Woodsman Werebear by T. S. Joyce

Author:T. S. Joyce [Joyce, T. S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-07-08T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

“Well, that escalated quickly.” Riley sipped the glass of orange juice Drew had handed her and stifled a groan. Pulp free and everything, just how she liked it. Drew was racking up the points with her tonight.

He chuckled from beside her on the bed. Riley was sitting against the creaking headboard, while Drew was lying down with his feet dangling off the end, gloriously naked and propped up on his elbow near her stomach. He hadn’t taken his eyes off Harper’s rolling movement for the last five minutes, and his hand drifted gently over Riley’s tummy to wherever the movement was.

“In my defense, I tried to slow us down,” he murmured.

True.

Her body felt like a noodle after what they’d done, but not in a bad way. She was practically glowing from the inside out as warmth and happiness radiated from her. It wasn’t even possible to remember the last time she felt this safe.

Stroking his hair gently, she sighed and wished this moment could stretch for eternity.

“Will it be hard after you deliver Harper?” he asked.

“You mean will it hurt?”

“No. Will it be hard for you to give her up?”

She sucked in air at the pain his question caused. She hadn’t talked about this, hadn’t admitted it out loud, and for good reason. But talking to Drew made things better. Not in the way talking through this process with her counselor had done either. Telling him about her fears would be sharing them with Drew, not dumping them on him and leaving. Someone else, someone stronger, could help her carry the weight.

With a deep, steadying exhalation, she looked down at the part of her stomach where Harper had decided to kick repeatedly. “Yes, it’ll be hard. I try not to think about it. Every time I do, my mind skitters away from the thought of how it will be handing her to Diem and watching another woman bond with the baby I love so much. My counselor said that maybe it would be best for me not to see Harper at all, and I think she’s right. I don’t want to fall in love with her even more. Diem and Bruiser wanted those 3D sonograms taken of her, just so they could feel like part of the process, and I sent them in the mail without taking a single peek. I haven’t looked at any of the ultrasounds either.”

“You don’t want to see her at all? Even after she’s born?”

Riley shook her head sadly. “She’s not mine to keep, so I don’t want to bond with her any more than I already have.”

Drew dragged his attention away from Riley’s undulating stomach and looked up at her, a knit of worry in his brows. “If it’s so hard, why are you doing this?”

Diem’s explanation whispered through Riley’s mind. Redemption.

“I told you if you knew me, you wouldn’t like me,” she whispered, throat tightening around the words. “I killed someone. Giving Diem and Bruiser a child feels like the only way I can make up for what I’ve done.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.