With Me

by Gabbie S. Duran

  “You cooked my favorite,” she says, in a whisper of amazement.

  Giving her a simple nod I take a seat across from her, immediately saying grace, something I now do for Kasey. An hour later we’re both completely stuffed and when I look over at Kasey’s plate I can’t help but smile. It’s completely empty, not a crumb left on the plate, another point that hadn’t crossed my mind until now. She’s had quiet an appetite lately, too.

  I’m about to get up and start clearing the table when she offers to clear the dishes and load them in the dishwasher. I was hoping she’d do so, allowing me to escape to make the finishing touches needed in the bedroom.

  Excusing myself, telling her I need to use the bathroom, I’m already rushing to our room to prepare the last of the details. When done, I take in one last view of the room, thinking it looks perfect. She’s going to love it.

  Walking back to the kitchen, I see her loading the last of the dishes, allowing me to come up behind her, wrapping my arms tightly around her body to pull her back against my chest. I nuzzle at her neck as she leans her head back to rest on my shoulder, allowing me to kiss her below her ear. My favorite spot, it makes her body shiver every single time. She moans as she pushes the curve of her ass to tease me, awakening my cock. I have to force myself to breathe and get myself under control or else I might take her right here on the kitchen counter, which is not what I have planned for tonight. Pushing her body from mine, she turns to face me, a scowl on her face. I can only chuckle down at her. I know what she wants and I plan on giving it to her, just not yet.

  Taking her arms to wrap them around my neck, I kiss her, making her disappointment disappear as I carry her towards our bedroom. I reach our double doors, turning to push them with my back, allowing her to see the room as I walk backwards into it. I shut both the doors, blocking out the light from the rest of the house, allowing the glow of the candles I have lit around the room to be the only light. Kasey’s eyes go wide when we enter the room, a small gasp of surprise escaping her O shaped lips.

  “Joseph, what’s going on?” she asks as I allow her body to slowly slide down to the ground.

  Taking her face in my palms I kiss her; I kiss her like the hungry man I am for her, as if it were the first time I’ve ever kissed her.

  I lose my earlier control, stripping her of her clothing, wanting to feel her soft skin against my bare hands. Just as quickly, she does the same with mine, leaving us both naked. I scoop up her naked body, taking her to the bed, pulling back the covers to gently lie her down like the precious item she is to me.

  Climbing into bed with her, I cover her body with mine, still fiercely kissing her. She opens her legs wide for me, allowing my body to sink down into hers, her moan vibrating in our mouths as I enter her. Lifting her hips with my hand, I pull back, plunging into her body again, knowing she likes it this way. Her moans become louder, her hips lifting, wanting more, but I force myself to stop, remembering what I really meant to do tonight.

  She grumbles as I’ve stopped, lifting her hips, demanding I keep going, but I ignore her request as I look down into her. “Kasey, I love you,” I whisper down at her. “I think I fell in love with you the first night you gave yourself to me. That night I didn’t know I would be giving my heart to the one person I’d want to spend the rest of my life with, but I did. You gave yourself to me knowing I was the one, but I didn’t listen to my heart, or say anything in return, a mistake I’ve regretted since that night. Instead I walked away, living with that regret until the day I found you again,” I admit, placing a kiss on her lips. “Kasey, I love you more than life itself and I can’t imagine living the rest of my life without you. I want to raise our children together. I want to spend the rest of my life...with you. I want to grow old with you; until the very last breathe I take. Kasey Wilson, will you do me the honor of being my wife?” I nervously whisper the last words down to her, holding my breath for her answer.

  With the candlelight from around the room, I watch for her reaction, her eyes going wide, and I fear she’s going to reject me again. A single tear slowly slides down the side of her face. I catch it with my thumb, still holding my breath, waiting for her answer.

  Slowly she nods her head, letting out a sniffle, giving a wide smile. “Yes Joseph, I’ll marry you,” she exclaims, pulling me down to kiss her. The breath I was holding escapes me as I kiss her back.

  I slowly start to rock my body inside of her again, thrusting into her, robbing a pleasured moan from her lips. I make sure to take my time bringing her to her peak before I finish. Running my hand up the silky smooth skin of her body, I need to feel as much of her as I can before I have her screaming my name, but when I’m granted my wish, I quickly follow her over the edge.

  I’m still above her, both of us trying to catch our breath as I continue trailing kisses down her skin. Looking down at her as I push her hair from her face, I tell her again, “I love you, Kasey. I will always love you.”

  Her hand comes up to my cheek to caress it as she smiles back at me. “I love you too, Joseph,” she replies, her eyes already starting to flutter shut as they usually do when we finish.

  Rolling off her, I pull her body with mine to drape her across me, needing to have her close. I run my hand across her skin, feeling every curve of her body with my hand.

  “Kasey, is there something that you’ve been meaning to tell me?”

  She snuggles her body up to mine, entangling her limbs with my legs, getting herself comfortable, but I shake her body to keep her attention, something she hates that I do.

  “No,” her sleepy answer making me chuckle.

  She’s already answered every suspicion why she hasn’t told me. She doesn’t even know herself. She can be so clueless sometimes. I already feel her starting to drift off to sleep, but I’m persistent.

  “Are you sure?”

  Grumbling, she opens her eyes, her eyebrows drawn down in irritation. “Joseph, if there’s something I’m supposed to be telling you, then please enlighten me,” she snaps, clearly irritated because I’m not letting her sleep.

  I run my hand down across her hip, my hand stopping on her stomach, spanning my opened palm on it. “When was the last time you had your period, Kasey?” I ask her.

  She looks at me confused, sighing in irritation as she considers my question. I see her thinking as her eyes go up and then suddenly go wide, taking in a gasp as her hand comes to rest over mine. “Joseph,” she merely says, making me smile. “You don’t think I’m finally pregnant do you?”

  We haven’t been using protection since the time we made love in the shower. At first I blamed the rush of wanting to be inside of her as my excuse, but all the other times I didn’t think about it. I knew we were taking a huge risk of her getting pregnant, but deep down inside I had hoped she would. It just didn’t happen until now.

  This time I let out a loud laugh, throwing my head back. “Baby, if the signs are not clues enough, then I bought a test just in case,” I say to her, rolling my body above hers. “But I’m pretty sure even without you taking the test, I could tell you’re pregnant. You’ve been tired all the time and eating more than usual,” I tell her, giving her a kiss as I trail my lips down her chin.

  She mumbles, lifting her head further back so I can continue kissing my way down her neck. My lips continue kissing a trail down her collarbone. Her hands shove me up off her body, allowing me to look at her. She looks irritated now. “Is that the only reason why you asked me to marry you? Because you think I’m pregnant?”

  Now I’m irritated as I shake my head at her. “No, it’s not the reason I asked you to marry me. If I recall, I asked you once before and you flat out denied me. I loved you the first time I asked you and I still love you, so it’s why I asked you again,” I inform her, placing a kiss below her ear to distract her, trailing my lips across her neck, nipping on her skin along the way. When I reach her lips, I make sure to distract her completely.

  My cock is already starting to stir fr
om wanting to be inside her, needing her again. I enter slowly this time, briefly stopping to look down at her. “I know the first time I asked you to marry me was for the wrong reason, but this time I meant every word I said. Even if you aren’t pregnant, I’m still going to marry you, Kasey, because I love you,” I tell her as I begin to make love to her.

  “MOMMY, MOMMY, LOOK what I’ve brought you,” Josephina shouts as she runs up to me, shoving a candy apple into my hand, making me smile as I take her gift. Without hesitation I dig my teeth into it to take a bite, moaning to myself as I savor the sweet stickiness of the caramel mixed with the tanginess of the green apple below. I close my eyes enjoying my sweet treat when I feel Joseph’s body push up against my back, wrapping his arms around me, engulfing me with his body as he softly places a kiss on my neck.

  “I thought you’d like that,” his deep husky voice whispers into my ear making me shiver, as it always does.

  His hands come down to my large round belly, automatically starting to rub my stomach with his hands as I lay my head back to rest against his shoulder. My mind drifts back to the memory of the night he proposed. It happens when his hands caress our baby, making me remember that night. Although I still had doubts I was pregnant, the next morning Joseph made me take the pregnancy test to prove me wrong. Of course it was positive, leaving me dumbfounded. Being that we weren’t preventing a pregnancy, I shouldn’t have been surprised it happened.

  Soon after that night, we got married. I didn’t want to wait any longer to marry Joseph. I may have had doubts about being his wife the first time he proposed, but I didn’t have them the second time. I’d come to fear he wouldn’t ever ask again. Especially after knowing I had made the mistake of saying no the first time.

  Our marriage was simple and sweet, taking place at city hall. I didn’t want big or fancy. The only thing I needed on that day was my daughter and Joseph. Everyone else who attended was a bonus, including Mark and Ashley, and their new bundle of joy as our witnesses.

  As I stand there thinking of that day, I feel my back tense up, followed by a sharp pain in my stomach. I force myself to breathe through it like I learned in Lamaze class, knowing it’s another contraction. I’ve been having them most of the night, but since I’d been having Braxton Hicks for the last couple of weeks, I didn’t think anything of these during the night. I simply brushed them off as another false alarm. The last thing I wanted to do was tell Joseph about them again. After the fourth time of him rushing me to the hospital at his paranoid insistence and being sent home, I learned my lesson. I awoke this morning telling myself they were another false alarm since my due date was still another two weeks away. They were probably from me being immobile for the last week, another demand of Joseph’s.

  I wanted to get out of the house, needing some fresh air this morning from being cooped up in the house all week, so I insisted we come to the local Farmers Market to walk around. It wasn’t until an hour ago, when my backache started increasing, that I knew they were real. I just didn’t want to be rushed to the hospital to have to sit there for a whole day. My labor with Josephina lasted eighteen hours and I still remember every minute as if it were yesterday.

  Leaning my weight against Joseph as he holds me, I close my eyes as I take deep breaths, feeling another contraction hit me almost immediately. This one makes my stomach tense up, causing Joseph’s hands to tighten on my stomach, as his body grows rigid behind me. “Kasey, what’s wrong?” he asks, the worry evident in his voice. I’m pretty sure if I were able to see his face right now, he’d look frantic.

  “I’m fine,” I tell him.

  Needing to concentrate on my breathing, I simply ignore him and breathe deeply. I don’t want to alarm Joseph. He’s been really over protective of me during my pregnancy. It’s almost as if he’s trying to make up for not being with me the first time, but it was driving me insane at this point. He was treating me like a crystal vase that was going to break at any moment.

  Some days I loved it, others not so much. At one point he’d suggested I stop working during the course of my pregnancy, claiming he didn’t like the fact it required me to be on my feet for more than an hour. At that point I drew the line. My business was relaxing to me. It was a way for my mind to escape, as I got lost in my creations. If he took it away, I knew for sure I was going to grow stressed, especially now that my sales were increasing every month.

  As another contraction hits me, breaking my thoughts, I have to hunch over, causing me to grab onto my stomach as I groan. When I’m finally able to stand upright again, Joseph is already standing in front of me, the strain in his expression making me feel guilty. “I think I’m having contractions,” I confess, preparing myself for the lecture to come.

  “What?” he shouts, his eyes going wide as saucers, which is the reaction I was expecting. “How long have you been having contractions?” he asks looking as if he’s now stopped breathing, making me laugh.

  “You think this is funny?” His panicky voice makes my laughter stop and I’m feeling guilty once more.

  I reach up to cup his cheek to pull his face to look directly into my eyes. “Honey, I’m fine. I’ve done this before and I’m pretty sure if it is up to you, it won’t be the last time,” I say laughing at myself. “We have enough time. Why don’t you go and find Josephina, she’s probably off with Missy at the booth bugging her.”

  He gives me a look as if I’ve lost my mind before he scoops me up, his head whipping back and forth as he searches for Josephina. Normally I would protest him carrying me, but right now I don’t feel like walking anyway, so I let him carry me off straight for the booth.

  Missy is now one of my employees, along with another two wives of the Marines that worked with Joseph. Ashley wasn’t lying when she said the website was going to bring me more business than ever. Because of the increase in business, I had to hire them to help with production.

  The booth at the Farmers Market was another thing I had to put my foot down with Joseph. He hadn’t liked the idea of me having a booth, thinking I would work the weekends again, but when I mentioned that the girls wanted to do it, and that I would allow them to keep the profits of the sales from that day, he couldn’t argue. Military families didn’t make a lot of money, especially being that both their husbands were lower ranking Marines compared to Joseph, so every extra penny they can earn really helped.

  Soon we find Josephina, of course at the booth with Missy, but at Missy’s insistence we leave her behind. I couldn’t argue, I agreed with Missy, Josephina would be best with her instead of having to endure watching her mother giving birth. An hour later I’m at the hospital with Joseph at my side, another strong contraction hitting me, making me squeeze his hand tightly, and hunch forward in my bed. Grabbing onto my stomach as I groan out loud, I hear Joseph yelling at the nurses again.

  “Will someone get the fucking doctor, my wife is in pain here!” His growls echo in the room as he shouts at the top of his lungs at the nurse who is currently checking my cervix.

  Looking down at her in fear she might call security on him for shouting at her, she simply smiles at him when she says, “Mr. Mitchell, it’s too late for your wife to get an epidural. She’s already dilated to ten and the baby is starting to crown. I’ll page the doctor so he can come deliver your baby,” she calmly states as she removes her gloves and tosses them into the trash, walking out of the door.

  I’m instantly hit with another contraction, bracing myself as I breathe through it. Once it’s over, I lean my body against Joseph’s as he pushes my loose hair off my forehead, placing a kiss against it. My body already feels exhausted and I haven’t even started pushing, yet.

  When I look up at him, I see tears falling down his face. “Honey, why are you crying?” I ask him.

  A tear drops onto my hand when I reach up to cup his face, forcing him to face me. It saddens me to see him this way.

  “Baby, I’m so sorry I wasn’t there when you had Josephina. I should’ve searched the
ends of the earth for you. I don’t know how the fuck you’re able to go through this pain again for me. I don’t deserve it and I don’t deserve you,” he says, making me cry now.

  “Joseph, we can’t change the past, all that matters is we found each other again. What’s important is you’re here with me this time,” I whisper up to him.

  Another contraction comes and this is the one that tells me the baby is coming, I can feel it. I’m about to panic thinking the baby is going to come without the doctor, but he is walking in as the thought crosses my mind. Three painful pushes later our baby is delivered into the world. When they hand me my son I see this little bundle of joy in my arms, I know all the pain I endured was worth every second for this little person. Just like the first time. Looking up at Joseph, he’s still crying, but this time with a smile of his face as he cradles my body against his chest, holding our son’s head in his large hand as he leans down to give me a kiss. I hold him there for several seconds, wanting him to understand how much I love him. He brings his forehead to mine as he says, “Thank you, Kasey. Thank you so much for my children. They are the best gift you’ve ever given me.”

  I smile back at him. “I love you, Joseph.”

  “I love you more, Kasey Mitchell, and I will love you until the day I take my last breath.”

  Joseph gives me one more kiss before looking down at our son. “So what should we name him?”

  We hadn’t chosen any names because we didn’t know the sex of the baby. I’d wanted it to be a surprise, like the first time, and although I didn’t know what I was having, I secretly had a name chosen since the day I found out I was pregnant.

  I look down at him to say. “Edward. Edward Joseph Mitchell.”

  Joseph chuckles above me as he rakes his finger across our son’s forehead. “You really like my name don’t you?” he asks, trying to keep his deep voice to a whisper to not awaken our now sleeping son.

  The only answer I can give him is, “It’s the name of the first person I fell in love with. So I think it’s only fair I name my child after that person,” I say, looking down at our son.