CHAPTER 29
“Are we going to discuss it?” Matt’s annoyance grew as he finished setting the kitchen table for our meal.
I scrunched my features up while dishing out the food.
I was also annoyed and his tone of voice wasn’t helping.
“Of course we’ll discuss it,” I snapped, walking over with the hot plates filled with hot food.
“But can I at least eat first before you start spouting your sanctimonious nonsense?”
Matt hurried to my side and carefully took the plates off me.
I huffed under my breath as he placed them on the table.
“I feel how I feel, Matt,” I said.
“You won’t understand. You can’t-”
Matt dragged a chair out with more force than was needed.
The screeching wood across my tiled kitchen floor had me eyeing him.
“I do understand, poppet,” he grated out while beckoning me over.
“What? Do you honestly think it doesn’t bother me? It sickens me but what can we bloody do about it?”
I took the seat and observed Matt as he yanked his chair out and folded his tall frame into it.
He had ditched his work jacket and tie the moment he waltzed through my front door an hour ago.
The shirt had the first few buttons undone and now sported a stain from him standing too close when I was vigorously stirring my sauce.
I think there was a stain on his trousers also.
His jaw was clenched and the skin of his cheeks were slightly tinged in anger.
Those eyebrows of his were dangerously low as he scowled at my salt and pepper shaker.
“I know nothing can be done about it. I’m not stupid.” I retorted and reached for the chilli sauce.
Matt delivered a light smack to the back of my hand, one eyebrow now raised as he regarded me.
I frowned but left it alone and he winked at me, thus easing the tension between us.
“And don’t think I’ve forgotten about the hours you keep putting in at your studio.” Matt brought up another bone of contention.
“I spoke to Dante and he agrees with me. You need to cutback, poppet.”
We were arguing, but it was ok.
I was almost 32 weeks into my pregnancy and it was taking its toll on me, if I was honest.
Of course, I acted like superwoman in front everyone else.
“Forgive me if I’m wrong,” I stated with false humility.
“But do you or Dante work in obstetrics? I know Dr Nichols does,” I began cutting my vegetables into bite size morsels.
“And he said I’m perfectly fine to continue at my current pace.” I popped some food in my mouth, smug as shit.
Matt was stumped with that and he knew it.
Then a gleam entered his grey eyes and he cocked his head at me.
“Well, I missed last week’s antenatal visit, but I won’t this week. The three of us will have a discussion about what’s good for you and our babies. By the way, I will call your aunt if you don’t start slowing down. Believe me, I will. She’s completely forgiven me, this religion malarkey is good for some things. Anyway, she made me promise to take care of you when we last spoke and you know I’m a man of my word.”
Oh, that was a low blow and a definite game changer.
Glaring while chewing meant I made funny faces which Matt openly chuckled over.
We were doing our own thing and it felt as if we’d stepped back in time to the early days of our relationship.
The only two differences were the fact we weren’t having a clandestine affair this time around, and we were actually communicating with each other.
Not to brag but we were doing a damned good job of it too.
In a way it was slightly depressing.
This was how things should have been when we first started our relationship.
I enjoyed Matt’s company, loved spending time with him, but most of all I didn’t feel the need to hide my true emotions from him and I knew he was doing his best to be honest with me.
I wished we had done it right the first time around.
My internal organs were subjected to a sudden beat down.
“Over active?” Matt said with a tender smile when I grimaced and rubbed the side of my stomach.
“And my back is killing me,” I added thoughtlessly.
This led to our dinner turning into a heated discussion over Matt’s belief I was pushing myself too hard.
After eating, he helped me load the dishwasher and I mentioned how late it was.
“I’ll give you a back rub before I leave then,” Matt offered as I herded him out my kitchen.
“You don’t have to do that.” I gently pushed him down the hallway.
It was getting late and we both needed our rest.
Matt turned around when we entered the living room and nabbed my hands.
Now it was him leading me around.
He ignored my half- hearted rumblings and walked us over to the couch.
“It is pretty late.” I reminded him then crumbled under the weight of his piercing gaze and my own guilty desires.
“You could stay over,” The last time he stayed over, we had fallen asleep on the couch and I had suffered a crick in my neck that whole day, not to mention the numbness down my right side.
I chewed my mouth.
“If you wanted to. You don’t have to. I’m sure you’ll probably need to be up early anyway.”
I could see him thinking it over before he smiled and said, “I should be allowed to go in late to the office, it is my own damned company,”
“And Adam’s too,” I piped in, returning his smile with one of my own.
“And you’re cute when you babble, cute and irresistible,” he murmured.
I blushed under my dark skin and fished for more compliments.
“I’m fat, Matt, just be honest.”
Matt tugged me closer.
“You’re pregnant not fat, and beautiful.”
“Very beautiful?” I blinked coquettishly and he laughed for a moment.
“Yes,” he agreed, his laughter tapering off.
“I should get going, shouldn’t I?” Matt let out a wry snort when I gave him an energetic nod.
“Promise me you’ll stay off the internet,” he said as his hands slid up and down my arms.
“I need to update some stuff on the website and our social network pages. I’ve not tweeted in forever, Gloria’s been handling them all. I don’t even know what she’s been putting on the Instagram page.”
Matt’s hands landed on my shoulders and some firm kneading took place, I groaned in appreciation when one of his hand slipped across the back of my neck to deliver the same treatment.
“Promise me you won’t go on those forums,” He was being much more specific now.
“It will only upset you.”
I nodded in agreement.
“They called you a race traitor.”
Matt’s face twisted into a mask of mock horror.
“Oh dear God! Are you not a human? Or am I non-human? This is terribly confusing. Are you from outer space, poppet? I could’ve sworn we were both human beings.”
I allowed a tiny smile at his silliness but soon got serious.
“Some of the things are terrible, downright disgusting. How can people be so cruel, Matt? They don’t know anything about us. There was one poster who said our babies were a sick abomination. That racial mixing should be banned. That miscegenation is evil. Seriously. Who still uses words like miscegenation? Who says things like that?”
“Unhinged people, that’s who.” Matt bent his head and his lips grazed my right temple.
“Don’t let the views and opinions of people who don’t matter to us affect you. It’s a waste of your time and energy,” His lips wandered down my cheek.
“And it will stress me out knowing you’re stressed out. I’m under enough stress as it is with work,” He kissed the edge of my mouth.
“You don’t want to cause me more stress, do you?” The deep, sensual drawl he used as he teased me seemed to have a direct link to my nipples.
“No.” It was all I could manage to say while I battled with a surge of sexual desire.
Matt wouldn’t do me, and the thought of masturbating squidged me out.
It was ridiculous, but I feared they would somehow know what I was thinking while doing it.
Matt wasn’t the only one with hang ups about pregnancy sex now.
“Do you want me to stay?” he asked, this time he kissed about half of my mouth.
“Do you want to stay?” I asked back.
“I want you to want me to stay.” he replied.
“I want you to stay.” Honesty was the best policy.
Admitting I wanted him here was the sort of vulnerability I would’ve avoided in the early days of our relationship, perhaps during our marriage also.
See?
I was all grown up now.
“Good,” Matt kissed me full on the lips then said, “Because I want to stay.” He kissed me again, much longer this time.
“But no funny business. One backrub then bed.”
I grabbed his cheeks and planted a big, loud, wet smooch on his mouth.
“Whatever you say, Mr Bradley. I don’t care as long as my back gets rubbed.”
“We can snog all you want,” Matt quickly added.
“I quite fancy our snogging sessions.”
“Shut up.” I was embarrassed and he knew it, if his chuckle was anything to go off.
Matt let his hands rest on my tummy, smiling to himself as he waited for any form of movement.
He looked happy, I was happy.
We were both happy.
Maybe, just maybe, my happily ever after didn’t need to be in a traditional sense.
I crossed my fingers to ward off any jinxes and covered his hands with my own.
“This is good.” I said.
Matt kept smiling, his attention more on the babies in my womb than on me.
“Right, Matt? This is good. ”
Matt nodded, practically beaming at me.
“This is bloody fantastic, poppet.”
And it was.