by ANDREA SMITH
Mrs. Harris had watched Preston for me while I kept my appointment with Dr. Addison. She was an absolute dear with the baby; watching her occasionally on her days at our apartment so that I could run quick errands or keep appointments for various wedding preparations.
Preston was awake in her swing when I got back to the apartment. Jean was singing while she dusted the living room. Preston was swinging back and forth, content to watch her. She immediately recognized my voice as I greeted Jean and then bent down to talk to her. She smiled, dimpling me with her Trey dimple that warmed my heart.
“That's one good baby you have there, Tylar,” Jean said as she continued dusting. “She never gives me a bit of trouble. Whatever you're doing, it sure does make her one happy little baby girl, I can tell you that.”
I beamed with pride. Having no experience with babies, it meant a lot that someone like Jean who had children of her own would recognize I was doing something right. Of course, I had to give Trey his just due. He was a very participative father.
“Thanks, Jean,” I said, lifting Preston from her swing. I couldn’t get enough of her baby smell. I pressed her close to me, planting soft kisses on her head. She snuggled against me.
“She sure does look like her daddy,” Jean commented. “Though, I think she has your mouth and nose,” she quickly added. “Between the both of you, Preston's going to be one beautiful girl."
“I think so too, although it’s mostly from Trey. He's quite a handsome man.”
“Don’t sell yourself short. You're a mighty handsome woman yourself. Why, you and Mr. Sinclair complement each other with your good looks. That baby's got the best of both. Anyone can see that.”
“I want to tell you how much I appreciate you watching her while I kept my appointment. I'm very protective of her and you feel like family - I hope I’m not imposing--”
“Not one bit,” she assured me as she finished up in the living room.
“It does my heart good to care for a little one, again. I feel like family with her too.”
Preston was squirming in my arms, a sign she was either hungry or needed a diaper change. I decided I'd check her diaper first. I headed to the nursery laying her down on her changing table. She promptly started sucking her thumb; her big blue eyes followed me as I crossed the room to get the tube of ointment off the dresser. She was kicking her little legs as I unsnapped her onesie and ripped the taped tabs off of her disposable diaper.
“Pee-Yew!” I said, pinching my nose and smiling down at her. “Somebody has a stinky poo-poo in her diaper, doesn’t she?”
She grinned at me, momentarily forgetting about her thumb, kicking her legs as I removed the dirty diaper and wiped her clean. Once freshly diapered, I carried her into our bedroom and settled down on the bed with her. I grabbed my nursing pillow so that I could comfortably feed her cradled against me on the pillow.
I pulled a blanket up to partially cover us. It was so cozy nestled with her that I ended up dozing off as she nursed contentedly encircled in my arms. It must've been an hour or more later that Trey lifted a sleeping Preston from my arms, gently placing her into the bassinet near our bed. I awoke and yawned, stretching languidly as I pulled the blanket up further. My nap was delicious. I didn’t want it to end now that I knew Preston was snuggled up in her bassinet sawing logs.
Trey was beside me in a moment, wrapping me in his arms, kissing my neck. He fondled the bare breast that Preston had just left.
“What did the doctor say today, baby?”
Uh oh.
“Well, he said that it looks as if I'm healing up nicely.”
No lie there.
“So? Are we good to go, then?”
“How romantic, Mr. Sinclair,” I commented wryly.
“Baby, it’s been a total of seven weeks since I've been able to sink myself into you. I’m not thinking romance at the moment.”
I looked up at him warily, not sure what his response was going to be when I presented my idea to him. “Will you consider something and I mean really consider it, before answering?”
He cocked an eyebrow now looking at me warily, waiting for what I was about to spring on him. “Go on,” he urged.
I sat up in order to face him squarely while we discussed this. At least I was hopeful that it would be open for discussion. “We're getting married in less than four weeks,” I started. “I was hoping that you'd be agreeable to abstaining from, well, from any form of sex until our honeymoon.”
I blurted the last part out hurriedly afraid I'd chicken out if I delayed the inevitable.
“You've got to be fucking kidding me,” he practically screeched. “Why?”
“I know you're probably thinking ‘what’s the point’ in doing this, I get that, but honey, I’m just asking for some semblance of tradition. I think it'll add so much more mystique and romanticism to the wedding and honeymoon. It’s just as rough on me as it is on you, believe me. . . Please, for me?”
He was glaring at me in disbelief, but at least he wasn't shouting, nor had he given me a definitive ‘no.’ He raked both hands through his hair.
Not a good sign, double raking.
“Tylar, what exactly will that prove? I mean, I’m horny as hell for you right this minute. It seems like it's been months instead of weeks. Don’t you miss it?”
“I just said I did. How could you think that it hasn’t been hard for me as well? I just want that feeling back like when it was our first time. Just a little bit of mystery because we're sort of ‘rediscovering’ ourselves on our honeymoon. I know it may seem ridiculous to you. If you say ‘no’ I won’t be mad or anything.”
I knew that last part would really get to him. I was counting on it to at least.
“What the hell? When you put it like that I guess I'd be some uncouth caveman if I didn’t honor your request, now wouldn’t I?”
“Are you angry?”
“I’m just a bit disappointed. I’ll get over it.”
He raised himself off of the bed, loosening his tie and unbuttoning his dress shirt to get into his sweats, which were his usual after work garb.
I went to the kitchen and prepared dinner. I broiled some steaks and made a salad. We ate in silence. I tried to strike up a conversation, asking about things at the office. Trey was giving me one or two word answers. This wasn't working. Halfway through dinner, I stood up, scraped my uneaten portion into the trash and went into the laundry room to check on the load of Preston’s clothing that I'd washed separate from ours.
I was folding her clothes when Trey came in a few minutes later his cell phone in hand.
“Mom's on the phone,” he said. “She wants to talk to you.”
Oh dear God!
Had he called his mother to complain about my requested abstinence until we marry? I took the phone, giving him an obvious glare in the process.
“Hello,” I greeted tentatively.
“Hi there, Tylar,” Susan gushed, “How's my grandbaby doing? I bet she's grown a foot since Grandma left her,” she whined. I had to smile.
“Not quite,” I replied, “but it does seem as if she changes just a little bit every day.”
“Well, sweetie, I won’t keep you. I just wanted to finalize some of the arrangements as far as the music and caterers we’ve lined up. Do you have just a few minutes?”
“Of course,” I answered, relieved Trey hadn't complained to her about my latest request. I should've known he wouldn’t run to Mommy. What had I been thinking?
Susan and I discussed the arrangements with respect to the music and food. I'd absolutely put my foot down with having a huge extravagant wedding since in fact the bride’s parents were supposed to foot the bill and that was a moot point for me. Trey and I insisted on covering the expense of it even though Clive and Susan wanted to do it. The other reason was that I simply had no family to invite. We'd decided on close family and friends. Gina and Denise would be my attendants; Tristan was Trey’s best man; Ray was his groomsman.
; The wedding would be held over at the ‘Belle on the grounds of the mansion. The reception would be held close by in the area that was under roof just for occasions such as that. We were going to have a formal sit down dinner, with a live band that Ian had selected for us.
Our ceremony was to be a sunset wedding so that the heat of July would've cooled down somewhat. Our vows would be exchanged on the enormous front porch of the mansion, while guest seating would be on the front lawn of the estate. Susan had arranged for the flowers and landscaping. She allowed no arguments there.
Clive and Tess would be attending, now that his divorce was final from Caroline. Thank God there would be no Caroline or Landon to deal with. I was secretly glad that Tess would be in attendance witnessing Trey’s declaration of love and commitment to me. Susan and I'd wrapped up the details when she sprung a question that caught me a bit off guard.
“Is everything alright between you and Trey, sweetie?”
Where the hell did that come from?
I stammered a bit, not sure what she already knew or what she simply suspected from talking to Trey and then me.
“Honey, I’m not trying to nose into your business, but I'm a mother and I can tell that Trey seemed a bit distracted and I'm picking up the same vibe with you. Is there anything you want to talk about?”
“It’s just,” I stammered, flushing. This was the kind of thing I would've talked to my own mom about (had she been a normal ‘mom’ type.) But this was Trey’s mom and I wasn’t sure if confiding in her crossed some sort of boyfriend/girlfriend line or not.
“Honey, tell me, unless you're not comfortable sharing it with me.”
Damn, I didn’t want to hurt her feelings. The truth was another opinion would be objective; right now, objectivity was what I needed.
“It’s just that my doctor has cleared me physically to have, you know, to have ‘relations’ again.”
God, this isn’t easy!
“Uh huh,” she said, seemingly unaffected by the content of our discussion so far.
“So, anyway, I sort of suggested to Trey that maybe it'd be kind of romantic and traditional if we abstained until after the wedding. . .”
“I see,” she replied, the amusement evident in her voice.
“And my son wasn't pleased with this request, I take it?”
“Not at all,” I replied.
“Honey, I think this is a very reasonable request and I totally understand the spirit in which it was suggested. What you have to understand is that men don’t necessarily think along the same lines that we women do. I can’t tell you what the right thing is; I can tell you that what you’ve requested in my opinion isn't unreasonable. It’s up to you as to whether you can put up with his pouting for the next few weeks. I know Trey and I’m betting in the next few days you and he'll work something out together.”
She was right; we needed to work it out together. Perhaps I needed to bring Trey into the fold regarding the family bed and use that as leverage so that we could work out some sort of a compromise. I got off of the phone with Susan promising to email her some recent pictures of Preston. I had the small basket of Preston’s clothes folded and headed down the hall to put them in her room.
As I approached Trey’s study, I could hear him talking to someone. I peered in seeing him in his swivel chair, leaning back with Preston in his arms. He was feeding her a bottle. She must've awakened while I was on the phone. I stopped to watch his interaction with her as he fed her. He didn’t see me in the hallway.
He talked to her, calling her "Bobbin". He told her how much he loved her and what a good baby she was and that she was Daddy’s girl. My heart was heavy with the love I had for him. I thought about all that he'd gone through these past several months.
The holidays had been one huge fucked-up mess after another. My roller-coaster hormonal pregnancy hadn't helped either. He'd spent many hours of his own time handling my affairs with respect to my missing-in-action mother; negotiating a settlement on the depletion of my trust; trying to uncover the mystery behind the trustor believed to be my natural father and handling his full-time job as a law partner and lover to me.
I loved him so much. I needed to show him that it wasn’t always about me and what I wanted. I went into his office. He looked up as I entered and smiled. Preston’s fingers were wrapped around his again as she stared up at him with her big blue eyes.
“Do you want me to finish feeding her?" I asked softly.
“No, I’ve got this,” he answered. “I miss her during the day, you know.”
“I know, sweetie.”
“So, what'd Mom want to discuss?”
“Just some last minute stuff with the wedding,” I replied.
“Everything seems to be on track. I have my final fitting on my dress tomorrow. Gina and I are going together so I’ll take Preston with me since it’s not Jean’s day to be here.”
“Sounds good,” he remarked, watching the baby with a look of love and amusement on his face as she continued to gaze up at him draining her bottle. “Hey,” he said, “I’ll go ahead and finish feeding her then change her for bed. Why don’t you go ahead and get a nice leisurely bath, if you want.”
“Really?” I asked. “That sounds so good at the moment.”
“Go ahead, baby. I’ve got this covered.”
I went over and leaned down, brushing a kiss on his lips.
“Thank you, Trey,” I said. I quickly left his office, anxious to enjoy some leisure time in the bathroom. An hour later, having emerged from an absolutely lovely bubble bath, I dressed with care in one of my sexiest nightgowns. I blew my hair dry, pulling it up on top of my head with a comb so that it looked tousled and sexy. My breasts were fairly bursting from the plunging neckline of my nightgown. I inserted my diaphragm, coated with the spermicidal jelly recommended.
I exited the bathroom and headed down the hallway. Trey was in Preston’s nursery, having changed and dressed her in pajamas. He was rocking her, singing to her softly. When he saw me standing in the doorway, dressed as I was, he stopped singing mid-sentence.
“Is she asleep?” I asked.
He stopped rocking her and held her from him making sure that her eyes were closed. “Yep,” he answered with a sly smile.
“Let’s put her to bed then. How much longer do you plan on staying up?”
“I’m ready now,” he breathed, his gaze burning into me like a hungry flame.
We tucked Preston into her bassinet in our room. She immediately found her thumb without waking. I leaned down, kissing her soft, chubby little cheek. When I straightened up Trey was right beside me, pulling me towards him and pressing me against him. His lips found mine, possessing them hungrily. We devoured each other with that kiss.
I felt warm all over, craving something that I'd not had in quite a while. He lifted me up, gently placing me on the bed, his eyes perused me appreciatively. I watched as he pulled the drawstring on his sweats, letting them slide down over his slim hips and muscular thighs. He had no boxers on so his erect manhood was in full spectacular view. He pulled his tee shirt up and over his shoulders, tossing it to the floor. He put his knee on the bed, leaning over and scooping me up into his embrace. His fingers lightly touched the plunging neckline of my nightie, pulling it lower, springing one of my breasts free so that his hand could caress and massage it.
I watched as his head lowered taking the nipple into his mouth and sucking gently while kneading it with his fingertips.
“Mmmm,” he moaned softly, “breast milk isn’t all that bad,” he breathed, circling my erect nipple with his tongue over and over again. He continued suckling, then moved to free my other breast, giving it a share of his attention.
“I guess I’d better leave some for Preston, huh?” he asked, giving me his crooked grin as his mouth moved back to capture mine. I laced my arms around his neck, pulling him down on top of me. I was greedily pushing my pelvis against his bulging manhood.
“Easy, easy, baby,” he brea
thed, kissing my lips again and again softly. "Let’s take our time, okay?”
Trey sat back on his haunches, pulling me up into a sitting position, raising my arms above my head so that he could slip my nightgown up and over my head. I hadn’t bothered with panties so I was fully naked with him. He lifted me as he positioned himself on his back, settling me down on him, my sex resting against his abdomen. I could feel that I was totally wet down there already.
His fingers plied my sex, his thumb pressing the outside while he inserted two fingers to gently rub the inside beneath my pubic bone. The warmth spread through me causing me to tingle in anticipation of my release. My hands were all over him; pulling him closer to me. I wanted him buried inside of me right now.
“I love you,” I whimpered, lowering myself against his chest, wrapping my arms around him.
For some strange reason, tears were pouring down my cheeks.
What's this about?
Trey was kissing my lips and felt the wetness of my tears as they rolled down my cheeks. He raised himself up, into a sitting position, staring at me intently. “Baby, what’s wrong?” he asked, totally confused.
“I’m not sure. I just know that I love you so much and maybe I've not been conveying that properly the past several weeks. I feel like I’ve neglected you,” I wailed.
He immediately sat up, pulling me with him.
Great! The first time we’re cleared for sex I fuck it up with my outrageous hormones!
I was on his lap; he had his arms wrapped around me tightly, rocking me back and forth. I think perhaps the “baby blues” I'd read about in my book were showing their ugly head.
“Sweetie, you’ve not neglected me at all, okay? I’m so proud of what a great mother you are to our baby; you’re going to be a fantastic wife and lover to me, as well. This is all new to you, sweetie. I can see how much Preston loves you; the way she can’t take her eyes off of you whenever you’re in the room. I feel like I’ve expected too much from you. I’m sorry, really sorry. I’ve been selfish, I know.”