Sean makes a more changes but with longer reaching consequences

Turns out Rebecca was a great kisser. Sean was okay with that.

It did not mean he had forgotten what she had done to him. She had spent years poisoning his career, blocking promotions and trying to make his working life miserable. He could admit she was beautiful, and apparently admit she knew exactly what she was doing with her mouth, without being willing to fuck her.

Not yet. He had something more interesting in mind.

“Say, Rebecca.” Sean waited until her attention settled fully on him. “Since we already spend more time together than half the married couples in this office, would you rather your promotion mean we also secretly live together, so we spend more time together than every married couple here, or would you rather keep living separately and know that at least half of them spend more time with their partners than you do with me?”

Rebecca stared at him long enough for Sean to see exactly which part had caught. Not secretly living together. Apparently that required no consideration at all. It was the thought of other couples spending more time together than they did that narrowed her eyes.

“We live together,” she said, as though correcting something embarrassingly obvious. “We drive to work together like a married couple. You, me and Raina sleep in the same bed. We cuddle at night, bathe together, eat together, cook together. We outperform every traditional married couple here.” A small note of satisfaction entered her voice. “It’s a good thing Raina likes you as much as I do.”

Sean had only asked whether they lived together. Somehow the answer had expanded into a shared commute, a shared bed, communal bathing, domestic meals and a competitive ranking against every married couple in the office, which was much more useful than he had expected.

Then his eyes dropped, and the rest of that thought went with them.

The blouse that had fitted normally a few minutes ago now swept outward beneath her chest over the unmistakable heavy curve of a pregnant stomach, large enough to require considerably more space between her chair and the desk. One hand rested comfortably across the top, and the smile that met his stare carried far too much amusement to suggest she found his reaction unusual.

Apparently the three of them had been doing considerably more than cuddling in that shared bed, and somewhere along the way protection had become optional. Judging by how pregnant she was, probably deliberately so.

Not that Sean had honestly expected three years of living together, bathing together and cuddling every night to have remained chaste once Rebecca had already accepted that their relationship was romantic and sexual. The more immediate revelation was that at some point they had stopped bothering with protection, and judging by the size of her, they had done so with considerably more purpose than simple carelessness.

The thought must have shown somewhere on his face because an amused little hum escaped her. “Don't start looking smug. You were every bit as enthusiastic about this as I was.”

“I'm sure I was.” His attention had already wandered back to the swell beneath her blouse.

“You certainly weren't complaining when we were trying.” The easy familiarity of it made clear this was an old joke between them, not something she expected to explain, and the hand resting over her stomach moved idly as she watched him take her in. Somewhere in those rewritten years they had apparently decided to have a child, stopped using protection and enjoyed the attempt enough for Rebecca to still tease him about it now. When the baby shifted beneath her palm and immediately stole his attention, her amusement only deepened.

“There it is.”

Another small push shifted beneath her hand, holding Sean’s attention long enough to draw an amused smile from her. “You still do that whenever the baby moves. I can be halfway through saying something and lose you completely. You were the same at the last scan. Raina spent half the drive home making fun of you for it.” Her fingers continued their lazy path across her stomach, the recollection carrying the easy fondness of something they had apparently laughed about before. “I really should have let you talk me into this sooner.”

“Let you?” Sean repeated, amusement creeping into the disbelief.

“Fine, we should have done it sooner.” Rebecca rolled her eyes at the correction. “I underestimated how much I would enjoy being pregnant.”

That earned her a sceptical look..

“Oh, don't start," Rebecca chided Sean, "Neither of you lets me carry anything, I mention being tired and suddenly I'm being ordered onto the sofa, and God forbid I say my feet hurt unless I want both of you fussing over me for the rest of the evening.” She was smiling by the time she admitted, “I've become rather fond of being pampered.”

Sean very much did not know exactly what she meant, but saying so would hardly improve matters, especially while she was so readily filling in the missing history for him. “You were worse than she was. At least Raina occasionally remembered that pregnancy hadn't rendered me helpless. You started carrying things for me before I'd even decided whether I wanted them moved.”

“And you hated that, I'm sure,” Sean said dryly.

“Terribly, Rebecca faux complained. " Almost as much as I hated having both of you cook for me, rub my feet and bring me whatever I wanted while I sat down.” Her hand wandered comfortably over her stomach. “I became accustomed to a certain standard of treatment.”

“So not at all,” he said, the amusement plain in his voice.

The pleased little smile she gave him was answer enough. “And then there was the staring. I expected that part to get old eventually, but apparently having you look completely besotted every time you remember I'm carrying your child has a certain appeal.” As if determined to prove her point, the baby shifted beneath her palm before she had quite finished, drawing Sean’s attention straight back to the movement. Rebecca laughed at how readily he had demonstrated exactly what she meant. “See? That.” There was little point denying it while he was still watching the place where their child had kicked.

“I probably should have done this months earlier,” she continued. “Raina said I'd become unbearable once I realised pregnancy meant I could have both of you fussing over me and monopolise your attention at the same time.”

“And was she wrong?”

“Obviously not.” The satisfaction in her expression made it clear she considered that less an accusation than a successful outcome. “You hover. I stand up and one of you asks whether I need help. I mention being hungry and suddenly there are three different things in front of me because neither of you can agree on what I meant. If my feet hurt, apparently that requires both of you on the sofa arguing about whose turn it is.”

“And you love every second of it,” Sean said, amusement creeping into his voice.

“I tolerate it,” Rebecca lied smoothly with a knowing flirtatious smile.

It was something that Sean couldn't help but dryly point out "you're smiling,"

But those words only made Rebecca's smile grow wider, “I am pregnant. I am allowed to enjoy being treated properly.”

Sean glanced once more at her stomach and considered just how far his choice had carried itself. Moving in together had seemed clever when he asked the question; three years of domestic history with Rebecca choosing him over the possibility that other couples might have something she did not sounded useful. What he had failed to account for was what Rebecca Thomas would actually do with those three years, which apparently included getting herself heavily pregnant and becoming thoroughly accustomed to having both members of the household wait on her.

Her fingers continued their slow path across her stomach. “Raina said last night that I've become spoiled.”

“Smart woman,” Sean said dryly.

“You agreed with her.”

“Apparently I have excellent judgement.”

Rebecca snorted. “You were considerably less pleased with yourself ten minutes later when I wanted the yoghurt Raina bought for me and discovered the two of you had finished it.”

There was irritation in the memory, but not quite the sort Sean would have expected from a pregnant woman discovering somebody had eaten the food she wanted. The little smile trying to work its way through gave that away, along with the particular emphasis she had put on finished it. Apparently whatever he and Raina had done with that yoghurt had involved considerably less sitting at the kitchen table than the phrase normally implied, and Rebecca's real grievance had been missing it.

That explained why she sounded more aggrieved at being left out than deprived of dessert.

It seemed motherhood and pregnancy had softened Rebecca far more than Sean would ever have expected, though it had done nothing to cure her of the conviction that she knew best. If anything, carrying their child seemed to have given that softer side somewhere comfortable to settle. When the baby moved again his attention went straight to the shifting curve beneath her blouse, earning a quiet laugh as he came around the desk. She was already adjusting in the chair by the time he reached her, giving him easier access with the familiarity of someone who had done this often enough that neither of them needed to think about it.

“See? You still do it.” His palm settled over her stomach and she covered the back of his hand with her own, guiding it slightly until another faint pressure met his fingers. “I honestly thought all the attention would start annoying me eventually, but then you started looking at me like that.”

“Like what?” Sean asked, spreading his hand over the movement.

“As though I’m doing something miraculous merely by sitting here.” The self-satisfaction in her voice made him glance up, only to find her smiling at him. “Still, Raina was right about one thing. We probably should have done this earlier.”

“That must hurt.”

“Terribly.” Rebecca gave his hand a small squeeze against her stomach. “But I was always going first.”

“Of course you were.”

“I’m better.”

Sean stared at her for a moment. “That’s your reason?”

“It’s an excellent reason.” She sounded entirely sincere. “If one of us was going to do this first, obviously it should have been me.”

“You competed with Raina over who got pregnant first.”

“I did not compete with her. She wanted to go first, and I explained why that was a bad idea.”

“And why was it a bad idea?”

“Because I wanted to know what it was like before she went through it.” Rebecca’s tone carried the easy certainty of something she had apparently explained before. “What hurt, what helped, what we should have prepared for, what the two of you would become ridiculous about. Somebody had to be the trial run, and if one of us was going to do it first, it was going to be me.”

Sean’s mouth started to pull into a grin.

“Don’t,” she warned, though there was amusement in it now. “I was right. You and Raina have made the whole thing far easier than I expected, and despite knowing exactly how unpleasant the birth is going to be, I already want to do this again.”

“Well, Rebecca, once we’re finished here, would you rather head home since neither of us has anything important left to handle and your pregnancy gives you more than enough reason to call it a day, or help me settle a few scores?”

Rebecca gave him a look as though the choice itself were ridiculous. “That is a stupid question, Sean. If you have a score to settle, then so do I.”

“You don’t even know what it is.”

“I don’t need to.” The smug certainty Sean remembered from three years of office warfare had crept back into her expression. “I don’t forgive people who wrong me, and I certainly don’t forget them.”

Rebecca's hand left his where it rested against her stomach and caught him by the tie, drawing him down so her mouth met his before he could answer. She opened against him, tongue sliding in to take the kiss deeper while her grip on the tie kept Sean exactly where she wanted him, slow and thorough, until his attempt at a reply dissolved into the press of her mouth and she finally let him pull back only far enough to breathe.

Her fingers remained curled around his tie. “But you keep talking about it like it’s your problem. It isn’t. It’s ours. Yours, mine and Raina’s. So whether it was petty or serious doesn’t matter to me. If someone decided to make your life difficult, they decided to make all three of our lives difficult. And I intend to make them pay”