T h i r s t

t h i r t y t w o

Moderate time jump

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

It sounded again.

Like a whale dying.

And I did not mean my husband's snores.

It was my stomach growling. And I ate an hour ago. And I had to pee. Again.

I sighed.

I've gotta say, so far, being pregnant isn't turning out to be as great as they say. That's not entirely true.

Hearing that heartbeat was one thing, but watching his face?

I smiled, remembering it now.

But all the sweetness in the world wouldn't stop my bladder.

"Honey?" I whispered, to see if he was up, but his snores said otherwise. I carefully pried his hand off my belly and wriggled out of bed, making sure not to wake him. I waited by the foot of the bed for a moment to see if he awoke, and went to the bathroom when he didn't.

I willed the flush to be quieter than normal, not wanting to wake him up. I didn't need him to watch me pig out this early. Had to leave something for the ugly months.

I tiptoed past the bed and quietly made my way to the kitchen, grinning like an idiot at the ice cream. I was spoiling my child already.

I took the entire tub out and dug in, moaning with every spoon that went in. The cold dessert and the breeze from the fridge felt good. Being wrapped tight in his arms was one thing that made me hot, but combined with all these changes happening made it uncomfortable to cuddle. But how could I ever tell him he couldn't hold my belly as he slept?

I smiled, remembering how adorably helpful he was being ever since we found out. I couldn't wait until the baby got here. 7 more months.

I looked down to see that I had worked my way through half of the tub already. At this rate, we were going to need a lot of ice cream.

"Hey, there, burglar."

I froze with the spoon in my mouth. He didn't even startle me anymore.

"Hey." I said through a mouthful, slowly replacing the tub back into the freezer. Then I prayed that I didn't have any traces left on my face. I swallowed before I turned to face him, casually leant against the wall only in his boxers.

"Let me make you something." He offered, coming up to me.

"No, I'm full for now." I smiled and tried to walk back to bed, but he held on to my arms.

"Baby, I've told you already. You don't have to embarrassed by it. It's only food."

"Yeah, but it's so. much. food, Ryan. I'm gonna get so fat."

He moaned and nudged his nose into my hair. "I can't wait."

"Shut up, I'm serious."

"So am I. You've put on weight and I'm loving it. There's more of you to hold and . . . squeeze." He smirked, one hand grabbing at my butt.

I smiled and pulled his face down to kiss. Even at this hour, Ryan Conley was fierce. His tongue showed expert memory, remembering exactly what I liked and doing it.

If I thought Ryan let me call the shots in bed before, I was so wrong. He was so gentle and loving that I didn't even call it fucking anymore. We made love. He's turned me into a woman who says make love. Gag.

I giggled against his lips when he picked me up in his arms bridal style and ascended the stairs. It reminded me of the night we got married, and we hadn't even made it past the threshold that we were out of our clothes. There was just something about married sex . . .