The small room for the reception was impeccable.  Whoever Darby and Emily hired to plan the party on such short notice really needed to be paid triple.  Although the guests were few, Riley wanted all the traditions –  the cake, the first dance, the toasts, the bouquet toss, the garter – to be memorable for Vanessa, the fairy tale she didn’t seem to believe existed.  However, traditions and niceties took forever.  He saw her across the room; reality hit him.  She was his wife, the wife he didn’t plan to have a month ago.  He liked that.  His.  Wife.  He loved her more than he thought possible. 

He tried not envisioning all the things he wanted to do to her, but flashes of memories of her naked underneath him mixed with fantasies of just how he would get her that way made it almost impossible to think about anything else.  He wanted to get her alone.  Now.

He intently watched her private exchange with Emily from across the room. She snuck glances in his direction, blushing and looking downward each time she broke their connection and looked back to Emily.  The private smiles they shared told him she was probably thinking the same naughty thoughts he was.   It took immeasurable restraint for him to remain in his spot leaned up against the bar, for every time she looked at him with the hooded eyes of desire, love, and devotion, all he wanted to do was run across the room, wrap her legs around him and bury himself deeply inside her, much like he did the first time they had sex.  What he did in that shower was so unlike him, so unlike the way he was raised.  But the more he watched her, the more he wanted to drag her into a dark corner and… No.  Jeez, this was difficult.  He would have to enlist additional restraint this evening or the romantic wedding night he really wanted for her would be ruined. 

When he could take no more, he leisurely made his way across the room, acutely aware of his slow pace.  He wrapped his arms around her waist, thumbs grazing the bottom of her breasts, and bent down to drag his lips from her shoulder, up her neck to her ear. 

“Dr. Mrs. Tate, are you ready for me to,” he flicked his eyes to Emily, realizing he probably shouldn’t say the dirty thing he was about to say in front of her, “um, I mean, are you ready to leave?”

Vanessa spun around and wrapped her arms around him, kissed him just under his ear.  “Yes,” she husked.  "I am very… ready.  If you would like, we could step over to that corner and I could let you find out how ready I am?”

“Yeah.  That’s my girl,” Emily praised.  “Go upstairs.  Get naked.”

“But everyone else…” Vanessa began.

“Will understand.  Go.  Your dad and Gram already said goodnight.  You’re good.”

Riley smiled at Emily and grabbed Vanessa’s hand, pulling her toward the exit.  “Thanks and goodnight everyone!” he called and towed her out of the room.

“Wait!” Darby called.  Vanessa and Riley both turned to wait for Darby outside the door.

“Make it quick, Darbs,” Riley playfully growled.

“Here.”  She handed Vanessa a small gift bag.  “You have to promise me you will open this as soon as you get upstairs.”

“Promise,” Vanessa vowed.  “Thank you, Darby.”  She smiled and hugged Darby.  “And I mean for everything you’ve done.  Tonight was perfect.”

“Well, it will be soon,” Riley breathed, making Vanessa blush.  “But she’s right.”  He kissed Darby on the cheek.  “Thanks, Darbs.”

“You are both welcome.  And let me know how things go.”

“I’ll send you pictures,” Riley replied over his shoulder dragging Vanessa away.

Vanessa giggled and pushed the button to summon the elevator.  “Melvin Riley Tate, you are not planning to take pictures of us, are you?”

“Nope.”  The elevator doors opened and he led her inside.  He bent lower to her ear dropping his voice to a whisper.  “And as much as I’d like to take you up on your offer to see how ready you are against this wall here, we have to behave in the elevator.”  He pointed to the upper left corner.  “Cameras.”  He kissed her neck just below her ear.  “I’m selfish, Vanessa.”  He kissed her lightly on the lips, never breaking eye contact with her.  “I want to be the only one who gets to see you naked and writhing.”

She stiffened and pulled away.  He watched her face contort and pale before his eyes.  “Vanessa?”  She took several deep breaths, so he backed away from her.  “What’s wrong?”

“Room card?”  He handed it to her and told her the room number.  The elevator opened and she bolted from it.  He hurried after her.  He had witnessed several of her panic attacks, and this didn’t seem like one of them.  He wondered if what he had said could make this so upset or if she was just claustrophobic.  There were still so many things they didn’t know about each other.

He got to the suite just before the door closed and visually searched the large suite for a clue as to where she had gone.  That’s when he heard her in the bathroom.  “Vanessa, are you okay?”

“No,” she moaned.

“Can I come in?”

There was a pause.  “I guess.”

He opened the door and saw her sitting on the floor next to the toilet, back against the wall, with her head between her knees. 

“You might not want to be in here,” she whispered. 

“Didn’t I just promise to be with you in sickness and in health?”  He wet a wash cloth and handed it to her.  “Did you throw up?” 

“No,” she said, holding the cool cloth against her face.  “I really hate to throw up.”

“Might make you feel better.”

“It’s passing.”

He kneeled and placed his hands on her knees.  “Did you drink too much?”

“No.  Besides the sip of champagne for the toast, I had only tea all night.  I already told you once I don’t like to drink, Riley,” she added, a tad defensive.

“Okay, so do you think it was something you ate?”  Riley sat on the floor in front of her.

“Doubtful.  All I ate was the potatoes.  I didn’t eat lunch.  My stomach was queasy.  I chalked it up to nerves.”

“Do you think you caught a bug?”

“It’s possible, but I felt fine throughout the wedding.  I’ve never had a stomach bug where I felt completely fine for a few hours.  Honestly, I’ve never had a nervous stomach either.  I don’t know what this could be.”

He slid his hands down her legs and removed her shoes.  “Do you want me to run you a bath?”

She removed the cloth from her face and smiled at him.  “Yeah.  If you get in with me.  I feel fine now.”  He stood and helped her up.  “First, we promised Darby we’d open her gift.”

Riley found the bag and handed it to Vanessa.  She dug into the tissue and held up a purple and white box.  Her face paled again.  “No.”  She almost dropped the gift.  Riley took the box from Vanessa and read the front.  It was a pregnancy test.  He looked back at Vanessa.  “It can’t be, Riley.  I’m on the pill.  Why?  Why would Darby do this?”

He shook his head.  “Why does Darby do anything?”  He thought for a few minutes.  He was now intrigued.  Darby’s hunches were usually dead on.  “Take the test, Vanessa.”

She looked at him like he had told her to drown a bag of kittens.  “Why?”

He reached out for her hand and lifted it to his mouth, gently pulling her toward him.  “Why not?” He wrapped his free arm around her waist and rested his forehead against hers.  “Just humor me.”  He kissed her temple.  “I’ll go get the bath started, unless you need my help.”

“I think I’m fully capable of peeing on a stick all by myself, Riley,” she retorted. 

He tried to hide how much her annoyed tone amused him by turning quickly and heading to the whirlpool tub.  While the tub filled, he stepped into the room to remove his tie and his jacket.  The night was not going as he had planned, but if she was pregnant, it would be better than he dreamed.  He tried hard not to get his hopes up, but there they were, in the sky, up as up can be.  Flashes of the conversation they had just yesterday about the future and children filtered into his awareness.  Both of them wanted at least two kids, maybe four.  Vanessa didn’t like odd numbers.  The rational, together woman was very superstitious about it.  He was not against starting right away.  However, he agreed to wait at least two years so they had time together just the two of them.  Time, for whatever reason, seemed insignificant right now, except that it was taking too long.  Three minutes felt like forever.  He found himself wishing for a positive.  Jeez, he was going to have to do some superior acting if this test was negative.

“Riley!” Vanessa howled.  He took a deep breath, quickly shut off the water and made his way over to her.  She shoved both the stick and box in his hand.  He was too busy trying to decipher what two lines meant against the box with his back to her to notice that she had entered into a full-scale, level-three panic attack, complete with tears and pacing.  “How, Riley?  I’ve never missed a day.”  She continually shook her hands like she was flinging water off of them.  “I take it at the same time every day.  Always.” 

He seemed frozen, his head wrapping around the fact that his wish came true, grinning like an idiot.  Finally he noticed her near-meltdown state and moved toward her, stopping her pacing and wrapping his arms around her.  He stroked her back.  “Breathe, Vanessa.”  She closed her eyes and took deep breaths.  He felt her breathing return to almost normal and her trembling subside. 

“Didn’t you miss a period?” he asked.

“No.  I had one.  It was light, spotting actually, and it only lasted a couple of days, so I chalked it up to stress.”

He tried to think of words of comfort for her, but he realized that telling her the pill was only 99% effective, and she may be a one percenter didn’t seem like the right thing to do.  Abruptly, the next thought hit him like an avalanche.  “The antibiotic.  It can weaken the effects of birth control pills.”

“Really?”  She twisted in his arms and looked at his face.  “And you knew this?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t remember until just now.  Someone in college got his girlfriend pregnant in high school the same way.  He said the whole reason he was a biotech major was that he wanted to work on creating a birth-control-pill friendly antibiotic.”

“Great.  We’re just like horny teenagers.”  She sighed.  “Well they should tell everyone that takes an antibiotic that little factoid when prescribing them, or at the very least put that in big letters on the bottle.” 

He smiled into her hair and hugged her more securely to him.  “Vanessa, are you okay with this?”

She pulled back and studied him.  Finally she sighed.  “I think I will be.  I’m just… surprised.” 
She tried to smile.  “Nothing like becoming a wife and learning you will be a mother all in the same day.”

He dropped his lips to hers and kissed her softly, then abruptly pulled away startling her.  He dramatically smacked his forehead.  “Holy shit, I’m going to be a father!”

She smacked his arm.  “Hey, Tate.  No cursing in front of the kid.  I know you were raised better than that.”

He picked her up and twirled her around twice.  “Oh my God, Vanessa.  I’m going to be a father.”  He sat her down on the floor gently, kneeled on his knees, wrapped his arms around her backside and put an ear to her stomach.  “You have a living being growing inside you.”

“Yeah.”  She deadpanned.  “So did Sigourney Weaver.”

He looked up at her face, ignoring her joke.  “My living being.”  His eyes glistened, and her face softened.  “My child.”  He choked on the word child and buried his face in her stomach.  “Oh, I love you so much.  Both of you.” 

“I love you, too, Riley.”  She ran her fingers through his hair, seeming to let him have his moment. 

“Thank you, Vanessa,”  he whispered against her stomach.

“I’m glad my klutziness has made you so happy.”  When he looked up at her, confusion colored his features.  She smiled and gently wiped his tears with her thumbs.  “If I hadn’t fallen against your fireplace, this,” she pointed to her stomach, “wouldn’t have happened.”

He stood and chuckled.  “If you hadn’t been a klutz the first time we met, we might not have happened.  So yeah, thanks for that.”  He found the zipper of her dress and slid it down.  “Now, about that bath.”

She began to unbutton his shirt.  “Riley, so just how did Darby know?”

He laughed again as he unhooked her bra.  “A hunch, I’m sure.  She’ll say it was your aura.”  He slid her bra off and tossed it on the counter.  “Did you see her today?”

“Yeah, she came in to check on me.”  She slid his shirt off his shoulders and ran her hands down his chest.

He leaned down to kiss her neck as he hooked his thumbs in her off-white, barely-there panties and slowly slid them down her hips.  “Did you say you felt queasy?  Maybe she picked up on that.”

“No.  But maybe Emily said something.”  She moved her hands around his chest, barely touching his skin, making it hard for Riley to concentrate on her words.  “I dunno.  This afternoon was a bit of a blur.”  She slid both his pants and boxer briefs down and he stepped out of them. 

“For me, too.  Until I saw you.  Then time seemed to just…”

“…stop,” she finished for him. 

They stood naked in front of one another, staring into each other’s faces for a long time.  His hands rested on her hips drawing lazy circles with his thumbs.  Her fingers slid around his backside, to his waist, then up his chest to the back of his neck.  His eyes kept drinking in her face, stopping occasionally on her lips.  He pulled her toward him gently and bent his head slowly to graze her bottom lip with his.  “God, I love you, Vanessa.”

“Show me how much, Riley.”  She drug the tip of her tongue across his upper lip.  “Make love to me,” she whispered. 

“After the bath…”

“No.  Now.  Please.”

His mouth covered hers as he lifted her off the ground, wrapping her legs around his waist.  Vanessa smiled against his lips, remembering the last time he did this.  He considered taking her just like he did that first time against the wall in the bathroom, but it didn’t feel right.  Instead, he carried her to the bedroom, and did just what she asked.