She cried harder. Feeling such a sense of loss.
The water shut off.
“Keely—”
“I locked the goddamned door for a reason, Jack. Go away.”
“No.” His warm body covered hers. “At first I thought I’d hurt you when I’d picked up the pace.”
She shook her head. Made her feel even worse that he thought he’d hurt her and she’d just left him there.
“I’m not going anywhere. So if you want to stand here naked in the shower all night, that’s what we’ll do.”
She hunched her back away from him.
His mouth skated along the slope of her shoulder. “But I’d really like to finish what we started.”
“I already gave you one milk bath,” she snapped. “You wanna go for two?”
“Absolutely. If it means I get to be inside you.” He nipped the section of skin on her nape that made her knees buckle. “If it means I get to touch you, and look into your eyes so you see how much I love touching you. See how much I love you.”
Keely sniffled. “You are such a smooth-talking bastard.”
“Guilty. But that’s how you like me best. Will you turn around and look at me please?”
As soon as she did Jack was in her face.
“This kind of shit happens. And baby, we are married. We’re immune to each other’s bodily functions. So why did you freak out?”
“Because it’s embarrassing. And probably makes you never wanna touch my tits again.”
He cupped her br**sts. “Wrong. I love your tits. It’s just right now they’ve got a bigger purpose than entertaining me.” He stroked his thumb over her nipple and she hissed. “See? You’re sore from nursing. I tried not to rub against them because I won’t add to your pain with something that’s supposed to give you pleasure. I’ll wait my turn until Piper is done with them.” He ran his fingers along her collarbone and up her neck. “There are lots of other places on your body I love to touch besides your tits. I could show you if you’d like, sexy wife.”
Keely started to cry again.
A panicked look crossed his face. “What did I say?”
“Exactly the perfect thing.” She placed her hand over his heart. “How did I get so lucky that you fell in love with me? And you’re still with me after my random bouts of craziness?”
He gave her a gentle, loving kiss as her answer.
She rested her forehead against his chest. “Sorry I ruined our sexy time.”
“You didn’t. We just had a break in the activities. Which is a good thing because my stamina sure isn’t what it was two months ago.”
“I don’t care.”
“So let’s pick up where we left off, right here in the shower. That way if it happens again, we won’t care. We’ll already be wet.”
Keely reached behind him and turned the water on.
Jack yelped when the cold hit his back.
But the water heated up. So did the kisses and the frantic touches between them.
Jack grabbed her ass and urged, “Jump up.” Then he pressed her against the wall, using his body strength to hold hers in place. He locked his burning gaze to hers and impaled her. “God I love the look in your eyes when I do that.”
“So do it some more.” She raked her nails down his back. “And then do it some more again. Because we have a lot of time to make up for.”
Two months later...at Piper’s four-month checkup
“I hate bringing her to the doctor with all these sick people around,” Jack said after they’d checked in at the clinic.
“Just keep the cover over her carrier and no one will bug her.” But Keely chose seats in the corner just to be safe.
“Are you going to work tomorrow?”
“If I feel better.” She’d caught a nasty flu bug in the last week that’d knocked her flat. Luckily she hadn’t passed it on to either Piper or Jack. She’d made light of it, but it worried her because it’d lingered longer than normal.
Jack flipped through a parenting magazine before setting it aside with a sigh. “You sure you’ll be okay while I’m gone? Because I can postpone the trip.”
She grabbed his hand. “We’ll be fine. We’ll miss you, but our work lives didn’t end just because we have a baby.” Keely had returned to her rehab clinic last month. Two days a week she took Piper to work with her and on the full schedule days, Piper went to the daycare at Sky Blue, which should be renamed McKay daycare, since nearly all the kids were family members.
“I’m just having a harder time than I thought leaving you guys.”
“Well, we are pretty damn cool.”
Jack lifted a dark eyebrow.
“Pretty darn cool,” she amended. They’d been trying to clean up their language around Piper, figuring it’d take them both two years to get a handle on it.
“Piper Donohue?” the nurse called out.
Jack picked up the carrier and they followed the nurse through the maze leading to the examination rooms.
After they were settled, Doc Monroe poked her head in. “I’m running behind today guys, if you want to see Griffin the PA, I’d understand.”
“We’ll wait,” Jack said.
“Maybe you should run a flu test on me while we’re waiting.”
Doc Monroe came all the way into the room and scrutinized Keely. “Did you get a flu shot this year?”
“Yes.”
“Typical flu symptoms?”
“Nausea. Headaches. I throw up, which is weird because I don’t eat much. I’m clammy then I’m hot. Tired.”
“How long has it been going on?”
“Over a week,” Keely admitted and shot an apologetic look at her husband.
“We’ll run tests so if you test positive we can offer Piper and Jack preventative treatment. I’ll get you to the lab.”
Keely had a blood sample taken. A urine sample taken. The worst one was the nose mucus sample. She slipped back into the exam room and sat next to Jack, who’d—big surprise—taken Piper out of her carrier and was holding her.
Piper grinned and kicked her feet at seeing her mama. Their daughter was beyond adorable—however she looked nothing like Keely or Jack with her dark red hair and big green eyes.
“Hey, beautiful girl. Those smiles are gonna disappear when they come in and stick you with needles.”
“How many shots does she get today?” Jack asked.