The Heart's Game (The Kelly Brothers, Book 4) (3 page)

“Dan.” His name came out as a whimper accompanied by frantic rolls of her hips. She was so close to coming.

He reached between them and pressed his thumb against her clit, using the same rhythm she’d set as she ground against him. She gasped and clamped her hands around his cheeks, pulling him to her mouth for one more hungry kiss.

The burning at the base of his dick signaled the point of no return. He couldn’t wait to come inside her, but not until she came first. He pushed hard, faster, deeper until she clenched around him and cried out with her release.

Fire rushed through his veins, followed a moment of panic. Everything felt too hot, too tight, too wet, as though the condom had vaporized. Jenny slumped against him, lost in her orgasm with his just a split second away. He cupped his hands around her ass and lifted her up as the first wave of cum shot out from the tip of the broken condom.

He’d gotten out in time, but just barely.

The panic faded, leaving behind the languid bliss that turned his muscles into Play-Doh. He fell back onto the pillows with her still in his arms. Her silky black hair fanned out across his jaw while her body trembled against him in a way that mirrored the quivering inside him. Yes, it had been risky to use the old condom with her, but in this moment, it was so worth it.

A few minutes passed before she lifted her head. “Now I really need to get going.”

“I know.” He cradled her face in his hands. “Are you sure you don’t want to give me your number? We could maybe arrange for a little weekend getaway—no strings attached.”

Her brows drew together, and her bottom lip jutted out ever so slightly. “No, I can’t.” She sat up and closed her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

Her rejection stung harder than he thought it would, but he managed to nod and push his hurt into the pit of his stomach. Now came the awkward part of the conversation. “You wouldn’t happen to be on the pill, would you?”

“What do you mean?”

He peeled off the ripped condom and held it up. “It seems we had a defective piece of equipment. I managed to pull out in time, but just as a precaution, I’d recommend picking up some Plan B as soon as possible. I got tested just last month, and I’m clean, but still…” And even though she didn’t appear to be risky, he’d be getting tested again in a few weeks. One of the perks of being in the medical field—mandatory HIV and hepatitis testing.

She paled and nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind. Do you mind if I use your bathroom before I go?”

His confidence took a blow. He’d fucked up, and his chances of making it right seemed almost as impossible as completing the Kessel run in twelve parsecs. “Help yourself.”

Jenny gathered her things and dashed into the bathroom before he could stop her again.

Dan remained in bed, staring at the frame of light created by the closed door and wondering where things had gone wrong. He hadn’t come to Comic-Con looking to score. Hell, he hadn’t even considered taking Jenny back to his room when he’d first spotted her at the bar last night. And now she had him wanting to break all his rules and wishing he could have more than just one night of hot sex.

It was a dilemma that could only be resolved by one thing—a roll of his lucky die.

He found his pants and pulled out the twenty-sided piece of plastic. If he rolled high, he’d push one more time for her number or e-mail. If he rolled low, he’d let her go. He closed his eyes, asked his question, and tossed it onto the nightstand.

Ten
.

Dan frowned. He wanted a clear indication one way or another, not a neutral response. He picked up the die and rolled it again.

Ten
.

Fucking piece of plastic
.

The bathroom door opened, and Jenny emerged, fully clothed. “Thanks again, Dan, for everything.”

An uncomfortable ache formed in his chest, and he glanced at the lucky die one more time in vain hope it had changed to a twenty when he wasn’t looking. “You, too, Jenny. And who knows—maybe we’ll see each other at Comic-Con next year.”

A weak smile formed on her lips. “Maybe so. But remember—what happens at Comic-Con, stays at Comic-Con.”

A lump formed in his throat. His mind was screaming at him for letting her go like this, but he had to respect her wishes. He swallowed hard to shove the lump into his stomach. “Exactly.”

She took a step toward him like she was about to change her mind, but then spun around and ran for the door like she was being pursued by a pack of direwolves.

The bang of it closing behind her echoed longer in his mind than it did in reality. He picked up the die and asked, “Did I do the right thing letting her go? High yes, and low no.”

He let it go and checked the answer.

Twenty
.

Shit.

He flopped back on the pillows and stared at the ceiling. His lucky die had never been wrong before. He just had to trust it and hope he hadn’t made a huge mistake by not chasing after Jenny.

Chapter Two

“Wake up, sleepyhead,” a deep, masculine voice cajoled.

Jenny opened her eyes and glared at the handsome black man leaning over her bed in the early morning light. “What are you doing here, Mike?”

He held up a rectangular box containing a pregnancy test and shook it like a child trying to guess the contents of his Christmas present. “It’s been over two weeks. Time to see if we’re having a baby.”

Her pulse jumped, and she reached for a pillow to cover her face before he caught a glimpse of her panic. She already knew she was three days late, but she wasn’t quite ready to confirm that she was pregnant. “I don’t get out of bed before noon on Sundays.”

“Well, tough, because your brother and I have an appointment with the interior decorator at ten for the nursery.” Mike tugged on her arm until she sat up and then he shoved the test into her hand. “Now get in the bathroom and pee on the stick.”

Jenny crawled out of bed and lifted her chin to make herself appear a few inches taller than five foot one, but Mike still had a good foot of height and then some over her. Her brother’s husband was built like an NBA player, but the intelligence gleaming in his eyes reminded her the man was as dangerous in the courtroom as he was on the basketball court. “Fine, but afterward, will you let me go back to sleep?”

“Of course.”

She didn’t bother tugging her T-shirt down to hide her Wonder Woman panties as she went to the bathroom. Mike had absolutely no interest in her as a woman unless it came to her uterus. After quickly reading the instructions, she took the test, set the timer on her phone, and waited for the results.

Sweat covered her palms, and her stomach jumped like she had a village of Ewoks dancing inside it. For only the second time since she’d agreed to be a surrogate for her brother and Mike, she questioned her sanity. The first time was when she forced herself to leave Dan’s hotel room last weekend at Comic-Con.

The timer beeped, and she glanced down at the digital reading on the test.

Pregnant
.

Her knees buckled, and she almost hurled on the spot. She sank to the floor and pulled her legs up to her chest, but that barely dulled the shaking that consumed her body.

Pregnant.

Shit
.

A knock at the door kept her from falling into a full-blown panic attack. Her older brother, Jason, poked his head into the bathroom. “Jenny, are you okay?”

She blinked back the tears forming in her eyes. “Yeah, just a little shocked.”

Jason opened the door all the way and approached the test beside the sink. “It’s positive?”

She hugged her knees tighter and nodded.

“It’s positive,” he shouted behind him.

A whoop of joy came from the bedroom, and Mike ran into the bathroom. “We’re having a baby?”

“Yes, we’re having a baby.” Jason grinned like a new father and hugged his husband.

Jenny stayed where she was, wishing she shared their excitement. Instead, all she could think about was the life growing inside her and how she was responsible for it. What if she did something wrong and caused a birth defect or a miscarriage? What would she say at work when she could no longer keep her pregnancy a secret? And when the time came to give them their baby, would she be able to let it go?

Jason knelt beside her and threw his arms around her shoulders. “What’s wrong, sis?”

“It’s just not real to me yet.”

“Aw, Jenny.” He pulled her into a hug and soothed some of her worry. “Don’t worry about a thing. We’ll be right here for you.”

Mike mirrored his husband on the other side, sandwiching her in a matching embrace. “What Jason said. You’re giving us the one thing we can’t have, and you have no idea how happy you’ve made us.”

A choked sob broke free. “But what if I do something wrong?”

“Why on earth would you think that?” Jason stroked her hair and let her cry on his shoulder. “You’re the smartest, most responsible woman I know. Why do you think we asked you to be our surrogate?”

She lifted her head and sniffed. “I don’t know. Maybe because we share the same DNA.”

“That’s an added bonus.” Her brother grinned and pinched her nose. “But seriously, there’s no one we trust more to have our baby, and we are so grateful that you agreed to do this for us.”

“So grateful that if you need anything these next nine months, all you have to do is ask,” Mike added.

“Even pickles and ice cream at three in the morning on a Tuesday?”

They both laughed, and Mike nodded, giving her one more bear hug. “Yes, even pickles and ice cream at three in the morning.”

An alarm interrupted their conversation. Jason pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Speaking of time, it’s nine-thirty. We need to get going if we want to make our appointment in Belltown.”

“I can’t wait to start picking out things for the nursery.” Mike placed a kiss on her cheek before standing. “I can’t thank you enough for this, Jenny.”

“That goes for me, too.” Jason kissed her other cheek and squeezed her hand. “We’ll see you at Mom and Dad’s tonight and give them the happy news over dinner.”

Oh, joy. She could only imagine what her mother would have to say about this. A wave of nausea rolled through her stomach. “See you then,” she managed to say before her brother left the bathroom.

Mike and Jason left her condo in a flurry of excitement, but after the door closed behind them, she was left alone to digest the news. Her hand flew to her flat stomach. It seemed unreal there was a child inside there.

But for the next nine months, it would be hers.

***

Jenny parked her car in front of the white split-level home in Tacoma’s Stadium District and groaned when she spotted the gold Lexus sitting in the driveway. Dì Tam, her mother’s sister, was back from visiting family in Vietnam. That usually meant a chunk of the conversation would revolve around why Jenny wasn’t married yet, followed by Tam suggesting some good Vietnamese men for her to marry.

What were they going to say when they learned she was pregnant?

She would’ve chuckled if it weren’t for the fear she’d have both her mother and her aunt chewing her out for at least an hour.

The smell of
cha gio
frying greeted her when she opened the front door, along with the shrill conversation between her mother and aunt from the kitchen. Jenny listened long enough to realize they were gossiping about people they’d grown up with and decided it would be better if she didn’t interrupt them. She tiptoed downstairs to the cool quiet of the basement. “Hi, Dad.”

Her father stopped tinkering with the old motherboard long enough to lean into her hug. “Hi, Jenny. Does your mother know you’re here?”

“Nope.”

“Smart girl.” He went back to the motherboard, his soldering iron in hand. “Think you can help me with this? Tam brought me this broken laptop and expects me to fix it.”

She pulled up a stool and studied the intricate wires and circuits. She’d lost count of how many hours she’d spent at her father’s side learning about computers. It was where she discovered her love for electrical engineering and what led her to follow in her father’s footsteps. “What have you ruled out?”

“I think this diode overheated.” He pointed the blackened blob of metal near the processor.

“And I’m sure that antiquated RAM isn’t helping.” She pulled it out and held it up to the light. “Does Tam realize it would be cheaper to buy a new laptop than try to bring this one into the twenty-first century?”

Her father chuckled. “But then she’d have to buy a new one when she can get me to fix this one for free.” He picked up the broken diode with a pair of tweezers. “Can you grab me a half-amp diode from over there?”

She fished through the tiny bins of circuit board parts until she found the diode he wanted. “Did Jason tell you what he and Mike were doing today?”

“Nope. Just something about meeting with an interior decorator. I don’t know why. They just got finished renovating that house on Mercer Island.” He leaned back over the motherboard and started soldering the new diode into place.