Heartbeats Away From Disaster

Gasping slightly as Craig's tongue explored my most intimate areas, I grasped tightly to the edge of the couch cushion, silently begging him to take it one step further. Sensing my urgency, Craig reached up and placed his hand on my hip and slowly began tracing circles on my bare skin with his thumb.

"Craig," I whispered as I arched my back slightly.

He squeezed my hip tightly before he pulled away from me all together, causing me to whine softly. "That's all you're getting, babe." He said, shaking his head as he ran his hands up and down my thighs.

"But Craig." I whined. "If I did something like that to you, you'd be so perturbed about it. What the fuck, that's not cool at all."

"If I go any further, you're going to be squirming like crazy." He said simply.

"So?" I asked. "What the hell does that matter?"

"You just had surgery." He said sternly. "You're supposed to just lay around all day, moving as little as possible so you can heal." He said before he reached up and kissed my cheek. "So no sex for you, at least until you heal."

I glared at him meanly as he pulled away. "That's bull shit, Craigery." I snapped. "You can't just start going down on me like that and then stop in the middle of it all."

"Mitzi babe, I have a meeting I have to go to pretty soon anyway." He said sadly.

"Damn it Craigery Michael Owens." I growled. "First you give me blue balls and now you're just totally go to leave me. I wanted to at least cuddle with you, but no, you're just gonna leave me for some fucking meeting."

"Sweetheart, I won't be gone for too long," he said, "an hour and a half tops." He added as he leaned in to give me another kiss, but I lashed out at him in annoyance and caught a couple of my nails on his jaw line.

He jumped back in shock and held his hand to his jaw for a couple of seconds. When he pulled his hand away, I saw a bright red streak, but it wasn't bleeding.

"Mitzi Lynn Carter, what the fuck was that about?" Craig asked in disbelief.

"You fucking made me mad." I growled.

"Sweetheart, you've been on edge lately." Craig frowned. "You've been pretty snappy with me."

Knowing he was right, I sighed heavily and lay my head back on the couch. "I don't know," I muttered, "I think it's my pain medicine they're making me take. It's causing me to get all moody and shit, I get annoyed pretty easily," I paused for a second, looking up at Craig, "I think I'm going to stop taking it."

"I don't know, sweetheart, the doc made it pretty clear that without your medicine you'll be in a lot of pain." Craig replied.

"I'm tough, I can suck it up." I insisted. "Besides, why should I keep taking it if it's making me feel like this?"

Craig stood there, studying me for a few seconds before he leaned back over for a third time and kissed my lips softly. "I'll call the doctor and ask him if there's something else you can take." He said quietly as he pulled away. "For now if you start feeling achy, just pop a couple of Ibuprofen." He insisted.

"Alright." I mumbled.

I watched as Craig stretched slightly, and then straightened out his clothes. "Do you need anything at the store?" He asked.

"Batteries for my vibrator since I'm not going to be getting any action from you."

Craig rolled his eyes and then shook his head. "If you're so desperate for action, I'll give you action babe." He sighed. "We just have to be careful; I'd hate to explain what happened to the doctor if I had to rush you back to the emergency room."

"I'll get some action when you get home?" I smiled.

"Yes." He confirmed with a sly smile. "As soon as I get home."

"Good." I said smugly. "While you're in your meeting, I hope you think about how I'm waiting here at home, lying on the couch half naked, waiting for you to strip me of the rest of my clothes." I teased.

Craig laughed softly as he picked up a blanket and tossed it on top of me. "Cover up your goods, love, you don't want any peeping Tom to peep in at you."

Carefully readjusting myself on the couch, I did as I was told. "I still want to cuddle with something." I insisted.

"You want to cuddle with my pillow?" He asked. "I'll go get it for you."

I shook my head.

"Well what the fuck do you want to cuddle with, babe?"

"Dennis."

Craig raised an eyebrow in response and gave me a strange look before he shook his head, and turned around to grab Dennis' fish bowl from the counter. He carefully packed it across the room and handed it to me. I placed it on my stomach and began cooing at Dennis.

"Mitzi Lynn," Craig sighed, "I don't know about you sometimes."

"This is your fault, you know." I said, still looking at Dennis. "If you didn't have to get to your meeting, I would be cuddling with you instead of with Dennis."

"Babe, I'm outta here before you have some other weird, random request for me." He said simply. "Call me if you think of anything you need from the store and I'll stop by on the way home to pick it up."

"Alright," I sighed, "I love you Craigery."

He laughed softly before he stole one last kiss from me. "Why have you been using my full name lately?" He grinned as he pulled away.

"I don't know," I answered truthfully, "it just seems to roll off the tongue I guess." I smiled.

Craig smiled softly and then shook his head a little. "I love you too, sweetheart. I'll see you in a few."

"Bye, babe."

"Bye."

With that, I watched as Craig walked across the living room and disappeared through the doorway that led to the foyer. I listened as he opened the door and then closed it behind him before I turned my attention back to Dennis. Seeing that I was watching him, Dennis began to swim swiftly around his tank, showing off his pretty fins to me.

"Craig is such a goofy boy," I whispered to Dennis, "but he takes good care of us, yeah?"

At that moment, Dennis stopped swimming and puffed his gills up as if in protest, causing me to laugh loudly. I winced slightly when I felt the pain in my chest, and quickly got over it. Like I said, I was going to suck it up and deal with it.

"You don't think Craig takes good care of us, Dennis?" I asked. "He's been catering to every single wish of mine," I said aloud, "and plus, he bought you a new, bigger tank that he's going to set up for you. Don't you want a bigger tank with more room to swim around in?"

Dennis was still for a second before he relaxed, and began zooming around his tank once again. Laughing softly, I shook my head. "Dennis, you're just as goofy as Craig." I said quietly.

No matter how goofy they were, though, I loved them to death. These past few months Craig has really proven to me how much he's changed. It wasn't until we tried a relationship a second time that I realized how much work I had put into our first one. Looking back, I realize now that Craig didn't take our relationship serious at all.

He was always so nonchalant, so laid back about everything. Like when we fought, he didn't try to make things right; I was always the first to say that I was sorry, because I was so afraid to lose him. Now, though, even if I do so much as yell at him and storm off to our room, he'll be there knocking at the door five minutes later, whispering that he was sorry.

Things are certainly different this time around. They're different, better this time. This time neither one of us was going anywhere.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Hearing the door open, I carefully sat up and placed Dennis' tank back on the coffee table.

"Craigery, it's been four fucking hours!" I growled. "You said it'll just be an hour and a half tops."

"Sorry, sweetheart, I had some other stuff I had to take care of." He said.

Peaking over the top of the couch, I eyed him as he poked his head past the doorway and looked into the living room.

"Close your eyes." He said. "I have a surprise for you."

"Craig, what did you buy?" I asked slowly.

"It's a surprise." He repeated. "Close your eyes."

Sighing, I did as I was told and listened as his footsteps came closer toward me. I heard what sounded like keys being dangled around and did my best to fight the temptation to open my eyes and see what it was. I felt Craig take a seat on the other end of the couch by my feet, and then he set something on my legs.

"Okay, open your eyes."

Slowly, I opened my eyes and then felt my mouth drop in surprise when I saw a black, fluffy cat carefully making its way across my blanket toward me.

"Aww, look at you, you pretty kitty." I cooed as I held my hand out to it. It instantly butted its head against my hand and starting purring loudly as it curled up on my stomach. "Craig, you got me a cat?" I grinned. "It's so pretty, thank you babe."

Craig laughed softly before he reached onto the ground and picked up a small puppy that I hadn't even noticed.

"Craigery! A puppy too?" I asked.

Smiling, Craig nodded his head and set the puppy in the same place he had set the cat.

"Hey pup, come here cutie." I said softly. "Wait, are you sure that these two are gonna get along?" I asked hesitantly.

"Yeah, they should." Craig replied. "The people who used to own the cat said that he's good with dogs and stuff."

"They're so cute, Craigery, thank you so much." I grinned. "I can't believe you splurged and got me a cat and a puppy."

"I couldn't decide which you would like better." He admitted. "So I got them both."

"Is that why you were gone so long?"

Craig didn't reply, but rather gave me a mysterious smile with a half shrug.

"What are their names?" I asked.

"Look on their tags." Craig said.

"You know you can just tell me." I said, rolling my eye as I reached for the collar on the cat. I felt around the edge of it and grabbed the metal tags, gently pulling it up so I could read it. Turning my eyes from Craig's smiling face, I glanced down only to feel my mouth drop in surprise.

I had found the tags, but I didn't realize that I had also found a pretty diamond ring attached to it.

"Craig." I whispered. "What ... " I trailed off, unable to finish my sentence.

Craig scooted closer toward me and expertly untied the ring from the tags.

When he made a move to hold it up to me, I blurted out "Yes."

Craig stopped his motions, eyeing me. "You will?" He asked, somewhat taken aback. "You'll marry me?" He asked with a smile pulling at the corners of his lips.

I nodded my head frantically, all the while trying to contain the tears of happiness.

"But, I had this whole speech that I was going to say," Craig said, "and now I don't get the chance to let you hear it."

Unable to hold back the tears any longer, I laughed and held up my hand, allowing Craig to slip my engagement ring onto my finger. Holding my hand in his, Craig examined the ring as his smile finally crept across his lips.

"You know, you can still tell me your speech." I grinned. "I'd love to hear it."

Craig ran his thumb across my ring before he looked up at me.

"I told you that one day I would marry you, Mitzi." He said softly. "But I wanted to wait until that moment when I wouldn't think twice about anything. Well ... on my way to the meeting today, I finally felt it. I looked at us and I knew that everything was going to be perfectly fine. I mean, I know that our relationship isn't perfect, and I know that I do things to piss you off. We fight, we butt heads, we cause trouble; that's just what we do. And I know that I might not always be able to give you the things you want, but I realize now that you'll be perfectly fine with that." He paused slightly, his blue eyes watching me.

"You and me, we don't always agree on the same thing but that's okay too because as long as you tell me that you love me, I can handle anything else that may happen. I took our first relationship for granted, but I'm not gonna do that this time. I realize what I have in front of me and I'm not gonna let it go." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "You're my lady, my only lady, until I die." He swore.

Wiping the tears from my eyes first, I reached up and pulled Craig toward me, pressing my lips to his. Slow and shy, this kiss reminded me of our very first kiss we shared together when we first started dating. At that time, never in a million years would I have guessed that Craig would be the boy to slip a pretty diamond ring onto my finger. But, here we were, some years down the road, engaged.

Slowly, Craig broke the kiss and pulled away from me. He reached for the tags on the puppy, who was now curled up beside the cat, and untied a band that matched my engagement ring.

"You might as well wear this around too," he grinned as he slipped it onto my finger as well. "They were a set, so I figured I'd give them both to you at the same time."

"You knew I was going to say yes." I said.

"I actually didn't know what your answer was going to be." He admitted as he stood up. "I mean, I sure as hell hoped that you'd say yes, but ... well, you never know."

"Where are you going?" I asked as he picked up the cat and the puppy.

"I'm going to put these two in the laundry room, so you and I can get to that x rated action I promised you." He smirked before he disappeared into the hallway. "And their names are Tommy and Adam by the way." He called back to me.

Suppressing a smile, I held my hand up and stared at my rings, waiting for my fiancé to return.