by Joanna Blake
Nick leaned down and whispered in my ear, sending spirals of pleasure through my body.
"I think they heard us."
I felt my whole body turn pink as he sat down beside me.
"I'd like to help out with the cooking, if that's alright."
Julio nodded.
"We heard you are pretty good at that. Among other things."
They all laughed. Nico seemed to take it in stride. But I felt embarrassed.
Happy, but embarrassed.
I thought about what had happened last night as we ate. I knew it had been inevitable. Everything that happened last night would have happened sooner or later. That's just the way it was between us. I had planned on making him wait a bit longer though.
I glanced at Nicholas shyly. He was so handsome. So kind. So wonderful to me. I decided it didn't matter either way.
If he wanted to be with me, and be a father to our child, I would be grateful.
"Come on, Nick. Time to start helping out."
I watched as Al and Julio pulled Nick outside. I looked at Lisa. She leaned over and whispered to me.
"I think Nick is about to get hazed."
"Oh no."
"Don't worry, they are just going to put him through his paces."
She smirked at me, sipping her coffee.
"Since he put you through yours last night."
I blushed and bent my head, forcing myself to eat some toast with fruit preserves. I knew it would probably come up again soon, but I needed food. I was feeling a bit tired come to mention it...
"So. What did you guys talk about?"
I stopped eating to look at her.
"Well, we didn't exactly talk."
Lisa grinned at me.
"Tell me everything."
I laughed.
"I never kiss and tell."
She pouted.
"Spoil sport. Oh well, at least one of us is getting laid."
I laughed and helped her clean the table. Whoever lingered last did it, girls or boys. It was another thing I loved about this place. We washed and dried the dishes quickly, having another cup of coffee before we headed out.
Well, she had coffee. I had weak tea. The whole time she gave me longing looks. I knew she wanted the gory details. But I didn't want to talk about Nico. Not yet.
"You're really not going to tell me are you?"
I shook my head, smiling apologetically. She sighed dramatically and winked.
"Come on, let's go feed the hens."
I nodded and grabbed an apron from the rack by the door.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Nicholas
Squish.
I looked down at my Italian leather shoes. I had just stepped in goat shit. Again.
I smiled. Nothing was going to get me down today.
Later, I would put on a pair of more practical shoes. Right now I was doing something far more important.
Proving myself.
Establishing dominance.
Taking my place in the pecking order.
Basically, I was making sure the guys that had looked after Rosie all these weeks didn't hate me. I would hate me too if I were them. But apparently, they were the ones who had made her listen to the article.
They were really enjoying telling that story again and again.
How the magazine cover had made her face go pale. How she'd refused to read it.
How she'd vomited midway through.
That had been the baby of course. But still. If they wanted to make me feel lower than a snake, they had done it. Not that I needed any help in that department.
I bent down, heaving another shovel full of goat dung. It wasn't so bad really. They mostly ate hay. It didn't smell too bad. Well, except when it was fresh.
Once the area was clear I would make a clean pile of hay. They slept in this covered enclosure, and did everything else here too apparently. Snacked, rutted, pooped.
They pooped a lot.
I shook my head. Cute they might be. But goats were smelly.
I worked twice as fast as everyone else. They were mostly just telling me stories about Rosie. How sad she'd been when she got here. How the locals serenaded her whenever she went into town.
How she had had multiple marriage offers from the men in the village, all without speaking a word of Spanish.
I said nothing. I just bent, lifted and tossed the dung into the hole I'd already dug in the ground. Apparently, that's what they did with dung.
"Uh oh."
"What?"
I stopped, wiping my shirt sleeve over my brow.
"It's time for her morning puke. Way to go, dude."
I looked over my shoulder in time to see Rosie running for the bushes. I handed Al my shovel and took off without a word. I followed her, feeling helpless while I watched her heave.
"You okay?"
She held her hand back, waving it at me. I frowned. It seemed horrible that she went through this every day. If I had felt guilt before, now I felt actual gut wrenching shame.
"Let me get you a drink."
She leaned against the wall, wiping her mouth.
"Thanks."
She followed me back to the house and sat on the porch steps while I got her a glass of water. She took it gratefully and sipped, the color gradually coming back to her cheeks.
"Every day?"
She nodded.
"I'm lucky. I read that some women are sick all day, every day. All nine months. Hopefully this will be over soon."
I frowned.
"Should you see a doctor?"
She gave me a glance.
"I did see a doctor. Julio takes me to Granada every other week."
"I will take you next time."
She smiled at me.
"I would like that. I kind of wish you hadn't seen that though."
"What? You think I can't handle a little puke?"
She giggled. I sat down beside her.
"You look particularly beautiful while vomiting."
Now she was laughing, a bit of water dripping down her chin. I brushed her hair behind her ear.
"You're a mess."
"And you smell like goat shit."
I shrugged.
"I'm a farmer. That's how we smell sometimes. It's a manly scent."
She was giggling as I took the glass from her.
"More?"
She shook her head. I leaned over and kissed her cheek. Then I let my lips wander over to her ear.
"I have an idea."
"What?"
"Let's go swimming."
Rosalie
I followed Nick through the woods along the rough path. It was originally an animal path that we widened and smoothed out. There were even rough stone steps built into a few spots where it was steep. It wasn't too muddy today thankfully. The heat dried out the ground pretty fast around here.
He smiled over his shoulder at me as he pulled me along. I stared at our hands intertwined. It felt right.
A week ago, I thought I would never see him again.
But now...
"Let's get you out of these dirty clothes."
I laughed.
"What, so I can get right back into them again later?"
He shrugged.
"I'm living in the moment."
I held my breath as he peeled his shirt off. It was sticking to his muscular frame. I licked my lips unconsciously and he grinned at me, reaching for his pants.
I felt shy suddenly, turning around. I heard a low chuckle and the sound of his clothes hitting the ground. Then I felt his hands tugging at my shirt.
His breath tickled my ear as he gave me orders in a husky voice.
"Lift your arms."
I took a deep breath and did as he asked. I felt the air hit my skin as he pulled my top up and over my head. Then he reached for the waist of my jeans. He undid them and tugged them down over my hips. Then he rolled my panties down to my ankles.
"Lift your leg."
He pulled off one of my boots
, and then the other. I was totally naked. I knew without turning around that he was also.
Somehow I felt extra naked.
Maybe it was because we were outside. Or because we hadn't seen each other naked in the daylight in so long. Whatever it was, it was extremely erotic.
I tried to calm my breathing but I was practically hyperventilating. I had never been so nervous and excited at the same time.
That's when he nipped my ass, grazing my cheek with his teeth.
"I have missed this particular part of you... almost as much as your heart."
I closed my eyes as his arms closed around me. His lips were on my neck, his hands were... everywhere. He tweaked my nipples, making me arch my back against him. His tongue licked my neck as he reached between my thighs. He stroked me until I was dripping. I rocked back against his erection, moaning.
He chuckled again, tasting his finger.
"Very nice. I had something else in mind today though..."
I gasped as he lifted me up, walking straight into the pool. The cool water felt so good on my sticky, hot skin. He was warm against me, providing a sharp contrast to the crystal clear water.
"Let me clean you up a bit before I take what I want."
I let him run his hands over me. He seemed particularly focused on my bottom. I wondered if that meant he wanted to do it that way...
Oh!
He slipped a finger inside me.
He definitely wanted to.
"Oh Rosie... you're so tight..."
He used one hand on my clit and the other on my bottom as I stood in the water, submerged to my shoulders. I leaned my head against his chest as he toyed with me, utterly focused.
"Hmmmm Rosie... yes, that's it...."
I was rocking my hips against him as I felt him slip another finger inside my bottom. It felt good, almost too good. Like I was going to come just from that alone.
I started to shake as it hit me, the orgasm taking me by surprise. He turned me, pressing me against a sun warmed rock at the edge of the pool. Then I felt the tip of his cock press against my ass.
He grunted as he pushed himself inside me. He penetrated me slowly, but without stopping. He didn't pause until he was fully seated in my ass. He held me firmly in place. Then he flexed his hips, working his cock inside me at the deepest level.
He was making low sounds, like an animal, his breath on the back of my neck. I was held immobile by his cock as he rocked in and out of me without pulling out more than an inch. It was so deep, so intense that I knew I was close to coming again.
It was just a matter of time.
Seconds, or minutes?
That's when his hands moved to my nipples, tweaking them. I cried out, my body rocking backwards as I came. I was aching between my thighs in need as he groaned, fucking me harder now.
His hands stayed where they were, fingering my nipples as I came endlessly.
"Nico... please..."
He bit my shoulder and reached down, lower. His fingers found my pussy lips and started to apply the pressure I so desperately craved. His cock seemed to lurch inside me as he started to ride me harder and faster.
My body felt like one big raw nerve, being pleasured from every direction. His hot skin against my back. The warm hard rock. His cock inside me. The cool water. The sun. His fingers, relentlessly circling my clit.
I screamed as I came this time. He groaned as his cock released inside me at the same time. He drove forward harder.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Then he wrapped his arms around me and squeezed. Both of us were still shaking as he whispered against my ear.
"I love you Rosie."
I smiled, draped sleepily over the rock.
"And I've been wanting to do that since I heard the word 'waterfall'."
I laughed.
"If I had the strength, I would slap you. Not hard of course."
He was still inside me, his body curved over mine.
"Marry me Rosie."
I looked over my shoulder at him.
"What?"
He grinned, flexing his hips. He was hard again.
"I promise to be a good husband."
He reached down and squeezed my tits playfully.
"Very, very good."
"I- oh!"
He started fucking me again. I was in shock, from the things he was doing to my body. And what he had said. He had asked me to marry him... did he mean it?"
"Marry me."
He kept saying it as he plowed into me from behind. He said it as he brought me to the edge, again and again.
He said it as he kept me from coming. He said it as I whimpered and begged for release.
"Marry me..."
"Yes!"
Everything changed. He started to thrust harder. His touch was suddenly possessive in a way I hadn't felt before. He worked me on his cock, groaning in his pleasure. Just as he started to come, he reached down and flicked his finger against me rapidly.
And then I came with him.
Hard.
So hard, I almost knocked my head against the rock in front of me. But Nico's hand was there to protect me. Even as he convulsed behind me, he protected me.
I knew in that moment that he always would.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Nicholas
I was the happiest man alive. Even after I'd lost everything. Somehow, by some incredible twist of fate, I'd regained everything that mattered.
It wasn't fate though.
It was Rosie.
Julio was leading me up a path through the property to another ramshackle old farmhouse. It was on the other side of the property, past the waterfall. He said it had been his intention to build a sort of commune. Which he had done.
But he was willing to sell off part of the land, if we agreed never to develop it. It had to be used for wildlife or animal preservation.
That was not going to be a problem.
He was giving us an incredible deal too. Us. Not that Rosie had any idea what I was up to.
"The house needs a lot of work, but the bones are there."
I nodded, following him up to the farm house. It was stone with faded green shutters. It almost looked French.
"You are being more than generous."
Julio laughed, clapping me on the back.
"I hope you think so after you spend all your time working on the place and changing diapers!"
He glanced at me as we stared up at the old house.
"Besides, I couldn't let you run off with her. Who would look after the goats?"
I laughed, shaking my head. I'd only been here a few weeks but I knew he was right. Rosie loved those goats. Almost as much as she was going to love this. I hoped.
I knew she would love the other surprise I had for her.
"They will be here this afternoon?"
I nodded.
"Thank you for your help coordinating all this."
"Like I said, I couldn't let you steal Rosie away. We love her too."
I clasped my hand on his back.
"You are a true friend. To both of us."
He slapped my back, even harder. Oh yes, Julio and I were more than a little competitive with each other. In a friendly way of course.
Mostly.
"Like I had a choice!"
I laughed as we walked back towards the Sanctuary.
"Now I just need to get her to stop working for a little while..."
"Make her a fat lunch Nick! Then she won't be able to move too fast!"
I grinned. I'd taken over most of the cooking for the Sanctuary. It had made me instantly more popular with the other volunteers.
"That's not a bad idea, Julio. Not a bad idea at all."
Rosalie
"Keep your eyes closed!"
I felt myself being bounced up and down as Nick carried me down the road. I had no idea what he was up to. But I was getting a little bit dizzy from being carried with my eyes closed!
"Nico..."
"Are you nauseous?"
"No."
He squeezed me, kissing my brow. I wasn't getting morning sickness anymore, thankfully. Now that I was out of the first trimester, it had stopped. I seemed to be one of the lucky ones.
I felt wonderful.
Much of that had to do with Nico. He spoiled me, even as he worked beside me.
It was perfect. I could not ask for one more thing. Other than the safe birth of our healthy child. We still had almost five month to go before that.
He set me down on my feet and kissed me.
"This is it. You can open your eyes now."
I stared up at the house. It was charming, in a delapitated way. A large stone farmhouse with an attached barn. It wasn't falling down completely, but it wasn't exactly hospitable. I turned in a circle. We were high on a hill, not far from the Sanctuary but surrounded by trees. I could see the ocean from all the way up here. It was idyllic.
"I know it needs work, but I've already started."
"You?"
He nodded proudly.
"I bought it. From Julio. We had one other idea too."
"You what?"
I scowled at him. I pushed him away from me and started walking in a circle.
"Men! I swear. He spends all his money and doesn't even ask me. What about me? Oh, right, I'm just a woman! Why would they bother asking me what I thought?"
"Rosie? Sweetheart, I thought you would be happy. We can stay here with your friends now, and still have our own place. That's what you wanted, isn't it?"
Nicholas looked worried. He had never really seen me angry before. He looked petrified.
"How could you spend all your money like this!"
"Well, no, not all my money. I had quite a bit socked away you know."
I frowned at him.
"What about your dream of opening a restaurant?"
He brightened, smiling at me.
"That's the other thing Julio and I were talking about. A restaurant in town. Closer to the sea."
"What?"
"It would be a partnership. Part of the profits would go to support the Sanctuary."
I felt a suspicious stinging behind my eyes. The next thing I knew, I was bawling.
"What is it? Did I do something wrong?"
I shook my head, really crying now.