Chapter 11

The next seven months passed in a blur.

When he found out that Kevin and I had moved to Raleigh, Kenzo was more than happy to go to an every-other-week schedule for the kids. I don't think he (or his girlfriend) realised how much work having the kids for three months was going to be.

We moved his things from Richmond and got some of my stuff out of storage. Kevin revealed that he had bought this house almost three months before as a "reconstruction" project and had been slowly restoring it to its former glory. I was amazed at his confidence that there was some future for the two of us. He gave me a healthy budget for new home furnishings (I came under; yea, me!) and we nested. All our parents came up and we celebrated our first Christmas as a family.

Kevin sold his house and I started working as a loan officer for a local credit union. It was a steep pay cut from my previous job as a banker, but the hours were good and I didn't miss the extra stress or the travel. The kids returned to the schools they left when I moved home and it was as if they hadn't missed a beat.

The four of us had some growing pains as a family, but Emily and Toby readily accepted Kevin as their stepfather and he treated them as if they were his own children. Of course, we had to break ourselves of some old habits as we learned to live with one another, but that was to be expected. Besides, when Kevin and I fought, we got to have make-up sex.

Valentine's Day rolled around and Kevin was waiting for me when I got home. Some days I felt like he was a worthless bum because he never had to leave the house to go to "work" but I didn't begrudge him the fact that he had earned the lifestyle he now led.

I was carrying a bouquet of flowers that had shown up at work. They were beautiful and garnered much jealousy from my co-workers. The kids were at their dad's for the week.

Setting the flowers down on the counter, I drew out a small box from my purse.

Handing it to Kevin, I greeted him with a kiss. "Happy Valentine's Day."

As the wrapping paper fell away, I saw his jaw drop.

"What ... Mel? ... I..."

Smiling to myself, I pressed my body against him. "Kevin, this is my wedding present to you. I know it's a little late and that there's nothing I can buy you that you don't already have ... but I want this for us."

"Are you sure?" he asked once he found his voice.

"Yes, Kev, I'm sure," I replied. "I'm thirty-seven years old now. If we wait any longer, we'll be taking chances with my health ... and our baby's."

He flung my birth control pills down on the counter, the scooped me up in his arms.

I let out a rapturous laugh as he carried me back to our bedroom. I nuzzled up against his neck.

"I stopped taking them last week," I whispered. He promptly tossed me down on the bed. A shiver ran through my body at the look he gave me.

Kevin pounced on top of me and tore at my clothes. I eagerly gave in to the primal force that was my husband.

The two of us fucked like rabbits for the next three days. We didn't even leave the house. We made love everywhere.

Kitchen table. Living room sofa. Stand-up shower.

Check. Check. Check.

I rode him as he sat on the toilet. He bent me over the side of the loveseat and banged me. We sixty-nined on the dining room floor. I sucked his cock as he surfed for porn on his computer. He ate me out as I sat on the edge of our whirlpool tub. One night, we went outside and had sex in the hot tub on the back deck even as the snow was falling.

And more than a few times, we made love in our bed.

It wasn't until my March cycle that I caught. Neither of us wanted to know what the sex of the baby is going to be. We turned the spare bedroom into a nursery. Both Emily and Toby were excited to have a new sibling. His parents were ecstatic that they were going to be grandparents.

A month after that, I came home from work one day and Kevin told me to pack a suitcase.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"On the honeymoon we never took," he said.

"What about the kids?"

"They're going to their dad's next week." Kevin still won't call Kenzo by name. "How would you like to spend a week in the Caribbean?"