Touched Read online

  I take her hand and lead her through the room and into the kitchen. “Oh, really? You haven’t seen anything yet, Angel.” She lets go of my hand and runs into the large room, checking all the sparkling appliances and the black with white and gray speckled granite countertops as well as the breakfast bar. Then she jogs over to the large kitchen table covered in the same granite and turns to me. “I figure you can pick out the high chair and things needed for princess or we can do it together, if you’d like.” Running over to me, she throws her arms around my neck, her fingers digging into my hair and kisses the hell outta me. I should do surprises more often. What am I thinking? I’ll do them daily.

  “Do you have any idea how much I love you right now?” Her eyes alight and gleaming with love and her smile wide and her white teeth sparkling as she speaks.

  “Well, I’d hope you love me as much as you always do.” She giggles and kisses me again.

  Before I take her out to the huge deck, I decide to show her the rest of the house. She’s amazed and can’t believe all the furniture is in their proper places in each room, but I left her boxes unpacked in her special room, so she can place everything where she wants them. “Come. I want to show you the deck,” I state as I lead her back downstairs. She begins pulling on my hand to stop. Turning my head to her, I see her stubbornness shining through. God, I fucking love her!

  “You didn’t show me our bedroom or the rest of the rooms upstairs yet.” Her bottom lip pushes out, and I lean over and bite it. “Ow!” She yells but then giggles.

  “All in good time, Angel. I figure once I show you the backyard then we can look at the rest of the upstairs because I don’t plan on us coming back down for hours,” I say with a smirk. Her brows raise and her grin spreads. “Good girl, now come.” I pull her hand, and she jogs up beside me. We continue our walk to the kitchen. I open the French doors and lead her outside onto the deck, pulling her around me until I can stand behind her with my hands over her poof and rest my chin on her shoulder. “We’ll come back out after dark so you can see it all lit up.” I raise one of my arms and point at everything. “The bar at the corner of the pool also contains a grill, in the Spring you can plant flowers in the boxes around the gazebo and the path leads right onto our private beach but at night or early in the morning we can sit out here on the deck and watch the sun rise or set, together.”

  Her head turns, and I get to see her beautiful smile. “You spoil me and are so romantic.” I remove my hands as she turns around, her arms moving around my neck and her fingers into my hair, and I look deeply into her blue eyes. Her luscious lips press against mine, and then she raises her head. “I have a lifetime to look at our castle. Take me to bed and make sweet love to me then fuck me hard.” She doesn’t have to ask me twice. Actually, she doesn’t even need to ask me once.

  I lift her into my arms and take her inside then straight upstairs to our room and our new king sized bed. Once I set her on the bed, we remove our own clothes, too eager to get them off, and I push her down, lifting her under her arms, and I push myself inside her quickly. I don’t move, only look at her, and she seems a little shocked. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to fuck you first. I must have you hard and fast, Angel.” She smiles and nods. We fuck, make love, and then make love again in the shower, the hallway, and then the kitchen. With another day tomorrow we’ll make it through each room in the house and more. We have a lifetime.

  EPILOGUE

  “Your room looks amazing. You did a great job, Angel.” My head turns as Knox walks in. I’m sitting in my chair admiring all the books on the shelves, the framed pictures on the walls and the view of the ocean from my double windows. He stands behind my chair leaning over and kisses my cheek. “I hope you worked out some of your soreness this morning in the gym.” Oh, yeah. I could barely walk this morning after the last few weeks of breaking in each room in our enormous castle.

  “Ha! Yes, I did, darling. It’s too bad it’s turning too cold to use the pool. That would help my soreness a lot more. Then again, if I go swimming I’m sure you will be jumping in to make love to me there and I’d get no exercise, well, the kind I need to relieve soreness.” I smirk as he walks around and sits in the other chair.

  “Ah, true – true. Are you about ready to go to your appointment?” He slaps his hands together rubbing them back and forth. “I’m feeling lucky today and I think princess will be in the right position to show us that she’s a girl.” My eyes close and I laugh then reopen them to see his face full of playfulness. “What? She loves her daddy and wants to show me she’s doing well in your poof.”

  I look down at my hand that’s covering my stomach and smile. “He or she is growing rather rapidly it seems.” I look over at him to see his wide smile. “Or perhaps it’s all the happiness I’m feeling or being cherished, loved or maybe it’s all the food I’m eating.”

  He laughs as he stands and reaches out his hand to me. I take it, and he pulls me up then leads me downstairs to the garage. Ralph is waiting in the SUV for us, so we don’t delay in getting in. We don’t have to wait long in the waiting room, this time, which is good considering his leg is bouncing up and down to death in impatience. Once in the room, in my lovely gown, Dr. Finley walks in with a smile, sits down on her rolling stool and rolls right on over in between my legs. “Well, are you both ready to see your baby?” Knox looks over at me. His brow raised and his cocky smirk on his face.

  “Is she kidding?”

  I laugh and look back at the doctor. “Um, I think he’s about to have a conniption fit so you might want to hurry.” She laughs and then pushes up the light fabric draped over my stomach, and I jump when she squirts out the freezing gel.

  “Sorry,” she says after. She presses a wand looking instrument down on my poof and looks over at a monitor and soon we hear the heartbeat and some little blob appears on the screen. “Let me help distinguish the different parts for you. This is the baby’s head, arm, oh, another arm and here is a foot, leg and well. Oh! She certainly is showing what sex she is to us.” I’m in awe of this tiny being in my stomach and can’t take my eyes off the screen. Then my ears catch up with my eyes, and I turn to her quickly. Princess. My head moves to Knox in time to see a tear slowly making its way down his face and his chin is actually quivering. That starts my water works and pretty soon we’re both crying.

  Finally, he turns his head to me, leans down and plants the biggest kiss on my lips. The doctor clears her throat and tells us she will print off pictures as Knox sits back up. “Princess. Told you.” I smack his arm and laugh.

  It doesn’t take us long to get home as Knox kept yelling out ‘Step on it’ while kissing me, touching me and pressing me down into the cars seat. We didn’t make it up to our room in time and ended up making love on the stairs. My back and bottom will pay for that later.

  The next day I’m surprised as Tabbie, Amber and my mom come over. We giggle, laugh and cut up in the kitchen while Knox left to go into the office for a while. Then we looked through baby catalogs and making notes of furniture, paint colors, wall hangings and all the necessities for princess’s room. I have the best of friends and am so happy that Mom moved only about five minutes from us. After gorging on various foods and spending almost the entire day with my loved ones I’m exhausted and lay down on the couch waiting for Knox to come home. When my eyes open I’m snuggled up against him and see he’s smooshed into the back of the couch, his arm thrown over my hip as mine is over his and his other arm is around my back. My eyes move up to his face to find he’s asleep. His lips parted slightly and the most serene look about him. All the feelings inside me stir as I lay my head back against his chest and close my eyes.

  It’s dark and fairly quiet except for the light and some sounds coming from the kitchen. I stand, stretch my arms above my head and then walk to the kitchen and see Knox fixing two plates on the breakfast bar. The smell of hamburgers makes my stomach growl, and I guess it was pretty loud because Knox’s head turns to me immediatel
y. “Come, pretty lady. It’s time to fill that poof of yours.” Rubbing my poof, I walk to the table just as he is setting down our filled plates, and I pick up my hamburger, taking the biggest bite my mouth can handle. “Hey. It’s not going to walk away, slow down,” he laughs. I cover my mouth with my hand so no excess food drops out, and after I finally swallow I take a drink of my water.

  “Sorry. I guess I’m really starving.” He laughs again as he takes a bite, smiling at me the entire time. “How’d you like your new grill?” I ask cocking my head towards the deck. “My hamburger sure tastes delicious.”

  “Ah! The new grill is great but just wait until you taste the kabobs I’ll be cooking tomorrow night.” My stomach growls again at the thought and he chuckles. “Hey, how about we order all of princess’s furniture tomorrow. I loved all the notes and pictures you jotted down.”

  “Oh! That would be great. I’d love to get her room all set up.” I take another bite when something occurred to me. After swallowing I look at him, watching him pop a French fry in his mouth. “Have you thought of names for princess? Anything spark your fancy?”

  He looks surprised when his eyes move to mine. “You mean we can’t name her princess?” I cover my mouth after taking a drink, almost spitting it out across the table. He laughs and pops another fry in his mouth and chews with a huge smile on his face. “Actually, no. I have no idea but it has to be special because she will be the most precious thing in this world.”

  I lean my elbows on the table and rest my chin on my clasped hands. “I was thinking Pearl since the birthstone for June is a pearl and is a precious gem.” His eyes blink and then he reaches across and takes one of my hands.

  “That’s perfect. Just like her mommy, Pearl will be named after a precious gem because you both are so very precious to me.” I swore I wasn’t going to cry anymore for a long, long time, but here comes the tears. “However, I’m still calling her princess as she will always be that to me.” I can only nod as the tears begin to fall. He releases my hand, stands, leaning over the table and kisses them. “Happy tears?” As I nod rapidly I stand and go over to him, sitting down in his lap and give him a big kiss. “Hmmm, if that’s what it takes to get you to kiss me, I’ll say sweet things all the time.”

  We made love only once tonight, but as we snuggle with each other, I watch him sleeping, and I think about everything that’s happened in my life. How I thought I would never find love or happiness that I’d be alone for the rest of my life, and the thought that I would never have kids to love and cherish. But my life turned around when the boy I used to play with in the sand found me, saved me from a life of loneliness and saved me from my own self destruction.

  Two days pass by and all of Pearl’s furniture has arrived. Knox finished painting her room yesterday. Pearl white colored walls and he hand painted princesses in different places on the walls. The comforter set is princesses as well as some plaque’s Mom and I found. Knox just finished hanging the last one as I made the bed. The framed pictures over her bed is of Knox and me that Mom took of us yesterday, his hand on my poof and we’re looking at each other with such love in our eyes. Beside it is a framed picture of the sonogram that we were given. I’ll add more of those around our picture as Pearl grows inside me. As I stand here looking at him, admiring his work, my hand covers my poof and all the love in this room flows through me, and I’m lost in it.

  § § § §

  I’m standing on the deck, checking on everything and texting back and forth with Amber who is upstairs with Tabbie and Jade.

  Amber: She’s fine. Thinks we’re crazy like normal. U ok?

  Me: I’m perfect. Anxious

  Amber: Normal

  Me: T-minus 10 minutes. Quit texting!

  Amber: Then quit texting me! :P

  Walking down the lighted deck steps I make my way around the pool and check out all the lights in the trees on either side of the lit path towards the beach. A few chairs are lined up. The tiki torches all lit. Ralph and Emerson are at their places and the minister waves at me as I stand behind the chairs. Waving back I head up the trail and stop at the end and just take in the scene. Lights everywhere making the entire yard, pool and deck sparkle. Checking my watch, I see it’s almost time for the girls and her mom to persuade her to come downstairs. I head back to the beach and nod at Emerson, who walks past me smiling. I knew he’d want to give her away as he has such a special connection with her, and she loves him, well, when she isn’t kicking him in the balls. I can’t help but chuckle at that thought. I wait impatiently in front of the minister but turned towards the path and thinking how the only problem with my plan is that I won’t see her face when she walks out onto the deck, but Amber assured me she will be out there taking pictures of her every step and facial expressions.

  I look up when I hear a scream, and my smile grows wide as well as my heart begins beating fast. When she comes into my view, my breath is taken away. Her long blonde hair hangs down in ringlets with baby’s breath all throughout. Her full lips have a hint of lip gloss, and her cheek flushed by the little blush as well as the tiki torches heating them. Her eyes. The blue in her eyes are lit by the ocean and gleam in the moonlight and her long lashes making them appear bigger than they are. She sees me, and I am rewarded with the most beautiful smile in the world. She doesn’t appear to be embarrassed or shy but the strong willed, stubborn and wonderful woman I fell in love with. Emerson guides her in between the few chairs, her mom’s sitting there along with Tabbie and Amber, all holding hands and when she’s finally in front of me, she leans close to Emerson, whispers something in his ear, and he chuckles as she kisses his cheek. I would normally be jealous of her kissing another man, holding on to another man’s arm but not Emerson. He takes her hand from his arm and places it in the hand I’m holding out to her, and I bring her close to me. We turn to the front and face the minister who smiles at us, but my eyes keep glancing over at my Angel. He doesn’t say too much because I asked for a very short ceremony, but he says enough. We finally to turn to each other, holding hands, and I begin speaking to her. Only her.

  “My Angel. You saved me when I was a boy. You were my first love, and I lost you, but then fate brought us together again and held onto to us, helping us through nightmares that tried to break us apart. Our love has always been stronger. You gave me your love, your strength, your wisdom…” I release one of her hands and cover her poof. “You’re giving life.” Her radiant face now has her tears streaming down it and with the torch’s light hitting them, they are sparkling making her truly look like an angel. “I will always love you, cherish you, pamper you and protect you. Until I take my last breath. You are my last love.” I remove my hand from her poof and she sniffs, closing her eyes when I wipe away some tears.

  She clears her throat as I take her hand again and smiles. “I once met this dirty little boy in a sandbox…” I chuckle and can hear the others laughing softly as well as I continued, “he told me he loved me and stole my heart. My heart was broken when I had to leave him and thought I would never see him again. Then one day not knowing I was that dirty little girl from the sandbox, he found me and fell in love with me all over again. When you were almost taken from me and I thought I’d lost you again, my heart broke again and I knew I could never live without you. But then I found out that I’m carrying your princess, and when you awoke my life began all over again.” The wetness in my eyes are making her a little blurry, so I bring our hands up together, quickly brushing them away as I don’t want to miss looking at her clearly ever again. “You were my first love, my second love and my last love. You’ve ‘Touched’ me like no other ever could. You are my life.”

  Before the minister could announce us as husband and wife, I pull her over to me and kiss the hell out of her. The minister as well as the others all cheer while laughing but we’re in our own bubble, one that can’t be broken.

  June 25th – the next year…

  “UNGH!” Jade screams as she sits up, my arm aro
und her back, and she pushes as hard as she can. “Dammit!” Dr. Finley looks up and smiles at Angel’s cussing but then looks at me, raising her eyebrow.

  “Don’t look at me, that’s all Jade there,” I smirk and then help Angel lay back as she pants loudly. I quickly give her an ice chip and wipe off her sweaty forehead with a damp cloth. “You’re doing great, Angel. Our princess is almost here.”

  “He’s right, Jade. All I need you to do is push really hard, just one more time. You can do it,” Dr. Finley announces.

  Jade’s eyes look up at me. She smiles then squares her shoulders in determination. “That’s my girl. Come. Pearl’s ready to meet her mommy and daddy.” I hold out my hand. She looks at it and then at me, puts her hand in mine, and I help pull her into a sitting position. I rub her back and her arms wrap around her legs, and she screams. Within a matter of two screams, she collapses in my arms, and I gently help her lay back down but my head snaps towards the most beautiful sound. Pearl.

  I watch in fascination as a nurse holds open a pink blanket and how gently the doctor lays my princess onto it. Once the nurse wraps her up she carries her over to me, and I hold out my arms for her instinctively. I look at my precious bundle, kiss her forehead and walk to Jade, laying her carefully in her arms. “Her hair is as blonde as yours, Angel and her eyes are as blue as the ocean. Thank God she looks like her mommy.” Jade laughs and tears her eyes away from our princess to look up at me, her hand reaches out and lays against my face, my eyes closing to her soft touch. When I open them, she’s looking back at Pearl, so I sit down beside my family, kiss my wife on her cheek and lay my head against hers all the while staring at our little miracle.