“We don’t need to get engaged to know that we have a connection. Aren’t the babies proof of our connection?”
“It’s not enough. I want you and I want our children to have what our parents have.” Walking around the island, he turns me around to face him. Trapped between him and the counter, he places his hands on my hips, “listen, let’s try the engagement part first and if it works, we can get married.”
Sighing, I shake my head, “if I agree to this, are you saying that we will behave and live as if we’re married?”
I can tell he’s annoyed by my question, “well yeah, that’s the idea.”
Pushing his hands away, I need space to think. “Aiden, I don’t know about this idea. I mean technically, we already do the things that I think you have in mind.”
“But we don’t have any type of commitment to each other.”
Frowning, I point to my stomach, “and this isn’t proof of our commitment to each other?”
“It’s not enough.” Grabbing my finger and kissing it before sucking it into his mouth, “can we just try the engagement and see where it leads, please.”
Pulling my finger away, “can you stop trying to distract me with your sexual innuendo so that I can think about this engagement idea?”
“There’s not much to think about, just say yes.”
“And if I agree, you won’t pressure me about marriage for a while?”
I think he’s calling me stupid by the look in his eyes. “What does getting engaged mean to you?”
“Don’t look at me like that, I know what it means.” Punching him in the arm, “what I meant to say is you won’t pressure me about setting a date to eventually get married any time soon, right?”
Staring at me, “you can be so nerve-racking at times. Okay, we can take this slowly by being engaged for six months and then decide if marriage is what you want.”
“I’m nerve-racking? You’re the one who talks non-stop about marriage when you know it’s going to lead to an argument.”
Holding up his hands, “poor choice of words, okay.” Giving me that look that makes me always give in, “please say yes, please babe.”
I know I’m making a big mistake. “Okay, I’ll agree to us getting engaged for six months.”
Laughing out loud with emotion in his voice, he hugs me really tight, “thank you babe. I love you so much. I promise you, everything is going to work out just fine. You’ll see, this is going to work and I won’t pressure you, I promise.”
Returning to the stove to finish our dinner, “where are you going?”
Smiling like he’s found the cure to cancer, “to my car, I’ll be right back.”
Turning back to the door, “can we eat in the dining room?”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“Good, I’ll set the table.” Walking out of the kitchen, he returns, “no, let’s eat in the den instead.”
Looking back at him over my shoulder, “can you make up your mind?”
“The den, I’m sorry, just excited about our engagement,” he rambles on and on. “I’ll be back.”
Hearing the front door close, I do not have a good feeling about being engaged. I don’t like feeling pressured but at the same time, he’s right, I want my babies to have the same opportunities if not better, than I had growing up. Preparing our plates, I hear him entering the kitchen with the stupidest grin on his face. Reaching up to grab two glasses, I feel a hard kick. Placing my hand on my stomach, “the babies are being really active all of a sudden, this is so uncomfortable.”
Taking the glasses from me, “let me finish up in here, you go on into the den and I’ll serve you since you prepared the meal.”
That’s the best thing he’s said all night, I can’t help thinking. “I’ll take the plates with me and you bring the drinks.”
Taking our usual seats on the floor in front of the television, the babies are moving around like mad, “um,” placing my hands on my stomach, I have my head laid to the side with my eyes closed, “maybe I should sit on the sofa instead of the floor because this is really uncomfortable.”
Laying his plate to the side, he gets up, pulling me up by my hands, “I was beginning to wonder when you were going to realize that your days of sitting on the floor in front of this television are over until the babies are born.”
“I can still sit on this floor and if you hadn’t been here, I would still be able get up by myself,” I say to him while waiting for him to clear the pillows from the sofa so that I can sit there instead of the floor.
Placing pillows behind my back, “tell me anything. You would be rolling around on this floor trying to gain momentum to get up if I hadn’t been here to help.”
“Looking at him with raised brows, “you are so full of yourself. I, um, damn that hurts,” I say while rubbing the lower part of my stomach. “It feels like they’re playing kick ball in there.”
Sitting at the other end of the sofa, “come sit down between my legs so that I can rub your stomach,” he says as he positions his back against the arm of the sofa. “Get the remote before you sit down,” looking at him like he’s crazy, “so we don’t have to get up again once you’re comfortable.” Grabbing the remote I hand it to him and sit back against his chest while stretching my legs out between his. “Are you comfortable?” Nodding at him, he kisses the side of my neck, “looks like the babies are trying to interrupt our fun time tonight.”
Laughing at his comment, “yeah, Rhonda mentioned that there would be days like this.” Leaning back a little into his touch, “we can still have a little fun if you want to.” Feeling his erection poking me in the back, I already have my answer.
Licking the side of my neck, he sucks the skin into his mouth, “of course, I want to, don’t you feel Snake poking you in the back?” Rubbing his hands in an up and down motion on my stomach, he takes his right hand and cups my left breast. “Will you let me breast feed with the babies?”
Ugh, what? “No, why would you want to do that?”
Continuing to lick and suck on my neck, “I just want to see what it tastes like. Sebastian said that Camille let him do it and he loved it.”
That is nasty. I can’t believe Camille would do something so nasty, no, so unnaturally freaky is a better description for that crap. “Well, I think it sounds nasty.” Feeling him smile against my neck, “Aiden, please don’t leave a mark on my neck, you know Rhonda will make the biggest deal about me having a hickey on my neck.”
Squeezing my nipple between his fingers, “I’m not going to mark your neck.” Tilting his head to the side, he takes his finger to rub the area where he was sucking, “well it’s not too bad of a mark.” Moving to get up so that I can see what damage he’s done, he pulls me back, “don’t overreact, just wear your hair down to cover it.”
“Why do you do stuff like that?” Squeezing his thigh, “only dogs mark their territory.”
“Are you calling me a dog?”
“No, but stop leaving your marks on me, it is so embarrassing when you do that. I almost died when Dr. Fura saw that hickey you left on my thigh.”
“I don’t know why, it was on the inside of your thigh and I’m sure she’s seen worse.”
“Yeah, well you could have at least told me it was there rather than me having to hear her say, “I see intimacy isn’t an issue for you with your pregnancy.” Hitting his leg with the back of my hand, “that’s not funny, I was so embarrassed!”
Laughing, “Dr. Fura looks like she needs to have someone eat her out so that she can’t stop frowning all the damn time.”
“Yeah, she really does.” Moving around to get more comfortable, “what are we going to watch?”
Opening his legs wider to assist me, “let’s channel surf and see what we find.” Scrolling through the channels, we land on an old romance comedy about best friends who end up having sex. I can tell Aiden isn’t paying any attention to the movie. Instead, he’s been rubbing my ring finger for at least an hour. Hearing him sig
h, I’m about to ask him what’s wrong until I hear him humming Loves Holiday by Earth, Wind and Fire. “Sharon,” he says in a whisper, “will you marry me?” Didn’t I already agree to this like an hour ago? Before I can respond, he’s sliding this huge platinum, four carat, princess cut diamond ring onto my left ring finger.
My heart is beating so fast. “Um, Aiden. When? This is so beautiful,” I say with my voice full of emotion.
“I bought this to give to you on this past Valentine’s Day.” Holding my hand up to see how the ring looks on my finger, “do you really like it, if not, we can exchange it.”
Getting up so that I can turn to straddle his lap, “no, I love it, it’s beautiful!” Feeling him moving down further on the couch, I lean down as much as my stomach will allow, running my tongue along the rim of his bottom lip before invading his mouth to give him a kiss. Hearing him moan, I feel his hands traveling underneath my shirt to fill his hands with my breasts, which are huge. I sure hope these don’t stick around after the babies are born.
“Babe, I’m so happy right now, you have no idea and I love these,” he says while squeezing my breasts. “Let’s go into the bedroom so that I can properly make love to my beautiful fiancé.” And that’s exactly what he did, all through the night. And for some reason, it felt so much better. He didn’t do anything different, but it was so much better. It must be the ring.
Chapter Forty One
Opening my eyes, I feel like I have a hangover and I’ve got to pee so bad. Glancing over at the clock, I see that it’s after ten in the morning. Oh God, Rhonda and the girls will be here soon. I’ve got to get dressed. Patting Aiden on his shoulder to wake him up, “Aiden, it’s after ten, can you get dressed and leave before my sister gets here, please.” Turning to his side, he opens one eye and then closes it. “Aiden, wake up, you promised you’d leave when I asked you to so, get up and leave.”
Mumbling something that I can’t even begin to comprehend, he says, “I made that promise to you as your man, now I’m your fiancé, so it shouldn’t matter that I’m here in your bed.”
What, my tight, slanted eyes are the size of quarters. Hitting his arm, “you better get up or this engagement is off and I’m serious.” Climbing out of the bed like a big sumo wrestler, “I’m going to take a shower. When I come back out, can you be up and dressed?”
“Yeah, whatever and you can’t call off the engagement because I don’t do what you say.”
“Oh yes I can, I have no problem removing this ring from my finger.”
Sitting up in the bed, “Sharon, if you take that ring off, I don’t even want to imagine what I might do.” Rubbing his hands through his hair, “go take your shower, I’m getting up.”
Stepping into the shower, I feel so tired. I think we really overdid it last night but it was so good. Standing under the water, I decide to wash my hair and wear it curly because Aiden definitely ruined the evidence of my visit to the hairstylist from two days ago. Hearing him come into the bathroom to brush his teeth, he doesn’t say anything. Aiden is one of those people who has to get at least six hours of sleep during the night or he’s grumpy as hell. “Would you like breakfast?”
I am hungry. “Are you going out to get breakfast?”
“Don’t you have breakfast food in the refrigerator?”
“Yes, but you don’t have time to prepare anything.”
“I don’t know why you want me to leave. Do you honestly think that your sister would believe that we’re not having sex?”
“Aiden, I don’t want her to know that you spent the night here.”
“Okay. Fine. This is a no-win argument with you.”
“Thank you.” He doesn’t respond but leaves the bathroom. It really shouldn’t matter to me but it does. I probably just hurt his feelings now but I’ll make it up to him. Getting out of the shower, I partially dry my hair and apply my mixed girlz moisturizer to it. I love this stuff. It gives my hair that loose, wavy curl look that most women pay tons of money to have. Walking into my bedroom, I hear voices. Oh shit, Rhonda and Michelle are here and they’re talking to Aiden. Going into the closet, I grab a pair of jeans, a long sleeved shirt and tank top to wear for our outing. Trying to get dressed as fast as I can, I can’t believe what I just heard, Aiden just told them that we are engaged. I’m going to kill him. I can hear the excitement in their voices. I need to sit down and gather my thoughts. I can’t believe he would do that.
Coming back into the bedroom, “hey, your sister and Michelle are here.” Taking a seat next to me on the bed, at least he’s dressed. “What’s wrong with you?”
Applying lotion to my legs, I really want to reach over and strangle the hell out of him, “why did you tell them about the engagement?”
“I don’t know, I guess I was a little excited to share the news with someone.”
“But, Rhonda is my sister. I wanted to tell her.”
“What difference does it make who told her?”
Rolling my eyes at him, I get up from the bed to put my clothes on while he’s watching my every move. I know he wants to say something to me but is contemplating whether he should or not. “What, you don’t like what I’m wearing?”
“Since you brought it up, those jeans are to revealing.”
“What? Are you serious? There is nothing wrong with these jeans and I’m not going to change.”
“Those jeans are too revealing and if I’m sitting here with a hard on looking at you, some other man will do the same. It’s not fitting for you to wear.”
“Too bad, you are not going to tell me what I can and can’t wear. I don’t care about us being engaged.”
“Well you should care.” Getting up from the bed, “I’m going to leave so you can finish getting dressed.”
“Good, and go home while you’re at it.”
Standing at the door staring at me, he drops his head and begins to shake it back and forth with a smirk on his face, “you know, sometimes I have to remind myself that I really love you and that you’re carrying my babies which makes up for some of your shit ass attitude but you’re really pushing it.”
What is he talking about? I don’t have an attitude. If he had just left like he promised, we wouldn’t be having this argument. Hearing Rhonda laughing, ugh, he’s still in there. Pulling my tank over my head, I finish my hair and apply an elastic headband before grabbing my shirt and going into my formal living room before Aiden gets the urge to tell them that we were up all night screwing, you never know with him.
“Hey mama,” Rhonda says as I enter the living room, “let me see that rock!”
Michelle and Camille come over to join her to see my ring with huge smiles on their faces. “Aiden, this is nice,” Rhonda says with sassiness in her voice, “you did very well.” Glancing over my shoulder at Aiden, I try hard not to smile, but I fail miserably. From the look in his eyes, he’s really happy about this engagement so I guess I’m not so mad at him for still being here.
“Girl, I can’t wait to tell Sebastian about the engagement and this bad ass ring. You did very, very well Aiden,” Camille says.
Michelle leans over to give me a hug. I know from talking to my mom that she and Ronnie are still having problems in their marriage and are going through counseling. “Your ring is beautiful, Sharon. I’m so happy for the two of you, oh, I mean the four of you.”
“Well ladies,” Aiden says, “I’d better get going so that your day of fun can begin.” Looking at each other, we all start laughing. Coming over to kiss me on the cheek, he whispers in my ear, “try to keep this shirt on all day, okay.” Rolling my eyes at him, hoping that no one heard his stupid remark, I just ignore him. Opening the door to leave, “Sharon, do you need anything before I leave?”
Why won’t he just leave? “No, what would I need?” Glancing over at Rhonda, who has her nosy antennae up, I’m silently praying that he doesn’t say anything to embarrass the hell out of me.
“I’m just making sure that you don’t need my credit c
ard for your purchases today.”
What? He’s never offered his credit card to me before. Trying to stifle my attitude in front of the girls, “I have my own credit cards.”
“Just making sure, love you, bye ladies.” And finally, he leaves.
Rhonda goes back over to the couch to take a seat, crossing her legs, “girl, I didn’t realize how fine Aiden is, when he answered that door barefoot with his jeans hanging low and that just fucked hair, I had to remind myself that he is your man, damn! And did you see that swagger, boy is packing!”
Did she just say Aiden is fine? Why in the hell is she looking at him like that? Sometimes, Rhonda can go too far. Even Camille and Michelle seem taken back by her awkward comment. Trying not to get mad at her, I decide to change the subject, “Michelle, what time did you get here this morning?”
“Actually, I got into town on yesterday and spent some time with my dad and stepmom in Los Angeles.”
Realizing that Michelle and I are making small talk while excluding Rhonda, Camille interjects, “well ladies, shall we get this show on the road, I want to shop until I drop today.”
“Making our way to the door to leave, Rhonda grabs my arm, “hey sis, I didn’t mean to offend you. But, Aiden is a very handsome man and honestly, I never paid attention to how sexy he is. Will you forgive me?”
Rhonda is not one to apologize, so when she does, it’s a big deal. “I forgive you. I think I was just shocked to hear you say that about him.”
“Well you know me,” she says, “sometimes what comes up, comes out, and that’s no excuse. I know for a fact, I’d be looking at you sideways if you said something like that about Michael.”
“You’re right, you would, and for the record, I would never make a tacky comment about your man,” I say, as I punch in the code to my house alarm as we leave my house for our day out.
Walking out to get into Camille’s SUV, Rhonda says, “so he’s your man now?”
Giggling as we get into the truck, “having his babies makes him my man for the time being.”
His Choice, Her Decision Page 18
