I wanted to touch myself but he had said not to. Then one day I was in the supply room loading paper again. All I could think about was sex now. I ...adn’t actually had sex in months and months but after forcing myself to think about it so long I started liking it. I had reverted to wearing wedges because they were so much easier on my feet. I was in my second favorite sun dress—a new yellow floral print one that was particularly short—with my back to the door. I heard a man’s footsteps as. It doesn’t really matter. You can just feel my soft voice wrap around you like a warm blanket while you watch and listen and relax.’ Piper exhaled slowly, feeling the tension flow out of her with each breath. The room seemed to sway and dance slightly around the opal, but she no longer noticed. The stone was the only thing she needed to notice right now. It was so fascinating. Everything else faded into unimportant background details next to the beauty of the woman’s ring. They didn’t really. She was sweating profusely from her entire body. The ordeal was weakening her. Her eyes watered as sweat rolled from her forehead making it hard to see. The pains were robbing her of strength and courage. Her mind, still cloudy, could comprehend only the pain and the immediate need to deliver. Through the cramping she pushed again and saw yet more emerge. Exhausted, bewildered, pain racked, she kept bearing down as her ordeal continued.To add to her bewildered state, her bowels voided. Hugo wouldn’t have minded more, and neither would I, really, but two pregnancies were more than enough for me. I felt fat and ugly, I worshiped the porcelain goddess far too often—morning sickness is really disgusting, what a rotten way to start the day, and to interrupt it, too; it isn’t just mornings—and we agreed that we were going to settle for two.Hugo got them started early. He’d tell them bedtime stories from his own childhood, often continuing ones that left them on tenterhooks from one.