Jason’s arms wrapped around me and pulled me against his chest. “What’s wrong, sweetheart?” His voice was so gentle and patient. Which only made me cry harder.

“You’re scaring me, Jess,” he said in a concerned tone as he ran his hand over my head and then cupped my face. “Tell me what’s wrong. I hate it when you cry.”

I tried to control my sobbing and wiped at my tear-streaked face, now worried because I was going to be all red and blotchy. Not exactly something a man wants to come home to.

“Did someone say something to you? I swear to God, if they did I’ll kill someone. . . .”

He had been forced to defend me a lot in this world. Now that we didn’t do much with the crowd he used to spend time with, it happened less. I shook my head so he would calm down. I sniffed, swallowing the newest onslaught of tears that were threatening to break free.

“I’m a . . . weight . . . around your neck,” I choked out, my words followed by a sob.

“Has my mother been here?” he asked angrily.

I shook my head. “No, it’s just . . . just the tr-truth,” I hiccupped. “I don’t fit into your wo-orld. I just hinder your life,” I finished, then buried my face in his neck.

His arms tightened around me. “You put color in my life, Jess. You make me laugh and you give me a reason to smile even when things are shit. You’re my world. I don’t know where you’re getting this bullshit. Baby, you never have been and will never be a weight around my neck. Ever.”

I kissed his neck and sniffled. His words always helped steady me. The past month, my emotions had been a roller coaster. My usually tough exterior had crashed and burned somewhere around twelve weeks of pregnancy. And everything hurt my feelings.

Jason ran his hands over my widening h*ps and cupped my butt. “No panties. Fucking hot,” he said, smiling. “I missed you today. I hate being away from you. Wish I could put you in my pocket and take you to all my classes with me.”

Smiling through my tears, I kissed him under his chin. “I’m too fat to fit in your pocket.”

His hands squeezed my bottom. “Nothing about you is fat. You’re all curvy and soft and carrying my baby. Most perfect woman on earth.”

He finished that sweet little statement, then covered my mouth with his. Hungry for him, I groaned and opened for him. The gentle thrust of his tongue as it swirled around mine before moving out and back in made me think of where else I’d like him to thrust into my body. I wiggled against him, feeling his erection pressing against my stomach.

“I forgot to mention: always so hot and horny, too,” Jason said with a growl, reaching for my nightgown and taking it off me with one hand. I was completely na**d underneath.

“What do you need, baby? What will make you feel good? It’s time I take care of my girl, and I’m all yours.”

When a man like Jason Stone offers to take care of you, it’s hard to put thoughts together.

Anything he did would make me happy. But I knew exactly what to do to make him crazy. He had always loved my butt, but now that it was fuller he was positively obsessed with it. I turned around and put my palms on the dresser, sticking my bottom out to him and spreading my legs. “I need to be f**ked,” I said sweetly, glancing back over my shoulder at him and batting my eyelashes teasingly.

His eyes were hot and glued to my ass. He lifted his gaze from what I was asking for to look at me. I made the pouty lips that drove him nuts. “Hurry, I’m all achy.”

“Holy f**k, Jess,” he groaned, jerking his shirt off without even unbuttoning it, then ripping his pants off faster. “I love this ass. And the naughty girl it’s attached to. She f**king owns me.”

He grabbed my butt cheeks with his hands and squeezed, then slapped my ass, watching it jiggle. With another growl he soothed the skin pink from his hands, and then bent down to kiss each spot he’d slapped.

I jiggled my bottom myself this time. “It’s tingling. Please,” I begged, and bit my lip. His eye swung back to my face, and he bent over me and kissed my lips, then pulled the one I had been biting into his mouth and sucked.

“You want me to f**k you? That’s what will make my girl happy?” he asked me in a husky voice that made me shiver.

“Mmm-hmmm,” I replied, and pressed back against him.

His hands grabbed my h*ps and he entered me, sliding inside me slow. The muscles in his neck stood out as he threw his head back and closed his eyes. He was beautiful. And when he did that, he was so f**king hot.

“Best pu**y in the world,” he panted, and then his eyes opened and found me looking back at him. “My pu**y. My tight, hot little pu**y,” he said as he rocked back and forth into me.

“Yes,” I agreed, letting my head fall forward. Each time he was fully inside me, he hit the spot that made me cry out. “All yours.”

“Fuck yeah, it is,” he agreed. “Love you, Jess. Love you so much. But I also love this pu**y.”

Smiling, I looked up and found him watching me in the mirror. His eyes were smoldering with need and lust. I loved knowing I made him this out of control. I liked testing my good boy. Making him act like the bad boy he only was when he was in bed with me. “Harder,” I said, then licked my bottom lip. His eyes flashed and his grip on my h*ps tightened.

“Jess,” he panted as our gazes stayed locked. He wanted me to say more.

“Today I needed you so bad I had to play with my pu**y. I wanted your big, hard c**k so bad,” I said, pouting. “I got so wet.”

He shuddered. Hearing me talk dirty to him was going to send him blowing before he was ready. But he wanted it anyway.

“You touched my pu**y. . . . If I’d known you needed me, baby, I’d have skipped the class to come home and f**k my girl.”

“I wanted your dick down my throat,” I told him, watching his face morph as he fought off his release. His hand slipped down until he was rubbing my cl*t in rhythm to his thrust. “Making me gag on it while you pull my hair,” I said through my panting.

“JESS, f**k, baby.” His voice was strangled as he pounded into me harder.

My orgasm slammed over me, and I grabbed the dresser before I screamed his name and pushed back against him.

“Fuuuuuck!! GAAAHH, FUCK YES, Jess,” Jason cried out as he jerked behind me, filling me with his release.

I fell forward and rested my head on my arms. He was still buried deep inside me. I could feel his c**k jerking with each shot of come.

He began caressing my back, then moved around to rub my br**sts, then my stomach. “You are incredible. I swear to God, I don’t know how I manage to leave this bedroom.” He chuckled, then slowly pulled out of me. “Stay,” he said in a whisper. “Let me see my come run out of you and down your legs.”

I trembled and stayed still. Jason could be extremely naughty when he wanted to be. Tonight he was definitely being a bad boy.

“There it is. Right down those creamy, smooth thighs. Damn, that’s pretty,” he breathed, dropping to his haunches and putting a hand on each of my butt cheeks and spreading them so he could see better.

“You going to let me move anytime soon?” I asked.

He ran his finger over the folds now coated with his release. “This makes me want to f**k you again. Damn, Jess, I will never get enough of you.”

“Then let me move and we’ll go take a very long shower,” I suggested.

Jason stood up. “Deal.”

Jason

Jess stood in the kitchen with a frown on her face as she stared at the recipe in front of her. Lately she had started cooking meals every night. I tried to tell her she didn’t have to, but she really wanted to. So I was letting her. Times like this, when she looked adorable while trying to figure something out, made it worth it. However, sometimes actually swallowing the food she made was difficult.

I walked up behind her and grabbed her expanding waist. “Need help?” I asked, and she yelped.

“You scared me. I didn’t hear you come in,” she said, dropping the recipe and turning around to kiss me.

“Probably the fact that you have the radio so loud the neighbors can hear it,” I replied.

She laughed, then grabbed the remote to the stereo system and cut it off. “Sorry. It helps me think. What are you doing here? I didn’t think you would get home until eight. I was just now starting on dinner.”

I leaned back on the counter and brought her with me to stand between my legs. “I decided the study session could suck it. I wanted to take my girl out tonight. I missed you.”

She gave me that sexy smile I had been in love with from the first moment she flashed it at me. “I thought I gave you some extra loving this morning to keep you happy through the day.”

The blowjob I had woken up to had been fantastic. “Baby, all that did was have me thinking about this sweet mouth all day,” I told her, leaning in to kiss her.

She wrapped her arms around my neck and sank into the kiss too. If I let this go on too long, we would end up stripping na**d in the damn kitchen. Lately we were doing it all over the house.

I broke the kiss. “What do you say? You want to go out with me and get some dinner? You can order dessert, and then we can come back and you can give me my dessert.”

Her eyes flashed. She knew what I wanted for desert. “Okay. Yes. This recipe is too complicated, anyway.”

I took a nibble of her neck, then stepped away. “Let’s go.”

She smirked at me. “You know I’m not dressed to go anywhere. I need at least thirty minutes.”

“Jess, seriously, baby, you can’t be any more beautiful. If you pretty this up any more than it already is, I’m going to end up in a fight tonight because some stupid f**ker is looking at my woman.”

She laughed and slapped my arm. “You’re so full of crap. I’ll be quick.”

I watched as she hurried to the bedroom.

***

It took her thirty-six minutes, but seeing her all fixed up and feeling good about herself was well worth it. She was glowing, and I loved that. Jess woke up beautiful. She didn’t have to do anything to make herself breathtaking. But it made her feel good about herself. That was what mattered.

The past couple of months she was acting different. I knew she was supposed to be emotional, but she seemed like she was trying to hold on to me. Like she had to work extra hard or something. Like with cooking me meals. That was the beginning of it. Now we were ha**ng s*x like rabbits.

As much as I loved the fact that she would drop to her knees and start sucking my c**k at any moment, it bothered me that she was doing it. Before, our sex life had been good. No, it had been incredible. But lately she was desperate about it. Like she was trying to fulfill every fantasy I’d ever had.

When I tried to talk to her about it, she either distracted me with sex or she started talking about something else entirely. And although I had a cleaner come in and clean the place three times a week, Jess was also cleaning. Something was wrong with her. I just needed to figure out what.

I thought about calling her mom, but I didn’t know if she’d have any insight on this. She wasn’t living here with us, and she didn’t see what Jess was doing. Plus, telling her mom that she was suddenly sucking my dick all the time didn’t seem appropriate either.

I had to figure this out on my own.

I wanted Jess happy. Not trying to make me happy. She made me happy by breathing. I didn’t need her to become Martha Stewart with a naughty side. I liked Jess just as she was.

The waiter at the Italian place I knew Jess loved seated us at a table. She had tried to tell me she wanted to go eat Thai food. That was a lie. I was the one who loved Thai food. Once again she was trying to give me what she thought I wanted. This was getting out of hand.

Her eyes lit up as she took the menu and started reading it. That was what made me happy. Seeing my pregnant fiancée drooling over food. She was craving things. I knew she was, but she wouldn’t tell me. I would come home and she would have gone and bought strange items she never used to eat.

“I want you to order three things. Eat what you want and we’ll take home the leftovers for you to enjoy for the rest of the week, in case you crave it and I’m not there.”

Jess glanced up at me from her menu. “How did you know I was trying to decide between three things?”

I smirked. “Because you’re mine and I know you. The ricotta and Grana Padano gnocchi, pesto lasagna, and cannelloni are always hard for you to choose between. Just get all three.”

Jess pressed her lips together and closed her menu. “Fine, then. Read my mind. I guess I’m predictable.”

Laughing, I shook my head. “Jess, you are anything but predictable. And I love that about you.”

She tilted her head as she looked at me. “Really?” Like she didn’t believe that I loved that.

Jess didn’t normally need reassurance like this. Another new thing that bothered me.

“Jess,” I said, leaning on the table and closer to her. “I adore everything about you. You shouldn’t question that by now.”

She beamed at me and looked like she let out a sigh of relief.

“Jason, what’s up? Hardly see you off campus,” Jamieson Kennedy said as he stopped beside our table. He glanced at Jess, and I could see the glint of appreciation in his eyes. It was something I was learning to deal with. Jess was beautiful, and men would always notice.

“I’ve got better things to do when class is over,” I told him with a smirk, then winked at Jess.

“Jason, hello. We missed you at study group last night,” Vivian Northrop said as she walked up beside Jamieson. They were on-again off-again and had been for years. That social circle, they seemed to inbreed and keep dating just each other. It was weird and boring. Vivian, however, liked to remind me we had once slept together. Not something I ever thought about until I worried that she was going to bring it up. Especially in front of Jess.