Chapter Three ~ Damien

"I love you." I said with one last kiss as I rolled off her.

"Love you too." She sighed.

"Maybe we just needed to get laid after all," I commented as I drew imaginary circles around her arm. I had watched the baby monitor after she left and the frustration in her movements was evident. I hoped it helped because this was the one solution I could think of.

She chuckled lightly. "Maybe."

It had been so long since we had a time like this. She just kept hiding her body from me after having Ava and she was always so tired when I came home late and even attempted a cuddle.

"What if we go on a vacation?" I said as soon as the idea crossed my mind.

"A vacation with kids is no vacation, babe." She sighed.

"I know. Just you and me, doing all the nasty things we want to all alone with no interruptions." I groped her as I spoke, hoping she would buy the idea.

"Babeee," She whined, trying to get as far away from me as possible, whilst holding the blanket to herself. "We can't go without Ava."

"It's just a few days Ariana. Ava will be just fine, we have so many people to take care of her." I said. She worried so much when we literally had a whole village to help take care of the baby.

She disagreed with a vigorous head shake. "She's still too young."

"It's just a few days..." I enunciated. "Come on," I urged her further after she had been silent for long enough.

"Okay fine." She huffed out in agreement.

"Yeah!" I exclaimed with my fist in the air.

"But where are we going and how long are we gonna be there?"

"It could be a weekend getaway."

She groaned out in exaggerated frustration, " A weekend getaway is just sex with you."

"Touche´," I admit it was true but still. "We can do whatever you want. If you want to sleep in, eat, go on an adventure, I'd totally agree with it. You're the boss here." I promised, hoping she was not having a rethink.

"You still haven't said where we're going."

"That would have to be a surprise."

"Of course. Typical you..." She rolled her eyes.

"We're gonna have so much fun." Bringing her knuckles to my lips, I left a love bite there and intensified the hickey on her neck.

"Damiennnn!" She screamed when she saw it in the mirror moments later while I was in the shower. I had a good laugh about it.

~~~

"Daddy!!!"

I crouched to the ground while they ran straight into my chest as soon as they spotted me.

"Hey champs. How was school today?" I asked, taking off their backpacks.

"Same old." Darian shrugged.

"It was super fun!!!" Damon practically roared.

"I can see that." I chuckled. His hair was a mess, and his mother was gonna flip if I didn't do something about it. These two had very different personalities despite how identical they are. Damon was leaning towards a jock kinda kid while Darian was the reserved nerd who always proved to be older by his more calculated actions. Both of them were already protective of their little sister but Darian, being the oldest, I presumed would be the voice of reason in an unruly situation.

"Where's mommy?" He asked, inquisitive as always.

"Mommy's on a break today remember?" I said as I buckled them in their seats.

"But she was mad at you this morning." Damon reminded me of my mistake.

"About that," I pecked his ruffled hair, "I'm really sorry about triggering your allergies buddy."

"We're cool dad." He pushed his fist forward with a grin and I gave him a fist bump, mirroring his sparsely toothed smile.

"Mommy doesn't take a break when she's mad." Darian reasoned out loud.

"Says who?" I asked, shocked at how true that was now that I thought about it. Crazy how observant this boy was.

"I don't know but that's what she does." He shrugged.

"Today's different and she's not mad anymore." I told him.

"You made up?" Damon asked quickly.

"We did," I smirked. If only they knew how...

~~~

She got into full mom mode when I returned home with the boys. I was still in awe of this woman and how she had glided into motherhood, making it seem so effortless. Everyday I fell in love with this beautiful woman and all the changes that came with each new phase of our lives.

A lot of things had changed in this family. Fiona was done with college and working in another city, Jesse was having the time of his life as a travel photographer, Tracy and Aiden being parents just like Ariana and I, and my mother being the ever available grandmother that the kids loved to be with because she spoiled them silly. Amy was busy handling her line up of businesses all over the country while in Canada. Over six years had changed a lot of things for us.

"Okay remember what I taught you both..." She said in a sing song manner.

"Always clean up after yourselves." They recited monotonously as they took their lunch plates to the kitchen. Ariana didn't care about our status before and she still doesn't, she had always wanted our kids to be trained properly and have relatively normal lives regardless of how much I earned. This was why she refused having a live-in nanny and made us take care of our kids without any of the helps doing our parental duties for us. I loved it even when I was not to pleased about taking turns in changing their diapers but I had to cause, "Happy wife, happy life."

"Babe don't you think Ava is beginning to look a lot like me," I said staring closely at my beautiful little angel and her dimples that were looking like mine.

"Don't even think about it Damien. She looks like me, her mother." Ariana practically warned me. One way to ruffle her feathers was to tell her that she was losing out on the gene pool.

"I'm not kidding, look at her." I was being serious this time.

"Can you let me have one kid at least? The boys look so much like you. They even depict your two different personalities in each of them." She dramatically lamented.

"I know right." I smirked. This was my biggest flex - having two sons, one showing off my nerdy side and the other showing off the athletic side of me.

"Give me my daughter," Ariana stretched her arms out.

I snorted, "Why? You're scared she'll look like me now that I'm holding her."

"Yes!" She didn't hesitate to exclaim amid laughter.

"I love seeing you laugh like this. I miss hearing it all the time." I told her honestly, unable to get my eyes off her beautiful face.

"Me too," She sighed.

Getting on my feet, I held her closer while she stared up at me, fiddling with our daughter's little fingers.

"Family hug!" Damon screamed as they both ran towards us.

Quickly we found ourselves on the ground all locked in a tight embrace. It felt so fulfilling to have my little family with me. Sometimes I cannot believe I was about to deprive myself of this sort of happiness due to some unreasonable fears. So glad Ariana forgot those pills the day these boys were conceived and even though I was mad at first, I'm glad she got pregnant on purpose so we could get our baby girl, our little ray of sunshine, just as beautiful as her mother. This feeling of completeness was the last piece of the puzzle that had been my life for years.

~~~

"Off to work?"

"Yeah I have a brief meeting to attend to. Just pack your bags and we'll be out of here by noon." I told her.

"Alright. You take care."

"You too babe. Remember, pack sexy stuff." I winked.

"Damien we have a baby in this room." She said through gritted teeth, still blushing as I gave her a glimpse of what was to come over the weekend.

"Ohh." She moaned a little as my hands did their thing around her soft curves.

"Bye babe," I kissed her quickly and hurried off, leaving her hanging.

"Damiennnn!" She grunted loudly behind me. I laughed but not loud enough to spite her even further.

I had just arrived at the office and was heading up for the board meeting when I bumped into someone that was so close to spilling coffee on my shirt.

"Oh! Sorry sir," She said and let out a gasp as soon as she recognized me. "I'm so so sorry, I don't know why I'm so clumsy. I'm really sorry sir." She apologized profusely, rambling lots of things at once.

I held on to her shoulders to steady her, "It's fine."

"I hope I didn't smear your shirt, I don't mind taking it to the drycleaners."

"Like I said Miss..." I trailed off.

"Claire." She completed for me.

"Claire, it's fine. I'm late for my meeting so, you have a nice day." I said and slid past her.

The rest of the day went by in a blur cause I was basically in a hurry to get back home to Ariana. We needed this weekend getaway so badly.

She was all packed up when I got back but was not in any way ready to part ways with the kids, especially Ava. It took the whole house to reassure her that they were in good hands. Ariana doled out so many do's and don'ts, it was so hard to keep up with. She even had them written down! I was stunned at the list.

Motherhood surely was no easy task cause how on earth does someone remember so many details about their children and does not miss even one little thing?

Shoutout to mothers out there. Y’all are doing a great job!