Rating: NC-17 for graphical sexual situations

Author notes: I'm sorry it's been so long since I updated. I'm very busy with school and everything, but I'm trying my best to find some time to work on the story. I will keep updating, I still have at least 4 chapters planned so, they are on their way … it just might take a while. Thanks for being patient with me 

Chapter 13

The last couple days had been several of the best days of my life. The proposal had come as a complete surprise but I couldn't say that I regretted saying yes now that I had a couple of days to think about it. It still felt right, it even felt like the second best, maybe even the best, decision I had made in my entire life. I would have that happy family I had always dreamed of, with the man I loved, with a couple of years delay but we had still so much time ahead of us to make up for the lost time and Alex was determined to make up for the 5 years we had been apart and I didn't mind that at all. If he had a shift at night and couldn't be with me, he'd call me on his break and yesterday we were darn close to having phone sex, if not for the matter that he was in the lounge room and some nurse just came in and wasn't about to leave right away again. We had been inseparable the last couple of days and to my surprise it didn't suffocate me, no, it didn't bother me one bit, which told me that I had indeed made the right decision. Alex was the man for me.

Another thing that made me incredibly happy was the fact that I didn't have to hide my pregnancy any longer. Finally I could start to enjoy it. I didn't have much trouble with anything except seafood smell so as long as I could avoid those scents, I was feeling fine. It actually felt like I could take on the world, even Rachel. Which was the one thing that ruined my happy thoughts and feelings from time to time. She had really scared me the last time we saw her at Sean's birthday party. The change between her behavior at Halloween and her behavior at Sean's party was so confusing and disturbing, I'd rather not think about it. If she could be so rational at the birthday party, that meant she had been completely rational at the Halloween party too, she only pretended to be irrational and if she could be so calculated then she was up to something and we were right to fear what that was. It was the only dark cloud on my horizon and I cursed her for ruining my perfect happiness.

I forced myself not to think about her now, Kirsten and Emily could be here any second and I was determined to enjoy this day. I missed my girl friends back in Belgium, missed doing girly stuff and today was girls day out. We would first go shopping, then having a bite to eat somewhere and then have a drink somewhere after that where the guys would meet up with us. I especially went to work really early this morning so that I could go home early in the afternoon to meet the girls. So here I was choosing what to wear, no longer from the point of view of having to hide my little round tummy but from the view of what still fitted. It wasn't a day too early to go shopping, over the last couple of days I seemed to have grown out of pretty much everything I brought with me. After trying on pretty much everything I decided on wearing my jeans and not buttoning up the pants but just bend the corners inward, I wouldn't loose the pants that way and I could always change it when I bought a new pants. I glanced at my watch and quickly chose a shirt and blouse to wear over it so no one would see my improvised way of keeping my pants up. I was just finished when the doorbell rang downstairs, that had to be them so I grabbed my purse and went downstairs.

"Hi Sarah!"

Emily hugged me when I came out and I muttered a hello back in her blonde curls.

"How are you?" asked Kirsten with a smile on her face.

"I'm great," I said with a smile from ear to ear to prove it.

"So I take it, Alex took the news well?" asked Kirsten and Emily became really quiet all of a sudden.

"Yes, he has. At first it was a great surprise and he was upset but he came round quickly and so we are fine now," I answered.

Oh yes, we were more than fine and I contemplated for a second if I would tell them about the marriage proposal. I concluded to tell them later. At the same time Emily erupted and started jumping up and down before hugging me again while yelling: "I knew it! I knew he would be fine with it!"

Both Kirsten and I laughed with Em's enthusiasm. It was one of things I liked most about her, she was so spontaneous and maybe a little impulsive too but she was fun to hang around with, I was convinced of that and I would soon find out for sure.

After that, we all got in the car quickly. All of us excited and impatient to begin our girls day out.

In turns the girls chose shops to take me to, dumped me in a dressing room and brought me all kinds of things to try on, like they were playing dress up with a doll but it was fun nonetheless. In no time all three of us were carrying shopping bags. It had been a while since I had such fun with friends and I felt incredibly grateful that I had found and befriended these two so quickly. I would surely miss them when I went back home.

On our way to another shop we passed a jewelry shop, it wasn't the first jewelry shop we had passed, but this time I could no longer resist and I stopped to look at the jewelry in the window. But before I had seen any of the jewelry, a reflection in the window caught my eye. There was that woman in the trench coat and sunglasses again, I had noticed her in a couple of the shops we had been to earlier too. It gave me a weird feeling. Was she following us, I wondered… A voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

"What are you looking at?" Kirsten asked.

"Yeah, looking for something? I saw you stretch your neck to glance other jewelry shop windows earlier," Emily added with a curious look on her face.

"Not really. I'm just looking at the engagement rings to see what's in these days," I replied with a mysterious grin. If what I said wasn't a hint, the grin was.

Kirsten and Emily looked at each other and at the exact same moment they turned to look back at me with questions in their eyes. My grin widened.

"He hasn't!" Emily blurted out.

"He has," I answered with a serious face, well as serious I could be at least. Emily's expression was very funny.

Emily leapt forward, dropped the bags she was carrying for me and hugged me for the third time that day.

"Welcome to the family!"

"Yes, congratulations, Sarah," Kirsten smiled at me.

The three of us studied the window and picked out the rings we liked best. Eventually Kirsten came to the conclusion that she liked the engagement ring she had on finger best, Emily picked one with a large diamond on it and sighed at the thought of Ben asking her to marry him and I stayed undecided, there were so many beautiful rings, but the truth was that that little thing would not contribute to the happiness I already felt. I already had everything I wanted and though it would be a confirmation of his feelings for me, it did not matter to me. I needed no convincing of his feelings for me, I already knew.

The next shop we entered I pushed Emily in the dressing room and said I was taking a break, someone else would have to play dolly for a while. Emily protested weakly but stopped immediately when I brought her a gorgeous dress to try on, it was a lime green colored dress with a deep neckline which went really good with her eyes.

She immediately loved it and said: "this would look nice on me to wear to your wedding," and winked at me.

"Who said you were invited?" Kirsten said from two clothing racks further.

"I'm Alex' favorite cousin, of course I'm invited," Emily replied and stuck out her tongue.

"You're both invited," I said with a smile and continued to browse the racks.

When I looked up, there was that woman in the trench coat again, on the other side of store. She wasn't looking at me, but in my opinion she was trying too hard not to look at me. I frowned. This was getting weird. This was about the fifth time she was in the same shop as we were, and the odds were getting a little too high to just be coincidence.

"What's wrong?" Kirsten asked when she saw me frowning and looked in the direction I was looking at.

"That woman. This is like the fifth time she's in the same shop as us, and I have the feeling she's watching us. She also passed us by at the jewelry shop."

"I'm sure you're just imaging it, you're just a little rattled by that Rachel stuff," Kirsten said to reassure me.

"Yeah, maybe," I answered and took a nice looking dark red top out of the rack I was browsing and brought it to Emily.

Kirsten stared at the woman I had been looking at. She did look kind of familiar to her, she thought. The woman saw her looking at her, turned around and left the shop. Kirsten shrugged and started browsing the rack again.

I left this store with a growing feeling of uneasiness and when we made our way to our next stop, I couldn't help browsing my surroundings, looking for a beige colored trench coat. Then something else hit me. It was a sunny day, not that warm in my opinion, but there was absolutely no reason to be wearing a trench coat, another suspicious thing about this woman. A couple of times I thought I spotted her when I looked over my shoulder, but it could just as well be my imagination.

I was dragged in a baby store next, and the 'ooohs' and 'aaahs' of Emily distracted me a little. She came running with all kinds of cute baby clothes and said she wanted to buy them all for the baby, which made me smile but of course I couldn't let her do that. She kept insisting and eventually we made her pick 2 things about of the 10 little ensembles she'd picked out. When she was putting back the other 8 things she couldn't buy, I said to Kirsten: "We definitely need to have a word with her Ben." Kirsten agreed with me and we were still laughing when Emily returned. She took my hand and dragged me to the maternity clothing.

"Look, they have beautiful things here!"

"Yeah, they do, Em, but I think it's a little early for me to wear any of that," I smiled.

She turned to me and pulled at my shirt, pulling it tight around my belly.

"No, it's not. Look, this way you can clearly see it, you could wear something of this easy. Be proud of your growing belly," she said with a radiant smile.

"I am proud, Em. I'm just not used to showing it off, I have been hiding it for weeks, remember."

"Well, see, now is the perfect time then, here let me pick something for you."

I protested, she already bought me the baby outfits, but she wouldn't have it. She already spotted something and pulled me with her to a dressing room. When Emily closed the curtain, that was the moment I spotted the woman in the trench coat again, and now I was convinced she was following us. There were barely people in here, she had to be following us. I just stood there, wondering what I should do, should I just go up to her and ask what she's getting at? It had to be Rachel. It had to be and that explained the trench coat, to hide her pregnancy, though she wasn't really successful at that, now I thought about it. My courage dropped. I couldn't just go up to her, she scared the crap out of me.

"How does it look?" sounded from the other side of the curtain, which pulled me out my thoughts.

"Just a second," I replied.

I sighed and turned around to see what she'd hung there. I looked at a knee-length white a-line skirt with black lace accentuating the bottom hem and a soft elastic to cradle the belly, and a black tank top to go with it. I put the clothes on and I had to admit I looked great, the top nicely fitted around my body, not too tight, definitely not too loose and you could clearly see my pregnant belly now.

"Ready?" it sounded a little more impatient now, which made me smile.

"Ready," I answered.

"Well, come out then, we want to see!"

When I came out, I didn't see Rachel, but I knew, I felt she was still around and I had trouble sharing Em and Kirsten's enthusiasm about how I looked.

"You look absolutely beautiful!" Em went on and on, "You have to keep it on, Alex will be ecstatic when he sees you later, he won't be able to keep his hands off of you." She wiggled her eyebrows at me which made me giggle.

"Yes, it's a celebration after all," Kirsten agreed.

"Yes, party time! Small engagement party, woohoo!" Emily was dancing on the spot.

"We'll get it for you, as an engagement gift," Kirsten said and Emily nodded her head furiously.

"Oh you guys," I said and hugged them both.

"I think I have everything I need, lets get out of here and get something to eat," I said.

"Yeah, I'm starving, lets go to Peaches," Emily said while grabbing her part of the bags.

"Peaches?" Kirsten asked with a frown.

"Yeah I know it's a lame name, but they have really good food," Emily continued while we went on our way to the cash register. "And it's about all I can afford after all this," she laughed.

"Okay then," Kirsten shrugged.

And of course I was fine with everything. I didn't know any good places here anyway. I did glance around the shop on our way out to see if Rachel was still here, but I didn't see her. Maybe she finally gave up …

When she heard the ringing of the door, which meant that we had left, Rachel came out of the dressing room next to where I had been in. She snuck in there when Emily and Kirsten where browsing the store, waiting for me to put the clothes on.

She heard everything and if she thought she'd understood wrong when she passed us by at the jewelry store, she knew now. This stupid Belgian cow was not only carrying his child but she was also gonna marry her Alex! She was boiling inside. What didn't work for her, had worked for that stupid bint! She had to wreck everything! She had always been in the way, always came between Alex and her and she had about enough of the bitch! Rachel hoped she felt really uneasy now, it served her right. And she wasn't finished by a long shot. Oh no, this was just the beginning.

She had hated seeing Alex with some other girl at Sean's party, especially when he started kissing her, but when she learned that this was the girl she had hated for such a long time she reached her boiling point. She didn't understand. She had succeeded in breaking them up months ago, what the hell was she doing here then? And how the hell did she get him to ask her to marry him so fast! Had they been in contact before he left for Belgium? Had he cheated on her? She could jump up and down from anger, felt the need to destroy something, felt the need to hurt that damned woman …

Emily was right, the food was incredibly good at Peaches and we had fun talking about our men, about the first time we met, the first time we kissed, … about a lot of firsts in our relationships. It even got a little naughty and we giggled as schoolgirls. And of course we also talked about Kirsten's wedding and the plans I used to have for my wedding with Alex, plans I wouldn't be changing much now. I had always dreamed of going down the aisle in a white dress and having a big party like Natalie and Michael had. Thinking of Natalie made me feel a little guilty having fun with Em and Kirsten. I missed Hannah and Nat, they should be here too, but that was impossible, oh well, I would just have to do this again with them when I was back home again. Thinking of that cheered me up again.

One of the minuses of being pregnant was having to pee a lot and drinking a lot during the meal didn't help much either. Right before we would leave to meet up with the guys, I had to go again, the others didn't have to go, so I went alone.

When I went in the bathroom, I was there alone. I was relieved that I hadn't seen Rachel here too, but then I hadn't seen in the shop anymore either, so I figured she gave up.

When I was doing my business, I heard the door open and close, and a second later the water in the sink was running. Just before I flushed the toilet, the tap was turned off and the door opened and closed again. I stepped towards the sink to wash my hands and stopped dead when I looked up. There was something written on the mirror with lipstick: "I'm watching you, bitch". It hadn't been there when I came in here, I was sure of that and also that it had to be meant for me, which made me shiver all over. I put both my hands on my belly as to protect my unborn child, I wasn't so scared of Rachel for me, but I was for my baby. Right now she seemed more dangerous than ever and I ran out of the bathroom without washing my hands and looked around, searched for a woman dressed in a trench coat. She had to be here somewhere. I didn't see her anywhere.

"Is something wrong?" Kirsten asked when I came back at our table. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Nothing's wrong, lets just go," I said and tried my best to smile. I only half succeeded but they didn't ask any further and I was glad for that. I really didn't like talking about it now.

On our way to the bar where we would meet the guys, we stopped by my apartment to drop off the bags. I grabbed a black jacket to complete the outfit, on my way out. I couldn't wait to see Alex, seeing him, being with him would make me feel safe, I still shivered when I thought about the message on the mirror. I could only hope she wouldn't follow us there too.

I saw him the minute we walked into the bar and I had to hold back not to run to him. But I couldn't resist putting my arms around when I reached him. He put his arms around me too and kissed my forehead.

"You look absolutely beautiful," he whispered in my ear and smiled his gorgeous smile at me but when I looked up it immediately faded when he saw the look on my face.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing, we'll talk about it later, okay?" I answered.

He nodded and pulled me closer.

"Are you finished with him?" Emily smiled at me, "Then I would like to introduce you to Ben. Ben, this is Sarah, the newest member of our family. Sarah, this is my Ben."

My face flushed a little and I let go of Alex. I looked at a cute guy with dark blonde hair and nice blue eyes, he seemed younger than he probably was cause he still had this boyish look over him. But he looked great together with Em.

While I was shaking Ben's hand and said hi and nice to meet you, Emily jumped on Alex and hugged and congratulated him with our engagement. Sean looked a little surprised when he heard it but followed Emily and Kirsten's example and congratulated us both. After that he ordered drinks for all of us and gave a toast to our happiness. I got to relax a bit and enjoyed the evening, the six of had fun and for a little while I didn't think of the threatening message on the mirror…

At one time that evening I put a hand on my belly and Alex immediately asked if something was wrong which I thought was very cute. He looked so worried and I was sure he would be a great daddy.

"It's nothing, it's just gas I think, it's kind of a bubbling feeling," I said.

Kirsten had heard me and she started laughing. "Kind of a fluttering feeling, like butterflies teasing you?" she asked.

"Yeah, I guess you can describe it like that," I answered.

"Hun, that's the baby," she smiled at me, "I guess he or she likes the music."

"It is?" I smiled at her and put both my hands on my belly and looked at it with an amazed look on my face. Alex' hands joined mine.

"Nice to meet you, baby," I whispered.

Alex pulled me closer again, I saw he had sparkles in his eyes when I looked up to him and I knew the fluttering I felt now had nothing to do with our baby. It was time to go home. We said our goodbyes and promised to repeat this outing again soon.

When we got to my apartment that evening I immediately knew that Alex was up to something and I would love to make love to him right now, to put out the fire inside and to forgot about Rachel but I knew we had to talk about today first, he had to know and he would not be happy. For a second I wondered if I shouldn't make love first cause after I told him, he might not want to anymore.

He came towards me with a naughty look on his face and I let him kiss me and enjoyed it for a bit until his hands started to pull up my new skirt. I knew it was time to stop him now cause soon I wouldn't be able to anymore. Slowly I pushed him back.

"We need to talk first, Alex," I said.

The sound of my voice apparently made him remember the look I had on my face when I entered the bar earlier this evening.

"Right, yeah, you wanted to talk about something. Was something wrong earlier? You looked worried," he said.

"Yes, something happened. Rachel followed us all day. At first I thought it was just a coincidence this woman in a beige trench coat showed everywhere we were too, but after a couple of times it just couldn't be coincidence anymore and I noticed she kept watching us. The coat hid her pregnancy and she wore large sunglasses so at first I didn't recognize her, but I'm sure it was her. I just know it was, Alex. She scares me, she really does," I explained.

He pulled me into his arms and I could feel a shiver. I knew it was not because he was cold but because he was angry. His worst fear was becoming reality, she now not only targeted him but also me and he couldn't stand her threatening the woman he loved and his unborn child.

"I wish there was something we could do. I wish I knew how I could keep her away from you, Sarah, but there's nothing we or the police or anyone can do …" He said softly but I knew he wasn't as calm as he let on.

"It's not all," I continued softly. "She left me a message on the bathroom mirror in the restaurant where we had dinner," I stopped for a second.

"What did it say?" Alex encouraged me.

"I'm watching you, bitch," I said. "Yeah, I noticed that all day, it made me feel uneasy."

Alex cursed. "I swear, one of these days I'm gonna lose it and if she's in my neighbourhood, she'll get hurt."

"Don't say that, Alex, you can't let her do that to you. She'll definitely sue you then and I don't want that."

"I know, hon, I know. She just gets to me and I'm scared for you and the baby, if she hurts either one of you …"

I caressed his cheek softly and said: "I'll be careful, Alex, I'll keep a look out for her."

"Lets just go to bed and forget about her, I'm sick and tired of her ruining everything. We can talk about this more tomorrow," Alex said and took my hand to pull me towards my bedroom.

"Yeah, lets …" I said seductively.

It didn't take us much to get aroused again, some kisses and some well placed touches and we were both on fire. We didn't sleep together yesterday so we were both in need to work off some sexual tension. In a few seconds both of us were naked and we lay down on the bed.

"God, you are so sexy now you're pregnant…" Alex whispered in my ear.

Longing shot through my body, I loved it when he said things like that to me. I pulled him on top of me and softly scratched his back with my nails, I knew that would drive him crazy. I was right, I made him groan softly so I tried it again and pressed a little harder this time. I was rewarded with a louder groan.

"You are naughty tonight," he said and I smiled my evil smile at him.

His hand travelled to my nipple and he started playing with it. Oh yes we still knew each others weak points. His mouth found mine and our kisses where slow and intense. But tonight I didn't want to go slow and I pressed my hips up and bit in his lip softly at the same time. He finally got the message and his hand travelled south and started to caress my most intimate spot, he kept on kissing me but was more demanding now. Soon I felt one finger go inside me and my breathing sped up, I could feel him smile cause our lips were still joint together. My hands travelled down too and this time I scratched his ass on both cheeks, he responded by putting another finger in me and moving them faster, I was fast on my way to reaching a climax and I started moaning but before I could explode, he pulled away his fingers and replaced them with his penis. We both moved faster and faster and reached a climax short after each other. He stayed in me for a little while and then went to lay beside me and pulled me in his arms.

"My ass is going to be sore tomorrow," he whispered.

"I'm sorry," I whispered back.

"Don't be," he said and kissed my neck before I fell asleep.

At least we succeeded in forgetting about that horrible woman for a little while this night …

She might have managed to scare me today but she didn't manage to put out the passion between Alex and I, which was a little victory to me.

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