by Claire Kent
Seth’s brows drew together as he studied her. “I don’t know, but I did.”
She sighed, a final release of something long-held and life-changing.
“When did you fall in love with me?” Seth asked eventually, repeating her question back to her.
She’d thought a lot about that question. Had spent a ludicrous amount of time trying to figure it out. Still didn’t have a good answer.
Didn’t even care anymore.
She grinned down at Seth. As ridiculous as it would have sounded to her two years ago, they were together in every possible way.
She hoped she could spend the rest of her life with him.
Concluded, “I don’t know either. But I did.”
Epilogue
Erin woke up hot and uncomfortable.
She was barely on the verge of waking, so she wasn’t conscious enough to work out any details of her situation. She was burning up, though, sweating beneath the covers, and it felt like a heavy weight was draped over her side.
She moaned and tried to stretch out, hoping some of the heat would lessen with a change of position.
She couldn’t move. Couldn’t stretch. The unknown weight had trapped her, and she started to realize that it was the source of the insufferable heat.
Trying to pry her eyes open, she squirmed beneath the weight. Finally figured out it was Seth.
He’d been spooning her when they'd gone to sleep last night, and he must not have rolled over afterwards the way he normally did.
Instead, he’d sort of rolled on top of her. She was still lying on her side, but Seth was almost draped over her.
And Seth’s body was ridiculously hot.
Erin’s back was damp where it was pressed up against his chest, and the skin of her legs clung to his.
As she became more lucid, she realized something else. Part of her discomfort was caused by something other than the heat and weight. It was caused by something hard against her ass.
“Seth,” she mumbled, wriggling in an attempt to escape her imprisonment. “Seth, roll over.”
He grunted—obviously still asleep—and instinctively pushed his pelvis into her butt.
“Seth,” Erin grumbled, her voice clearer and louder now, “Seth, you’re poking me in the ass.”
“Sorry,” Seth muttered vaguely, his arm tightening around her belly uncomfortably, holding her trapped against his heat. “Nice ass.”
Erin would have giggled had she not been so uncomfortable. It wasn’t often she was awake before him, and even less often that she was more lucid. “Seth,” she snapped sharply—mostly just to wake him up. She punctuated the word with a hard pump of her hips back against him.
“Huh.” His warm, pliant body tensed slightly behind her, and she knew he’d finally woken up.
“Would you mind taking your hard-on over to your side of the bed?” she asked grumpily. “I’m trying to sleep.”
“Oh.” Seth still sounded half-asleep, but he managed to roll away from her. “Should have told me.”
Feeling a delicious sense of freedom, Erin pushed down the bedcovers, letting the cool air of the room waft over her hot skin. Her back was sore, so she tried to stretch it, but it didn’t help much. She still felt stiff and irritable and clunky.
“Y’right?” Seth mumbled, his voice no longer right at her ear.
“Yeah. Just hot and stiff. What time is it?” There were two clocks in the room, but Erin was far too lazy to turn her head enough to look at one of them.
“Six-thirty. You were supposed to sleep in today.”
“I am. I’m not moving for another two hours at least.” Feeling cooler now, she pulled up the bedcovers. Realized something else. “Except I have to pee.”
“That’s unfortunate.” She could feel Seth shifting on the mattress beside her, even though she wasn’t looking in his direction. “I, however, have misfortunes of my own.”
Erin huffed. “It’s not my fault you always wake up hard.”
“Not always.” He was obviously fully awake now, and his voice was cool and natural. “But I would have thought, since I’m not working today and we were intending to sleep in, that this is one morning when we could actually do something about my unfortunate condition.”
“I’m not sure I’m in the mood.” She wore a cotton chemise, and she pulled it down to cover her hips—which were a little rounder than they’d been seven months ago. “I have my own conditions, and I have to pee.”
“Believe it or not,” Seth drawled from his side of the bed. “There’s a fairly simple solution to that dilemma.”
Erin gave an anguished groan at the thought, but she managed to roll off the bed and heave herself into a standing position. Then she padded clumsily to the bathroom in her bare feet.
When she returned to bed a few minutes later, she crawled back under the covers and gave a contented sigh. Gloried in the feel of being awake in bed in the morning but not having any pressing reason to get up.
It was Saturday, but Seth often worked on Saturday mornings. Because he wasn’t going to work today, it felt almost like a holiday.
“Now that your pressing need is taken care of,” he said, “we could consider doing something about mine.”
“I have to think about it.” She closed her eyes and wished she could fall right back to sleep. “To see if I’m in the mood.”
“All right.”
So Erin thought about it. Thought about making love to Seth. About letting him tease her into arousal and then slid his cock inside her. About letting him fuck her until she was thrashing and screaming with pleasure.
Erin thought about it so much and so vividly that, ten minutes later, she was really turned on.
“Okay,” she said breathlessly, hoping he hadn’t gone back to sleep. “I’m in the mood.”
Seth was still awake.
As soon as she spoke, he rolled back over, fitting his naked body against her back. He tucked one of his arms under her shoulder until he was holding her in an embrace. Then he used his other arm to stroke her breasts, belly, and thighs—sliding his palm over the thin fabric of her chemise.
This time, the feel of his hard cock against her ass wasn’t uncomfortable. In fact, every time she felt it rub against her, her inner muscles clenched instinctively, as if she were trying to pull him inside her.
She was flushed again—this time with erotic urgency—when he slipped a hand between her legs. His lips worked on the side of her neck, mouthing at the delicate skin there. Then his fingers nudged her thighs apart and slipped between her folds.
Erin gasped as she felt his finger slide in. She rubbed her hips against his pelvis, trying to get any friction she could.
Then Seth pushed her chemise up until it was bunched around her waist and bent her forward a little to give himself better access.
She felt his cock push against her entrance. She hummed in anticipation. Then felt him start to penetrate her.
“Yeah,” she breathed, when he’d buried himself inside her. Straightening up so she could feel the whole length of his body against hers, she sighed, “So good.”
“Hmm,” Seth agreed throatily, his free hand brushing over her lush curves until it stroked its way down to her throbbing clit. “Good.”
Erin whimpered again when she felt two of his fingers rubbing little circles over her clit. The pressure of an orgasm began to build. “Just like that,” she whispered, starting to pump her hips back against him, seeking a rhythm.
Seth pulled his pelvis back and stroked into her, nudging her legs apart a little more. His breath was hot and rushed at her ear, mingling into the texture of Erin's own gasps.
She moaned in deep pleasure and waited for his next thrust. Lifted her upper thigh some more, wanting to feel him as much as she could.
He thrust again, and Erin bumped her ass back, unable to hold herself still.
Then he initiated a steady, leisurely rhythm, working her over with his hand and thrusting into her from behind. Soon
Erin was writhing and gasping and fumbling for something to hold onto. Her orgasm welled up quickly, and she was gasping out silly combinations of the words, “Yes” and “Seth.”
Seth had been alternating between nuzzling her hair and mouthing her neck, but suddenly she felt his teeth close down on the skin at her jaw.
The slight pain was enough to push her over the edge, and she came, trapped in the pleasurable friction between his fingers on her clit and his cock inside her.
She froze as the waves of pleasure washed over her. Then she pumped against him clumsily, trying to draw out the contractions.
As she tightened ruthlessly around him, Seth gave a hoarse grunt and started thrusting harder and faster.
His thrusts were almost excruciating, the friction so powerful against her sensitive flesh.
He kept massaging her swollen clit, and Erin couldn’t stop making mewling noises—her entire body felt so incredibly good. She was panting desperately now, and she could hear that Seth was too.
Then he started grunting, and his motion became less controlled, more urgent, almost wild.
“Yeah, Seth. Come.”
He was losing the precise massage of her clit, but he kept pushing into it with his fingers, generating deep pleasure that all seemed to coalesce somewhere below her belly.
His grunting was rhythmic and erotic, and Erin felt herself instinctively responding, with breathless, matching grunts of “Uh huh.”
Until she came again, the tension breaking inside of her as she convulsed frantically, grabbing behind her to claw at Seth’s bare hip.
Seth pelvis jerked a few last times. And he bit out, “Erin,” and “Love.” Then he came too, his release pulsing through both his body and hers.
Seth was breathing in fast, thick pants against her neck when Erin finally felt herself come down. Her body was washed with relaxation, and she stretched out again, feeling drowsy and warm and content.
One of Seth’s hands had settled on her belly, and Erin’s covered it there. Then she turned her head so he could kiss her.
“Best morning I’ve had in a long time,” Seth murmured.
She smiled. “Me too. You should skip work more often.”
Seth’s only response was to kiss her again.
They lay together for a long time, until Seth’s softened cock eventually slipped out, and Erin could feel the moisture from their coupling leaking out between her thighs.
She squirmed uncomfortably but refrained from complaining.
Eventually, she said, “We should check on Mackenzie. She’s probably awake by now.”
“Hmm,” Seth murmured noncommittally.
“I’d hate to think the poor little pumpkin was standing pathetically at the gate, waiting to get out.”
“I’m sure we’d have heard about it if she was.” His hand was idly caressing the tight skin of her belly.
They had switched Mackenzie’s crib out for a toddler bed a few weeks ago, as they were approaching her second birthday, and the transition had gone remarkably well. But they’d installed a baby gate at the door of her bedroom, so she wouldn’t be able to roam around the whole apartment during the night, which she’d done a couple of times at first.
“Please? It’s almost seven-thirty. She usually gets up before seven.”
Seth grumbled under his breath, but he rolled over, pulled himself out of bed, grabbed a pair of trousers to put on, then paced out of the room toward Mackenzie’s nursery.
Erin decided she had to pee again, so she ran to the bathroom as quickly as she could. Went and then cleaned herself up a little. Managed to get back in bed before Seth returned—so he wouldn’t know she'd gotten up anyway, despite her insistence on his being the one to check on their daughter.
Shortly, Seth returned to the bedroom. Left the door open, but got back into bed in his trousers and scooted over to spoon Erin again from behind. “She’s fine.”
“She was awake?”
“Yes. She’d gotten out of bed and was playing very happily by herself. She had all her stuffed rabbits lined up in rows on the floor. In fact, she looked rather peeved when I interrupted her fun.”
“I guess it’s a good sign that she knows how to amuse herself. How was her diaper?”
“Wet,” Seth replied, draping his arm around her again. “The first thing she did was announce that she had ‘gone peepee’ in her diaper. And then she glared at me as if it were my fault.”
They had started toilet-training recently, and Mackenzie was therefore intensely fascinated with her peeing and pooping schedule.
Erin giggled. “Poor Seth. Gets blamed for everything.”
Seth leaned his head forward so he could kiss the sensitive spot just under her ear. “The injustice is appalling,” he murmured huskily, the vibrations sending shivers down her spine.
“What is she doing now?”
“Playing with her rabbits. I told her to come find us when she’s done.”
Erin felt an unavoidable thread of worry. She shifted a little. “Maybe I should go—”
“She’s fine,” Seth insisted.
“Right,” Erin mumbled in agreement.
“We should enjoy the peace and quiet.”
Erin smiled and nestled back into his body. “Yeah, I suppose. For a few minutes, at least. I’m sure she’ll get bored pretty soon anyway.”
“I thought you weren’t going to get out of bed until 8:30.” His lips were against her skin again and his tone was taking on that husky tone that Erin knew very well. “That sounded like a good plan to me.”
She chuckled and reached up to pat his cheek. “Sweetie, I think we’ve had all of that kind of fun that we’re going to have this morning. Mackenzie’s going to barge in at any moment.”
Seth exhaled resignedly. “I wasn’t suggesting anything. It’s not like I’m constantly trying to jump you, you know.”
She wriggled her butt against his groin. “How disappointing. And here I thought I’ve been looking so irresistibly voluptuous for the last few months.”
She could feel Seth smiling against her hair. “Voluptuous doesn’t even come close.”
Erin shivered again.
“Mommy,” a little voice came from the hall.
Seth released another resigned sigh.
“Mommy,” Mackenzie called again. Then a little redheaded girl appeared in the doorway, with messy hair, bare feet, and a lavender cotton nightgown.
“Good morning, pumpkin,” Erin told her daughter with a smile as she padded over toward the bed. “Are you done playing with your bunnies?”
“Yes. G’mornin,” Mackenzie replied seriously. “Daddy is hugging Mommy?”
“Yes.” Seth’s arm was still draped over Erin’s waist. “I was hugging your mommy.”
“Sist’ is sleeping?” Mackenzie added, staring at the curve of Erin’s belly.
“Yes,” Erin responded, her hand moving to the large swell of her stomach. “Your sister is sleeping. In two months, you’ll be able to see her sleeping.”
Mackenzie nodded intently. “Sist’ sleeps.”
“Are you ready for breakfast?” Seth asked.
Mackenzie’s little forehead wrinkled for a moment. Then she pronounced, “Mac goes peepee.”
“Did you already go peepee?” Erin asked. “Or do you need to go peepee.”
“Mac needs go peepee.”
Nodding encouragingly, Erin replied, “Okay. You better go sit on your potty then. Do you want any help?”
Mackenzie shook her head and stuck out her chin. “Mac peepees by herself.”
“Then you’d better hurry,” Seth suggested.
With another sober nod, Mackenzie turned around and scampered toward the bathroom in the hall.
Chuckling, Erin stretched one more time and then pulled her cumbersome body out of bed with a last groan. “I better check on her, and you can go start to make me some pancakes.”
Seth arched one eyebrow. “Pancakes, is it? And you’re expecting me to make them?�
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How he managed to look smug and sophisticated, while lying half-naked on a rumpled bed, Erin would never know. “Of course. I’m in a delicate condition.” She rubbed her belly, which was large and awkward and anything but delicate. “And you make the best pancakes.”
He shook his head with a fond smile, and Erin went to find Mackenzie in the bathroom.
The toddler was sitting on the tiny child’s toilet that Seth had insisted on having installed in the bathroom next to the normal-sized one. The miniature toilet made Erin giggle every time she saw it, but it certainly was very convenient to not have to empty out a standard potty chair.
“Did you peepee?” Erin asked, glancing in the mirror and almost whimpering at the sight she beheld—tangled hair, red face, and huge, ungainly body. She was surprised that Seth had been brave enough to want to make love to her earlier.
“Yes,” Mackenzie said, frowning and nodding her head.
“Then you need to get up and flush.”
“Mac goes poopoo too.”
This piece of news, of course, deserved great praise. So Erin gushed appropriately and then waited until her daughter was done. After they’d flushed and dutifully washed their hands, Erin said, “Now you can go tell your daddy.”
Erin never got tired of watching Seth respond to this sort of news.
Erin followed her daughter into the kitchen, where they found him.
He wasn’t, however, making pancakes. He was lounging in a chair with a cup of coffee and his tablet, no doubt reading the news. He had put on a white T-shirt, but he still wasn’t wearing shoes or socks.
Mackenzie ran over to him excitedly and hugged his leg. “Mac goes poopoo on the potty. Mac goes poopoo on the potty,” she declared, her rosy face crinkling with her grin.
Seth lowered his tablet and looked down at her. “Well, that is a very impressive achievement. Good job.”
Mackenzie giggled up at him. “Up!” she demanded, raising her arms toward him.
With a half-smile, Seth pulled her up into his lap, where she shifted around until her cheek was pressed against his chest.
“Don’t get too comfortable,” Erin warned them, frowning in Seth’s direction as she poured herself some juice. “Your daddy still has to make us some pancakes.”