the interlude. Still Darcy cradled the soft bulge, silent and at peace with his wife in his arms and the newfound connection charging through his veins. He could almost hear his heart expanding, each beat sending life-giving blood to the cells created to love this addition to his family, his head dizzy with the glorious feelings flooding over him.
“I love you, Elizabeth. You are a marvelous gift to me, and now you are blessing my life further with our children. I will be content with whatever God allots us, but I must say I selfishly wish for many.”
“Be careful what you ask for,” Lizzy chuckled. “
“It makes no never mind. I absolutely adore being a father and will gladly accept them all.”
“I shall note that remark in my journal in case I need to jog your memory of such a bold promise. The next one may well possess my personality, or worse yet, your father and George’s!”
He smiled benignly, cupping her face and rubbing a thumb over her cheek. “I will take my chances.” The kiss that followed was lengthy but soothing and soft. His fingertips brushed over her jaw for a momentary caress before returning to cradle the mound where his second child lay. With his other arm he drew her closer to his body, Lizzy instinctively curling and melting into the contours of his form.
A low hum of pleasure purred from the back of her throat when he finally released her lips, the sound wafting as a breath over the curve of his neck when she buried her face there. He held her, contentment a tangible blanket surrounding their bodies, and continued to fondle the pillowy swell for a long while. The baby moved occasionally, faint and fluttery but discernible now that he knew what to expect, but remained quiet for the most part. Eventually Darcy’s eyes grew heavy and he carried his sleeping wife to their bed to nestle with his hand tight over her belly and unconscious mind registering every prod.
Toward morning but while the sun yet hid below the surface of their area of the world, Darcy was roused by movement on Lizzy’s side of the bed and a brief but cold blast of air across his shoulders. He was on his back and rolled toward the space she typically occupied, only then sleepily assimilating that what roused him was her returning to bed.
“Why were you up?” he grated.
“Nature’s duties. I apologize for waking you.” He garbled something that sounded like
He grabbed her anyway, strong arms slipping her over the sheets as if a feather, the heat radiating off his skin pouring through her. “Do not be ridiculous,” he rumbled, sending fresh shivers through her flesh, although not from the cold as Darcy thought. “I will have you warm in seconds.”
It was true. She cuddled against his hard chest and leeched the heat generated in droves by his internal furnace. She cinched her icy feet between his naked shins and while they thawed, the remainder of her body flared quickly to hot, especially with his hands drowsily rubbing over her back.
“It may warm up during the day, but at night it is as freezing as December,” she murmured, pressing an icicle nose onto his breastbone.
He chuckled, the hoarse sound reverberating under her face. “Trust me, it is much colder here in December. I will stir up the fire.” He started to draw away, but Lizzy clutched onto his thigh and held fast.
“No need. I am quite warm now. I have my own personal fire and he rapidly incites my internal flames.” And just in case he missed the innuendo she kissed his chest and caressed pointedly up his thigh and around to his rear.
Darcy, of course, was not an imbecile even if half asleep. The lazy caressing continued for several minutes while Lizzy planted kisses across his chest and Darcy smiled into her lavender scented hair. He snaked a hand under the thick nightgown she wore during the winter, pushing the cloth upward as his hand skimmed over her leg. He sighed contentedly, allowing the excitement to build in languid increments, savoring the tactile delight of her skin under his palm without a conscious agenda.
“He is quite active at this moment.”
Her whispered words broke into the silence, momentarily halting the fingers trailing over her hipbone. Eagerly they altered their random path, purposefully brushing along her inner thigh until reaching the swell above. As she said, the baby was moving with gentle nudges against his palm.
“Hmm… Wonderful. You continually say ‘he’ as if sure of the sex. Another vivid dream as with Alexander?”
“No. Not this time. More of a feeling.”
“Ah,
“As scientific as my dream, but that proved true.”
“Very well then. I suppose that means we do not have to assign a female name, and since Alexander was instantly agreed upon, we have a task on our hands. Any choices? Do you wish to name him after your father?”
“Thomas? Perhaps, although we could reserve it as a secondary name after your father’s. James should be chosen before Thomas.”
“I do want to pay homage to my father if possible, yes. However, I do want to add Charles as a secondary name as well, if you do not mind? He is a dear friend and instrumental in my meeting you.” He gently drew her away from his chest, attempting to see her eyes in the dark, but to no avail so he kissed her instead, his fingertips flittering over her most sensitive zones while maintaining contact with their unborn child.
“How sweet,” she said once her mouth was released. “Charles is mutually agreed upon. So, we have numerous secondary name choices but nothing for the Christian name. Do you have a favorite?”
“I have always liked Nathaniel. And Adam. Not common, I know, but nice names.”
“Possible. What do you think of Gabriel? Lisle’s son is Gabriel and it struck me as pleasant.”
Suddenly Darcy chuckled. “Gabriel, Thomas, Nathaniel, Adam. I think we are cornering Biblical names!”
“Indeed,” she joined his laughter. “Of course, if we have this
“Does that mean Shadrach and Meshach are eliminated? And no on Potiphar or Boaz?”
She shook with laughter and a fair dose of arousal now that his fingers had crept to the apex between her legs and were confounding her senses with their antics. “Absolutely not! I have no urge to torture our son with a hideous name. What say we remain in the realm of non-ridiculing names like Matthew or Daniel or Michael…”
“Michael,” Darcy interrupted, although Lizzy’s voice had paused on the name. Even his fingers had ceased moving, a fact Lizzy did not initially register as she too was dwelling on the name. “That has a nice ring. Michael. Michael Darcy. Michael Charles Darcy. What do you think?” He tried vainly to see her eyes, but the room was still too dark. He felt her gaze upon his face, the gap of inches separating allowing him to feel her exhaled breaths. Somehow he knew she was smiling.
“I love it. Yes, very much. It does not have to be definitively settled as yet, but… It fits for some inexplicable reason. Michael Darcy.”
“Michael Darcy. Yes. At least the choice for the present and much better than Methuselah. Shall we seal it with a kiss, Mrs. Darcy?”
“More than a kiss please,” spoken huskily and with a demanding press to the immobile hand resting on her pubis.
“As you wish, my love.” His fingers resumed their teasing, Lizzy moaning and arching into the magic that was his touch.
Baby names were forgotten in the wake of escalating incitement. Lizzy’s amorousness that was dampened while discussing the baby flared into a raging inferno of desire. This was becoming a pattern and Darcy teased that her fervency was due to pregnancy wrecking havoc on her insides. It was true that she typically possessed more restraint in comparison to his voracious sexual appetite, but her craving for him at odd times was not unheard of, pregnant or not. Whatever the truth, his skillful manipulations rapidly achieved the desired results. Then his lips left her mouth to travel down her neck to the breast freed from the gown’s bodice with a flick of his little finger and he drew the sensitized, puckered nipple in for a sharp suck instantly turning her pants to gasping shouts as spasms buffeted through every muscle.
Darcy groaned, growled really, but held on and rode the cresting wave of her release, encouraging the
