I feel our little girl start her swimming lessons in my five-months-pregnant belly and I rub my hand over the hard mound. The setting sun glints off the big aqua-colored rock on my ring finger reflecting back against the large bay windows of our living room.
My feet are hurting and starting to swell since today they had none of my Axe’s usual affection yet, so I kick off my ballerinas and lie back as I stare around me at the utter mayhem Michael and Jackson, aka the Demolition Duo, caused all over the place.
They’re respectively only four and two, but damn, those two can have an entire room crumble in under five minutes and God help us all if their older cousins, who are very attached to their uncle, are also around.
Shield tries to harness all of them back and keep them from blowing up the house as much as possible, Rebel and Teddy just help them make matters worse instead, while Snap and Minx just look on regally, one barely surfacing from his hiding place on his wooden table and the other all high and mighty on the highest plush perch of her cat tree, both of them looking at me as if to say: ‘Didn’t we advise against kids, oh mistress?’.
So yeah. Our life is messy and chaotic and I’m pretty sure it’s gonna get worse when Penny, our little princess, comes out to join her little hooligan brothers who already have big plans to turn her in ‘one of the boys’, but damn if I don’t love every freaking minute of it.
Sometimes, I almost can’t believe that there are this much joy, light and color in my life, things are nothing like they were over nine years ago when I first met Axe and fell head over heels for him, all the while being pretty sure he would never go for a ‘nerd’ like me.
But he got me, surprising the heck out of me.
Oh, he got me all right.
He got me in my heart and in my soul and he says I did the same to him, that I’ve been written on his bones since the first time he laid eyes on me.
How can you not love a guy that says things like that, right?
And it’s not only the stuff he says, it’s the things he does, the little things that make me know he loves me always and the big things that just make me stare at him in awe.
Like the way he built this huge home for us, working every weekend until he was so tired he would fall asleep face down and completely dressed on our bed in the little apartment we shared after we got together.
Like the way he patiently rubs coconut oil over my stomach every night before bed as he has one of his talks with our daughter, or wakes me up with pancakes and orange juice sometimes or just takes the kids off my hands even if he is tired as well so I can have some time off and do girlie stuff with his sister, my best friend, Luna.
Or sometimes it’s just in the way he looks at me like I’ve literally hang the moon and then he simply walks up to me, picks me up in his strong arms and kisses me until I’m stupid.
I’m a lucky one, that’s for sure.
I hear his truck pull up in front of the house and my smile grows.
Shield can immediately tell it’s Axe and picks up his head, thumping his tail against the floor fast.
“Babe?” he calls out, he knows the Demolition Duo is asleep ‘cause I just texted him, so his voice is barely a whisper.
“In the living room,” I whisper-yell back, and I roll a little to the side to get up from the sofa.
Shield rises from his post, half inside the tent and half on the floor, he backs out gently, mindful of the sleeping kids, in a way that only people with dogs can understand a furry friend can be capable of.
He doesn’t bark, jumps or makes a noise, he simply runs to the entrance to greet his master in silent happiness.
Teddy, Rebel and even Minx also calmly prowl up to him and I can hear the low purr they make when he pets them.
Snap, well, he doesn’t do much, his little black eyes almost glowering at my man.
He likes to pretend he doesn’t like him, but that changes every time Axe brings him freshly cut watermelon and has him purr worse than my catty trio.
He has a way with animals, but really he also has a way with kids and definitely has a way with me, especially when he has his way with me.
My man is a gentle, generous giant with a heart so big it barely fits his chest and I’m the one who gets to take care of him forever.
How cool is that?!
I walk up to him and he immediately opens his arms for me.
“Hey, baby, how you doing?” he asks softly, his lips at my temple and his eyes looking behind me at the Spider Man tent in which our little boys sleep on.
I stand on my tiptoes to kiss the side of his bearded jaw.
“I’m okay, just tired and… bigger. I feel bigger. Am I going crazy, or am I actually bigger than I was yesterday?”
Axe pulls away and looks down at me cupping my face, his baby-blues shining bright as he smiles. “I don’t know about bigger, but you’ve certainly got even hotter, love.”
I laugh a little, burying my face in his neck.
He crouches in front of me and puts his large, rough hands on my belly.
“Hey, princess, Daddy’s home,” he murmurs to our unborn child, pulling up my dress.
I smile when I feel his kisses on my belly and then giggle when his beard starts to tickle my sensitive skin, giving me all sort of non-baby-related ideas.
I feel his hands stray around me and stop on my bottom.
He gives me a squeeze on both cheeks, and I laugh.
“Hon, the kids…”
He lets my dress drop back over my leggings and without warning he picks me up, making me gasp and laugh harder.
“What are you doing?”
He smirks at me, delicately maneuvering me in his arms until he is holding me bride-style. “What do you think? Gotta take advantage while our hooligans sleep, they’re gonna be up soon famished as usual.”
He is right: our babies definitely take after Daddy; we are pretty sure they’re going to grow just as big and tall and they’re always as hungry as starving bear cubs no matter how much they eat.
“So, Mrs. Constant. Shall we? I believe we have something to finish, don’t we?” he asks on my lips, making me shiver, his voice all gritty now.
He is such a flirt!
I circle his neck with my arms, pulling his face closer.
“We certainly do,” I whisper back and then we’re kissing. Hard.
He walks us out of the living room and up the stairs and I moan into the kiss when I feel the hardness of his erection pressing into my side.
Axe doesn’t stop until we’re lying on our large bed, our clothes flying every which way, our lips still locked until our bodies are mostly naked —well the important bits are anyway— and then he breaks the kiss so we can catch our breath, his hands spreading on my ass and my legs opening on either side of his massive frame.
Less than five minutes in his presence, and I’m going up in flames already, my body burning for him, for his touch, his kisses, his hard cock.
I feel one of his hands brush my hip and then lower between my legs and I gasp when one of his fingers parts my already drenched folds.
“Fuck, you’re so wet, baby, so pink and pretty for me. I can’t wait to be inside you.”