Ever After (Heart of Stone #3.5)

I sat up and wriggled out of my shirt and skirt, leaving me in my bra and panties. “I wonder if Superman needs help to get his wife’s clothes off,” I joked.

Tristan rolled his eyes as he pulled me back on top of him. “Only if Lois Lane is wearing Kryptonite underwear. But she wouldn’t look as incredible as you do right now.”

Straddling his hips, I sat up and unhooked my bra as he lightly teased his fingers along the waistband of my panties. “Even if she didn’t match like me?”

He licked his lips and stared at the path his fingers traced over the crease of my leg. “I wouldn’t care if you wore a burlap sack. You’d still be the most incredible woman on Earth.” Looking up, he winked. “Luckily, you’re mine. Superman’s going to have to find his own woman.”

Pulling me down to lay on top of him, he hooked his thumbs on the sides of my panties and jerked them off my body. “Hey! I like those panties. They weren’t built to withstand the caveman thing.”

With a grunt, he slid out of his pants and boxer briefs. “I’ll get you a new pair. Now stop talking and let me show you what I was thinking about during my afternoon meeting.”

He captured my mouth with his and kissed me hard, as if he’d missed the feel of my lips for weeks. Already rock hard, it only took a slight tilting of his hips and he was pushing into me. My body craved his, craved the feel of him inside me touching parts of me that only he knew how to excite. An expert at knowing exactly how to make my body sing, he stroked into me slowly, like the sensation of each inch of his cock entering me was something to be relished and appreciated, even now after we’d known each other as intimately as any two people could for over a year.

My fingers pressed into the back of his neck as I clung to him, loving the feel of our bodies joining as much as I had the first time we made love. Whatever exhaustion I’d felt just hours before was gone, replaced by a renewed need for that wonderful feeling being with him created in me.

Tristan cradled my face and grimaced sweetly as he stopped, filling me completely. “God, Nina, I wasn’t sure we’d ever find our way to this place we’re at now.”

His eyes were so full of emotion I wondered if there was something wrong, something bad he had to tell me. I waited, my body clinging to his as he stared up at me, each second ticking by making me sure there was something wrong. “Tristan, is everything okay?”

With a smile that made every worry I had fade away, he said, “Everything’s perfect.”

He said nothing more as we continued to make love, and as he took my body to that place only he could, I closed my eyes and thanked God for my husband. As he came, he held me tightly and kissed me, whispering how much he loved me.

“Promise me we’ll never turn into people who forget why they got married,” I asked, loving moments like this. “I never want this to end.”

“I promise,” he whispered into my hair. “No matter what, we’ll be the people we are right now.

His heartbeat slowly returned to its normal rhythm as I rested my head on his chest, his strong arms wrapped around me, protecting me as his promise eased my soul. No matter what, I hoped we’d always be the people we were at that moment.

Hours later, as he slept quietly next to me in bed, I sat awake, exhausted yet unable to sleep because of the fears that had settled into my mind. Something was wrong with me. I knew it. I needed to see a doctor and face whatever this was.

Tristan left for work early, and I pushed away my fear to call for a doctor’s appointment. As if fate knew I’d be on edge until I find out what was making me sick, I was lucky enough to get one that afternoon. Hopefully, I’d find out all my fears were for nothing.

Hopefully.

Chapter Two

Nina

Dr. Anshon’s waiting room teemed with people, all of us struggling to find something to read to avoid making small talk as we sat there stressed out about whatever sickness we each had. A dog-eared copy of Marie Claire was all that was left on the table in front of me, so I picked it up and pretended to read about the best hairstyles for last year’s holiday season, all the while unable to concentrate on anything but the fear that what was wrong with me was what took my mother from me all those years ago.

I had so many things I wanted to do. After all Tristan and I had endured to be together, I’d hoped we’d have a child or even a house full of children. Ever since he told me about his dream of those twin girls—our twin girls—I’d hoped that we’d be blessed, but every month my period came just as it always had since I was fourteen and every month I consoled myself with the idea that there was no need to hurry.

That we had our whole lives to look forward to, and of course, we’d have children eventually.

Now I worried that our time had already been cut short, and we’d never have a family. Just the thought of everything being taken away from me brought me to tears, but as I sat there in that waiting room with others wearing the same look of concern, I had to remind myself that all this was just speculation. I could just need a B12 shot, or I might need to get more exercise. I had gained a few pounds since we returned from Europe, so that might be it.

Feeling better for the moment, I looked around at the waiting room’s décor. On the pale teal blue walls hung pictures of nature scenes, each one focusing on an exotic location. The one closest to where I sat looked to be a tropical setting, and the artist had chosen iridescent blues and greens for the water lapping up on the beach. It consumed my thoughts for a few minutes as I fantasized about us taking our next vacation to an island just like it, and then I was back to worrying.

“Nina Stone,” a voice called out, and I looked to my left to see Dr. Anshon’s nurse Jana smiling at me.

I stood and as we walked back to the examination room, we made small talk, mostly about my name change, which she had read about in the paper. No matter how low key Tristan and I had tried to make our wedding, it had ended up on Page Six, minus any pictures, of course.

Jana pointed at the scale in the room. “Let’s see how much you weigh, Nina.”

I removed my shoes, hoping to shave off any extra pounds I could. It was no use. I knew I’d gained some weight. My clothes told me every morning. I just didn’t know how much.

“135. Okay, hop up on the table and let’s get your pressure and temperature.”

As the evidence of my brand new ten pounds resonated in my mind, I took my seat on the paper covered examination table and Jana attached the blood pressure cuff to my right bicep. My arm felt like it was going to explode, but I was preoccupied with my weight gain. Ten pounds would certainly explain my feeling run down. Dragging around extra weight like that would tire anyone out. It was salads for me from now on.

Jana told me my blood pressure and temperature, but I didn’t pay attention. I was too busy feeling relieved. This wasn’t going to be so bad, after all.

The door opened and Dr. Anshon came in, her bright smile easing any leftover concerns that still plagued me. I’d seen her since I’d first moved to Brooklyn, and every time her warm smile had made me feel better. A petite woman with dark brown hair and brown eyes, she was beautiful in an unconventional way since her eyes were too small for her face, but that smile of hers made up for that slight imperfection.

“Mrs. Nina Stone, I presume?” she teased in a sweet voice. “Jana told me she saw the write-up about your wedding to none other than Tristan Stone himself, Nina. She didn’t show me a picture, though.”

A blush warmed my cheeks. Lowering my head, I couldn’t help but smile. “We tried to keep it small, but everything about Tristan seems to attract the attention of the gossip pages.”

“From now on, you should expect that everything you do will cause them to wag their tongues too, Nina,” Jana said from the chair next to me.

She wasn’t wrong. I knew all too well that the paparazzi would be all over me visiting a doctor, so my two new bodyguards had made sure no one saw me and I’d even gone in the back door to the building, just to make sure. It all seemed ridiculous to me, but what did I know? I didn’t care one bit about anyone’s doctor’s appointments but mine.

“Yeah, well, I’m just me. There’s nothing interesting to report on me, so they can stick to writing about real celebrities.”

Dr. Anshon sat down in front of me on her rolling stool and looked up. “So what are you here for today?”

All of a sudden, everything I’d worried about flooded back into my mind and I choked up as I tried to explain what I’d been feeling. “I’m sure it’s nothing…I mean, now that I know I’ve packed on a few pounds, I’m sure it’s that.”

“Just tell me what’s going on and we’ll figure it out,” Dr. Anshon said in her comforting voice.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, allowing my shoulders to sag as I tried to relax. “I’m tired all the time. No matter how much sleep I get, I’m exhausted. As you see on my chart, I’ve gained ten pounds. I know I probably shouldn’t have, but I went online to try to find out what’s going on with me and other than being relatively sure I don’t have the Plague, I don’t know what’s wrong.”