Author: Bella Andre

In any case, the previous evening had been lovely. She’d had fun playing waitress for a few hours, but when she’d asked him to stay in the bed with her and he’d loved her so beautifully...well, it made her skin tingle all over just thinking of his mouth on her, his hands stroking her skin, and his—

She blushed and pushed the thick duvet off. Her clothes hadn’t made it here yet, so after a quick shower and a little time with the toothbrush Jake still had out for her, she put on another one of his dress shirts.

She walked down the hall and into the living room, surprised to see Jake sitting at the dining table with spreadsheets spread out all across it.

“Good morning.” She felt shy, all of a sudden, even though she was very happy to see him. Just like always.

He pushed out of his chair. “Sleep well?”

“I always sleep well with you.” She blushed again at what she’d just admitted.

Fortunately, all he said was, “Good. I’m glad. I made you a few things for breakfast.” He brushed a kiss on her forehead before moving past her to the kitchen.

The first time he’d cooked for her, she hadn’t wanted to admit how sweet he was. Now she wondered why she had ever tried to deny it. Especially when no man had ever wanted to take care of her like he did. Even the way he kissed her on the forehead was sweet. Almost as if he wasn’t just with her for her body—or for the children growing inside of it—but because he actually cared about her.

She knew she needed to be smart and remember to keep her guard up against Jake for the next few days, until she’d fulfilled her side of the agreement and they both went their separate ways. But it grew more and more difficult to do that by the second.

Last night in his bed had been incredible. Passionate. Intense. Amazing. Especially when he’d stopped and put his hand over her stomach and looked into her eyes with wonder.

That should have proved what she knew was true, right? That he only wanted her here with him because of their children? But it had seemed just the opposite—that at least part of the reason he was happy with her being pregnant was because of her.

And then there was the way he’d seemed so glad to see her when she’d shown up at his pub last night. Or what about how he’d held her close after they had sex, even though he’d already had his pleasure and could have just as easily rolled over and left her lying there alone?

He broke into her jumbled thoughts, saying, “It’ll just take me a minute to heat everything up.”

Seeing the veritable feast he’d put together for her, she shook her head. “I can’t eat all this.” There were enough eggs and pancakes and fruit and sausage and toast to feed her entire family.

“You couldn’t have eaten enough last night. I wanted to make sure you didn’t go hungry this morning.”

“You were there when I got on the scale at the doctor’s office yesterday,” she joked. “I’m not exactly wasting away.”

He didn’t smile. “You’re perfect, Sophie.”

She sank down on a chair at his kitchen’s breakfast bar. Perfect. Had he just said that? And more to the point, did he actually mean it? Did he actually think that dull, nice Sophie Sullivan was perfect? Beyond the fact that she could have his children?

She swallowed hard, then looked over her shoulder toward the dining table. “What are you working on?”

He slid the plates of food into the oven’s warming drawer. “We just put in a new tracking system for all of the pubs. There are a handful of bugs giving us trouble.”

She was ashamed that it had taken her until last night to realize how hard he worked to build his business. Jake had always made everything look so easy.

What else didn’t she know about him?

“How did you get started with the pubs?” She couldn’t remember a time when he didn’t own them.

He looked surprised by her question. “I guess you were pretty young when I bought and opened the first McCann’s, huh? I’ve always worked in pubs, wherever my dad was. All those tips added up over the years and when I got the chance to bail the owner of one of them out of a loan gone bad, I took it.”

“How old were you?”

“Twenty-one.”

“Wow, that’s really young to own your own restaurant.”

“I guess so,” he said, “but by then I’d been working in pubs forever.”

“You’re good at making it seem so easy, but—” She nodded at the spreadsheets. “—I’m starting to see just how much work it all is.”

“It’s just food and drink. Anyone could do it. Even a guy like me.”

She frowned, not liking the way he was talking about himself, like his incredible achievements weren’t worthwhile. “Jake, you’ve got to see how amaz—”

“Food’s up.” He slid it across the breakfast bar.

She made a face at his habit of cutting her off every time it seemed like they were on the verge of something important. “It’s so irritating the way you always do that.”

He plated some food for himself, then came and sat next to her, saying nothing.

“Don’t you even know what you always do that’s so irritating?” she demanded.

“Nope.”

She almost laughed aloud. “You’re such a guy.”

“Thanks.”

“It wasn’t a compliment.” She jammed some toast into her mouth and crunched it, lest she say something else she’d end up regretting later.

Jake looked at her with barely veiled amusement. “You have some strawberry right here.” He reached out and slid his thumb across her cheek, straight to her mouth, at which point Sophie shocked both of them by sucking the sticky pad of his thumb between her lips and licking off the jam.

His eyes darkened. “I came out here to work so that I wouldn’t attack you again.”

Her breath came faster as she said, “What makes you think I don’t want to be attacked?”

He pulled his hand from her and closed his eyes like a man on the verge of losing it. “Sophie.”

He said her name as a warning, but she knew he wanted her as much as she wanted him, could see it not just in the arousal that was starting to tent his pants, but in the taut lines of his face as he tried to control himself.

Not wanting to think, not wanting to face any of her worries for a little while longer, she quickly stripped off his shirt and let it fall to the floor. She couldn’t believe how natural it was to not only get up and straddle his hips, but to do it while completely naked.

“What about you?” She leaned forward and pressed her lips to the side of his neck, licking a path up to his earlobe before whispering, “Do you mind being attacked?”

“God, no.”

Just as fast as she’d stripped and moved over him, he shoved his pants down and was inside of her. She lost her breath at the feeling of being connected with him like this, so full she felt as if she’d burst from the pleasure coursing through her veins.

She’d never have believed herself capable of something like having sex on a bar stool in the middle of breakfast, but being intimate with Jake was so natural. She wrapped her arms and legs around him and rode the waves of pleasure that crashed through her as he held her hips in his big hands and thrust up into her in perfect rhythm to her own downward thrusts.

She wanted to be with him like this for hours, to memorize the beauty of his rippling muscles beneath her, but when he moved one hand into her hair and crushed her mouth against his, she had no choice but to follow him over the edge...spiraling off into a world full of brighter, more brilliant colors than she’d ever seen before.

* * *

Sophie blew his mind. Not just every time they came together, but in other ways, too. Like the way she snuggled even closer to him, giggled, and said, “That was fun.”

“Fun?” He did his best impersonation of a wounded lover. “That’s all I am to you?”

She giggled again and with his shaft still inside her, the vibrations felt good. Damn good.

“Oh!” Her eyes grew big as she felt him throb inside her again. “I always thought guys needed a little recovery time.”

He was perpetually hard around her and knew it would be a heck of a long time before he’d need to recover from loving her before wanting to take her again. But he had to think of more than just himself and his needs now.

“You haven’t eaten your breakfast yet.”

When he saw that she was going to try to argue and convince him to take her again, he very reluctantly lifted her off his lap.

“I can see there’s only way to make sure you eat.” Instead of putting her on her seat, he yanked his pants back up, then turned her around so that she was sitting naked on his lap. He slid her plate over, forking up a bite of pancake. “Open up, princess.”

She shot him a surprised look over her shoulder, but when he slid his arms tighter around her waist, and growled, “Eat,” she let him feed her the pancake.

After a few more bites, she said, “I’ve never eaten breakfast naked before.” She shot him a naughty little grin. “I like it.”

He realized he hadn’t called her Nice in days, hadn’t even thought of her nickname. It still fit her in some ways, but in others...

“Me too.”

She all but purred in his lap and he knew if he didn’t do something soon to take their minds off of sex, he’d have her up on the kitchen counter in under thirty, her legs wrapped around his hips again as he drove into her.

Sure, her doctor had said that sex was fine. But there was no way the woman could have had any idea just how much sex he was talking about.

“Tell me when you decided to become a librarian.” She seemed startled by his personal question, her muscles stiffening on his lap as he rubbed his hand down her arm. “I remember you always had your nose in a book.”

“I’ve always loved books,” she said softly. “I love being around them. I love getting lost in a story, a world. I love that I can become anyone, that I can live any fantasy.”

The word fantasy should have filled the room with sexual tension again, but Jake had just realized what an idiot he was, just like she’d said the day before. He should have asked her anything else—about her family, or hobbies, or favorite food. Not books.

When she was in his arms he temporarily forgot the differences between them. That she’d gone to Stanford and he’d barely eked out a high school diploma from sweet-talking his female teachers into not flunking him.

Of course he wanted to know more about her. He couldn’t spend this much time with her and not want that. But hearing about her love of books only served to remind him of the unbridgeable gap between them.

“I can’t believe I’ve never asked you what your favorite book is.” She grinned at him. “I’ve asked pretty much everyone I’ve ever met.”

Jake moved her off his lap. “You probably need to get ready for work soon, don’t you?”

She frowned at his abrupt personality change. “In about an hour.”

Acting like he didn’t realize he was being a dick, he purposely turned his back on her and headed over to the pile of work he’d been sweating over before she woke up. “Let me know when you need me to drive you in.”

The loud scrape of the bar stool’s legs across the wood floor came a beat before Sophie said, “Is that really all this is to you? It’s okay to have great sex all the time, but whenever I try to talk to you about anything at all, even something as ridiculously easy as your favorite book, you get to walk away without answering? How can you even think of marrying me if we’re going to be strangers everywhere but in bed?” Hurt vibrated from her every word.

All he wanted was to make her happy…but he didn’t have the first clue how to do that.