I hoped so.
God. I hoped so.
My stomach flip-flopped, and I turned to look out the window so he wouldn’t see the pathetic smile that graced my lips.
38
Nastasia
The last couple of weeks had been blissfully drama-free, and although Vik and I continued to squabble like cats and dogs—over what to eat for dinner, over what to watch on TV, over the fact that he’d beg me to put a movie on, then fall asleep ten minutes in, that he didn’t rinse his dishes when he put them in the washer—we always ended our disagreements with a roll of the eyes and a gentle kiss to the lips, feeling like we had both won.
And the sex…
Sheesh.
The sex was good.
We were back at it like a couple of horny teenagers. No one mentions how amorous pregnant women get. It was like sex on speed. One minute, we were making out, and the next, I was on fire, panting, “Pants off, or so help me God.”
When he took too long and I slapped his hands away from his belt, I cried out in delight when I finally freed his long, thick erection, then wasted no time in lowering myself onto him with a long, drawn-out moan. Vik looked an equal mixture of concerned and delighted, but the frantic, clothes-pulling, desperate brand of sex wasn’t something he was about to complain about.
There are other things they don’t tell you about pregnancy. Being overwhelmed, for one thing. The hormones coursing through my body had me crying at the most inconvenient times, at the most ridiculous things.
For example, when Anika brought over a blueberry muffin because she remembered I liked them. Then there was the time I couldn’t stop hiccupping, and Vik laughed at me. And when Lev placed his hand on my stomach and told me he prayed my child was exactly like me because no one protected him like I had. Or when Alessio asked me what type of flowers Cora liked, because it was so sweet.
Through my sniffles, I told him Cora didn’t like flowers.
She liked dick.
Now, as my belly grew a little more pronounced and the contentment of my relationship washed over me, it was predictable, but doubt set in. Luckily, Vik and I were learning from our past mistakes, and when I brought it up to him later that night, we talked it over.
“What if I’m not a good mother?” I sat up with my legs crossed, hugging myself. “What if I’m just like her?”
Vik, dressed only in his pajama pants, frowned at me, clearly not understanding where this was coming from. “You are nothing like her. You’re going to be a great mom.”
“How do you know?” I asked anxiously. “I couldn’t even babysit a five-year-old without him going missing. How am I going to do this, Vik?”
“Easy,” he uttered sincerely. “Just like everyone else, you’ll learn as you go. When Lev first held Lidi, do you remember how anxious we all were when she started to cry?” I do. Lev was very sensitive to sound. “But he knew what he had to do, no matter how much it cost him his comfort.”
Damn it. Of course he was right.
“Oh my God.” My breathing grew heavy as my eyes widened when the thought dawned on me. “I need to push this bean out of my body.”
But Vik remained cool, lying on his side with his head resting on his upturned hand. “Not necessarily. You could get an elective caesarean if you wanted to.”
Sure, I could. We had the money. But I didn’t want that, not unless it was absolutely necessary.
“Shit.” My hands came up to cover my warm cheeks. “We only have five months to organize the nursery.”
Vik laid a comforting hand on my knee. “Tomorrow, we’ll put pen to paper. Get it started.”
He seemed to have an answer for everything.
Why did that piss me off?
“You don’t understand,” I told him, shaking my head lightly.
“I do,” he uttered, his eyes roaming my apprehensive face.
“You don’t,” I said a little too harshly.
But this man, with his sky-blue eyes and easy demeanor, just smiled at me.
“I do,” he vowed with a squeeze to my knee. “You’re freaking out. You don’t like how you’re feeling, and you want to lash out at someone, namely me. But I’m not biting back, and it’s pissing you off.”
Hmmm.
Okay. Maybe he did know how I felt.
“Well, I put in all this effort.” I pouted. “You could at least pretend to argue with me.”
Vik stared at me as if I was a lunatic before he choked on a laugh. “You know what? You’re right.” He sat up and shuffled closer to me, sitting with his strong thighs on either side of me, pulling me into the vee of his spread legs and clapping his hands. “Let’s do it.”
My heart turned gooey.
I rolled my eyes but made no attempt to hide my smile. “It’s not the same.”