Unbreak My Heart (Unbreak My Heart #1)(43)

“Gah! I get your point!” I cut in, making him chuckle.

“Another little girl,” Shane said softly.

“Yeah, do you think Sage is going to be pissed?” My mouth twitched.

“Hell, no! She’ll be the only happy one in the bunch.”

“You’re probably right,” I agreed. “Is it weird that suddenly I’m far more excited to get your spawn out of me?”

“I wish I could touch you,” he announced suddenly, pulling me out of my daydream of Easter dresses and big pink bows on a tiny head.

“What?” I asked even though I’d heard him.

“I wish I could touch you right now.” I watched his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed hard. “I wish I could feel her moving around in your belly. I wish I could rub your back and kiss you. I hate it that I’m missing everything.”

“I miss you, too,” I murmured back.

“Lift your shirt,” he ordered quietly, glancing over his shoulder.

“Oh hell no.”

“I want to see you. Give me this.” I stared at him stubbornly. “Please?”

My stomach flipped as I gave in, and my heart raced as my hands went to the bottom of my nightshirt.

“That T-shirt is going to be stretched all to hell.”

“Do you care?”

“Not at all.”

His eyes were focused intently on the screen as I fiddled with the hem of my shirt, and they flared as I lifted it over my belly and held it against my breasts.

“Take it off,” he ordered gruffly, the tendons in his neck growing taught. “All the way, Kate.”

I closed my eyes as I pulled the shirt over my head and only opened them again when I heard him let out a harsh breath.

“Fuck,” he groaned, his eyes dilated until they were almost black. “Do you know what we’d be doing if I was there right now?”

I nodded mutely as I watched him watching me.

“You’re so f*cking incredible, Kate. Jesus, those breasts—” I laughed a little as he whimpered, then slid the shirt back over my head, hiding my body from view.

However, I couldn’t hide the way my nipples had pebbled as he stared, and they strained against his old T-shirt.

“I need to go take a shower,” he announced, pushing back a little in his chair.

“Wait—now?”

“Right now.”

I laughed hysterically as his cheekbones turned ruddy.

“Okay, well, be careful.”

“Always.”

“Talk to you soon?”

“I’ll email you later. Go to sleep, you look exhausted.”

“Gee, thanks,” I grumbled.

“Sleep, Katie.”

“Fine, I will. Stop worrying.”

“Hey, Kate?” he called as I reached for the keyboard.

“Yeah?”

“Thank you. No one’s ever done something like that for me before. Best surprise I’ve ever had.”

The screen went black as a little smile played on my lips.

What was it with that man and his need for the last word?





Chapter 9

Shane



Clenching my fist in frustration, I forced myself not to yell as my foster father rambled on and on in my ear. I loved the guy, but I was irritated as f*ck that he wouldn’t put Kate on the phone. It was the third time I’d called and gotten the run-around, and I was ready to start tearing shit apart.

Kate had taken the kids up to Oregon for the end of the summer, even though I hadn’t been all that happy about it. They loved it up there, and I knew our families were probably spoiling them rotten, but Kate was nearing the end of her pregnancy and I hated that she’d flown with four small kids by herself. When I’d finally talked to her on Skype less than a week after they’d arrived, I’d stopped bitching.

I hadn’t realized how worn down she’d looked in the past few months, but looking at her at her parents’ kitchen table—rosy-cheeked and smiling happily, the dark circles under her eyes faded to almost nothing—I hadn’t been able to ignore the change. She finally had that pregnant glow that most women got after they stopped puking up everything they ate and got a decent night’s rest.

I was surprised as hell about it, but even though I hadn’t seen her for months we’d grown closer over the deployment, and now that it was nearly over I was anxious to get home to her. At some point, my feelings had changed from confusion and guilt to something less identifiable. She was funny. She didn’t put up with my shit, but she rarely got angry or mean. Instead, she diffused any argument with sarcasm or by changing the subject completely to some off-the-wall topic that usually had me scrambling to keep up with her. She was smarter than me, and that was sexy as hell.

She’d always been pretty. But as we spoke and bantered back and forth, it was as if I could see her with a whole new appreciation. The curves, which I never would’ve looked twice at before, began to fascinate me. I f*cking dreamed about the roundness of her thighs and the soft skin between them, and found myself waking up embarrassed from wet dreams like a teenager.

Things were changing, and they had been for a while.

So I was irritated as hell that no one would let me talk to her. She’d answered my emails for the past two days but never agreed to a Skype date, and every time I called either her parents or mine, no one would tell me what was going on.