Pumpkin and Spice Read online

  I love the way her body reacts when I slide my tongue into her, when I massage her folds, when I touch her clit.

  I love it that she can’t see what I’m doing under here, under the blankets, but I can see her most private places and have my way with them.

  I love everything about her. Her noises, her squirms, and ultimately her full-body spasm when she peaks.

  “Oh god, Stoner!” she cries.

  “I’m really gonna love doing this for you when your little tummy is swollen with our babies.”

  She shudders with the last of her climax and then, when I’m back to her eye level and she’s caught her breath, she says, “Wait, did you say babies, plural?”

  “I did. Is that OK?”

  “Yes, but are you going to at least marry me first?”

  I share her taste in my mouth with her mouth and say, “Trust me. I’m not going to leave you hanging on that score.”

  Chapter 13

  Max

  That night at the bar is magical. The first heavy snow of the season is falling and everything looks pretty.

  People are in good spirits.

  There’s a Celtic band playing live romantic music tonight.

  None of the idiots from school are here. Mom and Dad and Dianne have joined me at the bar and we are having a fun time together. Dianne already feels like another member of the family.

  After a couple of hours, and when I’m slightly tipsy from white wine, Sam shows up at the bar with a woman on her arm.

  “Who is that?” Dad asks.

  Before I can answer, Sam walks over with who can only be Jenna. I put out my hand. “Jenna, so nice to meet you.”

  “You must be big sister Max. I feel like I know you already.”

  Without warning, Jenna hugs me. I’m not expecting it, but I go along with it for Sam’s sake.

  Sam then makes introductions to Mom, Dad and Dianne. We all chat it up for a while, and then we hear some commotion up on the stage.

  I turn to see Stoner up there, chatting with the lead singer, his hand covering the mic.

  My heart starts to pound when the singer hands Stoner an acoustic guitar and he starts to tune it.

  Dad elbows me. “Did you know he played guitar?”

  “Of course not, I’ve only been dating him since Tuesday night,” I say.

  “I’d like to dedicate this song to the woman I’ve been in love with for 20 years. And now that she’s back, I’m not letting her go again. When you’re with me, Max, the pain goes away. I can’t think of any other reason besides that to keep you from getting away from me ever again.”

  My heart is pounding in my throat. People are looking at me. Mom has her arm around my shoulder and she’s sniffling.

  And then, before I know what’s happening, Stoner is singing “Stand by Me.”

  His voice is like a less weathered Tom Waits. My knees may buckle.

  “Holy shit,” I hear Sam whisper. She grabs my elbow. “Did you know he could sing?”

  I sigh. “Will everybody related to me please shut their pumpkin pie holes!”

  Stoner hands the guitar back to the singer and hops down off the stage.

  He walks over to me as the band starts up another tune and everyone has turned their attention away from us, thankfully.

  He walks up to me because I can barely move. I think I might faint.

  As he approaches I see him pulling something out of his pocket. I about cream my undies when I see it’s a little blue box.

  No. Way.

  Jenna and Sam and the rest of our crew back away, but I can feel their eyes on us. Stoner leans in and murmurs in my ear so I can hear him clearly over the din of the bar. “Max, will you marry me?”

  His hand is shaking and my hand is shaking, but somehow we manage to get the box open. It’s a massive princess cut sapphire with three small diamonds on either side.

  “Stoner. You did not go to that store for a ring. This is too much.”

  He shrugs. “It was a Black Friday deal and your mom and my mom helped me find it.”

  “Bullshit,” I say. “Tiffany’s doesn’t have Black Friday sales, does it?”

  “Fuck if I know, but the ring was just right for you. It matches your eyes.”

  By now the tears are streaming down my face and I’m sobbing.

  “Well, are you going to give me an answer?”

  “Oh yeah,” I say, laughing through my sobs. “Of course I’m gonna marry you. I love you, Talbot.”

  He slips the ring on my finger and lifts me up off my feet, planting a kiss on my lips and all over my wet cheeks.

  “And I love you, Pumpkin.”

  I’m freely sobbing now and he asks me if something is wrong.

  “I just wish Joy were here for this.”

  “Text her right now and tell her to get her ass over here,” he insists.

  So I do.

  Joy, where the hell are you? I have huge news!

  Moments later she texts back,

  Sorry, babe. Today has been bonkers. City inspector came, shut down the Cookie Cottage. Some bullshit health code thing.

  I immediately call her up, and she lays it all out.

  “It’s Black Friday, right? So I’m totally in the zone, doing my thing, and then all of a sudden some jackass from the health department shows up and says I don’t have the proper licensing or some shit. And so I have like ten thousand dollars’ worth of cookie orders needing to be filled, but I can’t do my business or I’m gonna get a fine. Big time. And you’ll never guess who the city health department thug is.”

  When she gives me the name, I am shocked.

  “From high school?”

  “Yeah. Can you believe it?”

  “Can’t he give you a grace period?”

  “Uh, no, he’s still the same know-it-all asshole he was when he ran the AV club like a damn tyrant. Now he’s taking it out on small businesses.”

  “Shit.”

  “Christmas is ruined,” Joy says with a sob.

  “Now we are both sobbing but for different reasons,” I say.

  “What are you talking about?” she asks.

  “Well, I hate to do this to you right now but…Stoner just proposed to me. Goddammit, I wish you were here for it. Right in the open in front of everyone in the bar. Pretty risky move.”

  Joy snorts. “Yeah, real risky. Girl, he had your number the second he saw you on Tuesday night. Christmas may be ruined for me, but I’m happy for you. Really, I am.”

  “Listen, babe. I’m going to figure out a way to help you out of this jam. We can work this out. Stoner has a lot of connections in the business community.”

  “There’s nothing to work out. I’m already a pariah.”

  “You’re not a pariah,” I scoff.

  “You know what? I’ll deliver my cookies in the middle if the night if I have to. No high and mighty nerd is going to ruin my Christmas.”

  “That’s the Christmas spirit,” I say.

  “I’m so thankful you're my friend. And now I’m thankful that Stoner is in your life. I’ll keep you posted,” Joy says.

  “Happy Thanksgiving, doll, and Merry Christmas, I say.

  “Same to you, love.”

  Epilogue

  Stoner

  We have a spring wedding ceremony on the beach in San Diego.

  I do my best to make everything perfect for my Pumpkin, in my small way.

  I barely have to do anything, though, because she’s got all the green business connections in Southern California at her beck and call.

  I don’t know much about flowers, but we have locally grown blooms, dresses made from fair trade artisans, a farm-to-table dinner and all organic wine.

  My job was mainly to get everybody to San Diego.

  I flew in Max’s entire family, including Sam and her partner Jenna. Also here was Joy and her new beau. Everyone from the chilly Midwest seems to really take to the beach. So much so that I wonder if everyone should just move out here.
r />   But the only taker on that offer is my mom, Dianne.

  Sam and I started work on a mother-in-law suite almost as soon as we landed in San Diego last November.

  Sam and Jenna bought the old rectory from me and are using it for a non-profit counseling center for addiction, mental wellness and victims of abuse.

  I sold the bar to my partner Emmett, who seemed eager to buy it.

  I took the money from the sale and what I had left from the settlement with the diocese and opened a restaurant.

  It’s a tough and competitive market for a new eatery, but I’m a patient man, and I always get what I want.

  Now, all I have to do is enjoy the day with my woman.

  At the moment, my patience is wearing thin as my bride is late to the ceremony. I’m starting to get nervous, but then I finally see her.

  Ed and Elizabeth walk my Max down the aisle and she’s unbelievably beautiful. So beautiful that I start to feel my chin tremble just a little bit. I never thought she could be lovelier than the day she walked into my bar, but I was wrong. She looks like an angel.

  When the judge pronounces us husband and wife, I kiss her with one hand on her slightly curved belly. The dress is cut in a way that nobody else could possibly notice, and she’s barely showing yet.

  When we break away from the kiss, she whispers something in my ear as everyone is clapping and cheering.

  “Twins.”

  “What?” I say.

  She nods, her eyes welling up. “That’s why I was late. I had a feeling and I went for another sonogram this morning. Here. I wanted to surprise you.”

  She shoves a picture in my hand and I look down. It is indeed a sonogram photo of twins.

  Nobody is supposed to know that we are already pregnant, but I no longer care. She’s my wife and I’m about to be a dad.

  I kiss her so hard I nearly bend her backward.

  With my hand on her tummy, I hold up the picture. “We’re having twins!”

  Screams of delight. Cheers. Applause.

  Max’s parents and my mom are bawling with happiness, and Joy and Sam and Jenna have all covered their mouths in shock.

  I whisper in her ear: “That was a dirty trick, and the best present anyone could give me. I’m going to punish and reward you in equal measure tonight.”

  Epilogue

  Max

  Ten years later

  It turns out California was the right choice.

  Our restaurant is thriving, though it’s been an uphill battle.

  I eventually sold to Green Wave after a few more years of them chasing me down with bigger and bigger offers. I ended up with enough money to buy up a huge amount of coastal land, which we’ve turned into a sanctuary and refuse to let developers build on it.

  Pissing off the moneyed elite gives me almost as much pleasure as taking care of Stoner and our kids.

  The twins, Maddie and Talbot Jr., are about to start middle school, and we also have Grace, 7, Josephine, 4, and Noah, who just turned one.

  I’ve really liked the three-year separation between all of the births of our kids. But as I’m now 48, Stoner is starting to get antsy about having another one.

  We’ve expanded the mother-in-law suite to include room for bunkbeds for all the kids.

  The four oldest are staying overnight with Dianna tonight. The baby Noah, who is still nursing, is staying home with us. Even though we’re still not technically alone, comparing one kid to five hooligans running around, it feels like total freedom.

  Stoner and I are cuddling on the bed in our underpants, watching Hallmark movies and he’s feeding me caramel corn.

  It’s Thanksgiving night, and my parents are also sleeping in the pool house. Sam and Jenna are with Jenna’s family for the holiday. Joy and her family are still in Chicago, but we’ll all be together the week of Christmas.

  And then, just as the movie is getting good and the heroine is about to break up with her big-city high-powered attorney boyfriend to take up with the down-to-earth cowboy, Stoner is starting to simultaneously feed me caramel corn while feeding himself on my tits.

  “Babe, come on, I can’t see the TV.”

  “I can’t help myself,” he growls. “They look so good tonight.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “I mean, they look fucking good all the time. Maybe it’s the bra you’re wearing, but they look extra tempting right now.”

  Stoner nibbles on my cleavage. His warm breath on my sternum as he speaks is making me wet. “I think your body is trying to make me extra hard because it wants another baby.”

  “Stoner I’m 48, we’ve already talked about this. It’s not the best idea. Plus, everybody else is three years apart and Noah’s only one.”

  “Yeah, you’re 48,” he says, “which means this might be your last chance to have another while we can.”

  I sigh. “Fine, you don’t have to pull out this time.”

  He kisses his way down my tummy, pulls my undies down and nuzzles my bush.

  I’m totally soaked now.

  “You smell so good,” he murmurs. “You using a new body lotion?”

  “Nuh-uh,” I say, grabbing the caramel corn out of his hand that he’s about to drop on me.

  “Babe, you are spilling the corn,” I say, but I’m not at all annoyed because he’s got his face between my legs. He strokes slowly with his tongue. Kisses my folds. Puts light pressure on my clit that makes me feel like I might explode.

  I arch into him and he increases the pressure of his kisses and the strokes of his tongue.

  Suddenly, he stops.

  “Babe,” I whimper, “why are you stopping? If you’re going to spill caramel corn all over me you better finish me off.”

  “You not only smell different, you taste different,” he says, diving back in, slowly working me back up into a frenzy before stopping again.

  I cry out, but he’s not going back down. Instead he kisses his way back up my abdomen. When he reaches my chest, he eats up all the caramel corn that he spilled, and then kisses all the sticky areas, licking me clean.

  “Why are you being so mean to me?” I ask.

  Instead of answering, he puts the tip of his cock just inside my entrance.

  It’s making me insane.

  “What are you doing?” I sigh.

  “Babe,” he says, “I know your body even better than my own, and you’re already pregnant.”

  “No, I’m not,” I say.

  “You might not be able to tell yet, but I can. You taste pregnant.”

  “Are you serious?”

  He slides his cock all the way into me and thrusts.

  “I just wanted to be face to face with you when I told you. We’re having another baby.”

  I want to tell him he’s full of shit.

  But I know it’s true.

  “I didn’t want to say anything, but my breasts have been sore for a couple of days. I thought it was pre-menopause, combined with nursing. I wanted to take a test first.”

  “Babe.”

  “I’m sorry, do you want me to go take a test?”

  “No, don’t you dare go anywhere.”

  In the next second I’m on my tummy and on top of Stoner, looking down at his face. “What the…?”

  And then I figure out why he’s done that, because he administers a firm but playful spanking to my bare butt. It sends a spike of pleasure all through me.

  “You can’t spank a pregnant lady,” I joke.

  He covers my mouth with a passionate kiss then says, “You’re absolutely right. What can I do for you instead, my pregnant queen?”

  I smirk. “Put me back down and let me finish watching the movie while I eat more caramel corn.”

  Without a word he sets me back against the pillows and slides his member back into me, thrusting in a primal rhythm while sharing the taste of me and bits of salt and sugar with my mouth.

  It is so beyond perfect that I come hard and fast. My release is so intense he comes at the sam
e time.

  “Fuck,” he grunts into my mouth. “Thank you for this new baby. I’m going to make sure this is your easiest pregnancy yet.”

  Everything I feel and taste is sweet and salty and sexy and strange and wild all at the same time.

  And I’m oh-so grateful.

  About the Author

  Abby Knox lives a dual life. Fantasy Abby would love to live on a farm with goats, bees, chickens, donkeys and alpaca, making her own soap, yarn, honey and cheese. Reality Abby has no desire to do actual farm work. So, the ever-pragmatic Reality Abby keeps Fantasy Abby happy by putting her into sweet little works of romantic pastoral fiction with her pretend hobbies. Both Abbies hope you enjoy this brand of sweet, sexy, storytelling. This is Abby’s fifteenth book.

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  Also by Abby Knox

  From the Small-Town Bachelor Series

  (each can be read as a stand-alone!)

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  His Vinyl Vixen (stand alone)

  From the Sisterhood of Enchantment, a paranormal romance series

  Some Basic Witch

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  Her Big Easy Wedding, a New Orleans Shapeshifter series

  Part One: Taking the Belle

  Part Two: Having his Cake

  Part Three: Chasing the Night

  Part Four: Running with the Pack

  Part Five: Her Big Easy Wedding, series bundle with a fifth story AND bonus content!

  A sneak peek at the second part of the Windy City Holiday Duet

  Due out Dec. 21, 2018!