:Chapter 27:
"Jesse" she giggled happily as I carried her through the front door, "I can walk you know."
"Querida, have you ever known me to pass up an excuse to carry you around?" I asked, as I shut the door behind us. I walked toward the stairs and shrugged Susannah's overnight bag off my shoulder and let it fall to the floor before hurrying up the stairs. Susannah laughed excitedly the entire way, only stopping once I'd laid her down on our bed. We then kicked off our shoes and I leaned over Susannah, trailing kisses from her lips down.
"Jesse" she sighed contently as I kissed her neck, "I feel all gross, let me shower first."
I groaned in protest, but got a better idea and lifted her into my arms once again. I carried her into the bathroom, and set her down on the counter. "Don't move" I instructed her before running over to the shower and turning on the water.
"What are you doing?" Susannah asked with a smile, swinging her legs back and forth.
"You'll see" I replied with a mischievous smile before I ran back towards Susannah, and went back to kissing her neck, then working my way up to her lips.
As the kiss deepened, Susannah quickly lifted my t-shirt over my head, while I unbuttoned her blouse. Once both our shirts were off, I removed Susannah's bra and she peeled my undershirt off me.
"Come on, we're wasting water" Susannah said with a smile as she unbuttoned and unzipped my pants. I quickly undid her pants and lifted her up so I could tug them off of her. I lifted her again to remove her panties and she pulled down my boxers. Her legs wrapped around me as I stepped out of my pants and boxers, walking towards the shower.
Once inside, I moved us both under the cascade of hot water and let it rinse over us as we continued to kiss. "Jesse" Susannah panted, as I held her up with one hand and gently massaged her breast with my other. A few minutes later she whined, her legs tightening around me. "Jesse, enough, I'm more than ready." After having figured I'd tortured her enough, I positioned us right and eased into Susannah. I walked forward and positioned her back against the wall, as we both panted and moaned.
After we'd both come, I rested my forehead against Susannah's, both of us trying to catch our breath.
"We hadn't had sex in here in a while" Susannah sighed, brushing some hair back from my face. "I know, we should try it more often" I replied giving her a not-so-brief peck. Carefully Susannah, unwrapped her legs from around my waist, and I let her slide off of me.
We both exited the shower, after having helped wash each other, which led to more shower sex. I helped Susannah dry off, as she did the same to me. Once we were both sufficiently toweled off, I grabbed Susannah and threw her over my shoulder, carrying her fireman style back to our bedroom.
"And just what do you think you're doing?" Susannah laughed before I plopped her down onto our bed.
"I'm helping you accomplish your list of very important things to do once you get home. I believe shower has been checked off, and now we're on to the part where you make love to your husband, multiple times" I answered, climbing on top of her.
"Ah, yes" she said before flipping us over so she was on top, "how kind of you to help."
"I try my best" I chuckled.
&&&
I awoke with a start, feeling slightly panicked. I looked down and noticed that Susannah wasn't curled up next to me as she had been when I'd fallen asleep. I looked at the space next to me in bed and saw that she wasn't there either. I looked over to the bathroom, but no light peeked out from under the door.
Now I was worried. It wasn't like Susannah to just get up in the middle of night. I quickly got out of bed and pulled on some boxers, before searching the rest of our second floor.
She wasn't in the study, she wasn't in either of the guestrooms or their bathrooms, and she wasn't in her office.
I practically ran down the stairs, rushing through the living room, dining room, kitchen, and then I finally reached the family room. There sitting on the window seat, she'd insisted we have built in, was Susannah. She had her silk robe pulled around her snugly and her legs stretched out in front of her, a steaming mug of berry smelling tea beside her. One of her hands lay at her side, while the other protectively wrapped around her stomach. She sat looking out the window, whispering something. I walked closer and heard what she was saying, causing the silliest grin to appear on my face. "…he used sit on one just like this in my room. And he would always be reading or looking out at the stars, his eyes full of intelligence. That's another thing I hope you guys get from your dad, his smarts. May God help you if get stuck with my IQ. My fashion sense though, that you two should be hoping for. You know, I hope you guys look like Jesse. I mean, if you don't look like me. But if either of you has his chocolate brown eyes, or dark hair, I'd love that. So would your dad, I think he'd like that too." She went silent for a moment before rubbing her stomach affectionately, a smile coming to her face.
"Querida" I whispered, "what are doing down her in the dark?"
She turned her head at the sound of my voice and got up. "I couldn't sleep. What are you doing up? Did I wake you?" she asked, walking over to me.
"No, I just got a bad feeling and woke up. And you weren't there so I got worried and then I couldn't find you, so I started getting all panicky" I admitted.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to worry you" she replied, grabbing hold of my hand.
"What were you doing, anyway?" I questioned, bring her hand up to my lips and kissing the back of it.
"Talking to the twins. I told them about the day we met, and a lot the stuff we've gone through."
"Really? What did you tell them?" I asked.
"Well I started at the day we met and stopped after I described how you were brought back to life. After that my mind sort of wandered and I drifted back into little details" she answered.
"We're going to have a heck of time explaining to them what happened when they get older" I said.
"Yeah, but we could turn it into a bedtime story sort of thing, then just say 'hey remember that story we told you, yeah that was actually what happened to mommy and daddy."
"Daddy" I repeated, amazed that in just a few months there would two children who could call me that.
"Yeah" Susannah said with a smile. "Weird isn't it? We've been talking about having kids practically since we got married, and now that it's actually happening, everything seems so scary and exciting."
I kissed the top of her head gently, grabbed her mug of tea, and led her back towards the stairs. "Come on querida, its late, and you need your rest. Besides tomorrow is Monday, and some of us have to go to work."
"It's not my fault you're not a designer and can't work from home" she replied, sticking her tongue out at me.
I laughed and pulled her along after me. "True. When do you have to submit your new line by?"
"I have to have the handbag collection in by next Friday but they don't need my clothing line for another two weeks. Which is really good, because I only have a couple sketches done" she answered with a laugh as we reached our bedroom.
"You should see if they'll let you design some maternity clothes querida, I'm sure you could come up with some nice stuff. Besides you know tons of people would buy it" I suggested.
"Maybe, I'll have to ask Marvin about it, see if the stores would even buy the clothes" she said, climbing back into bed.
"Querida, your line is the top selling brand at Macys, Nordstrom, JC Penny's, and Dillard's. They would be foolish not to sell your clothes. Although I still don't see why you don't open your own chain of stores, we have more than enough to open at least a few" I pointed out.
"Yeah but that would just be a lot more stressful, besides this way I don't have to worry about advertisement, because the stores take care of that. I don't want to have to worry about paying this and that bill to so and so for whatever. I like the arrangement now; I design, help with some the productions, mess with some advertising, and then I get to sit back and let the people shop. If I were to open my own chain, it'd be a lot more time to put into it, and now with the twins on the way, I can't deal with having to be away from home and haggling with people" she explained as I laid down beside her. She rested her head on my chest and curled up next to me, letting me wrap my arms around her.
"I will ask Marvin about the maternity clothes though" she sighed lazily running her fingers over my stomach and chest.
"Marvin?" I asked, "What happened to Fran?"
"Fran retired, remember, I went to her party last month" she answered.
"I don't remember her party" I said, trying to remember.
"That's cause you didn't go. I took Cee with me cause you couldn't get out of working late" she yawned.
"So who's this Marvin guy?" I questioned.
"He's actually Fran's nephew" she said, "he's the sweetest guy, and he's all nervous cause this is his first real job experience. He graduated first in his class from Stanford. He's the guy who gave me the Stanford sweatshirt."
"And he's handling all your stuff now?" I asked.
"Yeah, Fran recommended him and she trained him herself. He's great, very straightforward, doesn't sugarcoat stuff. And he's so funny. I swear if I had anyone to set him up with I would, cause he'd make quite a catch" she gushed.
"Really?" I asked, trying not to show the tinge of jealously that I was feeling towards this man.
"Definitely" she assured me, "he's gonna make some guy so happy some day."
"Guy?" I questioned.
"Yeah, he's gay. Why? Were you getting all jealous about him?" she questioned, looking up to my face.
"No…" I lied, "okay, yes. But just a little."
She laughed and pecked my lips before settling her head back against my chest. "Go to sleep Jesse, and don't wake me up in the morning. I need my rest" she teased.
I laughed and planted a kiss atop her head, pulling her closer to me, before feeling my eyelids droop down.
For some reason I dreamt about younger versions of Susannah and I visiting us while we slept. They kept going on and on about the best way to switch us. Susannah must have been dreaming the same thing because I could sense her fear.
The younger versions of us were arguing about how much we should remember and then finally decided that we shouldn't remember anything and start out fresh. That didn't sound too good, but I figured, it's just a dream, relax it will be over soon. But I got a feeling this wasn't a dream, so I mentally told Susannah, "Querida, I don't know what's going on but if for some reason we really don't remember this or anything, just know I will find you. Not matter what, I will find you."
She mentally replied "I love you", before lifting her head up and pressing her lips to my own. I relished the feel of her lips, wondering if it would be the last time that I would ever get to savor her kiss.
And then I couldn't feel anything any more. Everything was dark, and my mind went blank.