Thanks to my editors ThinkerLover and KillerRomance. Any remaining errors in this manuscript are all mine.
Chapter 1
I guess I've always been kind of a pervert. When I'm in the supermarket waiting to pick up a prescription, I drift over to the magazines. I thumb through them, looking at the women. Beautiful glowing women with radiant smiles exuding joy and happiness. Women that embody the highest ideals of beauty and womanhood.
Pregnant women.
I look at them all:
Pregnancy
,
Fit Pregnancy
,
Pregnancy & Newborn
. There's just something about the sight of a pregnant woman that affects me at a most primitive male level. But I guess I'm too embarrassed by my fetish to ever buy them.
My wife had been dead for about three years. We had married later in life and been together for 17 years when she died unexpectedly. Her death left a tremendous gap in my life. Not only had we been husband and wife, but we had worked together in a business that we owned. We were inseparable. The loss of her constant companionship was devastating to me. In the time since she died, I hadn't been with a woman. I'm not much of a ladies man, and dating was horrible enough when I was young. I just couldn't face subjecting myself to the pain and rejection again.
My late wife was the one person that saw the goodness in me. It simply had never occurred to me there could ever be someone else who could not only see the goodness buried inside me but could bring it to the surface.
After three years I was definitely suffering from loneliness and chronic lackanookie. Not only did I desperately need to get laid, I was missing the simple human companionship of having someone next to me in bed. I have a dog, but it's just not the same. To complicate things, the lady at the pharmacy counter was pregnant, and she was constantly giving me dirty looks. Since I really wasn't ready to re-enter the dating scene, something was going to have to happen.
While skimming an Internet site looking for some used equipment, I noticed the erotic services section. Out of curiosity, I clicked on the link. The very first entry was "Pregnant Hottie Available to Satisfy Your Fantasies".
The picture showed a lovely woman about 30 years old. She was amazingly beautiful. Her breasts were large and full. The picture was shot in profile, giving a view of her bulging stomach. She had a pretty face, with just a hint of a sad smile. Without hesitating, I dialed the number in the ad.
"Hello?"
"Hi, my name is Donald. I'm calling about your ad on Craigslist," I blurted.
"Hi Donald. My name is Abby. What are you interested in?" she said coolly.
"Well, if you don't mind I'd like to have you come to my house for dinner and spend the night." I explained.
We talked back and forth for a few minutes. I think she was trying to figure out if I was a cop or a freak. She seemed really nervous, and unsure of herself. I tried my best to seem like a nice person; as nice as someone doing what I was could be anyhow...
We got the terms negotiated, and she liked my suggested dinner menu and agreed to meet that evening at my house. All of a sudden, I had a million things to do. My place was kind of a mess and I was going to have to make a grocery store run to get things for dinner. Turning on some music, I set to work. In a few hours of Zeppelin-fueled cleaning fury, I had put new sheets on the bed, cleaned the bathrooms, got laundry started and dusted. My dog Ginger sat on the couch, carefully keeping her long tail away from the vacuum cleaner.
After a quick run to the store for a bottle of wine and some salad and dessert, I started preparing dinner. I had chosen to make a gorgonzola cream sauce served over penne pasta and grilled chicken breasts. It's a great dish; the recipe starts out with "taking one stick of butter, and one pint of heavy whipping cream..." It's kind of fiddly though and you have to make the sauce just before serving.
After I had gotten dinner started and was waiting for her to arrive, I set the table. Just because I was paying Abby for the evening, didn't mean she shouldn't be treated well. Perhaps I wasn't really being nice. I suppose I could have just been on autopilot, recreating one of the hundreds of dinners my wife and I had shared. I set out the china along with good silverware, a small flower arrangement, and some candles. At her place, I put a single red rose on the plate. Finally, I opened the bottle of Merlot and poured two glasses, setting them on the counter.
When Abby arrived, Ginger trotted over to sniff her with the wary air one female gives another intruding on her domain. Abby was great. Kneeling down she gave Ginger a big hug. Instantly, Ginger was won over. I had to shoo her back to her bed.
When she saw the dinner table, I could see the wonder and pleasure in her eyes.
"You have a very beautiful home." She said shyly.
"Thank you. And you are much prettier than your picture suggests."
"Thank you," she said blushing.
She was beautiful too. About 5'8 in height, her figure was that of a mature woman, well rounded with lovely curves, and hips that were full without being broad. Her boobs promised that her child would be well nourished; there was cleavage to spare. Her hair was long and luxurious, deep black with a beautiful sheen. It caught reflections from every light in the room. Her complexion was very light, accentuating the darkness of her hair and it gave her almost a waif-like appearance.
"Would you like a glass of wine while I finish dinner? I've read that doctors believe an occasional glass of wine is OK for women in your condition."
"That would be nice. Thank you."
After getting her seated at the counter, I finished cooking dinner. While I cooked, we chatted back and forth about things: the weather, the local football team. While we talked, I could see her becoming more at ease. I got the impression that she was witty and well educated. I found myself tremendously enjoying her company.
As we ate, she asked me about my late wife. I told her how we had met, and how we had dated, and what our married life had been like. Finally, I told Abby about her death and the loneliness I had been living with since then. At the close, I could see a small tear reflected in the candle light.
"Anyhow, that's enough about me. I'm glad you've enjoyed dinner." I said briskly. The last thing I wanted to do was to become morose and sit at the table finishing off the bottle of wine by myself.