She collapsed onto my chest, both of us heaving, the heavy breathing that feels so good after you come. I rubbed her back and closed my eyes. We were a mess of sweat, and spunk, and her arousal. A lovely, sexed-up, dirty, f**king mess.
“That was the best birthday present a girl could get,” she muttered, “but you’d better go before my husband finds you here.”
I laughed and nuzzled her jaw. “Glad you liked it. And your husband should keep a better eye on you.”
“What he should do is keep a better eye on making sure I’m satisfied,” she sniffed. “Being pregnant makes me nearly insatiable.”
“I can take care of you, baby. Forget him. He’s a f**kin’ idiot.”
“Yeah, and you have a much bigger c**k than him, too.”
“Damn, woman, you are a feisty handful.” I tickled her until she shrieked and begged me to stop.
We laughed and settled down again, just enjoying the moment of closeness together. This was pure happiness for me. I didn’t need a lot, but I did know that now that I’d experienced Brynne’s love, I would be lost without it. Love. A thing I’d never sought out, had caught me up, completely ensnared me…so that now I was dependent upon it for my emotional survival.
I breathed in her heavenly scent, aimlessly stroking up and down her back, when I felt a prickling on my chest right by where she’d laid her cheek. I brushed at the spot with my fingers and met a pool of warm wetness. What the hell? I pulled my hand back to find my fingers dripping in blood.
My heart just f**king dropped to the floor. “Oh, God, Brynne, you’re bleeding!”
“WHAT? I am?” I sat up and met Ethan’s terrified grimace with the blood on his hand suspended between us as it dripped down his skin. I lifted my hand to my nose, understanding quickly what was happening. “It’s okay, Ethan. I’m okay,” I soothed, seeing clearly how my nosebleed was freaking him out.
“That’s a lot of f**king blood,” he barked. “I’m ringing Fred,” he said, reaching for his phone on the side table.
I tilted my head back and pinched the bridge of my nose. “It’s just a minor nosebleed, Ethan. Don’t call Freddy for this, please.” I got off him and stepped down from the bed. And it wasn’t easy when I was trying to keep from dripping all over the bedding.
I zipped into the bathroom and found a washcloth to use. It would be ruined now, but I didn’t have a choice. I held it under my nose with one hand and turned on the cold water at the sink with the other.
Ethan was right behind me, still panicking with eyes as wide as saucers. “Here, let me do it.” He pulled the washcloth away and checked me. “It’s still going,” he stated, his face pale.
I pressed the cloth back down on my nose. “Baby, this is nothing to get so worked up about. It’s just a nosebleed. This isn’t the first one I’ve had.”
“It isn’t?” he shouted. “When? What other times?” An angry frown had overtaken his beautiful face. Gone was my sweet teasing man from a few moments ago.
“Easy, buster, you need to lighten up—they are nothing serious. I had one yesterday while you were at work.”
“Why didn’t you say something?! Fuck, Brynne.” He dragged a hand through his hair raggedly, gripping the back in a tight handful.
“Okay.” I held a hand up, starting to get pissed at his overreacting. “I want you to take a deep breath, and go look at the website and check for ‘eighteen weeks pregnant.’”
Glaring, he shook his head at me, but he did step back and reach for his phone. The smears of blood on his hand looking gruesome, as he pulled up the site and studied the information. His eyes moved quickly as he read the “Pregnancy Symptoms” section. He lost some of the tension in his body and sat down on the side of the bed. After a moment more of silence, he read it out loud to me, his voice flat, “Increased pressure on the veins in your nose may be causing nosebleeds.” He was clearly upset.
“Are you sure it’s nothing to worry about?” When Ethan looked up at me, the expression on his face made my heart twist. He was sad, and scared, and frustrated, and concerned, all at the same time. Poor guy was going to need tranquilizers when I went into labor. “I’m okay, really I am.” I turned to the mirror and removed the washcloth. Bleeding stopped. My lip and chin were a bloody mess, but my nose was dry now.
Ethan jumped up and came to me. “Let me do it.” I knew better than to argue with him. I stood still for him as gently cleaned away the blood, wetting the cloth and carefully washing it off bit by bit until it was all gone.
I closed my eyes and let him work, feeling very loved and cherished despite the “trauma” my poor Ethan had just endured.
“How in the goddamn hell will I survive the birth of this baby, Brynne?”
I held his face in my hands and made him focus. “You will. You can do it. One minute at a time, just like me.” I didn’t know what else to tell him. I was scared, too.
He drew me into his arms and just held me against him, kissing the top of my head and smoothing down my hair. We’d shower and get ourselves cleaned up for my birthday dinner with his family in a little while, but right now we both needed this.
He just held me.
“SO we’ve had cake. Which was really delicious—thank you, Hannah.” Ethan gave his sister a bow of his head in appreciation. “We’ve had presents…except for one.” He snickered at everyone, looking far too smug for my liking. What in the hell was he up to? I sensed it might be something big, and that made me anxious. I didn’t need extravagant gifts from him. Didn’t really want them either. I knew myself. I was a simple girl.
“I want to see Auntie Brynne’s present,” Zara piped up. My five-year-old niece had absolutely no trouble expressing her opinions about life in general. It was safe to say that extravagant gifts didn’t bother Zara one iota. Ethan doted on her, and I adored her. In fact, she came over to see us quite a bit. One of her older brothers would walk her over if the weather was nice and she would run around our house and play with her Barbies. Zara was a hoot.