Fever (Breathless #2)(94)

In that moment, he cursed birth control. He had a savage need to give her his baby, to make her pregnant with his child. Their child. A son or a daughter. The image of her swollen with his baby kept him hard when he should have been losing his rigid erection.

He slumped over her, falling into her delicate softness. God he loved the feel of her underneath him. She sighed in contentment and kissed the side of his neck as her hands rubbed up and down his back and down to his ass.

“If I had my way, I’d stay inside you forever.”

He felt her smile against his skin.

“Tell me again,” he urged. “I want to hear the words again, Bethany.”

She didn’t hesitate. Didn’t misunderstand what it was he asked for.

“I love you.”

He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. He would never ask for more than this. For what he had right here and now in his arms.

“I love you too, baby.”

Chapter thirty-three

Jace woke to the sound of a ringing phone. He roused and glanced at his watch and then swore. He never overslept. Not even in college had he ever been late to a class. It was past nine and he hadn’t even stirred until now. It was the second time he could ever remember waking late and unaware. And both times had been after a soul-stirring night with Bethany.

He glanced down to where Bethany’s dark head lay on his shoulder. She hadn’t stirred either. They’d made love countless times until they’d both fallen into an exhausted sleep.

He reached for his cell phone lying on the nightstand and saw that Kaden was calling.

“Jace Crestwell,” he answered.

“Mr. Crestwell, I thought you’d like to know that Kingston returned to the apartment.”

“He’s there now?” Jace asked in a low voice.

“Yes, sir. Came in a few minutes ago. Let himself in and he hasn’t left yet.”

“Make sure he doesn’t,” Jace said curtly. “I’ll be right over.”

“Yes, sir.”

Jace disconnected the call as Bethany stirred beside him. She lifted her head and gazed at him with sleepy eyes.

“Everything okay?”

He kissed her forehead. “I have to go out for a while.” He hesitated a moment. “Jack came back to the apartment.”

Her eyes became more alert, shaking off the veil of sleep. “I’ll go with you.”

He shook his head. “No. I’ll handle this, Bethany.”

She became agitated and before she could work herself up and become more upset, he said firmly, “I don’t want you involved in this. We had an agreement on this. I need you to trust me. I’ll handle it.”

“Okay,” she said quietly.

He kissed her again. “It’ll be fine, baby. Trust me.”

“I do,” she whispered.

“While I’m there, I’ll arrange for your stuff to be moved here.”

She bit her lip.

“Are you having second thoughts?” he asked warily.

She shook her head. “No. I want this. I want you. And I do trust you, Jace. Please don’t think I don’t. This is hard for me. Jack is important to me. You both are. I know he’s not perfect. I know he’s done things that aren’t . . . good. But I just want him to be safe and have things most other people take for granted.”

“I know you do, baby. Don’t worry. I’ll call you when I finish up with Jack, okay? Is your cell charged?”

She shrugged and he rolled his eyes.

“I’ll plug it in before I leave. It’ll be on the kitchen counter.”

He pushed aside the sheets and slid out of bed but then he leaned over, wanting to kiss her again, to savor the feel of her under his lips one last time before he handled the issue of Jack.

This wasn’t a situation he wanted to be in. But for Bethany he’d do it, even if his preference was to tell Jack to f**k off and stay the hell out of Bethany’s life from now on. But Bethany would never forgive him that, and he wasn’t going to risk losing her when helping Jack would make little difference in his life other than the inconvenience of confronting the other man.

A part of him relished it. He wanted to see for himself what Jack’s position was regarding Bethany. While Bethany considered him a brother, Jace wasn’t convinced that Jack’s feelings toward her were very brotherly.

That he’d keep to himself because Bethany was naïve when it came to a lot of things, Jack included, and she’d never see the situation the way someone with perspective might. But then, Jace had little perspective when it came to her.

“I don’t want you to worry about this, baby. It’ll be all right. Jack can call you and you can call him. I don’t even mind if you see him as long as Kaden or Trevor is with you when I can’t be.”

“Thank you, Jace.” Her eyes were bright and earnest. “This means so much to me.”

“Love you,” he said huskily.

Her entire face softened and the worry fled her eyes. He realized then what reassurance those words gave her and he vowed on the spot not to let a day go by without giving them to her.

“I love you too.”

He walked into the bathroom before he said to hell with Jack and pressed Bethany back onto the bed to make love to her for the rest of the day. He was already going to be very late getting into work, which was unlike him. He’d call Eleanor on his way out to give her a heads-up. Despite it being just after the holidays, things were business as usual, and they had multiple projects in the works. Projects that needed his, Gabe’s and Ash’s constant attention.