Chapter Twelve
Bel
This wasn’t right. Six bowls and no matter what magic that Bel used, there was something missing. He pushed the sixth bowl away from him, making it fly forcefully against the wall. It didn’t taste right, or smell right, and the butter was sticky.
“Bel?”
He stiffened as his mate walked into the kitchen. A room that Bel couldn’t remember Atlas ever entering before so Atlas must have been searching for him. Gripping the edge of the black marble counter, Bel dropped his chin and breathed deeply. He was stupidly emotional for no reason at all.
“Hey.” Atlas rubbed his lower back, which Bel pushed back into because that felt amazing. “What are you doing?”
Bel scowled at the six bowls he’d tried to magic up. “Nothing.”
Atlas hummed. “It looks like you were trying to make popcorn.”
Damn it. Bel was not going to blush. He just couldn’t think about that big bag of popcorn that he’d bought for Asmos and Cary.
“Do you want popcorn?” Atlas asked.
“No.” It wasn’t right! He was used to being able to magic up whatever he wanted.
“I think you do.” Atlas kissed between his wings. “I have an idea.”
“What?” Bel kept his head down. If his mate was going to tease him, then Bel didn’t want to see it. All he wanted was that stupid popcorn.
Atlas slipped a hand around Bel to rest a palm against his belly.
Bel’s much larger stomach than it had been a week ago.
At the rate that he was growing, Bel wouldn’t be able to hide the pregnancy from anyone.
Not that he imagined there were many demons that didn’t know already.
Hell, word had already gotten around to the other realms by the emails that Bel received from old friends.
“Hey,” Atlas said.
Bel started to turn before realizing that Atlas was on the phone.
“My bestie best friend!” Asmos said cheerfully. “Do you need me? Is the baby coming?”
Bel could hear his old friend clearly from the cell.
“You know damn well that the baby isn’t coming yet,” Atlas corrected Asmos.
“I’m just saying,” Asmos responded. “I will be there for the two of you no matter what time or day. You just let me know. I can even—”
“You can do me a favor,” Atlas interrupted.
“Anything!” Asmos vowed.
“Go to the human realm and buy me the largest popcorn you can. Extra butter. Oh! And all the seasoning packets they have,” Atlas ordered.
Asmos whined. “But I don’t want to! Can’t I just magic it up for you?”
“No,” Atlas replied firmly. “From the human realm. I’ll know, Asmos.”
Asmos sighed. “This is payback from Bel, isn’t it?”
Atlas kissed between his wings again. “No. You just said you would do anything for me. I want popcorn. Extra butter or I’ll send you back. And the seasoning packets.”
“That’s so much work,” Asmos complained. “And those places are loud and stink like humans.”
Bel snorted. That had been his argument.
“Okay,” Atlas drawled slowly. “I’m sure I can ask Mammon. Or maybe Beelz. He’s been coming around more.”
“No!” Asmos practically shouted. “I’ll do it!”
His mate totally had Asmos’s number. Asmos might be lazy but he also wanted to stay on their good side. Bel turned to lean against the counter and pull Atlas into his arms.
“Thirty minutes, Asmos,” Atlas said. “I’m hungry.”
“I’ll be so fast!” Asmos vowed.
Atlas disconnected the call before grinning up at him. “Your popcorn will be right here.”
“I love you,” Bel blurted out.
Rising onto his tiptoes, Atlas kissed him softly. “I love you too. Is there anything else you want? Anything at all?”
Bel shook his head. He didn’t even understand why he wanted the popcorn.
“I don’t care how weird your cravings get,” Atlas told him. “You tell me and I will make it happen.”
“Cravings?”
“Pregnancy cravings,” Atlas said. “I’ve been reading some books. Now, these are human books about women, but most mention some kind of cravings. I’ll go out to find you ice cream in the middle of winter at midnight if I need to.”
“We’re past winter now. Going into spring,” Bel pointed out.
Atlas rolled his eyes. “That is not the point. You tell me what you want and I’ll make it happen.”
Bel nodded. “Thanks.”
“You don’t have to thank me.” Atlas rocked back on his heels. “While we wait on Asmos, come with me.”
His mate grabbed Bel’s hand to drag him out of the kitchen and into the bedroom. The scent of sex still clung in the air from earlier.
“Would you like to explain this to me?” Atlas asked.
“It smells like us. Mating. I like the smell,” Bel replied. “Do you want me to—”
“Why is this room practically barren?” Atlas demanded.
“Oh, uh…” Bel hadn’t realized just how much he’d gotten done while Atlas had been finishing the paperwork for the day.
“Where are all your collections?” Atlas asked.
Bel waved his hand toward a new door. Well, technically there were two new doors.
Atlas narrowed his eyes before crossing the room.
Biting his lip, Bel forced himself to remain where he was. Was his mate mad?
Atlas opened the door and stuck his head into the new room. Then he backed away and strode to the second door and opened that.
Bel waited to see what Atlas would say.
Atlas turned toward him and blew out a breath.
He squirmed. Maybe he should have talked to Atlas?
“That makes sense to me,” Atlas said, pointing at the second new room that Bel had materialized. “And that is a gorgeous cream color.”
“We can change it!” Bel said quickly.
“Of course we can,” Atlas said. “A wave of a hand and the room will be whatever color we want.”
Bel nodded. That was right.
“That’s not what concerns me,” Atlas told him. “Why did you remove every single thing from our bedroom?”
“It was messy?”
“Are you asking or telling me?” Atlas questioned.
“Telling you?” Bel offered but it was totally a question.
Shaking his head, Atlas returned to him. “Bel, what is going on?”
His frustration surfaced again. Bel hadn’t meant to change everything. He also hadn’t meant to decide on the nursery color. It just happened.
“Mate!” Atlas grabbed his cheeks. “Look at me.”
Bel realized that he had started to hyperventilate. He nodded and slowed his breathing.
“Why did you empty out our bedroom?” Atlas asked calmly.
Gripping Atlas’s elbows, Bel instantly felt better. Steadier. “I was walking past one of the bookcases and stumbled into it. A heavy shadow box fell, and I was too slow to catch it. Then I thought what if it had been the baby that bumped into it. The baby could be hurt!”
That brief moment of panic still left a bad taste in his mouth.
“Okay, that’s understandable,” Atlas told him.
Bel relaxed, thankful that his mate understood.
“But it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. You didn’t have to move every single thing out of the room,” Atlas said. “Now there’s nothing of you in here.”
“We could put your stuff in here. Luci got your stuff from the hotel,” Bel reminded him.
“I don’t have much,” Atlas replied with a shrug. “And I liked your collections.”
Bel had too. And the room was so empty and sad now. No pretties to look at anymore.
“How about this?” Atlas asked. “We bring half of the stuff back in here. Leave that room for more collecting. That way we can have two rooms and your office full of all the stuff that we love.”
Bel nodded. “But we’ll make sure none of it can fall on the baby.”
“Bel, we have magic at our disposal. We can put up barriers around the furniture and anything else to make sure the baby stays safe.”
He stared at his mate. How had Bel forgotten that? Now he just felt stupid. He blinked back tears. Bel was a fucking demon prince. He’d been using magic for his entire life. Atlas barely knew anything about magic, but he was much smarter. What was happening to his brain?
“No,” Atlas said sternly. “Don’t you be thinking whatever it is that you are. You just wanted to keep our child safe. That is a very good thing.”
Bel sniffed. “I’ve been using magic forever. I know that I can put up barriers.”
“But you haven’t been a parent before,” Atlas said. “I think it’s okay if I need to remind you every now and then that everything will be okay.”
Yeah, Atlas had been so supportive, loving, and just fantastic since they found out about the baby. Longer. No matter what Atlas was faced with, he just rolled with it. A truly remarkable trait.
“Do you really like the color of the nursery?” Bel asked.
“Let’s go look,” Atlas suggested. He urged Bel forward until they entered a room as big as theirs.
Bel had magicked up the extra room because he hadn’t been sure how much space he’d needed for his collections. It turned out to be easier to make his collection room bigger to accommodate everything.
That had left him with an empty room.
Twenty-one days. That was how far along that Bel was now. Twenty-one days of carrying a little being inside him. The baby that would need a room. Or so Atlas insisted even when Bel had suggested keeping the baby in the room with them.
Atlas had outright refused since he claimed he would not be fucking Bel in front of their child. And Atlas wasn’t giving up loving on his mate.
So maybe Atlas had been right about that too.
“How about some soft track lighting at the very top of the ceiling instead of an overhead light?” Atlas asked while waving his hand.
Bel smiled, simply loving the addition. It was softer. Calmer. “I like that.”
Atlas leaned against him and Bel wrapped his arm around his mate’s shoulder. “Me too. And the color is beautiful.”
“I didn’t want to go with traditional colors,” Bel confessed.
“I want our baby to grow up without typical gender roles. Demons can struggle with change but Adam has done a lot to combat that. Still, a lot of demons see less powerful or females as weaker than them. Which is dumb because some of the fiercest demons I work with are female.”
Atlas turned and kissed Bel’s chest. “I agree. And I love that. As over the top as Adam is, there’s no one better to speak up for the demons. Mal really did find his perfect match.”
“That’s what the fates do,” Bel said. And wasn’t he blessed?
“Then we’ll thank the fates,” Atlas said.