Natasha's Awakening (54 page)

The fluttering started again and realisation dawn, Natasha knew what it was. Eric who was still lying on her held in place by her arms and legs, suddenly stiffened and he pulled back, breaking free of her restraining arms and legs. His eyes settled on her stomach, alarm in his expression but when he look up at Natasha, she was smiling at him, wonder in her gaze, her hand pressing down on the curve of her baby bump. She laughed, her eyes bright and she grabbed Eric’s hand, pressing his palm flat against her stomach. The fluttering started again and his eyes shot back to her face. “Is that...?” He started to ask and Natasha grinned.

“That’s our babies Eric. You felt them? They’re saying hello.” And she reached up to cup his cheek. Eric dropped a kiss on her lips before lowering his head to her stomach, his ear against her. Natasha slipped her hand into his hair, playing with the silky strands as he rested on her. It was a special moment for them both, feeling their babies moving for the first time. It was real now. They were going to be parents and Natasha couldn’t have been happier about that.

Eric lifted his head to look at her. “They aren’t pissed off at us are they?” He asked and Natasha’s expression was questioning as she met his eyes.

“Why on earth would they be pissed off?”

Eric sat up. “Because of what we just did.” He said and Natasha laughed at his serious expression.

“Don’t be silly Eric. They don’t know what’s happening. They obviously aren’t hurt, they’re just wriggling around, letting us know they’re here.” She said. “Stop worrying so much. Women have sex while they’re pregnant and the babies aren’t hurt. If you think I’m going to wait until after they’re born to have sex again, you can forget it. The doctor told me it’s ok, just so long as I don’t feel sick and I feel fine, better now.” She said shyly and Eric’s gaze softened as he looked at her.

“Still.” She said, sitting up. “I need a shower. I’m lying in a wet patch here and it’s not that comfortable.” She complained and Eric grinned.

“You weren’t kidding when you said you were horny.” He teased and Natasha couldn’t control the blush that coloured her cheeks. “Yeah, well it’s not all just me Mr.” She said, climbing off the bed. Eric got up too and took her hand. “Come on baby, we’ll shower together.” He said and led her into the bathroom.

After they had showered and dressed again, Natasha realised she felt ravenously hungry. Her stomach growled to confirm that and Eric laughed. “Come on, you and those babies need food.” Together they walked to the lift and went down to the lower level.

Alice was in the kitchen when they walked in. She turned to them both, her eyes moving from one to the other. A smile lit up her face at the obvious shift in their behaviour. “Alice when you get a chance the bed needs changing in the master bedroom.” Eric told her. “Miss Barrington took advantage of me.” He joked and Alice clicked her tongue in disapproval at him before smiling sympathetically at Natasha, who turned bright red. She shot a look that should have killed Eric, but he just grinned back at her, ignoring her obvious discomfort.

“I’m pleased to see you two are getting along better.” Alice said. “It’s about time.”

When Alice left the room to go and do as Eric requested, Natasha turned to him angrily. “Why did you say that to her?” She snapped.

Eric laughed. “Lighten up baby. I’ve known Alice a long time, it’s fine. She’s a friend of Maggie’s so I’ve known her for years.” He explained.

Natasha couldn’t hide her surprise. “But Alice is so much more formal than Maggie. She always addresses you as Mr Rothman.”

“Alice has always done that out of respect baby. She calls me Eric when we’re alone, but never in front of anyone else. Don’t be embarrassed. I’m sure Alice is thrilled that she needs to change the bed because we’ve made love. She’s got to have noticed that I’ve been like a bear with a sore head all the time. The sexual frustration has been driving me crazy baby.” He told her.

“Well, you’re the one who decided you couldn’t touch me Eric. Hopefully now you’ll realise I’m not made of glass. I’ve gone crazy all these weeks too. I don’t know why but I’m craving sex all the time.”

Eric’s eyes heated. “So does that mean you’re going to wear me out? You’re going to be using and abusing me?” He asked, amusement in his gaze.

“Well.” She said slyly. “There’s always Mr Jack Rabbit if you find you can’t keep up.” She told him tongue in cheek and watched as Eric’s gaze darkened.

“There will be no Jack Rabbit unless I’m using it on you baby.” He told her.

Suddenly a horrified expression came over her face. “Oh god, the damned vibrator was on the bed and now Alice is up there. I’m going to die. How will I be able to look her in the face again?” She said mortified.

When Eric’s response was to burst out laughing, Natasha hit him on the arm. “Ow baby, you’re so violent.” He rubbed at his arm, pretending to be in pain. “Stop worrying. I’m sure Alice has seen a vibrator before. She might even have one.” He said in a mock whisper. “Plus she’s very discreet.” He assured her.

Somehow his attempt to reassure her wasn’t working. “Still, you didn’t need to make it so obvious what we’d been doing.” Natasha grumbled.

Eric grinned at her. “Sorry baby, but with the noise you were making, I’m sure the whole neighbourhood knows what we’ve been doing. Alice knew, I could see it in her face when we walked in the kitchen. Stop worrying, stop getting embarrassed baby. I’m sure Alice would have been thrilled to know things are better between us.” He said.

Natasha hit him again. “I wasn’t the only one making some noise Mr.” She said, poking her finger in his chest.

Alice picked that moment to walk back into the kitchen having finished upstairs and Natasha did everything she could to avoid her eyes, feeling her cheeks heat up when Alice served the platter of sandwiches she’d made. Natasha thanked her, her eyes on the plate and she managed to shoot a death stare at Eric when he started laughing again. Glad he was finding the whole thing so amusing.

“We felt the babies move today Alice.” Eric broke the uncomfortable silence in the kitchen and a broad smile lit up Alice’s face.

“Oh that’s wonderful. You two must be so excited now.” Natasha smiled, her eyes still downcast and Eric nodded, agreeing that they were thrilled to feel their babies moving. Eric watched Natasha eating for a while, before helping himself to some of the large pile of sandwiches in front of them.

“Mmm, these are great Alice. Suddenly I feel so hungry, can’t imagine why.” He said and he turned that slow sexy smile of his on Natasha, watching as she squirmed in her seat and glared at him. She was going to kill him soon if he didn’t stop.

“Oh Eric, leave the poor girl alone.” Alice scolded him. Natasha noticed that she’d called him Eric in front of her.

“Eric was saying you’re a friend of Maggie’s.” Natasha said and Alice nodded.

“Yes, we’ve been friends for over 10 years. That’s how I came to know this one.” She tilted her head at Eric. “I’ve been working for him for about eight years now.” She told Natasha and Natasha’s lips twisted,

“You poor woman.” She smirked at Eric and Alice laughed.

“He’s not so bad pet, just doesn’t know when to leave well enough alone sometimes.” She said shooting a stern look at him.

Alice finished cleaning up in the kitchen and turned to them. “If that will be all, I’ll head home for a few hours until dinner time.” She looked between them, a questioning look on her face and Eric told her they were fine. “Well, I’ll see you two later.” She said, removing her apron. “And you.” She pointed at Eric. “Leave the poor girl alone.” And with that, she left them, and headed back to her cottage.

                                                                             Chapter 24

The next few weeks passed by quickly leading up to Natasha’s eighteen week check up and ultra sound. Her and Eric were going along better than Natasha could have hoped for. He was attentive, caring and made love to her every night and if work permitted, sometimes he would bring her deliciously awake in the mornings to his slow, sensual invasion of her body.

On the day of her ultra sound, Natasha waited nervously for Eric to get home from work early enough to take her in to the doctor’s. As the time went by and no Eric, she started to get more and more worried he wasn’t going to arrive in time, then when the time came and Natasha had to leave without him having arrived home, she had gone from worried to angry. Didn’t he care about seeing his babies?

She was dressed and ready to leave, her bladder reminding her that it was full but she had to go for the ultra sound with a full bladder and she cursed whoever it was that decided ultra sounds for pregnant women had to be conducted with a full bladder. “Has to be a man.” She grumbled as she paced impatiently waiting for Eric.

Alice walked through from the kitchen and saw Natasha pacing. “Is Mr Rothman not back yet?” She asked.

“No Alice, he’s not. I need to go soon and if he’s not back in time, it’s too late for the limo and Eric will get his panties in a twist if I drive. I don’t want to be late.” She wailed.

“I’ll drive you pet, come on. You shouldn’t be getting yourself so stressed.” Alice said.

Natasha almost collapsed with relief. “You can? You can drive me? Oh thank you Alice, thank you.” Natasha hugged the older woman. “I’m so sorry for putting you out like this.” Natasha grabbed her bag, “I’m going to kill Eric I swear.”

“Why am I about to die?” Eric’s voice came from behind her and Natasha swung around towards him. He looked tired and the tension was visible on his face. He’d loosened his tie and undone the top button of his shirt and looked devastatingly gorgeous as per usual in his charcoal grey suit, but Natasha was too worked up over him being late for his blatant sexuality to affect her today.

“Where the hell have you been?” She snapped. “I almost left without you. If it hadn’t of been for Alice offering me a lift I’d be late. Of course if someone wasn’t such a bossy , overbearing pain in my butt most of the time, I’d have just driven myself.” Natasha yelled.

As she continued to rant and rave at him, his expression went from angry to icy cold. His eyes so cold, she actually shivered when she looked into them. “Are you going to stand here for the rest of the day yelling at me or are we going to get going before we really are late for your appointment?” He asked, his voice carefully controlled in that way that Natasha knew meant he was dangerously close to strangling her.

Natasha never knew when to leave him alone though and snapped, “Well, I guess now you’re here, you might as well come with me.” She stormed past him and out the front door. She heard Eric give his apologies to Alice and he followed her out to the waiting limo.

Once they were both inside and driving to the doctor’s clinic, Natasha became aware of a sickly sweet odour in the car. When she started sniffing the air, she noticed the smell was stronger near Eric. He smelled very strongly of perfume, women’s perfume. She looked over at him, searching for the tell tale lipstick on the collar, anything. There was nothing obvious and she couldn’t really accuse him of having an affair based on his collar being undone and his tie loosened off as he looked like that every day after work.

Eric was still sitting in stony cold silence in the car but after a while he noticed the way she was staring, her eyes shooting daggers at him. “Dammit it Natasha, enough with this crap now. I got held up and I was almost too late, but that’s the key word, almost. If you think I’m going to sit through the rest of the drive and then the ultra sound looking at your scowling face, you can forget it.” Eric’s tone was harsh.

“Where have you been? Why were you late?” Natasha’s tone was accusing. She sniffed at him again. “Why do you smell like perfume and don’t try and tell me that’s your after shave because that’s women’s perfume I can smell.”

“Are you serious Natasha? You’re going to act like a jealous housewife now? We’re on the way for your ultra sound.” Eric’s voice was devoid of emotion, his eyes expressionless when he turned to face her. Natasha watched his face, wondering why his mood had gone the way it had, why he suddenly seemed so closed off.

“Why won’t you tell me where you’ve been?” She asked, fear pooling in her stomach. “I can smell perfume on you. Just tell me where you were. Why were you so late? Dammit Eric, say something.” She yelled when he continued to sit there silent, just watching her.

“I’m not having this discussion in the car Natasha. If you can’t trust me, that’s your insecurities showing. I haven’t done anything wrong so stop trying to turn this into a pointless argument.” He said and Natasha could have screamed at Eric. Any further opportunity to question him was lost when the driver pulled up outside the doctor’s clinic. Somehow the excitement over seeing her babies for the first time had lost its edge because of the tension between her and Eric and the unanswered questions that spoke volumes as far as she was concerned.

Together they walked into the clinic and Eric went to take Natasha’s hand, but she pulled away from him, leaving him with no choice but to drop his hand back against his side. The look he shot her, told her she was going to be in a lot of trouble for her behaviour, but she didn’t care. She wasn’t the one at fault, he was.

Fortunately the doctor called her in straight away because Natasha was growing more and more uncomfortable with her full bladder. Of course the tension between her and Eric wasn’t helping either and because of that, she couldn’t shake the miserable mood she was in, even when she looked over at the monitor seeing the images of their babies for the first time. Of course, to both of them, they weren’t obvious at first until the doctor traced the outline of their tiny babies for them to see.

Eric’s face was impossible to read as he looked at the screen although he did give Natasha an enquiring look when the doctor asked if they wanted to know the sex of their babies. “I didn’t want to know at first.” She said. “But I think I would like to now.” She turned to Eric, “What about you?” She asked and after a moment’s hesitation, he nodded. The doctor’s eyes moved between the two of them, aware something was going on. Still that probably wasn’t too hard to work out as tension was radiating off both of them and the fact that neither said more than a couple of words to each other, or even made eye contact wasn’t hard for anyone else to see.