Chapter 33: Aiden

 

 

 

Pregnancy was doing strange things to my body.

My nipples were darker, larger, and more tender than I'd ever thought possible. Sometimes, I couldn't even stand to feel my tee shirt resting on them. It was a good thing that the spa had burned down, because that meant I didn't have to leave the house. Most days found me shirtless and enormous, floating through the house to arrange and rearrange the countless pillows and organizational containers I'd accumulated in the days since Erick bought the place. Rowan called it "nesting."

In the sixth week, I reached a phase where I wasn't experiencing morning sickness, had boundless energy, and was still mobile enough to get out of bed. Erick and I took advantage of this one night after a steak dinner he'd cooked on an open flame he breathed himself.

"This will probably be the last time for a while," I said while he lowered me to the bed.

"Why do you say that?"

"Because soon I'll be too fat to do anything at all, and once the baby comes we'll be too tired," I said.

Erick pulled back to regard me, and I felt myself blushing under his gaze. Even though he told me I looked beautiful, I couldn't help but feel self-conscious over this new, unfamiliar body.

"That's impossible, Aiden. I can't ever resist you. Ever."

Playfully, I tried to swat at him, but he caught my wrist and brought my fingers to his lips. Then, he drew down and licked my left nipple. I gasped sharply.

We couldn't perform our usual repertoire of sex positions, so I positioned myself on my hands and knees to have Erick penetrate me from behind. He gripped my hips and grunted as he pushed into me. My belly swayed below me as I rocked back and forth with his thrusts.

When I finally came, my orgasm shook the bed.

I must have jinxed myself, because that night truly was the last time we were able to have sex. As the days passed, my body ballooned impossibly, to the point where my shoes no longer fit and my back ached from carrying around my own heavy weight. It was both a blessing and a curse. It was a curse because I was achey all over and generally miserable. But it was a blessing because now, the fetus was developed enough to move on its own, and I felt every lively kick and punch of its tiny baby limbs.

"Ooh!" I cried out at breakfast one day. The baby was restless.

"What?" Erick said, alarmed. His triangle of toast dropped from his pinched fingers to land dryly on his plate.

I shook my head. "Oh, it's nothing to worry about." Then, I grabbed his hand and shoved it under my shirt.

His expression changed as the baby dragged a foot across my stomach wall and bumped into his hand. The amazement on his face was so innocent and childlike that I got a brief glimpse of what he must've looked like as a little kid. And that made me wonder what my baby's face would look like.

Suddenly, I couldn't wait to give birth.

We had a few more days of blissful peace in our new house. Then, on the night when the first snowfall of the season was dusting its way across Riverrun, I felt a zap of pain that made me drop the bowl of soup I'd been carrying so carefully out of the kitchen.

I cried out and slammed sideways into the wall. Erick banged his way out of the bathroom. His eyes flashed from the streak of tomato bisque on the wood floor, to the broken bowl, and finally to me.

"Call Rowan," I said through my panting breaths. "The baby's coming!"