Chapter Seven

I looked in the mirror, smoothing down my dress over my bump. It wasn’t too obvious, right? Like, if you were to look at me, you wouldn’t immediately go “yeah, that woman is undeniably pregnant”. At least, that’s what I was shooting for.

It was time for the annual family dinner; everyone came in from out of town to go out for my grandmother’s birthday, to the same Italian restaurant that we went to every year It was a big deal, and it had been a tradition for as long as I could remember. My parents had pictures of me from when I was a little kid with spaghetti sauce smeared all over my face, pictures I couldn’t even remember taking. Well, that would be my kid soon enough, if they didn’t disown me when they discovered I was pregnant.

The taxi out to the restaurant was quick --irritatingly so, as I had hoped to kill some time stuck in traffic. But, much to my chagrin, I arrived early, and stood awkwardly outside as I waited for everyone else to get there.

Soon enough, the whole clan had arrived --- Mom, Dad, cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles from out of town. We greeted each other in a flurry of niceties before we went to our table. Mom briefly gripped my arm and nodded at me supportively, and I could tell she was hoping as badly as I was that the pregnancy wouldn’t come out tonight. I didn’t think either of us could handle it.

“So, Kyra, what have you been up to?” My cousin Kimmy turned to me, a smile on her face, but I could tell there was something more going on. Her eyes flashed, as though she was testing me, so I met her gaze steadily and shrugged.

“Oh, you know, not much.”

“I’m so glad to see you out after the…after the wedding,” Kimmy whispered the last three words loudly, reaching over to take her husband’s hand pointedly. “We couldn’t believe when we heard.”

“Yeah, well, I’m fine now,” I dismissed her, wanting to move on. “Can you pass me a menu?”

Kimmy handed me the leather-bound menu, and I flipped it open and began browsing pointedly, hoping that no-one else would give me any more hassle. I knew that David and I would have been a prime gossip source for the last couple of months, but I wasn’t interested in giving them anything more to go on.

Eventually, the waiter came by, pen poised over his pad.

“Can I get anyone anything to drink?” he asked brightly, smiling around the packed table. One by one, we put our orders in, until he came around to me.

“I’ll just have a seltzer water, please,” I smiled politely. “Thank you.”

Before I knew it, Samantha, Kimmy’s sister, had jumped in.

“Are you sure you don’t want something stronger? I know that if I’d been through what--” “No, I’m fine.” The smile on my face was beginning to feel like a rictus grin, but I kept it there.

“If you can’t afford--”

“Samantha, I’m fine, thank you.” I cut her off, not wanting a second more of her faux-sympathy.

“What are you, pregnant?” Kimmy’s husband scoffed, and I felt a flush move up my neck. The entire table fell silent for a second, save for the sound of the waiter scuttling off to the kitchen to avoid the blow-up we could all see coming a mile off. Even though the rest of the restaurant was still bustling around us, everyone sitting around me was just staring at me in silence, waiting for me to laugh off his dumb comment and move on.

I exchanged a look with Mom, and she raised her eyebrows in a resigned fashion. Well, there was no getting out of this one. I had to tell them. I took a deep breath, but before I could get the words out, my grandmother jumped in.

“Kyra, am I to assume from your silence that you are pregnant?” Her voice was low and threatening, as though she might lunge across the table at me at any second. I glanced over at her, eyes wide, and finally nodded.

An almost comically loud gasp went up around the table, and I stared down at my menu, tears blurring my eyes. This wasn’t how I wanted everyone to find out. Hell, I’d have been happy with them not finding out at all.

“Is it David’s?” Kimmy leaned towards me, and I could tell she was just loving every second of this -there had always been a rivalry between us cousins, and me having a baby out of wedlock would put her firmly back on top of the list.

“It’s not.” I shook my head. My aunt and uncle were murmuring between themselves, looking over at me sadly, with an expression of such irritating sympathy I wanted to slap it off their faces. Kimmy’s eyebrows shot up.

“Who’s is it, then?” Her eyes widened in faux-concern.

“It’s not important.”

“Why isn’t he here?” Grandma demanded. “Why haven’t we met him?”

“He’s, um, he’s not going to be part of the baby’s life,” I explained quietly. Grandma sucked in a lungful of air in horror.

“So, you’re going to be an unwed, single mother,” she clarified. I nodded.

“And how do you ever expect to find a man to look after you and your…child?” She spat the word out as though it was painful for her to even consider. “That’s too much baggage, Kyra.”

“I know,” I sighed. I’d already come to terms with all of this by myself, and I sincerely didn’t need my family reiterating the fact that it was going to be next to impossible for me to find someone to spend my life with once I’d had this baby.

“And you’re really keeping it?” My Aunt asked gently. I could tell she was trying to help, but it was hard to see what anyone was saying as anything other than an attack.

“Yes!” I snapped. She didn’t deserve it, but then, I didn’t deserve this interrogation either and all because I just wanted a sparkling water instead of a glass of wine. “Can you just leave it? I’m starving.”

“We just want what’s best for you, darling,” Grandma continued, and my grandfather nodded seriously next to her. I fought the urge to roll my eyes at them both.

“I’m doing what’s best for me,” I pointed out, but it was too late- they were not listening. “How can you say that?” Kimmy exclaimed. “You haven’t got anyone to raise this baby with, and babies without fathers--”

“Can turn out just as fine as babies with them,” my Mom jumped in, but everyone pretty much ignored her.

“You’re not going to end up happy like this, you know,” Grandma snapped. And then, a voice cut over the top of her.

“I’m going to do my best to make sure that’s not true.”

The entire table turned around, and I could see all of them squinting with recognition as they saw who was standing there.

“Jones?” I whispered into the silence. He smiled at me, and offered me a hand.

“I heard pretty much everything,” he looked around the table angrily, “that you said to the mother of my child. And I think it’s bullshit.”

A few eyebrows shot up, but I didn’t care -- I couldn’t take my eyes off Jones.

“She doesn’t have to raise this baby by herself,” he went on. “And even if she did, she’d do an amazing job at it. She’s an incredible person, and I won’t have you sit here and look down on her for the choices she’s made.”

I’d never heard my family as silent as they were at that moment- it was almost funny. A small smile curled on to the corners of my mouth, and Jones extended a hand to me.

“Kyra, do you want to get out of here?”

I glanced at Mom, who jerked her head in his direction, indicating that I should go. I nodded, and reached out to take his hand. He pulled me to my feet and wrapped an arm around my waist, before letting his hand come to rest on my bump.

“You’re getting so big,” he murmured, and shot one last look around the table before he guided me out of the restaurant and towards a waiting taxi. As soon as we were inside it, he turned to me.

“Kyra, I’m so sorry. If you’ll just let me explain.” I pressed a finger to his lips -- cheesy, I know, but all I needed at that moment was him. Not excuses, not reasons, not anything but his company. He stared at me, waiting for me to explain.

“You got a hotel room?” I asked, and he nodded.

“Let’s go there,” I suggested. “And we can talk about everything else in the morning.”

He pulled me closer, and suddenly our lips were touching. The cab driver rolled up the partition between us and left us to make out in the back of the cab. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed being with him like this, missed the way his arms felt around me.

His tongue slipped into my mouth, and his hands skimmed down my back to cup my ass. The bump touched his stomach, and the feeling -- new, strange, but decidedly obvious -- sent shivers down my spine.

Soon enough, we arrived at the hotel, and Jones paid the driver and we bundled into the elevator towards his room. He slipped behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist, leaning down to kiss my neck as his hands explored the contours of my bump. We leaped apart as the doors opened, like a pair of teenagers, but there was no one there. We both laughed at our guilty consciences, and Jones hurried me down the hall towards his room.

In this kind of small town, we didn’t have to worry about the paparazzi following- and we made the most of that with a heavy make-out session right against the door, before another resident opened one down the hall and made us jump. Jones fumbled in his pocket for the keycard and opened the door, hustling me inside while I giggled with excitement.

“God, I missed you,” Jones murmured against my mouth as he pulled me towards the bed and down on top of him. I straddled him at once, leaning down to cup his head in my hands so I could kiss him once more - his familiar scent, the weight of his body beneath my own, it was all so…normal. And, yet, at the same time I felt a jolt of arousal between my legs as he tugged lightly on my hair and made me moan. I could feel him growing hard, and arched my back I could better press my hips against him. How long had it been? A month, maybe a little more? But in that moment, it felt like nothing short of an eternity.

He flipped me on to my back and pushed my dress up, hooking his fingers around my panties and pulling them down so I was completely exposed. He kissed the inside of my thigh gently before he slid two fingers into me. I closed my eyes so I could fully give myself over to the sensation, my pussy already beginning to flood with wetness.

“You feel so good,” Jones looked up at me just as I opened my eyes, and our gaze met for a single second. It was blisteringly hot, so much so that Jones couldn’t resist climbing back on top of me and kissing me once more. To my surprise, he wrapped his hands around my waist and pulled me upwards so that we were both upright. I squealed a little, but he soon silenced me with another kiss.

He carried me over to the wall opposite the bed and pressed me up against the beige wallpaper as I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, clinging on for dear life. The strength of him, the power, was such a turn-on, and I couldn’t help but linger on it for a moment as I ran my hands down his arms and across his shoulders.

With one arm still wrapped around my waist, he undid his pants and slid down his boxers; I slipped my legs around him, so I could feel his erection pressing up against me.

“You want this?” he panted into my ear, and all I could manage in response was a nod.

He positioned himself at the entrance to my pussy, taking his time, making sure I was ready -- and then, in one swift motion, he thrust up inside of me, forcing a moan out from between my lips.

“I’d forgotten how good you felt,” I murmured in his ear, before catching his lobe between my teeth and tugging gently. He growled in response, the best he could come up with given the circumstances, and let me down further on to his cock so I could feel every inch of him inside of me.

I pressed my head back against the wall behind us and did my best not to cry out with pleasure- we’d probably pissed off the neighbors enough as it was.

I did my best to grind my hips down and pull my legs back so I could get him as deep inside me as humanely possible; I had never craved someone the way I craved him at that moment, never been so desperate to feel him inside me. Everything since we’d met have been so intense, and this was no different. My body was tensing, finally ready to release after all those weeks of waiting and when it hit me, it almost took me off my feet.

My orgasm wracked through my body, even though I didn’t make a sound; it left me shuddering in Jones’ arms, gripping on to his back for some kind of support as he continued to thrust inside of me. I knew he could feel it, as he picked up the pace to match the speed at which my pussy clenched around his erection- and, a few moments later, I felt him reach his own release inside of me with a small, gritted-teeth cry.

He staggered away from the wall, kissing me hard, and we both collapsed on to the bed in a giant heap. We lay there in silence for a few seconds before he leaned over and brushed away a strand of hair from my face with a smile.

“Good to see you again,” he propped himself up on one elbow and raised his eyebrows.

“Same goes,” I smiled, wanting to stay awake but finding that my eyes were already drifting shut. As he leaned forward to plant a kiss on my forehead, I felt unconsciousness take me, and happily slipped into its embrace for the time being.