Epilogue - Anton
Her belly is so big she can barely move, and for some reason, I just love watching her trying to do normal things.
Right now, she is hanging on to the arm of the sofa and trying to get her foot into her sneaker.
She’s already tried to sit on the sofa and lean forward to pull the sneaker onto her foot, but it didn’t work because her belly is so big that it got in the way from every angle.
Now she’s standing, using her weight to attempt to wedge her foot in. Laughter slips from my lips.
She spins to glare at me. “You’ve been watching this whole time?!” she asks in horror.
“Just most of the time,” I chuckle.
She stretches down, almost falling over, groaning loudly, and just managing to get the sneaker by the tips of her fingers.
Then she stands up again, shoe in hand, and throws it at me.
“Hey!” I crack up laughing, dodging it easily because it was a halfhearted throw.
Izabel flops down on the sofa again and huffs loudly. “I’m a whale!” she exclaims, throwing her hands in the air.
I walk over to her, kneeling in front of her and placing her delicate little pixie foot in my lap. “You are not a whale. You are still a pixie. You just have a gremlin in your stomach who is clearly determined to be the biggest gremlin this world has ever seen.”
I reach for the shoe she didn’t throw at me and gently push it onto her foot.
“I told you to ask me when you needed help,” I grin at her.
“I don’t want to be calling you every five minutes. But I am kind of completely useless at the moment.”
“You don’t get it, do you?” I ask, putting her foot aside, snugly in her sneaker, and pulling her into my lap on the floor.
She laughs, half falling against me. “I’ll squish you!” she protests.
“That is not what you were saying last night,” I tease.
She grins, sitting in my lap with her legs spread around me.
“You have to know that I want to do everything for you, Pixie. I want to help you with every little part of this. I can’t carry our baby for us.
You’re doing that all on your own, and you’re doing such a freaking good job of it.
So let me do everything else for you. Call me every five minutes.
Call me every thirty seconds. In fact…let’s just cuff your hand to mine so we’re stuck together,” I smirk.
“Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you,” she laughs.
“The cuffs are still in the bedside drawer,” I tease.
“Fine,” she sighs softly. “I will stop worrying about needing you so much and ask for help more often.”
“Good. Now, we are going to be late. So let me retrieve your other sneaker and get it onto your little whale foot so we can leave?”
“Hey!” she gasps in horror as I lift her with ease and set her back on the sofa. “You are messing with a pregnant woman’s hormones. You should know you’re asking for trouble!”
“Oh please, the only hormones that are raging around inside you are the kind that I really, really like.”
She giggles and shakes her head as I kneel down in front of her again to slip her other shoe on.
“I can’t help it. Even now…if I had my way, we wouldn’t even leave the hotel, we’d just stay here all day and enjoy that very comfortable bed,” she grins.
“The bed. The sofa. The shower. The bath. The kitchen counter?”
“Exactly,” she nods enthusiastically.
“And then I’ll get in trouble with your family again when they think I’ve kidnapped you again because you don’t show up to the family dinner,” I argue.
“You know we could have just stayed at Josiah’s place while we're in Chicago,” she says.
“Right? Is that so? You know you’re the reason we aren’t staying there.
Because you can’t be quiet to save your own life, and no one in that mansion, no matter what wing they were staying in, would get any sleep for all the moaning and gasping coming from our room,” I say, raising my brows and daring her to challenge me.
Her eyes glitter beautifully as a smile teases the corner of her lips.
“Fine,” she huffs, letting me pull her to her feet. “We can go to dinner. But as soon as we get home, I need your help with something,” she winks, over-exaggerated and obvious as mischief spreads across her face.
I laugh, pulling her into my arms, holding her as close as I can while her belly keeps us apart. “I love you so fucking much,” I whisper against her lips.
***
The door is open when we arrive, and we walk into Josiah's mansion without any small humans knocking us off our feet for a change. The twins must be playing outside. The weather is beautiful today, hot enough to swim, even.
Things have changed in massive ways over the past few months. The most drastic change has been between Josiah and me.
The animosity has completely faded. All that’s left of it are playful jests that get thrown back and forth as we try to compete with each other over stupid things that are meaningless.
Tonight, we’re having an early barbecue dinner, and the competition involves who can cook the best steak.
However, I don’t know how reliable the judges are, considering they're his kids.
Kelsey, I trust you to be fair and reasonable. Kira is a little terror and will burn the world down for her father. It’s rather admirable, actually.
Some things have changed. And some things haven’t. Illyin, for example. He hasn’t changed. He’s refusing to take Izabel’s calls. I told her to keep trying. One day, he will come around. For the time being, she has this family, and everyone here adores her.
“There he is!” Josiah shouts from outside as I step through the patio doors with Izabel at my side.
Josiah walks over to us, reaching out to shake my hand. “Hey, man.”
He glances up and down Izabel, his eyes wide with shock. “Jeepers, girl, you're the size of a house,” he exclaims. Her eyes go wide in horror, and she punches his shoulder.
“You aren’t allowed to say that!” she exclaims. He chuckles, then it turns into rolling laughter when she punches him again, putting a lot of force into it.
“Jeez, you got aggressive, too,” he teases.
He holds her at arm’s length and cocks his head to the side. “No, seriously, I only said that because my wife made me swear, in literally an hour-long lecture, that I was not, under any circumstances, to say anything like that. You actually look beautiful. Glowing. And very, very happy.”
Izabel punches him again, laughing and shaking her head.
“You are so mean, and I don’t forgive you, and I’m telling on you.
I need Isaak. He would never speak to me like that, and he makes me that amazing blue drink with the cucumbers in it.
Isaak?” she calls out, walking out onto the patio ahead of me.
“Risky,” I smirk, watching her walk away and admiring the beautiful shape of her body. She really does look gorgeous carrying my son. And she is glowing. And she is very, very happy.
“I know. But Kayla made such a big deal out of it she practically turned it into a dare, right?”
“Ultimately, this is all her fault,” I agree wholeheartedly.
“Exactly. See. You understand. Now tell me…are you ready to burn a steak and lose a battle?”
“I got some insider info that one of the judges happens to like slightly burnt steak,” I tell him, narrowing my eyes.
“Hey man, it’s your risk to take.”
The late afternoon sun is still shining brightly when I find my wife again, talking to Kayla and Alara, happily letting us guys do all the cooking.
“Are you girls up to no good?” I tease as I slip my arm around Izabel’s waist.
“I missed you,” she smiles up at me. “I’ve got some secret information for you,” she grins.
“Oh really, what is that?”
“Well, someone whose name starts with a K and rhymes with Chelsey just told me that she has a new favorite cartoon character, and her dad, who is busy teaching them about the value of earning things, said she can’t get the stuffed toy version of it until next month, because she already used up her budget for toys this month… ” she winks.
I gasp in shock. “Iz, are you suggesting I bribe one of the judges?”
“Oh, heavens no, I would never. All I’m saying is that I sent you the link to order it online and it can be delivered within the hour as long as you get the order in before six.”
“I can’t believe you,” I huff, pulling my phone from my pocket. “My own wife,” I say, opening her message. “I would never play such a dirty game…” I mutter, losing focus on what I was saying as I navigate to the link she sent me.
“The blue one,” she whispers, standing on her tiptoes to see my phone. “And her sister wants the green one.”
“No pink?” I ask, glancing at Alara and Kayla, who are laughing in amusement.
“Mm. No. Too pink is currently too girly for two little girls,” Kayla says. “We’re all about being grown up and serious now. Pink will only be back in play next month,” she rolls her eyes.
I finish placing the order and grin triumphantly. “It’ll be here by six-thirty, just in time for dinner,” I update them.
“What will be here?” Izabel says innocently.
“Oh, nothing,” I say, catching on. “I better get back to helping Jos before he starts cooking those steaks without me.”
“Wait, before you go, can you help me change?”
“Change?”
“Yes, I want to go for a swim, but…everything is difficult,” she laughs.
“Oh, I remember that feeling. And I had twins,” Kayla sympathizes. I take Izabel’s hand and lead her into the house. We walk through to the guest room where she left her bag containing her swimsuit.
“Are you—”
Before I can finish my question, she’s shoved me onto the bed, and is now struggling to crawl on after me.
“Dammit, this is not how I planned for this to go!” She is laughing so hard she’s completely losing focus.
I burst out laughing too, realizing she’s in the midst of seducing me. And while she thinks she is struggling, I think she is so beautiful I’m permanently turned on around her, even when she’s clumsy and can’t move easily.
I sit on the edge of the bed and grab her waist, pulling her to stand between my legs.
She grins down at me, her cheeks glowing pink.
“Sorry, that was a failure.”
I shake my head. “No, it was A for effort and A-plus-plus for your ability to drive me crazy with need.” I take her hand, I place it on my cock, which is already rock-hard. She bites her bottom lip as her eyes glimmer.
My hand travels up her leg and slips beneath her soft cotton dress, brushing my fingers over her panties.
“Did you even want to swim?” I ask in a husky voice.
“Not really,” she whispers, leaning down to kiss me. Her lips press against mine, and my body hums from the taste of her.
She is a drug to me, one I can never seem to get enough of.
I stand up, moving her with me as I step away from the bed.
Then I turn, leaving her facing the bed.
She tilts her head against my chest, and I run my hands down over her fuller breasts.
She moans as I tease her nipples.
“Bend forward,” I demand with a growl against her ear.
She obediently does as she’s told, and I run my hands down her back, over her ass, and beneath the hem of her dress. I push it up over her ass and slap my hand across her smooth skin.
She moans, and I pull back. “Not a sound, Pixie. Or I’ll stop.”
She whimpers and nods, acknowledging my warning.
I run my hand up the inside of her thigh, moving slowly, until I take my finger beneath her panties.
Tugging them aside, I slide my fingers over her soft, warm, honey-coated skin.
Fuck. Drenched. Utterly soaked and ready for me.
Suddenly desperate to have her, I tug my pants open and free my cock.
She cries out when I push her forward, so her face is against the blankets and her ass it pointed up towards me.
“Not a sound, Pixie. This is your final warning.”
She presses her face hard against the blankets as I position my cock at her entrance, slowly rubbing it in circles to tease her.
When I thrust forward, I hear the muffled cry of her pleasure smothered by the blankets. I pull out and thrust into her again, and my entire being becomes flooded with the pleasure of her sweet, tight little pussy. My pussy. My wife.
My cock plunges into her, stretching her open and making her moan with pleasure against the bed. Her fingers are knotted in the blankets, and she’s arching her ass hard against me.
I watch as my cock slides in and out, every thrust turning me on more than the last as my shaft comes out coated in her honey.
She is so fucking perfect I want to scream her name as I push forward, burying myself inside her, gripping her hips and fucking her harder and harder as her legs begin to go weak and shake.
Izabel has forgotten that she has to stay quiet, and I have forgotten that I threatened to stop if she made a noise.
The pleasure is too much to bear as I thrust forward, slamming my hips against her ass and savoring the way her body shivers in my hands.
When her pussy tightens over me, I know she is about to come. Her moan becomes more strained, turning to gasps as her pussy begins to spasm.
Wave after wave, the orgasm rushes through her.
My cock fills her up, and I push even deeper, until I can’t hold back anymore and I explode inside her.
She collapses onto her side on the bed, turning and grinning at me as I pull my pants back up. My smile is cheeky and wide.
“So, what was it you needed help with?” I ask.
“Um…swimming…or something,” she mutters, glowing with relief and happiness.
I crawl onto the bed, kneeling over her as she rolls onto her back.
My fingers wrap around the back of her head, and I lean down to kiss her as my heart floods with love for her.
I whisper against her lips, “You are mine, little pixie. And I am yours. And that is how it will be for the rest of our lives.”
*****
THE END