Short Rides

Page 24

All Knocked Up: Chapter Four
Seven and a half months later...
“Come on, Keely, breathe.”
“I am breathing, you bastard. Ow. Fuck. Goddamn that hurts.”
Jack opened his mouth to remind her about language but Keely’s death stare kept him quiet.
Swearing rules didn’t apply during labor.
After the contraction ended, she reached for the towel only to have Jack already there, gently mopping her face. “Thanks.”
“My pleasure.” He kissed her temple. “This one seems to be going faster than the last one.”
“Not fast enough for me,” she grumbled.
“Hold on. Here comes another. Breathe with me.”
When it ended, she panted, “Jack. They’re getting worse.”
“Want me to get the nurse?”
“Not yet.”
As Keely waited for his cue for the next one, she had that same surreal sensation she had last year—the urge to flee. She needed to focus on something else. Her darling daughter.
Hard to believe Piper would be a year old in three weeks. Being two weeks early should’ve been an indication she’d do everything early. She’d walked at nine months and started talking at ten months. Of course her first word was Daddy.
“I know you’re thinking about Piper. I texted your mom,” Jack said. “She’s fine. She’s following Avery everywhere.”
Since Cord and AJ’s little girl Avery and Piper were nine months apart—same age difference as Keely and AJ—Cord and Jack already were already strategizing how to keep the girls from running wild.
Yeah, good luck with that, Keely’s dad had told them.
“Keely, get ready.”
The contractions came hard and fast. Time was divided in two: during a contraction and the break between contractions. She’d blocked much of her labor out last year. The pain had been unimaginable; she hadn’t known how she’d survive it. And then soon as the baby popped out, pain gone. Completely.
But until that point? Hell. Which she was in right now.
The nurse came in and checked her. “Wow, lady, you’re at nine.”
“How can that be?” Jack asked. “Two hours ago she was at five.”
“Second babies are quicker. Her body knows what to do. I’ll get the doc. Get your scrubs on.”
The next ten minutes were an exercise in control as Keely breathed through the need to push.
After Doctor Monroe arrived, and she could finally give in to that urge, it only took two tries and the baby was out.
Breathing hard, dizzy, hot, and sore, Keely still managed to sit up and look at the baby in Doc’s hands. “Well?”
“It’s a girl.”
Jack laughed. “Next time I’m getting you pregnant in the summer so you don’t freeze the stem off another one.”
“Jack!”
“You know I’m kidding, cowgirl.”
Then the blonde baby girl was placed on her stomach. Blonde? Where the hell had that hair color come from?
“Look at her.” Jack murmured, “Hey, precious. Welcome to the family.”
She screwed up her face and let out a loud cry.
“Healthy set of lungs on her.” Doc Monroe cut the cord and the nurses whisked the baby away.
No, bring her back! I hardly got to see her.
“You were fierce in labor this time, beautiful wife of mine. I’m proud of you.” He kissed her temple. “Thank you for adding another perfect girl to my life.”
“I’m so happy that Piper has a sister.” She sniffled. “I love my brothers, but after seeing how close my mom and my aunt are, I always wanted a sister.”
“Maybe we’ll provide them with a brother next time.” He chuckled at her look of shock. “What? Carolyn kept birthing babies until she had a girl, so in some ways, it is a family tradition.”
“You are reaching, buddy.”
Doc Monroe walked over with the baby bundle. “She weighed in at seven pounds, fourteen ounces and she’s twenty-three inches long.” She handed Jack the baby. “What’s her name?”
Jack looked at Keely. “Katie McKay Donohue.”
The medical personnel picked up their stuff and they were gone.
“Let me hold her,” Keely demanded.
“In a second.”
“Are you gonna hog this baby too?”
“Probably.”
Two months later…
Jack came up behind Keely and wrapped his arms around her, placing a kiss on the side of her neck. “Hi.”
“Hi, yourself, handsome. What’s up?” She rubbed her ass into his groin. “Besides your cock?”
He chuckled. “That’s always your fault.”
“The girls are down?”
“Mmm-hmm. Sleeping like the precious angels they are—until devil child Katie screams like a banshee and wakes them both up.” Jack angled her head to the side and continued kissing her neck. “So we have a little time.”
“To do what?”
“To mark the special occasion by getting naked.”
“Oh? Are you talking about the all clear from the doc to resume sexual relations with my husband special occasion?”
“Not just that special occasion, smart mouth. Although that is a happy coincidence.” He nuzzled the back of her head, breathing in the lilac scent of her shampoo. “I started the fireplace in the living room. Poured two glasses of red wine. Turned on a CD of that sappy goat-yodeling music you love so much.”
“Geez, GQ. Did you roll out a bearskin rug too?”
“Damn. I knew I forgot something.” He tugged on her earlobe until she hissed. “Come on, cowgirl. Let me be romantic and seduce you instead of throwing you on the tile right here in the kitchen and banging your brains out.”
Keely faced him. Kissed him. Twined herself around him. “I prefer the hard bang after nine weeks and four days of no bang. But I’ll indulge you and let you make sweet, sweet love to me. Let me grab the condoms.”
Jack froze. “Condoms? Really?”
“Yes, really.”
“But…I hate condoms. We haven’t used them in years.”
She drilled her finger into his chest. “Suck it up. No glove, no love. I’m not kiddin’, Jack.”
“How about if I pull out?” he asked hopefully.
Keely growled at him. “Do you want to get laid tonight or not?”
“Fine. Condoms it is.”
Jack did an awesome job seducing her—if he did say so himself. Making her come twice before he got started on the main event. And yeah, it hadn’t been too bad wearing a condom after Keely had used her mouth to put it on.
They both were too far gone, too desperate to reconnect for slow and steady to last very long. Each hard thrust into Keely’s hot, wet cunt sent him closer to the edge. Her breathy moans in his ear. Each lift of her hips as she met him thrust for thrust. Then Jack was there, falling headlong into the hot wash of pleasure he only got from being body to body, skin to skin, heart to heart with the woman who owned him. The woman who loved him and gave him more joy in his life than he ever imagined possible.
After he’d regained his ability to think, and after he’d kissed Keely so thoroughly his cock was on board for round two, he eased out of her.
That’s when Jack saw the condom had broken.
He must’ve worn a horrified look, because Keely pushed up on her elbows and said, “What’s wrong?”
“Uh. You did get that condom on all the way, right?”
“For cryin’ out loud, I know how to put on a…omigod the goddamned condom broke?”
“Apparently.”
Silence.
Then Keely got right in his face. “So help me God if you got me pregnant again Jack Donohue, I’ll—”
Jack gave her a smacking kiss on the mouth. “You’ll what? Stop having sex with me? Not likely. You won’t adore another baby like you adore the two beautiful babies we already have? Not likely.”
“You are a sweet-talkin’ man even after you got your pole polished? Wow. I’m one lucky broad.”
He grinned. “You have to admit we’ve got this baby-making thing down.”
“Well, practice does make perfect, and we’ve gotten in a lot of practice over the years.”
Jack touched the side of her face. “Would you be upset if…?”
“Your supersonic sperm reached the goal once again?” Keely shook her head. “We tried to do the responsible thing. If it happens, it happens.”
“So we can skip the condoms for round two?”
“Nice try, but not a chance in hell.” She tossed him another condom. “This one is all on you.” She kissed him and rested her forehead against his. “Happy anniversary, Jack.”
“Happy anniversary, Keely.”
Jack made love to her again. Slower. Sweeter. Wearing her out to the point she’d drifted off to sleep in his arms.
He didn’t panic when he saw they’d broken another condom. He’d tell her later. For now he let her sleep. Chances were very good she’d need extra sleep in the coming months.
Seven months later...
“Piper McKay Donohue, get down from there right now.”
“No!”
“I mean it. Get down.”
“No!”
A chuckle sounded beside her.
Keely looked at her father. “Daddy, this is not funny.”
“It surely is. Pipsqueak climbs everything like Cam did, but her defiant tone is all you, baby girl.”
Piper started jumping on the couch. Her red pigtails bounced. The bells on her sock jingled, which made her giggle. A devious giggle if Keely had ever heard one. She pushed herself to get out of the recliner.
“Huh-uh. Stay put,” her dad warned. “I’ll get her.” Grandpa scooped her up with one arm. “No jumpin’ on the furniture, okay, Pipsqueak?”
“K.” Piper squirmed to be let down. As soon as her feet hit the floor she made a beeline for the couch again.