Monday May 4th.
Chloe gazed down at her belly with love and fascination as well as with a small amount of amusement. Her innie belly button was now an outie and she was starting to get that darkened line down the centre of her bump that she'd seen on the bumps of countless expectant mums on the numerous images she'd seen online and on tv programmes. But that wasn't the biggest change to happen over the last week. The biggest change was this morning's sudden realisation that she could actually see her baby's movements from the outside, she actually see her belly moving and it was the weirdest but at the same time the loveliest thing she'd ever seen. Her little boy hadn't even born yet and already she loved him more than she than she'd ever thought possible. Sometimes L.J's movements were so strong that she wondered what he was trying to do in there and now as she sat perched on the edge of the bath and looked down at her bare belly, she half expected to see a little arm pop out or a leg. He had no idea of how, together with Mia, Leonie and Seb, he'd been a huge source of strength and happiness to her over the last week and loving Seb as much as she did, she'd once thought she hadn't got room in her heart to love anyone else. She'd been very wrong. Now her heart felt full to bursting point with the love she had for her own little family and that included Seb's two adorable daughters. The girls had stayed for the weekend and went back to Hannah's last night and now the house felt empty without them and much too quiet.
"Ah, this is where you're hiding." Seb popped his head around the door, frowning as he saw her looking down at her belly. "You ok?"
"Yeah." She waved a hand, beckoning him to come in. "He's moving." She smiled.
"Want me to feel?"
"No, I want you to watch." She answered proudly.
"You can see him moving?" He asked, suddenly curious as he sat on the edge of the bath beside her.
"Yeah, but you need to be on my right hand side, I think his back is on my left side and he's kicking to the right."
"When did you first notice?" He asked as he moved to sit at her right side and focused his attention on her belly.
"Just a little earlier, in the shower. The movement was really big and I looked down and could just make out my bump moving."
"You showered without me? How could you do such a thing!" He gasped, feigning hurt and making her giggle.
"Quit the dramatics and concentrate on your son!" She grabbed his hand and placed it on her bump in the spot where she'd felt and seen movement. Unfortunately it was at the precise moment that L.J seemed to decide to fall quiet but they stayed where they were for a few minutes, waiting, just in case. She used the time to focus on her breathing and listen to the sound of Seb's steady breaths, it was something that she found incredibly relaxing and she couldn't stop herself from yawning.
"Boring you am I?" He looked up from where his hand was on her bump to see her looking a little tired.
"Just relaxed. I think L.J's gone to sleep." She smiled.
"Let's give him a poke and wake him up." He gently prodded her belly.
"You won't be saying that when he's born and we're sleep deprived." She laughed as his gentle poking tickled her.
"You said he'd sleep like an angel not too long ago." He said to remind her.
"I'm starting to change my mind." She looked down, unsure if she could feel movement or just had gas brewing. Maybe she should warn Seb, just in case!
He fell quiet again and placed his hand back on her belly. "Yes!" He hissed, breaking out into a grin. "I feel movement, can't you?"
"If I'm honest, at first I thought it could be gas but yeah he's definitely having another fidget. He can't keep still like his bloody father."
Seb removed his hand and watched intently, determined not to miss the slightest hint of movement. For a second his eyes were diverted by the still fading scar on her skin, a permanent reminder of what they'd been through, of how he'd nearly lost her and how their baby was something of a miracle.
"There!" She exclaimed in a hushed tone, pointing to a specific area. "Can you see it?!"
He watched closely and all of a sudden he could see it. To the right side of her belly button, there was movement just beneath her skin. While the Coronavirus pandemic had caused an awful lot of sorrow and problems in the world, the lockdown had also given him opportunities to spend time with his wife and children and to witness precious little moments such as this.
Although he hadn't replied, it was clear from the adoring smile on Seb's face that he'd seen L.J's movements for himself. It still felt weird to be able to feel a baby moving inside her and even weirder to be able to see it but at the same time it was magical and reassuring and gave her moments of sunshine among the grey clouds of her grief and homesickness that she'd felt since her nan's passing. The movements that swung from feeling like having big butterflies inside her to feeling like she had a wriggly worm or even that her uterus was being used a punch bag with some occasional painful little jabs never failed to make her smile and made her love Seb even more deeply than she ever thought possible, because all of this had only been possible because of him.
Feeling that she was looking at him, he lifted his gaze to meet hers and was immediately struck by the love in her eyes and the smile on her face. She bowled him over time after time and made him even more hopelessly besotted with her, like he was falling in love with her all over again. She moved to stand in front of him and linked her hands at the back of his neck to pull him in for a kiss. Yet again, he felt those sparks, the lust as if he was kissing her for the first time, remembering their instant deep attraction for each other as he closed his eyes, still able to see the Ferrari Berlinetta and feel her tongue exploring and searching for his as he'd pushed her back against the car and kissed her as if his very existence had depended on it. He remembered all too well the way she'd popped open every button on his jeans and slipped her inside in a very bold and forward move that had thrilled him and turned him on in equal measure. "Fuck I love you." He growled the words out in a fit of lust because he suddenly wanted her badly and then frustration because her bump stopped him from getting the full body contact he was starting to really miss.
"Maybe we should stop right here." She pushed on his chest to make him step back, taking in his wide eyes and blown pupils. After last night and the early wake up he'd given her this morning, she wasn't sure she had the energy for anymore. He was breathing rapidly, his face was a little flushed, he kept his gazed fixed on her; he never ceased to amazed her in how quickly he got turned on and it gave her a little kick and a huge boost of self confidence to know that she still had that effect on him, even at twenty-seven weeks pregnant, with a scar and newly formed stretch marks on her belly and the tops of her thighs.
"You seriously want to stop?" He asked breathily, disbelief evident in his voice.
"Seb....." She nibbled playfully on her bottom lip, knowing full well how it affected him when she did it.
"Chloe...." He reached out to caress her bottom lip with his thumb, freeing it from between her teeth at the same time.
Just as he'd been captured by the pretty green hues of her eyes before; she stood still, held fast by his hypnotic blue eyes as he continued to tenderly brush his thumb across her bottom lip again and again. She'd never tire of those eyes and those intense loving looks he frequently gave her, she'd never tire of gazing dreamily at his handsome face and she knew she'd never quite be able to believe that this man was really hers. He stepped closer again, his eyes flickered down to her lips and his hand snaked it's way to the back of her neck. He was going to kiss her again and she knew that he'd still want it to lead to more. "Seb....."
"Hmm?" His eyes flickered back to hers as he leant in, ready to feel her lips against his own.
"Maybe later huh?" She pushed him back again, this time it seemed to work and brought him back out of his sexual haze.
"You don't want to?" He asked with a hint of concern.
"I don't think I've got the energy if I'm honest." She smiled sheepishly, he was going to enjoy this.
"Oooh......" He broke out into a smug grin. ".....too much for you am I? Can't take the pace huh?"
"After last night and you waking me at five this morning, I'll admit it, I can't keep up. I am twenty-seven weeks pregnant, in case you'd forgotten!"
"Say that again?" His grin got even bigger and he put a hand at the back of his ear.
"I'm twenty-seven weeks pregnant." She grinned, knowing full well that what wasn't the part he wanted to repeat.
"No, I meant what you said right before that. Don't act like you don't know what I mean." He said teasingly.
"I can't keep up." She repeated, smiling because his stupid big grin was very infectious.
"Once more?"
"Are you going deaf in your old age?" She gave him a light, playful shove. "One of the pitfalls of being an F1 driver I guess, all that engine noise damages your hearing."
"I just like hearing you say it and less of the old Mrs Vettel!" He kissed her forehead. "Do I need to remind you which one of us is the eldest?"
"Urgh! No!" She groaned, shaking her head. "Don't make me feel like a cougar!"
"Don't worry, even though you're getting on a bit, I still would." He said with relish.
"Oh you've made that very clear!" She laughed and side stepped away from him. "Seriously though, you've left me a little tired and dare I say it, a bit......uhm.....sore."
"I have?" His smug grin was swiftly replaced by a look of concern, he hated the thought of hurting her, even more so since she'd been pregnant.
"Not intentionally you haven't, I'll be ok, it's nothing major. You'll just have to give me the rest of the day off." She smiled and reached out to affectionately pat his cheek. "Talking of which, what have you got planned for us for the rest of the day?"
"Ah!" He exclaimed, his face lit up again, he suddenly looked quite excited.
"Oh god, nothing that requires too much physical effort I hope." She groaned.
"No, not at all. All you'll have to do is stand still." He replied, sounding much too enthusiastic for her liking.
"And it better not involve me being naked either."
"Ah...." He said in way that told her there'd be some degree of nudity involved.
"Oh Seb!" She started to protest.
"Wait, hear me out, you'll like this, I promise! You won't have to be completely naked." He quickly explained, holding his hands up defensively. "Just as you are is fine."
"In my underwear?"
"Yeah." He nodded. "Come with me." He grabbed her hand and led her out of the en-suite and then out of their bedroom.
"It's a good job I know we're not going to get any visitors." She remarked as she followed him down the stairs.
He ignored her as they entered the lounge.
"Can you slow down a bit? Pregnant woman being dragged along here!" She called out, tugging on his hand as she passed her favourite seat, by the window. "I'll be too knackered to stand soon." They didn't stop until he'd got her into the kitchen, next to the table. Straight away she noticed a box on the table and what looked like artist's paint brushes along with his camera.
"Face paints!" He exclaimed, again with too much enthusiasm for her liking.
"Face paints? You're not painting my face. I'm not six!" She crossed her arms in front of her. Face painting was for kids, right? This was not her idea of fun.
"It's not your face I want to paint, it's this." He patted her round belly.
"What on earth do you want to paint my belly for?"
"I want to paint it and take photos, it'll be something to look back on." He looked back at her, silently urging her to agree.
"And what exactly do you want to paint on it?"
"Hang on, stay right there and don't move." He broke out into a hopeful smile and dashed off in the direction of the utility room which reminded her that there was a load of laundry upstairs that she wanted to get done. Since the lockdown had started, Seb had told the woman who came three times a week to do the housework to stay away and that he'd still pay her and that meant that Chloe had taken it upon herself to try and at least get some of it done - much to Seb's protests. Thirty seconds later he came back with a black drawstring bag in his hands that she knew contained one of his race helmets for this season.
Her brows shot up in surprise. "You want to paint my bump to look like one of your race helmets?"
"Bingo!" He placed the bag on the table and pulled it open to reveal the white helmet with its familiar stripes on to represent the German flag and his SV logo, along with the Mission Winnow and Kaspersky logos. "What do you think? It'll look fantastic, yeah?"
"God Seb, I knew you were missing racing but I didn't think you were missing it to this extent."
"I'm missing it like crazy, I've not turned a wheel since winter testing but that's not why I want to do this. I just think it'd look so cool to see your beautiful bump painted up like that." He bent down to kiss her bare skin, tickling her with his beard growth as he hadn't shaved for a couple of weeks. "So, what do you think? Are you up for it?"
"What if I need a wee half way through?" She asked, imagining white paint ending up all over her.
"You go carefully." He replied. "Come on, it'll be fun and I've always wanted to do something like this." He gave her his best, hopeful, puppy eyed expression.
"Ok." She breathed. "Where do you want me?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Liebe, can you please stop laughing?" From his position, kneeling on the floor, he looked up at her whilst pointing his paint brush at her.
"I can't help it! When you're doing this bit...." She pointed to the side of her bump. "......it really tickles!"
"You know I love hearing you laugh but right now when you laugh your whole belly moves, then you make L.J move and then I have to stop." He tried again to paint where he'd left off and then laughed himself as she laughed again, causing her bump to jiggle along with her.
"I really don't know how you're going to get this bit done! I can't wait to see how wonky the Kaspersky logo is going to look!"
"Please try to keep still or we'll be here all day." He chided softly.
"I'll try to keep still if you try to not tickle me. You know how ticklish I am." She leaned back against the counter, trying to ignore how her back was beginning to ache from standing for so long.
"Just try and think of something else to distract yourself while I do this bit."
"I'd really rather not let my mind wander if it's all the same to you." She said, feeling her smile fading. She knew that if she allowed herself to think too much then her thoughts would inevitably turn back to her nan.
"Ok, then just concentrate on me." He took her hand and kissed the back of it before starting to paint again with a fine paintbrush, filling in the name 'Kaspersky' in a shade of green. He paused as he felt her flinch and then snort as she tried not to laugh the second he was filling in the letters in short, precise strokes. Thankfully she seemed to keep herself under control this time and fell silent, letting him continue. Once he'd finished this bit, he was then going to fill in the Mission Winnow logo at the bottom of her bump and even paint the famous Ferrari prancing horse symbol - just above her most intimate area, he was looking forward to that bit the most and he couldn't wait to see his work complete and his wife's bump fully painted up to replicate his race helmet.
Chloe gazed down, watching Seb work, studying the expression of total concentration on his face and the way his tongue was poking ever so slightly out from between his lips. She was quite pleased with herself; he'd taken the best part of two hours to get to this point and she'd only needed to stop him once to go and use the toilet. But right now, with her back aching and legs starting to ache from standing for so long she was starting to wish he'd hurry up or that they could stop for a break. "How much longer do you think you'll be?" She asked, breaking their brief moment of silence.
"Maybe another hour...." He mused and stopped to look to where his race helmet was on the countertop next to her. "The Ferrari badge will be a bit fiddly. Why? Do you need the toilet again?"
"My back hurts a bit and my legs are starting to ache." She admitted.
He stood up and went to the breakfast bar where he grabbed a stool and dragged it back over. "If you're careful how you get on, you can sit on this until I get to the Ferrari badge."
"I'll be careful, I just need to take the weight off my feet. Maybe we could Skype our mums when it's finished, they'd love to see this." She sat up on the stool as carefully as she could, putting a hand on his shoulder to help steady herself.
"That sounds like an excellent idea." He kissed her cheek and then got back to work again. "What do you think so far?" He asked, glancing up at her, almost finished with the Kaspersky logo.
She looked down, the black, red and yellow stripes of the German flag stood out vividly and proudly against the white background and the red SV5 logo was close to her belly button. Although she couldn't see the whole thing, what she could see looked pretty impressive. "I like it, I can't wait to see it completed. I must admit, at first I thought the idea was a little crazy but now I think it's really cool."
"Good, it'll look awesome when it's finished."
"You know who else would love to see it?" She asked as an idea popped into her head.
"Britta?"
"Well, yeah..... Britta is one person who'd definitely like to see it but I was thinking about your fans and maybe even the Tifosi? Like, maybe if Britta could put an image on social media?" She watched his expression carefully, at the mention of social media she could see his guard immediately come up, he didn't look comfortable with the idea.
"I don't think so." He replied.
"I just think it'd be a nice touch, it would mean a lot to them and be a way of you saying that we think of them like they think of you." She added, trying to encourage him to give the idea some thought.
"I don't know." He let out a breath as he stood up and stepped back to check the finished Kaspersky logos. "I think it's too personal a thing for me to want to share with the world and you know how protective I am of you but......" He stepped closer and placed two fingers under her chin to place a soft kiss on her lips. ".....I love that you thought of doing something like that."
"Will you think about it?" She asked, pouting at him and fluttering her lashes.
"Liebe......" He went to say no, he was yet to figure out how he'd protect their privacy when the baby arrived and he had them travel with him to races so giving people a view of something that was so private and special to him now was not something he wanted to do.
"Please. It can just be a photo of my bump, you don't have to have my face in the picture. Maybe have your race helmet next to me? Please say you'll think about it. I'll love you forever."
"You love me forever already I hope." He arched a brow at her as he got a clean paint brush from the kitchen table.
"You know I do." She smiled as another idea popped into her head. "Ok, if you think about it then I'll make it worth your while."
"In what way?" He asked quickly, already imagining the various ways she could repay him - all of them sexual. He watched eagerly as she didn't reply but instead slipped a finger into her mouth and sucked on it suggestively, maintaining eye contact with him at the same time. He swallowed, already imagining her down on her knees in front of him...... "I'll think about it." The words fell from his lips.
"Aw, see that wasn't too hard was it." She purred and then licked her lips.
"Well I uhm......I think you might be wrong there." He gave her an amorous smile and looked downwards to where he was already starting to tent his shorts.
"Come on, get this piece of artwork finished, I'll soon be needing another pee."
"You just said you didn't need the toilet a minute ago." He replied as he got down onto his knees to apply black paint for the Mission Winnow logo.
"I might be starting to change my mind......"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just over an hour and one toilet stop later, Seb's masterpiece was complete and as the sun had come out and the temperature had warmed up considerably outside, they'd moved out into the garden so that he could take some photos. With the promise of sexual favours from his wife, he'd given in and agreed to send one image over to Britta and Viviana to be circulated on social media and so Chloe found herself standing, shaded by a large oak tree while he snapped away with his camera. Wearing one of his white shirts but with it left unbuttoned, she posed happily while he made sure not to get too much of her in the shot. With her just wearing a white bra and knickers underneath the shirt he wanted to ensure her privacy and knew he'd probably have to edit and crop the image later before it got sent out. He stopped for a moment just to drink in the sight of her; with her hair swept to one side and flowing down from her right shoulder, a few freckles on her beautiful makeup free face, her green eyes looking luminous and sparkling with vitality, her soft creamy skin looking radiant in the outdoor light and her hand carefully resting at the top of her baby bump, she looked glowing and glorious - the most beautiful he'd seen her look so far . But even more noticeable to him was that she actually looked happy, the happiest he'd seen her look in a while. It was as if she'd maybe turned a corner and started to heal, finally her grief was starting to weigh her down less and it felt as though the happy days would now start to overtake the sad ones. As she changed her position slightly and he took some more photos, he suddenly remembered that if everything had been normal and there was no pandemic then he wouldn't have been here today, he'd have been at Ferrari's base in Maranello, either training with Heikki or spending time on the simulator going over various race and quali setups in preparation for the Spanish Grand Prix weekend. He wouldn't have had this chance to make memories with his wife, he wouldn't have seen her tummy moving with his unborn son's kicks and he wouldn't be about to share a private image of her painted bump with the world. As much as he loved to race, as much as his sport was in his blood and he really missed his team back in Italy and his time inside his race car, today had made him think (yet again) of all the time and opportunities he'd have to make more precious memories if decided not accept any further offers from Ferrari.