I was hard as a damn tree trunk, and I pumped my hips, grinding my erection against her center when she wrapped her legs around my waist. It was all still there… the connection… the passion… the love. Nothing else mattered except for this. We could put everything else behind us. The past. The years lost. The fact that she was… married?

Oh, fucking sonofabitch. As much as I wanted to bury myself in her sweet body for hours, it wasn’t right. Goddammit!

With the strength of a thousand warriors, I pulled away abruptly and saw her hazy eyes blink and try to focus. I averted my gaze, unable to look at her lying on my couch with her eyes hungry and her chest heaving with desire. I might just throw what few morals I had right out the fucking window.

I straightened and sat on the edge of the couch with my head in my hands. “Blaire, I can’t. I can’t do this. You’re married.” She scooted over to sit behind me with her legs on either side of my hips, her arms around my waist, and her cheek on my back.

God, baby. Please don’t ask me to do this.

“Axel, my husband is gay.”

16. Blaire

Blaire

Five Years Ago, June

A couple of weeks after we left Texas, I was settling in nicely in California. Beau had gotten recommendations from several of the people he worked with and helped me to select an obstetrician. I’d had one visit with Dr. Perkins, and I adored her. She was already trying to talk me into specializing in OB/GYN, but I had my heart set on cardiology.

Sitting alone on a padded bench at the outside seating area of a restaurant in a nearby mall, I moved my drink a couple of inches to the left and lost myself in circling my finger around and around the sweat ring left on the hard, white tabletop. It was a beautiful, sunny June day in California, but I barely noticed the sun brightening and warming the entire city or the cool shade provided by the large, square, yellow umbrellas on the patio. No, I was fucking miserable. I missed Axel so much. I was trying to be strong and put on a good front for my brother because he had done so much for me, but all I wanted to do was to call Ax and beg him to come for me.

Every night when I went to sleep, I felt a hollowness in my gut. I wanted my bear, the Tenderheart Bear Ax had given me the first time he’d said he loved me. Why hadn’t I just brought that damn box with me and hidden it away in my closet? I shouldn’t have made such an impulsive decision when I was so emotional.

Stop being so fucking weak! He doesn’t want you or your baby.