Until My Last Breath

by Tiffany Patterson

  “No more business trips!” I managed to squeak out in between thrusts. He couldn’t leave me alone for two days while I was this damn horny.

  His head lifted, and without saying anything he crushed his lips to mine, his tongue and hard cock pushing in and out of my orifices. I dug my fingernails into the smooth skin of his back. He wouldn’t let up; in fact, the little bit of pain urged him on. His hips began moving faster while he slipped his hand in between our bodies, again using it to manipulate clitoris.

  Just when I felt my third orgasm rush me, he angled his hips, hitting my G-spot while continuing to use his hand to externally stimulate me. That was when I lost it completely. I’d tried to keep my screams to a minimum to not wake our children, but all rational thought was lost at that moment. My entire body pulsed and convulsed with the sensations of his movements as I clung to him.

  He wasn’t far behind either. He came with his lips covering mine. The convulsions of my inner muscles worked to milk him for every drop of semen his body could muster.

  We continued kissing for a long while afterward. Eventually, our sweaty bodies were separated when he pulled back and out of me.

  I groaned from the separation, wordlessly watching Aaron as he rounded the king-sized bed to head to the bathroom. A few seconds later, he returned with a wet, warm cloth, using it to wipe the evidence of our lovemaking from my body before tossing it on the nightstand.

  I adjusted my body as he climbed back in the bed, his long arms reaching out and pulling me into his naked frame. I settled with my back against his chest, our breathing falling in sync with one another’s. I felt like I could breathe easier for the first time in three days. It always felt like that when he went away for business.

  “You could come with me,” he said, his lips grazing my earlobe.

  I frowned. We’d had this discussion at least a thousand times.

  “I can’t just go with you on every trip.”

  “Why not?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Because we have four kids and someone needs to be here with them.”

  “They can come, too. We’d hire a full-time nanny and teacher for them.”

  “Aaron …” I didn’t say anything else because we’d been through this before.

  His arms tightened around my waist and he was silent for a few moments before saying, “You came quickly.”

  My eyes widened, not expecting that. I should’ve known better. He always noticed even minute changes. Whereas most men barely noticed their wife’s haircut, Aaron was keen to even slight changes in my mood, body, facial expressions, whatever it was. Like I said, the only reason I’d been able to hide this pregnancy for the last week and a half had been because of his travel.

  “Did I?” I responded, lamely.

  It obviously wasn’t a convincing response, as evidenced by the way he removed his arms from my body, sitting up to stare down at me. His eyes did that searching thing they always did when he was figuring me out.

  “Aaron—” I started.

  “Tell me,” he insisted, cutting me off.

  I glanced out toward the corner of the room, unable to keep it together at the sight of the worry in his eyes. “It’s not bad—”

  “Then say it.”

  Pausing, I pushed out a breath before returning my eyes to his. “I’m pregnant.”

  His jaw tightened and a scowl covered his face. He began shaking his head. “No,” he insisted, pulling back to stand.

  “Aaron—”

  “Don’t Aaron me. How the hell are you pregnant?”

  I sighed, glancing around at the wrinkled sheets of the bed we’d just made love in. “Uh, the sex might have something to do with it.”

  “Don’t fucking joke.”

  My shoulders slumped. “I’m not joking. This is good news.” I tried to sound cheery.

  “Good news? How, Patience? How is it good news that my wife could possibly—” He cut himself off, slicing his hand through the air, shaking his head. “No. You’re not doing this.”

  My eyes widened and I rose to my knees, allowing the sheet to fall completely from my body, exposing my nudity. “It’s already done.” I held out my arms but bit back the smile when I saw his cock jump as he stared at me. Even in his anger he couldn’t turn his bodily response off.

  “You almost died. Do you remember that?” he questioned, outraged. “I thought you were on birth control.”

  “Of course I remember. And I am … was. I missed a couple of days, and well …” I shrugged. Taking a pill at the same time every day while chasing after four children was a bit much. I’d forget for a day or two, and before I knew it, it’d be a week before I took a pill again. And hell, Aaron and I were like rabbits even with our crazy schedules. He was as much to blame for this as I was.

  “You’re not having this baby!” His face was set in stone.

  I moved from the bed, standing before him, now almost as angry as he was. “What did you just say?”

  “You heard me. You’re. Not. Having. This. Baby.”

  My chest rose, my breathing increasing with my anger at the implication of his words.

  “We’re getting rid of it.”

  My mouth opened to tell him to go fuck himself but he quickly pivoted, turning his back on me and stomping off to the bathroom, slamming the door behind him. I jumped at the sound, my body shaking with fury. If he hadn’t of stormed off, I might have tried to wrap my hands around his throat to strangle him for what he’d just said to me.

  I growled, frustrated with that stubborn ass man. Against my better judgement, I started toward the bathroom door to pound on it and make him come out, but just then the baby monitor on Aaron’s nightstand sounded, wailing coming through the speaker. One of the babies was up.

  “You probably woke him with your door slamming,” I yelled through the bathroom door before turning and moving to my dresser, pulling out a pair of panties and a long cotton nightgown, putting them both on before going to check on the baby.

  As soon as I opened the door, I caught sight of Andreas kneeling up in his crib, crying. I moved swiftly to pick him up, hoping he wouldn’t wake Thiers, who was on the other side of the room. I glanced over my shoulder and caught Thiers sleeping peacefully in his crib. While these two were identical twins, their personalities were very different. Thiers could sleep through anything, while Andreas needed the perfect conditions to get a good night’s sleep. I was half convinced the little argument between Aaron and I had shifted the conditions in the house just enough to wake him and cause his grumpiness.

  “What’s the matter? Huh?” I cooed, cradling Andreas to my chest. As soon as I did his wails diminished to mini hiccups. “You’re such a faker,” I joked, bouncing him a little as I moved to the corner of his massive room where the light blue and wooden rocking chair sat. The room was lit by a soft light that the boys slept with every night. It allowed enough lighting for me to see my way around but wasn’t disruptive to their sleep.

  “Your brother’s over there sleeping like a baby and you’re making all of this noise.”

  Pressing a kiss to Andreas’ forehead, I stared down into his eyes that were the same color as his father’s. The twins looked even more like Aaron than Kyle did. But Andreas, I was certain had inherited his father’s demeanor. His little face was scrunched into what could be interpreted as a scowl, even though he snuggled deeper into my chest.

  “Okay,” I sighed, grateful that the nightgown I’d chosen actually had buttons that secured it in the front. Usually, I left the buttons closed, opting to slip it on and off over my head. But Andreas was hungry as evident by the way his hand began fiddling with my shirt, his face searching for my nipple.

  “You know you’re going to have stop this pretty soon,” I warned as if he could understand what I was saying. If he did, he obviously couldn’t care less because as soon as I released my breast he took to it without a care in the world.

  I ran my hand over his silky soft, tight curls, as he stared up into m
y gaze while he fed.

  “You’re going to be a handful, aren’t you?” I laughed, then quieted down remembering a sleeping Thiers. “What am I saying? You’re a Townsend. Of course you’re going to be a handful,” I whispered.

  Just then I lifted my gaze to the opened door, noticing a shadow. My eyes collided with Aaron’s as he stared at us from his position, arms folded over his chest. It was the same thing he always did when I was up with one of the children at night, even when I’d insisted he sleep because he had a long work day or needed to be up early in the morning. He always came to help or just watch over, especially when it came to handling Andreas.

  While I couldn’t fathom a better father for our children, even Aaron had trouble getting Andreas to settle down some nights. Most of the time, he refused to be held by his grandparents, and especially not strangers. At times, it felt like Andreas was attached to my hip because he only wanted to be held by me. Whereas Thiers had weaned himself at eight months, I’d had to work to get Andreas to reduce his feedings to nighttime only.

  I looked back down at Andreas who was fighting to keep his eyes open. He’d fall asleep soon, but I knew better than to pull him from feeding just yet. He’d scream the whole house down.

  I returned my gaze to Aaron who’d remained silent. Wordlessly, he stepped back from the doorframe and strode down the hall, his anger still apparent in the rigidity of his movements.

  “You get your stubbornness from your daddy,” I told Andreas before sighing.

  Rocking us in the chair for a few minutes, encouraging Andreas back to sleep, I heard Aaron as he moved farther down the hallway. I knew he was headed down to the basement level where his home office sat. I shook my head, still pissed at his earlier comments. Aaron was the one who’d wanted more children in the first place. Immediately after the twins were born he’d informed me that he wanted at least two more. He was adamant. But that was before everything changed.

  The first few hours after Andreas and Thiers’ birth were okay, but as I laid in the hospital room, awaiting the nurses to bring me the babies for their next feeding, the pain in my body sharply rose. At first, the nurses told me to just relax, that it was normal to experience some cramping as my uterus contracted to shrink back to its original size. But this pain wasn’t normal. It grew increasingly worse. My recollection of exactly what happened is hazy due to the pain and fear. I knew something wasn’t right. It was confirmed when a nurse finally rolled me over onto my side to find a pool of blood.

  It was at that moment, Aaron returned to the hospital room after having made a trip down to the nursery, and tend to Kyle and Kennedy who’d been taken home with his parents. I remember him yelling at the hospital staff, likely threatening their lives. Soon a doctor rushed in, giving me a shot of something, and not too long after the pain subsided along with the bleeding. But I wasn’t out of the woods. I had to be given a blood transfusion due to the amount of blood I lost.

  I shook my head, releasing that horrific memory. I almost didn’t make it to see my boys grow up. I understood why my being pregnant frightened Aaron. Once I was home with the twins settled in, he insisted that we weren’t having anymore children. At least not the traditional way. He was open to adoption, just not my getting pregnant. And since I’d just been terrified of dying after giving birth, I agreed, going back on birth control after the first six weeks. Obviously, that hadn’t been fail proof.

  I lifted from the rocking chair, cradling a now sleeping Andreas. I checked his diaper to make sure he wasn’t wet before placing him back into the crib, lying him on his stomach and covering him with the embroidered blanket we’d been given as a gift.

  I went over to check on a soundly sleeping Thiers, running my hand over his soft curls. While to outsiders the boys were difficult to tell apart, I noticed their slight differences. Thiers’ curls were less tightly coiled than Andreas’ and a little more coarser. Thiers’ eyes, while still hazel, were a little more green in color. Running my hand down his plump cheek, I smiled and moved away from the crib, heading toward the door, closing it lightly behind me.

  I wasn’t surprised that our bedroom was empty. Aaron would be down in his office or working out. It was how he dealt with his anger. But I, for one, was too damn tired to go down there to continue our discussion from earlier. We’d just have to deal with it another time.

  I laid down on my side of the bed, bringing my left hand to cover my abdomen.

  “Your daddy will come around … Eventually.”

  I hoped.

  Chapter Eleven

  Then

  Deborah

  Frowning, I stared at the black phone on my desk that I’d just hung up. The call had been with Cohen. He was canceling on our lunch date.

  Again.

  The truth was, his canceling on me was actually a good thing. It’d allow me time to get through the paperwork I needed to read before my late afternoon meeting. While I’d read through them all already, I didn’t see anything wrong with being overly prepared. Just as I plopped back down in my chair and opened the file, a knock sounded at my opened door.

  I looked up, expecting to see my assistant asking if I wanted her to order my lunch in. She was good like that. But I was mistaken.

  Instinctively, I shot up from my chair, eyes going wide at the side of Robert casually standing in my doorway, flowers in hand, a magnetic grin spread across his face.

  “Hi,” I forced out, not knowing what else to say.

  “Hi,” he responded, his dark eyes circling my office, pausing on my Stanford degree that I proudly displayed on the wall behind my desk. He entered my office, coming to a stop across from me.

  “What are you doing here?” I racked my brain, trying to figure out if there was any possible way that the cosmetic company I worked for would be doing any work with Townsend Industries.

  “Two reasons,” he responded. “One, to give you these.” He handed me the bouquet of long-stemmed, red roses.

  They were absolutely gorgeous. I took the bouquet from his grasp, our fingers grazing one another’s. I didn’t miss the zap of electricity from that minor touch. Evidently, Robert didn’t either as his eyes narrowed on our hands, his jaw clenching and releasing.

  “And two,” he began, his gaze coming back to my own, “to take you to lunch.”

  I twisted my head, furrowing my eyebrows in confusion. “Lunch? You came over here to take me to lunch? Wait, how did you even find out I worked here?” I knew I didn’t give him the name of my employer when we literally bumped into one another at the Crown Jewel restaurant a week ago. I knew exactly how many days it’d been since we’d seen each other. Eight days. Because each day I took out his business card that I still hung on to and contemplated calling him but never did.

  “I called around,” he stated casually, his eyes landing on me.

  “Called around? What does that mean?”

  “It means exactly what I said. Where would you like to eat? The Crown Jewel again or someplace else? I have standing reservations at three restaurants not too far from here.”

  “I bet you do,” I mumbled, still perplexed that he was standing in my office. Before I could utter another word, my stomach growled, embarrassingly loud. “Sorry, I skipped breakfast this morning,” I admitted.

  Robert frowned deeply, eyes narrowing. “You haven’t eaten anything today?”

  I thought about it and began shaking my head. “Oh no, I did have a granola bar this morning.” It was the last one in my desk. I often kept them in my office since I had a tendency to skip meals throughout the day. It was a bad habit, I knew, but working long hours didn’t exactly lend itself to being able to cook three meals a day, everyday.

  “A granola bar …” he uttered, sounding pissed.

  “I was supposed to go to lunch with Cohen—”

  “Cohen.” He lifted a dark eyebrow.

  “My, uh, boyfriend.” Why did saying that to him feel like some sort of betrayal?

  His frown deepened as he gl
anced around. “Looks like he’s not here and you’re hungry.”

  I didn’t need much convincing after that. I was hungry and had been expecting to actually leave my office for lunch. Why not with Robert?

  Because he’s the man you’ve secretly pined over for five years.

  “Everything alright?” he asked in my ear, as my own wayward thoughts had stopped me in my tracks.

  I glanced back over my shoulder and nodded. “Yes, fine.”

  Fifteen minutes later, I found myself being seated in one of the finest French restaurants in downtown Williamsport. It was only a few blocks from my office building, but I was surprised to come out and find Robert had a car waiting for us. Like he’d already stated, he had a standing reservation, ensuring that we didn’t have to wait in the crowded rush hour line to be seated.

  “Thank you,” I thanked Robert after he waved the host off to hold my chair out for me. I got comfortable in the soft cushioning of the cream-colored, wooden chair. I watched him as he rounded the table, taking his own seat. “I love the food here,” I stated, covering my lap with the white linen napkin.

  “You’ve been here before?”

  I nodded, setting the glass of water back down that I’d just taken a sip of. “Yes, last year. The CEO of my company held a dinner here to celebrate the merger.”

  Robert nodded. “I read about that in the paper. Glamour Cosmetics bought Enchanted, making it the second largest cosmetics company in the nation.”

  I smiled, feeling proud even though the praise didn’t belong to me at all.

  “I received an invite to that dinner. If I had known you were there, I wouldn’t have turned it down,” he stated sincerely.

  “Why did you turn it down?” I wanted to know even though I was surprised to hear that someone in his industry had been invited to the dinner. Though, I shouldn’t have been. I was learning that many of those in the upper echelons of society often rubbed elbows with one another, no matter what industry they were in.