“Everything looks all right,” the doctor said a few minutes later, discarding his gloves and lowering the sheet to cover me. “But let’s get a sonogram, just to be sure.”

He stepped out of the cubicle and didn’t return for several minutes, but Kade didn’t release my hand. When the doctor came back, a technician followed him with a machine in tow.

Baring my stomach, the doctor squirted some gel on my skin, then placed the sonogram device on me, moving it around. A fast, whooshing beat immediately came through the speakers.

“What’s that?” Kade asked.

“That’s the baby’s heartbeat, of course,” the doctor replied, watching the screen. He pointed. “There he is. Or she.” There was a white blob that squirmed.

My eyes burned with tears as I stared at our baby. Kade’s hand was like a vise, crushing mine, but I didn’t care.

“It looks like it was just one of those scares they like to do,” the doctor said, giving the tech the wand and grabbing some paper towels to wipe the gel off my stomach. “Get used to it. They only come up with more ways to make you worry about them.” He smiled, then discreetly handed me a tissue to wipe my eyes.

“Thank you,” I managed, swallowing the lump in my throat.

“You’re welcome. Take care of yourself, now.” He left, pulling the curtain shut behind him and leaving Kade and me alone.

I chanced a glance at Kade. He was staring at me. His gaze dropped to my mouth and he leaned down, pressing a warm, soft kiss to my lips. He cupped my jaw, his fingers sliding into my hair. I lifted my hand to lightly grasp his arm. When he pulled back, he rested his forehead against mine.

“We made that,” he said, his voice hardly above a whisper.

My smile was a little watery. “Yes, we did.”

“We’re having a baby.”

“Yes, we are.”

Kade pressed a kiss to my forehead and helped me dress. He called Blane on the way back to the motel to let him know I was okay, and soon we were back inside the run-down room.

I got into the bed and he pulled the covers up over me. I turned, my back toward Kade, and I felt the bed dip as he lay behind me, his body stretched alongside mine. His hand brushed the hair back from my face.

“I didn’t tell Branna because I was trying to take your advice,” he said, his lips grazing my ear. His fingertips gently traced the curve of my cheek and jaw. “I just hadn’t had the chance yet to tell her that she and I aren’t ever going to be what she wants. That I’m in love with someone else. That I’m in love with you. And no matter how many times I tell myself that you and the baby are better off without me, I can’t stop wanting you.”

I turned to look at him, almost afraid to hope. “Do you mean that?”

He nodded, still tenderly smoothing stray hairs back from my face. “I left, but that never meant I didn’t love you. You own me, body and soul. From the moment I first laid eyes on you in the courthouse.”

“Then why, Kade?” I asked. “Why would you lie to me, pretend everything was going to be okay, that we’d be together, and then just leave me without a word?”

“I’m so sorry, princess,” Kade said, the anguish in his voice painful to hear. He gazed down into my eyes. “My staying would’ve put you in danger, and I couldn’t even say goodbye because I knew if I did, I wouldn’t be able to walk away from you. I wanted you to be safe, needed you to be safe. And I knew I couldn’t do it, but Blane could.”

I took his face in my hands, the shadow on his cheeks a soft abrasion against my palms. His eyes were beautiful pools of a blue so deep, I never wanted to stop gazing into them. “It’s you . . . or it’s no one,” I said simply.

Kade studied me intently, and I prayed he was finally hearing me, finally understanding that there was no one else for me—just him.

His gaze dropped and he slowly lowered his head. My breath caught. His lips brushed mine once, twice, then settled softly in a gentle caress. My fingers slid into his hair and it seemed my chest cracked wide open as Kade kissed me. All the longing and heartbreak of being apart was poured from me into him and back. Kade pressed kisses to my cheeks, my eyes, my jaw, then returned to my lips, the warm slide of his tongue against mine spreading heat through my body. I felt cherished as he held me, loved.

Yet a whisper of caution made me pull away. “Wait,” I said, my voice breathless from his kisses. Kade’s mouth moved to my neck and I had to tug on his hair to get his attention. “Wait,” I said again.

“What?” he asked. His lips were red and a little swollen, the slight sheen to them making me want to swallow what I was about to say and dive back into kissing him. I shoved the thought aside.

“I have to know,” I said. “Is this temporary? Are you going to leave me again?”

Kade’s expression turned solemn. “I swear to you,” he said. “I will never leave you again.”

My eyes stung, but I didn’t want to cry. I pulled his head down, kissing him with everything I felt, sure that if I didn’t find an outlet, the overwhelming love and joy and tenderness flooding through me would explode.

Kade kissed me back with the same desperation. I locked my arms around his neck, climbing out from underneath the covers until I was kneeling between his legs as he sat back on his haunches. His hands settled on my waist, my T-shirt riding up, and I impatiently pulled it up over my head and off.

Kade groaned, a sound that brought a smile to my lips, then my breath was torn from me when his mouth closed over a nipple. Pregnancy had increased the already acute sensitivity of my breasts, and Kade seemed to have figured that out pretty darn fast. His mouth and hands paid lavish attention to my breasts until all I could hear was a nonstop litany of whimpers and pleas falling from my lips. And all I could think about was the feel of his tongue, flicking against me before he sucked the flesh into his mouth. The insides of my thighs were coated with my arousal and I remained upright only because his hands were holding me up.

“Can we do this?” Kade asked, his lips moving against my skin. “I don’t want to hurt the baby.”

“I’m fine,” I managed to gasp. “The baby’s fine. Sex is fine, won’t hurt the baby. Don’t stop.” If he didn’t make love to me right then, he was going to be on the business end of one hell of a hissy fit.

Kade’s hand slipped underneath the elastic waistband of my panties, the heat of his palm branding my rear as he tugged the fabric down my thighs. The next thing I knew, his fingers were pushing into me from behind. I choked on a cry, a keening sound coming from my throat as he teased me, thrusting his long fingers inside me, then spreading my arousal to my clit, coating the flesh with moisture until I couldn’t breathe. Then he’d do it again, leisurely fucking me with two fingers, and all while his mouth, tongue, and teeth played relentlessly with my breasts.

I was hovering on the edge, each touch making me whimper and moan and beg until I couldn’t think, couldn’t process anything but what Kade was doing to me. I knew at some point I was mindlessly begging, each teasing brush of his fingers against my clit making my thighs tremble. I was so wet, I knew I should probably be embarrassed at the moisture dripping down my thighs, but was too far gone to care.

Kade suddenly withdrew his fingers and I moaned with disappointment. My eyes were closed but I felt his lips whisper against the skin of my neck, “Don’t worry, princess. I won’t leave you hanging.”

Carefully turning me, Kade laid me across the bed on top of the covers, tugging my panties farther down my legs and off. I was beyond coherent thought, my fingers scrabbling at the shirt he wore. I wanted to feel his skin, wanted his body inside mine. Kade pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it. A moment later, his jeans were kicked aside as well. The sight of his straining erection had me lifting to my elbows to see more, but then he lay between my legs.