Chapter Twenty-Three
Levi
“It’s going to make me gag. Please don’t force me,” Cory whined. It was the same argument every morning. It was too big. It tasted funny. It made him gag. It smelled like rotten vanilla beans.
“Cory, take it. Trust me.”
He groaned, poised the tip at his mouth, and swallowed hard. “There has to be an alternative.”
I waved my hand at him. “There’s not. Just get it over with. Take the stupid prenatal vitamin so we can get on with our day.”
“Fine. I hope one day when you’re old, you have to take some kind of nasty pill, and I’m going to stand in front of you just like you are now with my fists on my hips and be all bossy about it. Just wait.”
He had no idea how much I was counting on him and Benjamin to do that for me.
“Whatever you say. As long as you take it and then sit down. Breakfast is almost ready.”
The time of nausea and morning sickness had passed, and in its place was some kind of monster eating machine.
I doled out batter in circles along the hot griddle before taking the sheet pan of bacon out of the oven. Hard-boiled eggs were Cory’s new favorite thing, so I’d cooked three dozen of them to keep in the fridge, and I took two out and cut them in half because apparently Cory couldn’t have a meal without, them.
“We need some groceries,” I said, after peeking inside the fridge. “I’ll have to go as soon as we eat.”
“I’m already making a list.” I turned around, and my omega waved a notepad in the air, showing me his favorite pastime. Well, one of his favorite pastimes. The other involved being bent over the couch, Benjamin’s desk, the kitchen table, the bathtub, and any other solid surface for a good spanking, although with his growing belly, it was getting harder to find places that worked for all of our extracurricular activities.
Benjamin’s office had been turned into their office, shared. Their desks were on opposite sides of the room, and as soon as Cory gave birth and recovered, he would be teaching, we hoped for him. In the meantime, he was working his thesis and had mentioned writing a book about children who were raised in homes with more than two parents.
“Of course you are. Don’t add eggs. I already spoke to Harrison and Andrew about getting eggs from their coop. Organic, free-range, good eggs for you and the babe.”
“Those eggs are so yummy,” he groaned. “See if they have some of those oatmeal cookies while you’re at it. I could eat six dozen of those in one sitting. Please.”
He spun around and flashed me a grin. He flashed me that grin whenever he wanted something.
“I can do that.”
I flipped the last of the pancakes off the griddle and onto the huge stack and buttered them.
“I’m going to run and get Ben. He hasn’t had anything but coffee yet.”
I bounded up the stairs and paused at the door of Ben’s office. When he was concentrating, he clicked a pen in one hand while the other hand worked or clicked on the mouse. I leaned against the threshold, in awe and enamored with him all over again. I thought at one time that adding Tobias and Cory to our lives would make Ben and my connection thinner with less love to spread around, but instead, it seemed like the more we loved, the more our love strengthened. I loved my husband more than ever, just like Cory.
“I bet you’re getting the jitters by now. A little pancakes and bacon might do the trick.”
His stomach growled as my answer. He looked up and smiled at me. Somehow, no matter what the circumstances, my husband always smiled at me like it was the first time he’d ever seen me when I entered the room.
“I could use some sustenance. Thank you. Come here. I’ve missed you.”
Ben and I had been ships passing in the night for a while. He worked while I took care of our omega and the house and Tobias. And when I worked, he did the same, but other than the steamy nights, we hadn’t spent much time with each other.
I paused beside him, not wanting to disturb his paperwork or his things.
“On the desk. In front of me.”
I sat on the edge of the desk in front of Benjamin and played with his hair. “Hey, you. It’s been a while,” I said loving the closeness.
“Hey to you, too. It’s only eight and I’m exhausted already.”
He laid his head on my thighs and reached behind me to pull me forward with his hands on my ass. I scratched his back and his hair for a while then he directed me to rub the muscles that needed attention.
“You’ve been working too hard. Need a break?”
He shook his head. “Nah, just food. Thank you. How’s our man?”
“He’s good. We had another vitamin standoff, and he’s peeing every five minutes, but all in all, I’d say a relatively good day.”
“He hates those vitamins. Says they smell like moldy vanilla ice cream.”
That was a new description. Cory was getting creative.
“He has to take them. Not much longer, and we’ll be a family of five. Hard to imagine.”
Ben nodded again and groaned as my kneading fists found the spot between his shoulder blades where he tended to get tense.
“I can’t imagine life any other way, but I do have one complaint.”
I stiffened. Ben wasn’t usually one to complain about much. “What?”
“I never got my reading sunroom. You promised.”
“I did. I’m sorry. As soon as we don’t have toddlers running around, I’ll get right on that.”
Then we both chuckled because that would be a long time from then, assuming Cory didn’t get pregnant again. We hadn’t discussed it, but I knew somehow that we would want more children.
“But I got so much more in trade. In case I haven’t said it lately, thank you for being amazing.”
He raised his head and stood, sealing our conversation with a searing kiss that had me wanting to take him right there.
“Let’s go down, I miss our omega. The baby kicked yesterday while you were gone.”
I gasped. “Shut up. I miss everything. That’s it. For the rest of the day, except for grocery shopping, I’m going to make Cory lie down so I can see our baby kick.”
“That sounds like the best plan I’ve ever heard of.”
We went downstairs to find Cory halfway through a stack of pancakes, with two pieces of bacon, poised at his mouth. He looked at us and shrugged. “What? While you two are up there doing whatever, I’m starving to death. I don’t have the patience for your shenanigans when I’m this hungry.”
I leaned over and put my head on Ben’s shoulder. “Should we keep him? I mean look at him, all he does is eat and make babies.”
“He does give a good blow job.”
“Well, that, too.”
“It’s a shame. He used to keep himself up. Now, look what we’ve done. He’s got no shirt on. There’s syrup running down his chin, and he’s only wearing one sock.”
Everyone, including our omega, looked down to see Cory’s one sock.
“I love him, one sock and all.”
Ben laughed and kissed my head. “Me, too.”