What if he’d been hurt? What if he needed her help and she’d been wasting precious time in her apartment thinking horrible things about him?

No one would know to call her if something happened to Jake. No one would know he was important to her, that she was pregnant with his children.

She didn’t own a car since it was easy enough to rent one from the car share company when she needed one. But they were all out of vehicles for the night and since Sophie didn’t know the bus schedule very well in the evening, it took her far longer than she wanted to get to his house. When all the lights were off and he didn't answer the door, she called the pub. The bartender told her Jake was there, but was in the middle of dealing with an emergency and couldn’t get to the phone.

Twenty-five minutes and two bus changes later, she practically ran inside McCann's, pushing through a crowd of college kids and not caring that they clearly thought she’d lost her mind.

“Where is Jake?” She nearly grabbed the bartender’s shirt to get his attention.

The scruffy man gave her the same look the college kids had. Like she should be on her living room clock with the rest of the cuckoo birds.

“He’s in the back.”

The last thing she expected was to see Jake in his office handing a tissue to a young woman with pink and blue hair. The girl blew her nose loudly just as Sophie saw that there were two other people in the room. The couple was older than Jake. Old enough, she realized, to be the girl’s parents.

She skidded to a stop, but not fast enough for Jake not to see her.

“Sophie!” He said something to the couple, then got up and headed for her. He brushed his fingertips against her skin as he slid a lock of hair back from her face. “It’s late. You know what the doctor said about rest. You should be sleeping.”

“I couldn’t sleep. I was worried when you didn’t show up.” She gave him a little half-smile. “And I was mad at you for standing me up,” she admitted. This time she was the one reaching for his face. How many times had she wanted to touch him like this over the years? Warmth flooded her as she realized she could do it now. “Now that I know you weren’t, tell me what I can do to help while you—” She looked over his shoulder at the group gathered in his office. “—deal with things.”

“All I want is for you to get some rest.” She was about to tell him she wasn’t tired, that his day had to be a hundred times more difficult than hers, when he frowned at her. “How did you get here?”

“The bus.” She didn’t think it would be wise to mention the few dark blocks between the final bus stop and his pub.

He swore. “You should have stayed home.”

Didn’t he see? “I needed to make sure you were okay.”

Jake still looked upset about her late-night jaunt through San Francisco’s public transportation system, but rather than continue to rail at her, he threaded his fingers into her hair and tugged her closer so that her head was tucked in beneath his chin. “God, you’re sweet.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead.

Just then, the bartender burst through the door. “Customers are about to riot out here if they don’t get some service soon. Betty is already way past what she can handle.”

Sophie plopped her hand over Jake’s mouth before he could reply. “I’ve got this.” She didn’t wait for Jake to agree before she grabbed a black apron from a peg on the wall and wrapped it around her waist. “Do you have a pad and pencil?” she asked the bartender.

He gladly shoved one into her hands and thirty seconds later, she was in the middle of a steep learning curve on how to be a good waitress in an Irish pub as customers all but growled their orders at her and demanded endless refills.

Sophie had never been a part of something so noisy, so full of constant motion. No, she realized as she loaded a tray with frothy beers, that wasn’t true. Growing up the youngest of eight had been just as noisy, just as full of motion.

No wonder she found herself loving every single second of it.

* * *

By the time Jake got a chance to pull Sophie from the pub floor, it was nearly 2:00 a.m. and they were on the verge of shutting down for the night. His bartender had popped his head in a at one point to say, “You should hire that girl full time,” but Jake had still been focused on trying to get his young employee to agree to see a counselor. A full-on treatment program would be better, but he had enough experience with alcoholics to know that pushing them in the right direction usually made them do the exact opposite.

He’d always been careful to monitor his employees for substance abuse and to make sure all of his managers did the same, but Samantha had hid it well. Well enough that it had taken her parents coming in and begging him to fire her for him to see what had been right beneath his nose.

He blamed himself, knew if he hadn’t been so obsessed with Sophie these past months he might have seen the changes in Samantha’s behavior.

The subject of his obsession was wiping down tables with a rag. She’d pulled her long hair back into a ponytail and wisps of hair curled around her flushed face. Her beauty took his breath away just as it always had, making it impossible for him to do anything but stare at her...until she went to lift one of the chairs onto the table.

“You shouldn’t be lifting things.” He took the chair from her and put it up. “I’ll get the rest. Go lie down in my office.”

He knew he should be thanking her for getting him out of a rough spot, that he should have already apologized for acting like a jerk that morning when he dropped her off at the library. Instead, he was barking orders at her.

But instead of railing back him, she simply said, “Is everything all right?”

God, she really was sweet. And far more forgiving than he deserved. No one had ever worried about him before. She was going to be the perfect mother...and wife.

Lord knew, she didn’t deserve a life stuck with an idiot like him.

But there was no way he would ever give her up. Because he was exactly the selfish bastard she’d accused him of being.

He continued putting chairs onto the tables. “Not right now. But hopefully, it will be.”

“Your employees all speak really highly of you.”

“Owning a pub,” he said, running a hand through his hair, “you’ve got to be really careful about things.”

“You mean all the easy access to alcohol?”

“People can get hooked on it. Far too easily.”

“I realized the other day that I’ve never seen you drunk before.” Her eyes looked too deep as she said, “That’s on purpose, isn’t it?”

He nodded and she put her hand on his arm. “I’m sure you’ve done everything you can to help the young woman in your office. The rest is up to her.”

He hadn’t thought anything would help him feel better about tonight...but he hadn’t counted on Sophie. The question was, he thought as she yawned, whether or not he could ever figure out how to become the kind of man she could count on, too.

“It’s way past your bedtime.” He reached out a hand to her and finally said what he should have long before now. “Thank you, Sophie.”

She put her hand in his. “You’re welcome.” She smiled as she threaded her fingers through his. “I had fun.”

He couldn’t get a handle on what he was feeling as they walked out to his car in silence. And as she fell asleep almost the instant he pressed on the gas pedal, shifting in the seat so that her hand was on his lap, Jake was thankful for so much more than Sophie filling in for the night at his pub.

What, he wondered silently, had he ever done right to deserve even this one week with her?

* * *

Jake carried Sophie inside his house, loving the way she nestled in closer to him. He swore all he was going to do was tuck her in and make himself walk away, even though she was so soft, so warm.

But after he stripped her clothes and shoes off and laid her on his bed, before he could pull the covers up over her beautiful naked curves, she reached up and put her arms around his neck.

“Stay.” She’d barely made her request when her tongue flicked out to lick his earlobe, just as he’d teased her when they were in the doctor’s waiting room. Their morning together felt like it had been a thousand years ago.

God, he’d never wanted anything more than to stay with her, but he couldn’t forget what the doctor had said about getting enough food and rest. He’d already kept her up way too late, made her spend too much time on her feet, probably without nearly enough food for the energy she’d expended waiting tables at his pub.

“You need rest.”

She finally opened her eyes and there was just enough light coming into the room from the moonlight to see the desire, the longing in them.

“I need you more.”

Jake did the only thing he could. He gave in to the urge to kiss her.

She moaned into his mouth as their tongues found each other. He wanted to be gentle, wanted to go slow, but with her curves already naked beneath him, Jake didn’t have a prayer of doing anything other than filling his hands with her sensitive breasts, and then his mouth with them, one after the other as she arched into him.

Her breasts were so perfect they already killed him. He couldn’t imagine how he’d have a prayer of keeping his hands and mouth off them as her pregnancy progressed and they grew even bigger.

Maybe she was right, he thought as he kissed his way down past her breasts to her stomach. Maybe he did have a pregnancy fetish.

But only for Sophie.

He breathed in the sweet scent of her arousal as he kneeled on the floor to settle himself between her legs and she instinctively opened her thighs for him. Lowering his head to her already damp curls, he slid his tongue over her, then curled it into her. Her hands grasped his and as their fingers threaded together, she cried out and bucked her hips into him.

One day he vowed to worship her like she deserved to be worshipped. Long and slow, stoking the flames of her desire until she was begging for release. But the self-control Jake McCann was so famous for had completely disappeared the first time he’d pulled Sophie against him and kissed her soft mouth. Tonight was no different and the only choice he had was to unzip his jeans with one hand before pulling her hips to the edge of the bed and driving into her like a man possessed.

There were no words between them tonight, no room for anything but heavy breaths and groans of pleasure. He filled his hands with her breasts again before moving them to her stomach.

He stilled at the realization of the lives she carried inside, and her eyes fluttered open. She covered his hands with hers and then looked up at him with a smile so full of love, his chest clenched so tight he actually thought his heart might shatter as he looked down at the beauty beneath him, wrapped so tightly all around him.

Whatever control he might have been able to find to take her slower, to put her pleasure first, slipped from his grasp. He had to slide his hands to her hips, taking hers with him, had to grip her hard before thrusting in as far as she could take him. Her inner muscles tightened down around his shaft and as the now familiar rush of her inner muscles rippling in climax took hold, Jake threw his head back and came with a roar.

Minutes later, when he’d stripped off the rest of his clothes and wrapped himself around her with Sophie already asleep against his chest, Jake had to softly say the words that had been burning a hole inside his heart for so many years.

“I love you.”

Chapter Sixteen

Sophie woke up, all alone in the middle of Jake’s big bed. As she yawned and stretched, something played in the back of her mind, a dream she’d had of Jake saying something important to her. She’d strained to try to make her recollection clearer, but she’d been too tired last night—and too sated from his incredibly passionate lovemaking—to remember the details of a fleeting dream.