Chapter 23 #3
Logan grabs Everest’s arm and practically yanks him from the room.
“Fucking idiot,” he hisses, and Everest grows pale.
“Oh, fuck… fuck… didn’t Damien know?”
“Why the fuck do you think she asked me for the pregnancy test instead of Damien?”
“But then… but then… why did you tell me?”
“Because I thought you could keep a secret!”
Vincent closes the door hurriedly and I hear their muffled voices continue to bicker like the fucking third graders it sometimes feels like they are.
But I’m a lot less interested in their fighting than I am in the girl beside me who currently looks like she wishes she could disappear six feet underground.
I close the distance between us and capture her chin in my hands, staring into her violet eyes as they dart around the room uncomfortably.
“So, you’re pregnant,” I breathe.
She looks down, keeping her eyes resolutely away from mine.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Well…” she clears her throat. “I wasn’t sure… I wasn’t sure that’s what you wanted.”
I snort. “Didn’t I tell you I wanted you to make me dozens of kids? And I’m pretty sure I made it clear I wasn’t talking about kid goats, either.”
She hiccups nervously. “I just thought… you might have changed your mind. You haven’t brought it up in a while.”
“I certainly did not change my mind,” I say, staring at her intently. “Unless you don’t want kids?”
I try to read her reaction, but her eyes are still averted.
There’s nothing I’d rather do than raise a family with the love of my life.
But I also realize with a pang that if the love of my life told me she didn’t want to have kids…
then I’d drive her to the abortion clinic without a moment of hesitation.
Fuck, I really have changed. I’ve grown soft. All I want is to make my girl happy. Whether that means having ten kids, or no kids at all.
“It’s just…” she clears her throat again. “Do you think we can do it? Actually parent children, I mean? Without completely fucking them up?”
“Are you kidding me? We can do anything. For fuck’s sake, Seraphina, we kill people for a living. Having kids is child’s play in comparison.”
“Exactly,” she huffs out. “Exactly. We kill people. I’ve stabbed four men, Damien.”
“Five, if you count the stapler,” I cut in, and she makes a face.
“I mean, I’ve murdered four men. I’m good at removing people from this world. Not so sure I’d be good at bringing anyone into it.”
“We can do anything,” I repeat, kissing the freckles on her nose. “You can do anything.”
“Yes, but…” she sits down on the couch heavily. “I don’t want to fuck anyone up the way my father and stepfather fucked me up.”
I let myself fall down next to her. “Are you comparing me to those bastards?”
“No, no, of course not. Still…” She blows out another breath. “It’s a lot of responsibility. That’s all.”
Her words are followed by a long silence as we both lose ourselves in thought. I stroke her back absentmindedly, coming to terms with what I imagine to be her decision.
No kids. She doesn’t want kids.
Second to Seraphina, having kids is my greatest desire in life. But only second to her. Everything will always come second to her.
If she says no kids, then it’ll be no kids.
I’ll let her keep her womb. The rest of her belongs to me. But this decision is hers to make.
“You’d make a wonderful mother,” I say at last. “And I’d try my damn hardest to be a good father. But it doesn’t matter. If you don’t want kids, then that’s all there is to say about it.”
She stares at me in shock, her mouth so wide open I wonder if her jaw will fall off. Then she shuts it just as suddenly.
“You… what? You’re fine with not having kids?”
“Of course.” I shrug. “If that’s what you want.”
“But you… you just told me you want…”
“I want what you want,” I say, kissing her again.
“So… you’d just let me decide?”
I snort. “Pretty sure you’re already the one who decides. I can order you to do whatever you want, but when it comes down to it, if you don’t want to do it, you don’t. You’re a very naughty girl, pet, and—”
My words are suddenly cut off as she lunges at me and kisses me. In the not-so-distant past, I might have punished her for such a show of affection, but now, I hold her to me hungrily, returning her kiss with passion.
“I want to,” she breathes into my mouth. “I want to be pregnant. I want your child. I want you, Damien.”
I sink my teeth into her lower lip, crushing her to me so hard she gasps for breath. “Well, good. Because you have me. All of me. And you’d better keep me.”
I kiss her again, more passionately than ever, before pulling away from her and lying her down on the couch, on her back. Kissing her again, I work my way down to her stomach, tenderly stroking it, picturing the seed of life that’s been planted there.
Then my kisses go lower, down the side of her thighs. I kiss her panties and notice they’re wet. Fuck. The sight of her arousal makes me hard again.
Hard… for something different.
“Tell me, darling,” I say. “I never did punish you, did I?”
She looks at me in confusion.
“That punishment I promised you after you disobeyed me with Noel. Remember?”
The blush creeping into her cheeks tells me she does in fact remember, and quite clearly at that.
“And you know I’m never one to break my promises. Right?”
“Right,” she says with that grin of hers that’s once more turned goofy.
“And now, you’ve told my best friend about your pregnancy before you even told me.” I hook a finger into the waistband of her panties and slide them down suddenly over her knees. “That also calls for a punishment, wouldn’t you agree?”
“A very hard punishment,” she giggles.
“You won’t be giggling by the time I’m done with you,” I threaten, and in a flash I’ve stripped her and I’m holding her in my lap, drinking in the feel of her naked, helpless body in my arms.
“The question is, what am I going to do to you?” I murmur hoarsely in her ear. She shivers against my hard cock pressing into her ass.
“What are you going to do?” she squeaks nervously as I mark a long pause.
I run my fingers over her naked curves. “I think… I think we’re going to play a game. Hide and seek. You’ll hide, and I’ll seek. And if I find you… I’m going to give you the punishment of a lifetime.”
“What if you don’t find me?” she breathes.
“Oh, I will.”
I turn away from her, close my eyes, and start to count, my cock straining against my boxers.
“Ten… nine… eight…”
I smirk as I hear the light padding of her feet across the bedroom.
“Seven… six… five…”
The balcony doors slide open and my smirk deepens. She’s really asking for it, isn’t she, the little masochist?
“Four… three… two…”
Visions of dangling my Seraphina over the balcony railing dance before my eyes.
Then again, dunking her in the bathtub while I fucked her from behind was fun, too.
Handcuffing her has started to feel actually tame, what with all the creative ways we’ve had sex, but making her come over and over, as she cries out from overstimulation, helplessly bound to the bed…
or on the contrary, denying her until she goes crazy…
all those things sound like a great way to spend a day.
To spend a lifetime, I realize, my heart thrilling with the knowledge that at last, at last, my sweet Seraphina with the violet eyes is mine.
All mine.
For the rest of my life.
I stand up, groaning with desire.
“One!” I finish. “Ready or not, little darling… here I come!”