Baby Fever

by Landish, Lauren

  I just wasn’t sure how she'd react to Stefan being the father. I could only imagine the look on her face when she finally found out. Terry would probably try to strangle Stefan to death with his bare hands.

  “Do you two need any help?” a light voice asked.

  I turned to see a young pregnant woman, probably in her late twenties, standing there and smiling at us.

  “Um, we’re just looking,” I replied, flustered.

  Am I going to look like that? I worried.

  The woman had to be at least seven months into her pregnancy with a belly the size of a giant pumpkin. If I got that big, I worried what Stefan would think of me. And at the rate I was currently eating, I could easily see how I could wind up there.

  The woman looked at me closely. “How far along are you?”

  I glanced down at my belly. Was I showing already? Nope, still flat, but my thighs looked a bit bigger.

  For a moment, I debated on lying, but then I thought, what the hell? I was in a store for pregnant women. No one would know that I was here.

  “Almost two months,” I replied.

  The woman smiled. “You have quite a way to go then.” She looked over at Stefan, and her expression changed. I could tell she was admiring him. “And is this your husband?”

  Stefan and I glanced at each other. “Not yet,” I said before Stefan could reply. “This is my boyfriend.” For some reason, it felt incredibly good to say, freeing. We’d lied to the whole world for too long, and being able to say it just once, even if it was to this stranger, was just what I needed.

  “Darn,” the woman said. “I was hoping he was your brother or something. My boyfriend left me when I told him I was pregnant and I’ve been looking for a real man.”

  “Well, I’m sorry to hear that,” I said, not knowing anything better to say. Seriously, this was getting damn weird. Was she working at the store or looking for another man?

  “It’s okay,” the woman said, resting a hand on her belly. She sighed dreamily at Stefan. “You both look pretty young. How old are you?”

  “We just graduated college,” Stefan replied smoothly. He chucked a thumb at me. “Good DNA, that’s all. She has a degree in biology and I’m an assistant coach.”

  “Oh. Well, that’s nice.” She smiled again at us, mainly at Stefan, as another costumer walked into the store. “Well I wish you both good luck.”

  She waddled off to greet the new costumer and I turned to Stefan. “Kind of desperate, wasn’t she?”

  Stefan grinned. “When you need it, you need it.”

  I scowled. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means we’re having a boy.”

  I slapped him on the arm. “Are not!”

  We continued looking around the store for several minutes until I had my fill.

  “Can I buy this?” I asked Stefan as we were about to walk out of the store. I was still holding the baby girl jumpsuit and had forgotten about it.

  Stefan peered at me skeptically. “You sure you want to do that without really knowing the sex? And what if Evelyn were to find it?”

  “I’ll hide it where she’ll never find it. I just want to have it to look at whenever I’m sad.”

  Stefan made a face, like he knew I was being nuts. “Fine. If that’s what will make you happy, go ahead. You just have to promise that Mom will never see it.”

  I grinned, happy to have gotten my way with him. “I swear.”

  We walked up to the counter and prepared to pay for the little outfit. I was overcome with giddy excitement. This would be our first official purchase as parents and I couldn’t be happier.

  When the cashier asked for payment, I suddenly turned and took off toward a section of the store.

  “Bella, where are you going?” Stefan called.

  “I’ll be right back,” I sent over my shoulder.

  I ran and grabbed the item and rushed back to the counter, breathless.

  “Here,” I said, setting the baby blue outfit on the counter next to the pink one. I smiled up at Stefan and winked. “Just in case.”

  Bella

  I spent the next few weeks doing chores and running odd errands for my mom. Since I wasn’t going to school, she said, I needed to make myself useful in the meantime.

  She felt so strongly about this that she fired the housemaid so that I'd have to do more work. Now, under normal circumstances, this would've made me go flip mode on my mom because I felt she was being absolutely hateful.

  But, given the circumstances, I didn’t want to argue. I didn’t want any more stress put on my body than I was already dealing with.

  So I became Mom’s personal slave, doing any and everything she told me to. I was to clean both floors of the house, wash the dishes, do everyone’s laundry, take Terry’s suits and her dresses to the cleaners, go pick up take-out, and anything else that struck her fancy.

  I supposed this was her way of punishing me for daring to quit college in the middle of the semester, but if she really knew what was going on with me, maybe she wouldn’t have been so quick to make me her slave.

  Or, maybe she'd just kill me?

  I sure didn’t know. Just how bad was Mom’s temper?

  On top of working me like a dog, Mom would pester me with incessant questions. I’m sure she was only trying to figure out what happened back at college, but some of her questions were downright bizarre.

  I had no idea where these questions were coming from. Maybe the shrink had talked with her or something, but I was relieved that she wasn’t hounding me about NSU.

  The other problem I had was eating. My appetite had seemed to more than double since being back home. I wanted to eat anything and everything. To make matters worse, I developed odd cravings for things like oysters and scallops when I had never been a big fish eater.

  But I knew such things were perfectly normal. In my free time, which was very little, I read up on pregnancies and the changes a woman’s body will go through during it. A changing appetite was one thing that popped up again and again, but it only made me more nervous. I knew that if I kept eating like I was, I might wind up as big as a barn.

  I hardly got to see Stefan during these times since he was always at work with his dad. But when I did get to see him, oh my.

  He would often come home from work covered in sweat, dust, and dirt, dressed in jeans and a torn-up, dirty shirt that would expose his flesh here and there. But every time I saw him, I swear my ovaries started mass-producing hormones that screamed at me to tell Stefan to take me right then and there on the living room floor. It wasn’t that out of bounds, though. Stefan just looked like a walking ad for cologne, something unapologetically manly like Brut or Old Spice, something for a real man. And Stefan looked like the walking embodiment of a real man.

  Surprisingly enough, Stefan seemed to love his job and I was happy for him. But I couldn’t help but worry about what was going to happen to us. We had an unknown blackmailer waiting for us to make a move and a baby complicating matters.

  Due to the volatile situation we were in, it was only a matter of time before we would be forced to leave the house and find shelter elsewhere. That, or tell the truth.

  * * *

  It was on a Friday afternoon that I found myself doing laundry for the family. Stefan and Terry were at work, and Mom was somewhere in the house pretending to be doing something important.

  I had been on my feet pretty much all day and was ready to sit down, but I knew that I wouldn’t catch a break long before Mother had some other chore for me to do.

  I was loading in a bunch of white clothing in the washer when I came upon a pair of Stefan’s underwear.

  I peeked at them, wondering if they had been worn because they looked clean. Then I was hit by an errant thought. My hormones were raging, and I couldn't help but imagine him standing before me in nothing but his boxers.

  I imagined getting down on my knees and slipping his huge cock out of the slit and sliding it into my mouth. M
aybe it was the hormones or maybe it was just that it was Stefan, but sucking his cock until he blew a load in my mouth was constantly on my mind. I must have been standing there appearing to be in ecstasy.

  “Hey, I forgot to tell you to make sure you don’t put bleach in—what in the world are you doing?” There was my mom, standing there in the doorway, staring at me like I was nuts.

  I jumped like a rabbit and tossed Stefan’s boxers into the washer. “Uh, nothing,” I replied quickly, my mind racing, “I was just checking if those were dirty or not.”

  My mom made a face. “You sure about that? You were practically inhaling those things.” My mom shook her head. “Anyway, don’t forget that I need your help cooking dinner. This is a big day for Terry, so I want to have a nice dinner ready for when he comes home.”

  “Okay, Mom,” I said dutifully, closing the lid on the washer. “I’m on it.”

  My mom beamed at my obedience. “You know what, Bella? I don’t know what happened to you at that school, but I really like how you’re acting now. Like a changed young woman.”

  “Thank you,” I said with a sweet smile. “I just think I needed a little change of perspective, that’s all.”

  Mom just ate it up. “I think so too. Now, all we have to do is find you another school to go to.”

  I sighed when my mom left. I didn’t say anything to her because I didn’t want to argue, but there was no way I could go back to school. I mean, I eventually wanted to, but with the pregnancy, I wouldn’t be able to go next semester.

  * * *

  Stefan and Terry returned home hours later when Mom and I were putting the finishing touches on the pot roast in the oven. The smell of meat filled the house as I added buttered rolls onto the top rack of the oven.

  Terry was the first one in, dressed in his usual business attire, his face lit with excitement. “Evelyn!” he shouted. “We finished the theater, and it's magnificent.”

  My mom, who had been drying her hands at the sink, let out a squeal of delight and ran out of the kitchen into Terry’s arms. “Congratulations!”

  The two embraced each other and kissed multiple times before my mother pulled away. “Now you won’t mind continuing to pay for Bella’s education.”

  Terry glanced my way, his smile dimming slightly. “I suppose not. As long as she's going to stick with it.”

  Stefan walked in behind my parents and my jaw almost dropped to the floor. He was covered from head to toe in dirt and sweat, but that didn’t matter to me. Forget looking like a model, he looked like a god in his torn jeans and tank top with his massive biceps on display.

  Feelings of strong desire ran through me and I needed to hold on to the kitchen counter for support.

  “Sweet Jesus, Stefan,” my mom complained as she surveyed the sexy mess that was Stefan. “Do you just roll in the dirt for fun at the construction site or something?”

  “Cut him some slack, Evelyn,” Terry grumbled. “The boy is one of the hardest workers there. In fact, he might be one of the reasons for our success.”

  Evelyn stared, a smile spreading across her face. “I suppose so.”

  I breathed in deeply, trying to cool my heated blood. I don’t know what was going on, but my hormones were raging out of control. I just wanted to rush forward and jump into Stefan’s arms, making him take me on the kitchen’s island for all to see.

  “Dad’s right, Mom,” Stefan added, grinning to show he meant no offense. “I do work hard.” He turned to Terry. “Hey, Dad, why don’t you take Mom out to dinner to share your success? Since Bella and I have been back, I haven’t seen you two spend much time together.”

  Terry’s face lit up and he snapped his fingers. “You know what? That’s a good idea, Stefan. How about it, Evelyn? I know it’s piss poor since Stefan had to bring it up, but I've been neglecting you. How about we go out to eat at your favorite restaurant?”

  My mom glanced back over at the stove. “But what about the roast in the oven? Bella and I spent a good deal of time preparing it.”

  Terry shrugged. “Let Bella and Stefan have it.”

  Stefan rubbed his stomach. “Don’t worry, I can polish it off. I'm absolutely ravenous.”

  “See?” Terry asked. “Problem all taken care of.”

  Evelyn smiled. “I’ll try to get ready as fast as I can.”

  Terry grinned back. “You do that. I’m going to wash up too and change suits.”

  They walked off together upstairs, leaving me alone with Stefan. When Stefan turned his gaze on me, I felt like I was melting.

  “How was your day?” he asked in his deep baritone. He walked over and set his hat down on the kitchen’s bar.

  “Okay,” I said, my eyes glued to his glistening biceps. “Mom worked me like a slave as usual.”

  “She needs to lighten up,” Stefan said with irritation. “She has no idea what you’re going through.”

  “It’s okay. It gives me something to do while you’re gone, but I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to do it before . . .”

  Stefan nodded quietly. We both knew what that meant.

  “Let me make your plate,” I said, tearing my gaze away from his sexy body. “I know you have to be ready to chow down.”

  “I’m about to pass out.”

  I went about fixing Stefan a plate, piling it high with meat and potatoes. Once again, I felt good doing something so simple for him. I finally figured it out. All the hours of doing housework—this is what I want. I want to be his. To serve him.

  When I set Stefan’s plate down, he tore into it like a starving dog. I got a kick and a little something else out of watching his powerful jaws at work while he chewed. While I watched, I stuffed my face with the buttered rolls I’d put in the oven right before Stefan and Terry walked in. They were absolutely delicious.

  Stefan groaned in contentment when he was done with his food. He practically licked his plate clean. “That was really good. If you keep that up, I might hire you to cook for me one day.”

  “Shut it, silly,” I said. “I had help from Mom.”

  “That’s why I said, if you keep it up.”

  “So, what are you going to do now?” I asked. I hoped Stefan sensed the hidden meaning.

  But it looked like he was blissfully unaware of the opportunity our parents leaving us in the house alone might give. I got it—he was tired—but I almost had Fuck me, Stefan written on my forehead in red marker.

  Stefan got up from his seat, oblivious. “I’m going to take a hot shower and then jump in the pool for a swim.”

  I waited for him to ask me to join him—anything—but he didn’t, and he walked off upstairs to his room without inviting me and I was left with a feeling of disappointment.

  My mom was down the stairs twenty minutes later, dressed in a sparkling silver evening gown.

  “Mom,” I breathed. “You look absolutely beautiful.”

  “Why, thank you, Bella,” my mom beamed. “It feels nice to hear that at my age.”

  Terry was down next, and he didn’t look much different than before, dressed in one of his usual business suits. “All ready?” he asked Evelyn.

  My mom smiled up at him. “All ready,” she repeated.

  They both left the house and I was left with a strange feeling of loneliness. After I had put up all the food, I walked up to my room.

  I was about to take a shower when I remembered Stefan. I walked over to my window and looked out. Stefan just so happened to be crossing the lawn to the pool at that moment. He was dressed in swimming trunks, with no shirt on, carrying a towel. Even from this vantage point, I could see his well-defined abs.

  Stefan’s words came back to haunt me. We need to play this smart.

  But why play anything when there was no one around? After a moment, I made up my mind. I walked over to my closet and dug out one of my sexiest bathing suits.

  Sometimes, a girl just has to say what she wants. And I wanted him, I thought as I changed quickly, making sure my butt
was just properly outlined in the high-cut leg holes. Ignore that, Stefan.

  Night air caressed my skin, causing goosebumps along my flesh as I strolled outside into the backyard.

  The cool earth enveloped my bare feet as I made my way over to the swimming pool, garbed in a red silk bathrobe that covered my bathing suit.

  I stood at the edge when I reached the pool, watching Stefan swim laps back and forth, his powerful arms sending up large splashes of water along the sides.

  He seemed oblivious to my presence, so I was content to stand there, taking joy in watching his powerful body at work.

  Stefan finally seemed to notice me, halfway through a lap, and he literally flipped his body over in the water to get a better look at me.

  “Bella,” he said with some surprise as he waded in the water, his blonde hair plastered to his skull. I liked the look on him. He looked incredibly sexy when he was wet. And I could tell with one glance that I had his attention. “I’m glad you decided to join me.”

  “Of course I was going to come join you,” I replied. “I couldn’t let you swim out here all by yourself.” I nodded at the water. “Is it cold?”

  Stefan grinned at me playfully, wiping water out of his eyes. “It’s just right. Come on and jump right in.”

  I dipped my toe into the water and jerked it back instantly. “Liar,” I accused him.

  Stefan chuckled, delighted he had tricked me. “Come on, it’s not that cold.”

  I scowled, placing my hands on my hips. “It’s fucking freezing.”

  Stefan threw back his head and laughed, sinking into the water by several inches. “I love it when you talk dirty. But seriously, it’s not that cold.” Stefan swam his way to where I was standing and grabbed ahold of the edge. He looked up at me, his eyes flashing with dangerous excitement, his deep voice husky. “Especially when you have me to warm you up.”

  A warm flush came to my cheeks as excitement coursed through my body. “Well, when you put it that way . . .”

  With sensual flair, I took off my bathrobe and tossed it to the side, revealing my red one-piece swimsuit.