Beautiful With You

by Jen Andrews

  “It can’t get any worse, right?” he asked plainly.

  I shook my head. “No, I promise it can only get better.”

  He kissed me and thanked me again.

  “Alright, what else do you have to show me?” he asked as he tipped his head toward the photo album and folder with my medical records.

  “Andy, do you still love me?”

  “Yes, of course. I never stopped,” he answered without hesitation. He reached out and rested his big hand on my cheek; the tips of his fingers edged into my hair “I love you more than anything, Zoey. Even more now after what you’ve done for me.” His hand traveled from my cheek, down my arm to grasp my engagement ring. “For us,” he whispered.

  Content with his answer and the hope that was blooming in my chest, I smiled and entwined my fingers with his. “I have some questions for you. I’m pretty sure you know I want you to just say yes to all of them.”

  He smirked and squeezed my hand. “Hey, no Snow Patrol in the conversation.”

  “Sorry, but it’s totally necessary,” I joked.

  “Alright then,” he said. A hint of light was coming back into his eyes. “Fire away.”

  I turned my body to face him, sitting cross-legged, the pillow still on my lap.

  “Now that you know what happened, will you come home?”

  “Yes.”

  “Will you marry me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Just one more question, then your inquisition is over,” I said jokingly. “Will you close your eyes for a minute?”

  “Yes,” he said. “Wait, was that the question? ’Cause if it was, it kinda sucked.” He gave me a quick kiss on the lips.

  I smacked his arm. “No smartass, that wasn’t the question.”

  He continued to smile and closed his eyes. I tossed the pillow and the covers aside and straddled his lap.

  “Keep your eyes closed,” I said as I pulled my nightgown over my head and draped it around the back of his neck.

  He raised his eyebrows. “Are you going to dance for me, Zoey?” He slid his palms up my thighs to rest on my hips.

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “Um no, not right now . . . but I am sure you could convince me to later.”

  I had tossed a couple sexy outfits in my luggage, just in case.

  He sighed. “What’s the last question?”

  “Do you still want a baby with me by the time you turn thirty?” I asked hesitantly.

  “Yes.”

  “Good answer.”

  Taking his hands from my hips, I slid them up my sides and across my belly. He flinched a bit but didn’t open his eyes. I moved his big, warm hands around on my stomach, so he could feel the roundness of it beneath his palms. His eyes blinked open when he realized what I was trying to show him. He looked at his hands on my stomach and froze.

  “Zoey?” His questioning eyes met mine.

  I nodded, letting him know what he was seeing and touching was real.

  The next several seconds, were complete confusion for him. He mumbled incoherently through the enormous grin on his face. The only words I understood were how, what, and when as he stared at my body in awe.

  I couldn’t help but laugh. It was adorable. He was in complete shock.

  The next thing I knew, he was pulling me into his arms, and again, he was crying. That of course, made me cry too.

  He was thrilled, and it made me happy.

  After a few minutes, we finally pulled apart so he could look at me again.

  “Can I put my pajamas back on?” I took my nightgown from the back of his neck.

  He nodded, still obviously in shock.

  I slipped it back over my head and he immediately pushed it back up over my stomach so he could touch it again.

  He wiped his eyes and smiled up at me. “If you’re finished with your questions, I think you have some explaining to do about this.”

  Where do I begin? “I’m eighteen weeks along,” I started.

  “Eighteen weeks?” he asked in disbelief, his brows furrowed. “How long have you known?”

  I became a little worried at the tone of his voice. “I’ve known a month. I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, but I needed to make sure everything was okay first . . . and I didn’t think it was right for me to tell you over the phone.”

  He nodded. “Go on.” He rested his hands on me again. A grin slowly eased over his face, and tears pooled in his blue eyes.

  “Do you remember back in May when I switched pills?”

  He nodded, not looking away from where his hands rested on my stomach.

  “Remember how sick I was with the flu around that time?”

  Again, he nodded.

  I was beginning to wonder if he would ever speak again.

  “Well, apparently throwing up for four days straight didn’t allow my body to absorb my birth control pills.”

  He smiled and shook his head, still touching my stomach. He was in utter disbelief. It was endearing. I laughed nervously, knowing the next thing I needed to tell him was the where portion of the story.

  “Do you remember the first night of the drags, and how I helped you with your car trailer when we got home?”

  His eyes darted back up to mine when he figured out what I was telling him.

  “Seriously?” He began laughing right along with me. Andy took his hands from my belly and covered his face with them for just a moment. He wore a proud grin on his face and shook his head while laughing.

  “Yeah, baby . . . pretty sure you knocked me up on the hood of your car.”

  He laughed harder. “Please tell me we are the only people who know about that part.”

  I nodded. “Yep, just us, and I plan on keeping it that way.”

  He kissed me. “Thank you. Just what I need is for your dad and brothers to find out about that part and beat my ass. So what else do you have to show me?” he asked as he patted the photo album.

  After leaving his lap, I sat next to him and handed him the album. He looked through the pictures I’d arranged in it. When he reached the sonogram pictures, he was awestruck. “This is incredible, Zoey.” He traced the shape of our baby in the photo with his fingertip then set the album aside. He picked up the folder with my medical records and flipped it open.

  “What are these for?”

  “Well,” I said, dragging the word out. “Depending on how long we’re going to stay here, I might need to see a doctor. Those are my medical records.”

  He looked at me, surprised. “You want to stay here, in En Zed?”

  “I want to be wherever you are, Andy. If you want to live here, I’m fine with that. I bought a one-way ticket, just in case.”

  He shook his head. “No, we belong in Sacramento, with the rest of our family. You can’t give up everything you’ve worked so hard for, Zoey. Not for me . . . I won’t let you do it.”

  With a nod of agreement, I burrowed down in the bed and curled up next to him, resting my arm over his stomach. I was happy and relieved that he wanted to go back to Sacramento.

  “Are you tired?” he asked.

  I nodded. “It’s been a long month.”

  He gathered everything from the bed, took it over to his dresser, and set it down.

  “Can you get your laptop for me?” I wanted to show him one more thing that I knew he would love to see.

  He brought it over from the closet and powered it on.

  I found my purse and dug the DVD’s of my sonogram out of it.

  “I have another surprise for you.” I slid the DVD into the drive. “Unless you’ve had enough surprises for the day?”

  “Nah, I’m intrigued now,” he said as he looked at the screen.

  “I didn’t want you to miss anything,” I said as the DVD began to play.

  We watched as our baby bounced around on the screen.

  “I can’t believe this is happening, Zoey.”

  I knotted my fingers with his and kissed the back of his hand. “Do you want to know if we
’re having a boy or girl?”

  “Do you know already?” he asked excitedly.

  I nodded.

  “Then I want to know too.”

  “We’re having a girl.”

  His face lit up as he smiled and rubbed my belly again. “A sweet, baby girl,” he whispered.

  “So, Andy . . . I noticed on my tour of the house earlier today that your old bedroom is a little . . . black.”

  He raised his eyebrows when he looked away from my stomach and back up to my eyes. “And?” He smirked.

  I picked the bag up from the floor on my side of the bed and handed it to him. “I know we’re having a little girl, but I think she’ll look adorable in all black.” Yes, I was using Iria’s pun. It was hilarious.

  He grinned as he pulled the items from my shopping spree at Champions of the World out of the bag and looked them over. The baby clothes were so tiny compared to his large hands.

  “Thank you. Can I teach her to play rugby?” He was still grinning from ear to ear.

  I could only think of one answer. “Yes.”

  After he set aside the clothes and his laptop, he shut off the lights, stripped his clothes off, and crawled into bed with me.

  “Can we practice making baby number two now?” He laughed as he gently pushed me back on the bed.

  I definitely knew the answer to that question.

  Hell yes!

  Heaven . . . I had died and gone to heaven. There was no other explanation for it. I’d gone from being a depressed coward that morning, to feeling like I was on top of the world. Zoey slept soundly in my arms, hogging the bed the way she usually did. Technically, she didn’t hog the bed, she hogged me. And I would never tire of it. She slept wrapped around me, the slight swell of our baby nestled protectively between us.

  After making love to her, she had curled up against me and dozed off. I was too excited about her being here to sleep. Emma was also weighing heavily on my mind. Reading the letter from Michelle and seeing the photos of Emma just about killed me. Especially the one of Michelle holding her, wrapped in a hospital blanket. I was angry, sad, and resentful that she had held her, when I had never even known she’d existed.

  But then Zoey took care of me when I needed her the most. Even after what I’d done to her, she never wavered once while I went through the contents of the envelope Michelle had sent. She wrapped her arms around me when I needed it. Then she checked in on me when I couldn’t bring myself to come out of the bathroom. I didn’t want to upset her because I couldn’t hold back the tears. She let me sit and absorb everything, and it was exactly what I’d needed.

  And the way she gave me the news that she was pregnant . . . it was pure Zoey. And I was the luckiest bastard alive to have her. I thought it might sting a bit when she said we were having a baby girl, because of Emma, but it didn’t. Even though I never saw Emma, she couldn’t be replaced by mine and Zoey’s child.

  No matter what happened the next day, I was going to relish the fact that my beautiful Zoey had accomplished everything I should have done myself. She had brought me answers. She brought my life back to me and we had unexpectedly made a life together.

  A baby. I was going to be a dad and Zoey a perfect mum. I was going to give her the world after what she’d given me.

  The next morning, I sat on the edge of the bathtub in Andy’s bathroom drying my tears and gathering my composure so I could go back to the bedroom. After eventually getting over the initial shock of him leaving in August, I had allowed myself only twenty minutes a day to mourn the loss of him and our relationship.

  If I hadn’t given myself time each day, I would have slipped back in to the depression that I’d fought so hard to overcome. I had struggled daily to keep myself motivated to do everything I needed to get him back, but I had also needed to grieve. He had broken my heart when he left. Knowing his child was growing safely inside me, was the only thing that had kept me sane without him.

  Now that we were back together, I was letting myself cry over the fact that all of my plans had worked and everything was out in the open.

  Still naked from the night before, I quietly stepped out of the bathroom. Andy was sprawled across the bed on his stomach, his right leg hanging off the bed from the knee down. The white sheet was barely covering his gorgeous, naked body.

  I loved the way he slept. Always as if he fell face first on the bed. I thought it was amusing that anyone could sleep like that. It was crazy, but I missed watching him sleep, so I stood silently and gazed down at my beautiful man.

  At first glance, I thought he had lost weight since the last time I saw him. But as I watched him sleep, I realized he’d been playing so much rugby since he’d been back, his body was more toned than before. I thought back to when I watched him play rugby on the way to his house and realized most of the other guys playing also had similar forms. Strong thighs, round muscular asses, trim waists, and well-built shoulders and arms.

  A rugby player’s body.

  I pulled the sheet off him to admire him further. I didn’t think his butt could get any more attractive, but it had from all that running.

  Enduring over a month of not touching him made me anxious to make up for lost time.

  Giggling quietly, I knelt on the floor next to where his leg was hanging off the bed and kissed the arch on the bottom of his foot. I made my way up the back of his leg slowly, kissing and gently biting his gorgeous, golden skin every few inches.

  He was stirring when I made it to the back of his thigh. I decided to take it a bit further when I arrived at that ass of his. I lightly bit down on the center of his right cheek.

  Yep, smooth and firm. Exactly what I suspected.

  He raised his head and sleepily looked over his shoulder at me as I hovered over him with a mischievous smile on my face.

  “Zoey, did you just bite my ass cheek?”

  “Yep,” I said honestly. “And you better lie still ’cause I’m gonna bite the other side right now.” So I did.

  He groaned as I kissed his lower back, then kissed, and licked all the way up his spine causing goose bumps to break out over his tattooed skin. I placed a kiss on each letter of my name that he had inked on his side.

  Once I began kissing across his shoulder, he slowly rolled over onto his back. His rock hard erection was pressing right where I needed it to. I slipped my hand down in between us and eased him slowly inside me.

  “Good morning, my love,” I whispered into his ear right before I lightly bit his earlobe.

  His hands roamed up my thighs to my waist as he rotated his hips upward, pushing himself the rest of the way inside me.

  “I’ve missed you,” he mumbled into my ear. “I’m so sorry for leaving—”

  I kissed him so he’d stop talking.

  “Later . . .” I murmured as I sat up and rested my hands behind me on his thighs as he rocked me back and forth.

  Andy sat up, pulling my legs around him. My arms instinctively went around his neck and I wound my fingers in his hair. It had grown out quite a bit since he’d left, so I actually had something to grab on to this time.

  We sat motionless, clinging to each other, letting the time and space between us reunite our hearts.

  After a few minutes, we moved together in a slow, torturous rhythm, his face buried in the side of my neck, his lips, tongue, and teeth teasing me endlessly. He untangled my arms from around his neck and pulled back to kiss and lick his way to my breasts. He took his time to tease and torture me until my body was clenching around him. Then he took my legs from around his waist, and laid me back on the bed. He slowly pulled out of me, the emptiness making me long for him to fill me again.

  On his hands and knees, he hovered over me. He kissed my forehead, the tip of my nose, each cheek, and my chin before moving on to my lips.

  “I love you, Zoey,” he whispered in between each kiss. He nipped my bottom lip, and sucked it lightly into his mouth before he slid his warm, wet tongue inside to meet mine.

&n
bsp; We stayed there kissing, hands roaming, for what seemed like an eternity, before he made his way down my neck to my breasts again. He licked and sucked them as he teased me with his fingers, until I was panting for more.

  He brought his face back up to mine and guided my arms around his neck. Reaching down in between us, he slipped himself back inside me. Pushing my legs upward, he rested the backs of my knees in the crook of his elbows.

  His big hands cradling my ass, he picked me up, until he was on his knees in the center of the bed, my back pressed against the soft, cushioned headboard.

  “Hold on tight,” he groaned as he pushed all the way inside me.

  “I’m too heavy now.” I gasped as he began moving against me.

  “No, Beautiful . . . I’ve got you. I’ll always have you,” he said quietly.

  He groaned as he rocked his hips back and gripped my hips and ass with his large hands. He slowly pulled me to him as he ground himself against me. Holy hell.

  He continued the slow, agonizing torture of my body until it trembled then he laid me back on the bed.

  “You’re so beautiful, Zoey,” he said as he hovered over me and gently thrust himself inside me. He covered my body with his and whispered, “I love you so much and I’m so sorry for leaving. Please forgive me.”

  “I forgive you,” I whispered to him as I looked into his blue eyes. I gripped his ass as I wrapped my legs around the backs of his thighs and pulled him into me.

  He began thrusting, propped up on one elbow to keep most of his weight off me. His other hand was gently cupping my face as he kissed me.

  He was slowly torturing me, and I craved my release. Now.

  “Please, Andy . . . I need you.” I moaned as I dug my nails into his back, knowing it would set him off.

  “Ahh, fuck. You feel amazing Zoey,” he groaned as he picked up his pace and rotated his hips against me.

  That’s what I needed to feel, right there.

  “Again . . .” I sighed, my breath catching.

  Every nerve ending in my body was buzzing. I dragged my nails down his back slowly.

  He thrust faster.

  My hands gripped his ass again. I dug my nails in and ran them up his back, leaving him shivering in their wake.