by Alexa Riley
Sean stands up from the little table in the kitchen. He raises his shirt to rub his belly as he smirks at me.
I have to agree. If we keep eating like this, I might have to join him. And I don’t run. Ever. Unless something is chasing me, and that only happens when Sean and I are playing around. Though once I did suggest going with him. He said no, then made me ride him while he gripped my hips in a firm hold to remind me how much he liked them and how he didn’t want them going anywhere. Needless to say, he didn’t run that day either.
Reaching over, I grab a few of the hairs on his stomach and pull, making him yelp and jump back from me. I giggle. “See how she treats me, Marie?” He leans down, placing one hand on the table and the other on the back of my chair, caging me in. He kisses me softly on the lips.
“Missed a little,” he whispers against my lips, licking any syrup that might be remaining.
“I see how she treats you alright.” Marie’s tone makes me blush.
Marie started working on the island about six weeks ago. She used to come each day on a boat until Sal finally talked her into staying with him permanently. Watching them together is utterly adorable, and I wonder if people look at Sean and me like that.
Giving me another quick kiss, Sean picks up my plate and his own to take to the sink, but Marie stops him and pulls them from his hands.
“That’s my job,” she scolds him. I can’t see Sean’s face, but I’m sure he’s scowling at her. This has no effect on her, though he’s probably a whole foot and a half taller than her. She’s the definition of a spitfire if you get her going. I love that about her and have even picked up a few of her tricks. Sean and Sal both tried to get her to quit working here, saying she didn’t need to work. She’s Sal’s woman, but she says she loves doing it. She needs something to do or she’ll go stir crazy. They still ended up hiring another woman to help out, and the battle of wills is still going strong.
He makes his way back to me and crouches so we’re at eye level. “You sure you don’t want to come with me? I’ll be quick. It won’t take me long at all to make sure everything is in line.”
“No, it’s fine. I’m just going to lie down for a little. I bet by the time I wake up, you’ll be back.” Sean likes to go to town once a month to pick up a few things, check his mail, and look in on his accounts. I went with him the last time and enjoyed myself, but today I have something I need to take care of.
“How about I put it off, and we’ll go tomorrow when you’re feeling better?” I can see the concern written all over his face. I lied this morning and told him I had a headache to get out of going today. Sometimes this man handles me like glass. I wonder how he’ll be once he gets me knocked up. “I could nap with you.”
“I know what your kind of nap means,” I laugh, knowing that it wouldn’t be a nap at all. It would start with a little cuddling, which would turn to kissing, and then that would lead to kissing me everywhere, then him on top of me, making me scream his name.
His face turns serious, lines appearing in his forehead. “Stay inside. I don’t want you near the water.”
“Sean, I know how to swim.”
“Baby, please. Give me peace of mind while I’m gone.”
Grabbing his face with both hands, I dig my fingers into his beard. “I’ll stay inside and dream of you.”
“Thank you, little fox.” He moves in for another kiss, this one deep but slow. His mouth moves against mine like we’re making love.
When he finally pulls back, I keep a strong hold on his face, pulling a little at his beard.
“I’m not cutting it,” he says for the sixth time this morning, his eyes going a little big. I caught him in the bathroom about to shave it this morning. He said it was just a summer cut. I might have lost it a little. I even threatened to go on a shaving strike of my own if he did, but he said I could turn into werewolf and he was still getting inside me. In the end I won. Facial hair was staying, and I was still keeping myself well groomed.
“Better not.”
He kisses me on the forehead and heads out the door. I sit at the table, sipping my orange juice while Marie does the dishes for a few moments.
“Okay. I can’t wait! Give it to me.” I jump up from my chair and rush over to Marie as she pulls a pregnancy test out of her apron.
The last two tests I’d done with Sean, and both times they came out negative. He acted like it was no big deal, but I could see the disappointment on his face. I want to make sure that the next time the subject comes up, I’ll know for sure if I’m pregnant or not.
“I thought he’d never leave.” Marie shakes her head, wiping her hands off on her apron.
“I know. I thought for sure he knew I was faking about the headache. I’m the world’s worst liar,” I grimace. God, I hate lying to him.
“Come on now. Let’s see if we’re going to have a baby around here soon,” Marie says as we both rush to my bathroom. Quickly, I ready the test and do it, placing the stick on the sink when I’m done. I open the door for Marie to come into the bathroom, and we both just stare down at the test and wait.
“What are you doing?”
I scream out in surprise, jumping around to face Sean is standing in the bathroom doorway.
“I…oh…” I look to Marie for help, but she just stands there. “I thought you left,” I finally finish, stumbling over my words.
“I tried.” He runs his hands through his hair. “Just felt like something was off.” He takes a step into the bathroom, and I try to move further back, wanting to block the test, but my ass is already against the sink.
“Baby, you’re kind of freaking me out here.” He takes a few more steps until he’s right in front of me, and I have to lean my head back to look at him. He must see the test on the sink behind me, because a smile breaks out across his face.
Suddenly, he’s dropping to his knees in front of me.
I feel Marie move beside me, then her words hit me. “Two lines.”
Sean places his face against my stomach, echoing her words “Two lines.”
“We’re having a baby,” I whisper, and run my fingers through his hair.
“I love you,” Sean says to my stomach, and I feel a tear slip free.
Then he’s picking me up and carrying me to our bed. Marie is long gone. Probably off to tell Sal they’re going to be grandparents.
“We should leave the island. It’s not safe here. Then maybe—”
I cut him off. “Calm down. You planned for this. Think about it, Sean. We have Marie and the two midwives. It doesn’t take long to get to the main island, and we can stay on the main island when the due date gets closer. We aren’t leaving. This is our home. The home we’ve made for the family we’re going to have. We’ll make this work.”
“You’re right, little fox. We can do anything.”
Epilogue
Sean
Nine months later…
“Wake up, baby. I think my water broke.”
I shoot out of bed, nearly knocking Tessa to the floor. Luckily, my reflexes are good when it comes to her, and I grab her by both arms, picking her up in my arms before she can tumble back.
“The baby? It’s here?”
She giggles at me and nods. This isn’t a time for giggling. We have to move. Now.
“When did your water break?” I ask, striding around the room, not really having any kind of direction. I’m just walking around, holding her in my arms while she has our baby in the middle of the room.
“Sean. Calm down.”
Tessa agreed we would go off the island tomorrow and spend the last week of her pregnancy in town. It’s our first baby, and we thought for sure she would go over her due date.
I begged her to go before, but she wouldn’t. Finally, after dinner last night, I had to get on my knees and beg her to take the boat over in the morning. I couldn’t handle the stress of being so far from the hospital with the baby so close to being born.
“Tessa.” There’s a warnin
g in my tone that wants to tell her ‘I told you so’. But I’ll do that later. Goddamn it, I knew this would happen!
“I’ve already paged Sal. He and Marie are by the docks, ready to go. Our bags are packed, and it won’t take us fifteen minutes to get there. I’ve got time. Just breathe.”
Those are supposed to be my words to her, not the other way around.
Carrying her out of the room, I try to think ahead and concentrate. I take her carefully down the dock and slip on my shoes. Marie must have left them there for me, predicting this would happen. Thank God, someone is thinking.
“It’s time,” I say in a panic as I see Sal and Marie waiting.
“We know, son. Just calm down. Everything is going to be okay.”
Sal puts his big hands on my shoulders, helping me into the boat as I clutch Tessa to my chest. I haven’t put her down since she said her water broke, and I’m a little terrified that if she stands on her own two feet, the baby will fall out.
I realize this isn’t possible, but I’m not exactly thinking rationally right now.
Marie comes to sit down beside me and pushes the hair out of Tessa’s face. “You’re doing great. We radioed the hospital. They’ll be waiting at the docks for us.”
“It’s not me and the baby I’m worried about. It’s Twitchy McGee over here.”
Tessa nods at me, and I immediately stop bouncing my feet up and down under her. I’m nervous as fuck, but I need to hold it together. Our baby is coming, and I need to be her rock.
“It’s fine. It’s going to be totally fine.”
“A little less panic in your voice next time and you may convince yourself,” Sal laughs as he gets behind the wheel of the boat and pulls out into the water.
The ride is only fifteen minutes. I can do this.
“You still think it’s a boy?” Tessa is trying to distract me, and I really need it right now.
Taking a deep breath, I decide to focus on this. The sex of the baby is going to be a surprise. Both of us wanted that special moment when the baby comes.
I kiss her forehead and breathe in her scent. It calms me a little. She always calms me, and right now I’m thankful that I’ve still got her in my arms.
“And you’re convinced it’s a girl?” I say, looking into her big golden eyes. There’s not an ounce of fear there, and it warms my heart to know how brave my girl is. She’s always ready for whatever rolls her way. It’s how I know she’s going to be a phenomenal mother.
“Oh, I’m totally right. I’m the mom. I know it all.” She laughs when she says it, not even believing that herself. She reaches up, running her hand through my messy hair. I love it when she does that. Just as much as she loves doing it. “Tell me something sweet.”
She’s trying to keep me focused on her, and it’s the easiest thing in the world for me to do. “If it’s a girl, I’d like to name her Alma, after your grandmother.”
She gets a little teary-eyed but just smiles and nods. After a moment, she clears her throat and smiles at me. “If it’s a boy, I’d like to name him Marcus. After Sal.”
We’d thrown around a few names when we first found out she was pregnant, and I remember her asking me what Sal’s middle name was.
Now it’s my turn to get a little misty-eyed. I think all the stress and emotions are catching up to me, and all I can do is nod my head. It would be a beautiful way to honor the man who made me what I am today. Bad or good, it’s who brought me to Tessa. And that’s the legacy I want to leave behind in a hundred years when we’ve both passed on. That if people only remember that I loved Tessa, it will be a life worth living.
“There they are,” Marie says, pointing to the people from the hospital waiting on the dock just ahead.
Letting out a breath of relief I didn’t know I was holding, I pull Tessa a little closer to me as we approach.
Everything is going to be okay.
* * *
The hospital is what you’d call pretty basic. It’s totally clean, and they have everything we need, but there aren’t a lot of frills like you’d have in the States. Instead, what we do have are three nurses and a doctor all for us, and everyone is standing by to deliver a healthy baby.
Some of my stress is relieved when they get Tessa hooked up to the monitors and see that she’s okay and so is the baby.
Once we’re there and the doctors check her over, they all start speaking softly to one another, and my stress skyrockets again.
Finally, right before I’m about to scream the room down, the doctor comes over and lets us know that Tessa is nearly fully dilated and we need to begin pushing.
“What?!” Tessa and I yell at the same time. Both of us are in shock. She’s barely made a peep and hasn’t said the first thing about contractions.
Suddenly, I feel her gripping my hand, and the nurses get in place.
“It’s not uncommon to only feel pressure when you walk and still be this far dilated.” Tessa looks up at me and glares, because most of her pregnancy I didn’t let her feet touch the ground. “I think it’s time to push.”
I hold her hand and encourage her through everything, and dear God, is my woman a champ. She does everything they say, and when the labor starts to really hit her, she doesn’t crumple under the pressure.
After an hour of solid labor and hard contractions, our son, Marcus Sean Cardinal, is born. Though he’s technically a Cardinal, he’ll always be my little Sparrow.
When the labor is finished and everything has calmed down, the three of us cuddle on Tessa’s hospital bed while she nurses and I alternate between kissing her and our son.
“He’s beautiful,” Tessa whispers, rubbing his full head of dark auburn hair.
“Just like his mommy.”
Sal and Marie are bursting with joy when they’re finally allowed back to see us. I think Sal even shed a few tears when we told him the name, the big guy melting into a pile of mush.
Our little family might be far from traditional, but it’s damn near bursting with love.
Epilogue
Tessa
Six months later…
“You’re not wearing that.” Sean’s sitting in the corner chair, his legs outstretched in his jeans, and his plain white T-shirt makes the tattoos on his arms stand out. When I lie in bed at night, I always find myself tracing his newest one. It’s my name, and he plans on getting Marcus’s name, too.
“This is the third one I’ve tried on. Everything else I have is more beach-dress and not a night-out-dress.” I give him my best pout.
I really don’t think it’s that showy. The bottom part is flowy, stopping mid-thigh, but the top hugs my breasts. It gives me a perfect, curvy, hourglass shape. I’d ordered multiple dresses a few months back and called them my ‘goal dresses’ for after I had the baby. They’re now fitting perfectly, which only makes me more excited about our first date night on the main island since we had little Marcus. I love him to pieces, but I’m so okay with leaving him with Marie and Sal for the night. Hell, Marie taught me everything I know about having a baby.
He growls, standing up from his chair, and I know what’s coming. I dart for the bathroom, trying to close the door, but he’s way faster than me. Before I know it, my ass is planted on the bathroom counter, my skirt bunched around my waist, and my underwear pulled to the side.
“Take me out,” he snarls, staring down at my pussy.
I quickly do as I’m told, getting more turned on by the second. When his cock springs free, he grabs it and rubs it against my clit.
“Oh, God,” I moan. His mouth crashes down on mine as he works his cock back and forth on my clit, picking up speed. There are no slow teases. He’s not dragging this out. It’s clear Sean is on a mission to cum sooner rather than later.
“Have you tried on all these dresses for me? Got me so fucking hard thinking about taking it off you when we get home tonight. But knowing you’d be walking around for people to see you like this, that has me having a whole other feeling.” He p
ulls away from my mouth, looking down at me while he continues to stroke his cock against my clit.
I’m only catching about every other word he’s saying.
“You’re going to let me mark your pussy. That way I know when you’re walking around with me tonight, I’m all over this sweet little cunt. That it’s mine. Only mine.”
The pressure on my clit and the dirty picture he describes make me cum instantly, his possessive words sending me over the edge.
“Say it,” he grunts, and I feel his release start to spill onto me.
“Only yours,” I moan, as he continues to rub himself across my clit, milking both our orgasms. He uses the head of his cock to smear his cum around, making sure my pussy is covered in it before pulling my panties back into place.
He tucks himself back into his pants and pulls me off the counter.
“All better?” I tease, looking up at him.
“It helped, but only tonight will tell.”
I turn to look in the mirror and see my lipstick is smudged.
“I’m going to need another five minutes,” I tell him as he stands behind me, looking at him in the mirror. He moves in closer, moving my hair off one shoulder, kissing me there before taking a light bite.
“Why? You look well loved by your man. Nothing fucking hotter than that.”
I have to agree.
Needless to say, it still takes us another hour before we finally make it to the main island and to our dinner reservations.
The food was good but not as good as Marie’s. But it’s nice to be out, just the two of us. I drink champagne, almost killing half a bottle by myself.
“I’m going to have to pump and dump,” I say. Sean pulls me from my chair and leads me out of the restaurant to our next spot.
“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of that when we get home.”
My pussy clenches at his words, knowing what he means. Sean can’t seem to get enough of my breasts since I’ve had Marcus.