Page 3

Hurtthat he wants something he won’t allow himself to have.

Reaching between my legs, I catch his release myself, guiding it to my hole.

He flinches. “Don’t?—”

But it’s barely more than the tip of my finger pushing his seed inside. “That’s what you want,” I whisper. “Isn’t it?”

It’s hard for them, I think, to acknowledge the parts of themselves their father has built over his years of cruelty. Pace, and the way he seeks out isolation. Wicker, and the way he craves to binge on touch. And Lex…

Lex wants tocreate.

He never really got the chance, and now the thought of it alone is like a live wire to some primal, hindbrain instinct. And it’s so powerful that he can’t even trust himself to sleep beside me.

None of them can help it.

He watches me guide his seed inside with a slack jaw, his eyes tracking the movement as his own fingers join me, gathering up more of his release to feed carefully—reluctantly—into my hole.

“Verity,” he says, voice thick and gruff as he cups a palm against my center as if he’s holding it all in. “Do you ever think… after you have the baby…”

I wait for him to ask, the question lingering in his throat like a dangerous, secret thing.

But when he meets my gaze, I can see him pushing the words away, swallowing them up to hide them away. He pulls back. “Never mind,” he says, shaking it off. “You just…wehave to be careful.”

Closing my legs, I shiver, the cold setting in. “I know,” I reply, relieved he never actually asked.

The most important thing is the son growing inside of me. Delivering him into this world, healthy and happy.

I’m not sure how I’d answer the prospect of getting pregnant all over again.

“So, what’s the verdict?”Pace asks, looking between us. He looks haggard and restless and messy, his dark hair unkempt and wild. His eyes look both glazed and too alert, and I wonder when he last got more than an hour of sleep. If it were anyone other than Lex’s brother, I might assume he’s been doing Scratch. But after Lex, no one in this palace would dare.

He just can’t stop watching the monitors.

“Like you weren’t watching,” Lex says, ushering me into the sitting room and directing me to the chair. Used to be the examination room didn’t have any cameras, much like the solarium. Pace has put a swift end to that.

“We were both watching,” Wick says, flipping through one of the pregnancy magazines that randomly started appearing at the palace. “And that was a fantastic show, but it didn’t quite confirm if the Princess is off bed rest yet, or if you two just wanted to bust a nut.”

“Women don’t have nuts,” Pace says.

Wick shrugs, pausing on a page about breast pumps, “I said what I said.”

“Lex,” I say, also needing to know where we go from here. “Seriously. Is my bed rest over, or what?”

There’s still a faint flush on his cheeks, the wrinkle in his brow a touch hunted. “As long as you’re being truthful in your replies to my questions, I see no reason why you can’t be released from bed rest?—”

“Oh, thank god.” I exhale. “I couldn’t take another day in that well-appointed prison you call a bedroom.”

Lex snaps, “Let me finish.” He looks between me and his brothers. “You’re releasedwithconditions.”

“Fuck it,” Pace drops his head back, groaning, “what kind of conditions?”

Lex speaks directly to me. “Obviously, you’ll still need to have a PNZ member with you at all times.” I know they’d rather it be one of them protecting me, but with their focus on the dungeon right now, it’s just not possible. “Keep heavy lifting under ten pounds. Maintain your diet and nutrition. Report any changes to me immediately—and I meananything. Pains, aches, discharge, anything that seems like a red flag.”

“Whatever you want,” I promise, “I’ll do it.”

“Good girl.” His approving stare is short-lived. “Also, no sex?—”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Wicker shouts. Unlike Pace, Wicker looks perfectly put together. Looking at him, one wouldn’t even know that he spends most of his nights in bed beside me gritting his teeth. “You two just had sex. Like two minutes ago. She’s still got her sex glow and you’ve got that dumb, post-coital look on your face.”