Hooked by Love (Bellevue Bullies #3) Read online

She throws me a look and shakes her head. “Aren’t we done with Lame Line Larry? We are married now. Don’t need the lines.”

  “They aren’t lines,” I laugh, pinning her with a look. “It’s the truth.”

  She grins as she bounces on the balls of her feet, a pleased look on her face as we come to a stop in front of our door. Pulling the keys out, I unlock it and push the door open.

  “Welcome home,” I say and she flashes a wide grin as I hit the lights and she goes in. Standing in the doorway, I wait as she looks around, taking in all the awesome things Lucy did. She let me rent all her staging furniture, so the apartment is fully furnished. It’s a little classier than anything I would actually have, but she was convinced Avery would love it.

  But when Avery looks back at me, her brows pulled together and her face twisted, my heart sinks. “You don’t like it?”

  She shakes her head. “No, I love it. But I didn’t think it would come furnished and especially not with awesome stuff like this.”

  I smile. “Lucy did it.”

  Her face breaks into a grin. “She did?”

  “Yeah, as a housewarming gift. Also, we owe her babysitting for the renting of the furniture, but look,” I say, shutting the door and pulling her through the living room.

  “My guitar is here?” she asks, pointing to the corner where it sits, and I nod.

  “I had Mekena bring over all your stuff.”

  “Really?” she gushes as I pause by the wall between the kitchen and living room. I look up and a big canvas picture of the day we got married looks back at us. I love this picture. We’ve been married for a little over a month now and it’s still my wallpaper on my phone and computer. I glance over at her, and she’s covering her mouth as she takes it in. “We looked so busted that day.”

  I laugh, nodding as I snake my arm around her waist. “But we are still hot.”

  “This is true,” she says, kissing my cheek before turning and taking it all in. We weren’t allowed to paint, so the walls are still a pale gray, but the furniture is so full of color that it kind of doesn’t matter. The kitchen is small, really only appliances and one counter, but Lucy still dressed it up, putting little touches of us all over the house.

  “How many bedrooms?”

  “Just two, with a bathroom and closet between them.” I take her hand and bring her to the first bedroom, which is our room. A huge bed sits in the middle with pictures of us all over the walls, but when I glance at her, she isn’t looking at the walls, but at the bed.

  “That’s one big bed,” she says with a wink and I grin.

  “Yup, lots of room to lie in.”

  “That and to do the naughty with no one walking in on us.”

  “Thank God.”

  Leaning into me, she waggles her eyebrows at me. “Wanna break it in?”

  I laugh as I take her into my arms, kissing her nose and then the side of her mouth as she presses into me. Looking up at me, she runs her finger down my jaw and then my throat before going up on her toes to kiss me softly on my lips. Pulling only a breath away, she whispers, “This is amazing.”

  Tilting my head to hers, I move my nose along hers, feeling all kinds of things that I made her happy. It’s all over her face, in her eyes, and the way her lips are curving. She loves it. Swallowing hard, I kiss her lips and then cock my head to the left. “Let me show you one more thing.”

  “Tease.” She laughs as I pull her through the bathroom, the only room that’s actually big and huge because of the position of the walk-in closet. “Ooh, this is nice.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” I laugh as I keep pulling her through.

  “Aw, you put away my clothes?” she asks, pausing to look, but I pull her again.

  “I did. By the way, you have a lot of clothes. Come on,” I say before pulling her into what I’ve decided is the baby’s room as she laughs. A crib sits up against the wall, and when she sees it, Avery gasps as she looks up at me.

  “We won’t bring the baby here, though? It’ll be born after school’s out.”

  I shrug. “Yeah, but Lucy gave us Angie’s crib. It’s superawesome, apparently. Really expensive. My mom got it for her, and she wanted us to have it. Guess she needed room or something, I don’t know. But I figure we can keep baby things in here.”

  Her lips curve as she leans her head to my chest. “This is all so sweet.”

  Wrapping my arms around her shoulders, I nuzzle my nose in her hair. “Do you like it? The apartment?”

  She nods against me. “I do. I love it. It’s ours.”

  “It is. But hey, go look in the crib.”

  She looks up at me, suspicion in her eyes. “There isn’t like some creepy baby doll in there, is there?” She moves out of my arms and I roll my eyes.

  “No, freak, just go look.” Walking behind her, I stop when she does and smile when she gasps.

  “Oh my goodness,” she coos, picking up the little Bullies jersey. Turning to me, her lips puckered out, she holds it up. “It’s perfect.”

  “I figured baby needs one.”

  “They do,” she giggles as she lifts her shirt and lays it against her little bump. I know it’s such a simple little movement, something that women probably do all the time, but it does something to me. I don’t know, but it just seems so much more real when she stands like that, her hands grasping her little bump. She looks up at me with tears in her eyes, and I smile as I reach out, poking my baby’s little home. “I never thought this would happen when I met you,” she whispers.

  Looking up from her belly, I shrug. “Me either.”

  She smiles brightly up at me. “But I’m so happy.”

  “Good, that’s what I want.”

  Chewing on her lip, she looks down at her stomach. I take a step forward, holding my hands onto hers. As I lean my chin against her forehead, she sucks in a breath. “I’m glad we’re doing this. I’m glad that I grew a pair and walked out of that damn abortion clinic. I can’t believe I thought that was the only way. Watching my stomach grow and realizing that I’ll feel it move soon just blows my mind, you know?”

  “Yeah,” I say roughly against her hair. Sliding my hands around her, I hold her to me as I close my eyes. “But you were leaving no matter what. If I had to drag you out, you were gonna have my baby—with me.”

  She kisses my throat. “Oh, is that right?”

  “Oh yeah, and you know it.”

  “I guess I always did,” she whispers, sliding her hands up my chest and around my neck. “But now I couldn’t walk away if I tried.”

  “Probably ’cause I’d take out your knees.”

  She nods. “There is that.”

  “And chain you to the bed.”

  “You dirty man,” she gasps and I grin.

  “Yeah, sorry for ya. You’re mine.”

  “And you’re mine.”

  “No doubting that,” I whisper against her temple just as a little pink envelope catches my gaze. “Hey, there is something else in there for you.”

  She doesn’t even pause; she lets me go and reaches for the envelope, opening it quickly. Her eyes widen and she grins before looking up at me. “You got it?”

  “I told you I would,” I say as she rocks back on her heels.

  “Yeah, but it costs a lot. We can wait.”

  “Or we can go find out what the baby is early.”

  She wiggles her hips before wrapping me up in her arms, her lips coming crashing into mine. Holding her tightly, I slide my hands down her back, gripping her by the back of her thighs before lifting her up and carrying her back to our bedroom. Still kissing her, I lay her down slowly, her fingers threading in my hair as I cover her body with mine, not wanting to hurt her.

  “Oh God, we can have sex without interruption. However will we contain our excitement?”

  I laugh as I pull her leggings and panties down. “Baby, you don’t have to contain anything.”

  Giggling, she throws off her shirt as I do the same, tossing it to the floor with h