Saving Forever - Part 5 (Saving Forever #5) (11 page)

A rare night two weeks later, Elijah and Charity were both home. Elijah was in the kitchen cooking a fantastic smelling dinner while Charity cleaned the house and organized the nursery. Margaret had left a box of tiny clothes she had bought for the baby. Charity went through all the little adorable pink outfits, onesies, socks and teeny shoes. She organized and put them into drawers.

“Dinner’s ready.” Elijah came into the room.

Charity stood behind the new dresser putting the last few pairs of socks into the drawer. “Almost done.” Her belly pressed against the handle of the drawer and the baby seemed to like kicking against it like she was trying to push it out of the way.

Elijah came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. They stood together, her back against him, her head resting under his chin and her hands entwined in his resting against their baby. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired.” She smiled. “A perfect contently tired feeling. I do well with busy.”

“I’m learning that.”

She could feel him smile without looking up. He was exactly the same and she loved him for it. His hot, sexy body wasn’t too bad on the eyes either. She grinned slyly. They had the whole night to themselves. What kind of trouble could they get into?

“Did you want to eat… or do something else?”

“What did you have in mind?” Her stomach growled.
Classic.
She dropped her head. “Figures.”

Elijah laughed. “Let’s eat first.” He reached for her hand and walked her to the dining room. The table was set with candles, two glasses of wine, and their best china. A huge bouquet of white flowers sat in the middle.

“Wow.”

He pulled her chair out and kissed her. “Happy Anniversary!”

“Oh shit!” She covered her mouth. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to swear.” She burst into tears. Who forgot their one year anniversary? Especially married to a guy like Elijah? She buried her head in her hands.

Elijah dropped down on his knees beside her. “Hey,” he said softly. “Don’t cry. I mean, I know I’m beautiful but I’m not worth crying over.”

She tried to laugh, but it just came out as a snort. She looked at her husband, her hands covering her nose and mouth. Her eyes were wet, her mascara probably giving her scary raccoon eyes. “I forgot,” she whispered. “Who forgets their first anniversary?” She shook her head, trying to wipe the tears away. “I was surprised when we both had tonight off. I figured we got lucky. You set it up, didn’t you?”

He cocked his head to the side. “If I say yes, is it going to make you cry more?”

She giggled. “No.”

“Then maybe I did.” He reached over and set the Kleenex box on the table by her. “You going to be okay?”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be. I’m sure you can think of some way to make it up to me.”

“I love you.”

“See. You just made it up to me.” He winked and then pressed his lips to hers. “I love you. Always and Forever. You make me happy.” He kissed her belly. “Incredibly happy.”

She had the urge to cry again, this time for the complete opposite reason. She swallowed back the tears, tired of the way her emotions flew to so high and low. “I couldn’t imagine my life without you. Thank you for making dinner, and the flowers.”

“The wine’s just grape and cranberry juice mixed together. It looks like red wine that way.”

“And the make-believe wine. Thank you for that too.”

Elijah stood. “Let me grab the steaks out of the kitchen. I picked up twice baked potatoes from the butcher you like too. They’ll be done now.”

While he disappeared, Charity blew her nose and wiped her face. Elijah returned carrying two plates of food. He set them in front of each of them and then held up his wine goblet. “To our baby, who still doesn’t have a name.”

She raised her glass. “To our nameless daughter and to hundreds more and thousands more years together.”

“Thousands?” He raised his eyebrows.

“And hundreds of more kids together.”

“Hundreds?”

“Maybe we’ll just try and make hundreds more.”

“I’m down with that.” He grinned wickedly.

She giggled. “Shouldn’t you be ‘up’ with that?”

“You need to stop where this conversation is headed or we won’t be eating this lovely meal I prepared for us. I’ll be throwing everything off the table to lay you on it!”

“Okay. I’ll be good.” She purposely picked up her fork and knife and began cutting into her steak. “We do need to name this child. She can’t be peanut forever.”

“It’ll keep the boys away when she’s a teenager.”

“Or have the exact opposite effect.”

“Yeah, we gotta change it.” He took a bite of his steak. “Throw some at me. Let’s see what rolls off the tongue.”

“Alexus, Danielle, Randy—”

“We are not naming our daughter Randy!” Elijah shook his head emphatically.

“What’s wrong with a girl having a boy’s name?”

“It’s not that. Randy in New Zealand is horny. As in: Are you feeling
randy
tonight?”

“Scratch that one off the list.”

“Definitely.”

“Sarah, Sally, Stephanie?”

“Amanda, Becky, Chelsea?”

“Evelyn, Francis, Grace?” A pattern began to develop.

“Hannah, uh…” Elijah’s eyebrows pressed together as he searched for a name starting with I. “Iggy?”

Charity laughed then blinked in surprise when she thought of a name. “What about Jamie?”

Elijah paused. “I like that. Jamie.”

“It was my mother’s maiden name. Sort of. Lynn James.”

“Jamie Lynn?” Elijah offered.

“Jamie Lynn,” Charity repeated, liking the way the name rolled off her tongue. “My mom would have loved that. She used to joke about how she hated her first name.”

“Jamie Lynn Bennet.”

She knew he was waiting to see if she would try and add Thompson. She had no intention. Her wedding license said Bennet. “I don’t need my last name to prove who I am. I only need it at the hospital to show who I am.” She laughed. “That makes no sense, does it? Our baby is a Bennet.”

“That’s the best anniversary gift ever.”

“You’re sad.”

“Ah, but you love me for it.”

“I do.” She rolled her eyes pretending to be annoyed. The smile etched on her face probably didn’t convince him at all. “That seemed too easy.” She patted her tummy. “What do you think, Jamie?”

They ate a few moments in comfortable silence. Elijah checked his phone. “Speaking of the hospital. Have you set things up for mat leave?”

“I haven’t been working a year. I didn’t think I was eligible.”

“I don’t know about pay, but you need to make sure your residence doesn’t get knocked off. I mean, we won’t let that happen but if the paperwork isn’t in, you’ll hate to have problems due to a technicality.”

“I’m seven months now. There’s still lots of time to get everything sorted.”

He apparently didn’t think so. “How about I get my office assistant to get you the forms?”

“Sure.” She wasn’t going to argue.

“What about time off? How much time are you planning on taking? You can take forever for all I care. We can just keep having babies.”

Charity nearly spilled her cranberry-grape juice. “I don’t think so. I thought we said, we were just going to keep practicing.” She set her glass down. “Three months? Six months?”

“I think you’re being naïve. When Jamie,” Elijah said and smiled, “chooses to show us how stinkin’ cute she is, you might never want to leave her side.”

Charity pressed her lips together afraid if she said how she felt out loud it would make everything realer. She swallowed and took a deep breath. She loved Elijah more than anything, and she loved this baby too. “That’s what I’m afraid of. What am I going to do if I have her, and then don’t want to leave her with someone else?”

Elijah shrugged as if the answer was easy. “Then you don’t. You stay home and raise her.”

“It’s not that easy.”

“Yes it is. You don’t need to be what anyone expects. You just be who you think you need to be.”

Charity smiled.

“What’s so funny?”

“Your mom said the same thing to me.”

“She did?”

“She said your dad told you that once.”

“He did. Only piece of advice I ever listened to.” Elijah’s face turned serious. “Have you thought about what kind of doctor you want to be? Have you considered looking at being a physician instead of a surgeon?”

Physicians examined patients, prescribed medicines, interpreted diagnostic tests. They counseled patients on preventative health care, diet, and all that kind of stuff. Surgeons operated to fix injuries, remove tumors, stop diseases. Charity was fascinated with surgery, and there was so much she still hadn’t even begun to explore. “I’m not sure what I want to do yet. Did you know what you wanted right away?”

“I was a cocky know-it-all when I was doing my residence, but I had no idea what I wanted to specialize in. I still don’t. That’s why I love being chief of surgery. I get to do whatever I fancy.” He chuckled and took a bite of his steak. He reached for her hand across the table and held it in his hand. “What do you want, Charity?”

She answered without even thinking about it. “I want to have a healthy baby with you, and be an excellent surgeon, and…” She didn’t know what else she wanted.

“Nothing.” Elijah finished. “Nothing else matters.”

“Yeah.” He was right. Nothing else mattered.

After they had finished dinner, they decided to go for a walk. The days were beginning to get longer and spring looked to have finally decided to pop its beautiful head. 

When they returned, Charity headed to the bedroom to change. “Want to watch a movie?” she called down the hall.

“Pardon?” Elijah had gone into the kitchen to grab a whiskey.

She slipped out of her long skirt and tugged her top off. The full-length mirror hid nothing. She stared at her reflection. Her breasts were nearly spilling out of her bra. Soft plump skin pressing against the black material. She had never been big breasted. She felt voluptuous now and wondered what they would look like if she popped open her bra.

“What did you ask me be—” Elijah poked his head around the door. His eyes grazed hungrily over her as she stood near naked in the middle of the room holding her breasts in her hand and posing in front of the mirror. His mouth hung slightly open.

Charity watched him and felt herself grow warm from his flagrant staring. She dragged her teeth slowly over her lower lip and slowly unclasped her bra, thankful the clasp was in the front. Her gaze never left his heated one.

Her breasts tumbled out and she smiled when Elijah’s eyes dropped to them.

She heard his breath catch. Raising her hand, she beckoned him once with her finger. It was all he needed.

It took him three steps and he was less than an inch from her. It felt as if his hands roamed over every part of her as his lips crushed down against her neck. He licked, sucked and tasted his way to her lips. He tugged on the straps of her bra so it tumbled to the floor.

Charity wanted him. Right now. She didn’t want foreplay. She wanted him inside of her, stroking and taming the fire burning deep inside of her with a heat she had never felt before. She grabbed the hem of his shirt and pushed it up, unyielding as she glided her palms against his tight abdomen and then his ribcage and over his chest.

They moved toward the bed his hand covered both sides of her hips, his fingers digging gently into her derriere muscles as he directed her. The back of her knees were pressed against the bed mattress, but she clenched her hamstrings so she wouldn’t fall onto it. Seven months pregnant did not create a graceful fall. It would end up more of a plop and she didn’t want to drop the baby against her spine like that.

Elijah’s hand found its way under her pink lace panties. “Look at me,” he whispered, his hot breath torture against her ear. His lips caressed the thin line of her jaw as he moved his head back. His hand stopped moving in its downward motion until she opened her eyes.

She loved the way his eyes burned bright when they had sex. They seemed fifty shades bluer. She lost the ability to focus when his finger slipped inside of her. He knew exactly what he was doing. His finger and tongue could torment her to the brink of her begging him to stop and bring her desired agony to an apex.

She managed to get her hands into his jeans and undo the button. She pushed them, along with his briefs, over his hips. He shifted and they fell to the floor. As he stepped to kick them away, she turned slightly to press her back against his chest.

Elijah moaned when her hip brushed against his erection. His hands returned to the crests of her hip bone and held her tight. He turned her all the way around. She pressed her hands flat against the mattress for balance. She sucked in a sharp breath, afraid he would make her wait before he entered her. “Please,” she begged huskily.