No Strings Attached

Part 28 - No Strings Attached

"Rick..." she whispered, flicking her eyelashes up suggestively.

"Kimberley... you need some rest."

"No." She said

"Kimberley..."

"Rick." She insisted, "It will make me feel better. You said that the last time - and it did! I promise."

We'd slept together once since...I wasn't sure whether it was something she'd want, but we'd talked and it had just ended up happening. I relished the closeness, the intimacy I could have with my wife - he wouldn't take that from us. I wouldn't let him.

But now? Now she just seemed so unbearably sad, it was breaking my heart.

"Look Kimberley, I don't want to... I mean... do you really want to do this? Now?"

She sighed, then shook her head and laid down, pulling on my shoulders.

"Just hold me Rick. Hold me and tell me that everything's going to be okay..."

She untied her dressing gown and slipped it off her shoulders, making me lie down next to her.

I wrapped my hands around her waist and breathed in her scent, watching her tears drop onto the pillow, I reached over and wiped them from her eyes.

"I love you Kimberley Alonso, I love you so much..."

As her eyes fluttered shut and her breathing became steady, I whispered soothing words in her ear, just hoping and praying she'd find it in herself to overcome this.

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Kimberley's P.O.V.

It had been two months since I lost the baby and I was slowly getting back to normal. Riccardo had told me every day he loved me more than the last.

I wiped the bead of sick away from the corner of my mouth and sighed. I'd lost count of the amount of times I was throwing up recently. What would Rick think?

Oh God. I couldn't be. I mustn't be. I was pregnant? But I couldn't be.

I'd slept with Riccardo twice since...once two weeks after I'd left the hospital and once two nights ago.

That couldn't be possible could it? It wouldn't make sense?

I opened the bathroom medicine cupboard and lifted up the small piece of loose wood.

Reaching inside, I grabbed a small foiled box and ripped it open.

I looked down at the new stick in my hands.

I did what I needed to do and waited.

"Kimberley!" Rick shouted, "Kimberley!"

I shoved the test into the wooden crack and shut the cupboard, sneaking a peek at the result.

Positive.

But as a seed of hope sprang afresh, a warm feeling spreading through my chest, the storm clouds gathered.

If I had slept with Riccardo only two weeks after Ryan had...violated me so brutally, what the hell could that mean?

Oh God... could Ryan be the father of my unborn child... the man who had forced himself on me... It made me want to retch just thinking about it. What if it was Ryan's? Would he want rights? Would he try and take my baby away from me? A sob rose in my throat and I clasped my hand over my mouth.

If it was Ryan's, I'd get rid of it, then again, if it was Rick's, I'd get rid of it.

I couldn't take the stress. The risk. The fear of putting all of my love into a baby again, and then having it snatched away from me.