Chapter 24 #2
“Never,” he promises, and I know he means it. Not just tonight, but for the foreseeable future.
“All right, mama,” Dr. Saunders pipes up from the end of the bed. “You’re at ten centimeters. Fully effaced. And Baby A is head down and fully engaged.” She meets my gaze, her eyes warm and excited even though I know she’s done this a thousand times before. “Let the energy build, and when you feel that urge to push again, take a deep breath and bear down, okay?”
“Okay,” I say, my heart racing as I grip the bed rail with one hand and Hunter’s fingers with the other. The marrow-deep pain—hot and vibrating—comes again, rising higher and higher until?—
“That’s right, good girl, here we go,” Dr. Saunders encourages. “And push, Elaina!”
I bear down, gripping Hunter’s hand as the pressure builds and my body takes over, demanding I push with everything I’ve got. Through the haze of effort and my blood rushing in my ears, I hear Hunter murmuring encouragement, telling me how incredible I am, how strong, his words helping more than he’ll probably ever know.
“So good,” Dr. Saunders says as the contraction finally fades, leaving me panting. “Rest, and we’ll go again with the next one.”
I collapse back against the pillows, already exhausted, and we’re just getting started. “Moms should rule the world, or at least have final say on whether countries go to war,” I murmur to Hunter. “If you don’t have to go through this kind of pain to bring a human being into this world, you shouldn’t get to send human beings off to die for oil or territory or whatever we’re fighting over right now.”
He nods. “Agreed. You’re right.”
“I’m always right,” I say, a smile tugging at my sweat-damp upper lip. “Tell me I’m always right, no take backs later.”
“You’re always right,” he says without a beat of hesitation. “No take backs.”
“I must be really pathetic, huh? If you’re willing to go full no take backs on something like that.”
He shakes his head. “No, you’re amazing. But this is way more intense than I thought it would be.”
“It’s violent, right?” I ask, wincing as the pain starts to rise again. “Are you scared?”
“I am,” he says. “But I’m so glad I’m here. I love you.”
“I love you, too,” I murmur, words ending in a groan. I push even harder this time, until I feel a splitting, easing, opening sensation that makes my pulse spike all over again. “Is that?” I gasp.
“It’s the head!” Dr. Saunders confirms. “Lots of dark hair. One more big push and we’ll get the airways clear. Get the suction ready, Kayla.”
The next contraction comes fast and the pressure is suddenly incredible, burning and stretching beyond anything I could have imagined. I grit out a primal battle cry and bear down with everything in me.
I’m so focused, so locked in on the task at hand that I’m completely oblivious to Maya’s arrival. I don’t realize she’s there until the contraction fades, and I look up to see her in scrubs on my other side, practically vibrating with excitement. “Hey badass, look at you. You’re a warrior. I’m so sorry I’m late. We hit traffic on the way into town.”
“I’m just glad you’re here now,” I say, taking her hand. “Baby A is almost here.”
“She is,” Dr. Saunders confirms. “One more big push, Elaina. The contraction’s coming, get ready.”
Marveling that her monitor knows things about my body before I do, I take a deep breath and get ready to face the next wave. It comes on fast, and again, my body demands I obey its primal need, pushing the way my ancestors did before me.
For a moment, I feel that connection, that line of strong women braving the storm to bring our babies into the world. I feel the miracle of it, the sacredness of it… And then…
The pressure releases in a rush, and there’s a cry—high, pissed off, and perfect.
“It’s a girl!” Dr. Saunders holds up a squirming, gore-coated body, tiny but clearly tough and ready to take her place in our line of badass women. “Dad, do you want to cut the cord?”
Hunter casts a teary glance my way, making it clear the miracle of it all isn’t lost on him.
“Go ahead,” I encourage, swallowing as I catch my breath. “You’ve got this, Dad.”
I watch through tears as he cuts the cord with shaking hands, his movements careful and reverent. A nurse whisks our daughter away to be cleaned and checked, but before I can ask to hold her—I read it was important for the baby to touch skin with her mother after birth—another contraction reminds me we’re only halfway done.
“Holy shit,” I mutter, clinging to Maya’s hand.
“Ready for round two?” Dr. Saunders asks with a grin.
“You’re a sadist,” I mutter, making Maya and the doctor laugh.
“But fun,” Maya says. “My doctor was wonderful, but so serious all the time. It made the C-section so much more stressful.”
“Fun?” I grunt as the pain builds again. “Why do people keep throwing that word around? There is no fun here.”
And there isn’t, but there is excitement and gratitude and an exhilarating rush as my second daughter slides into place and follows her sister into the world.
Just four minutes and five pushes later, Baby B’s cry cuts through the air, more plaintive and confused-sounding than her sister’s, but every bit as strong.
“Another beautiful girl!” Dr. Saunders coos at the slightly smaller pink miracle gazing wide-eyed around her, as if shocked to find herself back in a place she was sure she’d left behind.
“Oh, baby, welcome home. I love you so much.” This time, the doctor places my daughter on my chest, sending love washing through my every cell. She’s tiny and gorgeous and perfect, with the same shock of dark hair as her sister and blue eyes the color of a summer sky. “Oh, she’s so beautiful.” I look up, happy tears streaming down my face. “Where’s my other girl? I don’t want her to feel left out.”
“She’s right here,” the blonde nurse says, a swaddled bundle in her arms. Maya moves back so the nurse can scoot close, revealing the sleepy-looking pumpkin in her arms.
“Oh, she’s perfect,” I coo, my love cup overflowing. I suck in a soft breath as her eyes widen, and she shifts toward my voice. “They’re green, Hunter. Her eyes are green. Like yours. They’re not identical.” A closer look reveals slight differences in the girls’ noses and mouth shape, as well. “We thought they were fraternal from the ultrasound, but now we know for sure.”
“They’re both beautiful,” Hunter whispers, his voice thick with emotion. “The most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.”
And they are.
And already showing signs of being two unique, determined, talented young ladies who latch on to my nipples with an ease Maya assures me is crazy awesome.
“It took days for Mario to figure out how to latch on,” she says, beaming as I lie in bed in my room later, one baby tucked under each arm as they go at my chest like old pros. “You’re so lucky.”
I arch a brow. “Maybe the universe was just having a little mercy on me. Seeing as I have two of them to feed instead of one.”
Maya grins. “Good point. So? Have they revealed their names to you yet?”
“I think so.” I glance down at them before turning to Hunter and Margaret, who are settled into the arm chairs in the corner. “I was thinking Fiona for our feisty little lady with her daddy’s eyes. And for our thoughtful, curious girl…Maggie, short for Margaret?”
Margaret’s hand comes to press against her chest as her eyes fill with tears. “Oh, honey. Oh, I… I would be so honored.”
“They’re perfect,” Hunter says, his eyes shining, too. “Fiona and Maggie Murphy-Mendelssohn.”
My heart swells at the words. “Change that to Mendelssohn-Murphy and you’ve got a deal. I need to have the last word around here.”
Hunter smiles, the hope in his expression making me positive we’re going to make it all the way to happily ever after and then some. “As you should. Mendelssohn-Murphy it is.”
Later—much later—we crowd into the hospital bed together, one baby in each of our arms. Maya’s gone home to feed Mario, promising to drop Margaret at the rental tonight and return with Grandma first thing in the morning to check on all of us.
The room is quiet except for the soft sounds of Fiona snuffling slightly in her sleep, the steady beep of monitors in the distance, and the night nurses murmuring down the hall.
“Thank you,” Hunter murmurs, trailing a finger down Margaret’s cheek. “For both of them. They’re… I fell in love the moment I saw them.”
“Me, too,” I whisper.
He shifts his focus to my face. “Just like I did with their mother.”
I narrow my eyes as I add playfully, “Yeah, I liked you okay, too. Though I did my best to talk myself out of it.”
“I’m glad you didn’t,” he says. “Is it too soon to ask you to marry me for real?”
Chest tightening, I nod. “Yeah, it is. But give me a few months. I have a feeling I might change my mind.”
And…I do.
Four months later, we’re at a summer concert in Central Park, listening to one of my favorite alternative bands from high school croon all the emo ballads I loved when I was seventeen and wondering if I’d ever find the kind of love people wrote songs about.
The girls are asleep in their double stroller, passed out cold after a big day spent visiting Grandma and playing with the new toys she bought for them to chew to pieces. Fiona’s thicker hair curls around her face in the late July heat, but Maggie’s stays wispy and straight. The older they get, the more their differences stand out, but they are both the cleverest and the best.
And they love each other so much. Even in sleep, their chubby fists touch over their heads and a small smile curves their lips.
Gazing down at them as Hunter and I sway to the music, I muse, “I wonder if they’re dreaming? What do you think babies dream about?”
“Maybe they’re dreaming about something like this?” he asks, and then, before I can wrap my head around what’s happening, he’s down on one knee on our blanket spread on the grass, pulling an engagement ring from his pocket.
It’s different than the first one, smaller, but more intricate, and clearly something he picked out especially for me.
I barely let him get out the words, “Elaina Murphy, will you do me the—” before I breathe, “Yes!” and hurl myself into his arms.
We tumble onto the blanket, Hunter insisting I let him finish as I giggle and shove my hand into his face. “Just put it on me already, Mendelssohn.”
With a roll of his eyes, he does, his lips curving as I crawl into his lap to survey my gorgeous new ring. “Finally. I was beginning to think you were never going to ask me.”
He huffs and shakes his head. “You told me to wait. There’s no pleasing you, woman.”
I wrap my arms around his neck, whispering against his lips as I move in for a kiss. “Oh, yes, there is. You please me all the time.”
He does. He pleases me later that night in fact, swooping me into his arms and carrying me into our bedroom the second we have the girls tucked into the nursery and have set the Captain up with a catnip ball to ease his suffering after being left alone for half the day. Captain Crunchypants loves his babies with the same passion that he loves humping other men and gets very upset if we take them away for more than an hour or two.
Thankfully, Margaret doesn’t seem too bothered by the occasional stray cat hair on the girls’ clothes, though we’re always careful to give them a good lint-roll before we head to Grandma’s.
Speaking of Grandma…
“We should call your mom and tell her the news,” I say as Hunter carries me into the bedroom.
“Later,” he says. “I have other priorities at the moment.”
I grin. “Oh yeah? I do love being a priority…”
He lays me down on the bed, undressing me with slow, delicious attention that makes my entire body hum. The first time we came together after the girls were born was a little painful, but now we’re back to the way we were before. As sweet and filthy as ever, and I couldn’t be happier.
Well, maybe I could be just a touch happier…
“I have a surprise for you,” I whisper as Hunter swirls his tongue between my legs, giving my clit a deep, focused attention that’s quickly driving me out of my mind with wanting him.
“What’s that?” he asks, before driving his stiff tongue inside me, making me moan. “Spread your legs wider, I need to fuck my pussy properly with my mouth.”
“Then with your cock,” I breathe as I obey, loving the way he palms my ass in both hands, guiding me into the perfect position. “And no condom.”
He pauses, lifting his head just an inch. “No condom?”
I nod, meeting his hungry gaze across the landscape of my body. “That’s what I said.”
“You’re not…” He trails off, blinking for a long moment before he adds, “You know the girls are the best thing that’s ever happened to me, but are we sure we’re ready to try again so soon?”
I snort. “Fuck, no. Are you crazy? I had my IUD put in again yesterday while you were at work. That’s what I meant.”
He exhales in relief, making me giggle.
“Oh, you poor man,” I say, still laughing as he lengthens himself on top of me. “You were having flashbacks to the sleep deprivation days, weren’t you?”
“They just started sleeping through the night a month ago, brat,” he says, swatting the side of my ass, making me moan again as I wrap my legs around his hips. “And I’m an old man. I need my rest.”
“You’re a hot man,” I counter. “And you need to fuck me. Now.”
He doesn’t need to be told twice. With a guttural groan, he sinks into me, stretching, filling, claiming. The sensation of him, of us , is a live wire, setting my every nerve ending alight. We gasp in unison as we come together, skin against skin, the heat between us as intense and perfect as ever.
“Fuck, I missed you,” he rasps against my throat, his lips tracing a path to the hollow beneath my ear. “You feel incredible.”
“Four whole days, how did we manage?” I tease as I tilt my hips, meeting him, taking him deeper. The rhythm he sets is slow but deliberate, each thrust a promise, each retreat a tease.
“Been a hell of a lot longer since I’ve had you bare,” he says. “I love how wet you are for me, baby. I need you like this. Need this hot little pussy wrapped around my dick with nothing between us.”
My nails dig into his back, urging him on. “Show me,” I breathe, my voice thick with need. “Take me hard.”
And he does—thoroughly, relentlessly—until we both lose the ability to do anything but gasp and moan, until the only language left is the way we move together.
The way we come apart in each other’s arms…
I come calling his name, clinging to him as he comes deep inside me, each pulse of his cock drawing out my pleasure until I’m limp.
And happy.
So, so happy…
As he rolls to one side, I go with him, draping my leg over his and pressing my cheek to his chest as our breaths slow. My fingers trace lazy patterns over his damp skin, relishing the stickiness, the mess.
Love is messy, but so worth it. Our life is so much more chaotic with the twins, but we make it work. Between a part-time nanny, therapy with our amazing therapist, and Hunter taking Mondays and Tuesdays off to hold down the fort at home while I catch up on any bathhouse-related work that I wasn’t able to get to during the girls’ nap, we’re thriving in our careers and as a family.
Family…
“We’re going to be a family, for real,” I whisper, excitement dancing through me again as I twirl my new ring around my finger with my thumb.
“We’re already a family for real,” Hunter says, hugging me closer. “But I can’t wait to marry you.”
“Me, too,” I say with a sigh. “I’m going to marry you so hard.”
“You like everything hard tonight, don’t you?” he teases.
I reach down, stroking his still semi-hard cock. “I do. The harder the better.”
He chuckles and kisses my forehead. “Five minutes. Give me five, and I’ll be ready to fuck you hard again, little girl.”
“From behind this time,” I say, snuggling closer to his side. “And pull my hair.”
He clucks his tongue playfully. “Bossy, bossy…”
“You love it,” I say, knowing it’s true.
“I do.” He catches my hand, bringing it to his lips, his thumb brushing over the ring that gleams in the moonlight. “And I love seeing this on your finger.”
“Me, too.” My smile fades as I add in a softer voice, “Let’s be together forever, okay?”
“Sounds like a plan,” he says.
And it is, one we stick to like a treasure map.
Soon, our life together is so bright that it makes those dark months alone in Maine, wondering if I had what it takes to be a single mom, seem like a bad dream.
But they weren’t a dream.
Those days were very real and very hard—for both of us. We learned a lesson during our time apart, one that makes us hold on even tighter, determined never to lose each other again.
We’re married in a simple ceremony on the roof of our building in October, surrounded by friends and family, our loved ones as happy for us as we are to finally be saying our “I dos.” And then Sully and Weaver take the girls home with them for a long weekend—they’ve decided not to have children, but they’re the best auntie and uncle ever.
Hunter and I drive to a cabin upstate, surrounded by gorgeous fall leaves, and don’t come out of the bedroom for three days straight, except to grab food and the occasional shower.
Nine months later, Phillip Mendelssohn-Murphy is born, howling even louder than his big sister Fiona did, and we decide it’s time to hire more than a part-time nanny.
Three kids under the age of three is…a lot.
A lot of diapers, a lot of chaos, and a lot of wonderful.
Life is wonderful, and it’s all thanks to this man and a contract we keep tucked in a drawer in his office, a memento of the crazy thing we did before we were the parents of three little kids who keep us too busy to be wild very often.
Though we still get around to it, every now and then…
Like tonight, when the nanny has the kids and we’re stealing away to our favorite hotel in the city, where we plan to stay up all night doing very filthy things to each other.
And sweet things.
And forever things, because that’s the kind of love we have.
The kind that lasts a lifetime.