37. Brie
The ringing of an outgoing call filled the bakery kitchen as I waited for my sister to pick up. I moved around the island, tidying up the mess I’d made putting together more take and bake mixes and prepping for the next day. Though tomorrow was Valentine’s Day, I was operating at shortened hours because I had a special surprise planned for Ezra, and I wanted to make sure I had enough time to execute it.
“Hey, Bee,” Amara said when she answered at last, sounding a little out of breath.
“Hey, Mar. You okay?”
“I’m fine,” she said, sucking in some air. “Just disgustingly pregnant. My phone was downstairs, and I was up in the nursery.”
“How’s that going?” I asked.
“It’s pretty much set up,” she said. “But I wanted to make sure the furniture was put together before the baby shower next weekend so I have places to put all that shit.”
I chuckled. Thanks to my insider knowledge, Amara wasn’t prepared for all the “shit” Mom, my sisters, and I had bought for that baby. It was a good thing the nursery had plenty of space, because she and Cal were going to need it for the baby .
“Are you nervous?”
“A little bit,” she admitted. “Seeing Chloe and Logan with Aleah… It’s hard to imagine something that size has to come out of my body, but they’re so tiny and fragile. And then we’re just going to leave the hospital with them? And be responsible for keeping them alive forever? That’s…daunting, to say the least.”
“You and Cal are going to be amazing parents, Mar. And you’ve got the whole family to help you.”
“I know,” Amara said, sniffling a bit. “The baby isn’t even here yet, but I already know we couldn’t do it without you all.”
“Auntie Brie will happily come over for snuggles whenever you want.”
I could hear the smile in Amara’s voice as she said, “Love you, Bee.”
“Love you more.”
“Now, there’s a reason you called?” my sister asked, suddenly all business.
I chuckled and said, “Yeah, actually. I was wondering if it’d be okay for me and Ez to stay at the Villa tomorrow night.”
“For what exactly?”
“I…have a surprise planned for him to celebrate, but my apartment is too small, and his house is too full of other people.”
“Ahh, so a kinky surprise,” my sister said knowingly, and I was grateful she couldn’t see my blush.
“Yes, a kinky surprise,” I said, surprised by the evenness of my tone.
My sisters and I didn’t shy away from discussing our sex lives, but I’d never really had much to contribute before. After New Year’s Eve, they’d hounded me until we had a movie night, when I told them everything. It felt good to get it all off my chest, to have my sisters squeal and fan themselves over my stories instead of being the one gassing them up for their own escapades.
Ezra didn’t know I told them all about the stuff we got up to behind closed doors, but what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. My sisters were my best friends, and we didn’t keep secrets.
“In that case, be my guest,” my sister said, chuckling at her pun. Technically, the title to the Villa was jointly held by the seven of us, but the company managed bookings and advertising. “It’s not like anyone else is using it right now anyway.”
I was suddenly very grateful for the snow and lack of winter tourists that precipitated closing the winery—and its connected businesses—for the first three months of every year.
“Thanks, sissy,” I said, gearing up to end the call.
Before I could, she said, “Wait! Question.”
“What’s up?”
“Any idea why I’ve got a meeting with him on the schedule for next week? We don’t typically start menu planning for the spring until March. But maybe because I’ll be off on leave, he wants to get a head start…”
She trailed off, waiting for me to fill in the blanks, but I wasn’t about to ruin this for Ezra. Since New Year’s Eve, he’d been busy doing research and making plans for the community garden he wanted to open. I was wildly excited for him—and for the project itself. It was a passion of both of ours, to give back to the community in any way we could and teach people the merits of growing their own produce whenever possible.
“That’s not my secret to tell,” I said. “But I think you’ ll like the idea.”
My sister growled, a sound that legitimately sounded like a bear or some other feral creature on the other end of the line.
“I’m too pregnant for this shit,” she said then unceremoniously hung up.
I couldn’t help but laugh. The deeper she got into her pregnancy, the stronger her mood swings. Where Chloe had basically been sunshine and rainbows, Amara wasn’t having as easy of an experience. Her morning sickness had lasted deep into her second trimester, and once she’d gotten that under control, she was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. For Chloe, pregnancy had been smooth sailing. Unfortunately, Amara had a much bumpier road.
Idly, I wondered which category I’d fall into when I got pregnant—or if I’d land somewhere in between.
All I knew was I couldn’t wait to find out.
After an all-too-brief phone call with Ezra the day before to tell him I’d be MIA and to meet me at the Villa tonight, I’d been running around like a mad woman, both in prep for bakery hours and getting all the supplies I needed to execute my plan.
It had been a long time since I’d attempted to mold my own chocolate, but I was more than a little pleased with the final product—and I hoped Ezra would be too.
When I finally finished and stowed the chocolates in the fridge to make sure they wouldn’t melt before I had time to get set up, I dashed upstairs and rushed through an everything shower. I lathered my body in coconut-scented edible body butter, left my hair to air dry in long, soft waves, and wrapped myself in a red silk robe before heading back downstairs.
The plan was simple: lay out on the dining room table and decorate my naked flesh in the chocolate I’d painstakingly made for Ezra…then let him consume it off me before he consumed me.
I’d briefly considered asking one of my sisters to come help me, but even though we were close, we weren’t close enough to be all up in each other’s privates. This was an intimate thing for only me and Ezra. He’d be the only person— ever —who got me like that.
After putting the confections I’d need on a small paper plate, I moved into the dining room, dropped my robe, and climbed onto the table. The surface was frigid beneath my overheated flesh, but it helped soothe some of my nerves.
Sitting up and bending in half, I first placed a trail of chocolate-covered cherries on my ankles, knees, and thighs. Then I reclined to add a square of dark chocolate over my smooth pubic bone, drizzling a little of the liquid chocolate over it for good measure before adding some to my belly button. I removed the remaining treats from the plate and unceremoniously tossed it across the room, making a mental note to pick it up tomorrow.
Next, I laid flat and put heart-shaped chocolates filled with caramel over my nipples, taking shallow breaths to ensure the rise and fall of my chest didn’t send them falling to the table.
The final touch was a chocolate-covered strawberry I held between my lips.
I couldn’t move, meaning I couldn’t check the time, so I had no idea how long I waited until I heard the keypad on the front door beep, Ezra’s “hello?” proceeding him inside.
I hadn’t really thought this through, hadn’t considered he wouldn’t know where to find me. Since I’d been here most of the day and it was the middle of winter, I’d turned just about every light in the house on to combat the early onset darkness that blanketed our state this time of year.
He continued to call for me, and my body hummed with anticipation as he moved closer until finally, from the corner of my eye, I saw him appear at the threshold to the dining room.
“Well, well,” he said, his grin obvious in his voice, “what do we have here?”
He approached my side, smirking down at me.
“Hey, honey. This all for me?”
I blinked twice, hoping it conveyed to him that, yes, this was all his—the treats and my body.
His gaze raked over my body, my blood heating in its wake as he rubbed his hands together like a man presented with too many choices, trying to decide which option to select first.
“Where do I begin?” he said softly, reaching out and trailing a finger along the underside of my breast, dragging it down my side, over my hip, and along the line of my quad.
“How about I start with these cherries and work my way up? Does that sound good?”
I blinked again in response, and he grinned wickedly as he bent over my ankle, his tongue darting out to scoop the cherry into his mouth, his lips lingering, a soft moan emanating from his throat as the sweetness coated his tongue.
He repeated the process on the other side, then my knees and thighs, driving me insane with his glancing touches and the wet press of his lips against my flesh.
I wasn’t aware I had so many erogenous zones on my body; leave it to Ezra to find and exploit each and every one of them.
By the time his mouth hovered over my pussy, I was a puddle of unspent desire. A can of soda shaken and desperate for release.
“You taste like coconut.”
“Lotion,” I attempted to say around the strawberry, but it came out as more of a random mumble.
“Shh, baby. You keep quiet and let me work.”
I moaned as he pressed his mouth to my skin and dragged his tongue from hip bone to hip bone, close but still too far from where I needed him most. I could feel my arousal pooling at my entrance and slipping free to coat my thighs. I wanted Ezra to clean it all up, to lick every inch of me until I was a writhing mess.
And then, I wanted him to fuck me until I saw stars.
He leaned into my pussy and scooped up the chocolate without warning, his tongue dipping briefly into my slit before he pulled away, and I whimpered.
I needed more, and he rewarded me by following his tongue with a finger, tracing around my clit without applying any pressure, only to remove it. The tip was coated in more chocolate, and Ezra sucked it into his mouth, eyes fluttering closed.
“I’ll never be able to eat chocolate another way,” he said when they popped open.
Then he turned and headed across the room, and I made a sound of protest.
“Patience, baby,” he said, coming back with the bowl of strawberries I’d cleaned and cut the tops off earlier. “I need to make sure I clean you up. Can’t let any of your hard work go to waste.”
He lifted one of the strawberries from the bowl and brought it to my pussy, sliding it between my lips and using it to clean up the remaining liquid chocolate from the sensitive flesh. I resisted the urge to squirm, setting my feet on the table and dropping my knees wide to give him better access.
I was rapt on his mouth as he lifted the fruit to his lips and took a sinful bite.
I loved watching him savor the treat, knowing it was something I’d created for him, something he was clearly deriving great pleasure from.
When he swallowed, he said, “Best chocolate-covered strawberries I’ve ever had. Although I had a feeling the one on your lips will be my undoing.”
I didn’t dare move, could barely breathe for fear of upsetting the heart-shaped chocolates I’d settled over my nipples. Ezra dropped more of the chocolate sauce on my stomach, drawing a path from my navel to the valley between my breasts, adding to the bit already pooled in my belly button, then topped it with a line of whipped cream.
His eyes were nearly black, his expression ravenous as he pulled back to study his work.
“I have no idea what I did to deserve you,” he said as he lowered his mouth to my flesh, his tongue wet and hot as it licked up the mess he’d made.
It was too much. The best of his tongue combined with the cool texture of the whipped cream against my skin was a contrast that had goosebumps erupting all over. All that was left were the chocolates on my nipples and the chocolate-covered strawberry I held against my lips. It had started to melt while I waited, some of the taste coating my tongue. I had to admit, I’d done a damn good job.
Ezra pressed kisses to the curves of my breasts, circling around the peaks but never going for that sweet spot I needed him to touch.
I made a noise of protest when he bypassed my chest entirely to lick a path up my throat, and he chuckled darkly.
“Needy little girl,” he said. “I like that you can’t talk. Can’t tell me what you want. You’re entirely at my mercy, aren’t you, honey? I could torture you for hours, and you’d lay there and take it like the good girl you are.”
I moaned low as heat pooled between my thighs with his words.
“But I’m not going to torture you, baby. Not tonight. Everything about you right now is too delicious, too fucking tempting. I need to sample it all.”
At last, he shifted his head and closed his mouth around my nipple, his teeth softly scraping my sensitive flesh as he cleaned up every bit of the chocolate coating my skin.
He pulled back and licked his lips, though they were coated in melted candy. “Fuck, you’re sweet.”
After repeating the process on the other side, biting at me in a way that had my back arching, desperate to get closer to him, for him to give my core some friction, he at last hovered his face over mine.
“I love you,” he said before he bent and captured the final strawberry and my lips with his. I opened for him, letting the chocolate-covered fruit mingle between us, loving that I could taste it and every other sweet treat he’d collected from my body on his tongue.
“Need you now,” I breathed when he pulled away.
“Right here?” he asked.
“Right here,” I confirmed, clawing at his shirt. He obliged me, pulling it over his head before stepping out of his pants. Then, he reached for me, dragging me to the edge of the table and off before spinning me and bending my front over its cool surface.
“Gonna fuck you just like this,” he mumbled, smacking my backside. “Wanna watch this gorgeous ass ripple with every thrust.”
“ Ezra .” The word was part whine, part moan, and entirely frustrated.
“My greedy fucking girl.”
“Only yours,” I agreed. I wasn’t even sure I was making sense, so horny I was seconds away from coming apart.
“I didn’t bring any condoms, honey, and I really don’t feel like running upstairs.”
“Don’t. I need you now.”
“Bare?” he asked, pressing a kiss between my shoulder blades. I turned my head to look at him. “If I take you bare, honey…I’m not pulling out.”
“Don’t.”
“You’re not on birth control.”
“Put a baby in me, Ez.”
“Fucking hell, woman,” he said, brushing his head through my slit then lining up with my entrance. “You have ruined me.”
I gasped as he roughly pushed inside, and he gave me a beat to adjust before setting a punishing pace that had my thighs slamming uncomfortably into the edge of the table. But the pain was secondary to the pleasure he wrung from my body, from the high I got just being connected to him like this. The slapping sounds of our thighs and the wet sounds of him pumping in and out of me echoed through the otherwise quiet room, and I braced my feet to better greet him, to drive him deeper each time.
He drove me higher and higher until my climax shimmered before me, the pressure on my clit nearly unbearable as I clenched my walls tighter around him and reached between us to thumb that bundle of nerves. A few brushes of my fingers was all it took to set me off into space, the edges of my vision darkening as stars danced in front of them.
Distantly, I heard Ezra say, “Last chance to back out,” through gritted teeth.
“Never. I want your babies. No time like the present to start trying.”
His grip on my hips tightened as he pistoned faster, prolonging my orgasm as he found his own. With a rough, almost strangled cry, he spilled, hot and long, inside me.
He quickly withdrew and flipped me onto my back, lifting my hips and holding me there. I hooked my heels on the edge of the table to keep myself upright.
“Can’t waste any of my cum, can we, baby?” Ezra asked, reaching a hand between my thighs when I was steady so he could shove anything that leaked out back in.
It hit me then that we were really doing this.
The life together.
The family.
The babies.
Everything .
I grinned at him as I came down from my high, our entire future stretching out in front of me in my mind.
“I love you so much,” I said, tears springing to my eyes and flowing freely.
“I love you more, honey.”