27. What about my happiness? #2
I laughed at his tone, which indicated I’d blindsided him and he had urges to start handling every potential issue immediately.
“Your current assignment is to keep me company, enjoy our ceremony, praise Edgar when his excitement surely gets the better of him because he gets to carry the rings tonight, and otherwise prepare to spend all day proving your prowess and serving my every need. My father wants me getting six hours of sleep a night to start with until the pregnancy hormones insist I need more sleep. He is of the opinion I should sleep in puddles of sunlight, so he forced me to test every single chair he had suitable for being put on the deck until I found the one I like the best for napping. He’s opened the stairwell to the top of the stack, and I’ll be expected to go up to take my naps throughout the cruise unless it’s raining.
If it’s raining, I get to sleep wherever I want. ”
“Let me guess. You’ve been stealing naps on the roof.”
I grinned and bobbed my head. “I know better than to argue with my father at this point. For the death dance portion of the evening, we get to roleplay at being brutally murdered, everyone will immediately blame Ben—rightfully so, mind you—but nobody will actually accuse Ben until shortly before the ceremony because they’re vampires and they respect our desire to demonstrate just how lazy we’re willing to be.
My father is notifying everyone of our impending little ones upon boarding through the death dance role cards along with why there’s no alcohol being served aboard.
Apparently, if I can’t drink, nobody can drink. ”
I’d attempted to argue about that part, but then my father had made an excellent point: if there was no alcohol aboard, there was zero chance of accidents.
As vampires couldn’t handle much in the way of alcohol anyway, it worked well.
“I’m fine with this. And upon finding out why, nobody will care. But girls ?”
“Two of them, yes.”
“I was unprepared for a boy,” he informed me in a solemn tone.
I considered my husband and suspected he had many urges to run around and expend energy and excitement, but as he worried, he restrained himself in fear of possibly hurting me or the babies.
“At this stage of pregnancy, it is perfectly safe to throw me on the bed and do whatever you want with me. Which is, for the record, part of your present for after the ceremony.”
Emerick took his time looking me over. “I’m disappointed I don’t get to tear you out of that dress.”
“This dress cost a small fortune and will be carefully removed so it can be kept and reworn many times. The wedding dress, however, you can tear to ribbons with my blessing. I have ten of them. Ten . My father is convinced that the first six aren’t long for this world, and if he acquired ten, one might survive to serve as a memento.
And no, you may not carefully preserve the one being worn tonight.
It is fated to be ripped off me in a display of sexy vampire strength.
” I twirled, grinning as the skirts of my dress flared out and the bazillion amethysts sparkled in the light.
“You can reward me for my cunning and experimentation after the ceremony.”
“Do you have any other dietary restrictions?”
“There are no restrictions outside what pregnant woman shouldn’t normally eat.
The blood requirements are ridiculous, so while this method is working, it might be even more challenging than how the brood normally handles pregnancies.
We’re using Japanese Wagyu, and we bought an entire herd of them to make sure I have the blood supply needed.
Our herd is entirely female, and the Japanese are teaching us how to enhance the blood with magic.
The blood from pregnant cows is standing in for the human blood, and because I’m drinking so much, it’s expensive.
” I heaved a sigh. “I’m going through a gallon of blood a day. ”
Emerick whistled. “That’s insane. Your father wanted to see if giving you extra blood would help with the predation issue for the children?”
“Yep. And it’s working. It just takes a lot of blood. Right now, I’m drinking an entire liter before bed, once I get up, and then the rest throughout the day. The only thing I like about this is not ever being thirsty.”
Emerick smiled, waited for me to stop playing with my gown, and caught me in his embrace, pulling me close and holding on tight. “Let me guess. The pregnancy hormones are behind much of the crying lately.”
“I mean, anyone sensible would cry over getting the papers for both ships. I have zero shame about crying over that.”
“Honestly, the things you have been crying over have been reasonable, which is why I didn’t even think about the possibility of a pregnancy. But twin girls ?”
“You will be even more of a legend among vampires than my father. Just don’t start trying for more so you get boys instead of girls. I’m not sure our brood is at all ready or able to handle that.”
He laughed and gave me a kiss. “They’ll just have to cope with it. But in good news, I have every intention of hovering for your visual enjoyment, and as the one who must do all the work, I think it’s fair you get to pick what I’m wearing when I’m hovering.”
“You’re going to regret that later,” I warned.
“How could I possibly regret that?”
“When I can’t see my feet and insist on going to appointments in my pajamas, I’m going to require solidarity. That means you’re going to be leaving the comforts of our bedroom in pajamas, too.”
“Some sacrifices have to be made, and if me going out in public in pajamas makes you happy, then so be it. If you decide to make that request of Ben, warn me first so I can record it.”
“You got it.”
To keep things sensible and give us a chance to escape promptly after the ceremony, my father had decided the reception, gifts, and murder mystery would all happen as part of the dinner.
To start the show, Emerick and I staged our dramatic deaths, slain from poisoned appetizers.
As I had zero dignity and an enjoyment of making people laugh, I’d opted to recite from Julius Caesar before taking a bow, informing the crowd they were crazy if they thought I would be flinging myself onto the floor in this dress, and returned to my seat, leaving Emerick to play dead on the floor while everyone laughed.
The resulting chaos of a bunch of vampires pretending to be oh so shocked over the death of host and hostess would amuse me for years to come.
My father, who wasn’t part of the game along with the ship’s staff, sat beside me and chortled at the shenanigans.
“I’ll admit, I was worried a little over a murder mystery dinner party, but this is entertaining, especially over your refusal to get on the ground with your husband. ”
“His corpse has clues. Mine does not.” I peered over the table at my spouse, who was being frisked by numerous vampires, most of them part of our brood. I snickered over Clarke’s involvement, which involved attempting to rob my spouse of anything valuable.
Instead of wealth, he ended up with a bunch of scraps of paper informing him what was in my husband’s pockets.
“Clarke wouldn’t give anything back if we had real things in his pockets,” I whispered.
My father nodded, and he glanced over at my mother, who had decided to swoon against Clarke, leaning against his legs from her prone position on the floor. “The amount of drama in this room is ridiculous.”
As my job was to feed the babies and have a good time, I reached over and snagged one of the communal dishes of chicken wings, angling for the spiciest one I could locate in the batch.
“We filled this ship with drama, Dad.” I gestured over at Madam Avalon, who had joined my husband’s maker in checking his pockets for clues.
“Did you see how she very carefully lifted his jacket to check those pockets so I wouldn’t think she was trying to cop a feel of his chest? ”
My father snickered. “I had noticed, yes. Not a single one of the women in attendance is going to even dream of doing anything that might provoke you at this stage. My brood has been giving me play-by-plays of reactions as they read the welcome cards and learned you’re having twin girls.
Do not be surprised if Avalon leads the charge to take you out on spa dates and the like.
The brides take pride on their ability to pamper pregnant women, and as soon as you’re done with your honeymoon, you will be targeted. ”
I chomped on my wing, pleased with its crunch and heat. Once I had stripped every last scrap of meat off the bones, I made use of the scraps plate and snagged another. “I don’t mind her now that she’s accepted Emerick is mine and not on the market.”
“She adores you, but she’ll give you trouble for the fun of it. You’ve opened many doors for her and her brood, and she is grateful for that. She even approached me about what sort of gift to give you.”
“Emerick gets gifts, too,” I muttered.
“He will get plenty of gifts, but for a vampire of his age, the only gift he needs or wants is you. That you two are so early in your pairing and adding to your family already? He’s happy, so don’t you fret about him. I am assuming you told him, as he was practically skipping when you came in.”
“I told him,” I confirmed. “I wanted to give him some time to process the news so when I want my owed attention later, I can get it.”
My father laughed at me. “I’m sure you will have no problems on that front.
And yes, I told your mother and Clarke when they boarded, and I wisely told her we hadn’t said anything until now because of the nature of the experiment.
I also told your brothers the same way, and last I saw them, they were trying to decide if they were going to worship the ground your husband walks on or beat him up for despoiling you, their baby sister. ”
I loved my deranged family; after the rough start to my life and my haphazard entry into adulthood, I’d emerged the queen of the castle with nothing but a bright future ahead of me. “I might even give you a full collection of mugs this year for Christmas.”
“You are never going to let go of the mug thing, are you?”
“Nope. That’s half the fun now that I know fun can be had. And the experiment’s unexpected results just mean we are prepared in case the worst does happen.”
“Or if they’re born vampires without actually facing their first death.”
I admired my father for having the courage to speak about what worried us both.
“And if that is the case, they’ll be loved, given all the blood and milk their little tummies need, and we’ll take care with how they’re brought up.
But they won’t have to go through the charade.
They’ll know who they are, and they’ll know everything they need to be happy and healthy.
But so far, there’s nothing wrong with either one of them, and that’s the most I’m willing to ask for at this time.
That I’m not having any of my mother’s problems—or any of the problems other vampire women have—is a really good start.
It’s not easy , but if these babies show up without me requiring a transfusion, I’ll be happy. ”
“I assume you checked your blood pressure this evening?”
I nodded. “I checked it during one of my trips to the bathroom while wrangling my dress. It’s fine.”
“Excellent.” My father reached down and picked something up from beside his chair. A moment later, he held out a small purple gift bag. “I got your husband a gift as well, but this is for you.”
I finished off my spicy wing, deposited the bones on the plate, and licked my fingers clean before accepting his offering and peeking inside to discover a new cell phone in a purple case.
As my father never did anything without a purpose, I took the phone out, chuckled at the sticky note with the pin on the screen, pulled it off, and unlocked the device.
Judging from the home screen, my father had put together everything I would need to be an independent woman for the rest of my days. “A business phone?” I guessed.
“It is. All your portfolios, emails for your various business endeavors, and digital keys for the various retreats I stealthily acquired for you and your family can all be found on it. There’s an app for the sailing schedules of both your ships along with everything in my fleet, so if you want to cruise, you can at your leisure.
If your ship isn’t sailing at a time that works for you, you can board any one of mine.
The details for your Antarctic cruise are also in the app along with the schedule for your babysitters, as your little ones will be toddlers and will not be ready for such a cruise.
And yes, Emerick knows about the Antarctic cruise, although he did not know about the little ones at the time we made the arrangements.
They weren’t even a thought in anyone’s mind when we came up with this scheme. ”
I smiled at that, and I made use of the pockets hidden away in my dress’s many folds to hide my new toy. “Isn’t it customary to give the best gift of the night last?”
My father chuckled. “Trust me, this is only the beginning.”