She was not only beautiful to look at, but also a pleasure to touch, and he could talk to her for hours.
They played conversational games with each other. He would ask her a question, then she would ask one in return. The intricate, winding discussions unlocked barriers in his mind that he hadn’t realized he’d had.
He fell into enchantment, exploring possibilities like walking a green maze drenched in afternoon sunlight, turning countless corners and discovering new treasures, always working to go further in and discover the heart of the place.
The center of it all. Melly.
She said quietly, “I’d like to confess something, if you don’t mind.”
He lifted his head off the couch pillow, immediately fascinated. “Of course.”
Taking his hand, she played with his fingers. “Over the past five years, I’ve toyed off and on with the idea of in vitro fertilization.” She peeked at him over her shoulder, her expression tentative and self-conscious. “Keep in mind — it doesn’t bother me in the slightest that Vampyres can’t father children. When I started thinking about this, I wasn’t in a relationship. I think I just want to be a mother. How would you feel about that?”
The strength of his response astonished him. All kinds of powerful reactions resonated through his body. His imagination ran wild. Melly, round with pregnancy, the baby kicking under his hands as he stroked her belly.
As he held still, stricken with the images that unfolded in his imagination, she searched his face anxiously.
He whispered, “I would love that. Really fucking love it.”
Her expression lit up. “We could keep talking about it then. We don’t have to do anything right away. Hell, I’m okay if we discuss it for a couple of years before we come to any decision. I don’t want to rush into anything before we’re ready.”
He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. “I have no idea how to be a father.”
“I don’t believe it,” she told him. “All I have to do is look at how you are with Xavier.” As he glanced at her sidelong, she amended, “You might not know how to be a father to a baby or a young toddler, but Julian, none of those things come instantly to anybody, anyway. You have to learn them.”
Draping one wrist on his forehead, he frowned. “True.”
“As long as you’re not opposed,” she whispered, then paused. “If I need to, I can also give up the idea.”
At that, he lifted his head to scowl at her. “I won’t have you give up a single thing to be with me.”
Searching his gaze, she chuckled. “Well, I don’t want you to agree to have a baby just to make me happy. That wouldn’t work out very well for the baby, would it? I think the subject is a little like facing battle — we both need to be all in, or we need to be all out.”
“Good analogy,” he told her.
She added, “And there’s always the possibility that in vitro wouldn’t take. After all, it’s very difficult for the Light Fae to conceive and bear a child, just like it is for the rest of the Elder Races.”
They could always adopt. He thought it but didn’t say it. They could explore that conversation at a different time. For now, he simply listened to what she had to say, watching the play of expressions on her face.
She paused, then added, “If we do decide to go ahead with trying, we would have to be prepared for one other thing.”
He nuzzled her ear. “What’s that?”
She told him, “When the women in my family conceive, we tend to have twins.”
His mind leaped from Bailey to her mother Tatiana, and her aunt Isabeau, the Seelie Light Fae Queen in Ireland.
“Of course you do,” he said with a chuckle. “I hadn’t connected.” He cupped the back of her neck, rubbing her soft skin with the ball of his thumb. “Everything you’re saying is very sensible. We’ll take all the time we need in order to be sure. And I realize I have no idea what I’m really talking about. I’ve smiled at babies. I’ve held one or two. But I have no real concept of what it would be like to raise a small child. Even with all those qualifiers in mind, I’m drawn to this, Melly.”
Her expression softened. “I guess a lot will depend on the next year and what we end up deciding to do. If you truly want to go back to rule the Nightkind demesne, and I’m committed to going back to making movies, we might end up with too much of a commuter lifestyle.”
He shook his head. “Now you’re coming up with obstacles that don’t need to be there. If we want to have children, we should try to have children, and we’ll work out the rest. You could take a break from making movies for a couple of years, and I don’t need to go back into a situation that has danger lurking around every corner. I may not know much about children, but I do know one thing — they don’t stay young and small for long.”
“That’s true.” As he massaged her neck, her head drooped and her eyelids grew heavy.
Watching her beautiful face, he whispered, “Do you want to go clean up the kitchen now?”
Languidly, she shook her head. “No. But I am hungry.”
He started to smile.
She wiggled down his body until she came to the fastening of his jeans. As she unzipped him, he drawled, “Are you going to grab on and start sucking again?”
She snickered, her expression filling with mischief. “Yep. You got a problem with that, soldier?”
He was already so hard for her, his cock ached. “I can’t imagine ever having a problem with that,” he growled. “Just so we’re clear.”
He lifted his hips so she could tug off his jeans. Earlier, when he had slipped out to go fishing, he hadn’t bothered to pull on boxers, and as he kicked off his pants, his full erection bounced on his abdomen. Sitting, he pulled off his T-shirt and tossed it after the jeans. Then he propped one foot on the floor, parting his legs.
“Mmm,” she murmured as she looked up the length of his nude body. It was such a satisfied little sound, he had to grin. Spreading her flattened hands against his abdomen, she rubbed up and out in a wide, sweeping caress that encompassed his torso.
Then she entwined her fingers with his, urging his arms down by his side. Intrigued and aroused, he complied, watching her ravenously as she shackled his wrists with her hands.
The silent reference was unmistakable. His mind flashed back to pinning her on his bed while he sucked and licked between her legs. The memory caused him to growl underneath his breath even as he angled his hips so that she had better access to him.
It was the gentlest of sex games, getting inside his head and playing off his memories. She couldn’t hold him in place if he didn’t let her.
He let her.
Lowering her head, she began to lick, kiss and nibble at the skin of his flat abdomen. His muscles tightened as the sensation ran all over the surface of his body. She moved all around his cock, which lay distended and aching on his stomach, but she never focused on it. Instead she focused everywhere else.
Because of the angle and movement of her body, she still ended up touching him. Her cheek came into contact with the hypersensitive skin at the head of his erection. Then her jaw brushed against the shaft. A lock of her hair fell forward over her shoulder and tickled at his balls, which had drawn up tight in anticipation.
Every glancing caress made him hotter, harder. When she rubbed her nose affectionately in the dark hair that sprinkled his torso, he hissed, “Come on, get on with it, damn it.”
“Hold your horses,” she said against his skin.
Tension vibrated through his arms as he fought conflicting urges. He needed to break free of her hold, sink his hands into her hair and demand that she take him in her mouth.