The Curvy Astronomer and the Cowboy (He Wanted Me Pregnant!) (11 page)

***

It was a clear night. Even with the light pollution from the hospital’s bright lights, standing in the parking lot I could see Orion and Taurus and Troy’s favorite, Pegasus.
Please,
I offered up to whoever was listening.
Just let him live. Just please don’t let me have killed him.

The hospital’s doors opened and a doctor walked out, still peeling off her gloves. My stomach lurched as I saw the blood on her apron.

“He’ll live,” she said.

The two words knocked the remaining strength out of me. I nearly fell to my knees in thanks right there.

“The bites to his neck were very deep, but luckily he’s built like a buffalo. There’s no damage to his spine--he’ll heal, given time. He’ll need a lot of rest and home care.”

“
I can do that!”
I blurted. “I mean, if he wants me to.”

She gave me an appraising look. “He’s lost a lot of blood. We transfused him several times, but he’s very groggy. But I can let you see him for a minute.”

***

Inside, Troy was surrounded by machines and tubes...but not even they could make him look small, or frail. He wasn’t his usual color, but he looked a lot better than when I’d seen him last.

“I’m so, so sorry!” I sobbed, fresh tears coursing down my cheeks. “I’m sorry I messed everything up!” I threw my arms around his neck. One of the machines gave a warning bleep.

“
Careful!”
growled the doctor. “I’m not above throwing you out of here.”

I backed off a little and tried to find a part of him that was safe to touch. His chest was covered in bandages, as was his neck. I settled for resting my cheek against his, my hand on his stomach.

“You didn’t mess anything up,” Troy rasped. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

I wiped my tears on my sleeve. I had to tell him. I had to tell him
right now!

“Before the bear,” I said, “I was about to come to tell you. I was really scared that--that I wasn’t going to get to tell you.” I sniffed. “I want you to know that...I want to stop running. I want to stay right here with you.”

And, as the doctor huffed in frustration, my cowboy pulled me into his arms and kissed me.

Epilogue

Three Years Later

“It’s cold as heck out here,” said Troy. “Don’t you want to come inside?”

“In a minute,” I told him. “I have Andromeda just perfect….”

Some things don’t change.

“Emily,” said Troy, “that baby may be nicely insulated in there, but you’re not. Get your butt inside.”

Some things do. I reluctantly climbed out of the trailer and Troy helped me close it up. Reaching up for the ropes was starting to get a little tricky, at eight months. This might be the last time we got to come up here for a while.

Arm in arm, we walked back to the cabin. Sam, now two, was asleep in a baby carrier on Troy’s back, his little hands hugging his father’s shoulders, his cheek against his neck. Somehow, Troy managed to make even that look manly, but he couldn’t stop it looking adorable.

Troy had healed well from his wounds. There were some scars on his chest that only added to his rugged appeal, and I sometimes had to rub oil into the stiff muscles along the side of his neck, but that usually led to a full body, oily rub-down, which led to sex, so neither of us were complaining.

We’d seen the bear a few times since, but he kept his distance now that we were visiting the cabin more often. And I’d gotten into the habit of being loud, not quiet, when we walked in the forest, so that he wasn’t surprised again.

The telescope had survived for three straight days out in the open air before one of the sheriff’s men had driven me back to the cabin to close up the trailer. Amazingly, the snow had held off in the meantime and it was undamaged. It did have a few claw marks on the casing, though, which got me all sorts of street-cred amongst other astronomers when I posted pictures on the internet.

Settling down had made it much easier to run my business. Instead of constantly searching for a good, dark place, I could just go up to the cabin, where the telescope was now permanently homed. Instead of looking for free Wi-Fi to upload my images, I could just come down the mountain and use the home connection, sitting in comfort with a mug of hot chocolate. And instead of nights spent alone in cheap motel rooms, I could cuddle up with my cowboy every single night. It also turned out that Mustang Falls had room for an astronomer. With the passing of Dr. Barker, the local school needed someone to show their pupils the stars. I was even starting to run monthly stargazing trips up to the cabin for the grown-ups.

We passed the cherry-red pickup--still going strong. For our wedding present, Russ and Amanda had given me a smaller four-by-four runabout for getting around town. “Trust me,” Amanda had said, when she’d taken me aside at the reception, “you’ll love living here, but you’ll need your own set of wheels.”

Troy’s house, which I’d moved into with him as soon as he was released from the hospital, was big and comfortable--something of a shock, for a farm worker. It turned out that Russ paid his employees well, and Troy had plenty saved. That came to be reassuring, when we’d discovered I was pregnant just a few weeks later. Sam had been born in the late fall, and now the next one--Kyle or Theresa, we were thinking--would soon be with us. Boy or girl, they seemed to be taking after their father in terms of size, just as Sam had. “I feel like a small moon,” I grumbled, rubbing my stomach. But there was a note of pride in my voice.

Troy kissed the top of my head as we entered the warm, bright cabin. “I could run you a bath,” he said. “Once I’ve put this one in his cot.”

I snuggled up to him, resting my head on his chest. “That sounds great,” I said. “But not yet. Let me just hold you like this, for a minute.”

And so we stood there in the warmth of the cabin: Troy bending over to put his arms around me, me cuddled up to his chest, the bump snug between our bodies and Sam clinging to Troy’s back.

Bliss.

<<<< >>>>

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If you liked The Curvy Astronomer, you’ll probably like
other stories in my “He Wanted Me Pregnant!” series
. They are all standalones and can be read in any order.

I’ve included an extract from
The Jewel Thief and the Billionaire
below. It too is in Kindle Unlimited :)

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An Extract from

He Wanted Me Pregnant!

The Jewel Thief and the Billionaire

Cat burglar Gemma has never fitted in. Nervous and shy, she hides in the shadows...until a heist goes wrong and she's forced to get up close and personal with the target.

Billionaire tycoon Marshall has been searching for the woman who can make him feel alive again after a terrible loss. When he meets Gemma, he's smitten...and decides she's got to be his.

Gemma's never even been in love before...now she's fallen for the one man she can't be with. With lives on the line and an alpha male who won't stop until she's in his bed, can even a cat burglar sneak out of this one?

Gemma has managed to get into one of Marshall’s exclusive parties by posing as a lounge singer. After the most terrifying experience of her life, singing for him and his guests (and only falling off the piano once), she’s snuck down to the basement to examine the vault. But while she’s down there, she hears Marshall descending the stairs….

So many things erupted in my mind that I actually staggered a little, reeling as if drunk. He was about to catch me—and, trapped in the basement, I had no way to escape. I was going to jail and, when the police tracked down Lauren and Nina, so were they. And he’d—

He’d hate me.
For sneaking into his life. For making him notice me, even if it had only been for a few minutes. Somehow, that seemed even worse than getting caught.

More light entered the room—he must have opened the door all the way. Then the light started to change and move—his body, blocking it out as he started down the stairs. I switched off my torch and hid it and the camera in my purse. I hit the switch on the false wall socket and the wall glided silently back into place. Not that it made much difference. As soon as he saw me down here, he was going to figure out what I was after and then—

His legs appeared first as he climbed carefully down the stairs, long and powerfully muscled under his tailored pants. Then his tight, lean waist. Then the flaring breadth of his chest, widening to those massive shoulders. And finally his face, those blue eyes calm and yet piercing, even in the gloom. He stopped at the bottom of the stairs.

He hadn’t turned the lights on, but there was enough light coming from the open door for him to see me clearly. I was standing in the middle of the room, hands knitted nervously together.

He looked at me. His gaze raked down my body from my eyes to my toes and then back up. And it left behind it a scorching trail of heat that wouldn’t fade away.

When he spoke, his voice was so low it seemed to make my body vibrate. “So…I guess I should ask what you’re doing down here.”

Every nerve in my body started screaming—my own internal alarm system. I looked at the stairs behind him—the only way out of the basement. There was no way I could get past him without him catching me.

“But I think I already know,” he said.

My stomach dropped into a black pit a thousand feet deep.
Prison bars and prison food and never feeling the freedom of climbing and swinging again—

“I saw you sneak down here….” he began.

God, he saw me?! I was upset, I must have gotten sloppy.

“…and I figured you wanted me to see you. And follow you. You want us to be private,” he said. “Right?”

My whole body slumped in relief. Swiftly followed by
What?!

He stepped closer. Without my heels on, he was much, much taller than me. Suddenly, there was a fluttering, blossoming excitement in my chest, and it wasn’t panic.

Another step. He was almost to me, now.
Don’t come any closer!
I thought instinctively. Then,
God, yes, come closer!
He was so
big…
he shouldn’t have been in a suit. He needed some leather armor and a bare chest, maybe an axe or a big hammer in his hand. And he’d say something like
Let me show you how a warrior takes his women—

“Let me show you….” he started.

My eyes went very wide.