Crash Landing on You - Edelweiss Diaries

Part 22 - Homecoming III

"I know you are awake," he heard her say and the smile spread through his face.

"You been gawking at me for the last hour, luv. Were you planning to wake me at all?" With his eyes closed, he felt his way through the bed and his arm reached past the mattress to settle around the curve of her neck.

His eyes flickered open and he watched her small form, poised on the floor, against the dresser next to the bed.

"I hope you didn't wait to eat with me." Craning his neck, he caught the time on the clock above the nightstand. It was well past midnight.

Returning from the doctor's office, his jet lag had hit him hard. With her weariness catching up to her, she too had fallen in bed with him.

"These two" –she pointed to her belly and chuckled– "can't wait for time or tide."

His thumb traced her jaw, while he studied the ease with which she brought up the newest additions to their small world. Though bearing witness to her violent nausea and the black and white images of two tiny hearts beating to a rhythm, had firmly instilled in him that he was a parent now, the knowledge was still separate from his physical being.

However, the three lives were one inside her and that reckoning continued to thrill him.

"It's going to take me a while to believe you are really here." Her eyes held many things then. "Sprawled on my bed at that."

When he couldn't tell what was choking her, he nudged her closer. He slid back to make space for her and she scooted in settling against him.

She gazed at him wordlessly. First in wonder and then with the misery that wounded him. For a long moment, she closed her eyes and let the tears drain out. Her fingers stroked his stubbled jaw and lingered over his nose and lips taking in the heat of his breath.

"I'm here," he whispered. She nodded but continued to seek reassurance that he was in the flesh and more real than her made-up fears. When seconds turned into minutes, the beginnings of a smile curved her lips and he realized she was starting to break away from the episode of imagined loss.

"The last time you were home, you barely stepped into this room," she scoffed. "I had to consider if you were practicing to be a monk."

His smile broadened thankful for the sarcasm. "Let me remind you that you were the one who swore me into being one."

"I wonder till this very day what might have transpired if I hadn't said those words that held you back." He heard the challenge in her voice and conked a brow at her.

Her fingers found the edge of his t-shirt and slipped inside, winding around his torso, while he fought the urge to respond in kind. "Every time you held my hand and stared at me," she said pausing to place a wet kiss over his lips and pulled away just as quickly. "I was screaming inside that we would at least make out."

She sighed playfully but drew closer to him nevertheless. "Now all hope is lost. With us being pregnant, you are going to turn into a big mush and treat me like I'm only glass."

If she wasn't egging him on enough with words, now with his t-shirt yanked over his head and off, he felt the inviting nakedness underneath the thin veil of her nightdress.

"You are the mother to my children, but you are my wife first." He kissed her with a need to possess all of her and that appeared to please her too.

"Promise me," she held his cheek, "we won't forget to be husband and wife, while we take on this parenthood."

His lips rolled atop hers, and his hands drifted down from her nape. In contrast to handling her like delicate glass, the manner in which the pregnancy had changed her body, roused a novel fancy for the woman underneath him. The fullness of her breast under the mold of his palm and the eagerness of her descending fingers, brought on his arousal fast and thick against her.