Page 24 of Light

“What, Velvet?”

She gulps again. Licks her lips. “I’m—I’m scared.”

I tuck my head, kissing her fingertips while keeping my stare locked to her face. “My brave little Flare. I’d be worried if you weren’t.”

She wants to be soothed by that—I can feel her spirit reaching for the comfort to the tips of my nerve endings—but her face remains taut. At last she mutters, “Like you’ve never faced anything more nerve-racking, right?”

I preface my answer with a quick kiss to her knuckles. “Oh, baby…I’ve never been more terrified in my life.”

Her confused scowl is beyond adorable. “Huh?”

“Scout’s honor.”

And so is her quick eye roll. “You were never a Boy Scout, Richards.”

“Pfffft. I’ll bet Cal was.”

The guy flings a laugh. “For a few years, yeah. Until my mom got sick.”

“There,” I quip. “I’m borrowing his cred.”

Her features soften and her eyes brighten. “Fine. I believe you. You’re officially terrified.” She stretches her fingertips against my cheek. “But at least now you have company.”

“More than ‘company.’” I emphasize it by diving my gaze into the turquoise depths that give me so much of her soul. “I have my heart now.” Another fervent brush of my lips, this time to the center of her palm. “My family. My more.”

Her eyes turn into liquid pools. “Me too,” she whispers—but the words she’s preparing as follow-up, with a huge inhalation, are plucked away by a startled gasp. She tags on a musical giggle, but it’s the backing soundtrack to the next voice I hear in my head. That clear, joyous, excited little boy I’ve already been hearing in my heart for so long…

Me more too! Me more too, Dada!

I share a dazed smile with Emma as Bean proves his point with a happy gig against her navel. No way can I resist answering his happiness by pressing back down over that swell, alive with a million shades of shimmering gold. This time, I burrow my nose against that mesmeric heat, reveling in how she still smells like spice and summer even in the last few hours of December. Just like the effect of my fingers on her cheeks, my touch leaves a light-blue path. Suddenly feeling like a kid playing with the textures of a velvet pillow, I do it again. And again. Of course, the echoes of my child’s delighted laughs have something to do with that—as well as the equally happy sounds that flow out of my wife, like tantalized little sighs mixed with ecstatic groans.

And unbelievably, this whole experience just got crazier.

While it gives me nothing but pleasure to be the cause of the exact same for my wife, I don’t blame Calvin for hurling a startled gawk over his shoulder at us. If anyone called us right now and heard only the audio from the car, they’d swear Emma and I weren’t back here getting ready to push out a new baby together.

Okay, not exactly together.

But, I’m damn sure, as close to that as two people can possibly be.

“All right,” Cal ventures. “So no hospital. But do I—uhhh—need to be pulling over or someth—”

“Just drive, damn it.” I try retracting the growl with as much of an apologetic look as I can manage and tack on, “Please.”

Cal throws me an understanding glance before announcing, “Las Virgenes is the next exit.”

“Take it south until you hit Mulholland. I’ll give you the left-rights when we’re closer.”

He kicks up half a grin. “You mean without getting a video nondisclosure or anything?”

I cock a brow. “Do I have to worry about that?”

“No, sir.” He clearly receives the message—good thing, since Emma has a broadcast of her own to order as soon as I let up the caresses on her belly.

“Reece!”

“Here, baby.” I’m all about her and nothing but her again, pushing the force of my soul into the passion of my words. “Right here. What do you need?”

“Don’t…stop.” While her words are both spurted on gasps, her clutch packs the strength of fifteen men. She uses that fury to haul my hand back down to her stomach. “Just…don’t…stop.” After just ten seconds of my renewed rubs, her eyes drift shut and her body again goes limpid. “Oh, God. So much better.”