when he poked me again.
“What’re you smiling about?” he asked, staring at my mouth like he wanted to devour it.
An ache formed between my thighs, and I decided to play dirty.
“Just thinkin’ about the plans I have for us later.”
Ryder audibly swallowed.
“What plans?” he asked, his voice now a whisper.
I smirked in response, and his hold on me tightened.
“One little smirk, and I’m already hard for you.”
“How hard?” I boldly asked, and placed my hand on his thigh, giving it a squeeze.
He gritted his teeth. “Stop, or I might succeed in traumatising my brothers this time.”
I laughed at that, and thought back to our first night together, but quickly found it didn’t bode well to think of our hot, sweaty bodies moving together as one when I was almost panting with need next to him.
“I don’t think I can wait,” I murmured.
Ryder’s entire body tensed. “It’s your call.”
Yeah, it is.
“Now,” I breathed. “I want to feel you. All of you.”
“Fuck. Yes.”
He kissed me then, and a few moments passed by before many throats were cleared.
“Uh, guys?” Alec mumbled. “I’m all for you both bumping uglies after such a long drought, but we’re still here. Jax, too.”
At the mentioned of Jax, Ryder and I broke apart in an instant.
“Sorry,” I squeaked.
“What’re you sorry for?”
I looked over my shoulder when my sister spoke, and smiled because she looked beautiful. She would disagree because she was convinced she was an undiscovered species of whale. Being a day shy of forty-two weeks pregnant was apparently no excuse either.
“Nothin’,” I replied. “We’re just talkin’.”
“Is that what you call it?” Keela snickered.
I looked at her grinning face and narrowed my eyes before grinning right back at her.
“Keela said Dominic is sexy!” I quickly stated.
Keela gasped. “You agreed with me!”
Bronagh groaned. “Don’t use any word around me that has sex in it. Sex does this to you”—she pointed at her large round stomach—“and gives you stretch marks!”
“Did you get many?” Keela asked, apprehension to her voice.
She and Alec were trying to get pregnant.
“Yes!” Bronagh almost cried. “On me stomach, boobs and even on me arse. Me fuckin’ arse!”
Dominic opened his mouth to speak, but Bronagh pointed her finger dangerously at him. “Not now,” she warned. “I don’t want to hear it. I’m fat, I have stretch marks, I haven’t seen me feet in weeks, and I forget what regular sex feels like. Don’t annoy me more than I already am.”
Alec looked like he was about to pass out.
“Pregnancy stops you from having sex?” he asked wide-eyed before looking to Keela and saying, “We’re adopting.”