Authors: Elisabeth Staab
When Siddoh rounded the corner into Ivy’s office, the gorgeous sight of her long, dark hair hanging over her shoulder punched him in the gut. She sat next to Alexia, smiling and chatting together while Alexia worked on a knitting project of some sort, and for a second her face was suffused with the warmth that had been absent from it of late.
He smiled at Alexia. “So is this a thing when females get pregnant, the knitting? You look so sweet and demure.” He’d seen the girl drunk and dancing on a bar in stiletto boots. Boy, had she done a real switcheroo.
She stuck her tongue out at him. “I’ve known how for a long time. Honestly it’s not my thing. I don’t have the patience. Isabel was very upset about her blanket going awry so I told her I’d get the next one started so she had the width right.” Sudden realization dawned on her face. “You heard.”
He tried to stifle a laugh but couldn’t. “You muttered about turning into a vampire and giving birth to a giant when you didn’t think I was paying attention. Congratulations, by the way.” Bittersweet warm-fuzzies filled his chest. Alexia had never been more than a friend. But wow, a baby.
She smiled back. “Thank you.” Her eyes shifted side to side. “Where’s Lee?”
“Looking for you, I’d imagine. Might be good to find him before he gets irritated.” He turned then to Ivy, pretending to ignore Alexia’s irritated expression. “Ivy, Thad has authorized for you to take a month of leave.”
He’d expected relief. He got… terror?
“A month? What will I do for a month?”
Was this a trick question? “Pack up your father’s house. Grieve.”
“Oh… Yes…” She fiddled with a crystal pen in her hand. Maybe things just hadn’t caught up with her yet. “But who will handle manage things here?”
Siddoh dropped into a chair. “What about Lexi?” He pointed at the new mistress of knitting. “You do computer stuff, right?”
Alexia’s head whipped up again. “Damn. What?”
“What?” Ivy mimicked.
He gestured between the two of them. “Lexi, you could take over for Ivy for a while, right?”
Alexia gaped at him.
“No, really. Perfect solution. Thad’s doing some changing of the guard stuff, and you’re great with computers and whatnot. They won’t be having visitors or any of that shit for a while because of the baby. Best thing, given your bun in the oven, is to stick close to home.”
She tipped her head to the side. “Hmm. Not a bad idea. Thad’s okay with it? Lee?”
“We’ll talk to Thad. I think Lee would be thrilled not to have you sneaking off in the daylight hours any longer.”
Her face flushed red. “Ivy? Is it okay with you?”
Ivy’s fingers pressed against the blotter on her desk. She avoided eye contact with anyone. “Of course.” She pasted a smile on her face, but her skin was pale. “Siddoh’s right. I need some time off.” Her body seemed to relax some. “Besides, you and I need to settle—”
“It’s okay.” Siddoh’s hands came up. His heart performed a weird, wobbly flip-flop. His body heated, and not in the good way, at the idea of her blurting out in front of Alexia that he’d proposed an arranged mating between the two of them. “You and I… We’ll figure it all out soon enough.”
At that, she seemed relieved.
Alexia shot him a questioning look. He shook his head.
I’ll tell you later, Lexi. First I have to go to my room, shower, and try to put away the fact that I had to kill the only family who wasn’t ashamed of me
.
He took a step back from the doorway, shifting his gaze away from Ivy, who couldn’t quite look at him. “Listen, Lexi, you really ought to go find Lee. It won’t be pretty if he has to come find you.”
She dropped the yarn and wooden needles in her hands. “He told me to stay in my room. Like I’m a kid. Come on.”
A muscle in Siddoh’s jaw twitched. He loved Alexia, but boy did she have issues. “He wanted to tell you how the meeting went, I imagine. Why are you being difficult about this?”
“Because…” Alexia looked unsure.
Siddoh rubbed the throbbing muscle. He needed a shave with that shower. “He loves you. Stop testing him. Go.”
She stuck her tongue out again, picked up her knitting, and left.
“It’s funny,” Ivy said quietly. “Everyone said you were sleeping with her.”
“Everyone says I’m sleeping with everybody,” Siddoh said. The words were out before he could call them back. Perhaps she wouldn’t realize the magnitude of what he’d just said. He straightened and took another step away, rapping the door frame with his knuckles. “I’m gonna go. Let me know if I can be of any further service to you. I’m pretty good at moving heavy stuff.”
“Siddoh.”
When he turned his head, she met his stare this time. Moist brown eyes and a smile so unexpectedly genuine it nearly knocked him over. “Thank you. For everything.”
***
Lee found Alexia in the kitchen with her raw honey and one of her giant coffee mugs. “I thought I’d find you here.”
She stopped in the middle of preparing a cup of tea, spoon in one hand and jar of honey in the other. Her shoulders tightened and she did not turn around, leaving Lee for the first time in extremely uncertain territory.
Alexia, pregnant with his child. The set to her back and the chill in his veins said that she might be angry. What had he done? He stood so far beyond comfortable that he needed binoculars to see the line.
“Lexi?” He leaned against the door frame and waited. Thad’s cook was in tonight, dishing up what smelled like chicken soup from a giant stockpot. He wouldn’t put voice to his deepest concerns in front of the house staff, so he took a deep breath and waited.
She stirred a giant blob of honey into a black mug with a white
X
on it and turned, her face looking drawn and pale. The sludgy “ick” of illness in his system had returned, this time a faint echo that told him it was Alexia who felt unwell. “What’s wrong?”
She held up a finger and he followed as she passed him, making her way down the hall to her room. At one time he would have called himself a moron for following a female anywhere. For keeping quiet because she held up a finger. Now she was sick and he wanted her to be better, and the ghosts of assholes past could go to hell.
She backed against the door to her room and pulled the mug against her chest, appearing to take the peppermint scent deep into her nostrils. “Oh, that’s goood.” She sighed. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t ignoring you.” Her eyes drifted shut for a moment. “Isabel asked the cook for chicken soup, and you know what the queen wants, the queen gets, but…” She put her hand on her stomach. “It had garlic.” She blew on her tea and took a small sip of her tea. “I couldn’t talk to you. I’m so sorry. I was afraid if I opened my mouth…”
He stepped forward, caressing the soft, pale olive of her arm. “You don’t need to explain. It’s okay.”
She opened one eye. “You’re lying.”
He smiled. “I am. You looked so tense. I felt anger. I didn’t know where we stood. I worried.” His pulse quickened as he spoke. With Agnessa he’d have never answered that question honestly. He’d have dodged, even with the blood tie, because the honesty would have made him too vulnerable. Naked. Lee didn’t do emotions. Not before Alexia.
The brightening of her face said he’d given the right answer. “I talked to Siddoh. Ivy has some time off, so I’m going to take over her duties for awhile.” Her arms slid around his waist. “It will keep me close to home.”
Home.
“I so like keeping you close,” he murmured.
“I thought you would.”
“It’s okay with you?”
“We’ll work it out.” She bit her lower lip. “I’m scared, Lee. About plenty of things. About settling down at all.” She pressed a finger against his closed lips. “We’re going to have to communicate. Trust each other. It’s not your strong suit.”
He played at biting her finger. “It isn’t yours, either.”
She glanced away. “Okay, you’re right.” The way she spit the words out fast, you’d think he’d tortured the confession out of her.
A laugh came out of him then. It dislodged some block long anchored in his chest. He pulled her close and bent down to kiss her gently. “As you say, we will figure it out. I look forward to finally moving you down the hall to my room.”
She nodded against him, and when her body went slack, he pulled the tea from her hands so it wouldn’t spill. She kissed him back, harder, and deep in his veins a sudden arousal flared.
Oh, well. Okay then.
Still, that faint echo of queasiness remained, and his desire for her warred with his concern for her well-being. He wanted her. So much. And he would not make her ill with the kind of rough-and-tumble lovemaking he so desperately longed for.
“Lee.” Her lips moved against his. Whether consciously or not, her legs widened, allowing him to press his thigh between them.
Aha. A brilliant idea popped into his troglodyte brain.
“Lexi.” He dropped to his knees, pushing her skirt a little up her thighs. “Is this okay?”
She ran her hands over his hair, massaging the back of his head. He loved that. He loved her. Had he said it out loud? “Love you, Lexi.”
Her eyes sparkled with unshed tears. She pulled his lips to hers again. “Love you, too, you big stubborn vampire.”
He frowned. “Did I upset you?”
She pursed her lips. “Emotions. Women have them. Humans have them. Pregnant human women have an awful damn lot of them.”
He let out a possessive snarl. “
My
pregnant human woman.”
She grinned broadly. “All yours.”
That was the sexiest thing in the history of ever. His fingers slid beneath her skirt and tugged at one of those tiny pairs of underwear she seemed so fond of wearing. “Lime green,” he mused. “I approve.” He flipped them onto the floor. “They look better over there.”
She laughed. Like music, that laugh.
He nuzzled gently between her breasts. So luscious and perky, she often got away without any bra under her dress, like tonight. He fucking loved those breasts. Would they swell as her pregnancy progressed? Would it be the normal eight and a half months of a vampire pregnancy or longer like a human pregnancy? Would she need regular doses of his blood?
Stop
thinking
and
make
love
to
your
mate.
Without any further thought, he pushed the dress over her head and dragged it to the floor. His hands gripped her hips and ass. He buried his lips and tongue to work against the heat of her moist flesh, burying his nose in the soft, dark hair there and—
“Oh God, Lee.”
He sucked, licked, and nibbled at her clit until her moans and mewls got louder and her legs shook. Then he sucked some more. He kept his eyes fixed on hers. Her fingers walked along his neck and shoulders, digging in.
“Lee,” she whispered again.
He pulled back, smiling. “Is it good?”
She gasped and palmed the back of his head. “So good. Keep going.”
So he did.
He worked his tongue feverishly. Thrust his thumb inside of her, rubbing. Fucking. Loving. Over and over, she chanted his name. And as she came apart against his lips, doubling over against his shoulder, he nearly came without ever touching himself once.
No matter how many enemies he had killed with his own bare hands, at that moment he’d never been stronger.
Alexia tried to straighten against the door but got dizzy. “Whoa. Okay. Little light-headed.”
Lee’s hands snaked up her back to support her. He stood slowly, pulling her against the hard warmth of his body. “Does that help?”
She nodded against his chest. “Mmm.” She shivered with the aftershocks of her intense orgasm. “That was fantastic.”
He chuckled, the sound of it rumbling against her cheek, her ear. “Thank you.”
“But you know, as much as I like the feel of your clothing against my skin…” She slipped a hand under his shirt. Her fingers slipped over the sweaty definition of his abs, his chest. He gasped when she stroked a thumb over the peak of one nipple. “You are a tad overdressed compared to what I have on. Or don’t, rather.”
He groaned when she pushed his shirt up farther and helped her pull it off over his head. “I had been thinking that tonight would be all about you,” he rasped. “You weren’t feeling well.”
“Mm-hmm.” She nuzzled against his chest, soaking in the smooth skin and coarse hair against her cheek. The flat of her tongue explored slowly, tasting the salt on his pectoral. Sucking those dark, generous nipples into small, hard peaks. She pushed with the pads of her fingers against his sternum until the backs of his legs hit her mattress and he had no choice but to sit. “See, I’m feeling better.”
He frowned. “That tea must be something.”
She wiggled her eyebrows. “Oh, yes.” It hadn’t really been the tea.
He narrowed his eyes. “You’re lying.”
She pulled a fake pout. “This isn’t fair. There will be no mystique in our relationship if we can always call each other on our lies.”
He crossed his arms over his chest.
She crawled into his lap. He was hard. Obviously, gloriously hard. “It was the garlic that made me so queasy. Getting away from the kitchen helped.” She went to work on the buttons of his fly. “And I had some raw honey in the kitchen. Works wonders.”
He dropped his hands to the bed. “So you don’t like garlic?”
“Not anymore.”
“Hmm.” He nuzzled at her throat. “I don’t like garlic, either,” he murmured.
“You don’t?”
“Not anymore.”
Oh. That was so the sweetest thing ever.
He nuzzled at her throat again. A tip of fang scraped her skin.
“Do you need blood?”
“Not me,” he said softly. “You.”
It could keep, though. No pain dug at her insides, not like before. She pushed a hand against his chest. “Lie down. I wanna ride you.” She gave him her best wicked grin.
She popped the last button and tugged his pants down. His erect cock came free, and she managed to get his fatigues about halfway down his muscular thighs before she realized a problem: she’d forgotten to remove his boots first. Oh, well.
He gave her a knowing grin. “Now what?”
They both laughed. Planting a firm hand in the center of his chest, she pushed him back onto the bed, helping him pull the rest of his clothes off before she straddled his thighs. “There we go.” She giggled.
Perfect sex was for perfect people. Neither of them was perfect, so they could have imperfect messy sex and it would be amazing because it was the two of them.
Lee groaned like he might die when he filled her, and she could admit satisfaction at the sound. At him wanting her so much. She bent down to nuzzle her nose against his, even as her hips rose and fell.
“How’s that?”
His head dropped back on the bed. “You’re going to kill me.” His hands gripped her ass. “First night we met, I knew you’d look gorgeous on top of me. I was right.”
“Just don’t say things about killing…” But she squeezed tight around him and rode faster, leaning down and brushing her breasts against his chest. His moans and groans of satisfaction and want put her on top of the world.
His hands touched her everywhere. He squeezed her ass and stroked her back, massaged with firm fingers and then sent featherlight strokes down her arms. Light flicks of his tongue over her nipples drove her to the edge of orgasm but wouldn’t… quite… push her over. “Gah.” Made her insane.
His breath grew heavy and ragged. Chest and abs heaved. Damn, those abs. His bottomless aqua eyes stared her down intensely. He had to be close.
Had
to be. His fangs had grown outrageously long.
Without warning he struck. Not her. Himself. “Quickly, Lexi.” He held his bleeding wrist up to her mouth.
Unbelievably, her second orgasm hit as soon as his blood washed over her tongue. She broke apart on a scream that was muffled by his arm and her need to swallow. Lee, on the other hand, did not hold back. God help them if anybody in the neighboring ZIP codes had a problem with the noise.
He bucked underneath her, roaring with such might she worried perhaps she’d hurt him. Had she taken too much blood? His heart. Oh God. Was it his heart? “Lee, are you okay?”
He pulled his arm away, licking the wound shut in a hasty, sloppy manner. “Fine.” He panted. “Lexi. Holy”—his head rocked side to side—“shit, that was amazing.”
“Seriously?” Sweat trickled down the side of his face. “You’re sure you’re all right?”
He puffed a breath. “Okay? I’m fucking great.”
She shivered again. “You had me worried. I think everyone heard you.”
He touched the side of her face, and she couldn’t stop herself from leaning into the touch. “I can live with everyone knowing I got laid.” He blinked. Smiled. “I’m sure everyone will be hoping it’ll improve my asshole disposition.” His thumb swiped a bead of sweat from her temples. “My God, I’ve never had sex so amazing.”
She leaned down, cheek on chest. His heart made a steady boom, boom, boom in her ear. Comforting, knowing what she knew now. “Seriously? Seven hundred years and you’ve never had hot sex before?”
As soon as she said the words her body went cold. What a stupid question. Certainly, he had. And if he lied she’d know. Stupid.
“Plenty,” he said matter-of-factly. “But never like this. Never with someone I loved the way I love you. Never with the future mother of my child.”
“Oh my God, you’re unbelievable.” Sudden tears burned behind her eyes. It was the perfect answer.
He
was perfect.
If only he would stop making her cry.
***
Lee swept a tear from Alexia’s cheek. “Are you kidding? I thought in my lifetime there were no surprises left. I never imagined anything so amazing.”
Her fingers crept up to the two black hearts inked into his rib cage. “Is it okay for me to ask why you only have two? You said your father died that day as well.”
Yes, he had. Lee exhaled long and slow, leaning to place a kiss on her forehead. “I have spent centuries carrying unspent rage toward my father for walking out into the sun that morning.” He squeezed Alexia briefly. “I was devastated by the loss of my mother and sister, too.” He sniffed, blinking away the burn of his own sorrow. “Hell. I was the one who found their fucking bodies. You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve bargained with history. If only I’d found them a few minutes sooner…”
He shook his head and swiped at his eyes. “I thought he was a coward, and it hurt like hell that my only remaining family chose to leave me alone rather than stay so we could survive together.” Alexia rested her head on his chest and his heart thumped harder.
“So,” she said, “you’ve come to expect the ones you love will leave. And I’ve come to learn that I have to leave before I get hurt.” She kissed him gently. “We’re a pair, huh?”
Lee thumbed a lingering drop of blood from the corner of her mouth. “We are,” he murmured. His hand stroked her belly. “But I’ve promised to trust. You’ve promised to stay. Together, we’re creating something new.” Great hope and excitement swelled in his chest. “Right now, knowing I have that much, I feel fucking on top of the world.”
Her answering grin shone brighter than the dawn had been on that single morning he’d been forced to greet its brilliance. Her laugh, even more beautiful. “It’s still so hard to believe. I remember the night we met. You were so angry.”
His hand touched the satin of her cheek. “I worked very hard to lock away anything that might allow me to feel. Meeting you pissed me off because I wanted you from that first moment. I knew you’d be trouble when I couldn’t get you out of my head. Then the more I knew you, the more I wanted to show all of myself.”
“Oh my God.” She rolled onto her back. “Lee.” Tears rolled down the side of her face.
He gripped her hand. “It’s all okay now. You’re mine.”
“I am. I’m yours. I just can’t seem to stop crying.” She sniffled. “I’m sorry.”
He rolled to his side, twisting their legs together. His arms wrapped around hers. “Don’t ever apologize. I’m just so grateful that we have each other.” He kissed her temple. “We face the future together. Your blood has healed my heart, and your love has healed my soul. I know the doctor tells me that we have the promise of many years, maybe even centuries. For that we are truly blessed. Yes?”
She nodded, returning his kiss. “Yes.”
“We’re going to have a family.”
Alexia released a small gasp. “We are, aren’t we? Holy fricking cow, we are…” She turned, kissing him again. “Oh my God, I love you.”
“I love you, too.”