Placing a gentle hand on my head, his eyes scoured mine as he ran his fingers through my hair that had grown enough to become itty-bitty tight curls. “I want you feeling a hundred times better, not just ten. I want you back. And I’ll be as patient and as helping as I can be.”
I stopped his hand with my gloved one…my nails were only growing back, and they were hideous, so I wore the gloves so I didn’t gross anyone out. “Daniil, I may never be that same person I was before.” He knew this…didn’t he?
His soft smile turned a little evil, and he bent down, whispering in my ear, “Do you mean how you now have a possessive streak to rattle anyone’s cage, and you have no issues killing anyone who threatens your babies?”
I nodded. Yes. That was exactly what I meant. I wasn’t a ‘kill all’ type of person, but my eye-for-an-eye…well, I didn’t even bat an eye now when I thought of my kidnappers trying to harm the babies inside me again.
I felt him grin against the shell of my ear. “That works for me.”
I snorted, pushing at his shoulder lightly with my cast. “I’m happy I can accommodate you.” I said it with enough sarcasm to make it sound real, but truly, I was happy he liked this harder side of me.
He started trailing small kisses behind my ear. “I knew you would get there, anyway. I just thought it would be after our sons were born.”
I snorted again, but it came out in a half sigh/half moan. “We are not finding out what the sexes are.”
Daniil groaned low in his throat, and he whispered against my heating skin, “Please, don’t say any word that involves ‘sex’ in it.” He sighed heavily against my neck. “I’m already dying here.”
Lifting my hand, I gripped the necklace that he wore. He made it out of the bolt I had killed my jailer with. He melted the bolt down and shaped it into a heart and threaded it around his neck in twisted black leather.
Morbid, yes. But Daniil all the way.
I lifted my brows. “You’re not the only one dying here, so quit doing that.”
He groaned again even lower in his throat and started to pull me in tighter against him so he didn’t see my mom walk up to the loveseat where we sat. Nor did he see the hand she raised to swat him on the backside of his head, banging his face into my neck. He grunted, and his head snapped up, seeing my mom’s twinkling eyes staring down at him.
Softly, she stated, “A little decorum, please. I know what that doctor said. And that,” she pointed between my neck and his mouth, “isn’t going to help.” Her lips thinned, but she stated quickly, “And it’s not fair for a man to achieve release when the woman’s left high and dry for months on end.” She pointed at Daniil. “So keep that in mind when you’re trying to finagle something out of her.” She nodded once curtly, then turned on an embarrassed heal and walked quickly over to my dad.
“My mom did not just say that,” I muttered, my mouth still hanging open.
Daniil rubbed the back of his head where she had hit him, and he glanced at me…appearing a little sheepish.
I stared. My mom had been right. Daniil was going to try…
I laughed outright. It was loud. And it was joyful.
And it was the first time I had really laughed in months. Pretty much the entire room stopped whatever they were doing and looked my way. Nikki came over while I was trying to get control of myself, and put her arms around my throat, leaning on my round belly, whispering in my ear, “I’m happy you’re feeling better.”
I smiled against her black hair and hugged her back. “Thank you, Nikki. That’s very sweet of you to say.”
The babies kicked at that moment, pushing against Nikki. She squawked and jumped back, pointing at my stomach, squealing, “Her stomach! It moved!”
Beth bumped her shoulder and rolled green eyes. “The babies moved, Nikki.” She placed a hand over my stomach, hesitating, and then asking, “Can I feel?”
Still smiling, I nodded, but also grabbed Daniil’s hand since he hadn’t been around when the babies were active. Placing both their hands on my stomach, I pressed a little on Daniil’s…and thumpity-thump….thump, thump, thump! They really got active in there.
Beth’s eyes grew almost as large as Daniil’s, and they both gasped.
Daniil grinned broadly after a few moments and told the room at large, “Boys. They’re all boys.”
I couldn’t help my chuckle, and Nikki barged into the fold, placing her hand between Beth and Daniil’s. There was a pause, and then, one of the babes punched or kicked her hand, and she squealed again, jumping back, staring at Ember with huge eyes, pointing at my stomach, almost shouting, “They’re coming out!”
Grigori laughed, and picked up the frightened Nikki, bouncing her a little. “They aren’t coming out yet. They’re just moving around like you used to do in your mommy’s belly.”
She blinked. “Really?”
He nodded. “Yes. I remember when your mom got real big,” Ember snorted, “and you two would practically do somersaults in her stomach.”
I glanced at Brent and Cole, but they were only watching the interaction silently like they were gauging Grigori’s interaction with their daughter.
