Baby Moon #2
Sophie’s jaw dropped for a second. Her father-in-law was the soul of Old World charm and manners. He didn’t interrupt unless lives were at stake.
So maybe he thinks someone’s life is. Some new little life. Sophie squeezed Jesse’s hand. “Why should we go to the motel?”
“Because it is fae-run. By which fae, I do not know. They’re benevolent, unseen, and have been quietly working in the town for the last fifty years or so, if memory serves me.
My guess is they are Aos Sí, settlers from across the pond.
Maybe they came around the same time I did, for the same reasons—or maybe they had been here for centuries before, and finally decided they needed to interact in the world of men a bit more.
That motel gives travelers what they need. ”
“They... They can’t get us pregnant?”
“I have seen them do many other things. I have never known someone well enough to know if that was the case. The key is... The travelers seem to need to stay in our area, or at least have some connection to it. They give to the good of the town, just as we all try to protect and grow this safe place. I can think of no more worthy way to ensure good things come to Pine Ridge than by helping a couple with such good hearts, who are already such good parents, to bring more good people into the world. Will it work? I don’t know.
But it is closer than some bed and breakfast, and probably cheaper.
You won’t have to worry about being far from J.J.
, and you can still be miles away, in a world of your own, if those clever fae have any say in it. ”
Jesse turned to her. “What have we got to lose?”
“THIS CAN’T POSSIBLY work.” Sophie looked at the little motel, a long row of rooms with empty spaces in front.
There were no offices or receptionists. Each room simply had a place to receive payment.
A scanner for cards was on their door, Sophie noticed, but other rooms had different sorts of payment options, like the hotel knew the room’s next occupant would pay with cash, or coins, or maybe some kind of talisman or amulet.
“Well... you know what, Sophie? I’ve been wanting to take my sexy wife somewhere away from our kid with ears that might as well be radar.
” Jesse leaned over and pulled her close to him, his hand firm on the back of her neck.
“Somewhere where we can be as loud as we like without waking up the baby. Somewhere without baby monitors or spilled sippy cups. No diapers. No emergency baths or snacks. I want to make a baby with you, Soph, but I also want to appreciate a break where the only baby I’m talking about is you.
Come on, baby. Two days of not worrying about it, okay?
If the fae don’t do their thing, promise me that we’ll try something else in a few months? ”
Sophie bit her lip, kissed him back, and nodded. “I just... I was able to do it before. You deserve this so much, Jess. I feel like I’m letting you down.”
“Babe, I don’t even deserve you. Technically, I’m the problem. You have a beating heart, functioning ovaries, and pumping blood. I’m... I’m useless.”
“You are perfect! I wouldn’t be here without you,” Sophie whispered, gripping his hand.
“I mean... I don’t think I would be. Life was too lonely without you, and I was hiding inside myself.
You gave me friendship, and love, and happiness.
Brought me out of my shell. I’m a different person because of you. ”
“And I’m a different person because of you. Dad said it. We’re the best versions of ourselves together, the best partners and spouses. I have you and J.J., and I’m so happy. You have never, ever let me down.”
“You’ve never let me down.” Sophie wiped her eyes. “I don’t know if the fae hotel needs help from my body or not to do its magic, but we already knew this was the right time to go away—even in the middle of the week.”
“And even though you’re missing your precious book club,” Jesse teased.
“Well, the waterworks, the anxious thoughts, and everything else that comes around the mid-point of my cycle are here, too. Including that weird pain I get.” Sophie rubbed her side.
Jesse arched his eyebrows and finally swiped his card through the slot by the door. “That weird pain, the one I know how to make all better? That weird pain that’s usually accompanied by my Night Queen turning into a wild cat?”
“That’s the one.” Sophie grabbed the slip of paper that slid from the bottom of the reader and gasped.
“What is it?” Jesse looked at the paper with her.
One word was printed on the receipt.
Gratis.
“Okay. Is it creepy that they’re listening?”
“I doubt they’re actually listening. It’s probably something woven into the place. If we didn’t want the building to know, we shouldn’t have been talking in front of it. That does sound a little nuts, doesn’t it?”
Sophie shrugged and grabbed her bag. “I’ll take all the help I can get.”
“I don’t need any help with this particular mission. All I’m here to do is make my wife feel amazing.”
SOPHIE HAD TO ADMIT that the fae folk were living up to their reputation.
The hotel room was more like a suite, and definitely bigger on the inside than the outside would have conveyed.
A bed big enough for six people dominated the room.
There was also a heart-shaped tub and a plethora of wedge-shaped pillows and other bedroom accessories designed to help couples find the perfect angle.
“Do you think they clean them each time? Or are they new?”
Jesse laughed and looked at the giant, pink, marshmallowy pillow closest to him. “They have little paper wrappers on them. Whichever ones we pick, we keep. I bet the rest vanish or something.”
“It’s a good thing only supernaturally conversant people can see this place. Everyone else would think they were having a stroke.”
“I bet the hotel plays nice with normal types if necessary. But you are so far from normal.” Jesse dropped his bags and shed his jacket, coming over to massage Sophie’s lower back.
“You are the strongest, sexiest, most beautiful woman in the world. And you’re all mine.
You’re extraordinary, Sophie. When I make love to you, I don’t worry about anything else besides keeping you with me. ”
Sophie moaned in relief as his cooler-than-average fingers kneaded into her aching lower back and slid into the waistband of her jeans, working towards a spot just south of her hipbones. It alternated every month after J.J., even though it had never bothered her before. She wondered—
And she stopped herself. Sex lately had been all about wondering.
Which moment was she ovulating, which days were best, was she relaxed enough, eating enough folic acid, well-rested enough—blaming herself for every month that didn’t work, even though she had no idea what made it work the first time.
She had been pretty certain that she and Jesse would adopt one day.
Sex before J.J. had never had any strings—except the heartstrings that always seemed to bind them closer and closer every time.
Loving him more every day, not because he had turned out to be an incredible parent, but because he was her incredible best friend, her lover.
With a moan that was about pleasure, not pain relief, she shook her petite (some unkind people had said skinny) rear into his hips, thrust back as she was bent over the selection of pillows. She grabbed the one Jesse had examined.
“Someone is tempting me,” Jesse groaned when she sauntered away.
Sophie thought about telling him to get ready, or to sit and wait while she made everything perfect.
But the perfection was never about the right placement of candles or pillows.
“Want me to get that special lube? And massage that spot?” Jesse followed her.
She looked over her shoulder. “I want you to take your jeans off and get over here. Now.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Jesse bolted from his jeans (and the rest of his clothes) in under ten seconds, leaving her time to drop her jeans and step out of her comfy ballet flats, then wriggle out of everything but her bra before she plopped the pillow on the bed and sank into its softness from the waist up, leaving her feet on the floor and her hips swaying seductively.
“Oh, fuck, Sophie. Good enough to eat,” Jesse hissed, coming up behind her, putting his bare chest to her back.
He kissed her collarbone and the back of her neck while unhooking her bra, moving his hands to cradle her sensitive breasts that had enlarged slightly since childbirth and nursing.
His kisses trailed down the satiny white skin of her back to the small globes of her cheeks—and then he pressed her forward as he sank to his knees.
Sophia let out a low, thankful moan when Jesse dropped to his knees behind her, pushing her forward slightly. Ages ago, she would have been embarrassed to think of someone being so intimate with her, seeing her at this angle.
Jesse had been her first, her only, and hopefully, he’d be her last. Her forever love, her forever lover.
With a satisfied groan, she braced her hands on the bed and let the pillow cradle her middle, rocking on her toes while Jesse pressed his face between her legs, pushing her forward so that his tongue had access to every piece of her.
“So good,” she sighed as her husband tongued a path on each side of her pale labia and then teased across her entrance.
“You don’t know how good you taste,” Jesse let out a growl and pushed her forward a little more to lap at her clit, worrying it with his top lip. “I love it when I make you wet, Sophie. So wet. Soaking me.”