by Ella Brooke
He just couldn’t get enough of her.
For most of the trip, they had balanced between meetings with SideHustle Asia and going out in the evenings to explore the city. Sometimes they’d found cute little places like the Robot Cabaret restaurant (which, as the name suggested, involved singing robots that performed during their dinner) or visiting art museums and galleries. Despite having to balance their trip with work, Kit appeared to be thriving. With her cheeks taking on a rosy hue, she was as vivacious as ever.
Grant smirked as he remembered their latest karaoke outing. Kit was getting no better at singing, but that didn’t keep the two of them from making some very interesting music together.
As Grant strolled up to their towels, Kit lifted her head slightly and gave him a contented smile. Her fingers trailed down her flat abdomen and she gave him that…look.
But where? It was early in the season, and therefore not too many families were out on the beach. Someone would still notice two Americans mounting one another right on the sand.
Instead of sitting, Grant caressed the loose curls that fell down the side of her face, then took her hand. He led her out to the water and over an outcropping of rocks away from the main section of the beach. She grinned lasciviously as they both sunk into the water.
Her bikini bottom slipped to the side easily, and no one could see them intertwined.
***
After leaving the beach, the two of them donned clothes to cover their bathing suits, Grant with a shirt and jean shorts and Kit in a loose sundress. As they walked along the sidewalk, Grant draped his arm around Kit’s shoulders. For a moment, he found himself mesmerized by the swell of her breasts hanging under her dress, rising and falling as she walked.
He stumbled.
Kit laughed. “Distracted?”
“You’re quite the distraction in that outfit. I’m surprised that anyone is managing to walk properly.” He laughed at himself a little. “I have the privilege of looking at your glorious breasts every day, and yet today, I notice them more than ever.”
She cupped the side of her breast. “Ugh. Are we too early in the relationship to tell you that this is probably hormonal? You should be safe if you only have to deal with the girls looking like this once a month.”
“Ohhh. But you weren’t… I mean just now…”
“No, not yet. Soon, though.” Kit cuddled up against him as they walked. “I’m hungry. Are you hungry?”
“We did work up an appetite.”
The two of them dropped into a little shop that served pizza, which came on a light, crispy crust probably made from rice flour, along with tempura vegetable appetizers and little cups of cappuccino with designs of panda bears and Hello Kitty.
Kit ate voraciously, making noises just short of obscene to Grant’s delight. On this trip he’d gotten the best of both of her sides, and it was wonderful.
“Grant?” she asked as they were finishing their coffee. “Could you translate something from ‘guy’ for me?”
“You mean, something a man said to you? Was it one of the men in our meetings this week?”
“Oh, no. It was before you and I even started dating. It was an ex, actually. I shouldn’t care, and we broke up over a year ago, having barely dated. But still…”
“He struck a nerve,” Grant concluded. He rubbed his hand over her back. “Exes are good at that. It’s a risk you run whenever you let someone get close.”
“Do you really think that’s true?”
“I know it’s true. My mother and father were as close as they could get. They fought viciously. Constantly. No one could hurt my father the way my mother could. No one could hurt her besides him, period. I loved them both, but god, they were so good at making each other miserable.”
Kit raised her eyebrows. “I didn’t know things were like that with them. They never got divorced.”
“You don’t have to divorce to have a dysfunctional relationship.” Grant shrugged and drained the rest of his coffee. “They didn’t even sleep in the same room. Not since… God, since middle school, I think. They just set up one of the guest rooms for him, and they separated so they wouldn’t have to talk to each other more than necessary.”
“I… I don’t get that,” Kit admitted. “It killed me when my parents divorced, but at least it meant they didn’t fight as much when I was around. They’re even kind of friends now apparently. They sit around and talk about me, anyway, which I think is super weird.”
“I don’t know why anyone would choose to put themselves through that kind of hell. But it’s a multi-million dollar industry, so what can you do? Aside from say some vows and have a slamming party with all of your friends and family.”
She grew quiet and looked up at him uncertainly.
“What? What’s wrong?” Grant tilted his head to the side and reached over to touch her hair. She pulled back.
“Anyway, um… What does it mean when a guy says, ‘You just don’t want to be what I need.’”
Grant screwed his eyebrows together. “Christ. I think it means that this guy is a bullshitter extreme, and he wants to blame the break-up entirely on you. I assume this guy couldn’t handle being with such an independent woman.”
“Like I said, we weren’t going out for long. But he did complain that I work long hours.”
“It’s not your fault that you have a life and he doesn’t. Relationships are hard. And that’s not something I’m saying because I have such a reputation as a womanizer. They aren’t hard because you have to be with one person; they’re hard because you have to bring your life closer to another person’s existing life. You have to try to work that out.” Grant reached for her hand, and this time she didn’t pull away. “Some men—well, maybe more than some—get intimidated when they aren’t the only thing in a woman’s life. They get that way about work, but also about the children. Guys can be selfish, what can I say.”
“And you aren’t intimidated by that kind of thing?”
“Not at all. I have my own business. You have your career.” Grant paused. “Though, I am selfish enough to be trying to borrow you to help my business.”
“That’s fine. It legitimizes this whole thing as a business trip. I don’t regret any of it.” Kit rubbed her stomach. “Other than the fact that I might need to hit the gym more once we get back.”
“Don’t even get me started, Kit. You look absolutely amazing today. It’s like you’ve been lit up inside.” He kissed her hand. “Don’t let anyone tell you that you are being selfish for setting your own boundaries. Promise me that?”
“I suppose I could promise that. I don’t have my eye on any other guy.”
“I think it should apply to your bosses and coworkers as well. Maybe even your parents.” Grant rolled his eyes. “My mother. I’m going to have to let you meet with her at some point, but she’s been so awful that I don’t want to saddle you with that.”
“We can think of it after the trip.” Kit squeezed his hand. “I think we could legitimately put it off for another couple of weeks. We have only been dating a month.”
Grant nodded slowly. “That’s true. It seems longer somehow.”
“We’ve known each other much longer.”
“If I’m honest, I have to fight every instinct not to push our relationship further than it is.” He leaned his chin on his hand. “I’ve never been like this with anyone before.”
She drew circles on the table with the tip of her finger. “What would be the next step? What’s the next thing that you want to do, that you would normally not do for another couple of months?”
Grant thought about that. He’d already gotten her a room of her own. She had a key. They talked nearly every day. They’d gone away on a romantic/business trip.
“There has to be something between having access to each other’s apartments and meeting the parents, right?” he said.
“Probably.” Kit looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully. “Friends. We could meet each other’s friends.”
“That’s safe. Though, you’ve already met Tyrese.”
She threw her hands in the air. “We’re hopeless. Fine. Come running with me the Saturday after we get back, and I’ll introduce you to Tamara.”
“Good. There we go.” Grant planted a kiss on her cheek. “We can do this.”
***
As their trip wound down, so did Kit. Despite her coffee addiction, Grant had never seen her flagging for energy. Perhaps she’d been drinking less since the coffee culture in Japan was different from San Francisco’s, and she wasn’t a fan of canned coffee. Or perhaps the long office hours during the day and the long hours enjoying themselves at night were starting to take their toll.
Either way, it was the first time that Grant had ever seen her simply fall asleep without trying. She’d stopped drinking that herbal tea meant to calm her down at night altogether. He wasn’t sure whether that was a good or a bad thing, but he did enjoy having Kit doze off on his shoulder.
By the time they were in the air on the way back to San Francisco, Grant developed a new theory.
“Ugh. God.” Kit rolled over onto her back and looked up at him miserably from the sofa.
“You didn’t get airsick on the way here.” Grant sat near her feet and rubbed his hand up and down her calf.
“I don’t usually get airsick at all.”
He sat back. “Maybe it’s not airsickness.”
She lifted her head slightly. “What do you think it could be?”
“Remember coming back from Roswell?”
“Ugh. I hope that’s not it.”
Grant slipped her shoes off and started to massage her feet. Kit let out a moan and arched her back. He smiled. They might not be able to make the time pass faster the way they had on the way to Japan, but this was nice in a way, too.
“You were indispensable to this trip, by the way,” he said. “I think you may have guessed, but I thought you ought to know.”
“I’m more than a nice piece of ass, huh?”
“So much more, babe. You’re such an asset.”
“Asset. You make me sound like something you claim on your taxes.”
“You’re also funny, and sweet, and fucking brilliant, okay?” Grant put her foot down and rose to get them some drinks. “Let’s try some ginger ale and put on a movie. We both need to decompress from this trip before we get back home.”
“Do I have to move to watch?”
“The screen is behind your head.”
Kit rolled her head back and grumbled. Grant chuckled as he poured their drinks and then went over to help her up and turn her around so she could lay on him like a pillow.
“How do you feel about foreign films?” he asked. As much time as they had spent together lately, they didn’t tend to do much sitting around and watching of things.
“Depends on the pacing. Nothing really gross, please.”
Grant selected a film through the digital box and set it going. He brushed his fingers through Kit’s slightly damp hair, watching her as much as the movie.
“Tilda Swinton is some kind of magical creature, I swear. Did you see her in Snowpiercer?”
“This is by the same director, FYI.”
“Ohhh… That doesn’t look like a pig,” she said of the animals on the screen. “It’s cute though.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t watch this. It might be upsetting.”
She made a noise. “A film by that dystopian weirdo? Yeah, I could imagine. You need to see Train to Busan sometime.”
“The man likes trains.”
“Train to Busan isn’t about trains, it’s about a bunch of people in South Korea trapped on a train during the zombie apocalypse. It’s amazing.” Kit yawned.
“I didn’t know you were a zombie fan.”
“I don’t root for zombies. I just think some of the movies are interesting.” She snuggled back into his lap.
Within a few minutes, he knew he would have to sit and watch with her again sometime when she was less exhausted. But it was nice, being able to take care of her like this. He hoped she would be able to get enough rest on the trip back so her transition back to her office was easier.
Still, she was such an incredible asset. He really wanted to poach her from Gable & Pines. Nothing would be better than having her by his side all the time.
Chapter Ten
Kit
The weeks following the trip to Japan were torturous. Buck had been none too pleased at having to pick up the slack for her, and came by her office frequently, all but demanding her ongoing gratitude. Even though she had thanked him to begin with, and brought him coffee, a paper, and several souvenirs from Japan, Buck wanted her to take him out to lunch.
Well, he wanted dinner, but she had talked him down from that.
On top of that, her general queasiness from the plane still seemed to bother her off and on. She couldn’t really place why she was so tired, but between the trip and all of the things on her plate after they’d gotten back, she hadn’t had much time to think about what it might be.
Not until she finally got around to unpacking her suitcase.
She’d only done so because she couldn’t find one of the gifts she’d brought back with her for her mother, and in doing so, a small shower of tampons spilled forth from an inside pocket. It was then that it dawned on her that she had been expecting her period to come during the trip, noted to herself that she probably had PMS, and then forgotten entirely that it hadn’t come.
Anxiously, she looked at the app on her phone that tracked her periods and realized she was now two weeks late. Given the amount of time she’d been with Grant, that would be…about right.
“Oh, God. How?”
Kit glared at the compact on her bathroom sink containing her birth control pills. She’d taken them religiously. It was the main reason she and Grant sometimes let the condoms slide. What if there was something wrong with them?
Placing a hand on each breast, she realized that this was the first thing she’d noticed. She turned to the side and pulled up the slinky, sleeveless top she’d worn to bed. At the latest, she could only be six weeks, too early to really tell anything. But when she moved her hand over her lower abdomen, it did feel oddly firm and warm.
“Shit.”
She let her top drop down and stared at herself in the mirror.
“Fuck.”
And here she and Grant had been trying to take things slow.
***
Kit’s thoughts were so full when she went to lunch with Buck that most of the conversation went over her head. Although her complete mental absence ought to have soured the afternoon, Buck seemed to work best with minimal contributions from her end. Consequently, she found herself nodding and making pleasant facial expressions in hopes that this experience would soon be over.
She’d managed to go out and get a pregnancy test before work that morning. Time had run out on her, though, and she hadn’t taken it yet. She couldn’t think about anything else.
What would Grant think? Kit had heard so many contradictory things from him about marriage (a hell that no one should put themselves through) and children (what selfish men couldn’t share their wives with), but that he was a selfish man himself. He wanted and needed her, but didn’t want to go too fast.
It didn’t look good. Would she be able to take care of it? She wasn’t sure.
“Kit?” Buck reached for her hand, and she pulled back.
“Sorry. I’ve had an upset stomach all morning.” It wasn’t a total lie. “Could you excuse me for a second?”
“You’re not cutting out on our lunch, are you?” Buck said, half-joking.
“No. I’m just going to splash some water on my face.”
“You do look a little flushed. Take your time.”
Kit hurried toward the bathroom. She couldn’t wait any longer. Surely, she would not be the only person to pee on a stick in that ladies’ room.
She burst into the room, cast a glance around to see t
hat it was empty, and then headed into a stall. She was almost too nervous to read the directions on the box. One minute or three minutes? She hoped it was shorter. How long could you expect someone to wait for a girl in the bathroom?
Her hands shook as she took the test. She set it on the counter and paced back and forth. By the time it was ready, she was afraid to look at it and afraid not to.
In the end, of course, Buck was knocking on the ladies’ room door, and she had to give it a glance and get on with her day. After looking at the stick, though, she didn’t manage to throw it away and return to lunch as she’d planned.
She just stood there, staring at it, the breath gone from her lungs and her heart in her throat.
***
Her body was a traitor.
Not only had it gotten pregnant despite her best efforts to the contrary, it insisted on trying to look pregnant long before it was sensible for her breasts to swell and her pants to grow tight. She wasn’t actually showing, but her stomach was too firm to give an inch for any of her clothing.
It made no sense. She couldn’t have been more than seven weeks along. She was going to have to ask her mother if women in her family gained a lot of weight. She really hoped not. Grant had always been wild about her curves, but genetically she had lucked out with those curves resting mostly in her chest, hips, and ass.
Kit had aunts on her father’s side who she would rather not turn into.
She had gone home early that day she’d found out. Buck had been mildly sympathetic, but only because she’d almost thrown up when their food came, and he’d joked that she still owed him a lunch. In the meantime, she’d scheduled an appointment with her doctor, who had in turn gotten her an appointment for an early sonogram.
“Given your family’s history of cysts and how the morning sickness has been affecting you,” Dr. Ellis said, pressing her hand gently over Kit’s stomach. “I’d really like you to get a sonogram done as soon as possible.”
