“You’re right. You’re right, we don’t,” Rowan said, although a hot bath and then a snuggle in front of the TV would be nice too.
“I know I am.” He could hear the smile in Mikhail’s voice, and his face flashed in Rowan’s mind. His lips couldn’t help curving.
“Although, I might kind of sort of have an occasion,” Ro said.
Mik laughed. “Kind of thought you might. So, spill it… what is it?”
Ro knew that Mik had actually wanted the baby, so part of him was sorry that he needed to downplay it every step of the way. “I thought we could celebrate the fact that I’m not pregnant,” Ro said. “It’s been five weeks, and I’d say the possibility has passed.” Ro ignored the twinge in his chest at his words.
There was a long pause on the other end of the line. Ro waited, holding his breath, hoping that Mik wouldn’t hang up on him and say what a horrible idea that was.
When another minute passed, he was still met with silence.
“Hello, Mikhail?” Ro had to double-check to be sure Mik hadn’t already hung up.
“Kind of a weird thing to celebrate, don’t you think?” Mik’s voice was unreadable.
“I was just teasing.” Ro was quick to backtrack. He didn’t want to make anything awkward between them, especially since their whole relationship thing was going pretty well. The past five weeks was more than he could have imagined.
“Okay.” Mik’s voice was still inscrutable. “We can definitely go out and celebrate. No occasion necessary.”
“See you soon,” Ro said. He didn’t even have to go home since enough of his things had migrated to Mikhail’s hotel suite, not to mention the man seemed to buy new things for him every time he stepped out.
“I’ll be here,” Mik said, then hung up. Again he refused to read more into those words, but he’d noticed Mikhail seemed to always say some version of it when they spoke or when he was leaving to work… either it was “I’ll be here,” or “I’m here.”
Like he knew Rowan needed reassurance that he wouldn’t leave.
With the thought of a baby on his mind—not that it hadn’t been every day, Ro couldn’t help the small voice in his head that said, “Maybe.”
He couldn’t help wondering if the tiredness and other smaller things were because he was pregnant… or because he wished he was.
Ro mentally cursed himself for letting his brothers get in his head. There was no way he was pregnant. The tests had been negative.
Twenty
Mikhail
Mikhail disconnected the call, placed his laptop beside him, and leaned back on the couch. For five weeks he had worked out of his suite. He’d decided to take some of his meetings virtually that were part of deals he’d been handling. It had been easier than catching his brothers up.
Mik considered getting a place where Rowan and he could move in together, but he held back. He didn’t want to rush Rowan. Right now, they were in the ‘getting to know you’ phase—they’d hung out with one another and spent hours talking about everything and anything.
Even though they hadn’t had penetrative sex since the condom debacle, they had done other things together, and he had to admit he was loving learning everything about his mate slowly. Mik’s favorite part was discovering all the parts of Ro’s body that made the man squirm and beg in Mik’s arms.
Mik wasn’t going to push for things to go faster even though he was going crazy every time they were together. He was actually happy with just letting things happen naturally.
It might not have been exactly how he envisioned his mating going, but he wasn’t complaining.
The only time he hadn’t been totally honest was when the stick had said negative. He had to admit that he was disappointed that Ro wasn’t pregnant, but he knew better than to tell Ro that. That would only put pressure on their relationship, and he’d been honest when he told Rowan that he would take it at his pace, there was no rush. He thanked the goddess and held on to the fact that they were at least together.
Mikhail covered his eyes with his arms and rested his head on the couch. As happy as he was, his heart had clenched in his chest when Ro said that he wanted to celebrate the fact that he wasn’t pregnant—it hurt.
Mikhail let out a deep breath as he got to his feet, but he knew that even with his own disappointment from the negative test, if Ro wanted to celebrate, he would. He wanted to give Ro the world. He loved him, and for now, that was enough.
Mik went to the bathroom and splashed water on his face, then changed into a clean shirt and dress pants.
He’d just put his watch on when his phone started buzzing where he’d left it in the living room.
Mikhail grabbed his favourite Brunello Cucinelli suede Chelsea boots and hurried over to his mobile, and when he picked up the phone, it was Rowan.
