Until Her (Sequel)

chapter sixteen

Holy shit. When they say you pop, you pop.

"Carter! Wake up!" I whisper-yelled, pulling back our grey sheets to discover Carter's mass of ruffled hair. "Baby, get up!"

"Hmm?" he hummed in his raspy morning voice.

"Carter..." I begged, pulling at the sheets. "I think I'm showing."

His one green eye opened, squinted, and he finally sat up. His muscles flexed as they adjusted to the cold air blasting out of the vents. I kissed his forehead and stood before him. He nodded for me to proceed, and I rolled up my lacey night dress to reveal my magically-rounded tummy.

His eyes shot open, wide as the moon, eyebrows reaching his hairline. He stood up and looked at me in the full-length mirror.

"Holy shit! Where did that come from?"

I cackled. "I guess he was finally ready to show himself!"

"How the...? I just can't believe this." He held my slightly rounded belly and bent down onto his knee. "Hi baby," he said to my belly. "It's your Daddy. I can't wait to meet you." He kissed my abdomen, rising up to kiss me. He held me so close that a familiar itching between my thighs needed more.

Sitting him on the bed, I admired him as he lifted up my dress, rubbing his hands delicately over my curves until I lost sight of everything else but our little bubble of the world.

The phone rang an hour later, bringing me out of a perfectly peaceful drift I had fallen into on Carter's chest. I sleepily picked up my cell.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Mrs. James, this is a call from the McWorth Penitentiary." My breath caught. I slapped my hands, harder than intended, against Carter's bare back. He stirred awake, confusingly watching me on the phone. "I'm calling to inform you that inmate 47998, Warren Capshaw, has been set to release from McWorth on August seventh."

The pit in my stomach grew until an unmanageable shock and fear overwhelmed my entire system. I began to sweat instantly, tears covering my eyes while my body stuck to the sheets.

"W—wi—will he be free to live anywhere? Do anything?"

"Yes, within the boundaries set by his parole officer."

Before I could say anything else, I hung up the phone. With Carter being so close to the speaker, I didn't have to repeat anything. He held me, most likely expecting me to cry, but my body and mind were too rattled to react.

"What are we going to do? We're not safe. Are we?" I worried.

"I... I don't know, Chlo." He held me closer. "But I'm going to keep you safe. I promise it."

I couldn't think. I couldn't talk. I just wanted to enjoy the next four days, knowing that it might be the last four days of complete safety from Warren Capshaw. Trying to instinctively react, I dialed my Mom, remembering that Mrs. Capshaw opened her home to her son when he was released...only fifteen minutes from my parents' house.

"Tongues have been waggin' around town. Everyone's heard about it." Mom said through the speaker when I called her just moments later. "Mrs. Capshaw is telling everyone she can't wait to have her son back. Maybe he really is moving home."

"Maybe. I don't like it either way." I admitted. I hated the thought of being in danger, but I couldn't bear the thought of Warren coming near my parents.