“Are you awake enough to take a shower?” he asked.
“With you, if you do the work.”
He laughed and kissed my temple. “I’ll do the work.”
He stripped me efficiently and kissed my exposed skin as he removed each piece of clothing reverently.
“You’re very beautiful,” he told me. Then he kissed his way up my thighs. He kissed the swell of my stomach. I was self-conscious about my softness, but he seemed to like it. He frowned a little. “This feels a little firmer than it used to.”
I widened my eyes at him. “What?”
“Are you pregnant?”
I choked. I was suddenly all the way awake. “Pregnant?”
“Have you taken any tests?”
“No!” I yelped. “You’re crazy.”
“It’s a possibility, isn’t it?” He looked at me and rubbed his chin. “Have you slept with anybody else since we had sex?”
“No,” I said. “Cairns is full of people who look like they’re in high school. And everyone else is also gross.”
“Can you humor me and take a pregnancy test? You’ve been pretty tired lately.”
I got lightheaded. “You’re kidding.”
“Just humor me,” he said. “I’m going to ask the concierge to send someone to the nearest pharmacy and get a test.”
“Whatever you want,” I yawned. “But I believe I was promised a shower.”
He turned on the water and cleaned me in the most clinical and briskly efficient way possible. I could see that he was stressed by the prospect of a royal baby inside of me. But either way, the deed was either done or not. If I didn’t have a baby inside me, I’d make sure to get an IUD or something so he wouldn’t be so stressed out.
Later, though. I was so sleepy that I was probably going to asleep in the shower. When my head rolled forward, Massimo turned off the shower and dried me off as much as he could. He put me into the bed naked and climbed in after me, biting and then kissing my shoulder.
“Sleep, sweetheart,” he told me.
When I woke up, there was a box sitting on the nightstand in front of my face. I swallowed hard.
“Good morning, darling.”
“You really think that I’m pregnant?” I asked.
“Only one way to find out.”
I took the box, disentangled myself from the bedsheets, and went into the bathroom. I was sweating even though the room was air conditioned.
“I don’t know if I want to open Pandora’s Box.”
“It’s better to know, cara.”
I broke the box open. My hands were shaking so much that it took me two tries to tear it open.
“Excuse me,” I said. I didn’t know why my eyes filled with tears like I was going to cry. I felt like I was on a roller coaster as it slowly came to the top before for the steep drop.
I went to the bathroom and peed on the stick. When I was done, I came out. Massimo was looking at the box that I’d torn open.
“It says to wait for 5 minutes.”