by Anna B. Doe
It didn’t make sense how much I still wanted her all day, every day. I felt like I’d never get my fill. Like I’d never have enough. Every day, every moment, every hour, my love and my want for this woman only grew. Most days, it felt like I would explode with the sheer volume of it.
“Oh, God, Adam. Take your clothes off. I need you.” She pulled at the zipper on my jacket and the hat on my head and eventually ripped my shirt off over my head while I tasted every bit of her I could from the waist up.
Were there any words in the English language better than “I need you” coming from my girl’s mouth? Not a fucking one.
So, I bit the length of her neck while I slipped my cool hands in the heat of her leggings, shimmying them down as best as I could with her straddling me, until I finally pulled one leg out and then the other, all the while wrestling with her boots.
And when I had her completely naked, save her socks, I stopped and drank her in like a glass of sweet iced tea on the hottest summer day.
My eyes roved the length of her long, slender frame from the top of her head to her sock-covered feet. Every magnificent inch of skin was mine and I proved it by touching her behind the knees and then up her thighs, until I grasped the cheeks of her ass in my hands. I wanted to scream that she was mine, this gorgeous creature that I didn’t deserve but somehow I’d managed to have.
Slowly, Liv ran her palms over the tattoos at my neck, down my shoulders and chest. The whole time she stared into my eyes, the amount of love hanging in them was overwhelming and amazing. She pushed her forehead to mine and looked down and then I felt her fingers at the button of my jeans.
I put my hand over her eager fingers, effectively stopping them from stripping me down. “Ah ah ah. Not yet. I want to taste you first.”
Chapter Four
Adam
“Come on up.” I pulled her hips up toward my face until her core was right there over my mouth. Until I could see and smell her all around me. All of her. And she smelled fucking fantastic. She looked even better.
God. I still couldn’t believe this woman was mine.
I pulled her down onto my mouth, desperate for just a taste and feeling greedy as hell. I gave her a slow lick that had her wiggling above me. Grabbing her hips, I stilled her, wanting to eat my fill.
“Oh, God, Adam. Don’t stop.”
I didn’t ever want to stop.
She groaned over me and I watched as she threw her head back. I gave her clit a long suck before lashing it with my tongue, languishing in her taste. Her thighs quivered around my head and I leaned over to give one a small bite that made her jump before I got back to business.
I kept on, until every bit of her inhibition slipped into the wind and she gripped my hair hard, grinding on my face while I sucked, licked, and fucked her with my fingers.
The tent’s air grew heavy with her scent and I could have eaten her all night. But eventually she cried out and froze over me, goose bumps covering her skin.
Her hips rolled languidly as I licked her slowly before moving her off of me and rolling her until she was under me. She was a sweaty, exhausted mess and she had never looked more beautiful in her life.
“Fuck, Livvy. I have to have you right now.” I couldn’t wait another second.
It wasn’t long before I was naked and pushing at her entrance. I was unbearably hard and she was gorgeously wet. I let out a long growl as I entered her, trying for the life of me not to slam in and take her like I so desperately wanted. I was going to make this last, damn it. Even if it killed me.
Rocking into her slowly, I closed my eyes and just felt, and listened. The tight, wet heat of her around me. The wet smacking sounds of our bodies meeting. The escape of her breath. The grunts of my own.
Every sound, every smell, every feeling sent me higher and when she wrapped her legs and arms around me, meeting my every thrust, I thought I was going to die. Right there in that tent in our field.
But, God, I’d be fine going that way. With my woman wrapped around me, me buried inside of her. Her lips at my neck biting and sucking. Us in our favorite spot.
My Livvy’s body arched under mine and I knew she was close, so I took her lips in a soul-stealing kiss and when she cried out, I ate down her sweet moans, pushing harder, faster, chasing my own release.
When I finally did come, stars burst behind my eyes in a flurry of lights that were somehow blinding even though my eyes were firmly closed. Just like every time we made love, I was instantly skyrocketed right past heaven and straight to the stars.
And when I came down, I still had the moon right there beneath me, wrapped up in my arms. “I love you to Pluto and back, my Luna.”
With her eyes full of emotion that nearly wrecked me, she said, “And I love you to the moon and back, Tattoo Boy.”
Chapter Five
Adam
“Come on, Adam. Let’s go out and look at the stars.”
I was toasty warm inside Liv’s sleeping bag, her naked body pressed to the length of mine. I had no desire to leave our warm cocoon. I could have stayed in that sleeping bag with her for forever and I was going to try to do just that.
“No way.” I gave her a big smacking kiss on the side of her neck and she giggled. “Besides there aren’t any stars out tonight, anyway.”
She tickled my side. “There might be now. Maybe the clouds have moved away. Maybe we can make out a few with the telescope.”
My plan had been to keep her naked and full of me all night long, but I could tell she really wanted to do some stargazing. “Fine,” I grumbled, knowing I was hungry and I could at least grab the picnic I packed us from the back seat and we could eat on the blanket since I was ninety-nine percent sure the stars were a no-go.
She gave me a killer smile while she shimmied back into her leggings and that smile only made me want to pull them right back off of her. “You better stop looking at me like that or we’re never going to make it out of this tent.”
Her soft laughter filled the tent while I tried to get my clothes back on sitting down since there wasn’t room to stand. By the time we were both dressed and had our hats and jackets back on, I was even more convinced we should have just stayed naked in the sleeping bag.
“Sure you don’t want to just get back in that warm sleeping bag?”
She shook her head at me. “Nope. Come on, Nova. Let’s lie beneath the stars.”
I followed her out of the tent but while she headed toward the blue blanket, I made my way to our car parked in the parking lot. “I’ll be right back. Gotta get something from the car,” I called to her as she settled herself on her side of her daddy’s blue blanket.
It was the same blanket he’d said goodbye to her on, not long before he passed away. It was the same blanket she was laying on when I’d first met her. It was the same blanket we’d share as we grew old together.
I grabbed the basket from the car and made my way quickly back to Liv. I didn’t like leaving her alone out here even for a second. This town wasn’t always the safest place but it was our home and we were both determined to make it better every day through our children’s programs and community projects at the center, that was only about a hundred feet from us.
I set the basket in the middle of the blue blanket next to Liv and sat down on the other side.
She was leaned back with her eyes closed, her hands behind her head, and her booted feet crossed at the ankle.
“I brought us treats.”
Her head turned toward me. “Really? Because I’m pretty sure I just had a snack.” She winked and then waggled her eyebrows at me.
I chuckled low and licked my lips, thinking about her coming all over my face. “No, baby. I’m pretty sure I had the snack. But I’m still feeling a little hungry. We can always head back to the tent and I can try for a four course meal.”
Her cheeks reddened. “Not yet, Tattoo Boy. Let’s see what you have in here.” She sat up and started rummaging through the basket between us.
It surprised me she hadn’t jumped at the opportunity to head back to the tent and make love again. Livingston Nova never once, a day in her life, passed up the opportunity for me to put my mouth on her. Not even for food.
I looked up at the sky and not to my surprise, it was still cloud covered. I sighed. “Still no stars.”
Liv only smiled at me and pulled a small wooden board covered in cheeses and crackers, fruits, meats, and all of that shit girls loved to eat. I’d gotten it from the local grocer.
“You got a charcuterie board, Nova?” she asked with big eyes. “Look at you getting all fancy on me.”
I just smiled and shook my head at her as I pulled out the champagne bottle that was thankfully plenty cold from sitting in the car. “Champagne, too, Madam,” I said in some kind of fake, fancy attempt at a Frenchman’s accent.
Her face softened. “You’re too sweet, but I’m going to have to pass on the champagne tonight.”
My smile fell and I felt my forehead wrinkle in confusion. “How come?” Liv didn’t drink often but when she did, she loved champagne. It was her favorite.
She nudged me with her shoulder. “It makes me sleepy. And I have big plans tonight. They include you and me inside that tent, buck ass naked.”
“Well, in that case,” I set the champagne back inside the basket and pulled out a small bottle of water, “I’m going to need you to hydrate up.”
She laughed as she took the bottle of water from me. “You’re crazy.”
“Only for you.”
She leaned up and kissed my lips in a soft, slow close-mouthed kiss before saying, “Let’s eat.”
And so we did. We sat beneath a cloud covered sky on our blue blanket, snacked, and talked about our days at the planetarium and community center. Liv gushed about the kids she taught about the stars and I listened closely, her voice music to my ears, hanging on her every word.
When we finished eating, we lay back on the blanket side by side, cozied up together, her hand in mine, looking at the dark sky quietly. And as I lay there, I realized I could still visualize every star, every constellation. That was what this girl did to me. My dreamer made me dream. As a boy, I couldn’t. I didn’t dare. But the man I was now, he did. All because of her.
I was starting to realize with every passing moment of Liv pressed into my side underneath the gray night sky that the stars weren’t gone. They were just hidden. I could still see them in my mind’s eye, so I raised my hand to the sky and pointed. “Can you see Ursa Major, Liv? He’s right there,” I said, my breath a puff of smoke in front of me since it was growing so cold.
I felt Liv’s head turn toward me so I looked at her, my heart hanging out there for the world to see. God, I loved her so.
“I see it,” she whispered back, her eyes shining.
Chapter Six
Liv
I lay in the field, my boy with the tattoos by my side. It was chilly, but I hardly felt a thing as the deep timbre of Adam’s voice warmed me from the inside out. He told me stories of the sky that I’d heard time and time again, but I didn’t mind a bit. When Adam talked to me about the stars, it felt like putting on my very oldest and favorite shirt. It felt like home. I was just glad we were here. In this moment. In this space.
I was so relieved he’d finally agreed to come and lay under the stars. Otherwise, my big plans would have never worked out like they did.
I’d had a surprise for him tonight, too. He’d almost foiled my plans with this unexpected overnight trip, but I’d improvised and grabbed the old familiar Coke bottle he’d left notes in for me long ago on the way.
When I realized he was bringing me to the field, it seemed like fate, much like Adam and me. I knew that tonight was the night to finally tell him. And I was beyond excited.
I rolled up onto my elbow, facing him, resting my head on my hand, and smiled down. “Thanks for bringing me out here tonight, Nova. I really needed it.”
He ran a cool hand down the side of my face. “We need to make more time to come back here every now and then. And not just for work.” He was right. I’d missed my field of hope and my sky of dreams.
I pressed my face into his hand and kissed his sweet palm. “I think I might have lost a glove on the ground over your head. Can you grab it for me?” I whispered into that sweet hand.
Sitting up, I watched as he followed suit and turned around to get my glove, only to find the glass Coke bottle there instead.
He stared at the bottle for three seconds, then looked at me before looking back at it again.
“Well, are you going to pick it up?” I asked, grinning.
His forehead scrunched in an adorable way that I’d grown to love and a quick bout of apprehension passed over his face as he lifted the Coke bottle and held it up, studying it from the outside like he couldn’t understand exactly what was happening. “Is this our Coke bottle?”
Giving him a soft smile, I said, “Yes.”
He hitched a crooked, barely there smile back at me. “Isn’t that my thing though? Leaving notes in a bottle for you?”
I bit my lip to hold my laughter in. “It is. But this is a special occasion.”
I saw it then. The same sadness that had haunted his eyes for the past year. It was a sadness that peeked through that reminded me of the boy I’d sneak out to see in the middle of night. The boy who hardly smiled. The boy who never dreamed. The boy who didn’t dare hope.
But I loved that boy, just as I loved the man before me. I just had to remind him from time to time that he wasn’t that kid who’d lost everything anymore. That he had me. That he had us. And that life was good. In fact, our life was amazing and it was only going to get better.
He stared at the bottle in his hand like he was trying to see the contents without even tipping it upside down and letting them fall into his palm. He looked afraid.
I pushed up on my knees until I kneeled before him and then I lay my forehead to his. “Open it, Adam,” I whispered across his lips.
I was waiting on him to take a chance on me, on that bottle, just like I had on him and that bottle years ago. I wasn’t the least bit disappointed that I had and he wouldn’t be either if he would just look inside.
“Okay,” he whispered back before laying such a sweet, soft kiss to my lips, I could have cried.
With our knees pressed together and my heart practically jumping out of my chest, Adam turned over the bottle and a white, rolled up piece of notebook paper fell into his hands.
But I wasn’t looking at the contents of the bottle. I knew what they were. I was staring at my gorgeous husband’s face as he unrolled the paper to find the small plastic test inside.
A loud gush of air escaped him and all of a sudden I was in his embrace, his arms so tight around me I could barely breathe.
I swallowed hard as tears gathered at the corners of my eyes before warming the cold of my cheeks.
And then I heard it. The small gasps of air, the choke of a barely there sob. I tried to pull away from him so I could check on him, but he just held me there, his face buried in my hair so I clutched him to me, too. I rubbed his hair and his back and whispered how much I loved him until he finally quieted.
He finally let me go, only to hold the test up between us, his face red and wet. “Are you sure?” he choked out.
I nodded and gave him a soft smile before grabbing each side of his face with my hands. I used my thumbs to wipe new tears that spilled over from his aquamarine eyes. “I’m pregnant.”
He looked down at the test in his hand and I let my hands fall away from his face, looking down at it, too. The long thin, digital test read pregnant as plain as day.
“Are you sure?”
I could read it all over his face. He was still that teenage boy on the inside…the one who didn’t dare to hope. But he didn’t have to.
“Yes, baby. I took five pregnancy tests. They all came back positive. We’re having a baby.”
He tackled me to the blanket and kissed me hard
before pulling back, breathing heavily. And then concern covered his face. “Fuck. I didn’t hurt you, did I? Or the baby?”
I covered his mouth with my hand. “Oh my God, I’m fine We’re fine. Now continue kissing me, please.”
For the next five minutes, he kissed every inch of my face and some of my ears, too. “You’re going to be a mom,” he said softly into my right ear.
“Mmmhmm. And you’re going to be a daddy.”
After placing one last smacking kiss on my lips he sat up, pulling me with him. “How long have you known? How far along are you? Do you think it’s a boy or a girl? How—”
I held up a hand. “Whoa there, crazy pants. One question at a time.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “Fuck, I’m sorry.” He gave me a closed-lip smile with tears in his eyes. “I’m just so happy. I’m so fucking excited.”
I chuckled. “Well, the first thing we’re going to have to do right away is start working on your constant use of the word fuck.”
He laughed low. “You’re right. So tell me. How long have you known?”
“Only a week. I wanted to wait until Christmas to tell you. It’s been killing me.”
He grabbed my hand and kissed the top of it. “It’s the best Christmas present I’ve ever gotten.”
I could tell that he meant it. I knew how happy this would make him. For months, I could tell he was down about us not getting pregnant yet. But I knew with time, it would happen. I didn’t for one second ever believe we wouldn’t have a baby. I knew I was getting all of my happily ever after.
“I’m thinking I’m about seven to eight weeks along. And I have no idea if it’s a boy or a girl. We won’t find that out for quite a few more weeks. But I think it might be a girl.” I lay my hand over my flat tummy that wouldn’t be so flat soon. “It feels like a girl.”
He lay his hand over mine. “A girl. Columbia.” He said her name like a prayer.