ESPOV

While Samson and I went downstairs to start on breakfast, Carlisle went to his room to shower and change. This is only my second day here, but I haven't seen Carlisle go to work yet. The thought of him leaving makes my stomach knot and heart beat fast, but he can't put his life on hold just because I have issues.

I feel like our relationship is changing. After last night, I'm not sure how we could go back to being just friends; although, I'm not sure we were ever "just friends". I've always been interested in having more, but I couldn't bear to take that step with him. I feel like I might be ready, but I'm not sure. I'm more confused now than I was before. When I'm with Carlisle, I want to be close to him, I forget about my insecurities and worries. Honestly, I don't know what I'm ready for, but I know I want more. I don't want to continue telling Carlisle that I want to be friends when I know we both want more; I can feel it when he touches me, and see it when his stare lingers on my lips or my legs. His stare doesn't make me feel cheap like Charles' did, Carlisle's makes me feel beautiful and desirable. I've never felt like this before in my life. Last night when Carlisle was kissing the bruises on my legs left by Charles' hand, I knew that I would never be able to look at him the same way again. I want to move to the next stage of our relationship with him, I just hope he doesn't see me any differently after the ugliness I've revealed to him.

As I'm flipping the last pancake onto a plate, Carlisle comes bustling into the kitchen. His hair is wet from the shower and he's dressed in a dark jeans and a white button up, long sleeve shirt. As he's walking, he's buttoning up his shirt and sweet Jesus his body is perfect. I can't tear my eyes from the drops of water running between his pecs until he buttons his shirt, leaving the top button undone and his neck and throat exposed. I want to kiss my way up his throat until I get to his lips. His lips. I bet they taste better than I could ever imagine. They're so full and perfect and…moving?

"I'm sorry, what?" I stutter out, finally tearing my eyes away from his mouth.

He chuckles softly before repeating himself.

"I said that you did a lot better job making breakfast than I ever could."

"Well I've had a lot of practice. I'll have to teach you." I reply cheekily.

He smiles softly.

"I would really like that."

Our eyes connect for a minute and I can't help but get lost in his gaze. After a minute or so he blinks and clears his throat.

"Are you ready to eat? You must be hungry." He says while looking at the floor.

"Um yeah. Do you want to eat in here?"

"That sounds fine."

We both hop onto stools at the breakfast bar and dig into our breakfast. I notice that Carlisle isn't eating much, but he's probably just not a breakfast person. He didn't eat anything yesterday for breakfast either.

"I can put that in the fridge for later if you'd like." I tell him gesturing to his plate.

"I can do it but thank you. I'm sorry, I'm just not much of a breakfast person. It has nothing to do with your cooking." He looks sheepish as he wraps his plate up and puts it in the fridge.

"It's okay, I understand. I never used to eat breakfast either. Of course I always cooked it because Charles ate every day before he went to work, but I was rarely hungry in the mornings. Now it seems like I'm hungry all of the time."

When his eyes harden at the mention of Charles' name, I immediately regret saying it, but when I mention being hungry and put my hand on my belly, his eyes soften again.

"That's to be expected. People aren't kidding when they say that you are eating for two now." He laughs "May I?" his hand is extended towards my belly and I don't even think twice before grabbing it and pulling him towards me. He's standing so close that our chests are almost touching when I grab his hand and place it on my belly under my shirt. I don't have a very big bump yet, but there is a distinct ridge at the bottom of my belly where it pooches out some. To anyone else it would look like I just ate a whole pizza by myself, but to me it's evidence of my baby growing.

Carlisle's large hand spans across my small tummy and his thumb caresses the small ridge at the bottom.

"This is amazing." He says in awe. "You know, the baby is the size of a raspberry right now. His organs are forming as are his arms and legs." The whole time he's talking his fingers are caressing the skin on my belly.

"Wow" I whisper. It takes a minute for me to fully register what he said and I look up at him with my eyebrow raised. "He? So you think it's a boy?"

He chuckles softly.

"Well it feels weird to call him an "it". Why? Do you want a girl?"

"I don't know. I don't think I have a preference. After everything, I just want him to be healthy."

He nods because he knows exactly what I mean by "everything".

He gives my belly one final touch before dropping his hand.

"Thank you, Esme. Thank you for trusting me."

Reaching up, I place my hand on his cheek before replying.

"I trust you more than anyone else on this Earth."

He places his hand on top of mine, holding it to his cheek before nuzzling his face into it. He turns his head and places a soft kiss in the middle of my palm that sends tingles up my arm.

After letting go of my hand, he places his hands under my face, cupping my jaw and places a kiss on my forehead. He looks deep into my eyes before letting out a sigh and dropping his forehead to mine. His eyes are closed and with every breath his scent fans across my face. I want so badly to kiss him, but I don't want to rush myself or our relationship.

"Esme" he sighs without opening his eyes "I don't want to push you, so you have to tell me if I ever do something to make you uncomfortable. There's so much that I want to experience with you, but I can wait until you're ready."

"I know" I whisper back and his eyes open to look into mine. His gaze flickers down to my lips, but I know he won't kiss me unless I make the first move. The only problem is I don't know if I'm ready to make the first move. I bite down on my bottom lip and his eyes darken slightly. Suddenly there's a squeaky bark at my feet. Our moment is broken as I jump away from him and look down to Sammy. He's throwing quite a fit as he squeezes his way between Carlisle and I so that he can growl at him. I giggle at him before stooping down to pick him up.

"You would think he would be used to you by now." I giggle as Sammy licks my face.

"You would think so but maybe it will take him a little longer than most dogs. In fact on that subject, I think we need to get him to the vet today. I want to make sure he's healthy and he's going to need his puppy shots. We can also stop by the pet store after because I'm pretty sure that feeding him leftover table scraps is just going to make him chubby."

"Okay" I sigh. I'm not looking forward to watching my baby get stuck with needles but I want to make sure he's healthy.

"Why don't I take him outside while you go upstairs and get ready. I'll call the vet in town and see if they have an opening."

I nod at him before carefully transferring Sammy into his arms. He sniffs Carlisle for a second and sneezes before snuggling into his arms with a disgruntled look on his face.

I laugh and head upstairs to take a shower.

After my shower, I put some effort into drying my hair so it falls down my back in soft curls. I put the essentials on in make up: mascara, blush, and lipstick, and make sure everything looks perfect before going in my room to get dressed. On our shopping trip, Carlisle let me take some alone time in Victoria's Secret where I bought a little bit of everything, so now I have the perfect underwear to go with my outfit today. Its a black lacy set that includes a strapless push up bra and a pair of bikini underwear that come just below my baby bump. Once I have the set on, I turn to admire myself in the mirror. The bruise on my face has lightened some and I was able to cover it with make up. My face is a little swollen but it's not very noticeable. The bruises on my back and legs are also changing and are now purple and yellow as they continue to heal. After finishing my perusal, I put on my outfit for the day. I've chosen a chunky, grey, off-the-shoulder sweater. It's cute but will still keep me warm outside where it's started to snow; pairing it with a pair of black jeans, and black ankle boots, I'm ready to go.

When I get downstairs, I find Carlisle sitting in the overstuffed chair in the living room with Sammy on his lap, talking to him.

"We've gotta get along, you know, because your mom loves you and I want her to be happy. If it were up to me, you would be outside hunting for your own food, but she loves you and that means you get to stay. But I won't put up with you getting in between us. That's my woman in there, at least I hope she will be one day, and you're going to have to deal with me being around her. Okay? So you just be a dog and do what dogs do, and we'll have nothing to worry about. Now about our trip today, I don't want you to be scared. We're going to go see a man who loves dogs. I've known him for a long time. He's going to make sure that you're healthy and if you're not, you can't stay here. I won't have you around my girl or my peanut if you could harm them. Capisce? Good, I'm glad we understand each other." He nods his head at the small, clueless puppy in his lap like they just came to some great understanding, and it makes me giggle. Both of my boys' heads shoot up and look at me when they hear it. Samson jumps off of Carlisle's lap doing a somersault when he hits the floor before galloping over to me, and Carlisle just sits there looking sheepish. I scoop my puppy up and go to sit on the armrest of Carlisle's chair.

"Did you men have a nice chat?"

"Well, yeah, I mean I was just spending some time with him while you were getting ready. You look stunning by the way." He shoots me that smile that makes my knees weak. He's a cheater.

"Thank you. Are you ready to go?"

"Yep. Let me grab our coats." Grateful for something to do, he zooms out of the room to the coat closet.

I just giggle and pull Sammy up so I can put my nose against his.

"Your daddy's crazy." He just licks my face, which I'm taking as agreement.

After we have our coats on and Sammy is safely snuggled into my chest, we take off to the vet's office. Carlisle says he has known this man for years and he's a really good doctor. Apparently their friendship is how he was able to score an appointment on such short notice.

We pull up in front of what looks like an old house, and Sammy immediately relaxes in my lap when the car comes to a stop. I guess he wasn't a fan of his first car ride. I keep holding him as we go in and check in with the receptionist. We're the only ones in the waiting area, and Sammy calms down once we sit. He burrows into my coat and rests his head on my chest before closing his eyes. I glance up at Carlisle and see him eyeing Samson with what looks like jealousy before he's snapped out of it by someone calling his name.

"Carlisle! It's good to see you. It's been awhile. How are the kids?" An older man with grey hair and a white lab coat walks over to us and Carlisle stands to shake his hand.

"They're doing great. They love the University of Washington and being on their own. It's like pulling teeth just to get them to come home and visit." He laughs and the other man joins him. "Dr. Phelps this is my friend Esme, and that little bundle superglued to her is Samson. We found him in our backyard yesterday and we want to make sure he's healthy."

Dr. Phelps laughs as he peeks into my coat to see Samson. With my coat buttoned, all you can see is his nose sticking out of the top.

"Well it's nice to meet you Esme. Let's go back and take a look at this little guy."

I nod and smile at him before following him back to an exam room. There's a table coming out from the wall about waist high, and I take Sammy out of my coat, to set him down on it. He looks very annoyed and it makes me smile.

"He's a precious little one, isn't he?" Dr. Phelps says smiling down at Sammy who is busy sniffing his lab coat. "Well hello there. It seems you found a good family to join. Now lets make sure you're all healthy before we send you home."

Dr. Phelps talking in a high pitched voice to my puppy makes me like him a little bit more. He takes out his stethoscope and listens to Sammy's heart which he says sounds fine. Then he pulls out a thermometer and I wince knowing where he's going to put that. Carlisle must have seen my wince because he gently puts his hand in mine and interlaces our fingers. After Sammy gets his temperature taken, Dr. Phelps runs a comb through his hair to check for fleas and uses a light to look into his ears and nose.

"Well it looks like you guys have yourselves one healthy pup, and he's very clearly an English Mastiff. He is a little underweight, and he looks to be about 8 weeks old and freshly weened from his mother. He only weighs about 15 pounds which is underweight for an English Mastiff puppy of this age but that's to be expected since he was a stray. Just make sure that you find him a good puppy food that is rich in vitamins. Also you'll want to be sure to take him for walks. Mastiffs are notorious for being lazy and they will get obese if you don't force them to exercise. Now I'm going to give him his first round of puppy shots and take some blood to check for heart worms. You'll have to come back in a couple weeks to get some more booster shots and if his blood work comes back clear you can get some heart worm medicine then. There doesn't seem to be any fleas in his coat which is normal since it's winter but I would definitely invest in a good flea and tick medicine. Lauren at reception can help you with that. Now," he says looking down at Sammy "comes the not-so-fun part little guy."

I can't watch as Dr. Phelps gives Sammy his shots and takes his blood. I have to turn my face away and hide it in Carlisle's chest. God, he feels so good! I want to be pressed up against him all of the time. He runs his free hand up and down my arm while I hide away from the needles.

"Okay Esme, we're all done. You can take your baby back." Dr. Phelps says with a smile. I reach for Sammy and he almost jumps off of the table to get to me. I tuck him back into my coat and nuzzle my nose to his.

I briefly see Carlisle shake Dr. Phelps' hand and say something but I'm too busy calming down a shaking Sammy. He definitely needs a special treat after this appointment. When Carlisle is ready to go, he puts his hand at the small of my back and leads me out to the car.

"Don't we have to pay?" I ask him as I buckle my seatbelt.

"They'll send me a bill. I want to go to the pet store and get Sammy some food, so we can go home and make you some food." He shoots me a wink before pulling out of the parking lot and onto the highway.

"Oh can we get him a collar too and a leash? I wonder if they have any cute food bowls. What about beds? He needs a bed for when he sleeps during the day. He also needs some bones and treats. I promised him a special treat after his doctor visit today so we'll have to get that for him too." I'm so excited. I've never had a pet to shop for before.

"Well it looks like we won't be making it home in time for lunch." Carlisle says and I just grin at him.