The Lover: Book 3 in The Bride Series

by S Doyle

  She smiled. A full-blown Ellie smile. Finally, FINALLY, I knew I had said the right thing.

  “Okay. I’ll tell Frank. Two weeks.”

  I nodded, satisfied. I looked down at my plate and realized I hadn’t taken a bite and it was because I had this feeling of dread in my stomach. Like Ellie was going to tell me she didn’t want me or the baby. But of course that didn’t happen. So I was hungry again.

  “Speaking of the wedding…”

  See, that was awesome. She was talking about the wedding. The wedding that was going to happen between us. Soon. Making us husband and wife. Officially for real this time.

  “Yep,” I said even as I took a large bite of the burger I’d ordered.

  “I want it to be more than just us. I want friends there. I already asked Chrissy to be my maid of honor. I think you should invite Don and his wife. They’re your friends.”

  I rolled the idea around in my head. Part of me was hesitant. I didn’t want people to know why we were doing this so fast. I also didn’t want people to think… that I was just marrying her because of this.

  Maybe I didn’t want to people to think she was marrying me just because of this.

  But Ellie gave me a legitimate smile today, and it was the first one I had had since before leaving on my fishing trip. I would give her anything she wanted.

  “Sure. We can do that. Plan a nice reception back at the house.”

  Another full-blown smile. And she was clapping, in that way that she did like I had just given her the universe. Had I ever told her how that made me feel? Probably not. It wasn’t like I was someone who shared emotions easily, but when she did that, when she clapped like a little girl on Christmas morning getting her first toy, it always made me feel as if I had achieved something. I had made Ellie happy, ergo I had accomplished a victory.

  “Okay. But that means we have to wait at least a month. You have to give people notice. They need a chance to put it in their calendars. Plus I want to shop for a dress, not some big deal dress or anything, just something nice and pretty. We’ll need to plan a guest list and a menu for the reception. All of that takes time.”

  I frowned.

  “One month, Jake, and don’t go all eighteen hundreds on me. I know you think you’re going to be able to hide it from everyone about why we needed to get married. That we’ll just say the baby was a little early or something, but it’s the twenty-first century. People know better.”

  She was right. People were going to know, but that didn’t mean I had to like it. Still, one month didn’t seem too long to wait.

  “Okay. Whatever that Saturday is a month from now.”

  “You won’t regret it,” she said with a bit of smug satisfaction.

  “But you move home next week.”

  “Yes, Jake,” she agreed. I knew she was placating me, but I didn’t care. The good news was after our talk, she was eating again.

  Which was good. Because she was eating for two.

  Fourteen

  Ellie

  July

  “Are you kidding me right now?”

  It was my first night back home. We had packed up all my stuff, and when I say we I meant Jake because he wouldn’t let me lift anything that was heavier than a pound. I had given Frank notice that day after Jake and I had lunch. He hadn’t been thrilled about it, but he’d seemed resigned. After all, he knew eventually I had to go home. I did tell him Chrissy was looking for summer work, and then he’d looked at me like I had two heads.

  Chrissy didn’t exactly have a reputation for being super reliable, but at least she wouldn’t spill stuff on people. At least I didn’t think she would, but that was Frank’s call to make.

  Meanwhile I’d let Bella know I was heading home. She’d just smiled at me and said it was about time.

  Two weeks later, Jake had driven out to town and took all my stuff to his truck, and then I’d followed him home in my truck. He’d grilled steak for dinner while I unpacked the essentials. Mostly my toothbrush, moisturizer, brush, hair dryer, some clothes, and my scales.

  It had been hard call on what number to give the scale. On the one hand I was thrilled to have them back where they belonged. On my kitchen counter. On the other hand they were only back on the kitchen counter because I was knocked up.

  Ultimately, I had settled on seven. It was a good number for how I felt.

  Now we were in bed, which was kind of weird because this was how it was going to be for the rest of our lives. Not that we hadn’t slept together. I had stayed over some nights and Jake had stayed over with me some nights, obviously. But this was it. This was official.

  This was the start of our life together.

  Which I thought should begin with awesome and amazing sex.

  He thought otherwise.

  Which is why I asked him, “Are you kidding me right now?”

  He was reading one of his ranching magazines, so he wasn’t looking at me when he said, “You’ve had a long day on your feet, up and down the steps, packing and unpacking. You need to rest.”

  I flopped back on the bed. “Ugh! Jake Talley! Please tell me you’re not going to do this through the entire pregnancy.”

  “Make sure you’re well fed, well rested, and looked after. Yes, Ellie I am.”

  “How many times do I have to tell you, I’m not china. I’m perfectly healthy and sex isn’t going to hurt me. It’s going to make me feel good.”

  He glanced at me and I knew he was caving, but then he seemed to make up his mind.

  “Not tonight.”

  “You’re being ridiculous,” I said as I settled under the covers.

  “I don’t think I am.”

  The worst part was as soon as I put my head down on the pillow I let out this massive yawn.

  “Told you,” he muttered.

  “Know-it-all.”

  I turned on my side to watch him read for a bit. “This is a first for us.”

  “How so?”

  “It’s the first time we’re sleeping together without having sex first.”

  He looked down at me. “You know we’re going to be married. For life. It’s not like we’re going to have sex every single night.”

  “Why not?”

  He laughed. “You’re going kill me.”

  I settled into my pillow and then I reached out to touch his arm. Just because I could.

  He didn’t pull back or shrug me off. Instead he let me stroke him with my fingers.

  “Are you scared at all?” I wondered. “You know, about the whole parenting thing.”

  He looked up from his magazine and then he got this strange faraway expression on his face, like he was looking into the past or the future, it was hard to tell.

  “Desperately, Ellie. But I can promise you I’m going try my best.”

  “Of course you are, Jake.”

  Then I got drowsy and I could feel myself drifting off to sleep.

  I guess I was tired after all.

  Jake

  She was asleep in minutes. She couldn’t see it, but I could. The dark circles under her eyes, the slump of her shoulders. She’d been bone tired by the time she got into bed, and the last thing she needed was me between her legs.

  I couldn’t help but watch her for a while. Ellie was a beautiful girl, but not while she was sleeping. She wasn’t like Snow White or Sleeping Beauty. All serenity and loveliness.

  Nope, she usually slept with her face half smushed into the pillow, with her mouth open a little. In a couple more minutes she would make this small snoring noise. It wasn’t loud or obnoxious. Just a sound I would come to know as part of the soundtrack that was Ellie.

  Hopefully, a sound I would sleep with every night of my life from here on out.

  It was one of those things I liked knowing about her. Because I was the only one who did. I was the only one, would be the only one, to ever know how Ellie looked and sounded as she slept.

  Her scales were set to seven. I knew because I checked right after she
set them up. It was a decent number, and I thought maybe she did it because of how she was feeling about the baby. Obviously she was just as scared as I was. Her question suggested as much. We would get through that, too.

  Still, in that moment, I had committed to making those scales go higher.

  To be the man who, day in and day out, made Ellie happy. A ten, on a scale of one to ten. I turned the light off on my side of the bed and tossed the magazine on the nightstand. Then I settled down next to Ellie and thought about how right this all felt.

  I listened to the sound of her soft snores until I drifted off to sleep.

  I woke up hard. Not a shock when Ellie had her hands inside my boxer briefs and was stroking me. I glanced over at her to see she was awake with this playful smile on her lips and a glimmer of mischief in her eyes.

  “I’m nice and rested now, Jake.”

  “So it would seem.”

  The sun was coming up. I had a thousand chores to take care of, but I wasn’t going anywhere. Instead I just lay there as she worked my cock, knowing now how I liked pressure on the head of it, knowing just what grip to use.

  “Fuck, that feels good.”

  She sat up then and lifted off her tank top. I reached for her breasts and I tried to feel if there was any difference. If they were bigger or more sensitive. Nothing yet so far, but that would change. I tweaked and tugged on her nipple until she squirmed. Then she pulled the covers down and straddled me.

  She pushed my boxer briefs down just far enough to have my cock out. Then, helpless against her, I watched as she positioned herself over me and took me inside. She was wet and I slid in so easily. This was my first time doing it without a condom and it felt fucking mind-blowing. So hot, so wet. Her skin on mine. I had no idea.

  I started to put my hands on her hips to guide her, but she moved them to her breasts. Then she slowly rolled herself up and down, and it was outstanding. Because I knew it was going to take me forever to come like this, so it would last. And last. Just the feel of her sliding up and down on my cock, her nipples hard bullets against the center of my palms.

  Then she was grinding against me hard, using me to get off. I watched her face as it came over her. Her beautiful fucking face.

  “Ahhhhhhh… haaaa… so good. Every time it’s so good,” she muttered.

  She was right.

  And then because she knew, because I had once told her about not coming when I was on the bottom, she slid off me and just waited there on her hands and knees. Then she wiggled her bottom and winked at me.

  I barked out a laugh, but I didn’t hesitate. Sure, I would have come eventually, but I wanted this now. I got behind her on my knees, took my wet dick in my hand and eased my way back inside her.

  She gasped and sighed as I started to pump my hips and I thought I could do this. I could so easily fuck Ellie and no one else for the rest of my life. I reached around with my hand and slid my fingers between her slit.

  I could feel her working her clit against them even as I worked my dick inside her pussy.

  “Ellie, I need you to get there,” I told her. Because I wanted her to come again and I knew I wasn’t going to last. I could feel it already in my balls.

  “Jake, Jake, Jake.”

  I loved that. I loved when she called my name. I thrust deep and hard. Then I could feel her fingers on top of mine, pressing me harder against her, and then she was moaning again.

  “Yessssss!” she cried out.

  It overtook me. The release. So intense and powerful it felt like I was pouring my come into her. She slumped underneath me and I slid out of her and spooned her from behind.

  “Happy first day of the rest of our life together,” she said.

  I kissed her on the shoulder in response. I gave myself five minutes. Five minutes to feel that post-orgasm bliss. But I was a rancher and there were chores to do.

  I started to get up.

  “Noooo,” she crooned.

  I liked that. I liked that she was upset I was leaving her. I pulled up my underwear and walked around the other side of the bed. I bent down to give her a kiss on her temple.

  “A ranch doesn’t run itself, Ellie.”

  “So you say… but have we ever tried?”

  I pulled the covers up over her. “Go back to sleep. It’s early.”

  She mumbled something but she didn’t get up. I did my normal morning routine but stopped before I left to give her another kiss. She was already asleep again. That was something else I knew about Ellie. She always got a little sleepy after sex.

  Or maybe it was the baby. Fatigue, I knew, was part of the whole pregnancy thing. I left for work with what I knew was a shit-eating grin on my face.

  Ellie

  It wasn’t a big deal. According to the internet it could mean nothing. Still, I had to be careful. I didn’t tell Jake because I knew it would freak him out.

  It was just a little spotting.

  I had been back at the house for a few days. Things were pretty great between us. I had resumed mostly my normal role. I fed chickens, I rode Petunia, I shoveled shit out of the barn. I was barred from any heavy lifting by Jake, which I had already concluded myself. I wasn’t a total idiot. But I considered myself a young, healthy person.

  There was no reason to change my workload just because I was pregnant.

  But this morning when I woke up and went to the bathroom, I noticed a few drops of dried blood in my panties. So I told Jake I needed to grocery shop, which was true, and took the truck into town.

  I stopped first at the clinic. As I walked through the door there was always that uhg, I’m here again moment. My memories of this place were nothing but bad ones. Broken bones, horrible flus, and then of course the thing that happened last year with Bobby.

  The good news however was that Mary had officially passed her boards, so she was an actual nurse now. She was behind the front desk and it looked like she was filling out some paperwork.

  “Hey, Mary.”

  “Ellie.” She smiled. “I heard you were back in town. And that you and Jake were a thing.”

  That was Riverbend. Everyone knew everyone else’s business and had absolutely no problem getting confirmation from the source.

  “Yep. Jake and I are definitely a thing.” Big, massive thing.

  “That’s not why you’re here, though. What’s up?”

  “Uh, where is Dr. Jenkins?”

  “Sorry, he just left to grab lunch. I’m all you’ve got.”

  Mary would probably be the one to examine me anyway. “Can we use the examination room? Just in case someone comes in.”

  “Sure.”

  She led me down a short hall to one of two examination rooms. We stopped at the first one and I stepped inside and sat on the paper-covered examining table.

  “Okay, now tell me what’s wrong.”

  “Not wrong really. I’m pregnant.”

  Her eyes got wide, but she said nothing.

  “At least that’s what three different little sticks told me.”

  She smiled. “Okay, well first we’re going to get that confirmed. You’re going to need to pee in a cup for me. When was your last period?”

  “April ninth or tenth, somewhere around there. Not exactly sure. It’s not like I put it on the calendar or anything.”

  “Got it.”

  “But here’s the thing. We can do this like a normal visit, but I actually came down here today because… well, this morning I had a little blood in my underwear. I checked online and read that it could be normal…”

  “It can be. Especially in the first trimester. Any cramping?”

  I shook my head. “Nothing that made me go ow.”

  Although there had been a feeling of… tightness. I guess that was the best way to describe it.

  “What about nausea?”

  I shook my head again. “No, nothing like that.”

  “Okay. Well, let’s get that sample and we’ll confirm you are pregnant. Then what you’re going
to want to do is just watch the bleeding. See if it intensifies. In the meantime, rest, avoid heavy work, no sex for a few weeks, sorry, and pads only. No tampons.”

  I nodded and then went to pee in a cup.

  I left with a sample of prenatal vitamins and sense of dread. If sex was off the table then I was going to have to tell Jake, and that meant he was going to freak out on me. I had no doubt if he could wrap me in bubble wrap for nine months he would.

  I headed over to Nash’s and bought the groceries, and thought about how to tell Jake there might be a problem.

  Or could I get away with I just wasn’t in the mood for a few weeks?

  Given the other day I woke him up with my hand down his underwear, practically begging for his dick, probably not.

  Besides, this was probably something he would get really pissed about if I didn’t tell him. He got mad when I sold the trust fund without telling him, but my excuse was that it had been my money, so it was my choice. Then again when I chose to drop out of college.

  But this baby was half him, so he had to be included in the process. I wasn’t going to track him down on the ranch, but tonight when he got home I would tell him about the spotting, the visit to the clinic, and that we would have to abstain from intercourse.

  Then I would give him a blowjob. That might help contain the freak out.

  It was a solid plan.

  Until the cramping started.

  Fifteen

  Jake

  I had just put Wyatt in his stall and was making my way out of the barn when I heard Ellie scream my name. It wasn’t a good scream either. Not the kind she gave me in bed.

  That sound. That was the sound of Ellie in pain. I started running as fast as I could and I could see her at the back door of the house. Holding on to the door frame, bent over and obviously in a lot of pain.

  I rushed to her and found her crying.

  “Something’s wrong, something’s wrong. There was some spotting and I went to the clinic and I was going tell you tonight I swear, but now it really hurts.”