“When did you want me then?”
“When you came to my dorm, carrying that box of Mitch’s stuff.” He ran a finger up my side. “You looked sad, but there was something else there with the sadness. It was like you were determined to get over him as fast as you could because you didn’t want to stay knocked down. You didn’t want to be broken.” He stopped for a moment and his chest heaved as he took a deep breath. “I knocked you down. I broke you.”
I pushed myself up and looked at him. “Do I look broken to you?”
He studied me for a moment, then smiled. “No, I guess you don’t.”
Chapter Sixteen
“Can’t sleep?” Hunter asked as he rolled over.
He slid in behind me and draped an arm over my stomach. I was huge now, due in only a few weeks. Having a beach ball for a stomach sometimes made sleep a little interesting.
“I think I’m going to be giving birth to an acrobat.” I smiled as the baby did another somersault.
“Hey there, little man. How about you let your mommy get some sleep?” Hunter gently rubbed my stomach, and the baby responded with a hard kick. It was as if they were already having actual conversations with each other.
Hunter rained kisses on my shoulder and neck. I groaned, but not in a good way. “I have to use the bathroom. I swear this kid of ours can come out any time now. I feel like a beached whale.” I pushed myself to my feet and waddled to the bathroom, ignoring Hunters quiet chuckles.
I was on my way back from the bathroom, and Hunter did that thing where he stared at me again. He was always staring at me now. He said I grew more beautiful every day. I always quipped that I just grow every day.
I was about to climb back into bed when I felt a pull in my stomach. It was different than a kick. It was more like a twinge, not quite a cramp. Warm liquid seeped through my panties.
I grabbed my stomach. “Hunter.”
He was out of bed and at my side before I could take another step.
“My water broke.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m toilet trained. I didn’t just piss myself,” I snapped. I was scared. I’d never done this before. “Isn’t it too early?”
“You’re thirty-seven weeks. It’s only a little bit too early. It’s going to be okay.”
Hunter grabbed my suitcase from the closet and then took me out to the car. From there he called the hospital to inform them we were coming. We drove the twenty minutes to the hospital, and my hands didn’t leave my stomach the whole way. I waddled in with his support, and a nurse rushed over with a wheelchair. The contractions were fierce and already five minutes apart.
They say women never forget the pain of labor, but it’s not the pain that I thought I’d remember. It’s Hunter and the way he looked at me with a thousand emotions all at once. Fear. Love. Adoration. Terror. Hope. They were all there bubbling over. It was as if he didn’t know which emotion to have so he had them all. He let me crush his hand during the contractions, and his gaze never left my face. He never left my side. The words resonated in me. Hunter never leaves.
Since the day Hunter showed up at Felicity’s and begged for my forgiveness, he’d never left. He’d gone through it all with me. He’d read all the books. He helped me create the baby registry. He was there for me in Lamaze class and for all the blood work and tests and ultrasounds. He was there for everything.
Once the contraction ended and I could breathe again I looked at him. “Let’s get married.”
Hunter grinned. “I thought I already proposed to you?”
“I know, but I don’t want to wait anymore.”
“You want to get married right now?” Hunter’s eyebrows pinched together. They always did when he was confused.
“Not right now, but soon. Next week. Next month. We’ll do something super simple and only invite our closest friends and family.”
“You don’t want the big wedding?”
I shook my head. “The only thing I want is you.” I gripped his hand as another contraction slammed into me. “And for this baby to be born.”
“Then we’ll do it. Soon. You leave everything to me, Summer. I’ve got this.”
* * * *
They were both amazing and mine. I still couldn’t wrap my mind around how perfect everything was. I’d been a mother for six amazing weeks and a wife for two. Life was perfect. Sometimes it was so perfect it scared me to think of how different things could have turned out.
Hunter reclined in his favorite chair and his newest favorite person slept on his chest. One thousand. That was the number of times I thought my heart was going to burst because it was so full. It never did. It just got bigger. It was a sponge now, absorbing all the love Hunter and our daughter, Emma, had to give.
Hunter’s eyes opened and he caught me staring at him. He winked, then kissed the top of Emma’s head.
One thousand and one.
The End
A Note to My Readers
Thanks you for reading my book. I hope you enjoyed it and will consider leaving a review on Goodreads or Amazon.
Revenge is the first of many erotic romance novellas I plan to publish. If you’d like to talk to me about it, I’d love to hear from you. You can contact me on my website or Facebook.
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Acknowledgements
It’s almost unreal to me that I’m writing acknowledgements for my first published novella. Even more unreal to me is that it’s an erotic romance. I never set out to write in this genre until a friend gave me a gentle push. So, Jaden, thank you. I’ll probably embarrass your ass and thank you in the back of every book I publish from now on.
I can’t write acknowledgements without thanking Mary. Mary has been a mentor of mine for a long time. Without her, I’d still be some stupid, info-dumping, telling-not-showing, repetitive, idiot writer kid who couldn’t pen her way out of a wet paper sack.
S. A. Starcevic, you are awesome. You listen to me ramble about all my new shiny ideas. You pushed me to submit. You urge me to believe in myself at every turn. Without you, this novella would still be languishing in my heap of files. Thanks also goes to Amber. You always scolded me for not finishing things. Turns out, you’re right. I do need to finish things.
Most of all, I suppose I need to thank my mom and dad for teaching me to love reading. From an early age, reading was encouraged. I grew up in a house of books. For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be an author, and this first novella is just the first of many I plan to publish. Books are a great and wonderful thing, and I couldn’t be happier than I am at this moment.
About the Author
E. M. Denning is a writer from British Columbia. She loves her family and animals, and anything cute and fuzzy. She was born a hopeless romantic, and when she’s not writing erotic romance, she’s probably reading it. She loves love.
You can find her on her website, Facebook or on her blog.