First trimester

Sybil was panting, her chest heaving, and she'd lost count by then. Tom's sweaty face was slick and pressed between her breasts, lips working lazy kisses there somewhere, his hair falling desperately on her shining body. She closed her eyes, exhaustion preventing her from the smile her body ached to give him. Aching, that was her feeling then. Her pulse was throbbing in her fingertips, in her neck, her mind, her heartbeat undoubtedly in his ears. She trailed her fingertips lightly over his shoulder blade, but only for an instant before her head rocked back to the floor, hanging to the side as she looked at his outstretched hand on the carpet.

She bent forward one more time just to sneak a kiss into his damp hair. The motion made Tom nuzzle his nose further, hand skating back across the carpet to brush a thumb over her nipple, only enough to trip it into arousal again.

Sybil moaned, touching her sensitive fingertips to his back.

This was exhausting. Her body was beginning to feel used and tasted and worked, all delicious and satisfied and warm. Sybil couldn't hide her smile and Tom couldn't stop kissing and hugging her initially. When they'd found out about the baby just a few days ago, they were both over the moon. All the way home, they just shrugged and laughed, trying to count back or figure out where they skipped a step somewhere. How maybe a little slip up lead to this crazy life change suddenly. He squeezed her hand, turning her fingers red and sticky with their shared warmth, the entire walk home. She could shed tears at how adorable, how affected he was then, the way he got so touchy, dragging her into bed just to wrap his warm body around hers and let his face rest into her hair, after he'd pulled the elastic out of it. She couldn't imagine anyone ever reacting the way he did in the history of new fathers, and she didn't know how she ever thought she could share this moment with anyone else.

There was a dramatic shift when she made her first midwife appointment and set the bottle of prenatal vitamins on the counter before leafing through the post.

She was squinting at the electric bill when he reached into the fridge, eying her carefully as she spoke and gestured toward the bottle. "I didn't know you could just buy those at the shops, thought you had to have a prescription… I asked the nurse on the phone and she said just to pick up a bottle." She looked up, glasses sliding down her nose a little over her smile. "So that's the first baby expense. Guess its official." She crinkled her nose over the same smile and looked back to the sheet of paper in her hands.

He heaved a big sigh and was gently holding her up against the wall in two strides, his warm lips over hers, nose pressing against the frame of her glasses. She pulled his face against hers hard, thumbs digging into his cheeks, fingers tugging at his ears. She turned slightly to pull her lips from under his. Her brow was trying to make sense of his actions.

He couldn't help it. He didn't even know how to tell her what he was doing. It's official? That made her irresistible. They made something. His fingers had to prove it to her, to him, had to make this more official. He trailed one finger up the side of her neck and tipped her chin up to his for another slow kiss, deep and wet and warm.

And that day made them busy people, Tom constantly pressing her into the walls, the floors, the cushions, the mattresses of their flat. His mouth gave her everything, gentle and passionate, desperate and thankful. It was the closest he could get to wrapping his mind around it, loving her so intensely in the only thank you he could imagine. How do you say thank you to someone carrying your baby… all of a sudden? Something they didn't plan. They knew it was coming eventually, maybe a year in the future. She had the sweetest look on her face in the past when she talked about kids one day, how she couldn't imagine having them with anyone but him, how he made everything seem like it was doable, meant to be done together.

"You're going to get me pregnant again," she said, her voice strained as she reached her balled fists behind her, stretching and arching her back. Her breasts pushed upward, raising his body with hers.

He groaned. Was she serious right now, her body tempting him like this?

"Our kids are going to pretty close in age," Tom whispered, keeping them in their shell on the living room carpet between the coffee table and the sofa. "I'll never be able to help myself if you keep doing stuff like this."

"Like what?" she said, sly smile on her face, stretching another way and arching her hips toward his. "I'm not… Not totally sure…"

He sighed, palms running up her thighs and cupping her bottom, dropping a kiss against her flat abdomen. Her sigh matched his as she raised her hands to cover her breasts, pushing them up and outward. His gaze fixed there, before watching her eyes flutter closed.

He felt the surge of want creeping up his spine. Before he took her again, he lowered his lips to each of her eyelids. If there was one thing this baby needed…

Have her eyes, he thought, breathing deeply and rising over her again.