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  Seeing Liana get up to go to the bathroom half a dozen times over the two hours I spent with her made me nervous about what was to come in my pregnancy. Oh well. I would face it when the time came. Over our cookie dessert, after a quick bathroom break, Liana asked me a question I wasn’t prepared for. “If things work out with Alexander, are you going to raise the baby together?”

  “I…uh…” I said. “I mean, we’ve never really talked about it.”

  Liana wasn’t one to take deflected answers. “But would you like that?”

  “I guess so,” I said with a shrug. “What parent doesn’t dream about raising their child as part of a complete family? But I don’t want to get my hopes up. I wanted this baby without any expectation of having the father involved.” I knew that, deep down, I was probably lying both to Liana and to myself. Even though Alexander was still new in my life, he seemed like he’d make an amazing father, with his kind, understanding nature.

  Loading me up with half the lasagna and the few remaining cookies, Liana sent me on my way with a promise to let her know when my first prenatal appointment was, and to update her on any new happenings on the Alexander front. I walked back to my car, relieved to finally have someone to talk to about all of this.

  I checked my phone for the first time since I’d gotten to Liana’s house and saw two text messages from Alexander. The first one said, Hope your night is as lovely as you are. The second message sent my heart fluttering. Clear your schedule this weekend. I’m taking you camping.

  Chapter 12

  Alexander

  As I waited for Casey to arrive at my house, I reread the text message she sent me when I mentioned the camping plans.

  Camping? Not sure if that sounds like a romantic outing or a horror movie. I’m in!

  She had the perfect sense of humor. I hadn’t thought about it until after she said it, but I supposed most people wouldn’t want to go on a camping trip with someone they’d known for only a month. But then again, we weren’t most people.

  I walked out the front door as Casey’s sedan pulled into my driveway. She rolled down the window. “Is this really where you live?”

  “It is, indeed,” I said.

  “Damn,” she said. “Nice digs.”

  I smiled. I knew Casey was self-conscious about her studio apartment, so I didn’t want it to seem like I was shoving my house in her face. “I’d give you a tour, but I want to get on the road so we don’t hit traffic.”

  “That’s fine. I’ll just have to come back another time.”

  I helped Casey move her bags from her trunk to mine and I asked if she’d ever been camping before. Apparently, this question warranted a laugh, which I took in stride. Casey told me that the closest she’d ever come to camping was sleeping in a tent in her dorm room with some friends in college. “Don’t worry,” I assured her. “You’re with a camping pro.”

  “Is that so?” Casey replied.

  “Ten years of Boy Scouts right here.”

  Casey chuckled until she realized I wasn’t joking. “Seriously?”

  “Yup,” I said with a nod.

  “Damn. I bet more people would appreciate Boy Scouts if they put pictures of guys like you on the cover of their brochure.” I blushed as I took my place in the driver’s seat. It wasn’t a secret that Casey found me attractive, but it was nice to be reminded.

  I told Casey all about the campground we were going to. I’d been there four or five times with my college buddies, and I thought it might be a nice way for the two of us to get to know each other. “You can text your friends the name of the campground,” I said. “You know, just in case this turns into a horror movie.”

  We both laughed. “Got any good music in here?” Casey asked.

  “Define good,” I said. “Please tell me you’re not a country music fan!”

  Casey shook her head. “I’m not. But here’s a little secret for you. I’m a big fan of ‘80s music.”

  I reached into the glove compartment and pulled out a small CD binder. “There’s probably something for you in here,” I said.

  The hour-and-a-half-long car ride seemed to fly by. I suppose it was the great company. Casey was a horrible singer, but it was a blast hearing her attempt to sing along to Blondie and Bon Jovi. We had similar taste in music, shared equally awful singing voices, and neither of us was afraid to play a little air guitar. It felt as if we’d made this drive a hundred times before.

  “Here we are,” I said. With peak season having recently ended, the campgrounds were far more desolate than I’d ever seen them, but that just meant more privacy for me and Casey. I watched Casey’s face as she soaked everything in. The tall, mossy trees enveloped us, and the rough dirt greeted our shoes below us.

  “This is…uh…rustic,” Casey replied.

  There was something in her voice I couldn’t quite place. It wasn’t exactly frustration, or disdain, or confusion, or excitement. It was a weird blend of the four. “Look, if you don’t like it here, we can head back to Atlanta. I just thought it might be fun.”

  “I’m sure it will be,” Casey said. “This is just new territory for me. That’s all.” She shot me a smile that sent my heart beating a bit faster.

  “Come on. Let’s get set up,” I said. We unloaded our bags and camping equipment from the back of my Lexus and put them on the ground beside my car. “Well someone packed for a solid week or two.”

  Casey blushed. “Sorry. I didn’t know what a camping trip required. We can leave the blue backpack in the car.”

  “No worries!”

  “Is there a…umm…I have to go to the bathroom.”

  I spread my arms open wide for dramatic effect. “You’re looking at it,” I said. “Nature at its finest!”

  “Seriously?!” Casey exclaimed.

  “Nah,” I said with a chuckle. Pointing to a pathway that started a few feet behind the car, I added, “It’s just down that trail.”

  Rolling her eyes, Casey retreated down the trail. I liked that I could joke around with her. I walked over to where Casey had dropped her bags and picked up the blue one, as per her request. As I threw it into the trunk, a plastic bottle fell out of the mesh water bottle compartment on the side. I stretched my arm out and grabbed the bottle, completely unprepared to learn what was inside. Prenatal Vitamin. For use during, before, and after pregnancy.

  It wasn’t like Casey’s pregnancy was a secret she’d kept from me. I was well aware that she was pregnant, and even more aware that the baby was mine. It was just that, with all of our dates and fun and sex, any thoughts about the baby had been sent to the back of my mind. It was the elephant in the room, the topic we avoided at the risk of ruining whatever romance was blossoming between us. After all, Casey’s baby bump was nonexistent for now—which meant the issue seemed to be, too.

  I shoved the vitamins back into the side compartment and slammed my trunk shut. I had been calm and collected the whole car ride to the campgrounds, and, in a matter of thirty seconds, I’d developed knots in my stomach. What the hell was I doing? Was it even safe to take a pregnant woman camping? How did Casey feel about this whole situation? I decided to see how the camping trip went before worrying any further. There was no use in discussing the baby—or even our future—if this relationship turned out to be a dud.

  In an effort to keep my mind from wandering, I picked up the package containing the tent and began to assemble it. As I hammered the third tent peg into the ground, I heard footsteps behind me. “You know, I thought going out with a big shot CEO meant I’d be spending my nights in somewhere other than a tent in the middle of nowhere,” Casey said with a grin.

  “Very funny,” I smirked. “This CEO still likes to rough it every now and again.”

  One of the most genuine looks of contentment I’d ever seen appeared upon Casey’s face. “Sounds good to me.”

  Matching her smile, I gently pulled Casey’s hand as she knelt on the ground beside me. “Care to help?”

  “Sure,”
she said. In one swift motion, Casey flipped her gorgeous tresses over her head and tied them up into a perfectly messy ponytail. “What can I do?”

  Casey, though new to the world of camping, put forth her best effort in helping me set up the tent. Twenty minutes—and countless laughs—later, our tent for two was complete with our bags inside. I couldn’t help but think about how refreshing it was to be with a girl who wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty.

  In the past, women just assumed that, because I had money, I only wanted to do what they considered to be “rich people things”, like jetting off to Europe for the weekend or getting front row tickets to a theater show. Sure, I considered myself to be well-off, but I was also just an ordinary guy who had grown up in a middle-class Florida family. I liked the simple things, like camping, and jogging, and going to the movies. The last girl I asked to go camping barely let me get the words out of my mouth before shooting me down and laughing. I looked over at Casey, who was checking for the third time to make sure the pegs were in evenly, and I knew she was different.

  “So, now what?” Casey asked.

  “That’s up to you,” I said. “We can go for a hike, relax by the lake, maybe go for a swim.”

  Casey barely let me finish giving the options before she said, “A hike sounds like fun!”. Since hiking was my third-favorite form of exercising—behind jogging and free weights—I had no objections. Taking Casey’s hand in mine, I led her down the trails I’d hiked on previous visits.

  “Is a four-mile loop too much for our first hike?” I asked.

  “It’s perfect! Let me go change my shoes!”

  While Casey was in the tent, I set up a canoe for us to use later on. We spent nearly two hours on the trail, stopping at the halfway point for a lunch I didn’t even know Casey had packed. In between bites of chicken salad sandwiches and kettle-cooked chips, I recounted to Casey my time in the Boy Scouts. She was equal parts amused and interested, as most people were when they learned I had been a scout. Casey, wanting to contribute something back to the conversation, told me about a friend of hers that was a Girl Scout growing up. I nodded as she told me about her friend’s attempt to break the Girl Scout cookie-selling record in Tallahassee.

  Everything felt so natural with Casey. When we hit the third mile marker, she jumped on her tiptoes and gave me a big smooch. It felt like we’d been dating for years. As I watched Casey’s voluptuous body make its way around the corner in front of us, I caught a glimpse of our future. We’d only been dating—was that even what this was? – for a little under three months, but I could see us taking little road trips like this for years to come. Maybe we could even bring our child along. The thoughts flooding my mind brought me to the realization I’d been dodging for days.

  I was falling in love with Casey Donohue.

  Chapter 13

  Casey

  “Want another s’more?” Alexander asked.

  “I’m good,” I said. After two fire-roasted hot dogs and three s’mores with double chocolate, I was stuffed.

  “C’mon! The baby needs nourishment!” The way Alexander talked about the baby so nonchalantly—and fatherly—made me weak in the knees, and it was enough to get me to say yes to another s’more, this time with single chocolate. Up until this point, it seemed like we had an unspoken agreement not to discuss the baby or our future plans. Maybe this was a good thing.

  The only other time the baby had come up in conversation was earlier in the day, during our mini canoe outing. As he paddled, Alexander casually mentioned a favorite brewery of his, one that he insisted was the best in the area. He’d said how there was a beer festival coming up in a few weeks that he’d like to take me to—and his face turned the color of a tomato when he remembered I was pregnant.

  “Oh my goodness,” he said. “I’m an idiot. I’m so sorry.”

  Thankfully, we’d been able to move past that quickly. We were both naturally humorous, sarcastic people, so our unusual situation had simply magnified that. I loved that I could laugh with Alexander, and, strangely, it felt as though that moment in the canoe brought us closer together.

  The moonlight on the lake was magical, and I found myself wondering why I had never gone camping before. You would think that, in all of the foster homes I’d been in, someone I’d come across would have enjoyed camping. But I was soaking it all in for the first time, and it was even better than I could have imagined.

  As Alexander took a bite of his burnt, gooey marshmallow, I tiptoed away from the fire. The log on which I’d been sitting now stood alone, empty, as I did a little twirl away from it. “Are you coming?” I said. I looked back at Alexander, who was still sitting by the campfire in the moonlight. In a move I’d only ever dreamed of doing, I skipped another step toward the lake and pulled my shirt off over my head. I flung the shirt onto a tree branch and did a little shimmy to further capture Alexander’s attention.

  All of a sudden, I felt the rush of Alexander’s strong arms around me. As I reached around and pulled his V-neck off, sliding my hands over every inch of his muscles, I felt Alexander’s strong fingers unhook my bra. We simultaneously took off our bottoms and undergarments, meeting each other in a clumsy tangle. Alexander put his arm around my waist and fed me the sweetness of his mouth. Our tongues intertwined for several moments until we slowly parted.

  We stood naked, only inches apart, with nothing but the faint glow of the moon upon us. Before I could make my next move, Alexander took the lead. He leaped toward the lake, kicking some twigs out of the way, and dove straight into the water. He emerged to the surface, shaking drops of salty water from his hair. “I’m ready for you!”

  “Alexander!” I exclaimed. I let out a faint giggle to hide the shivers plaguing my body. I had never been as adventurous as I felt with Alexander. He made me feel comfortable, safe, and, unlike any other man I’d been with before, sexy. With my breasts knocking against my skin, I ran in to meet his embrace. The warmth of Alexander’s hands counteracted the initial cold I felt.

  I held my breath and went under the water, my foot brushing along the sand at the bottom. We kissed in between bursts of swimming and splashing around. I finally understand what all this skinny-dipping hype is about, I thought as Alexander cradled my breasts under the water. Liana and Jane will never believe this. After all, I was a live-by-the-rules kind of girl, for the most part. On top of that, swimming brought back memories of days spent at the beach with my mother when I was young, so it was something I tried to avoid. It was nice to be making new—and positive—memories here with Alexander. I couldn’t have ever guessed camping would lead to this.

  With a strange sense of confidence, I pulled Alexander from the water and marched him back to the tent with me. We lay down inside as our hands gripped whatever body part of the other’s we could latch on to. My tongue slid between his lips as he let out a low moan, and his broad chest, lined with strong muscles and intricate tattoos, rested against mine. Saliva mixed with lake water as we kissed.

  Alexander caressed my tightened breasts with his tongue as he made his way down my body. I suddenly felt his warm tongue push open the lips of my hot, wet pussy. I thrust my pussy against him and grabbed his head, pulling him tighter against me. My stiffened legs remained flat, and Alexander went further into my soft flesh with his strong tongue. I felt uncontrollable moans leave my body. Deep and wet.

  It felt as if his tongue was a smaller version of his cock as it fucked me, in and out, in and out. Then he was sucking my clit and swallowing my juice and I couldn’t take any more. An orgasm rushed through me like a tidal wave and I wrapped my legs around his head as if I was trying to strangle him.

  He freed himself and looked down into my eyes. Then he kissed my lips and I could taste myself on him.

  In one graceful movement, Alexander flipped me over so that I was lying on my front. Then his tongue was on my ass, licking my anus and sending tendrils of pleasure through me that outweighed the sense of embarrassment I would usually feel at
a moment like this.

  He’d made my pussy so wet that everything was soaking down there, and he rubbed his cock between my legs to lube it up. Then he rubbed the same juice on my ass hole and slid a finger inside me.

  “Are you ready for this?”

  “I don’t know,” I whispered, but his finger in my ass felt so good, and turned me on so much, that I pushed my ass against his hand, forcing his finger deeper inside me.

  I felt him position the head of his cock against my ass, and then he began to slide inside me. The sensation was overwhelming, and so naughty. I couldn’t believe we were actually doing this.

  We moved back and forth, again and again, our heartbeats in synchrony. Lake water collided with sweat as Alexander continued thrusting, landing in all the right places. I never would have imagined anal would feel so good, but with Alexander it was pure perfection.

  He moved in deeper and squeezed my breasts from behind. It was fast and frantic. I arched my back and moved my buttocks even closer to him. Raising my hips, I shuddered with longing and tried to contain my rapid breaths.

  I was so close to orgasm, my nipples erect with desire. It was happening. I felt Alexander’s warm release inside my ass and the sensation sent me avalanching over the edge of ecstasy. Screams came from my mouth, a mouth numb from the cold and the pleasure of Alexander’s penetration. The wild pleasure sent me off my knees, collapsing onto the floor of the tent. Damn, was that amazing.

  I’d heard from some oversharing patients at the clinic that sex was better when you’re pregnant, but this was otherworldly. I couldn’t believe we’d just had anal. I’d heard of it but never imagined I’d actually be doing it.

  Alexander moved closer to me and slid his arm under my head. The only sound that filled the tent was that of our shallow breathing as we each aimed to reclaim our breaths. Suddenly aware of the chill in the air, I took a thick, fleece blanket from my duffle bag and placed it across both of our bodies. Alexander’s satin skin was warm against mine as I softly kissed his lips. Still unclothed, we laid in a peaceful silence until we fell asleep.