feel of Ben’s hand lazily rubbing her across her back. She stretched like a cat next to him then snuggled into his side again. She began drifting off when his spoke, his words waking her with a start.
"You're going to have to marry me, you know." She looked quickly at him, and he grinned charmingly at her sleepy albeit happy expression. "I can't just have an affair with one of my employees. It’s bad for business."
"What makes you think I'll be staying with your company?" She was teasing him now but wanted to hear his reply.
"Well, for starters, I have a contract. So, my love, you aren't going anywhere anytime soon. Secondly, I have every intention of making you my wife and the mother of my children, so you working somewhere else won’t work either. And in case you did not notice, we didn't use protection again. At this rate, I'll have you pregnant in no time, so you had better say 'yes' soon to being my wife. What do you say to a big wedding next summer at the cathedral?"
"No." She shook her head and laughed.
"That's my girl. But you will marry me?" He suddenly looked worried again, and she put his mind at rest with a wide smile.
"Yes, I will. But I should tell you that you will be getting more than you bargained for. I come as a package deal."
"What do you mean? Is there something you want? Name it. It will be yours if I have any say in it."
"I don’t want anything more. Only you and…Well, that’s not what I meant by a package deal. What I meant was that you won't make me pregnant if we don't use protection in the future." At his confused look she continued. "It won't work on me because I'm already..."
She stopped talking because he flipped her over and began kissing her again joyfully. Then he looked down at her in wonder.
"You're happy?" She looked up at him with worry.
"I'm very happy. Ok, I have new terms. What do you say to getting married next month at the inn?"
"Yes! I think that would be acceptable." She giggled at his happy expression and the way he began rubbing her belly. He scooted down and kissed her belly before looking back up into her face.
"I have another term."
"You have another one! You are pushing your luck today, Stanford."
Ben scooted back up so that they were face to face again. "I think you will agree with this one. If we have a boy, my term is that he will not be named Benjamin Stanford IV."
"And if we have a girl?"
"That she not be named Jane Anne."
"It's a deal."
#####
Coming Soon
Going for the Gold
Prologue
"Ni, ni, ni, Dytyna. You need more speed going into the triple lutz or you'll catch your toe pick."
Kerri Sullivan did not look at her coach who yelled out the instructions but increased her speed as she rounded the boards and headed back to the center of the ice rink. Moving her weight onto her left leg and gliding backwards, she went into her preparations for the jump that had been plaguing her since the U.S. Nationals. She lifted her right leg and leaned forward with her torso then quickly pushed off with her right foot that she dropped to the ice.
One.
Two.
Three.
She came down perfectly on the ice with her weight on the front of her right foot swinging her left leg around and behind her. Quickly, she leaped in the air again and completed the triple toe loop in her combination triple-triple jump required for competition. She nailed the landing on her second jump, too. Her feeling of victory continued as she glided across the ice doing two more jumps before going into her final spin to end her long program. The second movement of Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor ended gradually in exact synchronization with her spin.
Clap.
Clap.
Clap.
"Beautiful! Perfect, Kerri!"
Kerri looked over at her coach standing on the other side of the boards then up at the mostly empty seats in the ice arena they were using for practice today. There were several people scattered in the seats, some of them family members of skaters who came to watch the practice and some reporters covering the figure skating events. She saw her mother sitting in the seventh row wearing a huge smile on her face. Kerri felt good about practice today. It went better than she had hoped, and even though she was only an alternate, she