She sat and took a bite of her unusual sandwich and moaned in pleasure. Brody took a bite too and she watched as he made a questionable face before taking another bite and shoveling some coleslaw into his mouth.
“It’s actually not bad, especially since you broiled the hotdogs and they have kind of a crispy outside,” Brody said.
“Right!” Marie grinned. “You’re awesome, you know that?” He gave her a surprised looked. “Why would you say that?” She finished her mouthful of sandwich and took a sip of her drink before speaking. “Because not many guys would eat the pregnancy food of their expecting girlfriend.”
“Well, honey, this is actually something I probably would’ve made myself growing up,” Brody said. “Now there’s fast food joints all over the place and it’s easy to pick up a hamburger rather than cook.”
“Not here. I like making dinner and soup and grilling in the warmer months,” Marie said.
“I’ll take over the grilling and you can handle the other stuff,” he said.
“I can grill a mean steak,” she pointed out.
“We’ll have a cook-off and whoever wins gets the coveted grilling spot,” he teased.
She shook her head. “Nope, you can have it. I don’t like being out in the heat anyway.”
“Why do I feel like I’ve been conned?” Brody raised his eyebrow in her direction.
Marie returned his look with an innocent look of her own. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Uh-huh.” His tone said he didn’t believe her, but his grin told her he was fine with it.
They finished their meal, talking about one subject to the next and then headed to the room intended to be the nursery to start making a dent in all the boxes and bags that were piling up. In the end, they decided to leave the room the same color—beige—and would just use a simple, thick blue dinosaur baby border around the top of the wall. It would be easy to remove when he got older and eliminate the need to repaint. She sat on the floor and folded baby clothes while he put up the borders. When he was done he helped her put away the stacks of burp towels, clothes and tiny baby socks.
Brody stuck his finger into one of the tiny blue socks and wiggled it around. “I can’t believe his little feet are going to be this small.” Marie gave him a stern stare. “Stop stretching out his socks with your big fingers.”
“I thought you liked my big fingers?” he said with a wink.
She understood the implication perfectly and felt her sex and nipples tighten in response. She changed the subject quickly. “I think he’ll be like his daddy and grow up to be a tall handsome man.” Brody beamed with pride. “You think so?”
“Yes, I do,” Marie smiled. “I did tell you our Lamaze classes start in two weeks, right? Ivy and Rafe are going to go with us, since they’ll both be in the delivery room.”
“I don’t know if I want Rafe looking at your nether region.” Brody frowned.
“Ivy thinks it will help him. After their doctor showed them a birthing video, he panicked and began worrying about her having the baby,” Marie chuckled.
“I’m a little worried about you being in labor too,” Brody admitted.
“I’ve never seen a birth or experienced anything like this.”
“Well, I have the video and we can watch it, and then going to Lamaze will tell you everything you need to know,” Marie explained. “Plus, there is a daddy part to this class to teach you how to make bottles, change diapers, and all that good stuff.”
He held out his hands to her and pulled her to her feet gently. Brody wrapped her in his arms and pressed a kiss to her lips. “I’m looking forward to all of it as long as it’s with you. Now let’s get you to bed.” After her shower, she was leaning back against thick throw pillows and Brody sat near the foot of the bed rubbing her feet while they discussed baby names.
“I’d have thought you wanted him to be Brody Junior,” Marie said, her eyes closed, enjoying the foot rub. Brody had the earphones on her belly again and this time he was playing classical music from the iPod.
“Good Lord, we won’t do that to him. I hate my name, Brody Bartholomew Gillis,” he snorted. “Let’s give the boy a fighting chance.”
“How about Matthew?” she asked.
“Too common,” Body said. “How about we make it his middle name?”
“Okay, then what do you suggest for the first?” Brody was silent for a moment before announcing, “Grayson. We can call him Gray.”
“Grayson Matthew Gillis.” Marie tested the name and opened her eyes to look at him. “I like it a lot.”
“Then we have a name?” he asked with a grin.
“We have a name,” Marie replied and moaned as he went back to rubbing her feet. “You do that so well. My feet are in heaven right now.”
“You keep making sounds like that and I’ll have you naked in the blink of an eye,” Brody said.
She met his gaze and saw desire there that instantly enflamed her. But her self-esteem issues about her body stopped her and she frowned. “Don’t say things like that when you don’t mean it.”
“What do you mean I don’t mean it?” She heard confusion in his voice.
She made a frustrated sound. “Because look at me, I’m huge and round in the middle and certainly not sexy.”
“That’s bullshit. To me you are always sexy,” Brody retorted. “I’ve been trying to keep my hands off you because I figured you weren’t in the mood.”
“Oh, I’ve been in nothing but the mood, but…”
“But nothing.” Brody took the earphones off her belly and whispered to the baby growing there. “Night, buddy, it’s mom and dad time.”
“What are you doing?” she questioned.
“I’m going to go grab my shower and then I’m making love to my woman,” he said firmly. “Do you disagree?” His eyes said he would take no refusal, not that she could think of a good one anyway.
“No, I don’t disagree,” she said meekly.
“Good. That’s my girl.” He leaned over and kissed her hard.
Marie was unsure of what to do. Before she was pregnant, she would have been naked in the shower with him. In the end, she decided to stay in bed and wait for him to make the first move. Pregnancy had made a very sexually aggressive Marie into a tamed kitten. She didn’t know if she liked the change. Insecurity was not an emotion she had very often. Brody came out of the shower a few minutes later, walked into the bedroom very naked and his cock erect. Her breath caught looking at him as he dimmed the lights and moved over to the bed. He slid under the covers and pulled her into his arms, kissing her temples, her eyes and finally her lips.
“You’re beautiful to me Marie Watson, not just because of your body, but who you are,” he murmured. “You try to be so brave all the time and you don’t have to be. I’m here, to hold you and catch you when you fall.”
“I have family, but we’re not close, so I consider myself alone. I never had any close friends until I met Ivy and then it was even a battle to let myself believe she had good intentions and wasn’t trying to get something out of me.” Marie sighed and felt tears fill her eyes. “I’m so scared I won’t know how to be a good mother or a good woman to you. For a long time I thought that Charlie was the way he was because I wasn’t good enough. I put on a good act, but I’m mucking through the world the best way I can, the only way I know how.”
He cupped her cheeks and looked into her eyes. “Baby, you don’t have to pretend with me, not ever. And Charlie wasn’t your fault, he’s a fucking defect. He won’t be in our lives this night or any night. Put him out of your mind forever.”
“Oh, Brody, he couldn’t even come close to walking in your footsteps,” Marie said. “Through it all you’ve been so kind and good.”
“Because it’s you, Marie, damn woman, that has made me this way.
Until I met you, I was just a soldier, would do my job, go home, throw mindless parties, but it all felt empty. Damn, I wanted to be the one you loved from that very first night.”
“Oh, Brody, I do love you. I’m just so scared at failing at everything,” Marie whispered.
“You won’t, baby, trust me, a person like you never fails.” He smiled gently. “We’re going to be great parents and we’ll figure it out together.”
“Okay,” Marie whispered and kissed him. “You’re right. We can do this. Together, we can do this.”
Brody kissed her gently at first and then again with more passion. She clung to his shoulders while his tongue penetrated her mouth and his hands roamed up under her night shirt to cup her breasts.
“Let me make love to you like the goddess you are,” he whispered. He helped lift the nightshirt from her body and then slowly removed her panties. They weren’t her usual lacy things; instead, she was now wearing pregnancy underwear from Target since they were the most comfortable.
Yet Brody didn’t seem to notice, peeling them away from her skin with a long groan and cupping her sex. She felt his fingers slip between the lips of her pussy and she shuddered in his arms.
“I can smell your scent, you’re thick and swollen and wet against my fingers,” Brody murmured. “I want to be inside you already.”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Not yet, love, not yet.” Brody’s voice was harsh with desire.
He cupped her breasts and licked each nipple. He squeezed the heavy globes and she watched as tiny beads of a milky white substance beaded at the tip.
This time Brody’s groan was filled with awe. “You’re making breast milk already?”
“It’s not really breast milk, not yet. It’s called colostrum. It’s what the baby will need for the first few days. It has antibodies…” She laughed.
“You probably don’t want to hear all about that, a mood killer.”
“On the contrary.” He licked the tip of her breast taking the beads of liquid with his tongue. “I almost came just thinking about tasting it, tasting you at the same time.”
“Suck them harder, please,” she whispered.
Brody did as she asked and Marie cried out as his hot mouth closed over the sensitive nub. He pulled the hard beaded tip and his moan was guttural. She knew he got another taste and it turned him on more. His hips moved reflexively and she could feel his cock primed and ready to take her. He moved to the second breast, repeating the action while she held his head to her breast. It felt so good she felt herself grow wet. Brody kissed his way down her stomach and when she felt his hot breath and lips against her core she gripped the sheets as pleasure washed over her in waves. She felt him penetrate her with one digit moving it slowly, almost tortuously, in and out.
“Oh, please, Brody,” she whimpered.
“Nice and slow,” he said huskily. “We’ve fucked, now we’re going to make love. I’m going to take you to heights you’ve never been.” He moved from between her legs and lay close to her. She tasted her own essence on his lips as he kissed her and felt his fingers probe and enter her once more. He thrust them slowly into her, each time going a bit deeper, finding that spot that made her body tremble and her pussy tighten around him. Her head fell back against the pillow and she arched as he pleasured her with his hand. She could feel his eyes on her and she reached between their bodies to stroke his cock in rhythm to his fingers thrusting into her snatch. His groan reverberated through her, yet he kept his own pace, not changing it even as her hips rose faster, her silent way of pleading for release, until she finally crested in her orgasm with a cry. It washed over her like a warm blanket and left her panting.
“I love watching your face when you come,” he said gruffly.
“I want to feel you inside me.”
With his help, she lay on her side and he put one of her legs over his hard muscled thighs. She felt the tip of his cock at the entrance of her sex.
He slipped into her slowly and because of her pregnancy, the lips of her pussy seemed thicker and each glide of his cock more erotic. Brody slowly caressed her belly and reached up to cup her breasts, fondling the nipples and massaging the heavy globes until she was panting with renewed arousal.
“Oh, Brody, more,” she said and he thrust deeper into her soaking wet snatch.
“Oh, you feel so damn good,” he moaned against her neck.
“Come with me,” she pleaded as sensations assaulted her. Everything felt so heightened and she could feel herself falling into another orgasm.
He picked up his speed and she could feel his cock thickening inside her. His breath was harsh in her ear as he called her name. She could hear the agony of his pleasure in his voice as he reached for the pinnacle of completion. Marie closed her eyes and let it overtake her. She cried out as her release rocketed through her body. Brody followed and a harsh guttural sound was ripped from his throat. She felt his seed fill her and complete the union once more. Once before, their coupling made them parents and now it was as if it sealed their connection as a couple.
“That was incredible,” he breathed and snuggled up to her kissing her shoulders gently.
“It was. I need to get cleaned up, it’s kind of uncomfortable with wet soaking girl parts.” She laughed and then winced. “Ouch.” He was instantly alarmed. “Did I hurt you? Shit, do we need to head to the hospital?”
“No, just Braxton Hicks contractions. Grayson probably wants ice cream or a donut,” she said.
“Okay, you lie back and I’ll get you cleaned up and then I’ll run downstairs for both.” Brody was up and moving before she could even answer.
She didn’t complain as he cleaned her with a warm cloth and helped her back into her undies. Then they lay in bed and shared a bowl of ice cream and a donut before settling down for sleep.
“Marry me.” He turned and wrapped his arm around her, lacing his fingers with hers.
“We don’t have to get married. We’re good the way we are,” she murmured.
“Baby, I understand that you have insecurities because of your ex—”
“If you understand, then you won’t rush me,” she said in a subdued tone.
“How about we get the marriage license and when you’re ready we can just do it? If it expires I’ll do it over and over again until you finally take the plunge with me,” he offered. “I love you and I want to marry you.”
“I love you too.” Marie gave a thoughtful sigh. “Okay, we can get the license, but I don’t think I’m going to be ready anytime soon.”
“I understand, but at least I’ll have your name next to mine saying you’re going to marry me eventually,” Brody teased.