Phoebe and Andreas got into the car and buckled up. As Andreas put the car in reverse, Phoebe opened the glove compartment and used the brown fast food napkins to blow her nose.
The drive was quiet until Andreas decided to break the silence.
"How are you feeling?"
"Okay," Phoebe said, even though she was still clearly crying. She turned away from him and looked out the window.
8
Ugly Cry
Phoebe
Phoebe knew that she was an ugly crier. She knew that she was married to Andreas, but that didn't mean that she wanted him to see her with a blotchy nose and red eyes. She looked like a hideous monster when she cried. These pregnancy hormones were really messing with her system.
Andreas must have turned on the radio, because her favorite song came on. Phoebe smiled for the first time since the dinner with her parents and sang along softly after she turned the volume up.
She realized then that Andreas hadn't turned on the radio. He'd started one of the CDs that he had in hi car. He wanted to cheer her up.
She felt way more weepy than she normally was. Phoebe had her ups and downs, true, but she normally kept all of it inside. She didn't cry quite this much.
"Honey, do you want some comfort food? Thin Mint Ice Cream? We can pick it up on the way home."
Phoebe sniffed again. "I'd like to go to Chung's. Why don't you make me something nice?"
"It's..." Andreas paused. "It's poker night and Chung's had to close early."
Phoebe raised a brow.
"But we can get ice cream."
"No. I'd rather go home so I can sleep."
"We can do that." Phoebe wasn't sure if she could hear relief in Andreas' voice.
They drove for a little longer, then Andreas was turning on the little street that led to their home.
"Andreas, why is there a package at our front door? I haven't ordered anything." Phoebe was an Amazon Prime member, and she was a little bit addicted to ordering packages...but she hadn't ordered any this week.
"I'm not sure." Andreas parked the car in the garage, which automatically opened when it sensed that his car was near it. "Let me check, okay, babe? Why don't you head upstairs. I'll make some tea and be right up."
"Okay."
Phoebe went up the stairs and yawned as she got to the top step. She covered her mouth with her hand. She was wiped out, even though they hadn't stayed at her parents' house very long for dinner.
She went to the bathroom to take off her makeup and get into her jammies. Her favorite pajamas were soft blue pajamas with pictures of sheep on them, and Andreas had told her that they were adorable.
Her eyelids felt like they weighed a hundred pounds, so she got into her bed and rested her eyes for just a few minutes while she waited for Andreas to come upstairs with her tea.
9
Waking Up
Phoebe
Phoebe woke up the next morning. She must have fallen asleep before Andreas came upstairs. He was beside her, his morning wood evident beneath the sheet. She knew how she wanted to say good morning.
She threw the covers off and parted his legs. He normally slept naked, which was definitely a plus. She lowered her head at the right angle to take his erection into her mouth. He woke up as soon as she touched her mouth to the top of his cock.
"Oh," he moaned. "Yes."
Phoebe stroked the shaft with her hand, pumping him up. She used her other hand to fondle his balls.
"Ah," Andreas said as he released his seed into her mouth. He pumped several shots inside of her.
"Good morning, Phoebe."
"Morning, husband."
Phoebe took off her pajamas quickly. Andreas could easily go two rounds.
"Sit up."
Andreas quickly sat up in the bed. Phoebe put her thighs on the outside of his thighs. She kissed his mouth. His hands went to her hips, guiding her even closer to him than she already was.
"Ready?"
She bit her lip and nodded. He eased her down on his still-hard erection.
Phoebe had been married to Andreas for a little while now, but she still wasn't used to just how big he was. He stretched her to her limits, just to the edge between pain and pleasure. Her eyes were shut as he finally pushed all the way inside of her.
Then she opened her eyes and braced her arms around his neck as she began to move. Up. Down. She rocked on top of him, her pace increasing as she got closer to her own completion.
Then Andreas bit her neck, which made her skyrocket. She saw stars behind her closed eyelids, her body flushing with white heat. She could feel him releasing for a second time inside of her, filling her with warmth.
Their lovemaking were always intense; she had to admit that morning sex was one of her favorite things to do, and Andreas frequently indulged her taste for it.
"I can't believe how lucky I am to be married to you, baby."
"Same goes," Phoebe said, still out of breath from their vigorous morning sex.
"It's okay if your hormones are out of control while you are pregnant. I'll make as many midnight runs to the grocery store as I need to make. If you start going crazy and cleaning everything, that's okay. I love all of you. I'm more in love with you than I ever thought that I could be with a woman."
Phoebe's eyes filled with tears. It could just be pillow talk, but Andreas definitely knew how to start the morning right.
"I love you, too. And I apologize in advance for how crazy I'm going to be during this pregnancy."
"It's just fine, especially if you like waking me up with your mouth." He kissed her softly.
She kissed him back. "I know that last night was a disaster, but my father will come around eventually. Working for the FBI, he's naturally suspicious of just about everybody. He wants to protect me, but he needs to learn that I'm not his little girl anymore. I can make my own choices, and I choose you."
"I know that your dad is overprotective." He bit his lip.
"What's wrong?" Phoebe said instantly.
"Everything is fine...just fine. Maybe I just need a little more sleep."
Phoebe knew that he was closing himself off from her, but she smiled anyway. "Let's both go back to sleep." Her cheek was resting against his chest. She still felt a little bit of her post-orgasm warm glow inside, and her breathing slowed until she finally fell back asleep.
10
Chip’s Coffee
Andreas
Andreas waited until Phoebe's breathing changed to get out of bed. He went downstairs to use the downstairs shower to clean up after their phenomenal morning sex. He had made a pot of chamomile tea for Phoebe last night, but it had really been an excuse to stay downstairs for long enough to hide the package behind one of their bookshelves.
He was still naked when he opened up the envelope with a small knife that he kept in his desk drawer. The only things that the Agency would send to the house would be learning materials for major operations that were too sensitive to send electronically. It was something that he didn't really want to think about when he had a baby on the way. He couldn't imagine that he was the only agent who was qualified for the job.
Clenching his jaw, he walked back upstairs so that he could get dressed. Phoebe was still asleep as he got ready to head into work.
He left a note that said, "I love you" for Phoebe, since he wouldn't wake her up before he went to work.
He drove to Chip's coffee shop. It was the worst coffee shop in the city with the foulest, most bitter variation of coffee in the city. He needed to talk to his handler. Chip's was where they could make contact discreetly, although if anybody trailed Andreas, they would recognize that either he was addicted to extremely foul coffee or he worked for the Agency. Having a standard home base was a risk, but everything in life was a risk. It was easier to stay in touch when he knew where to go.
He only had to pretend to drink the bitter coffee for a few minutes before his handler came out.
"Monsieur X," Andreas said, ge
tting to his feet to shake his handler's hand. "What a pleasure."
"The pleasure is mine, I'm sure." Part French, part Vietnamese, Monsieur X didn't have any other names. Privately, Andreas wondered if his name might be Xavier or something, but he wasn't audacious enough to ask.
"Why did you come in for a meeting, Andreas?"
"I wanted to ask for a reassignment."
"Oh?"
"I saw the assignment that was sent to my house after the Hebus one. You know that I am capable of it, but somehow my heart isn't in the work anymore."
"There's not a lot that I can do about your assignment, Andreas. If you burn the job, you will endagner your contract. I understand your circumstances, but the Agency feels that you are the best man for the job."
Andreas clenched his jaw and drank another sip of the foul coffee. He set his cup back down before meeting Monsieur X's eyes.
"Is there any way that I can get out of this?"
Sighing, Monsieur X sat back and folded his hands in front of him.
11
Cleaning and Dinner
Phoebe
Phoebe had a pail full of all of her cleaning supplies. She needed to clean the house from top to bottom. She wasn't fastidious — definitely much more of a slob than her meticulous husband — but she had the urge to clean. When she did clean, she always did a thorough job. She had always been the kind of girl who liked to stay busy. Her mother had told her that idle hands were tools for the devil. Phoebe wasn't quite as religious as her mother, but she realized that she had a powerful need to clean everything. Her mother had warned her, when Phoebe had told her about the baby, that she might have some nesting instincts. Phoebe thought that they might be kicking in.
She had been dating Andreas for only a little while when she knew that she was ready to be his wife. He was everything that she could possibly want. Strong, protective, gorgeous, panty-meltingly talented in the kitchen...and she could sense something deep inside of Andreas, something that made her want to heal him. She knew that his childhood as an orphan hadn't been easy. He told her some details from that time in his life, but he kept it under wraps for the most part. It was tucked behind his strong front, but she could sense the neglected soul inside of him. It was part of why she loved him so much. She knew that he felt better when she was around.
She was on her floor, scrubbing the tile of the kitchen, when she realized that she could smell the cleaning fumes. Would they hurt the baby? It was a little late to think of all that today, but she would have to ask her doctor if she should switch to all-natural cleaning supplies. She finished up the kitchen before making her way to the laundry.
She and Andreas always threw their dirty clothes down here. She began to empty the pockets of all of the clothing that had been tossed there. Andreas preferred to do his own laundry, but she could do it today. He seemed so preoccupied lately, and she wasn't sure if that was due to the baby or not.
Inside of his jacket pocket, the one that she would need to put in with a dry-cleaning pack, she could see a training card with a picture of a man who didn't look anything like an athlete. He looked like the CEO of an IT firm. She raised her eyebrows and set it aside. She had a stack of her own dirty aprons to wash before she made dinner for their Game of Thrones anniversary. They'd clicked from the very start, but their love of Game of Thrones, which they had both read before HBO had picked up the series, was something that bonded them together. One of the rooms in their house had a huge tapestry of the family trees of all of the characters. The tapestry was very convoluted.
When everything was in the washer, she went to the kitchen and washed her hands before turning on some music. She had been reluctant to download Amazon Music on her phone, but she had to admit that the selection was surprisingly good. She kept her iPhone on a dock with some nice speakers in her kitchen. She sang quietly along with the music as she baked a nice chicken pot pie for Andreas. She stirred all the ingredients together in a pot and par-baked the crust before putting everything together. Her mother had taught her a way to cheat on the top part of the chicken pot pie. She used frozen biscuits instead of a pie crust for the top layer, just to make sure that everything was properly cooked through.
When the timer dinged, she took out her silly sheep oven mitts and took the pie out of the oven. She looked at the clock on the oven. The pie would need to cool for a little while, but it should be ready just in time for Andreas to come home.
She heard the washer's chime, which announced that it was done. She transferred everything she could into the dryer while she hung everything else up to air out or dry out.
Because she didn't want any of the chemicals in their food, Phoebe washed her hands again. She put the chicken pot pie, something that Andreas told her was his favorite, onto a little holder on the dinner table. She set two places with real cloth napkins, which were a wedding present from her mother. They were hand-made and had little ducks on them. She lit two candles and waited.
* * *
Two hours later, the candles were significantly lower. There were two puddles of melted wax at the bottom of the candleholders. She stared at Andreas' spot as if it would make him magically appear. He was very late.
She wouldn't cry. She blew out the candles before she picked up the pot pie, covered it, and put it into the fridge. She looked at the time on the oven. He was hardly ever late.
Phoebe took a quick shower to get the scent of chicken off of her. She let a couple tears fall in the shower where there wasn't anybody to see her cry. She dried off and then dressed her her jammies before walking back downstairs so that she could see Andreas when he finally came home. She curled up with a soft Kashwere blanket on their couch and closed her eyes.
12
Humble Pie
Andreas
As he got into the driveway, Andreas looked at the clock and groaned. He didn't wait for the garage door to fully close before he went inside. He could see that the table was still set with the duck cloth napkins. There wasn't any food.
Damn.
He narrowly stopped himself from sending his fist crashing through the wall. He promised himself, back when he started to get serious about Phoebe, that he wouldn't let the job interfere with his relationship. Now it had. It was bad enough that he was married to an FBI agent's daughter, but now everything was at risk. The Agency had assigned him a job that would definitely raise some red flags for anybody who was looking. He was supposed to do a hit on an FBI agent. Mr. Harold Kaine definitely would find out. Andreas knew that her father would look into everything that happened; it was going to be a gigantic pain in the ass to keep the old man off of his trail.
Sighing, he opened up the fridge to see what Phoebe had cooked for dinner. He remembered that he was supposed to bring her something. He'd forgotten it while he had done surveillance for his next target, the conversation that he had with Monsieur X playing in the back of his mind the whole time. He got out the special chicken pot pie, which was a little fancier than Phoebe normally went for a normal dinner.
That was right. Today was their Game of Thrones anniversary. Andreas felt like a terrible husband, both for forgetting about it and for coming home late without remembering to tell Phoebe. He cut a serving of the chicken pot pie and threw it in the oven to broil for just a minute. He watched the oven closely before he pulled out the pot pie with some oven mitts.
He sat down at the kitchen table and put the duck napkin in his lap. He ate bite after bite of the absolutely delicious chicken pot pie. When he was done, he cleared his plate and put it into the sink.
A small sigh put him on alert. He walked over towards the TV room. Phoebe was asleep on the couch. He wondered why he hadn't noticed her when he came inside. He had been too wrapped up in his own thoughts, probably.
He pulled her into his arms and carried her upstairs so that they could both go to bed. He put her into bed and tucked her in before going to their bathroom.
Andreas brushed his teeth and undressed before climbing i
nto bed with his small wife, putting one arm around her. He loved the scent of her shampoo.
He would try to be a better man tomorrow. He'd figure out a way to apologize.
* * *
When Andreas woke up, there was a message waiting on his phone. It only said, "Chip's". He knew that he was being called in.
Phoebe was asleep when he went into the bathroom and got ready for the day, getting dressed in their closet before leaving. He dropped a soft kiss on her forehead before he went out the door. She shifted a little bit in her sleep. It was lucky that she was taking some time off for the baby. She seemed to sleep a little more than usual.
He walked into Chip's and got his usual, a simple Americano. The coffee was as foul as ever, but it came with an envelope that the barista rested against the coffee mug.
"Thanks," he told the barista, who often changed. They were men and women whose faces were unrecognizable, who could melt into a crowd without any warning.
When he got to an unoccupied table, he opened the envelope. He still hadn't found a way out of this assignment, but he needed to figure something out. He couldn't drop the ball until he found an escape route, though. Phoebe might have faked being asleep this morning before he left for "work," and he had a bad feeling about it. He wondered if he was at risk of driving her away if he came home too late too often.
He drank another sip of the watered down terrible coffee that he always got before opening the envelope.
He sprayed coffee everywhere when he saw the picture of the target.
The Hitman's Pregnant Bride: A Baby Romance Page 3