Chapter Thirty-One #2
The demon is gone when I glance back at him. His absence fills me with mild relief as I reach for the knob and twist the door open.
Lenora peers up at me, standing fully nude on the threshold. Her dark mane falls in tangled coils down her slender spine and … and her belly is a swollen bump. Not drastic. But enough that it is definitely noticeable.
“How much cum did you put in me?”
I think she’s teasing, but she seems as panicked as I feel. I can’t look away. Can’t stop staring at the biggest impossibility…
Okay, maybe it’s not the craziest thing I’ve seen since Veyn slithered his way into our lives, but … this?
“Maybe you just need the washroom,” I offer stupidly because people didn’t get pregnant overnight.
Okay, yes, they did, but not where they visibly show the next morning.
I stay with her, remaining steadfast and calm when she uses the washroom and the bump remains. I still don’t voice my worries out loud when helping her into the tub with me, setting her between the V of my thighs and sitting to work lathering her hair.
“What if I am?” she asks after several long moments of silence. “Pregnant,” she adds, like I might misunderstand her.
“What would you like to do?” I ask instead.
Beneath the water, I watch the slow glide of her small hands over the notch at her midsection. The glide that makes my stomach hurt.
Catherine had been indifferent when she announced her pregnancy. She’d told me over breakfast and that was the end of it. Part of me thinks she only said it as an announcement to her fulfilling her obligations. We barely saw each other again until I was called to the hospital.
But a baby with Lenora…
It’s too soon.
Not just the window of conception, but … I buried my sons a week ago. Having another child so quickly after is cruel. It’s unforgivable.
But she can’t possibly be pregnant.
“Going to stretch you out so the only cock that will make your cunt feel full is mine. So wide, I can fit my whole hand in and touch our baby.”
“I will allow you to use her. The condition is that you will breed her. You will put a baby inside her.”
“I want you to fuck her so much she gets knocked up, Marcus. Don’t you want that, too? I know you do. Now, you can. Breed her. Over and over. Dozens of little Lenora’s. No stopping. As soon as she drops one, bend her over and give her another.”
Veyn’s words echo through my head as if taunting me, and it hits me.
He’s been telling us from the beginning, and I stupidly dumped inside her every chance I got.
“We’re not pregnant,” Lenora murmurs, possibly sensing my terror. “I’ve been on the pill since I was sixteen. Mrs. Pym made sure of it.”
It’s unfair how violent the wave of relief is crashing over me, followed promptly by guilt.
A family with Lenora is a dream, but not yet. I’m not ready. I’ve already betrayed my sons so many times that bringing a baby into the world when they have barely had a chance to cool would be the final nail in my coffin.
“I would want it,” I tell her gently. “I just…”
“I know.” Her chin lowers to her chest. “I agree. We can’t. Not right now.”
My chest rises and falls with the heavy exhale I expel into the side of her neck.
Just one more thing to hate that demon for, but also, just how many times did I empty inside her that her belly would expand like that? Was that even possible? If she’s not pregnant, then it has to be.
I let the idea drop. All of it. If it’s not a baby, there’s no need to worry about it.
Finished and both of us fully washed, I bundle her up in a towel and carry her to the bed. I make a mental note to get Mrs. Pym to change the sheets as I gingerly set Lenora on the edge of the mattress wrapped in nothing but a towel.
“I’m going to have your things moved into my closet,” I tell her flatly.
Lenora raises an amused eyebrow. “How would that look?”
“Frankly, I can’t give a shit, but I’m not letting you sit here, damp, while I go across half the house to get you clothes.”
She sighs softly. “While a lovely idea, I don’t think I’m ready to give up my room. Besides, you don’t exactly have a lot of room in your closet for all my things.”
She’s not wrong, but I’m not ready to be deterred.
“Then we’ll knock down the wall and extend it.”
While I’m being serious, Lenora chuckles and pushes to her feet. Unwillingly, my gaze slips to the faint bump beneath the towel.
“Let’s talk about it later. I’m going to head over myself.”
With that, she pads from my room and I don’t stop her. I listen to the soft clap of her feet until I can’t anymore and only then do I face the mirrors once more.
“What is that?” I demand. “It’s not a baby because that isn’t how it works.”
No response.
I stalk closer to the wall and stare hard into my own eyes.
“I know you’re there. Answer me.”
He doesn’t.
The prick.
His silence, his persistent silence, only intensifies the gnawing uncertainty deep in my gut.
Though can I actually be enraged? Do I even have that right when he has been nothing but honest? When he has blatantly said it to my face.
But why?
Why would a demon need a baby?