Chapter 22
Flint
One Month Later
This morning is a special day in our lives.
I’m standin’ in the kitchen, gazing out the window, with a cup of coffee in my hand and a small black box in my pocket.
I’ve been carrying it for two fuckin’ weeks, lookin’ for the right time to pop the question.
So far, I haven’t found the right moment.
Jules has to have noticed I’m acting strange as hell. If so, she’s not brought it up.
I’ve decided that I’m going to do it today. Every single day that she goes with a bare finger is an insult to my manhood. This woman loves me, so I know she’s gonna say yes. I just need to get it done.
I touch the ring box in my pocket, just to double check that it’s still there.
I grab the small leather folder off the counter and tuck it under my arm just as she comes down the hall.
She’s wearing one of my old shirts and a pair of leggings, and the shirt is unbuttoned over a tank top that stretches tight over her belly which is just starting to show.
Every fuckin’ day this woman of mine just keeps getting more and more beautiful.
“Darlin’, come outside with me. I have a surprise for you.”
“Where are we going?”
“Out to the lemon tree.”
She glances towards the front door, smiling. “Do we have more lemons coming in?”
“Maybe. Let’s have a look.”
We walk out to the front yard together, hand in hand.
The tree is taller than Jules and not quite as tall as me. I planted it when I first bought the property and this is the first year I’ve actually had lemons. There’s a round wooden bench around it that I built myself.
I sit her down on the bench and kneel down in front of her. The sun is on us.
I take the leather folder out from under my arm and put it in her lap.
“What’s this? Is it the surprise you mentioned?”
“Open it and find out.”
She opens it and pulls out her sketches.
The ones she gave me on the back of work orders since she started working in my shop.
The sketch for a new sign for the storefront is on top.
The caricature with my big head and tiny motorcycle is under that one.
The portrait of me with a lipstick kiss on my cheek that said no flirting.
The one of my bicep with her name worked into it and half a dozen more.
The drunk caricature on a napkin from the bar.
I kept every single one she ever gave me. I had them mounted on archival paper.
She makes a sound that’s half laugh and half strangled cry. “Flint.”
“Keep goin’.”
She turns the pages. She has not given these sketches much thought since the day she drew them. She keeps flipping through until she gets to the last one. The last page isn’t her drawing. It’s mine.
“I haven’t drawn a thing since I was twelve years old. But for you, I gave it my best shot, foxy.”
She stares down at the two stick figures. One large stick figure in a Sons cut and a janky beard. I drew a smaller stick figure with a round belly and long hair. They’re holding hands. Behind them, a small square house with a lemon tree next to it.
Underneath the stick figures, in my blocky handwriting: Jules. Marry me. Sincerely, Flint.
She starts laughing. In fact, she’s laughing and crying at the same time. The folder on her lap shakes merrily. She ends up pressing one hand over her belly and the other over her mouth, as if to stifle her laughs. I love seeing her like this.
“Flint. You drew for me.”
“I tried to draw. There’s a difference, I’m afraid.”
“You drew our little growing family. And you signed it sincerely.”
“I wanted you to know I was sincere and thought this would be a clever way of lettin’ you know.”
“This is absolutely the best proposal you could have given me. I love everything about this, including the keepsake.”
“I hope and pray that means you’re sayin’ yes, sweetheart.”
“I’m definitely saying yes. Now, get the ring out of your pocket. I’ve been dying to see it.”
“How did you know I have a ring in my pocket?”
“You’ve been touching your pocket every five minutes for two weeks. I’ve been wondering what you had in there. Now that you’ve proposed, I realize it could only be one thing.”
“My clever old lady. You’re fuckin’ amazin’.”
“I know. Now, let me see my ring.”
Taking the box out of my pocket, I open it. The ring is a simple band of platinum with a single round stone set flat, the kind of ring that will glide across the paper when my woman is sketching, working, or running her hand across her man’s stomach in the middle of the night.
“I picked it out by myself at a shop in town because I knew exactly what you would want and I didn’t want to ask anyone.”
“You made another great choice, babe. This is the ring I never knew I wanted. Perfect for me.”
Hearing her praise my choice hits me right in the fuckin’ feels.
I pull the ring out of the box and ask one more time to make it official, “Will you marry me?”
She looks up at me with the most radiant smile on her face. “Yes. I’d be honored to marry you.”
“We’re gonna have the best family ever,” I tell her confidently.
She carefully slides her sketches back into the leather folder and responds, “Everyone thinks they have the best family, babe.”
Frowning, I explain, “But we really have the best one. Trust me on that.”
She leans over and right before she kisses me, she says, “You’re like a dog with a bone sometimes, babe. I like that about you.”
I realize for a brief moment that she’s saying she likes my stubborn streak. Since not many people do, I take that as a win. Then I get lost in the kisses she’s offering me because I’m greedy that way.
When she murmurs for me to take her inside, I suspect she might want more than my lips.
So, I scoop her up in my arms and carry her up to the bedroom while she drops delicate kisses along the side of my neck.
Kicking the door shut behind us, I drop her onto the bed.
She reaches out to lay her leather folder on the bedside table with my ring gleaming on her finger.
I take a minute to push my plaid shirt back off her shoulders and slip the tank top over her head. She isn’t wearing a bra, so her glorious breasts are on full display. “Let me look at you, sweetheart.”
She leans back on her hands as I come down onto my knees in front of her. I bring up one hand to trace my fingers along her collarbone and then down between her breasts. “You’ve gotten bigger here.”
Glancing down, she agrees, “Yeah, they just keep getting bigger every week, it seems.”
Bringing my hands up, I test the weight of them. They are fuller and heavier. “They can’t be making milk already, can they?”
Pressing her lips together, she just nods, looking at me wide-eyed. “Of course. . Though the proper milk doesn’t come in until after the baby comes.”
I think I must be messed up in the head because hearing her talk about making milk makes my cock painfully hard. “I guess I skipped those classes. Can’t wait to see how big they get.”
She notices my unmistakable hard-on and shakes her head. “Well, to be quite honest, we really shouldn’t even be having sex. We’re not married yet.”
I’m all kinds of confused right now. This woman can do my head in quicker than anyone I’ve ever met.
“You’re sitting on my bed, wearing my ring, half naked, and carrying my child. I think that ship has sailed, Jules.”
“I’m only joking. You gonna fuck me or not. Pregnant women get horny.”
Well, I don’t need tellin’ twice. I bring my hands up and pull her leggings and panties all the way down her legs.
My hands skim from her ankles all the way back up her legs and land on her baby bump.
She smells so fuckin’ nice and her skin is so soft that I want to rub my face on every square inch of her body. Something makes me hesitate.
Glancing up at her face, I ask, “When you say horny, just how horny are you?”
Her hands come up to cup her breasts and she says, “Now I have these large breasts it seems a shame to leave them unattended.”
She’s literally holding her breasts out to me in some kind of exotic sexual offering for me to understand that she’s playing a sex game with me. And fuckin’ hell, it’s working. I’m hard as an iron bar. Jules seems to know what turns me on more than I do.
While I’m trying to work through it all in my head, Jules lets her legs fall apart, giving me a fabulous view of the place where I most like to put my tongue.
“Damn, woman. How am I expected to choose where my mouth’s gonna go?”
She shrugs carelessly with one shoulder. “We’ve got all day. Put your mouth wherever you want.”
I smother back a smile. Bringing my hand up, I lay it flat against her belly, spreading my fingers wide. I just hold it there, waiting to see if our baby moves as I gaze at her pussy. My mouth waters at the thought of tasting her again. I can’t get undressed fast enough.
I lean over and kiss her, looping one hand around the back of her neck to hold her in place. Her hands come up to claw gently at my chest. The light scrape of her nails over my heated flesh ramps up my lust. Careful, I remind myself. I’ve got to be careful with her.
I trail kisses down to her plump breasts, teasing and sucking her nipples just the way she likes. She gets impatient and presses my head down. I’m a man who can take a hint, so I spend a little time on her belly, just kissing her there before moving down once again.
Then I’m at my favorite part, running my tongue through her slick folds. Her pussy quivers when the tip of my tongue collides with her clit, so I make sure to do that with each and every swipe. I lap away at her clit, even as my fingers slide into the pussy to find her G-spot.
She gets gratifyingly wet for me, more so than any woman I’ve ever been with.
But of course she fuckin’ does because I’m her guy.
I’m lost in my own thoughts, and before I know it, her pussy is contracting around my tongue as my fingers rub her wet clit.
I only stop lapping up her sweet juices when she shoves me away.
Crawling up her body, I carefully avoid putting weight on her baby bump.
“How do you want it this morning, sweetheart?”
“I want you on top. I like the feeling of you on me. And looking up at your handsome face and gorgeous ink turns me on.”
I shamelessly love it when she says shit like that. But I have to be the voice of reason. “I’ll crush you, and neither of us wants that.”
She frowns up at me. “You won’t crush me. The doctor said it’s fine until the last month. I want you on top of me.”
I think about it for a long second. I don’t like taking chances, but she’s right about the doctor saying it’s fine until she starts to get really big in the last month or so. We’re at the end of month five. Technically, it should be okay.
When she whispers, “Please, babe. Don’t make me beg,” any resistance I had left crumbles. I’m definitely gonna be one of those pansy-ass brothers who can’t say no to his old lady, but I guess I can live with that.
I carefully move over her, putting most of my weight on my forearms. She wraps her long legs around my waist, and I settle down with my heavy cock resting on her left hip. Reaching down between us with one hand, I find that she’s still so ready for me that she gasps at the first touch.
“Jesus, sweetheart. Your hormones are really raging out of control these days.”
“It’s not hormones. It’s you. Don’t stop.”
“I’m not,” I assure her, placing my cock in the right position for the kind of deep penetration she likes.
I give her a tender kiss. Then I slide into her slowly, an inch or so at a time. Slow strokes keep her in the pleasure zone. I don’t want my old lady feeling any discomfort when we fuck. So, I don’t rush. When I’m all the way inside, I rest for a moment, touching our foreheads.
“Are you okay, sweetness?”
“Yeah,” she answers a little breathlessly. “I always am with you, babe. In fact, I’m ready when you are.”
I move in and out, using my hips rather than my full body.
I go as deep as I think is safe and set a steady rhythm.
Each thrust gets a response from Jules. She moans her pleasure in my ear, scrapes her nails gently down my back, and meets me thrust for thrust. We have our way of moving together, a rhythm that’s all our own.
“Flint,” she whispers breathlessly.
Running my lips over her temple, I whisper back, “Yeah, sweetheart?”
“I love you,” she says, throwing her head back.
“I love you too, Jules.”
The slow steady rhythm of our lovemaking moves her up the mattress an inch at a time. I wrap my arm under her back and pull her back down onto my cock. When she goes a little wild beneath me, I file that movement away in my mind for later use.
The next thing I know, her body is convulsing around my cock.
She clamps down so hard, it feels like being choked.
She screams my name when she comes. I’m not far behind her, coming just as hard a minute or two later.
I breathe her name, a mere whisper on my lips as I shudder against her.
I’m careful to keep my full weight off her.
We lie there for a long time before I pull out and move to the side.
I roll her and pull her back against my chest. Splaying my hand on her belly, I keep it there.
“Sweetheart, are you okay?”
“Never better.”
We stay like that for a long time before I feel the baby move under my hand. “Did you feel that, sweetness?”
“Yeah, our baby is really active today.”
“It means he’s really strong.”
“It might be a she,” Jules reminds me.
“I’d be happy with either,” I tell her. “Honestly, any child is a blessing and a healthy one most of all.”
She murmurs her agreement before drifting off to sleep in my arms. I can see my ring glittering on her finger, and I can’t help but think what a lucky fucker I am.
I’ve got everything a man could ever want.
A business of my own, a home I renovated myself, a woman with a kind heart who actually loves me, and a baby on the way.
There is not one single thing my life is missing.
Now I have to concentrate on taking good care of what I have.
I won’t give Jules a reason to ever regret settling down with me.