I CHOOSE YOU, ONLY YOU.
Chapter Eight"What do you reckon they are doing?" a very embarrassed Sean asked, standing outside the door of the royal bedchamber.
Jared stood still, listening. "By the sound of it," he said thoughtfully. "I think they are working on producing an heir."
"But… all morning? It's already noon, and they are still locked up in there…" he said, looking surprised and pointing at the door in front of him. It was true, sneaking around the palace looking for places to be alone became Jacen's and Darla's favorite hobby about two weeks after they got back from the Wolf Lands. Often they would end up in their chamber, and no one would see them for the rest of the day.
"Well, they are married, so it's legal," Jared responded in his most serious voice even though he looked like a cat that just ate a bird.
()()()()
Darla's voice softy comes from where she is in my arms, "We are going to have to get out of bed at some point," she says, amusement in her voice.
"No," I tell her. "I'm the king; I can do whatever I want." My face is buried in her silky red hair that is caressing my face, my hand rests on her stomach, stroking it lightly with my fingertips.
"You know that's hardly the case," she answers but I can feel her smile as I start to kiss her neck. "You wouldn't have married me if that were true."
"And I would have been a damn fool," I say after having trailed my kisses from her neck to her ear.
"Jacen," she says playfully. "You are going to have to let go of me sometime."
"Maybe, but I would need a good reason and right now I'm very comfortable like this," I say pulling her even closer to me. Darla rolls over, still in my arms, and kisses me – a long, deep kiss. It's already noon and we haven't managed to get out of our chamber.
I enjoy times like these when we just lay together as much as I enjoy the lovemaking that led us to this. I love feeling her soft skin against mine, the scent of her hair and the love I see in her eyes when she looks at me. "I didn't learned to love you, I fell in love with you; it's different," she often tells me when we look back at the day we married as complete strangers.
Since the first time we made love, it has become one of our favorite activities. I remember that night so well, the night when Darla – my wife, my love – became my lover, the only one I need or want.
I had been in the most boring meeting with the nobles that live in my kingdom. Darla hates those meetings so she avoids them as much as she can. That night I had just finished taking off my boots when she came into the bedroom, she had been reading in the little living room at the other end of our chamber. She smiled when she saw me.
"Do you know that sometimes I can't believe how beautiful you are?"
She looked at the mirror and shrugged, then walked over to the bed where I was seated, her light green nightgown hugging every curve of her body, I'm sure I was close to drooling. "I have never thought that I'm pretty or special at any rate," she said, as I pulled her into my lap.
"In my eyes, there is nothing more beautiful," I told her. "You are special to me."
She kissed me and then said it: "I love you." It was barely a whisper in my ear. I had heard her say to Hector that she loved me, but she hadn't said it to me yet.
My hand went to her face, brushing back her hair so I could see her eyes. She looked at me, knowing that I was searching her eyes for the truth in her words. As I stared into that soft gray I saw it there, it was love. "I love you," I said, breaking into a smile.
Not long after that we were spread out in our bed kissing like there was no tomorrow. I was playing with the hemline of her nightgown, my hand going up and down and pulling up the nightgown a bit higher each time I did so. She was running her hands over my back and chest. When she went to undo my trousers, I caught her hand in mine and asked her if she was sure she wanted to go ahead with that. She smiled and said very confident: "All I'm sure of is that I love you and that I want to be with you."
Now, what do you do when the woman you love tells you that? … Exactly! (wink, wink )
)=)=)=)
I'm so nervous. I can't stop giggling and thinking how I'm going to drop this news. Is our one-year anniversary, and I was hoping I could give him something special. Do something special, like what he did when he taught me to skate. But this is way beyond what I had planned. I was hoping I could learn to bake his favorite cookies. I didn't expect this.
I haven't been feeling so well lately but when the other day I ate my peas I knew there was something very, very wrong. I hate peas and I have good reasons. You will never see a Wolf Land's Army training camp graduate eat peas. Why you ask? Well if your evil commander in chief during army training had made you spend the last two days of your first week at training counting peas you wouldn't want to see one again, ever! Apparently counting peas is so mind numbing that helps the commanders see if you're army material, it supposedly gives them an idea of how capable you are of keeping your head clear under pressure, fatigue and strange ways of torture.
Anyway, the peas were a major hint. Then there was the sudden dizziness that came sometimes, and the couple of times I almost fainted. I was sure it was just some flu, but Jacen said that if I didn't go to the doctor he would cancel the surprise he had for me for our anniversary. Being the surprise lover that I am, I went to the doctor in Bear Town.
Then the doctor told me. And now I have to tell Jacen. I don't know what surprise Jacen was planning for our anniversary, but I don't think it's going to surpass the one that I'm going to give him.
=)=)=
"Darla, I know you are there," Jacen says teasingly –I've been standing outside his den for ten minutes and he finally notices it. "If you've come to ask about your surprise you'll be pleased to know that I'm almost done here and you'll have your surprise soon," He adds when he sees that I'm walking towards him.
"It's not that," I say, surprising myself with how shy I sound. "Actually I have a surprise for you."
"Really?" he says distracted, signing the last of a big pile of edicts, he has been working on law reviews all week. "Alright, I'm done," he says, dropping his quill as he straightens up. "What is it?"
Jacen looks at me and both of his dark eyebrows go up, way up. He is expecting me to say something. I need to sit down, so I place myself in his lap, Jacen looks a bit surprised but one of his arms automatically goes around my waist.
"I…" I try to start but I can't.
"What is it? You know you can tell me anything." His hand goes to my cheek and is caressing it softly. Right, I can tell him anything. I close my eyes and kiss him – not such a good idea since his kisses often make me forget everything else I have in mind. But I remember this is important.
I take his hand that is on my cheek and I put it over my lower abdomen. "I'm happy to inform you that we have a baby in here," I say. Jacen looks at my stomach, then my face.
"What? Why? Baby? How? What?" he says is a blur, all confused.
"Do I have to remind you that we have done everything necessary to have a baby?" I tease. He just smiles, a little secretive smile that reminds me of the one he gave me that first night I said 'I love you'. Then he just stays still, looking at my stomach as if he is expecting for the baby to come out any second. After a few minutes in which he says nothing, I ask "Jacen?"
He takes his gaze off my stomach and kisses me. "Just give me a minute," he says. "I just want to enjoy this unbelievable happy moment for a little while longer, ok?"
I kiss the top of his head, smoothening his hair away from his face, "Take your time," I say. "Your baby and I aren't going anywhere."
=?=?=?=?=?
So, I had been worrying about nothing, Jacen took it pretty well.
Jacen had been babbling all day about names and nursery colors, the funny thing was that he didn't babble as if he was talking to me, it was more like he was having a conversation with himself. But whatever. At dinner I had been pushing the extra food Jacen was placing in my plate-convinced I need to eat more-onto Jared's plate, all the time thinking in the immortality of the slugs, when Jacen waved his hand in front of my face.
"Huh?" I asked brilliantly.
"I asked what you thought, if it should be blue or green?"
"I don't know," I said, he just sighed and started to put more carrots in my plate. "Jacen, stop it!" I half yelled.
"What? You said you were hungry," he answered. "And you need to eat for two."
"Why would she need eat for two?" Jared asked, looking at both of us expectantly, and making Sean, Eric and Elena look at us too.
"Darla is pregnant," Jacen said easily, grinning.
"Really? That's amazing!" Jared screamed, getting up and going between Jacen and me and pulling the two of us into a collective hug. "I'm going to be an uncle!!!"
Eric and Sean seemed happy about the news too, and their congratulations weren't much less enthusiastic than Jared's. Only Elena had remained at her seat.
"May I be excused?" she asked once everyone else had gone back to their seats. Jacen and Jared just looked at her, Sir Eric was about to answer her when Sean just nodded and she stood up, "Congratulations, really," Elena said, her voice sounded a bit sad but, for once, she also sounded sincere.
?=?=?=?=?
Elena was in her room, the same one he had occupied at the Black Woods palace since she was ten years old and her mother had sent her to live with her uncle – Sir Eric. She was moving around, packing stuff..
"What are you doing?" Sean asked, entering the room without knocking, as it was his custom.
"Packing, I'm going back to my mother."
"Why so suddenly?"
"There is no point in me staying here," Elena said. "One thing was trying to steal Jacen form Darla when they didn't like each other, I wouldn't have cared if they just liked each other. But there is love and against that, I can't even compete. Now Jacen is getting what he always wanted, a family. And I need to move on, and God knows I'm not going to do that here."
Sean put his arm around his cousin, he knew how much this hurt Elena. She had loved Jacen for as long as anyone could remember. But Jacen had never loved her back, not really. And everyone had knew it, everyone but Elena. Love - even unrequired love - can certainly blind people to reality.
End of chap 8
Author's Notes:
Sorry about the lameness of this chapter, I was very high no flue meds. That's part of the reason of te delay, I came down with the flu and then my hamster died and... well, I'm just babbleling.
I don't know if I make a next chapter, it depends.
Meanwhile this is in what I've been working in my sick bed for when I finish with this one. There were a lot of ideas and parts that I thought for this story but didn't made the final cut, so I started to create a new character and took the parts that I didn't use and started to shape them around this new person.
I'm going to take a page out of Meg Cabot's book and write top ten lists:
Meet Kaze Lithe: Her life is a complex web of lies.
Top then Reasons why Kaze's Life is Over:
10.- She is the youngest princess of the Lithe
9.- Her perfect older sister is getting married
8.- With the guy Kaze dated in secret for almost two years.
7.- Got her heart broken buy his soon to be brother in law
6.- Now her parents want her to marry too, to the ugliest- but richiest - of gits
5.- So she had to run away from home with the guards at her back trying to hunt her down.
4.- She landed on the Windam Valley court faking to be a boy so no one would go looking for her there
3.- Got a job as part of the king's ward and on the first day on the job she held a sword to her new employer's throat -The king
2.- Now she is the king's personal guard
And the Number One reason why Kaze Lithe's Life is Over with capital O:
1.- She met the guy af her dreams six seconds after swearing out of love.
Right now is just a bunch of rubish but I'll keep wprkng.
Ok, now the tanks:
Phillippa of the Phoenix: Yeah, I love that part too.
Nosilla: You didn't bug me, sorry it took this long to update
DH L'Orange : Yeah, Jacen is pretty decent
Steph: Thanks
Glistening Dewdrop: Thanks
SukiYumi: Sorry it took this long. and yes, I know summer school.
e: Long time no see, thanks for the review
belle: He isn't that bad
Monalex Potter: Gracias, como siempre, te digo que no es tan malo
nona: Thanks, I know it isn't extrictly a fairy tale.
One Who Reviews: Thanks, cuteness is one of my favorite things.
Well, gotta go before my mom gets home, is two in the afternoon here and I'm still on my pj's
Tell me if you want another chapter, that would be the end.
Oh, and thanks to Krissy, my lovely beta.
R/R
Bye!