Morgan

“Beautiful,” I whisper into the crisp mid evening air. A gentle chill wraps around us and I tug the blanket tighter around us, snuggling close to Michael. For the past two weeks, we’ve been dedicating more time toward each other. With his career as an artist gaining more momentum and my catering services taking off since the success of launching at his art show, we’ve been non-stop busy. We’ve learned from experience if we don’t stop to take time for ourselves and our relationship, it’s very easy to get swept up in the grandeur of success and insecurities. Aside from that, we also like connecting with each other; stopping to assess and reflect on each other’s needs.

It’s just us. Him and I.

No outside influences.

We stopped for a quick lunch at his mom’s, left Rufus there for the weekend, and we hit the road to travel back to where it started. On our cliff. Where we discovered the beauty of new love. The familiar tunes of our love story play softly around us in sync with nature as they welcome us back. “The scenery gets better every time we come back. If I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe it myself,” I continue with a feather soft whisper, afraid to break the spell with my voice raised a decibel higher.

His arms wind around me tighter as he tucks his chin on my shoulder, and his gentle breath blows through the whisps of my hair. “I don’t think it’s the sight, it’s more the company. I wouldn’t have enjoyed this as much with anyone else. You are the magic that makes this entire experience mystical.” He presses a soft, lingering kiss on the nape of my neck that makes my entire being hum. “You, and only you.”

I turn my head back to look into his eyes. The same eyes that once held all the promises in them now holds all our truths. All our secrets. Most importantly, all his love. His eyes linger on my lips as he lowers his to mine, effectively quieting my thoughts. I sigh into the kiss as he maneuvers me down onto the blanket beneath us. My arms circle around his neck as the remaining sunlight reflects on the band from the promise ring he gave me, casting a soft glow I smile, remembering the night in question, as my heart begins to gallop in my chest. He follows my line of vision and catches my hand in his only to press it on his chest, directly on his heart. His other hand cradles my head, his eyes meet mine.

No words are needed.

The silent message we deliver one another is expressed clearly. This love is ours and once in a lifetime. He resumes his kisses on my lips as His soft lips travels down toward my neck. My eyes close, reveling in the feel of his smooth lips upon my skin. My senses heighten as a moan escapes my lips. My back arches slightly off the ground as my legs open to allow him to settle in between them. He pushes my shirt up slightly, exposing my lower tummy to him and his advances. “I can’t wait until you have our kid in here.” He presses another kiss there with a twinkle in his eye. We’re not pregnant yet, but we have discussed it on many occasions.

He wants a daughter with my smile, and I want a boy with his eyes. The same eyes that can talk me down from my mental storms. We have big plans before any family outside of Rufus is created. We want a joint business that can house both of what we love. I’ll teach how to bake simple pastries and he’ll take over and help people paint beautiful images while they munch on what they baked. Everything that they create will be entirely from the heart. It will be called Expressions.

Between the baby idea and our own collective businesses, we have our hands full as is. It doesn’t stop us from dreaming of someday. Nothing ever will. I glance down at him, my smile blooming on my face. “He’ll have the best father to look up to. Someone who can teach him how to treat girls and help do home projects with.”

“She’ll have an amazing mother who she can bake with and have identical patches of on her face, matching her mom’s. It’ll make an adorable duo.” He emphasizes the gender, dead set on having a girl. His fixation on having a little girl is adorable and endearing.

“Oh yeah?” I giggle as my hand latches onto his and he draws himself up over me. “Humor me for a second,” I feel myself smirk, “what if it’s a boy first? Or we have all boys?” I ask.

His eyes smolder, taking me in, the way only he can. Like it doesn’t matter how long or how much he looks at me, he’ll always find me beautiful. “It wouldn’t matter. You will still be the best mother to all my children,” he declares.

My cheeks pink and I tug him a little closer to me. How did I find myself so lucky to have someone who thinks the world of me? And to think I almost gave him up. He smirks, like he’s privy to my thoughts and nuzzles me. “You’ll never get rid of me.” His lips descend onto mine and I open my lips and let him in. After an intense make out session, we slowly come back to Earth and catch our breathe. “Let’s take a walk.” He tugs my hand, pulling me up.  His arm finds its way around my neck, and I snuggle into his side.

We walk in companionable silence, enjoying each other’s company. I hear our feet squish in the ground from the muddy trail since it rained the day before. Something like mud would have stopped me from going on a hike before, but now I’m hiking without a care through mud and no doubts flitting through my mind. It’s not an overnight feat but more of a work in progress. My eyes seek out Michael as I laugh in my head at my own musings, only to find him already staring back at me with a secret look, a hint of amusement dancing in his hazel orbs.

“What?” I laugh, and my blush deepens.

“I have an idea.” His voice drawls with a rough growl and I feel my lady bits tighten in response.

***

“Hold still.” His eye squints, and he tilts his head to the side. His tongue peeks out the corner of his lips in concentration with a slight pull of his brow. My body shakes slightly as a gentle breeze blows around me, tossing my hair. If summer wasn’t around the corner the weather would be unbearable for me barely being covered. I desperately want to pull the blanket tighter around me, but the raise of his brows holds me captive.

He adjusts the lens on his camera, his eyes switching back and forth to the camera and to me. A lock of hair shifts in front of his face, but it doesn’t deter his attention. “Are you almost done?” I pout. The blanket is the only thing covering me, seeing as how he wanted me to pose Titanic style in front of the waterfall.

“Almost,” he draws out the word, while the corner of his mouth lifts in a half smile. He takes two more steps back. His head lifts from his camera and directs his gaze at me, the intensity of it making me blush. “You remember the time when we tried to sneak a quickie in at my mom’s house and Rufus almost ratted us out?” he asks randomly.

My brows wrinkle in confusion. “Yeah,” I answer hesitantly, wondering where he’s going with this.

“I thought for sure, my mother was going to walk around the corner and wonder what all the fuss was about and open the door.” He shakes his head as his neck pinks, lost in the memory. “I was this close from my orgasm, and you were shaking with laughter from the absurdity of it all. And every movement intensified my pleasure.” He chuckles and it sends an electrical current to me and right down to my nether regions. I squeeze my legs together in an attempt to hold off on my arousal. Any complaints about the weather is forgotten, my body is heated from being in heat like a horny cat. He clears his throat, bringing himself back from whatever memory he had. “Anyway, all I could think about as I was close to the edge was that this goddamn dog was the biggest cock block to ever exist, with the worst timing.  Also, I was not going out like some chump who couldn’t hold off and wait for his girl to finish and get off because you were laughing. I mean, come on,” he scoffs with a playful roll of his eyes. “But there I was in that same position and not only two minutes later, my mother comes by to see what the fuss was just as I come, letting myself go.”

 I burst out laughing, throwing my head back, remembering the moment. I had no idea why he was so awkward the rest of the day. His mom had gotten on him about eye contact when speaking to her. But every time he tried he was red as a tomato. “Oh my god, you knew she was on the other side of the door and you still came?” I lose myself in a fit of uncontrollable giggles.

“Precisely. Needless to say, I could not wait to finally get home. Dinner was excruciating.” He shakes his head good naturedly, with a soft smile.  He waits for my laughter to subside and beckons me over with a crook of his fingers. “Come look,” he instructs me.

I must have lost focus and not noticed he had already taken the picture. My body bursts with anticipation to see how the picture turned out. I pad over to him, excitedly and hover over his shoulder. My breath catches at how I look. I have a slight blush and my hair flows around me from the wind whipping my hair. You can tell that I was laughing hard but my smile is soft around the edges and my eyes crinkle from merriment. I’m clutching the blanket around me, but not too tightly. It makes me look confident where I don’t care if it falls down or not.

“This is how you looked to me when I first saw you. You had griped about having frosting all over you and a tear-stricken face. But this right here, this is how I really saw you…”  he explains.

This is the best thing he could have ever given me. To allow me to see myself through his eyes. My throat clogs with unreleased emotion, and my heart flutters wildly in my chest, reminding me all over again why I love this man so much.  “There’s was a vulnerability about you that captivated me, and I couldn’t get it out of my head. It struck me how beautiful you were, and you didn’t even notice. I wanted to capture that same vulnerability but in a different way. Now, you see. You’re…” he catches my eyes and swipes a tear that travels down my face.

“Beautiful,” I whisper, finishing his sentence.

I’m beautiful, I think once more before connecting my lips to his. And so is our love.

The End.