Point of No Return (28 page)

I was out of the car as soon as possible when we were back at the motel, and I stood outside the door to our room, waiting stiffly for Kade to unlock it.

Movement caught my eye and I saw Blane looking at me before he opened the door and let Branna in ahead of him. Branna looked upset, and well she should have been. Kade and she were supposed to be close, yet not only had he never told her about Blane, he hadn’t even told her I was having his child.

I’d be pretty upset, too, if I was her. I wondered if Blane would comfort her, and then I wondered how I felt about that.

Kade unlocked our door and I hurried inside, not looking at him. I brushed my teeth in the bathroom, then took off my jeans and headed for one of the beds, all without speaking to him.

“Kathleen
. . .
” he began.

I ignored him, jerking the bedcovers down, then slipping off my bra and putting it in my suitcase. The T-shirt I wore was fine to sleep in.

“Kathleen,” he tried again, taking hold of my arm. “Could you stop and just listen to me?”

“What should I listen to, Kade?” I snapped. “The sound of you
not
telling Branna about us?” I jerked my arm away just as Kade released me and I stumbled backward, falling flat on my ass on the floor.

“Dammit!” Tears threatened, but I blinked them back, pulling my feet under me to stand. That’s when I felt it.

Kade shoved his hand through his hair in frustration, then leaned down to help me up.

“Wait,” I said urgently. My hands dropped to my bump as another cramp knifed through my abdomen. “Oh God,” I gasped, the blood leaving my face in a rush.

“What’s wrong?” Kade dropped into a crouch next to me.

“I don’t know,” I breathed. “It hurts—” Another cramp cut me off as I sucked in a breath.

In a flash, Kade had me in his arms and was hurrying out the door.

“What are you doing?” I asked, cringing. I didn’t even have pants on. But Kade was kicking on the door to Blane’s room.

“Something’s wrong with Kathleen,” he blurted when Blane opened the door. “I’m taking her to the hospital.”

“You’re what?” I squeaked. “I’m fine!”

“You’re not fine,” Kade said to me. “Get the car door for me,” he ordered Blane, who rushed to open it.

“Kade, will you just stop for a second?” Another cramp seized me and Kade saw my hands go to my abdomen.

“Nope,” he said, slamming the door and hurrying to slide behind the wheel. Seconds later, he was burning rubber as we sped out of the lot.

I tried to reason with him all the way to the hospital, but it was like talking to a brick wall. No matter how many times I tried to tell him that cramping sometimes was normal and that we should just go back to the motel, he ignored me.

I wanted to sink under the seat when Kade pulled to a shuddering stop at the ER entrance, grabbing his keys and rushing around the car to pick me up and carry me inside.

“You can’t just leave your car there!” I protested.

“Fuck the car,” he growled.

“You’re making a scene,” I hissed, my face burning as people turned to look at us.

“I don’t give a shit.”

There was no stopping him from bullying the admittance people, and soon I was ensconced in a bed in the ER, clad in a gown and awaiting a doctor.

“I can’t believe you did this,” I muttered. “I’m fine. The cramping has stopped. It was probably nothing.”

“Maybe it was,” he said. “But won’t you feel better to find out for sure?”

He was right, so I didn’t say anything.

The doctor and a nurse came in shortly after that and asked me a bunch of questions. No, I hadn’t had this happen before. No, I wasn’t spotting. No, I wasn’t cramping right then.

“Let’s take a look,” the doctor said with a kind smile while he snapped on a pair of latex gloves. He glanced at Kade. “Does Dad want to stay for this or wait outside?”

The look on Kade’s face was unreadable. “I’m staying,” he said, coming to stand by me. He took my hand.

“Everything looks all right,” the doctor said a few minutes later, discarding his gloves and lowering the sheet to cover me. “But let’s get a sonogram, just to be sure.”

He stepped out of the cubicle and didn’t return for several minutes, but Kade didn’t release my hand. When the doctor came back, a technician followed him with a machine in tow.

Baring my stomach, the doctor squirted some gel on my skin, then placed the sonogram device on me, moving it around. A fast, whooshing beat immediately came through the speakers.

“What’s that?” Kade asked.

“That’s the baby’s heartbeat, of course,” the doctor replied, watching the screen. He pointed. “There he is. Or she.” There was a white blob that squirmed.

My eyes burned with tears as I stared at our baby. Kade’s hand was like a vise, crushing mine, but I didn’t care.

“It looks like it was just one of those scares they like to do,” the doctor said, giving the tech the wand and grabbing some paper towels to wipe the gel off my stomach. “Get used to it. They only come up with more ways to make you worry about them.” He smiled, then discreetly handed me a tissue to wipe my eyes.

“Thank you,” I managed, swallowing the lump in my throat.

“You’re welcome. Take care of yourself, now.” He left, pulling the curtain shut behind him and leaving Kade and me alone.

I chanced a glance at Kade. He was staring at me. His gaze dropped to my mouth and he leaned down, pressing a warm, soft kiss to my lips. He cupped my jaw, his fingers sliding into my hair. I lifted my hand to lightly grasp his arm. When he pulled back, he rested his forehead against mine.

“We made that,” he said, his voice hardly above a whisper.

My smile was a little watery. “Yes, we did.”

“We’re having a baby.”

“Yes, we are.”

Kade pressed a kiss to my forehead and helped me dress. He called Blane on the way back to the motel to let him know I was okay, and soon we were back inside the run-down room.

I got into the bed and he pulled the covers up over me. I turned, my back toward Kade, and I felt the bed dip as he lay behind me, his body stretched alongside mine. His hand brushed the hair back from my face.

“I didn’t tell Branna because I was trying to take your advice,” he said, his lips grazing my ear. His fingertips gently traced the curve of my cheek and jaw. “I just hadn’t had the chance yet to tell her that she and I aren’t ever going to be what she wants. That I’m in love with someone else. That I’m in love with you. And no matter how many times I tell myself that you and the baby are better off without me, I can’t stop wanting you.”

I turned to look at him, almost afraid to hope. “Do you mean that?”

He nodded, still tenderly smoothing stray hairs back from my face. “I left, but that never meant I didn’t love you. You own me, body and soul. From the moment I first laid eyes on you in the courthouse.”

“Then why, Kade?” I asked. “Why would you lie to me, pretend everything was going to be okay, that we’d be together, and then just leave me without a word?”

“I’m so sorry, princess,” Kade said, the anguish in his voice painful to hear. He gazed down into my eyes. “My staying would’ve put you in danger, and I couldn’t even say goodbye because I knew if I did, I wouldn’t be able to walk away from you. I wanted you to be safe, needed you to be safe. And I knew I couldn’t do it, but Blane could.”

I took his face in my hands, the shadow on his cheeks a soft abrasion against my palms. His eyes were beautiful pools of a blue so deep, I never wanted to stop gazing into them. “It’s you
. . .
or it’s no one,” I said simply.

Kade studied me intently, and I prayed he was finally hearing me, finally understanding that there was no one else for me—just him.

His gaze dropped and he slowly lowered his head. My breath caught. His lips brushed mine once, twice, then settled softly in a gentle caress. My fingers slid into his hair and it seemed my chest cracked wide open as Kade kissed me. All the longing and heartbreak of being apart was poured from me into him and back. Kade pressed kisses to my cheeks, my eyes, my jaw, then returned to my lips, the warm slide of his tongue against mine spreading heat through my body. I felt cherished as he held me, loved.

Yet a whisper of caution made me pull away. “Wait,” I said, my voice breathless from his kisses. Kade’s mouth moved to my neck and I had to tug on his hair to get his attention. “Wait,” I said again.

“What?” he asked. His lips were red and a little swollen, the slight sheen to them making me want to swallow what I was about to say and dive back into kissing him. I shoved the thought aside.

“I have to know,” I said. “Is this temporary? Are you going to leave me again?”

Kade’s expression turned solemn. “I swear to you,” he said. “I will never leave you again.”

My eyes stung, but I didn’t want to cry. I pulled his head down, kissing him with everything I felt, sure that if I didn’t find an outlet, the overwhelming love and joy and tenderness flooding through me would explode.

Kade kissed me back with the same desperation. I locked my arms around his neck, climbing out from underneath the covers until I was kneeling between his legs as he sat back on his haunches. His hands settled on my waist, my T-shirt riding up, and I impatiently pulled it up over my head and off.

Kade groaned, a sound that brought a smile to my lips, then my breath was torn from me when his mouth closed over a nipple. Pregnancy had increased the already acute sensitivity of my breasts, and Kade seemed to have figured that out pretty darn fast. His mouth and hands paid lavish attention to my breasts until all I could hear was a nonstop litany of whimpers and pleas falling from my lips. And all I could think about was the feel of his tongue, flicking against me before he sucked the flesh into his mouth. The insides of my thighs were coated with my arousal and I remained upright only because his hands were holding me up.

“Can we do this?” Kade asked, his lips moving against my skin. “I don’t want to hurt the baby.”

“I’m fine,” I managed to gasp. “The baby’s fine. Sex is fine, won’t hurt the baby. Don’t stop.” If he didn’t make love to me right then, he was going to be on the business end of one hell of a hissy fit.

Kade’s hand slipped underneath the elastic waistband of my panties, the heat of his palm branding my rear as he tugged the fabric down my thighs. The next thing I knew, his fingers were pushing into me from behind. I choked on a cry, a keening sound coming from my throat as he teased me, thrusting his long fingers inside me, then spreading my arousal to my clit, coating the flesh with moisture until I couldn’t breathe. Then he’d do it again, leisurely fucking me with two fingers, and all while his mouth, tongue, and teeth played relentlessly with my breasts.

I was hovering on the edge, each touch making me whimper and moan and beg until I couldn’t think, couldn’t process anything but what Kade was doing to me. I knew at some point I was mindlessly begging, each teasing brush of his fingers against my clit making my thighs tremble. I was so wet, I knew I should probably be embarrassed at the moisture dripping down my thighs, but was too far gone to care.

Kade suddenly withdrew his fingers and I moaned with disappointment. My eyes were closed but I felt his lips whisper against the skin of my neck, “Don’t worry, princess. I won’t leave you hanging.”

Carefully turning me, Kade laid me across the bed on top of the covers, tugging my panties farther down my legs and off. I was beyond coherent thought, my fingers scrabbling at the shirt he wore. I wanted to feel his skin, wanted his body inside mine. Kade pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it. A moment later, his jeans were kicked aside as well. The sight of his straining erection had me lifting to my elbows to see more, but then he lay between my legs.

Bracing his weight on his arms, Kade gazed into my eyes. “Tell me if I hurt you,” he said softly.

I was more than ready, and the head of his cock slipped easily inside me. I bent my knees, lifting my hips to eagerly take in more of him. Kade pushed forward, sheathing himself inside me, and I gasped. There was the tiniest twinge as my body accommodated his, then it was as though we’d never been apart.

Kade retreated then thrust hard into me, once, twice. That was all it took to send me splintering into a thousand pieces. He stilled inside me as my body gripped his, my orgasm rippling through me as though it were drawn from my toes. Dimly, I heard Kade groan at the sensation. I cried out, tears slipping from the corners of my eyes.

Kade started moving again before I’d even caught my breath. Our eyes locked and I couldn’t look away. I wrapped my legs around his hips as the pressure built inside me once again. I lifted my hips to meet his thrusts, the hard length of him stroking me in just the right spot, as he moved faster. I couldn’t help my eyes slipping shut as I moaned, repeating his name over and over like a litany, until I couldn’t keep up with him. His hands dug into my hips and sweat dripped from his brow. He grew thicker inside me, moved faster, harder, until I couldn’t hold out any longer.

Stars exploded behind my eyes as Kade’s body jerked into mine, guttural moans and gasps filling the space between us. His mouth suddenly covered mine, his tongue sliding inside my mouth the way his cock was deep inside my body, and I clutched him to me as aftershocks rippled through us.