Authors: Marla Monroe
Clothes. She needed to dress. She wasn’t having this conversation nude. The men watched her as she grabbed shorts and a tank top after pulling on underwear. She didn’t bother with a bra. When they didn’t move from where they were, she ran her hands through her hair and sat in the chair next to the bed.
“What’s going on?”
They adjusted their positions so they could both face her. Neither man spoke at first. Finally Caleb drew in a deep breath and started talking. He didn’t look at her as he told her about the cell or whatever it was that was probably in her bloodstream now thanks to the muskie attacking her. He explained that, more than likely, they would all have it soon anyway from eating the food grown there, just that she would probably have more of it.
“They don’t know much about it right now. They think it helps protect you from a lot of sickness, but they really don’t know.”
She listened as he continued. She had already figured she might have something left over from the creature inside of her. Now that he said they all would have it eventually, she wasn’t sure what the problem was. Then he started talking about Rachel’s little girl. The more he talked, the sicker she felt. Her own ears began to ring.
“We’ve talked to several different people with children, and they all say the same things. They grow faster, mature quicker, and seem really intelligent for their age.”
“What aren’t you saying, Caleb?” she finally asked.
“No one knows what the future will show. How long will they live? Will they grow old faster or live longer? We just don’t know what to expect,” he said.
She looked over at Jeff and saw pain and uncertainty in his eyes. He was always so positive and laid-back where Caleb was always in control and ready to take the lead. Now both men appeared somehow broken. It scared her even more than knowing something foreign was inside of her body. They were her rock in this strange world.
Still, there was more. She could sense it.
“And?”
Caleb and Jeff exchanged glances. She waited. Neither man seemed willing to be the one to say it out loud. Finally Jeff jerked off the bed and stalked over to the window, his back to her.
“You’re pregnant.” He spoke so quietly she nearly missed it.
“How do you know?” she asked staring at his back.
“Pregnancy tests are kept in the first aid boxes since we’re so far out from the city,” Caleb said. “We did one of the tests while you were still in and out of it. It was after we had talked to Danny and Andrew about their little girl.”
Beverly just sat there. She didn’t say anything. What could she say? They had already decided that her being pregnant was a bad thing. Nothing had prepared her for this. Yes, knowing that her baby would probably be different scared the bejesus out of her, but was it really that much different than if she had found out her baby would be blind or have Down’s syndrome? Were they saying they couldn’t love it anyway? How could they do that?
She stood up and started walking toward the door. Caleb jumped up and blocked her path.
“Where are you going?”
“Downstairs. I need something to drink.” She tried to walk around him, but he grasped her shoulder.
“It’s a mess down there. The couch is ruined.”
“I don’t have to sit in the living room. I’ll sit in the kitchen. Let go of me, Caleb.”
He removed his hand and stepped to the side. Beverly stepped out into the hall and walked downstairs to the kitchen without pausing to even look at the destruction in the living room. She poured some tea in a glass and took a few sips. Then she poured it out and set up the coffeemaker. She wanted a cup.
By the time it was ready, the guys had dressed and joined her in the kitchen. She poured some for all three of them then took her cup to the window over the kitchen sink and stared outside at the garden she hadn’t seen since she’d planted it. Even from where she stood, green growth up and down the rows was obvious. She wondered if anyone had watered it today.
“We’ll get a new couch, honey. Jeff and I will carry this one off and burn it.” Caleb wasn’t sitting at the table. He sounded as if he was right behind her.
“That’s fine. No hurry.”
“What are you thinking about, baby?” Jeff asked.
She could tell he wasn’t as close as Caleb. She was glad they weren’t trying to touch her. She had wanted it earlier, but now…
“I want to go see Rachel and her little girl.” She turned away from the window.
Caleb was closer than she had thought. If she leaned just a little bit, she would be able to rest her head on his chest. She wanted to feel his arms around her, but not like this. Jeff was only a little farther away. One step, two, and she could be in his arms.
“We’ll talk to Danny and Andrew and see when we can visit them,” Caleb said.
Beverly wanted to scream at the injustice of it all. They’d lost their home, their families, and ended up on a strange world that didn’t want them there. Now she was having a baby that would be different from them, and her husbands couldn’t accept that difference. How could she live this way? She would carry a baby that they might not even be able to love. Seeing their eyes on her belly as it grew large and knowing how they felt about it tore pieces out of her heart.
No matter what, she would love her child. It didn’t matter how different it was, she would make sure the baby never felt unloved or questioned how she felt. Still, it wouldn’t make up for its fathers’ feelings. No matter how they tried to hide it, a child could tell. Anger began to eat at her belly. Anger at the unfairness of it and anger at them for not being strong enough to handle this filled her. Her throat felt raw with it.
Caleb must have seen something in her eyes because he grabbed her and pulled her against his chest and wrapped his arms around her. She struggled, but he wouldn’t let her go. Finally the tears fell, and she hung onto him as she sobbed. She would be mad at him later. She needed him right now. Then Jeff pressed against her back, burying his face in the side of her neck. Later she would rage at them for not being able to accept their child despite the differences. Later she would start making plans on how to take care of her baby.
* * * *
Caleb’s heart ached for Beverly. He knew how much it must hurt her to learn that she was pregnant while knowing the baby would be different. He and Jeff had already worked through the anger and disbelief together. Caleb knew that Jeff would always be there for him, for them. He’d come to realize that his partner deferred to him on most things because he didn’t feel like he had as much experience as Caleb did. Caleb had assured Jeff that he was just as competent.
Now they were working together to take care of their wife and their unborn child. They had struggled to keep it to themselves until Beverly was stronger. It didn’t matter to them. They would love the baby no matter what. Telling her had been far more painful than what they had learned from Danny and Andrew.
He looked over Beverly’s head at Jeff. His partner’s eyes held the glimmer of unshed tears. He was barely keeping his in check as it was. Holding their wife as she wept her heart out hammered his ability to keep his at bay. He kissed her temple then settled his chin on her head as he struggled to swallow around the thick knot in his throat.
“Oh, baby. Don’t cry. You’re breaking my heart, Beverly.” Jeff’s voice cracked.
She pulled back from Caleb’s chest and looked up at him. The despair he saw there was more than he could fathom. It appeared bottomless. How would they be able to help her if she couldn’t accept their child’s fate? He refused to believe she wasn’t strong enough.
“I won’t let you hurt my baby.” Her words confused him.
“What? What do you mean? I would never hurt a child.” He looked over at Jeff.
Jeff shrugged. He didn’t understand what she meant either.
“Babies, children know. They can sense how you feel about them. If you can’t care about the baby so that it’s happy, then I’ll move to town with it.”
“What? No!” Caleb shouted before he could stop himself.
Jeff twirled her around to look at him. “You’re not going anywhere. You belong here, with us.”
“Not if it means my baby has to live with knowing its fathers can’t accept it.”
The tremor in her voice registered with Caleb even before her words did. This was killing her. Why did she think they wouldn’t love their child? What had they done to give her that impression?
“Beverly. Listen to me.” He turned her back toward him, holding her at arm’s length so that she could see his face, read his determination and honesty in this. “Our child will never know anything but love and devotion from me and Jeff. I will treasure him or her no matter what happens.”
Jeff stood by his side. He could feel the other man’s horror at what she had been thinking. How could she have thought that of them?
“I can’t believe you thought so little of us that you would believe we wouldn’t love our baby.” Jeff’s pain was a palpable thing, a living breathing entity that threatened to consume them both.
“Why did you keep it from me? You acted as if my being pregnant was a fate worse than death.”
Caleb loosened his grip on her arms and sighed. They’d screwed this up badly. Thinking that she would be upset over being pregnant with a baby that they knew wouldn’t be normal, they’d tried to shield her. Instead they’d given her the perception that they were the ones who couldn’t handle it. They had underestimated their wife’s inner strength.
“I think we’ve all made the mistake of believing each other to be weak and unable to handle the situation.” Caleb cupped her face in his hands and kissed her tenderly on the lips. “I’m sorry, honey.”
She closed her eyes for a few seconds then opened them and smiled a watery smile. “I’m sorry, too. My heart was breaking. You both mean so much to me, but I couldn’t let our baby grow up thinking it wasn’t important enough to you to love.”
Jeff ran his hand down the back of her head over and over. “We need to start over with this.”
“I agree,” Caleb said. “Let’s go back upstairs. I need to hold you, honey.”
His heart soared when she nodded and held his hands to her face for several more seconds before letting go of one of his hands and grabbing one of Jeff’s as she headed for the stairs. As soon as they were back in the bedroom, she started stripping them of their clothes as if she couldn’t wait to touch their skin.
Caleb struggled to undress her even as she vacillated between him and Jeff, touching and kissing them everywhere she could reach. Finally, they managed to strip her down to skin for their touch. He wrapped her hair in one hand and held her still while he devoured her mouth. Their tongues tangled as he touched and stroked over her teeth, lips, and everything in between. His mouth ate at hers, sucking and nipping her lips and chin. He couldn’t get enough of her taste or the way she moaned.
When he pulled back some, kissing the corners of her eyes and her temples, he saw Jeff taking advantage of her hair being out of the way to devour her neck and shoulder. Caleb loved the little sounds she was making as they kissed and sucked their way around her body.
They needed to move this to the bed before they ended up on the floor. He still wasn’t too comfortable with anything having to do with the floor yet. Besides, they hadn’t checked under their bed to be sure nothing dangerous was there. Before he ruined his mood with thoughts of creatures, Caleb pulled Beverly away from Jeff and carried her to the bed.
“Hey!” Jeff complained.
Then he was joining them, stretched out on one side of their wife sucking on a ripe nipple. Caleb claimed the other one. Her hand in his hair, her fingers digging into his scalp soon had him pressing his rock-hard cock against her hip. He pulled at her nipple with his teeth then licked the reddened berry to soothe it. She wasn’t complaining at all. Instead, she was squirming between them, trying to get closer to one then the other.
He watched as Jeff nuzzled the side of her breast then licked under it before laying openmouthed kisses down her abdomen to her belly. He had no doubt where Jeff was headed. If he hadn’t been so hooked on her breast, he’d have headed that way as well. Taking advantage of the empty spot at her other breast, Caleb plucked the abandoned nipple with his fingers.
“Yes.” Beverly’s breath hissed out as he pinched one nipple while nipping the other one.
When she gasped and arched her back, Caleb was sure Jeff had added oral stimulation to parts down south. He chuckled against her breast. Opening his mouth, he tried to suck in all over the mounded flesh but had to be satisfied with only part of it. She groaned, and the sound went straight to his cock. Looking up, he watched her lick her lower lip then capture her tongue between her teeth as she arched her neck.
Her lips were too much of a temptation. He needed to feed from her again. Her taste ignited his blood. He licked over her lips before sucking on her bottom lip. The full bloom of the bottom half of her pout painted a picture of them wrapped around his dick as he pumped in and out of her hot, wet mouth. Next time. This time he wanted to feel her hot, wet pussy surround him. Jeff needed to hurry up and make her come. He was dying to be inside of her.
“Oh, God!” Her mouth tore from his as she called out.
“Is Jeff eating that ripe, red pussy, honey? I can’t wait to bury my cock deep in your cunt.” He nipped at her earlobe. One hand continued to torment her nipples with random pinches and twirls.
She had one hand latched onto Jeff’s shaggy hair and the other one pulling on his scalp. Every once in a while he caught a glimpse of her eyes. They would widen in shock then darken as arousal reclaimed her.
“I want to fuck you over and over, sink my dick so deep you feel me all the way to your heart.”
He knew the moment that Jeff was driving her over the edge. Her breath hitched, and her mouth opened in a silent scream before sound caught up with it. The sight of her face as pleasure rolled over her in giant, cresting waves nearly had him coming like a teenager. He covered her mouth with his and took the last of her scream in a heady kiss. He swallowed it down and waited for her to settle. Then it was his turn.