by Kent, Rina
God. This man will be the death of me.
“What else?”
“That’s all.”
“That’s all?”
“Yes.” He spins around and hands me the pills with a glass of water.
I swallow the meds as he watches me intently. I watch him, too. His tousled, inky hair, the mole on the corner of his metal eyes, and the hint of his arrow tattoos as the sleeve of his shirt bunches up.
He clutches my elbow. “Let’s get you some rest.”
I squirm free. “I’m not tired.”
He raises an eyebrow and tilts his head. “If you’re not tired, I’ll fuck you in the shower like yesterday. I like it when you are horny, climbing up my body and clawing at my back.”
“There’s a reason for that.”
“Whatever it is, I like the reason. Let’s repeat it today.” He grins and goes back to fiddling with the pills.
I take a deep breath. Okay, here goes.
“Aiden?”
“Hmm, sweetheart?”
“I’m pregnant. Six weeks, to be exact.”
He freezes, the bottle of pills half-suspended in his hands.
Aiden wanted a kid three years ago, but he completely backed off when Dr Albert said it could be a danger to my life at that stage.
However, three months ago, Dr Albert told me it’s now safe for me to have a child. Since then, I’ve been without birth control. I wanted to give him a surprise on our second anniversary two months ago. But I didn’t fall pregnant.
I nearly cried every time my period came on time for the past three months.
Yesterday, my period was two weeks late. I took a test and boom, pregnant. I was so happy, I wanted to tell Aiden right away, but I kept it to myself until I had tests done with both Dr Albert and an OB-GYN.
Aiden spins back around. My mouth falls open. I never expected to see that expression on Aiden’s face.
Fear.
Complete terror.
He grabs my arm. “Let’s go to Dr Albert. He’ll tell us how to deal with this—”
“No.” I wiggle away from him. “I’m having this child.”
“And I’m not having a child that will risk your life.” Aiden’s voice is authoritative and final. “I’d rather be childless than without you.”
My eyes fill with tears at his statement, because I know it’s true. Aiden would be happy with just me by his side. I feel it in my soul.
But I want to give him more. I want to give him everything. I want to be the mother of his children.
“I’m not in danger.” I cradle his cheek with my palm. “I talked to Dr Albert and the OB-GYN, and we had tests done. The baby and I are healthy.”
He narrows his eyes. “Are you just saying that so I’d change my mind?”
“I know you’d barge into Dr Albert’s house to make sure my words are correct, so no, I’m not bluffing. I have the test results and everything in my bag.”
He jogs to it and spends minutes reading the papers over and over again. I stand there watching him, waiting for his reaction.
He switches his gaze to stare at the ultrasound scan of a small life. A life he and I created.
“So?” I ask carefully. “What do you think?”
“You’re pregnant.” He stares between me and the ultrasound scan as if to make sure.
“Yes, Aiden.” I cradle my stomach. “I’m carrying your baby.”
“You’re carrying my baby,” he repeats, slowly approaching me.
When he’s within touching distance, I take his hand and place it on my stomach.
It’s still flat, but I can feel the life humming inside me. I can already feel the connection.
He stares at his hand and slowly strokes my stomach.
“We created a life, Aiden,” I murmur. “Are you happy?”
He rips his gaze from my stomach to meet my eyes. “Are you?”
“I’m over the moon. This is the best gift you could’ve given me.” I press my lips to his. “I love you.”
He wraps his arms around me and I squeal as he lifts me off the ground and hugs me. My arms wind around him as he kisses my mouth, my cheeks, my nose, and my forehead.
“You’re the best gift I’ve ever been given, my queen.”
“And you’re mine, my king.”
18
Xander
Age Twenty-six
You know that feeling where you love someone so much that you’d kill for them, but sometimes, you want to kill them?
Those tiny moments where you want to strangle them while you fuck them?
This is one of those times.
Those thoughts have never stopped swirling in my head since the company dinner we had at Ronan’s house.
And now, Kim is walking by my side, interlacing her fingers with mine as if nothing happened.
We’ll see about that.
I enter the code to the flat, and she goes inside first.
“I’m craving something to eat. What do you think we –”
Her words catch in her throat as I pull her by the arm and slam her against the door. I grab both her wrists and shove them above her head.
She gasps, her green eyes filling with excitement so tangible, I can feel it over the black rage swirling in my brain.
“What were you doing back there, Green?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She’s provoking me on purpose, and fuck if it isn’t working. I yank her dress up, then my trousers and boxers down.
She bites her lower lip, her tits rising and falling heavily against my chest.
“You don’t know, huh? Because it seemed to me you were allowing that fucker from accounting to flirt with you before I kicked him out.”
“I was?” Her eyes widen with mock disbelief.
I lift her up by a hand under her thigh, and she doesn’t need an invitation as her legs wrap around my waist.
“You’ll pay for it, Green.”
“I will?” she whispers in my ear.
I slam inside her so hard, my balls slap against her arse. Fucking fuck. She feels so right – so damn right.
She moans aloud as I fuck her hard and fast against the door. The bangs and the slaps of flesh against flesh echo in the silence.
Thankfully, for the neighbours’ sake, the flat is soundproof.
Kim’s groans fill the air and her mouth opens in that wordless ‘O’.
“You like provoking me, Green? You like how I pulled you out in front of all of them, claiming you as mine?”
“Yes,” she whimpers as I hit her sensitive spot over and over again until she’s screaming my name.
I follow her soon after, the force of my release knocking us both cold. Her head falls against my shoulder and she stares up at me with that dreamy, utterly pleasured smile.
“I love it when you don’t hold back, Xan.”
The haziness of the orgasm slowly withers away as I recall the reason why this particular release felt good. It’s because I haven’t fucked her this hard in weeks.
“Oh, fuck.” I carry her to the bedroom and lay her on the bed. Our cat, London, jumps away but remains at the door. I swear she’s the biggest voyeur on this planet.
Kim bites the corner of her lip and still looks at me with those ‘fuck me’ eyes that keep luring me close.
I place a hand on the bump of her womb. “Is she okay?”
“She’s fine.” She pulls me over by the neck and removes my tie, then undoes my buttons. “You’re awfully overdressed.”
She doesn’t stop until she removes my shirt and nuzzles her nose against her name that’s tattooed on my heart. My wife loves that a bit too much.
My fingers lay in her hair that still has her signature green strands, although they’re not as loud now. “The baby, Kim. What if I hurt her?”
“You didn’t.” She gives me a dirty look. “If you hadn’t started holding back, I wouldn’t have provoked you today. Blame yourself.”
“But I
don’t want to hurt our baby.” It freaks me the fuck out that I could damage her if I keep my usual rough pace.
The doctor said it’s fine, but it still makes me nervous as hell.
It doesn’t help that my beautiful wife has become so hormonal since the pregnancy that she even interrupts me during work, lying on my desk and demanding pregnant woman care.
Since we both have crappy mothers that are thankfully out of our lives now, Kim has been nervous about the mum’s role, but I know she’ll be the best one alive.
She’s been a mother figure to Kirian his entire life without even realising it. That’s why he never asked about Jeanine when she left.
Now, he’s excited about becoming an uncle and has begun threatening me to take care of his sister or he’ll ‘kick me’. Dad and Calvin have been calling daily and sending all sorts of shit since they learnt we’re expecting.
For the past eight years I’ve spent with Kim, I’ve been the luckiest and happiest bastard alive.
There hasn’t been a day where she doesn’t make me laugh with her goofiness, or where she doesn’t root for me to be the best version of myself. Just like I do for her.
That’s what we’ve been doing all this time, being the best we could.
Kim has never stopped healing, but now, she looks back on that last year in RES with nostalgia. She doesn’t hide her scars anymore. She could’ve had plastic surgery on her wrist, but she’s chosen not to. Whenever someone asks her about it, she says it was a time when she was lost, and then she found me and I found her.
And after that, we were never lost again.
Kim kneels on the bed and runs her fingertips over my semi-hard cock. “If her mum is happy, she’ll be happy.”
“Is that so?”
“Totally.” She grips me harder.
I groan. “You’re killing me, Green.”
“Admit it, you love it.”
“Oh, I do.” I take her scarred wrist with the bracelet dangling from it. She’s never removed it since that day I put it back on her.
Just like the wedding ring. And no, I didn’t marry her the following day of the proposal. I had to wait an entire month.
Small price to pay for finally having her by my side in all possible ways.
People marry their soulmates or those who complete them. I married the woman who gave meaning to my life.
She’s not only my soulmate, my life wouldn’t have existed without her.
“Make me yours, Xan.”
“You already are, Green.”
“Will you remind me again?”
“Oh, I will.”
I flip her over and she squeals, then gasps as my lips claim hers.
19
Ronan
Age Twenty-four
So here’s the thing. I told you before that being me is easy, and it is, in a way. You just have to skip the whole being inside your head shit.
Which I’ve mastered.
Like, no kidding. I’m the king of all that.
Do you know what my trick is? I choose to be inside my lovely wife’s head instead. Which isn’t hard. She lets me in willingly. And I don’t just mean inside her pussy and arse and mouth. Those are an everyday pleasure — thank fuck for that.
Teal also lets me in on all her beautiful thoughts that no one but me has access to. Well, maybe me and Knox, but her twin brother doesn’t count since he decided to relocate to the States for his new life there, and we barely see him in holidays.
So I’m the only one she’s got — thank fuck for that, too.
Lars has started to become friends with her, but Lars doesn’t count either because I can kick him out every day. And if you were wondering, yup, he does have a black book. I caught him writing in it the other day like a teenager with angst issues.
Anyway, where were we? Right. Me and Teal. The only two who matter, and if anyone tells you otherwise, then you shouldn’t listen to them.
When we first got married a few years ago, I thought Teal would be the type of person who would need to hide at times. Not that I was going to let her, but that was her modus operandi when we were engaged. Colour me surprised when, instead of disappearing, she sought me out.
Sometimes, when it gets to be too much and she needs a place to hide, my embrace is that place. When she needs a screaming outlet, I take her to the mountains and let her go at it, because that’s how she deals with the past.
Over the years, those times have eventually disappeared. Ever since we graduated from university, she’s been even more focused about our future. She’s been learning from Ethan. And Agnus — the fucker whom I’m not killing, because murder is unfortunately still frowned upon.
I’ve also been trying to learn about the family affairs from Dad, and let’s just say that Lord Edric Astor is strict as fuck when it comes to business. I normally have Lars stand with me as some sort of an ally, but when dealing with my dad, that bastard is usually Team Earl Astor. I contemplated bitching to Mum about it, but that would label me as a mama’s boy, and I’m totally not — a mama’s boy, I mean. I’m married, thank you very much.
Despite Dad’s strict rules that come somewhere from medieval times, I know that he wants what’s best for me. Over the past few years since the one who shall not be named died, Dad apologised to me for not seeing what happened sooner. He even hugged me. No fucking kidding. My father, Earl Edric Astor, the successor of the Astor family name, almost lost his diploma from his ancestors when he showed some emotion and actually hugged his only son.
It was just that once, but it felt like both of us needed that closure. Since then, we’ve been building back our father-son relationship that I thought was long dead.
Turns out, no. It’s long from dead, and Dad’s new purpose in life seems to be torturing me. Sorry, I mean, teaching me business the right, strict way.
“Does that mean I’m not supposed to invite everyone to the company like it’s a party?” I asked him once, just to be a dick.
He stared me down with that condescending gaze of his. “Are you joking or should I search for another heir?”
“Joking, joking. Jeez.” I pointed at myself. “How could you even think about exchanging this eternal sunshine with someone else?”
His lips twitched in a smile, which meant he thought I was funny. “Hear that, Lars? He called himself eternal sunshine.”
“Yes, your lordship.” Lars judged me with his snobby expression. “I will witness in your favour.”
“Lars! You fucking traitor.”
“You got yourself into this, young lord. Don’t blame it on me.”
Let’s just say that those sessions happen more often than I like to admit. And yeah, I had my revenge by spiking Lars’s original tea with cheap stuff from the store. He found out about it, though, and I’m pretty sure his black book came in handy during his ranting sessions.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what he writes about me, because everyone knows I’m the heart of this house. Whenever Teal and I come for dinner, like today, everyone at the table waits for my jokes — especially my mum and my wife. They’re my number one supporters, thank you very much.
Teal retreated to my old room in my parents’ house to rest while I had a small meeting with Dad in his home office.
I’m about ready to take her home and fuck her until tomorrow. She spent the entire day with the other girls, Elsa, Kim, Silver and Astrid, while I had to listen to Lars bitching at me to ‘pay attention’. Then we had dinner here.
It’s been exactly eighteen hours since I last touched her.
The platonic skin-to-skin doesn’t count. And whenever I slipped my hand under the dinner table to tease her, she pushed it away.
Teal might appear like a rebel, but she respects my parents too much. I’m trying to make touching her under the table a normal occurrence. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Once I’m finally done with the boring meeting at Dad’s office, I practically jog down the hall towards my old room.
I find Teal sleeping on her side, her petite frame barely taking up any space on the bed. I slowly close the door, trying not to make a sound, and kick my shoes away.
I slip in behind her, the mattress dipping with my weight. Then I sneak one hand under her arm until I grab her breast. She moans softly as she snuggles back into me.
“Wake up, belle, I miss you.”
“Mmm.”
“I will speak French to you, mon petit coeur adoré.”
She opens one of her eyes, peeking up at me. “You will?”
I grin, knowing exactly which buttons to push. “I will only speak French if that’s your kink.”
“Nah, that’s not my kink.” She cups my cheek. “You are.”
“Holy fuck. Repeat that.”
“You’re my kink, Ronan. You always have been.”
“And I always will be.” I flip her so that she’s underneath me. “Now, let me satisfy your kink.”
“Wait.”
“Nope. I can’t wait until we’re home. I’m hungry.”
“You just ate.”
“I didn’t eat you.”
She laughs, but she still places a hand on my chest, stopping me. “I have something to tell you.”
“After dinner. My main course, I mean, not whatever we had in the dining room.”
She chuckles, her happiness filling the space. I can’t get enough of the sound of her laughter, of how easily I can bring that out of her. It’s like I appear and she automatically smiles. I say anything and she looks at me as if I’m the wisest person alive. I’m not. But the fact that she looks at me that way, even after so many years, makes me the luckiest fucker on this planet.
I grab her by the waist. “Remove your hand, ma belle. Don’t leave me starving.”
“Ronan...”
“Oui, ma puce?”
“I think I’m pregnant.”
I stop with my hand on her jeans’ buttons. “You’re...what?”
“I took two tests and they said positive, but it could be false, like Silver back in school, you know? I’ll have to take another one and go to the doctor, but...yeah, I think I’m pregnant.”