An Act of Persuasion(75)

Before the cancer, he had been a man who always looked ten years younger than he was. Now, as he recovered, she could see he was returning to form.

She remembered a time during the first days of his treatment when the impact of the chemo started to make itself known. She’d been kneeling beside him in the bathroom while he’d retched for what felt like hours but was really only minutes. When his stomach finally stopped heaving, he looked at her and she saw the fury in his expression. That his body had betrayed him, that it had brought him to his knees in front of her, his assistant. She remembered thinking that if his cancer was a man, Ben would have killed him.

Now, he stood in front of her naked, proud and strong. Like a warrior, he’d fought with everything he had. Ben was a man who vanquished his enemy, he never surrendered.

She should have had more faith in him. When he told her his plan to have the embryonic stem cell transplant, she should have believed more in the power of the man to overcome death. Instead, she’d run scared.

She wondered if he would ever truly forgive her for that. She could see now why he’d been so hurt. It wasn’t only that she’d left him, it was also that she hadn’t believed in him.

She should have. She should have believed more in Ben than in the cancer.

“You’re beautiful,” she whispered. Her very own original work of art.

“Men aren’t beautiful.” He ran his fingers softly over her cheek. “Your turn.”

Anna squirmed a bit under his gaze. Now was the time of reckoning. She stood and kicked off her flip-flops. She took off the oversize T-shirt she’d bought as a transitional maternity top.

Her boobs seemed to pop out and instantly his hands cupped them. “Wow. They’re huge.”

Anna grumbled. “They’re bigger, they’re not huge.”

“Anna, we’re talking grapefruits on their way to becoming small cantaloupes.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and instantly he recanted.

“You’re right. They’re barely there. I can hardly see them. It’s probably the bra.”

“You’re not making this any easier,” she said tightly. “This is the first time someone is seeing me naked and pregnant. Where before I was only...you know, naked.”

“I loved you naked. And I’m really liking the start of you pregnant and naked.” He pulled her hands away then slid his hands around her back to unhook the bra. It released its precious weight and slid off her body. The skirt she wore was a stretchy black cotton thing that clung to the belly she no longer could hide from him.

“I can’t wait to get my hands on this,” he said, pressing his palm to the bulge of her pregnancy. “I didn’t think it would be such a turn-on, but—” He slid his hands inside the skirt and her panties and started to push them down her legs in one inexorable motion until they drooped around her ankles and she kicked them loose.

He fell to his knees and rested his face on her belly. She could feel the scratch of his late-afternoon beard, but it didn’t bother her. In fact, it made her think of other places on her body where she would like to feel his cheek.

Sitting back on his haunches, he ran his hands over her bump, as if memorizing each curve, each ripple. He was totally entranced by her body.

There had been no reason for her to be nervous.

“Who would have thunk, Ben has a fetish for pregnant women.”

“I have a fetish for you. Seeing you like this, knowing it’s my child inside you... I never thought... I never thought I would have this moment in my life. Thank you.”

The sincerity in his eyes made her slightly uncomfortable. She knew she’d been ready to take their relationship to this place for a little while, but, for the first time, Anna considered how this would change things between them.

Adding sex to the mix would only make the intimacy grow and deepen. She would have to give more and more of herself to him and she would expect more and more of him in return. Only she didn’t know if he had more to give her. It was a big risk for her. Because she didn’t know what would happen after this night. But she sensed—no, worried, deep within—that she would need him even more.

He stood and nudged her gently onto the bed. She thought about where he might like to be touched and what she should do next, but he didn’t give her much chance to act. With his legs between hers he spread her thighs wide then he bent over her to kiss her mouth, plunging his tongue deep inside her as if he were announcing this kiss as something different. This wasn’t a kiss to claim, or a kiss because it was all she would allow. This kiss was the beginning of sex.