Carnal Christmas-epub Read Online Free PDF

roughly, still crouching as he reached up to pull down her stretchy black pants, “’cause I can’t…wait to…”
    Brent, whose attention had been caught by Mandy’s breasts—were they always that plump and veiny?—tore his eyes away to look at Joe, whose movements had slowed along with his words. He was frozen in place, his fists still clutching the elastic around her thighs as he stared at her.
    Following the line of his gaze, Brent looked at Mandy’s flat belly…where a small bump now protruded. He blinked once and looked again, thinking he was seeing things, but the bump was still there. Either she was working on a spare tire or… “Holy fuck.”
    “What?” Ariel roused from her stupor and craned her head to look at him. “What’s wrong?”
    Mandy rose up onto her elbows and looked at each of them. Then her Mona Lisa smile reappeared. “Merry Christmas—we’re pregnant. And Hake is definitely not the father.”
     
     

 

Chapter Five
     
    Holy fuck didn’t even begin to cover Joe’s reaction. He was struck dumb, crouching in front of a half-naked woman while the world spun off its axis and gripping her half-off pants like they were the only thing that kept him from flying into space.
    “Nobody leaves this room,” Hake proclaimed. “Except you,” he added, dropping a kiss on Ariel’s open mouth. He pushed off her to stand, hiking his jeans up on the way, and then took her hand and tugged her up too. “Go on in there and clean up a little, sweetheart.”
    With another kiss and a rub of her back, he nudged her toward the open door of the master bath. Still wide-eyed and blinking, she looked around as if she’d just realized she was the only one naked and disappeared into the bathroom without a word.
    After the door closed behind her, Hake put his hands on his hips and narrowed his eyes on Mandy. “You really thought this was the right time?”
    She shrugged, keeping an eye on Joe. “It was the time that presented itself. What about Ariel?”
    Sighing, Hake rubbed his chin and then said, “Give her a minute and then go in there with her if she doesn’t come out. You two need to talk.”
    “We do. Uh, Joe…” Mandy dropped her smiling gaze to his hands. “Want to give those a yank back up this direction and then hand me my sweater?”
    Joe looked at his hands, and then at her pretty shaved pussy. And then at her bump, which had sent his hard-on into hiding for the foreseeable future. “Gladly.”
    After he’d tugged her pants up, he passed her the sweater and then put the bed between them, getting as far away from her as he could without leaving the room. He stared out the window, seeing nothing but a whiteout that had gone blue-gray with the approaching evening and hearing a hundred unspoken questions he didn’t want the answers to.
    Anxiety tightened his muscles, constricting his breathing and sending subtle tremors through his bones.
    Hake is definitely not the father.
    The statement was a like a wrecking ball inside his head, knocking down everything he’d finally begun to believe as it swung back and forth, reshaping the landscape of his life until he no longer recognized it. Reshaping his future.
    “I don’t know whether to say congratulations or I’m sorry,” Brent said somewhere behind him.
    “Congratulations, most definitely,” Mandy assured him. “I’m thrilled.”
    Joe looked over his shoulder in time to see Brent sweep her into a hug. “Then I’m thrilled for you, sweet cheeks,” he told her, planting a kiss on her cheek.
    “How in the hell can you be thrilled?” Joe demanded.
    She smiled at him serenely over Brent’s shoulder. “How can I not be? A baby is a gift.”
    “A gift ?” He laughed humorlessly. “You call a year of sleepless nights and a lifetime of worry a gift?”
    “Yes, I do,” she said promptly, untangling herself from Brent’s arms to face Joe. “There are people who’d give anything to have those problems if they came with a child of