It's a little short, but it's got some of what most of you want. And… next week you'll get two updates in one day ;)

Thank you for all the lovely reviews, you have no idea how much I love, love, love them!

Sadly, I only own the plot.

RPOV

I know I shouldn't have been flirting with her like that at the bar, the touching and the awareness of her, it was kind of overwhelming. But it started, well, got more intense, when I caught her staring at me after our nap like I was her next meal. I could see her thoughts flash across her face, and I'm pretty sure they were identical to mine. All I was doing was stretching and she had that lush bottom lip stuck between her teeth and her heavy breathing was doing incredibly interesting things to my kryptonite. It didn't help that I could still feel the warm skin of her ass cheek on my palm. Fuck, I wanted her. Badly.

I was determined not to act on it though. Yes, she had been looking at me appreciatively, but I also knew her hormones were going batshit right now. From what I had read, a pregnant woman's libido kicked up around month four, so she was ahead of the curve by a lot.

I did derive a little too much pleasure from her stunned face after I kissed her by my car. Not only had I found a sure fire way for me to win an argument, but I also found out she was still affected by me. I can't tell you how satisfying that was. Add to that, I fucking loved kissing her; it was great to have a weapon like that in my arsenal.

Usually when we went out with friends, we tended to stick close to each other, but we never stayed physically linked like we did at the bar. I really don't know which of us arranged ourselves like that, but she would continually press her body back against me, her ass incidentally brushing against my cock. As usual, it was reacting to her proximity, but I didn't think that was her primary aim. I'd noticed that she would break from her chat with Ella every so often and look towards the bar on the far side of the room. It took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on. Steph was feeling territorial. There was a woman sitting alone at the bar and every time she looked our way, Steph would tense under my hands and would snuggle her body even closer. I threw in the towel after a little flirting got me all revved up and ready to drag her into the bathroom… or the back of my car, and hustled her home instead.

I had the supreme pleasure of nudging the hem of her nightshirt up past her navel and kissing the smooth skin of her belly, catching a faint hint of her arousal. The light musky scent invading my nose, making me want to head south with my next kiss, my mouth actually watering. God, did I miss the taste of her. I detoured and headed to her mouth, hating the idea that she was turned on enough to have been wet, but there wasn't anything I could, or rather, should do about it. I backed out of her room and locked up behind me. Carefully adjusting myself in my pants, assuring my aching cock a little self-love later and I drove home through the snow.

I was stepping out of the shower early Saturday morning when she called.

"Yeah, I don't know about going into the City today." She croaked when I answered. We had tentatively made plans to go into Manhattan today, she had wanted to go to the Central Park Zoo and to wander around the park for a few hours. She didn't know it yet, but I had bought tickets for the Rangers-Blackhawks game later on. I know it wasn't exactly in keeping with the keep-Steph-relaxed plan, but she would love it.

"Why? What's wrong?"

"I'm so nauseous. I've been awake for about two hours already because I had this really sucky dream and my stomach has been rolling, but nothing's happening. I actually want to throw up and it's just not happening. At least the other day I felt better after that." She sounded really miserable.

"I'll be there in fifteen minutes."

"It's okay. I'm going to try and go back to bed."

"I'll be right there." I said in reply and hung up.

I was out the door, in and out of Starbucks and unlocking her front door in just under twenty minutes. Heading straight upstairs, I pushed open her door and saw her curled up in her bed. Putting her cup down on her table, her eyes slid open and she gave me a weak smile. "Didn't I tell you not to come over?" She scooted back against the headboard and pulled her knees up.

Do not stare at her underwear. Don't do it!

I swallowed hard and dragged my eyes to her face. "Whatever." She knew better than to think I was going to stay away when she wasn't feeling well. I sat down on the edge of the bed and stroked her cheek and she leaned into my hand. She was paler than usual and the purple shadows under her eyes were back. Not that I was going to say a word about that.

"What's in the cup?

"Chai." She perked up a bit, it was her favorite. "It's even decaf."

She reached out and took a tiny sip. "Oh! It's so good!" She took another sip. "I already tried crackers and ginger ale and those ginger lollipops we got yesterday. Nothing's working." She let her head fall back against the headboard, the arch of her throat looking amazingly inviting.

She's feeling sick, asshole.

I pulled the blanket up to cover her bare legs. "Maybe after you get some sleep you'll feel better? Do you want me to stay?"

"There's not much to see here, you can take off if you want." She sighed tiredly.

I rolled my eyes, pulled off my sweatshirt and climbed into the other side of the bed. One of these days she was going to get that I wanted to be right here with her. I moved some pillows around and got comfy, put the remote on the side table and held my arm out for her. She took a few more sips of her tea and snuggled into my side. She looked contented and despite her pallor, she looked better than when I had arrived.

She fell asleep pretty quickly, her cheek smooshed against my side, lips slightly parted. No doubt there'd be a little puddle of drool on my shirt by the time she woke up. You know what, though? I couldn't care less. Already, our kid was exhausting her and we were only five weeks in. Guys really do have it easy in this whole procreation deal. We get to have an amazing time doing our part and then sit back and watch the women we love do all the hard work. But, I really was looking forward to seeing her belly grow, I just knew she was going to look incredible.

I let her sleep until lunch time, certain that if she got too hungry, it would only make her nausea worse. I'd been laying there, with her arm and leg flung over me, for the last three hours, alternately looking at her and watching TV. Laughing to myself every now and then when I could feel and hear her stomach rumbling.

I kissed her forehead, whispering, "Babe, wake up."

"No," she grumbled, blinking her eyes open anyway. "Ugh, what time is it?"

"Noon. How's your stomach?"

"It's okay, I think. I don't really want to move and find out it's not though. Can you reach those crackers?" I snagged a few out of the package next to her side of the bed and handed them to her. She ate them and cautiously sat up, slowly swinging her legs over the side. "I'll be back in a few." She shuffled into the bathroom and I heard the shower turn on.

The highlights from last night's NHL games were just finishing when she came back in, wearing that tiny robe and toweling her hair dry. I still couldn't figure out if she knew what she was doing to me. She had to know, right?

She stood in front of her closet for a few, deciding what to wear, then crossed to her dresser. I was dreading and dying for her to drop that robe. She rifled through her underwear drawer and pulled out a tiny scrap of cotton. She stepped into them and slid the robe off her shoulders, her back to me.

Fucking tease.

All of a sudden I was right behind her, my hands on her hips, my body millimeters from touching hers. "Steph," my voice coming out strangled. "If you want me to behave, you're going to have to not change in front of me."

She was frozen and silent for a beat. "You've seen it all before." She reasoned.

"Yeah, I have. And I really liked it, that hasn't changed." I pulled her back that last sliver of space and let her feel her effect on me. Just as quickly, I backed up, not able to deal with too much contact. "I'm going to go downstairs and wait for you." She nodded.

By the time she came down, I had managed to will my hard-on away and had a new resolve.

She walked over to me and put her hand on my arm. "I didn't mean to…"

I cut her off, there was absolutely no reason for her to apologize for anything. "It's okay. I'll live, it's just that we've been…" I blew out a breath, determined to get this out in the open. "You have to know that just because we decided that we were going to stop being intimate after we made this little guy, doesn't mean that I would be able to just snap right back to what we were. I'm having a hard time turning that off, Steph. For as easy as it was to fall into bed with you, it feels next to impossible to stop wanting to. You're my best friend and I told you going in to this that I would do anything for you. I meant that, I still do… Fuck… the touching and the flirting and Christ, the naked thing…"

"Carlos."

"Please," I begged, "let me finish?" She nodded. "I've loved you since you brought me home that first day of kindergarten and told your mom that I was your new best friend. I loved you all through school, all twelve grades, Steph. I loved you when I was stationed in Iraq and when I came home. I loved you through all the boyfriends and girlfriends and tears and fights. I loved you every time I made you laugh and when you cracked me up. All this time I loved you, Steph. It's just taken me this long to realize that I'm in love with you." She let go of my arm and backed up a step, shaking her head minutely.

Shit.

"Carlos. I don't…"

"I know, this is on me. I didn't want to dump this on you right now, not with how shitty you've been feeling, but I don't think it's in the best interest of the three of us to hide stuff from one another. This doesn't change anything for me. I don't expect the way you've viewed me our whole lives to change just because I've finally understood something that I should've figured out before high school." I stepped closer to her and was immensely relieved when she leaned into me instead of moving back. "Just know that when I say I love you, know that I mean that at its deepest level." I rested my cheek on top of her head, almost afraid to look at her face. I could not see rejection from her right now. I'd never said these words, this sincerely, to anyone in my life and if she kicked me to the curb right now, I'd be fucking devastated.

"I don't know what to say to you, Carlos. Everything is so crazy in my head," she murmured into my chest. "This has become more for me too, I just don't know how to put it into words properly. The day I first asked you to be the father, when you shut down on me, I thought I lost you. I've never felt like that before and I know I don't ever want to feel that way again."

"I'm sorry I did that and I swear I won't do it again. I meant it when I said that I don't expect your feelings to change just because mine did. Just please, don't push me away, Babe."

She locked eyes with me, "never," she said firmly. "You're stuck with me now."

AN: Give her a minute, she'll get there too, I promise. My love affair with this Carlos continues, he's just so damn perfect!

So, Its the vernal equinox in the northern hemisphere tomorrow at 6:45 pm and we're expecting another snowstorm for the very last day of winter. This means we are going to have a spectacular spring and summer… right? I'm going with that, because this weather is seriously getting me down.

I'll stop bitching now.

Please, don't forget to click that little review button down there and let me know what you thought!

Love,

EA xoxo