A Little Bit More of…
Reckless at Heart

Here’s your Owen and Kerry Bonus Scene!

If you want a little bit more of Owen and Kerry, this is exactly that. I will gently warn you that it contains mild spoilers for book #2 in this series, Fierce at Heart, because in the Pine Harbour timeline, it takes place after that book. But they are very mild, so this short story could be read before or after Fierce at Heart.

You can scroll down and read this story right here on this web page, or if you prefer to read on an ereader app or device, click here (or on the button below) to grab a copy via our friends at BookFunnel.

Priority Number One

March

Owen: stuck at the hospital

Kerry: I'm on my way there now.

Owen: wave across Emerg?

Kerry: LOL yes. I miss you!

Owen: so much

Kerry could practically hear the growl in her husband’s text message. It had been three weeks and three days since they'd had sex and apparently they were both feeling the effects of the prolonged period of celibacy.

Like many pregnant women, her first trimester had been a little rocky. As a midwife, she knew the routine, but it was still wild to experience for herself what she had coached so many women through. Her body felt like it had been taken over by an alien life form.

But now she was two weeks into her second trimester, sixteen weeks pregnant, and suddenly she felt like herself again. Herself, but with better hair and a heightened urge to bone her husband.

She slid behind the wheel of her car and glanced at the clock. It was dinner time, getting close to the end of Owen’s shift. She was going in to the Labour & Delivery ward with a client who was in active labour, so even after Owen offloaded the patient he was transferring to the hospital, she would likely be there all night for the delivery.

She put the car into gear and flipped through a mental version of their shared calendar. She would be wired when she got home from the delivery, probably, but Owen needed to sleep. He was working another shift tomorrow. Maybe if she could stay up until five, he could wake up early for a quickie before he went to the station in the morning?

They could have some of that yummy no-talking, all-touching fast morning sex she missed so much.

At the hospital, she checked in at L&D, letting the charge nurse know she was in the building and would be back in five minutes to meet the incoming patient. Then she went downstairs to Emergency to find Owen.

He was outside, in the ambulance bay, working on his computer.

And by some small miracle, he was alone. “Where’s your partner?” she asked as she snuck up beside him.

He set his computer down on the driver’s seat with one hand and planted the other on her hip, sweeping her up against his body in a fast, practiced move. “Hello, you.”

She pressed up on her toes and kissed him quickly. “Thought I’d do better than wave, my client isn’t here yet.”

“I sent my partner to grab us coffee from the cafeteria while I finished the report.”

“Are you having fun today?” Owen had put himself on the schedule as a regular EMT, something he didn’t get to do that often as the supervisor, but he’d been trying to more often lately. The shifts were more rewarding, but less flexible—and often longer if he got stuck waiting at the end like he was tonight.

“I am.” He grinned and dipped his head, kissing her again. Longer this time. Slightly indecently for the ambulance bay, but nobody could see them. Then he twisted his head and exhaled roughly against her cheek. “She went into labour, eh? I thought tonight might be a quiet night at home.”

“Tomorrow night will be.” She moved against him. “And I was thinking we could have a quickie in the morning, before you go to work?”

“Definitely. Wake me up when you get home.” He rubbed the small of her back. “Middle of the night, I don’t care.”

“Remember our honeymoon? A whole week of uninterrupted quality time?”

He gave her a wolfish grin. “Oh yes. Missing that quality time for sure. I want another honeymoon.”

“Honestly, I would settle for a long weekend.”

“That's doable.” He squeezed her hip and hugged her one more time as his partner rounded the corner holding paper coffee cups. “Lets make that happen.”

Kerry smiled at the other paramedic. “Hey, Matt.” Then she turned back to Owen. “When you get home tonight, block the time off on our calendars. I’ll make it work.”

“A mini break it is.”

Matt Foster handed Owen his coffee. “Are you guys going away?”

“Nope.” Kerry sighed happily. “We’re going to have a staycation. And no matter what happens, you’re not allowed to call him in to the station, okay?”

Matt raised his hands. “You got it.”

“She’s not the boss of you,” Owen protested. Then he grinned. “But I am, and she’s right.”

The memory of that grin kept her warm through the night. Her client had a speedy labour, but a slow delivery, and Kerry hung around a bit longer than usual to make sure the first-time mom was feeling confident for her first night with the baby.

At the end of the summer, Kerry would be in the same position. She rubbed her hand over her barely-there belly as she zipped up her coat. She still couldn’t believe she’d gotten pregnant their first round. She’d been prepared for it to be a long journey to get pregnant, but Owen had laid the cards out on the table with his fertility specialist: he wanted her to have babies, however was easiest. She didn’t think it was possible to love him more than in that moment when he’d just shrugged at the thought of surgery. “Whatever it takes,” he’d said, with his whole chest.

In the end, they had decided not to reverse his vasectomy. The odds weren’t in his favour for it to work, and it could take longer to find out either way. Sperm retrieval gave them a better chance, and she could plan the pregnancies—as much as one ever could with something that depended on a lot of stars and science aligning at the same time.

Pregnancies. Plural? She wasn’t sure about that. Maybe their family would be done with this one bambino. They would have a loving older sister, and a toddler nephew already, which was kind of hilarious. And a whole gang of doting uncles. Their family was big and loving, and perfect in every way.

On the other hand, she really did like this second trimester feeling, so if all went well, she might want to do it all again in a few years.

It was half past three in the morning when she arrived home, and the house was dark. She let herself in and locked the door behind her. After quietly making sure the bedroom door was closed so the shower wouldn’t wake up Owen, she washed the hospital off her body.

Once she was soft and clean and dry, slid into bed. It was too early to wake him up, no matter what he said.

But as soon as her limbs touched his, he roused on his own.

He reached for her without a word. His hands scooped her up, tugged her against him. He kissed the back of her neck and inhaled deeply. Smiling, she rocked her hips against his growing erection. He always liked the soft bounce, a little grind before they fit together.

Just as she liked his hands on her breasts. She groaned as he squeezed her sensitive flesh. Not hard, just a little. Oh. That made her thighs press together, but his touch slid there next, over her hip and around the top of her leg.

Open, his touch urged. Lift.

He brought her leg up on top of his, and she reached for him. No way was she ready for him, not really, but she still notched his cock against her entrance and rocked her hips faster. He was slippery at the tip, big and insistent, too, and her body quickly made room for him. Inch by inch, he pressed into her as he held her tight in his arms.

Only when he was fully embedded between her legs, his body wedged tight against hers, did he relax his grip and let her slide away a little. She lay on her back, almost perpendicular to his body, and pushed her fingertips against her clit. This was how they liked to fuck in the night. It was fast and hot.

Efficient, which shouldn’t be a selling feature of making love, but for them it was. They’d lived together for more than a year now. Were still very hungry for each other. But their lives were busy, often on opposite schedules, and more than once they’d had to deal with this kind of sex drought efficiently.

In another day or two, they might have a whole night together. Owen would make love to her in that endless way that made her feel like a million bucks. Right now? She just wanted to use her husband’s beastly body for a quick orgasm, before she curled up under his arm and got some much needed sleep.

***

Their staycation happened two weeks later. They both had Saturday through Tuesday booked off, their calendars firmly blocked at work. They woke up late Saturday morning and headed to the market, where they stocked up on groceries for the next four days so they wouldn’t need to leave the house again.

Their first stop was the Bake Sale! table. The market stall version of their sister-in-law’s bakery, Bake Sale! had a rotating assortment of treats that stirred up all kinds of nostalgia for high school fundraisers, and today’s selection was no different. It was maple syrup season in Pine Harbour, so maple Nanaimo bars were front and centre, and Kerry ordered two of those.

“Do you want any?” she asked Owen.

He glanced at the other offerings. “I’ll take a maple butter tart, actually.”

“Oh yes, one of those for me, too.” She gave him an innocent look. “The Nanaimo bars are for the baby.”

“I’m guessing the baby might also want some of the chocolate chip cookies?”

“This is where your parenting experience really shines,” she said sweetly. “We’ll take a half-dozen of the cookies, too.”

Next stop was the veggie stall, to balance out the sweets. Winter root vegetables and local garlic, greenhouse tomatoes, lettuce, and mushrooms, too. Then they picked up a turkey, which Owen planned to roast today so they would have leftovers for the whole staycation.

“What do you want to do this afternoon?” he asked as they drove home.

She twisted in her seat. “Is you too direct an answer?”

But it was really the other way around when they tumbled into bed after putting away the groceries. Owen was the one to do things to her. He started with a leg rub that went all the way to the tops of her thighs, then he spread her open and licked her until she cried out his name.

After they made love, he stretched out beside her and covered her belly with his hand. He loved the change in how her midsection felt. It wasn’t a huge visible difference yet, she was still getting away with wearing regular pants, but there was a distinctly different feel. Where her middle had been soft and a little squishy before, now it was tight and hard, and when she lay on her back like this, it rose into the air ever so slightly like a cresting moon.

Owen traced a design from one hip bone to the other, a twisting vine. It tickled, and she wiggled against his touch.

“Hold still,” he whispered, teasing, and she closed her eyes with a smile.

He did it again, and then she felt it—a distinct roll.

She’d started to feel some fluttery movement inside, but nothing like a kick or a head butt yet.

She started to say something, but Owen beat her to the punch. “Holy shit,” he breathed. “Was that…?”

“Yeah.”

“Hey, baby.” He spread his palm wide, his fingers stretching to cover as much of her tummy as possible. He ducked his head low and pressed his face into her side. “Hey in there.”

A ridiculous grin spread across her face as she felt their baby roll again and again. “That’s the first time I’ve felt it like that.”

“Hey.” He crawled back up beside her and kissed her softly. “That’s amazing. Fuck, I’m…” He blinked bright tears away. “Kerry, I love you.”

She touched his face, her fingers lingering on his jaw as she soaked up his expression. “I know,” she said in her best Han Solo impression. Then she giggled. “I love you, too. So much. I’m glad we were together for that.”

“Me, too.” His expression turned solemn. “We're going to make more time for each other before the baby comes. Once the baby is here too. And with the baby. family time. Us time. That’s priority number one. I promise you that.”

There was a lot of history behind that promise. Kerry knew that Owen had missed out on the early years with his daughter Becca while he trained for his career. It was more for himself than for her, because she knew he already made time for her. Their busy lives weren’t a problem for her, because he carved out time like this. But his heart was in the best of places, and more time together was a wonderful idea.

***

July

Owen kept that promise. At least one weekend a month for the next four months was at least three days long. The glorious middle stretch of Kerry’s pregnancy flew by with lots of time for the two of them.

The second annual County Country festival didn’t land exactly on their anniversary, but since they had treated the first festival the year before as their wedding reception, it made sense to book that weekend off as their monthly staycation. Instead of nesting at home, though, they went out on the town both nights. Main Street was once again criss-crossed with strings of white lights, high above the crowd, and there were two stages set up, one at the top of the main drag and the other down by the harbour.

The Friday night headliner was Canadian country singer Mari Beadie, introduced by the host of the festival, Nashville superstar-turned-Pine Harbour local Liana Hansen.

“Hey y’all,” Mari said, echoing Liana’s delicate drawl, and then she laughed. “Did that sound legit? I’m from just down the road, really. I’m an Ontario girl born and bred, from a small town on Lake Erie called Wardham. But I’ve been spending some time in Nashville lately, working on a new record. I’m going to play you my next single in a bit, but first…any fans of classic country here?”

The crowd roared, and Owen wondered what classic country meant to people who were closer to his daughter Becca’s age than his own.

“I was born in 1991,” Mari continued, and Owen couldn’t hold his groan in. Kerry covered her face, laughing at him, because she knew. Yep, he was old, he could admit it.

Old, but still full of youthful enthusiasm for his glowing wife.

But the country singer kept going, and actually, her idea of classic country was the same as his. “Growing up, my parents had a cassette tape—remember those?—by a man named Keith Whitley. I listened to this song of his over and over again, and when Allison Krauss covered it, that was the first CD I bought. It’s an honour to start this set with ‘When You Say Nothing at All’.”

Owen had expected something else. Something not quite as tender. He knew the song as well. His parents had had it on vinyl.

Kerry nestled into his side.

He wrapped his arm around her waist, his hand landing as it always did, on her burgeoning belly.

Mari’s cover of the song was smokey, more folk than pop, and the crowd roared when she finished.

The next song was her newest single, and from there she went through a full set that had everyone dancing and singing along.

They stayed until the last encore, then slowly walked home hand in hand. As the noise from Main Street faded, their footsteps slowed, and instead of turning left to go home, he pointed to the right. “How are your feet? Still up for a bit of a walk? We could head down to the marina and look at the stars over the lake.”

Kerry nodded enthusiastically. “All the walking is good for the baby, too. They sleep better when I’m moving.”

“That’s going to be true once they arrive, too.” Owen chuckled. “It wasn’t that long ago I was pushing Charlie around in his stroller on this exact same walk.”

He couldn’t wait to do it again. Take their kid out for a stroll and give Kerry some rest time. Come back and curl up with them both.

In a turn of events he hadn’t seen coming, Becca had gifted them her favourite stroller, which cost more than Owen would have ever paid for a temporary thing like that. As much as Owen had worried about her and Hayden becoming young parents, the hockey player was taking care of Owen’s daughter just fine.

Kerry nudged his arm with hers. “What are you thinking about?”

“Becca and Hayden.” They were home for the summer, staying with Hayden’s family. Next summer, they would build their own house in Pine Harbour, where they would live just a few months of the year. The rest of the time they would be in Nashville where he was expected to do big things after a strong rookie year. “How much things have changed in the last two years.”

“It’s a long time that goes by in the blink of an eye.” Kerry shivered, and Owen stopped. They were halfway down the hill, and the temperature dropped as they neared the lake, even in the middle of the summer.

“Are you cold? We can go back.”

“I’m fine.” She gave him a soft, lingering smile. “I think that was more of a big feelings shiver.”

“Ah.” He still shrugged out of his buttoned down shirt and offered it to her to put on top of her flowing sundress. “Here. In case the big feelings lead to chilly feelings, too.”

She laughed, and then took his hand. “Come on. We have a dock to sit on.”

At the marina, they turned left again, away from the second bandshell where people were still milling about. There was an abandoned motel back here, which looked gloomy and scary most of the time, but under the full moon tonight, the path around to the back of the motel was clear, and there they sat on a dock that was pretty much only used by Owen’s brother Seth when he flew in on his float plane, and the occasional boater.

Owen sat down first, his legs spread wide, and Kerry sat in front of him. He leaned back on his hand and they both looked up at the sky. They’d done this a few times this summer already. Kerry had an app on her phone that showed them what constellations were above them right now, but she didn’t pull it out tonight. She just rested her head against his chest and they sat together in silence, listening to the town in the distance, the lap of the water against the dock, and the wind through the trees behind them.

“We’ll still do this after the baby arrives,” she whispered.

“I’m not worried,” he promised her. He had been, once upon a time. Before they got married, before they went on this newest adventure together. Not anymore. He set his free hand on her belly and waited for the baby to give him a good head bump. It didn’t take long.

They say there for ages, until Kerry murmured, “I have an anniversary present for you at home. I know it’s not for another week, but I think you should open it when we get back.”

Owen’s back stiffened right up. “Shit, really?”

She laughed and slowly turned around so she was looking at him. “Wait, that’s a good thing!”

“But I don’t have your gift yet!” That sounded wrong. “It’s ordered, it just hasn’t arrived yet.”

“Okay, then we can wait.” She gave him a devilish smile. “Or you could give me something else, tonight, like a very nice bedtime…”

That made him growl in delight. “You’ll get that anyway.”

“And then I’ll return the gift with a delightfully sloppy blowjob when your present for me arrives. We can make it a whole week of reciprocal celebratory orgasms.”

“I’m really enjoying this horny pregnancy,” he said as he jumped to his feet and held out his hand. “Come on, my beautiful wife. Show me what you’ve got, and then I’ll do the same.”

***

When they got home, Kerry asked for a few minutes in the bedroom to get his gift ready, so Owen went to the kitchen to make some of her favourite herbal tea. Midnight snacks were a bit different with a pregnant wife. Gone—temporarily—were the bottles of wine and charcuterie boards. Now they had herbal tea and oat bars with a side of berries. Not that he was complaining. He’d never been in a better shape than when his wife stopped drinking out of necessity and, ergo, so did he.

For the most part. He still had a beer with one of his brothers from time to time.

“I’m ready whenever you are,” Kerry called from the other end of the house.

Owen put their tea mugs on a tray, along with the bowl of berries and plate of oat bars, and went to find her. She was sitting in the middle of the bed with a stack of three wrapped rectangles in front of her. He set the tray on the wide dresser and joined her on the bed.

“I borrowed this idea from Adam, sort of.” She beamed at him. “Because the first anniversary gift is traditionally paper, I had something made for you.”

She lifted the top rectangle and handed it over. It was wrapped in white tissue paper and secured with a silver ribbon. As soon as she mentioned his brother, he guessed it was a picture frame, but he was only partially correct.

Inside the wrapping was a frame, but it didn’t contain a photograph.

“They’re star maps,” Kerry said as he took the first one in. “That one is the day Becca was born.”

She handed over the next one, and he tore the wrapping away.

“The day we got married,” he said gruffly, his gaze dropping to the date at the bottom of the print.

She nodded and handed him the last one. “This frame is empty. It will be for when this baby arrives. We can print them for any day you want to add to a gallery, too. Maybe when Charlie was born. Maybe—”

“The day we met.” Owen had something in his throat. And his eyes. He blinked fast, but it didn’t go away. He set the frames down and crawled onto the bed.

“I have a confession,” she whispered as he leaned in for a kiss. “The day we met wasn’t the first time I saw you.”

“What?” He kissed her as she tried to answer, which made her laugh.

She cupped his face in her hands and eased back. “When I came to Pine Harbour to check out the clinic, and it was perfect, I wanted to celebrate. Jenna recommended The Green Hedgehog, but then she was paged by a client, so I went by myself. I was sitting at the bar, and you swirled in like a thunderstorm.”

He took her hands in his. “I know exactly what day you’re talking about. Becca had just told her mom she was pregnant, and there were a lot of tears—from all of us. I remember it clearly because it was the only time I went to the Hedgehog in months.” He could put himself back there so clearly, and yet it felt like he was looking at another man. Another time, anyway. That had been him, but he didn’t recognize that frustrated beast of a guy. His cheeks heated up. “I bet I stomped in there like I wanted to kill someone.”

“I think you did, yeah.”

“I wonder what would have happened if I’d looked up long enough to realize there was a new woman in town?”

She made a soft, sweet sound. “I’m pretty happy with how things turned out exactly as they did, though.”

“Me, too.” But there had been months of denying how he felt about her. “Okay, so we need two sky maps. One of the first time you saw me, and the other of the first time I saw you.”

“At this rate, our house will be covered in them.” But her eyes sparkled as she gazed up at him.

“Good.” He stroked an errant hair off her face. It curled delightfully around his finger. “Have I ever told you the indecent thoughts I had about your ass in those few moments before you introduced yourself as Becca’s midwife?”

She wiggled in his arms, and he coasted his hands down her back to cup her bottom and tug her close to him. Between them, her belly took up a good amount of space now, but he had long arms, and he liked to hold her like this. His wife. The mother of his next child. His sexy, glorious partner.

“This ass,” he murmured as he kissed her lightly. Then not at all lightly. “I was consumed with worry, and then you bopped on out of that office in tight jeans and my mind went blank. Fuzzy sounds in my ears, imaginary indecent X-ray vision, the whole ten yards.”

“That’s just a normal physiological reaction. Nothing to be ashamed of.”

“Oh, honey, don’t think for a second I feel any shame about that. Not now. But it wasn’t just a warm-blooded male thing, either. No, in hindsight, that was something entirely else. That was me recognizing my mate.”

She purred, a downright contented sigh, and she arched her neck. He took the unspoken cue and kissed her there, starting beneath her ear and laying a slow trail down to her collarbone.

As he stretched out, his foot bumped the framed prints. “Hang on to that thought,” he whispered, jumping off the bed. He set them on the dresser next to the tray of snacks.

When he turned back, Kerry was perched on the edge of the bed. Her sundress was sliding off her shoulder from where he’d kissed her before, and her hair was a wild tangle.

She was beautiful.

Without a word, he helped her out of her dress, then watched through hooded eyes as she stretched like a cat and rolled on her side, turned away from him, splendidly naked now. He stripped down as well, then crawled in behind her and smoothed his hand over the long, smooth curves of her back and waist and hip.

His cock throbbed against the curve of her lower back as he kissed her neck again and stroked her breasts. He traced the goosebumps that rose along her belly and then shifted lower, sliding his hand between her legs to stroke her there. He’d helped her shave a few days earlier and soft little hairs tickled his fingertips as he traced the outside of her pussy lips, then stroked closer to the centre of her sex. The way she swelled against his touch was a fucking turn on, always. One more slide of his fingers and he’d find the slick honey inside her, and then—

Ah, fuck. She was so wet for him already. God fucking damn it, that was glorious.

“I’m ready,” she whispered, rocking her hips back.

He slid into her slowly. He took his time. They wouldn’t have many more of these nights before the baby came, so he was in no rush. The goal wasn’t to get to the end, it was to savour the way her body felt around him, the sounds she made as he filled her, stretched her out, marked her. The goal was the scent of their bodies together. The sight of her parted lips, her eyelids fluttered shut. The beauty of his wife lost in pleasure. That was the goal. This was it, this was everything. His mate, who he’d recognized on a bone-deep level long before his inferior conscious mind had accepted the reality in front of him.

Kerry was his, or maybe it was better to say, he was hers. From the moment he’d laid eyes on her, it had been a sealed fate.

He was the luckiest man in the world.

Her fingers slid against his, and together they rubbed her clit as she met him thrust for thrust. When she started to tremble, he let his filthy thoughts loose, images of how they’d fucked before she was pregnant filling his mind. How they would screw again in the future. Athletic, endless tussles that ended with scratches down his back and a good sheen of sweat covering both of them.

That was all very, very hot.

This was even sexier, though. Watching her slowly, quietly reach a startling climax. Watching her pleasure ripple and roll through her body, and then chasing it so he could join her. His hips took on a mind of their own, jerking wildly as her pussy clutched his cock through the aftershocks of her orgasm.

He lost it then, just a little, his vision going dark as she milked him of his seed. Fuuuu—

And then nothing but his heart beat, and that bright clarity that followed a good release.

“Wow.” He dragged in a deep breath. “I thought that was going to be slow and sweet, and then right there at the end…”

“I love it when you get like that, though. A little wild and reckless.” She rolled onto her side, a goddess wrapped in nothing but a sheet, and tossed her curls in that way that made his heart jump. “That was amazing.”

He glanced over to the dresser where their tea was cool now.

She followed his gaze and giggled. “Oat bars?”

“We’re being so good for the baby.”

She snuggled in close. “We are. But if you want some ice cream…”

He was out of the bed before she finished the thought. “Stay naked,” he hollered over his shoulder. “I’ll be right back! Love you!”

Her delighted laughter was the perfect soundtrack for his sprint to the kitchen and back. And when he returned, they shared the pint—and the berries—as they cuddled against the headboard.

A perfect end to a perfect night in a perfect year, because they’d made each other priority number one.

* * *

If you are curious about Bake Sale!, click here to read Fierce at Heart, a standalone romance in the Kincaid Brothers series!