Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 32946 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 165(@200wpm)___ 132(@250wpm)___ 110(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 32946 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 165(@200wpm)___ 132(@250wpm)___ 110(@300wpm)
Draven slid one of his hands up toward her neck, and he massaged the tension. “Maria, baby, you’re going to have to kiss me back or I’m going to think you don’t want my lips on you.”
Her arms were also down at her sides. She hadn’t expected the kisses, the love, the tenderness, and was taken aback by it. Why was he kissing her?
Staring into his eyes, she didn’t know what to do or say, and then she wrapped her arms around his neck and just kissed him back.
Maria didn’t know what was going on, but she’d take it. No matter what he was giving her, she’d take it. She loved him that fucking much, and it scared her. She didn’t know what these kisses meant, but she didn’t want it to stop.
Draven pulled away and then stared into her eyes.
“I love you, Maria,” he said.
At first, she was so startled that she didn’t say anything. Then the fog cleared. “I love you too.”
Tears blurred her vision. “Are you sending me away?”
“No, I’m not sending you away.”
“Why not?”
“Because I love you and a very wise man told me tonight that I’m nothing like him. I’m nothing like my father.” He stroked her cheek. “And I never will be.”
“You talked to Antwone.”
“More like he didn’t give me a choice but to listen to him.”
She was going to kiss Antwone the next time she saw him. “I need to unpack.”
Draven pushed the suitcase off the bed. She’d gotten the zipper a good way around, so none of the contents fell out of the case.
“Tomorrow. I’ll help.”
He moved her to the bed, taking off the towel as he did so.
Maria pushed his jacket off his shoulders. “You’re overdressed.”
Draven stood up and she watched, going to her elbows as he removed the suit he’d been wearing. She listened to it fall to the floor, but marveled at the man who got naked in front of her. His impressive body with all the thick, tight muscles, heavily inked, appeared beneath the suit.
He knelt on the bed. This was her man. All hers.
He gripped her ankle, pulled her closer, and pressed a kiss to the inside of her knee. Next his lips touched her inner thigh, then her pussy, before kissing her stomach.
“Close your eyes.”
This made her laugh. “I don’t think we’re that far gone yet.”
“I’m just being protective.”
She loved this man. Maria couldn’t believe there was ever a moment in her life that she doubted how she felt about him. He was everything to her.
Draven slid up her body, and she felt the hard ridge of his cock as he pressed it to her entrance. She moaned as he slid inside her.
****
A Few Months Later
Draven had never considered himself an insecure man. He was a man who knew what he was doing. Who always had a goal. He was a man to be feared. He’d been called many names in his time, most of them worse than the previous one. All of them deadly.
Fear was not an emotion he was used to. Not for a long time. He’d been afraid that night when he encountered his father’s destruction. The death he’d caused. Draven had learned from that fear, he’d harnessed it.
Sitting in a private hospital room with his wife on the bed, waiting for the doctor to tell them exactly what was wrong with their baby, was the worst feeling in the world. Since accepting his wife was pregnant, that he was going to be a father, rather than just take it one step at a time, he had not.
He’d gotten several pregnancy books, telling him about all stages of pregnancy and how his child was going to look at each month. Staring at the screen of the ultrasound, he couldn’t make anything out.
Along with all the amazing developments of a child, he had also read the problems that could happen during pregnancy.
“What’s wrong, Doctor?” he asked.
“Draven, stop.”
“We can’t hear a heartbeat.”
“Stop panicking.” Maria took his hand, locking their fingers together.
He had doubts. Of course he did, who didn’t? There were nights he’d lie awake with Maria at his side, and he’d wonder if there would come a point when she was terrified of him. Antwone told him he had the same feelings, but he didn’t allow it to hold him back. He used those feelings to make himself a better person. To thrive.
Draven began to lose his temper, growing increasingly annoyed with the doctor and them not listening to him. Then, he heard it. The sound echoed around the room.
“Is that the heartbeat you’d like to hear, Mr. Esposito?”
Maria gasped.
“Is it strong? Healthy?”
“Yes.”
“That’s our baby,” Maria said. “Our child has a healthy heart.”
Draven listened to that sound and turned to his wife. He smiled at her. He pressed kisses on her lips.
Sitting back down, he held Maria’s hand tightly. “Tell me the news, doctor,” Draven said.