Chapter 14 Camden
Camden
There were certain perks to being mated to a warlock.
Especially one who was a doctor and could do a magical ultrasound whenever you wanted.
Well, we were there. I wanted. I was due in a month, and that meant I was six weeks pregnant.
Technically, we could have done the ultrasound last week, but life was busy.
Winston and Lukyan had come to visit and were still here.
I wasn’t upset about that at all. Winston, I’d discovered, was actually quite funny, and Lukyan I adored.
He was an amazing father-in-law, and he had so many stories of a young Maxwell for me.
I loved hearing all of the stories, and in the week since they’d been here, we’d had dinner with them three times.
Both had insisted that they didn’t want to overstep, and that was a completely foreign concept to me.
It was a lazy Sunday, and Winston and Lukyan had plans to go visit somewhere else.
I couldn’t remember, exactly, but I knew I’d hear all about it tomorrow during our planned dinner.
But this morning, I was still in bed and was thinking about rolling over and going back to sleep.
That was, until Maxwell came out of the bathroom, looking like sex on legs.
“You know,” I said sleepily, “it’s really not fair that you always look good enough to eat.
” His pants were barely hanging on, and I honestly wondered if they would fall off if he wiggled his hips hard enough.
“Those pants are indecent around others,” I told him.
I could see the top of his trimmed hair, and of course, I knew exactly what that looked like as I’d seen it without anything covering it more than enough times.
Maxwell crawled back into bed and under the covers with me. “There you go. All covered up.”
I pretended to pout. “I meant around others. I very much love the view here in the bedroom when it’s just the two of us.”
“I know. Which is why I teased at all.” Maxwell got comfortable on his back, and once he was situated, I moved to where I was lying on his outstretched arm.
“This works, right? Will you need your arm?”
“I won’t need my arm, and this absolutely works.” I felt Maxwell kiss my hair. “Are you ready to see our baby again?”
“I am. What do I need to do? Just lie here?”
“Yes. Or you could stand across the room. It’s simply easier if you’re in the same room as me.”
I snuggled in. “That’s not a problem. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
Maxwell used magic to close the shades, and after the bedroom was dark, he did that magical thing where he projected our baby in the air in front of us.
“Oh, wow,” I said quietly. “He looks so much different this time.”
“He, huh?”
I snorted. “I’m a doctor too, you know. And I can see his turtle right there. He’s not being modest at all.”
“True. We are indeed having a little boy.”
I stared at the image floating in front of us.
It turned, and Maxwell zoomed in and out on various different parts of the baby’s body.
I knew he was taking measurements and would use those to determine if the baby was growing at a decent rate.
I had a small bump, and although when naked I absolutely looked pregnant, I could still hide it with clothes.
But between this week and the last, I’d lost the ability to wear all of my pants except my sweats and lounge pants, so I had a feeling I was going to pop any day now, and there would be no hiding the fact that I was pregnant going forward.
Not that I had anything to hide. I didn’t leave Treasure Ridge.
I had no need. Everything I wanted and needed was up here.
“Do you want to know what we’re having?”
“Yes and no,” I told him. “I’m going to love the baby no matter what. I already do, actually. But I know so many want to know what we’re having, so go ahead and tell me so we can share the news.”
Maxwell kissed my head, letting his lips linger in my hair. “We don’t have to share what we’re having with anyone but us,” he whispered.
“I know. But I want to know. Lukyan really wants to know, and I’m not sure if Winston told him yet or not.”
“Father hasn’t, no. I asked that he respect not only our wishes but your privacy and not scan you to find out.”
I turned my head to look at Maxwell. “Really?”
He nodded. “Yes. So if you don’t want to know, I won’t tell you.”
“But you know.”
Maxwell took a deep breath. “I’ve known since you asked if you had caught. I didn’t do it to try to force you to decide one way or another. When I pushed out and the aura pushed back, it told me then.”
I smiled. “That just sounds so adorable. This tiny little aura pushing out and shouting to you…‘I’m here, Papa!’”
I felt Maxwell chuckling. “I’d never thought of it that way, but yes, I guess that’s a good way to describe it.”
“It’s a perfect way. I don’t mind knowing what we are having. And it’s exciting that others are curious.”
“If you truly don’t mind, I’ll tell you.”
I waited and waited some more before I turned again and looked at my mate. “Well?”
Maxwell grinned. “We’re having a little warlock,” he told me. “I hope that isn’t upsetting.”
I shook my head, and I knew my eyebrows were scrunched because Maxwell reached up and rubbed between them.
“Why would that upset me? I’m happy to be carrying your baby.
And if we end up having nothing but little warlocks, I’m still going to be excited about every one of them.
” I thought about it for a moment and was suddenly concerned.
“Are you upset we’re not having a little fox? ”
“Not at all. Like you, I’m going to love all of our children. I would just like to have at least two. But you already know that.”
I smiled at my mate before turning back around and getting comfortable again. “Well, we’re going to have at least two. Especially since you’re so damn sexy and I can’t seem to get enough of you.”
“I feel as if I should complain, but I truly can’t. I very much enjoy being with you, in all ways, but there are certainly perks to being mated.”
I snorted. There were perks. Yes. Very much so.
I definitely got more of them because my mate was a warlock, and I’d not cooked a single thing since I’d met him.
Nor had I done laundry, or cleaned the house, or moved my things.
Nothing. Maxwell did it all. Sure, I could do those things, and I’d tried to help out, but his argument had always been that if he used magic to do those things, then we had more time to spend together doing something enjoyable.
Like cuddling on the sofa, enjoying a romantic meal, going for a walk. Or my favorite: making love.
“So tell me, since we’re not using an actual ultrasound machine and I don’t have the ability to take measurements, how is our little guy doing?”
“He’s doing well. Measurements look as if he’s going to be on the taller side.”
I rolled my eyes. I had no doubt that our son would be taller than I was by the time he was ten.
I was short, and Maxwell wasn’t. If we were having a warlock, he would be tall and slender like his sire father.
“He’s a warlock. That’s to be expected,” I said in response.
“Are his organs all doing well? Development elsewhere good?”
“Yes. He seems quite healthy. I still put your due date around June eighteenth or so. Give or take a few days either way.”
Exactly one month from today. “Do you think we should start getting ready for him?” I asked.
“We don’t have anything. No bottles, formula, diapers, clothes.
Nothing. His nursery is empty.” We’d put my old bed in one of the other bedrooms, just in case someone wanted to visit and stay with us.
But the other two bedrooms were both empty and waiting to be filled with whatever.
“We have time for all of that, and we’ll work on the nursery just as soon as you decide what theme you want for it.”
I groaned and rolled over, moving closer to Maxwell’s side. “I’m not sure,” I said. “I’m torn between two very different ones, and I just don’t know what I want.”
“There’s time. We have a month or so before he’s even born. And after that, he’s going to be with us in our room for some time.”
“How long?”
“As long as you wish. It might be that you want him with us for months. Maybe you’ll be settled enough with only a few weeks. It depends on the baby and the parents.”
I grinned. “Me? What about you? I know you deliver a lot of babies, but what if you are the one who doesn’t want him going to the nursery?” I teased.
“All possibilities,” Maxwell said. “Did you want to see the baby more?”
“I’m good,” I said as I snuggled more into Maxwell’s side. He rolled to his side, and I suddenly found myself wrapped up in his embrace. It was warm and cozy and would be so incredibly easy to fall back asleep. “Do you have plans for the day?” I asked quietly.
“Whatever you wish,” Maxwell said. I felt him moving my hair, and it took a moment for me to register that it was his fingers as he was running them through it. “Did you wish to go for a walk? Or maybe we could go shopping? We haven’t been to the store in some time.”
That caught my interest, and I moved back enough to look at my mate. “I could go shopping. I need to get some stretchy pants anyway. All that fit now are my sweats, and they don’t really work well for work.”
“Why didn’t you say something? I can provide you with elastic-waist slacks if that’s what you’re after.”
“I know you can, but I wanted to go shopping and see what they have. I’m planning on having more children, so it’s not like I won’t wear them again.”
“All right. We can do that if you’d like.
I’m not sure how much the council store carries.
They have talked about putting in a clothing store that was geared more towards pregnancy, both in terms of clothing as well as baby and nursery things, but nothing has been done yet.
I think before long, there’s going to be a complete little town up here on the mountain. ”