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“Can I come join you?” I asked, smiling.

“How fast can you get here, cowboy?” Ari said with a laugh.

“I’m on my way now. Wait for me?”

“Okay. Be careful driving. Jeff?”

“Yeah, baby?”

“I love you.”

My heart just about dropped to my stomach. I love this girl so damn much.

“I love you, too, baby. Be there in a few minutes.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

ARI

I placed my cell phone on the bathroom floor and just sat frozen in the bathtub. I could hear the hurt in Jeff’s voice. I hated Rebecca with every ounce of my being. Why is this happening to us?

After we’d left the restaurant, Amanda and I had tried some shopping therapy. The whole time we had walked around Emeralds, I couldn’t get it out of my head how big Rebecca was. Even with her sitting down, I could tell she had to be further along than seven months. I was going to get to the bottom of this, but if this was going to work, I needed my girls to help me.

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, maybe I am losing my damn mind. Am I really going to go through with this? Yep, I really am. I closed my eyes, trying to picture what it would’ve been like if this whole Rebecca thing had never happened this weekend.

I wasn’t sure how long I’s sat there with my eyes closed. I heard the front door open, and I could hear Jeff walking to my bathroom. My heart started to beat like crazy. Just the idea of being with him had me almost panting with excitement. The sounds of his footsteps stopped.

I slowly opened my eyes to see him standing in the doorway. His eyes immediately captured mine. As I looked down his entire body, I lost my breath from just the sight of him.

“Hey, Baby,” he said huskily.

All I could do was smile. He walked over and kneeled down by the tub. He brushed the back of his hand down the side of my face. My breathing was louder and faster now, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to forget everything. He was here. He was here with me, and that was all that mattered.

“Jeff.”

“Shh, let me love you, Ari.”

Oh my god. I wanted nothing more than for him to do just that. He stared into my eyes like he wanted to tell me something so desperately. He almost looked…lost. What if he wants this baby to be his? What if- no I have to stop asking what-ifs and start talking to him about this.

“Jeff, maybe we should talk first.” Shit, I can’t believe I just said that.

“I don’t want to talk, Ari, I want to make love to the only girl I’ve ever loved, and will ever love.”

“Jeff…I.”

The next thing I knew, he was sliding his hand behind my neck as he brought my lips to his. He kissed me with so much passion that I swore I was going to explode. He pulled away, reaching over to pull the towel off the rack. He got up and held the towel open for me. As I slowly stood and stepped out of the bathtub, I heard him suck in a breath of air.

I smiled at him. “You’re not getting tired of me yet, I see.”

Jeff let out a small laugh and shook his head.

“Baby, hell would freeze over before I ever got tired of seeing your body.”

He wrapped the towel around me and then pulled me closer to him. “I missed you today.”

“Really? Cause you looked pretty happy at lunch with your baby mama.”

Fuck! Why did I just go there? Oh my god, what is wrong with me?

“I’m sorry, Jeff.” I said.

He ran his hand through his hair.

“What is up with you these last few days? Why are you being such a bitch?”

Oh no, he didn’t.

“What? Are you really asking me that, Jeff? Because if you are, then maybe you need to just leave!”

I pushed him out of the way as I made my way into my bedroom. I was so mad I was shaking.

“Arr, what do you want me to do? Tell me what I need to do!”

I spun around and just glared at him. “Well, for starters, stop calling me a bitch. Do you know what it’s like to be told that your boyfriend, the love of your goddamn life, is having a baby with another woman? To have your engagement night totally ruined because all you can think about in the back of your mind is how you will never be the one to give your future husband his first child? To have to know that you’re going to be at her beck and call for the next few months until this baby is born? Shit, Jeff…I might not ever be able to even give you a baby like she can. And you think I’m being a bitch? Fuck off, dickwad.” I quickly wiped off the tears from my face before I turned away from him.

“Ari, I’m sorry I called you a bitch. I really am, baby. I would do anything if I could turn back the clocks and never even lay eyes on Rebecca. I promise you that, this is not going to come between us. Baby, we’ll have kids. I know we will, and.”

“It is coming between us, and you don’t know if we’ll ever have kids, Jeff. If I’m a carrier of Fragile X…I don’t….I don’t know…” I stopped talking and did the one thing I swore that I would never do. I felt sorry for myself. My body slowly started to sink.

The next thing I knew, Jeff was reaching for me and trying to pull me into his arms. That was when the anger hit me like a brick wall.

I pushed him away.

“Just go, Jeff. I need to be alone. Please just leave.”

“No. I came over here to be with you, Ari. I want you,” he said, his hands still holding me.

I let out a laugh. I wasn’t really sure why because none of this was funny. I tried with all my might to shove him away, but all he did was hold me closer. Then, he pushed me up against the wall. As he lifted me up, I instinctively wrapped my legs around him. He grabbed me by the back of the head, pulling on my hair, as he slammed his lips onto mine. My head was spinning. I wanted him so badly, but at the same time, I was scared to death.

“Ari, please…just let me in baby.”

With that, I completely relaxed in his arms. As he pushed me harder against the wall, I felt him pulling off my towel. Oh sweet Jesus. I put my arms around his neck, I kissed him back with as much passion as he was giving me.

He almost seemed desperate as he moved away from me just long enough to pull his shirt over his head. The sight of his chest still gave me butterflies in my stomach. I placed my right hand on his chest, feeling him shudder under my touch. I wrapped my legs around him tightly as he moved us away from the wall and to the bed.

As he laid me down, my heart was pounding so hard that I could see my chest rising and falling. The sight of him, just staring at me, was turning me on more than I could stand. As he slowly started to take off his pants, I pulled my eyes away from his to watch him. My god, his body is beyond perfect.

“Ari, you look so beautiful, baby. Your skin is glowing.”

I couldn’t even form words. I’d never before had this overwhelming feeling to just be with him. It was almost like I would die if I didn’t feel his touch.

He moved over me, bent down, and pulled my lower lip between his teeth. A small moan escaped my lips as Jeff closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he had such passion in his eyes that I almost sucked in a breath of air because it surprised me so much.

Just when I didn’t think I would be able to stand it any longer, he propped himself up on his elbows and then his hand gently started to move down my face. I felt my body tremble under his touch. He let a small smile come across his face, and I couldn’t help but smile back at him. Then, he moved his hand down my neck to my chest, which was moving up and down so fast from my erratic breathing.

“Do you want me, Ari?”

“Yes, more than anything,” I said with way too much desperation in my voice.

Jeff’s smile got bigger as he moved his hand further down to my lower stomach. All I wanted to do was yell at him to get on with it, but it almost felt like we needed to go slow. We both needed this moment to feel wanted and loved by each other.

“Open your legs for me, Ari.”

Holy fuck. I’d never heard such seduction in his voice before, and I swore that the moment he touched me, I was going to come.

He moved his body between my legs as I stretched them open. Then he kissed me but pulled away to fast. He ran his tongue down my chest and then sucked one of my nipples into his mouth. As he started to slowly pull on it, I let out another moan. Yep, I’m going to explode any second now.

Then, I felt his hand moving down the side of my body, coming to rest between my thighs. My body jerked when I felt him touch my clit. He slid his fingers into me one by one, and I arched up against him as hard as I could.

“Jesus, you’re so wet, Ari. I want you more than anything, baby.”

“Oh god, Jeff…please…I want you, too…so badly.”

He started to move his hand faster as he moved up to capture my mouth with his. I never wanted this moment to end. This was probably the most sensual I’d ever felt, and each passing second was getting better and better.

I could feel that familiar build-up in my body, and all I wanted to do was push harder into his hand.

“Ari,” Jeff whispered in my ear.

That was my undoing. I called out his name over and over before he caught my cries with his mouth.

I slowly came back down to earth, but Jeff never let up on his kissing. I almost needed to pull away from him to catch my breath. Before I knew what he was doing, he was slowly kissing down my neck again…to my chest…down...my stomach. Oh, holy fuck!

I grabbed onto his hair the moment I felt his hot breath inches away from my already sensitive nub. The moment he started to kiss it, I rocked my hips into him. Shit! I just needed more. It was only a matter of seconds before I was arching my back and calling out his name again.

My head was spinning, and I was barely aware of him moving up my body. He kept kissing me ever so gently. Holy hell, this is unreal.

He started to kiss my neck and continued up until I could feel him breathing in my ear. “I’m going to make love to you now, Ari.”

Oh. My. God.

I’d never felt such pleasure like when I felt him enter my body. He made such slow and passionate love to me that I totally forgot about everything, except for him and our future together.

CHAPTER TWELVE

JEFF

As I lay in bed, I listened to Ari breathing as she slept. She kept moaning in her sleep, and it seemed like she was having another bad dream. She had been having them the last three nights. I would do anything to take away all her worry.

Just then, I felt her jerk awake.

“Bad dream again, baby?”

She lifted her head from chest and looked at me. The smile she gave me just about stole my breath away. God, I love her.

“Actually, no. For once, I was dreaming about something nice. Very nice!”

I let out a laugh and pulled her closer to me. I felt her stiffen in my arms, so I slowly started to move my fingers up and down her back.

“Mmm that feels so good,” she said.

We lay there for another few minutes in silence before Ari took a deep breath.

“Jeff, we need to talk about it.”

“I know we do.”

“When’s her due date?”

“She told me August seventeenth. She also said that she’s having a boy.”