"I want to make it special." He murmured against her neck, in response to her desperately trying to get his trousers off. They'd hardly had any time to themselves for ages, what with his job and her search for a job and the fact that their child was an absolute nightmare sometimes (and yet still ended up looking cute while throwing a tantrum) and moving in and everything. So now that Gracie was in bed and it was the weekend, there was absolutely nothing stopping them from taking their time.

Mini didn't seem to like that idea, her hands still fumbling with his belt. "Hey, hey..." He tried again to stop her, but then he caught her eye and saw her expression: teeth biting on her lower lip and looking like a girl who had been caught, but still wanted to be naughty. And he lost all self control, kissing her furiously and pushing her down onto their bed.

But he still tried to make it special. Every single time a piece of clothing was removed, from her blouse to her bra, he would lavish attention onto the skin revealed. And he would only remove the next piece when she was practically begging him to. Nobody could ever insult his self control when it came to Mini, as he throbbed painfully in his boxers, while she have wave after wave of orgasm hit her as a result of the attentions of his tongue, of his fingers.

"Alo, pl-please." She moaned brokenly, fingers clutching at the bed sheets, calves resting on his shoulders as he tasted her pleasure. She didn't think she could handle one more second of this delicious torture, and luckily her boyfriend accepted her white flag, smirking as he made his way back up her body. After a quick rest, where the only contact was where their hands were held and where they kissed slowly, softly... sweetly, Mini returned the smirk. "My turn."

A few minutes later and Alo swore that he would never ever tease her again. He would never try to make it special because the punishment was just too great. His hands were tied together at the top of the bed (because Mini got cross with him every time he tried to stop her from being such a tease), and he was completely at her mercy. And she was taking full advantage of that, refusing to suck him for the time needed for him to cum, removing her mouth with a heavenly pop every time he was even remotely close. There was a tightness in his balls as he realised just how much he needed to be buried inside of her.

"Mini..." He whined, and the grin on his fiancé's face grew wider. "Mini, I'm serious." He struggled against the restraints in his desperation. "Fuck." She giggled, before straddling him and gliding him into her. "Jesus. I warn you, I'm not gonna last long." As she leant up to untie him, he captured one of her tits with his mouth.

"That's good then, because neither am I." She kissed him, hard and forceful, and he succumbed to that pleasure.

...

Hours later, they both drifted back into consciousness. Her thighs felt sticky and achy, but the smile on her face said she didn't care. "I love you." He murmured, lightly kissing her hair. She let her heart swell, before saying the words back to him. After saying it the first time, it had only got easier. She'd let him in and he would never hurt her. Because that's what love was.

Which is why she had to tell the truth.

"I almost lost her, you know." She whispered, her brain taking her back to that very night. She felt Alo's body freeze next to her, though his arms tightened possessively. Just like always, he kept silent, knowing that the story would come if and when she was ready to tell it.

...

It was about a week before the baby's due date, and Mini had just finished talking to Liv. She'd smiled even though she wasn't feeling right. It wasn't that she was feeling queasy, or ill... she just knew something was wrong. She decided to ignore it, however, knowing that she'd be fine. She'd eaten enough today and it was probably just the baby growing or moving about or something.

Or maybe it was emotional issues making her feel odd. It had been 6 months almost exactly since she'd last seen Alo... since he'd told her she didn't know how to love anything, but still thought that she loved him. He'd hurt her, and she'd hurt him, and that was why she had refused to turn on her phone since then (choosing instead to buy a crappy pay as you go one the moment she landed in Australia). To tell the truth she wasn't even sure if it even still worked...

No time like the present, she thought, fishing it out of her drawer and holding down the button. As it sprung into life, she felt her stomach twist. She gasped out in pain, clutching her bump and squeezing her eyes shut until it subsided.

But there were the text messages to distract her:

I'm out with Liv and Alex and its great and I love it so there

I lied. Im drunk and its horrible and no girl wants to talk to me and I want u to do that thing u do right now but u hate me cos im shit and ur amazing and I dunno how I fucked this up but I did and now im fucked up forever because all I want is u

soz that last bit was meant to read *2 be in u

Looking at the dates told her that this was a few weeks before the incident, where Liv had known all about their arrangement and had purposely told all the girls that Alo had Chlamydia. Mini had told her that she didn't have to do that, but had secretly been glad. She wasn't sure she could cope with the idea that the father of her unborn child was successfully slagging around.

"Mini, it's me. I don't know where the fuck you are or whether this is even your number anymore. But it's been months and I'm still waiting. I will always be waiting. Things here are... well, they're shit, if I'm honest. I fucked up and you're not here to take the piss out of me. I miss you. I love you. Come back, please?"

As she listened to the voice message of a few months ago, she realised that she'd messed up. Coming to Australia had been the most cowardly thing she would ever do. But there was no going back now. She couldn't even bring herself to email him after hearing about the incident with the pre-teen, every email ending up insulting him and calling him a child molester and congratulating him on finding someone with the same mental age as himself. Then, when the charges had been cleared, she tried writing him an email to joke about it, to tell him it was impressive how much he had managed to screw up. But then it came out wrong and didn't read as humour, it read as judgement.

So she never sent anything, but now she was faced with just how much he had missed her. She was a week away from giving birth, a week away from officially becoming a mother, and she was terrified. And he was on the other side of the world and-

any thoughts that she could've had were thrown out the window as she felt that feeling that usually told her that her period had started. And, as she checked... it had. Tears sprung to her eyes as she desperately prayed to every God that she didn't believe in that it would all end up okay.

"Hello? Hi, I'm pregnant but I'm bleeding and I need an ambulance right away." Her voice was shaking and yet Mini somehow managed to give her details. She slid off the chair and curled up on the floor, instinctively dialling the number that had got her through so much shit before.

"Gracie?"

But there was nobody there. And there never would be again.

...

Tears were streaming down her cheeks as Mini hastily finished the story. "Anyway, the ambulance turned up and I was in hospital until I gave birth. My dad didn't visit me, my mum didn't know... I never told anyone that."

"But you're telling me." She felt him smile a little as he reassuringly stroked her hand where theirs were together. "And she was fine."

"But what if she hadn't been?" Mini was now practically hysterical, her voice shaking as she thought about what could have happened. "It would have been all my fault because I refused to accept that I was pregnant. I drank, and I went clubbing, and I was so stupid and I would have let her die without so much as a hint of regret."

"But you didn't." He murmured, turning her to face him and kissing her slowly. "You can't hold onto this guilt. You messed up. I've messed up in the past. But you're here with me. And we have a gorgeous daughter. And that's all that matters." And he kept repeating those 8 letters, those 3 words, until she fell asleep, eyes still leaking.

...