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Limerick City,
Ireland
     
    The best feeling in the world had to be
lying in a lover’s arms, completely exhausted after a night of
lovemaking, totally and absolutely sated.
    Elaine went with Ethan as he fell back
onto the mattress and snuggled close to him, weaving her legs with
his and grinning at how his leg hairs tickled her.
    The warm, masculine scent of his
body—the lingering hint of his cologne, the smell of his skin damp
with fine perspiration, the heady aroma of sex—permeated her
senses.
    In a word, he smelled delicious. So
much so, she had practically gobbled him up over the last several
hours. Perhaps she would again, she thought, trailing her
fingertips across the ridges of his broad chest and boldly circling
his nipples.
    His strong hand grasped hers and
brought it to lips framed with dark stubble, kissing the backs of
her fingers. “Please, love. I can barely move.”
    Elaine glanced down the solid length of
him to the twitch beneath the sheet just covering his hips. “Could
have fooled me.”
    Ethan leaned over, propped himself up
on an elbow and looked down at her. He nestled her head in the
crook of his arm.
    “Isn’t it enough you kept me up all
night,” winking at the double meaning, “but you want to make me
late for work, as well?”
    “You weren’t complaining an hour
ago.”
    He bent to kiss her. His lips echoed
the passion they had shared through the night.
    When he leaned away, his deep voice was
soft, his blue-eyed gaze intense. “And I never will, Lany. I love
you and will always be here for you.”
    Tears welled and threatened to spill
down her cheeks. “Will you?”
    Nodding, he said, “Aye.
Always.”
    “And you truly want this baby?” she
asked, rubbing her belly but not breaking her gaze with him. When
he nodded again, his grin answering more than his voice could, she
added, “Oh, Ethan! You make me so happy.” She slid her arms around
his shoulders and he came to her instantly, burying his face in the
curve of her neck, kissing her there. Familiar tingles shivered up
her body and threatened to rekindle the passion she felt hovering
just beneath the surface.
    All too soon, he pulled away. “I still
need to go to work. Now let me go or we’ll be raising our child on
the Dole.” He winked again before placing a quick peck on her lips
then rose from the bed.
    Elaine laughed lightly. "As if you'd
accept unemployment money."
    When the sheet fell away as he left the
bed, she leaned up on her elbow and watched his firm ass flex as he
strode out of the room. Something inside her swelled with
admiration. Yes, no matter how exhausted she was, she could eat him
up over and over again.
    A moment later she heard the shower go
on then splashing and she imagined the water sluicing over him,
wishing she could be in there with him.
    She cocked her head at another sound.
He was actually singing! He must really be happy, she thought. She
considered joining him, but he was right. He had to get to work—so
did she—or they would both be raising their baby on the
Dole.
    As she rose and threw on a robe, she
laughed at her feelings of dread last night. She had been so afraid
to tell Ethan she was pregnant. They had only been married a few
short months and were trying to plan their future and keep to an
agenda. That included birth control— at least for a while. But
nothing was one hundred percent effective, as her current condition
proved.
    She could barely contain her joy that
Ethan welcomed the baby much sooner than they had planned that she
felt she was floating down the stairs.
    In the kitchen, Elaine put the coffee
on then turned her gaze out the kitchen window to their back
garden. She tried imagining a swing set, sand box and Wendy house
rather than the clothesline, spotty lawn and tool shed. She wrapped
her arms around her waist, wondering how they were going to give
their child the life he or she deserved. If money was tight now, it
would only get tighter once their child was born.
    A