Precious Lace (Lace #4) (7 page)

  "You feel so fucking good, Evangeline. So wet and hot and tight. Can you feel how good we are together? How fucking perfect we are?" He continued to thrust and a small groan escaped my throat. 

  "Yessss," I hissed in pleasure.

  "I want you in my life always. No matter what, I’ll never stop wanting you in my life. Live with me, take my name, wear my ring, I’m yours forever," he mumbled through clenched teeth.

  "Yes, Carter, yes," I moaned. One of his hands slid around between my legs and kneaded and massaged my clit, sending me falling over the cliff into pleasure. My orgasm tore through my body, causing my limbs to turn limp; if my ankles weren't locked around his waist my legs would have dropped to the floor. Carter slid in and out of me with two more long strokes before reaching his own release. His beautiful blue eyes held mine as his orgasm ripped through him. His face twisted in a beautiful grimace of pleasure as he stroked through his orgasm slowly before slowing down. He leaned down over my body, bracing himself on either side of my torso with his forearms. He captured my lips in his and placed soft kisses and nibbles. 

  "I can't get enough of you." He stroked a few more times with a crooked grin as my breathing came back to normal. A sated smile spread across my face as I brushed the soft hair off his forehead. 

  "You look thoroughly fucked, Mrs. Morgan." His eyes glistened in amusement. 

  "That I certainly am." I grinned back at him. He slid both hands up and down my torso, prolonged pleasure pulsing through my body. I sighed contentedly. He continued to kiss and suck on my bottom lip. 

  "We should get back," I whispered. 

  "I’m sure they'll know what we've been doing. The evidence is clear on your face."

  I blushed profusely as Carter slid the pad of his thumb along my cheekbone with a smile. 

  "Carter!" Emma's voice echoed down the hallway. My eyes widened in horror. He kissed me one last time on the lips and then pulled out of me, bending to pass me my dress and then throw his shirt over his head. I hurriedly threw my dress on and my eyes darted all over the floor for my underwear. 

  Just then Carter's door opened and his sister poked her head in. The bright smile fell off her face, replaced with a saucy grin. 

  "What's been going on in here?" She arched an eyebrow. 

  "We're heading back down." Carter grabbed my hand in his and walked me to the door. Emma opened the door all the way and crossed her arms, assessing us. 

  "You were up here for a while." She wasn't going to let us off the hook so easily. Emma and Carter had a stare down as my eyes darted to the floor behind me looking for my panties. 

  "What do you want me to say, Emma? That I fucked her brains out in my bedroom?" 

  My head whipped around to him. This situation couldn't get any worse. 

  "If it's the truth," she shrugged with a laugh. 

  I pulled my hand out of Carter's and pinched him in the arm. 

  "Ouch." He grabbed his arm with a wince. 

  "Nice ring, Eva. Is it from Carter?" Emma’s eyes bore into me with the slightest hint of a smile on her face. 

  "Uh, yeah." I held the wedding ring out on my right hand, caught off guard by her direct question. Carter had insisted I wear it, but I had insisted not wearing it on my left hand until the time was right to announce it to our families. 

  "I love it. Is that Carter's birthstone?" Emma came closer and held her hand out. I placed my hand in hers and she inspected it and then her eyes shot to Carter's and she raised her eyebrows. 

  "Yea, it is. Aquamarine." I chewed on my bottom lip. I felt like there was more going on here than I knew. 

  "Let's go." Carter grabbed my hand out of Emma's and headed out his bedroom door and back down to the rest of the family. 

  We walked back to the patio where Derek sat. Emma joined us and I sipped the rest of my wine nervously. Carter stood with one hip leaning against the railing of the deck and an arm slung over my shoulder talking to his brother. When Derek and Emma got into a sparring match I leaned in closer to Carter.

  "What was that up there?"

  "What?" He took a long swig of his beer. 

  "With the ring?"

  "Emma knows we're married. Or at least she knows I've asked you," he responded. 

  "What?" 

  "I told her ages ago that I wanted to use birthstones for an engagement ring."

  "Carter," I groaned. "Will she tell your parents?"

  "Nah. She'll wait for us to. She may torture me in the meantime, but she won't say anything." He hugged me closer to him. I looked back at the table and found Emma’s eyes trained on us, a smile dancing behind her eyes. I ducked my head back into Carter's chest, embarrassed that she knew. 

  "Nice panties, big brother. Didn't realize pink was your color." Derek leaned back in his chair and plucked the lacy fabric out of Carter's pocket. I choked on my wine as Carter's brother dangled my underwear off his finger. 

  And the day had started out so well… 

  I closed my eyes in mortification. Maybe there was a downside to being part of a close family after all. 

  "You fuck." Carter swiped the fabric out of his brother's hands and shoved it deep into his pocket. His brother clutched his stomach laughing, as Carter smiled shaking his head. What a memorable introduction I'd had to Carter's family. I couldn’t even bear to think about the impression I’d left them with. 

  A few days later Cate was with me at Carter's house helping me unpack more boxes, mostly clothes. I'd quickly come to realize that the majority of my paychecks over the years had gone to filling my closet. Cate sat in the closet arranging shoes and I sat in the bathroom organizing an entire box worth of hair products. 

  "So how has it been so far?" she asked from the closet. 

  "What?" I pulled things out absentmindedly. 

  "What do you mean
what
? Living with Carter?"

  "Oh, that. Good. It's only been a few days, but it's been really good. We went to his parent's house on the weekend. That was an experience."

  "What are they like?" 

  "Amazing. Completely amazing. Perfect, in fact. Until his brother pulled my panties out of Carter's pocket and his sister found out we were married."

  "Oh my God, Eva." She ducked her head out of the closet to glare at me. "Why were your panties in Carter's pocket? And how did his sister find out?" 

  "Well," I smiled as I set three separate cans of hairspray on the vanity. "We may have christened his childhood bedroom." I smiled at her. "And just as we finished his sister made an appearance." My cheeks blushed at the memory. "Anyway she noticed my ring, and apparently she knew Carter wanted to do a birthstone engagement ring someday. So that cat was out of the bag. But before she popped her head in I couldn't find my panties, turns out Carter had shoved them in his pocket, but not deep enough, as his brother noticed later," I finished. 

  "Oh my God, thank God his parents didn't see them first."

  "Oh God, Cate. What if they did?" I whispered. 

  "You slut." She laughed and then went back to digging through shoes. "These are hot, I forgot you had these. I need to borrow them sometime," Cate spoke to herself from the walk-in. 

  I got to the bottom of the box I’d been working on and found a box of tampons buried under the rubble. My heartbeat doubled in my chest. I couldn’t for the life of me remember what the date was. I struggled to remember the day Carter and I had gotten married. When was my last period? Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. My brain continued to rattle off the possibilities of why I hadn't needed a tampon in well over a month. 

  "These are mine! What are you doing with my Ferragamos?" Cate hollered from the other room. I was frozen in my spot, my hands holding the box of tampons. 

  "Eva! What the fuck?" Cate leaned out of the walk-in to look at me with the shoes dangling from her fingers. "What's wrong?" 

  My lip trembled and I couldn’t hear her over the roaring in my ears. 

  "Eva." She dropped the shoes and darted into the bathroom. "What is it?" She took the box from my hands and turned my head to her. "Eva! What is going on?" She gave me a soft shake. 

  "Tampons."

  "Yea?"

  "Tampons," I whispered. 

  "Do you need one? What's going on?"

  "No, Cate, I don't need one is the problem." 

  "Eva, no," she trailed off and lowered herself to the floor, taking me with her. We sat cross-legged and I bent my head in my hands and fisted my hair at the scalp. 

  "Do you think it's stress?" I murmured. "Please dear God, let it be stress. Let it be stress. That happens right? Cate, I’m on birth control and I can't even have kids."

  "Okay, chill out. You're freaking me out."

  "That's because I’m freaking out, Cate! My periods are never late. Never," I screamed at her. 

  "Okay, okay, okay! I’ll run to the pharmacy on the corner and get a pregnancy test. Just stay here I’ll be right back."

  "Get like five of them."

  "Okay." She jumped up and sped out of the room. 

  I sat shaking my head in my hands. My stomach lurched in anxiety, except now I didn't know if it was anxiety or morning sickness. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. How could this happen? This can't be happening; I can't have kids. The doctor said it would be nearly impossible. 

  Nearly. 

  My head landed on the last word. My breathing came out in pants the more I considered the past few weeks. Carter and I were in Aspen for two weeks. By the time we left I was starting to feel sick. But we were fighting. I wasn't eating right. I was exhausted. I puked on the sidewalk on the way home. But it was an anxiety attack. That happens right? Please let it be stress induced. 

  Carter. I grabbed for my phone to check the clock. I needed time to process this, if indeed there was a little thing growing inside me that needed processing. It was only two o'clock, which meant I still had a few hours before he got home from work. Please don't let today be a day he comes home early from work. 

  Oh Jesus, I’d drunk so much wine the past few weeks. What if the little monkey had fetal alcohol syndrome? Oh my God my brain couldn't even process anything rationally anymore. 

  Just then I heard Cate rush back into the bedroom panting. 

  "Here. I got one of every brand." She tossed a bag on the floor at my feet and half a dozen pink boxes fell out. Wasn't this the sweetest image? Me sitting on the floor shaking uncontrollably with my head in my hands surrounded by pregnancy tests. A poster for abstinence that should be plastered across every high school in the country. 

  Please don't let Carter come home early.

  "Take one, come on. I need to know if I’m going to be an aunt." Cate hauled me off the floor. 

  "Cate, shut up." My hands shook as I picked a box up and tried to open it. 

  "Here." She ripped it open and threw a test at me. I rolled my eyes at her as I went to the toilet and pulled down my jeans. 

  "I’m too nervous to pee." I looked up at her with terror in my eyes. 

  "Eva, come on," she laughed. "Just relax."

  "God, what if it's positive Cate?" I whispered.

  "Eva! Come on! Just pee!" Cate threw another test at my head to snap me out of my funk. I heaved a big sigh, closed my eyes and concentrated on waterfalls and warm running water. I held the stick between my legs and prayed that it was in the right position when my body relaxed enough to go. I looked up into Cate's eyes as tears streaked slowly down my cheeks. 

  I didn't even have words to explain to her how I was feeling. I couldn't have kids. This couldn’t be possible. My whole life I was prepared for a future without kids, so it couldn’t be the case now. I emptied my bladder and put the cap on the stick and placed it on the counter next to me before I placed my head down on my knees and sobbed. 

  "Eva." Cate rushed to me and flushed the toilet. "Come on, honey." She pulled me off the toilet and I pulled up my jeans and buttoned them. "Let's go lie down." She pulled me into Carter's bedroom, my bedroom, our bedroom, and lay me on the bed.

  "Whatever that test says in there it's going to be okay, Eva." She smoothed her palm on my back as I lay face first with my head in a pillow. 

  "I don't even know what I want it to say, Cate. How messed up is that?" I sobbed some more as the knot in my throat released and tears came pouring out. "I’m not supposed to be able to have kids. Carter and I... God, he drives me insane!" I sobbed harder. "But a baby? A little baby… what if he or she has Carter's hair? Or his beautiful eyes? God Cate, can I raise a baby? What kind of mom would I be? What kind of dad would Carter be?" My voice rose at the end. Carter's issues with control—how would he be with a little toddler tornado drawing on the walls and puking on his leather furniture? 

  And then I remembered what he'd told me in Aspen. That his dad had left. How it had torn his heart out. I knew Carter wouldn't leave. He would never do that to his own child. Would he? 

  "How long for the test?" I lifted my head and sniffed. 

  "Do you want me to check it? It should be done…" Cate trailed off. 

  I stared at the bathroom door with bright light cascading out. My future was waiting for me in that bathroom. One way or the other, it would determine what happened next. Maybe my future would be more of the same. A life with Carter, just the two of us, driving each other insane. Or maybe we could adopt. Would I want to adopt? I hadn’t given it much thought before. 

  But then again, if there was a little pink plus sign in the window, what would my future hold? Would Carter be in it? Am I the right kind of person to give my entire life to another little human being? My heart clenched at the thought. A vision floated in my head of a little toffee-haired boy with my bright green eyes. My heart ached for him. Was I wishing him into existence? Or mourning for what could never be?

  "I’ll do it." I sat up on the bed and rubbed my sweaty palms against my jeans. "Will you come with me?" I held Cate's hand tightly in my own.