This Is Love, Baby (War & Peace #2)(44)

I want to believe him but fear still niggles inside of me.

“Go look in my bag,” he says with a smile. “I brought something of yours to have up here with me, but now you can have it back.” His fingers tenderly stroke along the outer shell of my ear and he touches my earring.

Nodding, I climb out of bed away from his warmth and dig in his bag. I find a Gala apple and jerk my gaze over to him. “Can I have this? I’m starving.”

“Yes, Jesus, please eat. I hate that you’ve been out there in survival mode. You can rest now. You’re free,” he tells me gruffly.

I take a bite of the apple and finally find what he wanted me to have. Chewing, I pull out my pretty pink watch and slide it on over my wrist. “I wish I had this on when I left,” I tell him sadly after I swallow. “The trunk was so dark…I didn’t know how many hours had passed. I had nothing but your shirt on my back to remember you by.”

He sits up in bed, eyes wide and furious. “Trunk?” I hear the beeps on the machines next to his bed speed up, an indicator of his anger. “I wish you had it too, believe me,” he says with a growl that I’ve missed so much. “Now get over here because I’m already missing you and you’re only five feet away.”

With my apple in hand, I bounce back over to him and then crawl back in beside him. His lips press a kiss to my forehead and then my nose. I let out a sigh when he trails kisses along my cheek and to my ear.

“I love you, Baylee.”

I shiver in his arms and let his touch soothe away all of the pain—the physical and emotional—that both Brandon and Gabe made me endure.

“Bay,” he murmurs, his hot breath against my ear, “I didn’t obsess or count while you were gone. If I had, it would have swallowed me up. It was you—always you. Every breath, every thought, every blink. You were in each and every one. When they had me drugged after my surgery, it was your light that shone in the darkness of my head. Had you not been there, I’d have lost you forever. The demons would have ruined me once and for all. They were there—always there, threatening me, but you saved me. Every time.”

I find his mouth with mine and kiss him hard. His mouth overtakes mine, his tongue lapping up the juicy remnants of the apple as we kiss. When I break away, I smile at him.

“You saved me too, War. When I was stuck in a nightmare, I dreamed about you. It was my heaven.”

He kisses me again and the apple slides from my grip. It hits the floor with a thud and rolls away until it thumps against the wall.

“Don’t eat that,” he chuckles against my lips. “I very much like kissing you, but so help me, if you pick that thing up…”

I giggle and look into his gorgeous, expressive eyes. “But I’m really hungry,” I say and then grow serious, “because I’m eating for two.”





TWO.

Two.

Two.

That number is quickly becoming my favorite and I count over and over again. One, two, one, two, one, two, one, two.

Black monsters run from my head as something beautiful fills the space. A woman and child. Beautiful. And mine. I’m blinded by the sweet, perfect light of it.

I blink at the sun, my Baylee, so radiant and blinding I almost have to look away. But I don’t. The brightness that shines from her is nourishment to my starved, black soul. I want to bask in all that’s her for eternity.

“Did you hear me?” A slow grin plays at her lips and her blue orbs shimmer with emotion, her eyes blinking. One, two. “War, I’m pregnant. We’re going to have a baby. It’ll be the three of us”—one, two, three—“Are you happy?”

Happy?

I’m f*cking ecstatic.

Three’s my new favorite number because it includes me. Baylee, our baby, and me. One, two, three. Love doesn’t come in the shape of a heart, it clearly comes in triangles.

“I’m more than happy, Bay,” I murmur against her pouty lips. “I’m complete.”

One point two seconds later and I’m ravishing her. My teeth bite and nip at her lips as my hands roam over her perfect body. A baby. My woman is pregnant with our child. The ache in my chest is because the love inside of me is trying to claw its way out and envelop her in an everlasting embrace. The throbbing from my surgery is ever present, but it is nothing in comparison to the pain I felt when she wasn’t with me. With Baylee in my arms, the entire world fades to black while she shines brilliantly in the middle.

She’s my center.

My nucleus.

My only reason.

I can only exist fully with her.

And I am nothing without her.

“God, I love you,” I murmur as we kiss, “and this.” My fingers slide under her hoodie and I stroke her soft skin on her belly. “I love this too.”

She lets out a whimper when my fingers trail up her flesh and then I flutter them over one of her breasts. Her nipple hardens at my touch and I grin at her. “I even love this,” I assure her and pinch it between my thumb and finger.

“War,” she murmurs and straddles my waist. “I need you to make it all go away. Touch me all over. Please.”

She tugs her hoodie from her body and bares her full tits at me. Her nipples point right at me as if to accuse me for not saving her from Gabe. I tug her closer and put one in my mouth. My tongue teases the hardened peak and then I gently bite down on the tender flesh. A pleased gasp releases from her and my cock thickens between us. She seems to realize this at the same time and grinds herself against me. The groan that leaves my chest is one of pure bliss and it dizzies me.