Jill Shalvis - Messing With Mac

She fell against that warm chest, and had to close her eyes when she braced her hands against it. “Mac-”

“Don’t go.”

She tried to wriggle free. “I need to.”

“No, you don’t. You’re running out of here because you think that’s what I want.” He waited until she opened her eyes, helping her along by putting his hands on her face. “You don’t want to scare me,” he said in a terrifyingly gentle voice. “You don’t want to worry me with your feelings-”

Again she tried to get up. “Mac-”

“No, listen. I have to say this. I had a dream. You were gone.” A spasm of pain crossed his features as he held her still. “And I was back to the way things were. Alone. I hated it. It felt cold without you, Taylor. Empty.”

“It…did?”

“It’s all happened so slowly, I didn’t realize…”

Her heart stopped. “What happened so slowly?”

He blew out a breath. “Before you, I told myself I never wanted to share myself again, and that included my bed. I told myself I would never open up to a woman, that I would never want, need or ache for one to distraction.”

“I know, Mac. God. I know-”

“But I was wrong. Life can’t be lived like that. You taught me that. Only you, Taylor.”

She stopped trying to get free and stared at him. “I’m sorry. My heart just stopped, which means I’m not getting any blood to my brain, so I must have heard you wrong. Could you…”

“I love you, Taylor.” His smile, a bit wobbly, jump-started her heart. His thumbs stroked her jaw, helping with blood flow. “Did you hear that?”

“I…yes,” she whispered, stunned. “Yes.”

“I love you with all I’ve got, and I hope to hell you feel something close to that for me, too, because I don’t think I can go through this again and have you not feel it back…” He stared at her, then hissed out a breath. “Could you say something here? Anything?”

She put her fingers to his mouth, and through a half laugh, half sob, put her forehead to his and managed to repeat his words back. “I love you. God, Mac, I love you with all I’ve got. And I’ve hoped like hell you felt something back, too, because I know I can’t go through this again.” She let out a shaky breath. “And not have you feel it back.”

Closing his eyes, he wrapped his arms around her and squeezed so hard she could hardly draw a breath, but who needed air? Not her, she had Mac, she had his love, she had everything she could ever want, forget breathing.

Mac rolled over, tucking her snugly beneath him, pressing her into the mattress as he lifted his head. Sinking a hand into her hair, he smiled down at her. “Be mine, Taylor. Be my wife, my lover, my heart.”

His smile nearly burst her heart. “Yes. Yes to all of it.”

His lips found hers in a sealing, promising kiss. “So from now on you’ll wake up with me? Forever, just the two of us?”

She held her breath, not because he was still squeezing her too hard, which he was, but because she had yet to share her one last, very private, very secret fantasy with anyone. “I’ll wake up with you, only you.”

He grinned.

And she slowly let out that breath wondering if she was going to get hurt after all. “Until we have a baby. A little girl,” she added breathlessly when his grin faded, “with your beautiful eyes and my savvy fashion sense and then there will be three of us.”

He didn’t say anything and she rushed on. “She’ll want to pounce on us early in the mornings, and snuggle in,” she teased, while inside she was dying, dying, dying, not knowing if he would ever want to have kids after what Ariel had done to him…

He ran a finger down her jaw, her throat, to where her heart lay in her chest nearly beating its way past her ribs. “You want to have a baby,” he said, his voice thick. “With me.”

“I do,” she whispered. “Only with you, Mac. What do you say?”

He watched his finger circle over her heart, eyes solemn. Then he slowly smiled and lifted his head. “I can’t think of anything more perfect than that.”

Her heart sighed, completely content.

“Let’s do it, Princess. Let’s do it all.” He rolled with her over the bed again, and then again, until they were both laughing.

Then bent his head to hers to make it all come true.

One Year Later

“THE PLACE IS FULL,” Nicole told Taylor, plopping into a plush chair in the bride’s dressing room of the church. “We have exactly five minutes to get out there. How many people did you invite anyway, a bazillion?”

Standing in front of a full-length mirror admiring herself all in white satin and lace, Taylor sighed with so much joy she could hardly contain herself. “Just about.”

“Mac’s out there of course. He’s got his eagle eye on this door, let me tell you.”

At the thought of him, her heart nearly burst. “Does he now?”

“Yeah, he’s looking a bit like he hit the lottery.”

“He did,” Taylor said, and laughed.

Suzanne came up on her right and ran a finger over the bride’s veil. “You look gorgeous.”

“You both look pretty gorgeous yourselves.”

Nicole sighed and came up on the other side, the three of them staring at each other in the reflection. “You’re right. We don’t look half-bad, considering we’re dressed to the nines. Why couldn’t we wear jeans like we did at my wedding last month? Think how original it would have been.”

“Oh, be quiet. The dress won’t kill you.” Suzanne smiled when Nicole lifted a bottle of champagne and three long stemmed glasses. “Well, that’s more like it. Aren’t you so sweet to think of it. I thank Ty for that.”

“The man did sweeten me up,” Nicole admitted, pouring them each a glass. “What can I say, love did exactly what you said it would, hit the three of us like a tornado.”

Taylor laughed. “A tornado. So that’s why I feel so unsteady on my feet.”

“You look steady enough,” Suzanne said softly, reaching for her hand. “I’m so glad you’re happy. I’m just so glad for all of us.” Her eyes filled. “I love you guys.”

“Ah, hell, I actually have mascara on today and she’s going to get sloppy.” Nicole sighed as her own eyes went suspiciously bright. “But I love you guys, too.”

Taylor laughed, and a tear fell. “To us, then. All six of us.” Both she and Nicole lifted their glasses, but Suzanne did not.

“What’s the matter?” Nicole demanded.

“I, um…can’t drink.” She grinned and patted her stomach. “As of this morning.”

Nicole’s jaw dropped. “You’re pregnant.”

“Yep.”

“Oh my God.” Taylor’s heart felt like it was going to burst as they all hugged and ended up messing up each other’s makeup anyway.

“We’re trying, too,” Nicole admitted, which prompted another group hug and more tears. Then they went back to the mirror to check the damage.

Taylor felt so full of love and joy and hope, she could burst. “Well then.” Her voice was thick as she kissed first Suzanne’s cheek, then Nicole’s. She lifted her glass. “To all of us, seven for now, and God willing, more to come.”

“To all of us.”

“All of us.”

Grinning, crying, arm in arm they walked out of the room, ready for all of it.