Baby Buddies: A BWWM Pregnancy Romance (6 page)

He began to pump himself into her, lightly at first, not wanting to hurt her, and not wanting to come too fast and lost the moment of his lifetime. She sighed and gasped in pleasure as he continued to move in her, and she moved with him, rocking gently until the pace quickened in tandem with their pounding hearts and their shallow breath, and they arched against one another, tugging hard and touching, grabbing and tasting, kissing and moaning loudly and he made her come over and over again, and each time he had to focus so hard on not letting himself go, but a long while later, he couldn’t hold back any longer, and he cried out in release as his orgasm came strong and hard, flooding her with his heat and rendering her weak and totally his, in his arms, for that moment.

They kissed again, softer and more sweetly, and as they relented to their weaknesses and relaxation, they fell into each other’s arms, sleep sweeping over them.

***

Owen woke up with his head pounding and turned onto his side with a slight groan from his hangover. There was no light filtering through the blinds of his own bedroom’s window so he assumed that he must have crashed the night on Anaya’s couch. He sighed deeply that it was morning and groggily blinked open eyes which widened when they saw the back of Anaya’s head next to him and her bare shoulders peeking out from bed sheets. Owen looked down at himself and realized that he had spent the night in Anaya’s bed.

Suddenly, memories of the night before came back to him and he was struck all at once with a number of different emotions. He felt excited that it had happened, but then disappointed that it had happened while he was drunk. He’d always thought that if he’d ever found himself in Anaya’s bed, it would be after a beautiful, romantic date and with every intention of them becoming a couple. To see her there now just stirring into waking herself, he wondered what she was going to say. He felt like he’d taken advantage of her. Anaya had had too much to drink and been upset about Jakob and he had led her to the bedroom. Except, she had been the one to kiss him...

Owen was confused and uncertain, and he froze as he felt Anaya awaken and experience the same sense of uncertainty and then shock as he. She sat bolt upright in the bed all of a sudden as she realized that she’d slept with her best friend and held the sheets up over her chest with flame-red cheeks. She caught his eye and they stared at each other in shock and embarrassment for a moment before Owen hopped out of bed and quickly pulled on his pants. He returned to the bed and sat down uncertainly on the edge of the mattress.

“I can’t believe that happened,” he said out loud in a stunned voice.

“We were both drunk,” Anaya replied quickly in panic. “This was a mistake.”

The vet felt hurt at her words, but swallowed back his disappointment. Last night shouldn’t have happened, or at least not the way it did. Owen felt panic that after all those years of holding back in case it ruined the nature of their friendship that he had now allowed himself to risk it all for one night as a rebound. It wasn’t the way he had imagined it or had dreamed of for all these years. Yet again, he had ruined his chance with Anaya. He hung his head in shame and eventually buried his head in his hands. He felt Anaya scoot over beside him and lay a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“It’s all right,” she said at last. “We’ll just never speak about it again.”

Owen nodded in agreement and picked up his shirt from the floor. Anaya watched him get dressed feeling ashamed and insecure. She couldn’t believe that she’d had rebound sex and with Owen of all people. It wasn’t that her best friend wasn’t an attractive man or a kind man, but she’d never thought of him in a romantic way and now she had brought sex into a relationship where it didn’t belong. She felt worried about what Owen would think of her. He was always on her side even when she had made bad choices in the past, but now she had used him to make herself feel better and that made her feel ashamed because Owen deserved better than that.

The young man finished getting dressed and went to wait in the sitting room. Anaya got dressed herself and went to meet him in the lounge. Her eyes fell to the book of patterns on the coffee table and she remembered the emotion that had caused her to kiss him last night. It stunned her a little when she realized that her actions the night before had not been entirely based on her disdain for Jakob, but equally compelled by her affection for Owen. She’d never looked at Owen as an object for her romantic affections, but something about his kindness that night before and the way the wine made her notice the beauty in his blue eyes and the strength in his broad shoulders had caused her to see him as a man, rather than just as Owen, her preschool neighbor.

She sat down beside Owen who was waiting on the sofa. He was silent and staring at the empty wine glasses with a flushed and embarrassed face. Anaya decided to sweep the situation under the carpet and start speaking to him as though nothing had ever happened. Maybe if they forgot about it quickly enough it would be enough damage control to salvage their friendship.

“It was a good film last night,” she said awkwardly. “Next time we should see the one with Ben Affleck in it. I’ve seen the trailers. It looks good.”

“Yeah,” Owen said with equal awkwardness.

“Look, Owen, I don’t want this to be weird,” Anaya said meaningfully. “I just want things to go back to the way they were yesterday. I don’t want to ruin our friendship. Can we just pretend it never happened and be normal?”

“Sure,” Owen agreed. “It never happened.”

“So I’ll see you on Thursday evening as usual?”

“You will.”

Owen stood to leave and Anaya crossed the space to give him an uncomfortable hug. She always hugged him when he arrived and when he left, but she could feel the discomfort in him as she hugged him now. Memories of last night were still too fresh in both their minds for the physical contact not to cause strange sensations to resurface. Anaya felt herself flushing as she pulled back and opened the door to see Owen out. After he had gone, she fell down on the sofa and wondered if things would ever be the same.

How could they be? She had always loved Owen precisely for the fact that he was uncomplicated and certain. He was the one person in her life who never caused any drama and who never complicated her life with messy, angry emotions. She could always trust Owen to be there for her no matter what was happening in her life and she always knew that he was there for no reason other than he enjoyed her company and was a loyal friend. Anaya knew that by allowing sex to enter into their relationship she had opened a box of worms that could lead to expectations for more or new kinds of feelings. She lay back on the sofa and put a hand over her eyes. Things were about to get messy.

Chapter5

Owen saw Lisa approaching in the gym and he felt a mild panic come over him. Things had been strange since his night with Anaya. They’d tried to go back to the way they were before they’d spent the night together and had picked up their former routines and habits as though nothing had ever happened, but the memory of the night hung between them and made it difficult for them to look each other in the eye. It had left Owen unsure of how to deal with his feelings about the night. He didn’t know whether to view the event as something to give him hope that he and Anaya could happen or as a final closure between them. Anaya had not spoken to him about the night again and there was nothing in her behavior that made him think that the night had made her feel any differently about him at all. She still seemed to consider him a friend. Owen had finally had his night with Anaya and it hadn’t ignited any romantic feelings in her for him or made her realize that she’d loved him all along or anything like that. It had just made things awkward. Owen had dwelled on it for days at a time over the last month, but he’d finally come to the decision that the only way to get the night out of his head and to try and make Anaya feel more comfortable around him was to prove he’d forgotten about that night by moving on.

“Hi Owen!” Lisa said brightly as she reached him at the weights bench where he was sitting. “You’re looking good. That technique I showed you seems to be paying off.”

“Yeah. Thanks for the tip.” Owen smiled. “How’s the training coming? When will you be certified?

“Sometime at the end of the month, I hope,” she said brightly.

She sat down beside him on the bench and took a swig from her water bottle. Owen looked her over as she was drinking and tried to appreciate her attractiveness. She was a very pretty girl. Her blonde hair was never out of place and had a golden, healthy shine. Her smile was sweet and her laugh was growing on Owen the more time he spent around her. Even though she wasn’t Anaya, she was a good person and beautiful. Owen knew that it was time to stop putting off asking her out. Anaya wasn’t interested and Lisa very clearly was.

“Hey, Lisa?” Owen began.

Lisa’s eyes widened with expectation and she sat forward hopefully. “Yes?”

“I was wondering if you maybe wanted to grab a drink with me sometime?” he asked her. He felt relief flood over him as soon as the words were out of his mouth. He’d been trying to work up the courage to invest his attentions in someone new for weeks now, and every time he’d seen Lisa working out nearby, he’d considered going and making a move, but today was the first day that he’d actually been able to get his lips to move.

“Sure!” Lisa replied brightly, letting out one of her lengthy giggles. “Let me give you my number.”

The athletic blonde reached into her gym bag and scribbled her cell number onto the back of a gym timetable and handed it to him.

“I was starting to think that you’d never ask,” she laughed.

“Sorry,” Owen apologized shyly. “I guess it took me a while to pick up on the signals.”

“That’s all right,” Lisa replied. “I’ll look forward to you calling.”

Just like that, the hard part was over and Owen had successfully asked a woman on a date. He told himself that it was a good thing to be moving on and he hoped that time with Lisa would help push Anaya and that night to the back of his mind. He didn’t think he could bear to spend another day in the land of “what if?” and was ready to step into a new phase of his life which wasn’t full of longing and regret.

He called Lisa that evening and they arranged to meet at a local bar, which was quiet and understated. They sat together at a booth under a neon light and drank and spoke about all kinds of things. Owen was surprised to find that he had a lot in common with Lisa. They both loved to work out, which he knew, but Lisa had also grown up on a farm and had her own love for animals. They liked a lot of the same kind of music and had watched a lot of the same movies. There was a lot of common ground to make a relationship with this girl seem possible, and even though Owen felt that instant spark and passionate craving was lacking, he was hopeful that a bond would grow in time and that somehow he’d be able to feel closer to Lisa.

She certainly seemed to like him. As the night went on, she slipped out from the opposite side of the booth to sit at his side and began to flirt with him with gentle teasing and a hand, which rested occasionally on his leg. Once again, Owen was relieved to be in the company of a girl who was so easy to read. Owen didn’t have to guess at whether Lisa liked him or wanted a romantic relationship with him. She made it very clear and Owen found that there were a lot of things to like about Lisa even if she didn’t give him butterflies.

“I’m glad you asked me out tonight,” Lisa said sweetly at one point, running her thumb over the rim of her glass and looking up at Owen from under her long eyelashes. “I was starting to think that you didn’t like me.”

“Of course I like you,” Owen promised her. “I’m just not that great with women.”

“You seemed to be doing fine to me.”

“It’s not a complete disaster?” he laughed.

“No, Owen.” Lisa smiled. “You’re doing fine.”

“I can’t remember the last time I went on a real date,” Owen confessed. “After college I went on a few first dates, but since the practice opened, I haven’t really made any attempts to meet women.”

“Why not?” Lisa asked him.

“My friends tell me that I’m too idealistic,” Owen told her. “They say that you can’t expect to feel close to a woman right away. I’m a romantic, I suppose. I’m always looking for that magic spark.”

“I think there’s a potential spark here,” Lisa smiled seductively. “Don’t you?”

They spent the night together on a date that Owen felt had gone much better than he’d anticipated. The following day, he called her up to arrange their next date. This time they went out together for a winter’s jog through the park followed by hot chocolate. Owen quite enjoyed the playful run they’d had with Lisa darting ahead and teasing him into racing her. Afterwards, they went to a quiet little café for hot chocolate and Lisa told him all about her family and Christmas plans.

As much as Owen had been determined to wait for Anaya, he had to admit to himself that Anaya didn’t see him that way and that he had a real shot with Lisa of having a good relationship. She was a sweet and beautiful girl with a lot of the same interests. She was endlessly talkative, so Owen never had to worry about running out of things to say and she seemed to really like him.

The first two dates went by and then several more; before Owen knew it, him and Lisa were a couple. Once they were an item, he wondered why he had put off asking her out for so long. Sure, he didn’t quite feel comfortable enough to tell her all his secrets the way he did with Anaya, and she didn’t make him laugh quite as hard. And even though she was beautiful, she didn’t make him weak at the knees in quite the same way, but she was good company and they soon built their own routine together with plenty of jogs in the park and hikes and cycle rides.

“I can’t believe it took us so long to get together,” Lisa told him brightly after one particularly enjoyable run in the park. “I really enjoy spending time with you.”

“I enjoy spending time with you too,” he said, meaning it.

“It’s nice to finally meet a guy who doesn’t play games,” Lisa told him sincerely. “I’ve dated other guys because they’d played it cool and piqued my interest, but it always fizzled out as soon as I realized they’re actually jerks with good lines. With you it’s different. There are no techniques, no lines. You’re just honest, and it makes it so easy to be with you.”

Owen blushed at her words and felt guilty to hear her say them, because his thoughts were still far too often on someone else, but he decided to commit to trying to move on and so he took Lisa’s hand and smiled warmly at her.

“It’s going well,” he told her.

“James was at the gym the other day,” she told him.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. He was telling me about how terrible you were at talking to women in bars. I thought his stories were just so adorable. I had no idea you were so shy,” she told him. “I’m glad though. If other women knew how sweet you are, you’d have been snatched up long ago!”

Asking Lisa out had had the desired effect with Anaya, too. When his childhood friend realized that Owen hadn’t been irreparably damaged by their carelessness, she was able to relax around him once more. She was relieved to see him with another girl and seeming happy. Anaya had met Lisa and she liked her a lot. The energetic personal trainer was very sweet and laughed a lot, and Anaya thought that she was good for Owen.

Of course, the first time Owen had told her about Lisa, Anaya had been a bit taken aback because Owen had been single for so long and maybe she felt a little affronted that he hadn’t mentioned that night again, but then again, she reasoned that he didn’t want to make her uncomfortable. Besides, Anaya didn’t want to date Owen. The thought still seemed to strange to her. He’d been like a brother over the years, a best friend and her counselor. Owen had been all things to her and she loved him, but never romantically. She was still reeling somewhat from the reality of their night together. It had shaken the foundations of their friendship because it had made Anaya look at Owen with new eyes and those new eyes found it a little difficult to see him laughing and holding another woman, but Anaya was careful not to let those kinds of feelings grow. She knew that she was just jealous because he’d found a nice girl to spend his time with while her relationship with Jakob was still on the rocks.

She hadn’t heard from him since her birthday when he’d stood her up. It was typical behavior for the childish physicist who had an issue with saying sorry, but Anaya knew that if she held out, he would come back to her, apologetic, and then things would be good for a few weeks while he tried to stay in her good books. In the meantime, she missed having a man around. She was seeing less of Owen now that he had a girlfriend and she had to admit that the first time that she’d called him to come over and he’d told her that he’d had plans with Lisa that she’d been a bit taken aback.

She realized that she had taken Owen for granted. Her childhood friend had simply always been there for her through every rocky relationship and break-up, through every career crisis and family drama. She had never taken second place in his life even when she’d been second place with everyone else. It made it hard for her to take a backseat now, but she knew that she couldn’t complain. She wanted to be happy for Owen just as he had always been happy for her when she’d been happy. She wondered for the first time if Owen had ever felt like he’d been second place with her. She realized that their relationship had perhaps been more take on her part than give. Still, he seemed happy now and all she could do was take a step back and be glad for him that he’d found someone else.

Still, even though she was doing alright even in Jakob’s absence, Anaya pretended that she was missing him madly, just to get Owen’s attention and to help things feel like they were as they had been before that night. She made a point of calling him up for comfort she didn’t really need.

“He hasn’t called!” Anaya lamented over the phone. “Do you think it’s over for good this time?”

“I don’t think that would be such a bad thing,” Owen said. “You guys have been having issues for years.”

“Things are always all right in the end though,” Anaya said. “It feels strange for so much time to have gone by without hearing from him at all.”

“Enjoy the peace while it lasts!”

“What about you?” Anaya pressed. She tried to phrase herself at though she were simply interested in Owen’s life and not secretly trying to gauge how serious things had gotten between him and Lisa. “How are things going with your new girl?”

“Lisa’s great,” Owen told her. “She’s so... energetic. I’m in the best shape of my life! We go running almost every morning. It’s nice to have someone to talk to.”

“You’ve been on your own for a long time,” Anaya agreed. “I’m glad she makes you happy.”

“She does,” he said half-heartedly.

While she was on her own, she began to turn her attention back to her half-finished designs. The book Owen had given her had inspired in Anaya a whole new collection. She’d barely been able to sleep from the ideas turning in her head day and night and she’d been working constantly to bring her creations to life and create a portfolio of her new designs. The patterns in the book seemed to make something click in her that she’d been waiting for and now she had no end of inspiration.

The clothes were a fusion between the vibrant colors of Africa that her mother had always worn and the sophisticated tailoring of forties fashion. The end results were beautiful, eye-catching, and mature designs that were completely Anaya. She’d never felt her own personality come through so much in her designs before and she couldn’t wait to start wearing the feminine dresses out and about.

Every time that she found herself standing in front of a mannequin making amendments or at her desk frantically getting another idea on paper, her thoughts turned with fondness to Owen and his support for her. That book had been the catalyst for a whirlwind of new productivity and only Owen could have given her the boost she needed, because only Owen paid attention to her in that way. Now that he was with Lisa and she was seeing less of him, Anaya realized just how much she missed him. Even though she was supposed to have forgotten about that night and put it behind her she found her thoughts occasionally creeping back there. The haze had lifted in the days after the event and more memories of the night had come back to her. She was surprised to find that she could only think of with fondness something that she had described as a mistake. For the first time in more than twenty years of friendship with Owen, she began to imagine what it would be like to have a romantic relationship with him. She was sure now that something like that could never be between the two of them, but the more she thought about it the more she knew that Lisa was a lucky girl.