Baby Buddies: A BWWM Pregnancy Romance (5 page)

The vet finally arrived at Anaya’s apartment complex and pulled up at the curb. He looked up at her window and could see that a light was on. He got out of the car and picked up his things from the back seat. He felt an eager anticipation to be in that apartment with Anaya and hoped that when she was done crying over Jakob that she would cheer up again and they would be able to enjoy each other’s company without sparing any thought for that man who always let her down.

Chapter4

Anaya opened the door to find her best friend waiting for her with the promised wine and DVD and she smiled warmly at him, pulling him in with a hug. He hugged her back with equal warmth and Anaya immediately felt some of her tension and upset easing away in the company of her best friend.

“Thanks for coming, Owen,” she said sincerely.

Her best friend was a handsome man with sandy blond hair and bright blue eyes. He’d had an incredibly boyish face until he was about twenty-three when suddenly his jaw had taken shape and he’d started to grow stubble; all at once her childhood friend had become a man. He worked out regularly and the effort showed. He had broad shoulders and a flat stomach and if Anaya hadn’t known him forever and had just met him on the street one day, perhaps she would have found him a very attractive man.

She accepted the wine from Owen and poured them both a glass before inviting him to sit with her on the sofa in her sitting room. She sat down beside him and immediately drank half her glass of wine in a few large gulps. Owen laughed at her.

“Thirsty?” he teased.

“I just need to unwind,” she told him. “I was so excited for this evening and just can’t get over what a jerk Jakob was tonight. I don’t know why I keep taking him back.”

“I don’t know either,” Owen confessed. “You can do better than him.”

“Do you think?” Anaya said. “I mean, he’s handsome and intelligent and motivated. A lot of girls would say that he was a catch.”

“There’s more to a relationship than checking off a set of boxes, Anaya,” Owen told her wisely. “He might be great on paper, but if you don’t feel good when you’re around him, then it’s just not right.”

“I guess,” Anaya said uncertainly. “It’s just that we’ve been together for so long now. It’s normal for a honeymoon period to end, isn’t it? I mean, what if I ended things with Jakob and started something up with someone new just to find that a few years down the line I’m in exactly the same place because it had nothing to do with me and Jakob, but it’s just the way that relationships go?”

“I think that’s pretty depressing,” Owen chuckled. “I like to think that a good thing lasts when it’s with the right person. Besides, with you and Jakob, it’s not like a missing spark. He’s a jerk. You said so yourself.”

“Not all the time.”

“A lot of the time,” Owen said with a kind smile.

“But when he’s sweet, he’s really sweet,” Anaya said.

“Why don’t you find a guy who’s sweet all the time?” Owen suggested. “They’re out there, you know. You don’t have to be with Dr. Vanity.”

“Dr. Vanity?” Anaya giggled. “Is that your nickname for him now?”

“It suits him, don’t you think?” Owen said, allowing himself a mischievous smile.

“It does,” Anaya smiled back a little and shrugged, sighing deeply as she drank down some more of her wine.

“It was so good in the beginning,” she told Owen nostalgically. “In college, he was a different man. He was always so happy and everyone respected him and he seemed to really care about me. Nowadays he’s just angry all the time.”

“You deserve someone who cares about you,” Owen told her firmly. “I know you’ve got a history with Jakob, but that’s not a reason to stay with someone when it’s not going anywhere. There could be someone out there who is waiting to adore you.”

“You think?”

“I know.”

“What about you?” Anaya pressed. “Have you gotten together with that blonde girl from the gym yet?”

“Lisa?” Owen guessed. “No.”

“Why not?” Anaya urged him. She nudged him gently. “I never see you dating anyone.”

“I work a lot,” Owen said as an excuse, tipping his own drink back.

“Urgh,” Anaya rolled her eyes. “That’s every man’s excuse. When you like a girl you have to make time, you know? I’m sure you could spare an evening to take Lisa out on a date. I mean, you have time to be with me tonight, don’t you?”

“Well, it’s your birthday, and you’re my best friend,” Owen said.

“Another year older, but nowhere closer to New York,” Anaya said morosely. She edged closer to Owen and laid her head on his shoulder and put her legs atop his, curling up at his side in that nonchalant way that she always did when they were hanging out together.

“Good things will come,” Owen promised her. “You’re young yet.”

“I’ll be thirty soon,” Anaya said with distaste. “Who gets anywhere in the fashion world after thirty? You can’t be innovative when you’re past it.”

“You’re not past it, Anaya,” Owen laughed. “Why are you so down on yourself? You’ve got all the talent in the world, and as soon as you find yourself in the right place at the right time, everything will fall into place. You’ll see.”

“You’re the only who still thinks I’ll get anywhere with it.” Anaya sighed. “My mom wants me to go back to school and get my teaching degree. Can you imagine me as a schoolteacher?”

“I can,” Owen told her. “It’s not time to give up quite yet though. Keep plugging away at it a bit longer. You’ll get there,” he said, rubbing his hand over her back soothingly.

“Sometimes I think she’s right,” Anaya confessed. “I mean, I can keep kidding myself telling myself that working for that magazine is the same as being in the fashion industry, but it’s never going to get me anywhere. If I’m not going to be a designer, then maybe I should at least be doing something that pays well rather than holding onto the idea of fashion when really I’m just a receptionist.”

Owen pointed to one of Anaya’s mannequins in the corner of the sitting room wearing a half-finished, but gorgeous, design and told her, “You’re not just a receptionist, Anaya. You’re great at what you do.”

“I love designing, but it can always be a hobby,” Anaya said. “Maybe I just need to be more realistic about my career options.”

“That’s Jakob talking,” Owen told her. “Don’t let him get inside your head and make you feel like you haven’t got what it takes, because you do have what it takes. This is a viable career for you. You just have to believe that and keep doing what you’re doing.”

“I love talking to you, Owen,” Anaya said fondly. “You always help me to feel more positive about things.”

Owen smiled. They stuck on the DVD and curled up together to watch a cheesy rom-com as they drank their wine. Anaya was already on her second glass, so Owen drank his down to catch up. They began to get more giggly as the wine went to their heads and they began to get closer together on the sofa in a playful, friendly way. Soon they’d finished the bottle and Anaya had pulled out Jakob’s whiskey, getting her revenge by drinking his favorite year. The mix of alcohol soon went to both their heads even after the movie had finished and they carried on talking about love, life, and their careers.

“I nearly forgot!” Owen announced suddenly. He pulled a carefully wrapped gift from his gym bag and handed it to Anaya. “Happy birthday.”

Anaya grinned widely and accepted the present. It was the only one she’d received that day and she felt a surge of affection for her best friend who always made her feel special and had never let her down. She carefully peeled away the wrapping paper and when she saw inside the vintage, expensive, and rare book that she had been searching for so long, she lost her voice for a moment because she was so touched.

“Owen, this is incredible!” she gasped. “Thank you so much.”

He shrugged with a wide grin on his face. “Well, I do what I can.”

She leaned forward to hug him, but somehow with whiskey and wine making her head spin, Jakob’s failure on her mind, and her affection for her dear friend feeling particularly strong in that moment the hug turned into her lips pressing against his.

For a moment, Owen just froze from the shock of something that had so long been a fantasy, suddenly coming true. Anaya’s lips were on his and it was just as electric as he had always imagined it would be. His heart began to beat faster and his usual hesitation was forgotten as all the alcohol he’d had gave him courage and he put his hand gently against the back of her neck to pull her closer to him.

She closed her eyes and though it was surreal to feel Owen’s mouth on hers, somehow it also felt like the most real thing she had ever known, and she let herself kiss him back, parting her lips for him and tentatively running her tongue along the side of his. His fingers closed more firmly around her and their kiss deepened.

After all of the years spent wondering what she would feel like, what she would taste like, how she would react to him; he was not at all prepared for the fire that blazed up inside of him as all of his dreams became reality and he held her tightly against him, kissing her deeply. The fire that ignited in him and burned him outwardly from his heart and stomach, reached his groin and for once, he didn’t try to talk himself down. For once, he let himself get hard and he let himself get lost in the pleasure and the ache of wanting her. The fire spread from him to her, and though she was amazed at what was happening between the two of them, it felt so good, so warm, and so special to be touched and kissed as she was, that she let all of her inhibitions and rules and reasons melt beneath his heated touch.

He felt her accepting his affections and moved his hands from the back of her neck to the front, and slowly, he let his fingertips trail down her neck to the swell of her full breasts which were covered by her satin robe.

Owen didn’t know how he found the courage, or whether it was because he was fueled on by her hungered kissing in return, but he only paused a moment before lightly moving his finger over the satin fabric to cup and hold her breast, running his thumb over her nipples as they stiffened and she gasped in between their kisses. Her lips grew more fervent over his and her body reacted to his touch, showing him how much of an effect he was causing with her.

Soft sighs escaped her as he moved his mouth down her neck, gently kissing her flesh and then he threw caution to the wind and pulled back her robe from her breasts, revealing them and growing breathless at the sight of them bare in his hands for the first time.

His erection grew rock hard and began to throb in need of her body. She let her head roll back as his fingers worked over the soft rounded mounds he held, and she grinned at the feel of it. He lowered his mouth further, taking her large round dark nipples in his mouth and sucking at them, nibbling and biting until she slid her fingers in through his hair and tugged on it sharply.

“Owen...” she whispered through the fog of alcohol around her, “Owen... I want you...” she breathed thickly.

He lifted his face from the cleavage of her breasts and stared at her for a moment, taking in every single thing about the moment. He leaned closer to her, taking her face in his hands and turning it to him, looking in her eyes seriously.

“Say it again,” he insisted quietly.

She wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol talking or what else might have made her say it, but she turned her warm brown eyes to his and said softly, “I want you. I want you now,” she breathed heavily with desire and gazed at him through heavily lidded eyes.

He paused for a moment, considering that they were both drunk and that following through with their desire might not be the best idea for them, but then he couldn’t believe that she’d even said it to him, and he knew that the moment would most likely never come again and he refused to lose it. He scooped her up off of the sofa and carried her to her bedroom, laying her down on her back on the bed in her room. He sat above her looking down at the woman he had wanted this way more than any other woman in his life, and he shook his head, wondering if he was dreaming.

Anaya looked back at him, wondering who it was in her that had spoken those words to him, and how it was possible that she knew the words were truth; she did want him. She had never been so turned on in her life, and there was nothing more that she wanted just then than to feel him loving her. She delighted in the sensual feel of it when he slid the satin robe from her body and stared at her with eyes of amazement and deep hunger, and she gazed at him as he knelt above her, looking down at her as if he was stuck and in a dream. She took his hands in hers and drew them to her breasts, and as she did so, his eyes looked up from her body to share a look and the moment with her, and as it happened, all of his inhibition vanished.

This night, she was his. This night, she wanted him to love her, to share his body with her, and to come together as they never had, and as he believed they never would. The moment that she took his hands and put them on her body, he came undone and he lowered his mouth to her skin, kissing, touching, nibbling and feeling her; all of her. Every inch of her skin was covered in his precious kisses and need, and as he drew near to her core, he ran his hands up the inside of her thighs, pushing them apart and pressing his mouth and tongue firmly to her, sliding the tip of his tongue over the outside of her before thrusting it into her and maneuvering it until she began to arch her back and twist beneath him in pleasure as his hands clenched her.

“Come for me...” he said in husky voice between kisses. “Come for me... please...” he breathed hot against her skin, and as his tongue and fingers passed back and forth over her and inside of her, she did come, hard and passionately on his lips, and as she trembled in the afterward, he moved up above her, hovering over her body for a moment before gently pushing the tip of his erection into her, as he entered her inch by inch, stretching her body around his arousal until he was fully in her and she was clinging to him, her arms and legs wrapped tightly around him.