Just a filler chapter... Some of you may know this chapter as I've posted it before as part of the epilogue for "Pinch me, I must be dreaming". I changed the ending a bit though.
I decided to include it here as well because it's what sparked the whole idea for this story.
XX
February 11, 2018 ~ a beach somewhere in the south of Aruba
Hanna and Caleb were sitting together on a sun lounger, one behind the other, relaxing and watching the people around them.
"Come on, Hanna. Mr. Muscles. I was watching him." Caleb scoffed at Hanna after another attractive dude had walked past them. In Caleb's mind he had walked by undressing Hanna with his eyes – something he wasn't going to sweep under the mat just like that.
"What about him?" Hanna said, somewhat defensively.
"He was hitting on you," he explained, but not without a slightly amused undertone in his voice.
"Was not," she said, but she sounded a touch guilty. Caleb smiled and settled his chin familiarly into the dip of her shoulder, where it fitted comfortably enough to have had him wondering in the past if it had been tailor made for this purpose.
"Was too. Don't pretend you didn't notice. I mean," he added as she shifted uncomfortably, "look at it from my point of view." He traced a path of small caresses along the side of her throat and then breathed huskily in her ear, "Here I am with my incredibly sexy wife…" She smiled slightly. "You've had the eyes of every guy within a mile radius on you since you stepped into that pool wearing this on our very first day here."
His eyes traveled over her body, adoring once more her turquoise bikini that hugged her breasts and hips like a second skin. He tugged at its spaghetti strap briefly in emphasis.
"That's not true," Hanna said, but she suddenly looked very pleased with herself.
"I've been the envy of every single one of them," Caleb concluded with a dramatic, soulful sigh as he returned his chin to its perch.
Hanna sniffed but it sounded rather half-hearted. Caleb smiled as he set his lips to the satin skin of her shoulder, inhaling her 'vacation scent', the mixture of sunscreen and Mojito breath. She chuckled.
Caleb came out of his reverie with a frown. "What's so funny?"
"You. The thought of you being all protective and jealous while at the same time secretly enjoying the whole scenario."
"I am not!"
"Are too."
"Am not!" He insisted indignantly and Hanna turned her head to glare at him. They smiled at each other before his arms tightened, holding her steady against his solid chest, unawares emphasizing her point.
Feeling too hot to raise the energy needed to keep up her teasing act, Hanna decided to content herself with not having had the last word for once.
Caleb, having made his point, only smiled lazily.
"Aren't you supposed to be doing something with that lotion?" Hanna demanded testily.
"I can think of lots of things to do with this lotion," he answered, planting a rough kiss at the base of her right ear and moving his head to set another one beneath the left.
"Caleb…!"
He grinned at the exasperation in her voice and faked a put upon sigh. "Okay," he conceded. "It's a dirty job but somebody's gotta do it."
He reached for the bottle of sunscreen and straightened behind her. Loading up with the creamy lotion, he set the bottle aside and took hold of her shoulders, flexing his fingers strongly against her skin.
After a moment, Hanna took the bottle and emptied a little dab of lotion into her hands. She began to apply it to her upper chest area with soft strokes of her fingertips.
The hands at her shoulders stopped their ministrations. Hanna sighed and tipped her head back onto the shoulder behind her, a move which arched her back and thrust her breasts pertly upwards, giving her husband a long and lengthy view to where her fingers were dipping lower to apply lotion to the swell of flesh just above the line of turquoise cotton.
"Hey," Caleb protested, somewhat hoarsely, as he reached for the offending hand and tugged it clear. "Stop spoiling the perks of this job."
She grinned as he took over the task and settled back with a small sigh of contentment. She closed her eyes, savoring the light strokes of his fingers against her skin as he massaged the lotion into the tops of her breasts, applying himself to the chore diligently.
The heat of the sun overhead and the soothing, caressing circles being traced on her skin let her drift. Her thoughts began to wistfully consider how those stroking fingers would feel against her skin if they moved just a little lower when she came to with a start, confused as she felt Caleb's hands slide between the cotton lining of her top and her skin to lightly cradle her breasts. He squeezed gently as his breath flooded warmth against her neck. He kissed her jaw softly and dipped his head lower to stroke the sensitive skin in the hollow of her shoulder.
Her muzziness swiftly leaving her, Hanna squirmed slightly and raised her head to scan the area around them. She must have been asleep at least a time because the sun had shifted subtly overhead and the beach was deserted. A cooling breeze had begun to flutter in the sunshades along the waterfront.
"Caleb?" Came her concerned voice as she realized what he was doing.
"Hmmmmm?" Caleb hummed, kind of absentmindedly.
"Baby?"
"It's okay," he murmured into her ear, accurately sensing the cause of her concern. "We're on our own. They called dinner ten minutes ago. Everyone else went inside." His hands continued to knead her breasts fitted into his palms and his thumbs skimmed across her nipples, bringing them into sudden, taut life.
Hanna leaned back again and allowed herself to relax against his chest.
"And I guess you want to get inside, too," she murmured wickedly.
"Oh yeah," Caleb agreed, tightening his grip and then removing his hands. He ignored her soft protest as he let them smooth a path across her shoulders, drawing the thin straps of the bikini with them until they dangled loose against her upper arms. He used the grip on her arms to turn her around to face him. He was straddling the lounger now. He positioned her between his legs, his knees pressing firmly against her thighs as she settled back on her heels.
Hanna reached out to ease the sunglasses from his face, discarding them on the small table between the loungers and then directed a sultry smile up into the warm hazel eyes gazing down at her. She watched interestedly as he bent his head to press his lips to her cleavage. He let them trail downwards with tantalizing slowness, bathing her oily skin with feathered caresses until he reached cotton. He nudged the edge of her top downwards with his chin and followed it with his mouth.
Her eyes dilated, her breath rising in her throat as watching him pleasure both himself and her in his lazy exploration began to settle a heavy, liquid warmth deep in her belly. "You know…" she observed, slightly huskily, "I've noticed…" she paused, breath catching hard as his teeth closed over one taut nipple and squeezed delicately and her words deserting her. She moaned quietly, closing her eyes as her hands lifted to his shoulders and began to play across the bunching muscles.
Caleb's soft, enticing tugging at the center of her breast paused finally and he released her, letting the tip of his tongue dart out to play briefly against her reddened skin before he murmured absently, "You noticed…?"
"Mmmmhh. What?"
Hanna roused herself with a frown, opening her eyes to look down at him, and lifted one hand from his shoulder to place it on the back of his head, firmly pressing it back down against the breast he'd just abandoned.
"You noticed," he prompted again as he obeyed that silent command and went back to teasing at her nipple with short, vigorous little nips of his teeth.
"Huh… oh… yes, yes, I noticed… aaaah..." She shuddered, her eyes opening momentarily wide and then dropped her head, losing her train of thought again as she followed his movements against her breast with fascination and some awe. What had she been saying? Oh yes, "Yes, I noticed that there seem to be… there… there… certain… certain areas you cover more than most. In this lotioning thing," she added after a breathy pause.
She felt him smile against her skin, even as she saw the tips of his mouth crinkle upwards around the dark bud he was nuzzling. "Well, your husband likes to be thorough." The tip of his tongue proved his point by dipping out suddenly to flick across the hard, aching tip of her breast and Hanna jerked slightly, closing her eyes again as her head fell back, her lips parting and her breath reduced to quick, shallow gasps.
Caleb rose up onto his knees to place a kiss in the center of her throat and then fastened his mouth on hers in a vigorous melding of their lips. His tongue pushed into the hot, moist cavity of her mouth, dipping into all the hollows and ridges that he already knew so well. He felt her sigh fill his own mouth warmly as her tongue tangled with his and conducted its own, eager exploration. His hands played with her breasts, his fingers enclosing her nipples, rolling and pinching and then soothing them with soft fluttering touches as he responded to her quick, muted cries of pleasure and encouragement.
Then he tore his mouth from hers. Hanna followed his movement in a blind quest to recover his lips before she realized that he had drawn away from her. She opened her eyes, blinking hazily and then focused on him with a frown. A frown that cleared as she caught on to why he had stopped his ministrations on her.
He glanced at her and motioned his head toward the palm-shrouded entrance of the hotel complex.
An elderly couple emerged, arm in arm and engaged in animated conversation. Hanna couldn't resist a downward glance at herself and was relieved to note that everything was in place and as it should be.
There were only a few yards separating them from the couple now as they began to walk towards them before turning onto the winding path that would take them down into the nearby village. The elderly man put a hand against his wife's elbow, steering her to the path edge and away from its slightly uneven center. Hanna smiled at his attentiveness.
Her own, adoring other half turned her gently into the encircling support of his arm and engaged her lips with his own in a caress that was passionate, but more sedate than the one they had been sharing a moment earlier.
"Maybe we could find us a spot a little less in plain view," he murmured huskily when their lips parted, shifting slightly to brush his light stubble against her cheek. "Let's check the dunes over there." He pointed to a stretch of land further south on the beach.
"Oh." Hanna breathed back at him from her position laid back against his arm, suddenly aroused by the idea they were about to break the law.
The very air between them seemed suddenly charged, like the taste of ozone before a summer storm, and, looking up tentatively into Caleb's eyes, she saw that he was aware of that sea change too.
He shifted, imperceptibly, a move that brought them into contact in a hundred different places and Hanna, aware of every one, stifled a low moan as she felt that connection sear her.
At that moment, she couldn't have cared less if the entire New York Knicks basketball team had come spilling out of the hotel, knowing she would surrender to him in a heartbeat, no matter where or how he chose to take her.
A slow smile began to form on Caleb's face as though he was well aware of her thoughts. It dizzied her, seeing that stark, almost feral reflection of her own lust and desire transfigured in his eyes.
He got up from his lounger, gently pulling her up, too. They grabbed their towels and started strolling through the sand, both keeping an eye out to find a more secluded spot between rocks and dunes separating the even stretch of fine white sandy beach from the boondocks.
They didn't have to walk far as they soon reached a wooden, weather-worn sign on a pole, prohibiting trespassing of a natural reserve for waterbirds during hatching season. Protected from view behind an assemblage of boulders, Hanna and Caleb unfurled their towels in the soft sand before plunking themselves down on them. Wasting no time, they stretched out and Caleb propped himself up on his elbow to let his hands take the tactually scenic tour of her body.
His fingers reached her hip and he let them play idly against her bikini panties. One finger followed the line where cotton and smooth skin met before he pushed it down and under to caress her hip bone and the beginnings of her rounded butt.
Hanna squirmed slightly and placed her hands on his tan, well-defined chest, drawing the warmth from his skin into her fingers as she slid them in light circles across his muscles. "That tickles." She suddenly shrieked when Caleb had obviously reached a more sensitive spot on her skin.
He smiled but didn't stop, though he did shift direction slightly, which made her squirm more. And not specifically because it tickled, Caleb thought with a grin.
"We are so going to get busted." Hanna gasped out, desperately trying to keep her mind from the slow, meandering path his finger was taking as it stroked seductively back and forth, up and down the crease of her thigh. Now and then it would brush lightly against the edge of her folds, just out of its reach and she would still, holding her breath, until it continued its stroking route.
"Hmmmm?" Caleb had been watching the movements of his fingers beneath the cotton and had only half listened to what she had said. Now he looked up and Hanna caught her breath again at the look of smoldering desire filling his warm brown eyes. "We're gonna get caught," she told him.
"No, we're not. Not if we make it quick." He grinned at her mischievously.
Hanna barely heard the words as his fingers traveled southwards.
Suddenly, Caleb raised his other hand to cup her cheek as he watched that heat flare in her eyes. "You're easily the most beautiful woman on this island," he murmured, rubbing a slow, seductive thumb across her lips and continuing to graze the tips of his fingers over her folds.
"Oh, I don't know," Hanna laughed somewhat shakily. She swallowed roughly through the sudden constriction in her throat and the inexplicable rise of tears in her eyes. She blinked them back savagely. "Well, there's that topless beach on the east side." She suggested vaguely.
Caleb let a flicker of a smile lighten the fierce need clenched in his face as he argued. "Some women don't have to advertise." His mouth finally did what her eyes had been begging it to and closed passionately over her own.
Hanna felt herself drowning, dissolving into a backwash of sensation and heat and desire as his tongue wound itself into her mouth, gently at first but then with fervor.
She let her own hands reach for his trunks, feeling for the prominent bulge she knew had to be there already, sensing his state of need by the way he pressed his upper body down against hers. Caleb inched closer, making her efforts to feel for his arousal seem futile as she could feel him now, right there grinding himself against her thigh.
His hand rose to cup her breast, pushing the turquoise barrier aside. Her body molded itself to his exploring hands, to his slightest touch, wherever he made the sensual contact.
Caleb's lips were traveling again, following the drumming beat of her heart up along the tendons of her throat and for a split second, thoughts of privacy began to brighten in her head before conscious thought eventually left her.
"C-Caleb…" she gasped and he shifted, lips trailing heat across her brow and cheek, against her temple as he moved to lie on top of her, trapping her beneath his body. Still supporting his weight on his elbows, he brought up his hands to frame her face tight as he planted a line of those hot, open-mouthed kisses on her forehead and the tip of her nose.
The glow in her eyes seared him. "You know if you'd rather leave and go to our room...," he said, the words emerging from deep in his chest, thick with passion and barely more than a breathless growl.
"I want to sleep with you, here and now." Came her husky response as she moved her arms around his waist, fumbling to remove his swim trunks.
He tugged her towards his lips, kissed her quickly, fiercely, as though he couldn't long stay away from their glistening lure and then raised his head again, "You sure?"
She nodded her head faintly against the hands holding her firm, but Caleb seemed either disinterested in her response or to have forgotten the question because he was kissing her again and his hands slipped down to her throat, and then to her shoulders. Entwined, they rolled onto their sides, and Caleb's free arm eased its way quickly along her shoulder blades and down her spine until his exploring hand splayed itself against her bottom.
Using it as leverage, he pushed her upward as he rolled them over until Hanna lay atop of him. He effortlessly managed to open the clasp of her bikini top with one hand while pushing her head down against his with the other. He let go of her hair so that Hanna could push herself up which allowed for her bikini to fall from her shoulders.
Caleb instantly raised his head to close his mouth over her puckering nipples.
Hanna cried piteously into his mouth, her hips circling frantically against his touch as he clenched his fingers gently around her butt cheeks beneath the fabric of her panties.
Next, Caleb gently rolled them over again until Hanna came lying flat on her back again. If they were about to have sex in public, he wanted to make sure that should they get busted, it would be because of his naked body moving on prohibited ground in plain view, not hers.
Before long, he shifted to straddle her, allowing himself a short moment to take in the beauty of her nude torso.
Taking a deep breath, he reminded himself yet again that the woman beneath him was now his to look at for the rest of his life… The only woman he could ever imagine growing old with.
He placed his hands on her chest, the way she had done it a million times before when she was in control. He felt her stiff peaks rub against his palms… felt her heart beating fast against her ribcage… he saw her glazed eyes looking up at him full of anticipation… saw her slightly parted lips. And by the way her breathing came labored and at increasing speed, he knew she was ready.
Hanna had the dim impression of time moving, of air stirring in the grasses and shrubs around them, of voices, muted by distance and barely heard and Caleb's lips on her skin as her world narrowed until there was nothing but the sound of her own heart thundering in her ears and above it the steady, storming beat of his.
And then Caleb grunted sharply as he lowered his body closer to her. He planted his hands on the towel, on either side of her shoulders. Supporting himself on his arms, he eased himself slightly clear of her, breathing laboredly, chest heaving as he stared down into her face.
She remained still for a moment, eyes closed, chin tilted upward, lips softly parted, glistening slickly in the faint light of the sunset. With a hand that trembled slightly, Caleb grazed his thumb across their swollen surface. Her eyelids fluttered open again to check why he was hesitating.
"Hanna…" he said softly, his dark eyes shining down on her full of love.
She wrapped her arms around his neck delightedly as she felt his weight trap her, pushing her down deep into the malleable surface. She drew his face down to where she could dart quick, passionate kisses across its handsome features.
Her hands raked downward across his spine, skimmed across the hollow of his back, feeling the muscles bunch and flex strongly beneath her fingers until she found her way to the line of his cotton trunks. She pushed the swimwear down off of his taut buttocks and onto his thighs.
Caleb rolled from her and onto his side, panting harshly as he stripped off the restricting piece of clothing with a few swift movements. The pulsing length of his erection sprang free, and Hanna immediately reached for it to pump up and down.
Their mouths clasped and unclasped as they traded quick, restless breaths.
Caleb groaned as his hips rose, without conscious thought, pushing his length hard against the damp patch of cotton between her legs, rubbing and stroking against her heated core as they rocked in a slow, erotic dance, their rhythm picked up and driven by the drumming, overlapping beat of their hearts.
Hanna closed her eyes, moaning softly, and opened them as she felt his hand dip below the fabric of her panties, shoving it aside before he placed the tip of his penis at her entrance, waiting for a sign from her that she was really ready to do this. A single word, a single gesture of disapproval and he would have stopped and hastily grabbed her by the hand to run back to their hotel room at a record speed.
When all she did was moan and whimper at the feeling of his erection rubbing against her most sensitive area, Caleb entered her in one swift movement.
She was spreading herself wide as his fingers gripped her thighs and pushed them apart. He raised himself slightly, looming over her, blocking out the remaining orange light of the sun that flared at the horizon and then he was sheathing himself deep inside her, filling her almost to the hilt.
She was hot and welcoming. She arched her back deeply, her thighs gripping his in a tight pinch as he slid deeper inside of her.
A sharp, mewling rose from Hanna's throat as he kept thrusting in and pulling out of her, expertly and knowingly changing angle and pace as to hit just the right spots to drive her crazy, yet doing it so rapidly that she was kept on the rising cusp of her desire, never allowed to struggle over its edge until her gasps for breath came frantic.
She shuddered and wriggled, forcing herself against him, clutching him deeper within as she wrapped her long legs around his waist. Caleb began a hard, strong rhythm, thrusting and withdrawing, burying himself in her as all conscious thought left him.
Hanna cried out sharply, her hands moving restlessly against his shoulders as her hips bucked upwards to meet the vigorous strokes that slammed her back, over and over, into the soft sand beneath her.
The sensuous, circling movements of her hips spurred Caleb on, his thrusts becoming rougher as he instinctively sensed her frustration and need, her desire for something more than a gentle pleasuring of her body.
Caleb felt a familiar tingling at the base of his spine and in that instant, his thoughts completely focused on the feel of Hanna moving against and around him. A few seconds later, all those sensations seemed to converge into a single area of contact and, with a series of loud groans, he emptied himself into her.
When she became aware of the world again she opened her eyes to find the sun was sinking rapidly now and the air growing slightly chill on her heated skin. Her hands drifted lazily through the soft silk of Caleb's hair.
He was laying sprawled in spent abandon against her breasts and between her thighs, his face buried loose in the curve of her shoulder. His breathing was light and steady, his heart a sated, even beat and she might have thought he'd drifted into sleep if he hadn't moved suddenly to nuzzle lightly at her throat.
"It's getting cold," he said, rubbing the tip of his nose affectionately along her jawline and then planting a solemn kiss against her cheek. "We should go back inside. Aren't you hungry?" he asked, hoping she'd say yes so he could feed his starving stomach something, too.
Hanna slipped her arms around his neck again, tightening her hold. "It'll be okay for a while."
He gave in and settled onto his back in the cooling sand, wrapping her in his arms and pulling her gently onto his chest. Hanna settled herself in her favorite position, molding herself to his side and entwining her legs in his. Their contented sighs sounded in the stillness that covered them like a blanket.
They lay there for a few more minutes, fingers exploring lazy paths across a hip, a thigh, tracing languid circles against chest or arm, as the wind kept breezing through the shrubs surrounding them.
When the deep red of the sun had disappeared beyond the horizon, Caleb scrambled to get up and put his swim trunks back on. He helped her put her bikini top back on while she was trying to wipe off the crust of sand on her arms that the fresh layer of sunscreen had caused earlier.
Arm in arm, they walked back to the hotel and up to their honeymoon suite, where they both disappeared inside the shower large enough for two people in love, washing residue of lotion and sand off their skin with a slightly guilty conscience on their minds…
XX
A sigh slipped from Hanna's lips at the memory of that steamy adventure. It had been the wildest and uninhibited moment in their relationship. And now it would forever hold another meaning. With the help of the pregnancy tracker app she had been able to backtrack the conception date, which meant she now knew when their baby was due to arrive, and that made her smile even more.
She looked at the piece of plastic in her hand. In a matter of seconds, her life had changed. When she really thought about it… it was always about the little seconds. Just like it had only taken her a few seconds to scribble down her address on a scrap of paper which had brought Caleb to her house and eventually into her heart more than eight years ago.
Slowly, she got off the bed and crossed the room. She opened the sliding doors of their closet and got out her memory box from its hiding place. In the past weeks, she had been adding things to it on an almost daily basis from all the new memories she was making with Caleb in their rekindled relationship that, meanwhile, had culminated in their marriage.
She hadn't expected this pregnancy to happen so soon but she had been wondering in the past days why she had been so emotional just about everything and why the heck the smell of coffee was suddenly causing her to gag. But what was missing out on her daily fix of caffeine compared to holding a healthy baby girl or boy in her arms in a little more than eight months… She was willing to sacrifice whatever it took to make that happen.
Hanna reached for the item meant to find a new home inside the box: the positive pregnancy test that she had taken first this morning with trembling hands after returning home from her hasty run to the drugstore.
She put the stick on top of everything else in the box. When she was about to put the lid back on, her eyes caught a glimpse of the small black item stored inside a translucent plastic bag in one corner of the box.
And suddenly, Hanna knew exactly how she wanted to tell Caleb the news that he was going to be a dad. She couldn't wait to see his reaction. She was sure that this time, it would be him asking her for a pinch in the morning.
to be continued…
Chapter 10 coming soon... Stay tuned. XO, Zip
