Page 96

“Surely, you?—”

“Frederick.” She shot him a look. Her hand reached out and took his, held it tight. She kept her eyes on him, her lips curling into a smirk. “After all we have been through, have you not learned the most important thing?”

“Which is?”

“Saying no to me isnevera good idea. Now…” She pulled him toward her. “Will you just put a baby in me already?”

Frederick laughed, but only for a second, for no sooner had the laughter escaped his lips was he on her, his lips meeting her softones, their tongues lapping playfully as he kissed his wife for the first time in days.

He had forgotten what she tasted like. He had forgotten how much he loved to feel her body shuddering beneath his touch. He climbed onto the bed and mounted her, hands clawing at her dress as he tore it off her. She moaned as he began to kiss down her neck. She purred as his tongue licked and his lips sucked. And she growled in his ear as his hands cupped her swollen breasts and squeezed.

There would be no foreplay, for that felt unneeded. There would be no time wasting, for they had wasted enough time as it was. This right here, it was love making with a purpose, proof that they both wanted the same thing, a chance to put the past five days behind them once and for all.

Hannah helped Frederick with his pants, and he was quick to shuffle out of them. Those hands of hers then wrapped around his member, squeezing it, stiffening it, making his body shake and shudder as she readied him. His fingers found their way between her thighs, testing her wetness, ensuring that she too was ready, despite how weak and feeble she must have been feeling.

He then held her eyes and stared deeply into them. No words spoken this time, a silent understanding of what that look meant. It spoke of love. It spoke of desire. It spoke of a willingness to take this marriage to the next level.

“I’m ready…” Hannah fell back and opened her legs wide.

“I love you,” Frederick whispered in her ear as he moved down with her, positioning himself between her thighs and slowly entering her.

“I… I… I love… I love you too…” She moaned as he slid inside her, inch by inch, slow and steady until he was buried as deep as he could be. “For now, and forever.”

He held her eyes as he made love to her. No hair pulling. No slapping. No commands or dirty talk or any of that nonsense. This was slow and melodic, precise and careful, Frederick’s hips moving to the steady rhythm of Hannah’s breathing, building in intensity the harder she breathed and the faster she panted.

She felt better than he remembered. He rested on his elbows. One hand stroked her face, the other gripped her waist. They kissed deeply and passionately as he thrust into her. They giggled together. They smiled. They looked into one another’s souls as if somehow they knew that this would be it.

For what felt like seconds but must have been minutes, Frederick’s thrusts were long and intense and hard. Hannah’s eyes closed, and her head fell back. She bit her lip and moaned. Frederick could feel her pleasure building, he could feel her shaking, he could feel that explosion ready to erupt inside her. And the thought of such a thing, the feel of it, produced the same effect in him.

“I’m… are you ready?” he asked as he began to thrust faster and harder.

“I… I am…” she stammered, her breathing now intense and labored.

The sensation built in his legs and through his thighs. It swirled in his stomach and touched his chest. It grew and grew and grew until he could take it no more and then, just as he felt his wife’s body begin to shake and spasm, he finished inside her.

“Urgh!” he moaned.

“Oh!” she groaned. “Frederick… don’t… ever… stop…”

He stayed inside her until well after he was finished. Keeping himself there, ensuring that every last drop was spent. He needed her to know that he was serious about this, and when he did finally roll off her, they both seemed to understand that very fact.

“I love you,” he said again, pulling her into his arms and holding her close.

“I love you too, obviously.” She giggled. “Although I should warn you, when this little one comes out, my love for you might take second place.”

He laughed. “Are you that sure.” He moved his hand to her stomach.

She smiled coyly. “Just a feeling I have.”

Perhaps she was just saying that? Perhaps she somehow knew? Either way, Frederick could not help but beam. The love he had for his wife. The love he had for his daughter. The love he had for this new child, whenever that may become a reality. Frederick had spent so long feeling guilty over his past that he had failed to live in the present and look forward to the future. Now, that was all he would do.

He and Hannah would start a family together. They would love one another unconditionally. And he would look back on these past five days and wonder what the hell it was that he was thinking, for he almost lost the woman he loved.

Now, luckily, he had the rest of his life to make it up to her. And he planned on doing just that.

Epilogue

“Push! Push! Yes, just like that…” the midwife, Miss Robinson, commanded gently as she stroked Hannah’s hair. “Push?—”