The meek figure who’d been hesitant during their afternoon dalliance had completely disappeared and Daniel didn’t think there had been a time since then that she had even begun to play coy. The moment he touched her, she was all over him – and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Furthermore, she said nothing about the intensity of his loving. It was something Alyssa had complained about all the time – at least, after the first few months together. He was too rough – too persistent, and she had never wanted to be with him because she was tired of dealing with it. Esme, however, only encouraged the heights of his passion.
Daniel knew that things couldn’t be this way forever –that the further along the young woman progressed in her pregnancy, the more gentle he’d have to be – but at this particular juncture, she wanted him to toss her onto the bed. To bend her over and cleave deep, clutching her to him as he lost his mind in her clenching depths. He, on the other hand, was always concerned that he might have hurt her – or the baby – but Esme had assured him that her moans, her sighs and her screams came from divine pleasure.
It was absolute bliss – to be able to lose himself in her without fearing reproach, or worrying about the argument to come. Once the sexual tension between them had dissipated, he found himself engaged in conversation with her almost constantly – and not once did they ever have an argument. Esme, it seemed, was fairly unconfrontational.
Unless it came to one thing: she wouldn’t sleep with him. When it came to the literal act of lying in bed with him in the wake of their physical intimacy, Esme always made soft but firm excuses, slipping back to her own bed.
It left him feeling bereft – just when he thought he’d begun to get used to sleeping on his own. It wasn’t, Daniel told himself, for any emotional attachment. Rather, he craved the feel of her soft skin against his as he slept. To him, it seemed only natural that she should rest nestled against his side in the wake of their loving – but Esme had her own ideas.
What those ideas were, he had no clue.
All he could do was hide his disappointment when she slipped from his arms every night before lying in the dark, trying to let sleep find him. The rancher was lucky there was enough residual excitement over the development of his child to distract him when the situation called for it.
Every time they spoke with doctors, something had changed. The eyes were visible, they could see limbs, and recently, the baby had begun to move to the point where Esme marveled at its tiny tantrums in her belly. She cited that the baby must be unusually active, tracing her fingertips over the ridge of her stomach throughout the day in observation.
She was beginning to reach the point in her pregnancy when things started to be acutely uncomfortable with women. The amount of weight they’d gained, their efforts to move around when their bodies seemed against them, sleepless nights exacerbated by tiny movements within them; but Esme endured it all with aplomb.
She never complained about her weird cravings or the intense change her body was undergoing. On the contrary, at times, she seemed more concerned for the baby’s safety than for her own. Though she had confided in him that she hated substitutions more than anything when it came to her work in the kitchen, she had cut out several specific ingredients from her cooking because of the potential harm they might cause an unborn child.
She listened carefully whenever the doctor gave her instructions and swallowed ungodly amounts of vitamins and supplements, even though some of them made her cringe at their taste. She poured over the lists of information that had been provided for her by the clinic, careful to make sure that, in everything she did, she committed to the baby’s health first.
While Daniel had never doubted his commitment to his own child, it continually amazed him exactly how dedicated Esme was to her position as surrogate – far more, funnily enough, than the baby’s mother had ever been. She constantly asked questions about different stages of the baby’s growth, if there was anything more she could do to ensure its healthiness.
He caught her sometimes – staring at the ultrasound monitor, looking over her own belly almost fondly as she stroked it. She was caring, kind, and involved – and whether it was out of necessity or a facet of her character, she knew exactly what was needed as a protective parent- whether she knew it or not.
The fondness he found in her expression – when she gazed over her body or beamed at the doctor when he conveyed that she and the baby were healthy – it warmed his heart in a way he’d once wondered if he’d ever feel again.
When Alyssa had left him, Daniel had been ready to accept that he’d never be attached to another woman again. His child would be the first and foremost important person in his life, and he hadn’t the slightest reservation about it.