Come to Me Softly (Closer to You #2)(61)
Author: A.L. Jackson

Did it make me an ass**le that I read her messages? I mean, I wouldn’t think twice about Aly picking up my phone. I had nothing to hide. She already knew every distasteful blemish tainting my soul.

Still, I found myself going through and deleting the messages from Aly’s phone.

And I felt like shit, like a bastard for taking the coward’s road, too.

But I couldn’t stand the idea of Aly reading this.

Not from him.

Not when she was my all.

I would do whatever it took to protect that, to keep her away from anything that would threaten to steal her away.

I wouldn’t let it happen. Couldn’t.

Urges hit me hard. I wanted to forget. Needed her touch and her hand, her soft whispers that seeped like a tonic through my veins and poured directly into my soul.

I dove my fingers and my nose into her hair. Coconut filled my senses, that f**king trigger lighting me like a match.

Aly moaned, an incoherent fluttering from her spirit easing from her mouth.

Led, she rolled onto her back, like she was just as powerless to this need as me. Dependent.

Addicted.

Her eyes flew open to the deepest night. She looked at me hovering above her, confusion in the depths of her searing green eyes. A lick of fear. A rush of desire.

I nestled between her thighs.

A deep groan rumbled from my chest as I rocked into her with one deep thrust.

And I took.

Rough. Hard. Demanding.

The sick part was she seemed just as desperate to give it to me as I was to take it from her.

Aly whimpered and in seconds shattered around me. Her nails cut into my skin. Pain pricked at the surface, and satisfaction rolled deep.

“You,” she whispered as she tipped up her hips to meet mine, driving me right to the edge sanity.

I felt it slip.

I roared when I came. “Aly.”

Frantically I gathered her in my arms. “I won’t ever let you go. Never,” I promised. It sounded too close to a threat.

“Never,” Aly assured. Soft fingers gentled through my hair.

Never.

SIXTEEN

Aleena

Rays of late-afternoon sun shined through the window, lighting up the small room. It glowed on the pale yellow walls, wrapped it in luminous warmth that I felt all the way to my bones.

I rubbed the fuzzy fleece blanket between two of my fingers. A smile lifted the edge of my mouth as I pressed it to my cheek. Anticipation hummed in my spirit.

“This room is going to be perfect, Aly.” Megan sat on the floor behind me, folding a pile of blankets and miniature pieces of clothing I couldn’t resist buying. Yesterday, I’d gone on some sort of pregnancy-brain-induced shopping spree, filling my cart full of small things that I wouldn’t need for another four months. This morning, after I’d washed it all, I’d texted Megan a proud picture of the heap in the middle of the floor. I’d captioned it My Tower of Tiny Treasures. Megan showed up unannounced about an hour later with a grin splitting her entire face, proclaiming I want to play.

Apparently baby clothes had some kind of compelling force over women of any age, because I was now hosting a family dinner tomorrow night because my mom wanted a good excuse to come over and play, too.

“Do you think so?” I asked. I cast an appreciative glance around the room.

Jared and I had painted the room over the last weekend. I’d picked a soft yellow color that showered the room in calm and peace. White crown molding capped off the room with a luxurious feel. It flowed perfectly, both comfortable and elegant.

Jared had surprised me by bringing home the white sleigh crib I’d been eyeing. It fit so perfectly into the room it appeared to have been cut from it, the carving almost an exact match of the molding cradling the walls overhead.

I leaned forward and placed the blanket in the crib, then glanced back at Megan.

Her ponytail bounced around as she shook her head like I’d lost a little piece of my mind. “Uh . . . yeah . . . I know so. What kid wouldn’t want to grow up with this being their room? It’s gorgeous. Hell, I’d move in if you’d let me.” She pitched an exaggerated wink in the direction of my ever-expanding belly. “That is if Itty Bitty wouldn’t mind sharing a room with me.”

Tiny teddy bears covered the onesie she held up in front of her. Carefully, she folded it into a little square, then reached for another one. We still didn’t know if this was a boy or a girl. And we wouldn’t. I didn’t want to. When I met my child for the first time the day he or she was born, I wanted it to be without expectations. All except for the one that I loved him or her with my entire heart.

“I wouldn’t make offers like that if I were you,” I warned with a sly smile in her direction. “A built-in babysitter is really kind of tempting. You’ll end up here at night watching this little thing instead of hanging out with Sam.”

“Ha. I’m going to have to force you out of this house once the baby is born. My bets go on you not wanting to let Itty out of your sight. I’ll be on my hands and knees begging for auntie time.” She offered a revealing smile, replete with widened eyes. “And believe me, I won’t be missing out on anything by losing time with Sam. What I was all spun up over that guy about, I have no clue.”

I piqued a curious brow. “Bored?”

She shrugged. “Bored . . . annoyed. Tired of him not showing up when he says he’s going to. I’m so over it. I deserve better than that.”

And I kind of wanted to pump my fist in the air. So I did. “Uh, yeah, you do.”

He’d been stringing her along for months, making promises the jerk was never going to keep.

Megan giggled through an uncontained grin. “Half the time I think he just shows up to some of the places I invite him to because Gabe is hoping you’re going to be around.”

I groaned. “Ugh . . . that guy is clueless. I mean, seriously . . .” I flashed my ring that Jared had placed on my finger three weeks ago. “You’d think this would be enough to convince him I’m not into him.” I flung my hands down, gesturing my annoyance toward my stomach. “And if that isn’t enough, then at least this is. I’m thinking these two scream spoken for.”

Megan’s giggle transformed into an outright laugh, loud and uncontrolled, and she listed to the side as she clutched her stomach. “You know he thinks you two are soul mates.”

“What?”

“Yep, that’s what Sam told me, anyway.”

“God, what an idiot.”

“Yep,” she said again, like I wasn’t saying anything she hadn’t thought.