Debt

50: Remember December

6 months later

Larielle woke up to morning sickness. She hadn't meant to be pregnant again. It was just something that happened. And when she wanted to go home, Evan definitely was not having it. She was staying right where she was where no one knew where she was. And he had taken a semester out of school and told Hector he was going to be staying with Larielle.

But thinking about being pregnant again made her smile. When she had first gotten pregnant, she made Shayla go to the mainland and buy her a test. Upon peeing on the stick, two very real emotions wrecked her: fear and joy. She wanted to have a child for Evan. But the trepidation in her heart of also losing this baby made her sick.

She knew when her baby was conceived and remembered the moment because it had made her so happy.

Larielle woke up to a body cozying up behind her and arms sliding around her waist. She would know this body if she hadn't felt it around her for a decade. "Baby?" she asked, threading her fingers through his.

"Happy birthday," he whispered, pulling her closer and kissing her neck.

"I thought you couldn't come until Christmas Eve."

"I lied."

"You lie a lot," she told him, a little smile on her lips.

"I know. I'm a compulsive liar," he told her, sliding a hand up to her breast. "I missed you, Lari."

"I missed you too."

She turned around and put her arms around him, letting him kiss her. He shifted her body up under his and looked down at her. They hadn't had sex since the incident, and she understood he was taking her cues. But she knew that Evan would never hurt her, and she trusted him. She had willingly given her innocence to Pablo, so he hadn't had a chance to steal it. She had willingly given herself to Evan many times, and he never hurt her or did anything she told him she didn't want.

Larielle began lifting Evan's shirt, and from there he understood. He pulled her slip off her body and kissed her lips softly as he fingered her, feeling her get wetter by the second, coating his fingers.

She moaned softly, grinding into his fingers and pulling him closer. "I got you something," he told her.

"Later," she moaned, holding his forearm, her eyes closed.

He leaned forward and kissed her, pulling her tongue into his mouth. She began to take off his pants.

When Evan got the rest of his clothes off, he held his wife by the waist and looked down at her, into her eyes. "I love you," he whispered.

"I love you, too," she told him, reaching a hand up to touch his lips.

Evan slowly entered her warmth, and she received him with a sigh, her arms sliding around him.

The sex was slower than even their first time and cozy. This wasn't sex meant to incite passion or excitement. It was meant to be close, to be comfortable and comforting.

When Evan lay back beside his wife, he held her in his arms, chest-to-chest, looking down at her face, stroking the sweaty hair away from it.

"Do you want your gift now?" he asked, kissing her shoulder.

"Okay."

He got up and went to his bag and pulled out a portfolio. When he got back in the bed, he pulled her into his lap. He opened it and showed her a design for her building. She looked on as he explained the floorplan to her. "Hector helped me with it," he admitted. "But it was mostly me."