Titus had never considered Anna to be a risk taker or a sort of scientist. She had never really experimented with anything that pertained to her life, besides a few projects back in school; but here she was, using him as the controlled variable and herself as the manipulated. He stayed the exact same, and Anna changed whatever action she went through with next.
First, it had been that night so many weeks ago during their Christmas bonfire when she had all but forced him to lay down. On that very same day, she had massaged him, her own breath becoming much heavier than he knew for a fact she had been expecting.
During the weeks after that, he had been able to tell that she hadn't known what to think. A part of her must have been fighting it, but a part had also been slowly accepting it, as well. Which was understandable in the case that she didn't know how to transition from long time friendship with her fake husband to the more intimate stage that Titus knew she was constantly thinking about.
But she must have broken through, for there had been that night right before Tobias's and Jane's wedding when she had asked him to come to bed. There had even been a couch in the room where one of them most definitely would've slept on if it had been a few months before, but Anna had performed another one of her subconscious experiments.
And then there had been that day only a week ago at Napolm Elementary when he had brought her her lunch, had stayed for awhile, and had been about to leave when she pulled him back into a strong embrace. He still didn't know how long they had both held each other, instead of him just holding her. It still boggled his mind every time he thought about his attempted second departure, the one in which Anna had just barely brushed her lips against the corner of his mouth.
She had done it on purpose, he had been able to tell by the look in her eyes and the flushed hue to her cheeks. He still could tell that everything she was doing now, these small, tiny, tiny steps she was taking, were all on purpose because Anna did love him as more than a friend, but she just didn't have enough confidence to trust in herself.
She had never really been one to believe in herself, even more so now that she was pregnant. But here she was anyway, fiddling with her hands nervously as she blocked his view from the television screen. Her eyes made contact with his and then looked away again, her clothed body that had come home from school not even an hour ago fidgeting and doing the gestures that told him she was nervous.
From the way her tongue dabbed against her upper lip a few times, how her toes moved against the hardwood floor in a wave pattern, and the way in which the petite muscles in her jaw moving back and forth beneath the skin, he could tell Anna was frightened of what he would say in response to her question.
She had no reason to be. The answer would always be yes.
“You feelin' okay?” he asked, making his voice sound serious even though he knew this was just another one of what he liked to call 'experiments'.
“Can you...uhm...hold me?” she blurt out and then finally looked at him with everything he had ever wanted to see in those blue eyes.
He gulped and felt his eyes going wide. “When?”
Anna chuckled a little harshly at that. “N-now. It's kinda been a rough day.”
Patting the spot right next to him, Titus watched and tried to remain calm as Anna not only sat down beside him but also laid down onto the couch, pulling his arm so that he didn't have a choice in whether he wanted to hold her while sitting or while laying down. He preferred the latter and allowed his entire body to relax into the couch.
His muscles loosened, and his back was cushioned. With Anna right in front of him with her hand holding onto his in a sure grip, Titus found himself the controlled variable once again and didn't mind at all. If this was her way of beginning to build courage and as long as it involved him, he was more than completely fine with it.
“Thanks,” she said right before pushing her body back against his until everything was touching.
“Anytime.”
They stayed like that for awhile, not really watching whatever show was on the television. He just listened to her breathing while trying to discern whatever was going on in that big, complicated head of hers. As she kept his hands clasped right in front of her chest, a charge began to spark within the room.
It had been there ever since he could remember, but it had never heated up as much as it was now. Their bodies were pressed to each other's, and through the thin cotton material of their shirts, it was almost as if they were feeling each other skin to skin.
With her rear end in explicit content with his groin, Titus felt himself hardening against her. It happened every time, no matter how hard he fought to control it, but she didn't seem to mind this time. She just stayed in his arms as he thought and thought and thought about just what she was going to do this time. Be it from a kiss to the cheek or just another shift back into him, he'd gladly accept any of it.
“Quarter for your thoughts?”
Anna breathed out a light laugh. “It's 'penny for your thoughts'. You can't just swap out coin currency whenever you feel like it.”
“But your thoughts are more expensive,” he teased before purposely blowing his breath out onto her neck.
Anna shivered at that but replied, “Then it's a dollar for your thoughts.”
“But it's not my thoughts that I want to know.”
“Fine,” she said, her breath barely more than a whisper. “And which thoughts do you want to know?”
“There's an option to pick from?”
Anna nodded. “Yes. There's what I was thinking all day during school and what I'm thinking about now.”
“Why not both?” he asked, his breath hitting her neck so that she squirmed a little in his embrace.
“Can I turn around first?”
He didn't get to reply, for she was already worming her way around until she was facing him and her pregnant stomach was pressed against his. Her hands were almost trapped in between them, and Anna touched the top of his chest just barely so that his heart was right underneath her palm.
“At school, I was thinking about how much I would rather be here, on the couch with you right next to me. Seriously,” she said, letting out a shaky chuckle, “my social life has been reduced to this. Me and Sam never really do anything together, and I haven't seen any of my other friends in, like, forever.”
He opened his mouth to say something, but she put a hand over his mouth to stop his next works before continuing, “It's like my only friend is you, and it's kinda weird, ya know? I mean, I don't really mind all that much. Don't get me wrong, I love all my friends to death, but it feels better when we just spend time together.”
He smiled. “If it makes ya feel any better, I like you better than all my other friends.”
“You literally just said everything I tried to explain in one sentence,” she teased, her hands moving around to his shoulders to rub smooth, stroking circles along.
“You still have to tell me more.” At her confused look, he explained, “That was only about today, not now.”
“Oh,” she said and then pressed her face into his t-shirt before inhaling. “For starters, you smell pretty good.”
“I do, don't I?”
Anna raised her head to shoot him a look before putting it back down. “Don't interrupt. I'm literally only a week away until my third trimester. Enjoy the Anna that is happy and not emotional while you can.”
“You're always happy, though.”
“What did I just say about interrupting?”
“But how am I supposed to answer when everything I say is interrupting?” he teased, tucking her head underneath his chin.
The hands on his shoulders tightened. “What did I just say?”
After zipping his lips shut, locking them, and throwing away the imaginary key, Titus held his woman in his arms and waited to hear what she was having troubles saying.
“Good,” she said into his chest. “Well, now I'm thinking that about what's gonna happen when Ella's born. You're gonna be such a good father, and she's gonna love you to death, I just know it. And I-” Her voice broke a little bit as she raised her head to look up at him with teary, red-rimmed eyes. “I don't wanna just leave when she's still so young.
“I know it's selfish. You got your whole life ahead of you, but she's gonna miss you so much,” she explained, sniffling loudly and talking more to his chest than to him. “And I'm going to miss you so much, and I...I just don't wanna leave, okay?”
“Then don't,” he whispered, his voice cracking at just the thought of seeing his wife and daughter leaving – even if it was in the far future. “You don't have to leave.”
Anna pulled back just enough so that they were looking into each other's eyes. “Really?”
“Yes.” Titus nodded. “Really. You don't leave, and we raise Ella together. I'll beat off all the boys who are gonna be after her pretty, little head, and you give her that awkward sex talk when I finally allow her to start dating.”
“You're going to be that kind of father, huh?”
“Hell yes, I'm gonna be that sensible father that every daughter needs. I'll have my gun out on her first ever date.” Just like with you, he almost said but didn't.
He could still remember that day so many years ago when he and some of his family had stopped by their house for some sort of neighbor potluck. Anna had been dressed conservatively in a pair of jeans and a fashionable sweatshirt for the cold, her hair straightened and braided intricately to the side because she had been waiting for somebody to pick her up.
He had asked her father, Atticus, where she was going. And once the nonchalant father had told him, Titus had immediately driven back home, got the L.C. Smith from the safe, and had planted his ass in a lawn chair at the Simmons' front door. Evan had come to join him, a beer in his under aged hands and a vigilant set to slim shoulders.
At the ripe age of sixteen, Hunter had brought Anna home in some fancy car that his father had surely gifted him with. Titus could still see that insufferable grin on the boy's face as pure, raw protectiveness surged through his veins. Hunter had tried to make a move, he had been able to see through the window, but the boy had stopped short after seeing Titus there with a gun in his hands and a glare on his face.
After Anna had gotten out and Hunter had began backing up, Evan had told him to shoot out the tires of the damn car, and although he had wanted to do, he hadn't been able to.
There hadn't been any shells in the chamber.
“She'll meet some nice man, don't you worry,” Anna said.
“Emphasis on man and not some horny seventeen-year-old boy who'd fuck a tree if he could,” he found that yet another swear word had left his mouth, but now, he wasn't as stiff about it, just letting it slip past his lips and hearing Anna laugh beneath him.
“Is that what you did when you were that young?”
The question pushed an involuntary mixture of defensiveness and anger through his body. He hated rehashing that part of his past with her. It had been the time in his life when he had been one of the shallowest, most incredibly conceited men in all of Texas. Nobody – especially the woman in his arms – should have to see that whenever they looked at him.
“Sorry,” Anna whispered.
He cupped her cheek in his palm, smoothing the locks of hair that fell there. “Don't apologize. I just don't really wanna tell you about my...previous sex life.”
“When you had been a seventeen-year-old boy who'd fuck a tree if he could?” She gave him a small smile.
“First it's the lying and now the swearing?” He mock gasped, holding a hang to his heart. “Anna Rose Simmons, I cannot believe you! You're going to be a terrible influence on our child!”
“She is ours, isn't she?” Anna said more to herself than to him, innocent, tear-free eyes looking up at him with all the trust in the world.
He was about to say something when her stomach grumbled against him. It reminded him of an angry, demanding beast, and Titus couldn't stop himself from laughing as he remembered just how demanding Anna had been one night when they had run out of apples. Her hair had been messy, and her pajamas had been rumpled as she searched around the kitchen until she finally settled for a cup of apple cinnamon yogurt.
“Let's go get ya something to eat.” Titus got up from the couch and helped her up.
She held her belly as they walked into the kitchen. Humming lightly, she took out the leftovers of venison roast and corn. He got the bag of brown sugar from inside a cupboard, and they worked in sync as they made the meal that smelt delicious after they placed it into the microwave.
“Is she kicking again?” he asked before placing both his hands on her rounded belly that was growing along with their child.
A little bump hit against his hand as soon as the words left his mouth. It was just a tiny movement that he barely felt make contact with his palms, but Titus cherished every moment of it. He placed a kiss right on the center of Anna's belly before pressing his ear against their child once again.
“Do you think she knows my voice?” he asked, wanting Ella to respond to him again.
“Yes,” she replied. “Right, Ella? You know Daddy's voice, don't you?”
There wasn't a kick this time, but he kissed their little girl again and then her mother's forehead. “You really think so? You really think she does?”
Anna raised a hand to cup his face, her fingers just barely touching the start of his hairline. “I know she does.”
The alarm from the microwave abruptly stopped the close moment. After taking out the steaming pot of venison roast that had been rubbed in with extra brown sugar and smelt heavenly, he placed it onto the center of the table. Anna had already set out all the dishes, utensils, and glasses, white milk filling the cups to the brim.
As they ate, he only allowed his eyes to leave her face whenever he brought some of the stew up to his mouth or raised the glass. She did the exact same. It sent a connection that was so electric and so intensified from the small distance between his side of the table and hers that he could almost see it.
He felt it more than saw, however, and found that he was once again becoming aroused as she took another bite of her meat. The tines of the fork slipped past her lips so slowly that Titus couldn't help himself from imagining those lips on his length with her hair draped over his naked thighs.
“Dollar for your thoughts?”
“Maybe later.” When I'm not as hard as a rock.
She smiled before taking another bite. “What about ten dollars?”
“Not even a million billion dollars could make me tell you,” he replied, eating faster than he had before.
“Why not?” she asked, frowning slightly.
“Because I have a terrible mind, and you don't want any part of it.”
They continued debating like that for quite some time until their plates were being scraped clean and the remains of their milk became lukewarm. She raised the bed to a billion trillion dollars before getting up from the table and putting her dishes away. He soon followed, dumping the rest of his old milk into the sink and rinsing his plate.
“I, for one, think you have a lovely mind,” she said once they were seated on the couch, watching some old re-run.
Titus fidgeted uncomfortably in his seat, adjusting his legs and shirt so that she couldn't see just aroused the simple act of her moving those lips made him. “Thanks.”
The conversation sort of died out after that, but Anna leaned against his open arms all the same and watched the mindless comedy with him. With her head directly underneath him, the only thing Titus could smell was the citrus-like scent of her shampoo. Her body was like a blanket that was wrapped around his upper half, making her large breasts the only thing he could feel.
By the time they were both ready for bed, he was harder than he had been at the dinner table. She kissed his cheek good night, and he almost kept her there after her lips left that corner of his life but managed to keep his hands firmly planted on his sides.
Titus waited until she disappeared down the hallway and the sound of her bedroom door closing echoed throughout the empty house before walking up to his room, his balls aching painfully. They were probably blue after the hours she had leaned against him.
Once changed into nothing but his pajama pants and laying comfortably in his bed, Titus reached down. His hand went under the stretchy band, easily finding his very sensitive length that was already dripping with pre-come. It almost burned as he wrapped his whole fist around his hard arousal, and he couldn't help but let out a hiss of both pain and pleasure.
He thumbed the sensitive head for a few seconds before a heated moan escaped his mouth, and his legs instinctively opened up. It took exactly eight brushing strokes at the little slit before his back arched and he erupted in a harsh yelp that was barely muffled by the clamping of teeth down onto his forearm.
Breathing heavily, Titus regained his composure and finally opened up his eyes. It took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the dark, and throughout it all, he was conscious of the ejaculate that coated his fingers, pants, and stomach.
In the bathroom, he washed his hands and checked for any sign of the white substance on his clothes. He found none and took a handful of cold water to calm the heat that was flaring on his face. As soon as he brought his head up, he frowned.
His hair hadn't been cut in awhile and was starting to come to the back of his neck and fall partly over his forehead. His goatee was a little thicker than usual, and golden hair lined his jaw. After having shaved, Titus walked back into his room, climbed into his bed, and then rolled over onto his side, closing his eyes in the process.
The quiet sound of the night calmed him, the smooth fabric of pillows against his clean shaven face putting him right on the line of sleep. He was just about to cross over that line when a timid knock sounded from his door.
The quiet but noticeable sound made his heart race, instantly waking him up as he walked towards the door. He twisted the doorknob and opened it, somehow surprised that it was Anna on the other side, even though she was the only other one in the house.
“Titus,” she said, her voice sounding nervous and her hands being wrung nervously in front of her, “can you uhm...hold me like you were before?”
“Of course,” he said, opening the door for her as he felt himself become aroused again and his heart speed up in his chest.
She crawled onto the side of the bed that wasn't his, her red hair loose and swaying below her with her rear end in the air. His hard-on pounded, as did his chest, and Titus thought for a second that he just might faint. Thankfully, he got himself into bed before she turned around to see him straining through the thin fabric of the pants that were a little stiff from letting the water dry from them.
He wrapped his arms around her, placing his hands on her belly and his chin on top of her head. Her body relaxed into his just as a sigh was released, but Titus didn't close his eyes. Her rear end was almost touching his arousal, and it did crazy, horrible, awful things to his head until all he could think about was just taking her. Right here. Right now. But he resisted.
Finally getting around to closing his own eyes, Titus felt her shift around a little bit and stiffen when she was about halfway rolled around. She sat straight up, bringing him right with her as she searched his quilt for something.
“I think I just squished a bug,” she explained and then raised her fingers to her face. “Could you turn on the lamp?”
“Sure.” He reached around until the room was flooded with a warm light, allowing him to see just exactly what was on her face. He must have missed some of the ejaculate that had been on the sheets, for a sticky glob of it was on her face and in between her fingertips.
“It's toothpaste,” Titus blurted out, not knowing what to say or how to possibly explain.
“Titus, did you just...” Her eyes seemed to widen as she finally realized just exactly was on her face. “Oh, my God. You did.”
His face heated up in embarrassment as Anna got out of bed and walked into the bathroom. He heard the sink's water running and almost died. She had finally been in his arms and had made the decision to be with him, even if it was to only sleep next to him and nothing else, and he had ruined it.
But she came back into his room a little while later, walking and crawling back into bed as if nothing had happened. “Good night.”
“I'm sorry.”
“Don't apologize. It's just a natural thing.”
He just nodded his head, let her roll back against him, and then closed his eyes as hard as he could.