Page 29

FOURTEEN

Seleme

“I’m getting fat. Fast.” I whine, rubbing my tummy as I watch Maxim touch the tip of his finger to each candle wick and the flash of fire follows.

He snaps his head around, narrowing his eyes, then stomps over to where I’m standing in front of the long mirror on the wall of our living room.

“That’s not a word you are allowed to use when referring to yourself. Ever. Got it?”

I huff but deep down I know the truth: the bigger I get, the more Maxim seems to want me.

It’s as though we’ve lived a lifetime in two short weeks since that night everything happened. I look months pregnant already and from speaking with my mother it sounds like it’s the same as happened with me; I was born in just under three months.

“Can you see yet?” I ask Maxim as he comes over, a hand rubbing my belly as he nuzzles my neck, biting in that same spot as he did that first time. I hiss at the sensation. It’s not exactly pain but it’s pleasure mixed with a thrill of a different sort.

“Not yet.”

He’s been able to ‘see’ the baby. He says it’s not exactly like you see things with your eyes, but he sees it with a touch, and I’m anxious to know if it’s a boy or a girl.

“When I dream, I see a little boy. A mini-Maxim.” I purr as he lowers himself and kisses my belly, his hands gripping my rear end, making me instantly wet and longing for him.

We’re together nearly every minute of the day. He barely leaves my side except to go on his walks with my father and then, he leaves me with my mother.

He still fears something will happen to me. After the night of my turning, my power has grown exponentially. I am faster, stronger than any vampire — even Anna — has known throughout all the years. Even dining on animal blood, rather than human blood, doesn’t seem to diminish my power. My senses are only slightly more acute than before, but now running water no longer seems to have any effect on them.

All my power seems to be growing and changing as time goes on, so we don’t know exactly what will happen, but all I know is that I am happy. Happier than ever in my life.

By some odd irony, both of my big cases at the law firm were stalled for different reasons. It turned out to be for the best, because my pregnancy is already obvious and as fast as it’s progressing, questions will certainly be raised. I’ve taken a leave of absence, my other clients being tended to by other attorneys in the office, and although a part of me misses the work, it must have been more the human side of me that was obsessed with the achievement of it all.

Because now, my instincts are to protect my baby and find out how our family is going to work in our new reality.

“Do you want a boy then?” Maxim moves a hand to the center of my tummy as he looks up at me, as though he can figure out a way to give me whatever I want.

“I don’t care. Boy or girl, it is part of us, I love our baby already.”

He leans in and kisses my belly, and as he does so his eyes go wide.

“What?” Panic squeezes my throat. “What’s wrong?”

Maxim’s eyes close for a quick second as both his hands come to the sides of my belly.

“Maxim!” Tears spring to my eyes; I’m convinced something is wrong.

But when he looks up, it’s not fear I see in his glowing red eyes, it’s joy.

“I can see.” He smiles, his white teeth practically glowing.

“What is it, what is it? A boy? A girl?”

He nods. “Yes.”

Confusion clouds my thoughts for a split second, then realization explodes inside of me.

“Both? Twins?” I do a little jump and Maxim nods. “Oh my god! Two?”

Pure bliss and some fear battle inside of me.

Maxim looks perplexed. “Baby, didn’t Anna say there is no such thing as vampire twins?”

“That’s almost what she said.” My voice is shaking as my hands settle on top of Maxim’s as he holds my tummy. “She said, ‘before’. There have never been vampire twins before.” I grin. “I guess we’re having a lot of firsts.”

“I guess nothing is impossible. Not in our world.” He drops his hands, one coming to hold mine and his other reaches inside his suit jacket. “I can’t wait.”

“Wait for what?”

He pulls out a carved wooden box, flipping the top open with his thumb and holding it up, and there’s a wild concussion in the air. Like the earth shifted under my feet.

“For you to marry me. Marry me, Seleme, for real. Be my wife for eternity and not a day less.”

I nod my head, unable to make the words that beg for freedom come from my throat. So many things I want to say, but a simple nod is all I can manage.

As he slips the ring onto my finger, there’s this familiarity that calms me. A warmth inside of me glows that I haven’t felt since I turned.

“This ring has been waiting for me.” I whisper, unsure what I mean but knowing it’s the truth.

“I believe so. And you know what else has been waiting for you?”

I look down at my hand, and inside the ring I see the natural ‘S’ shape, set in the center of the stone, and there’s a knowing that grows inside of me. Of things past, present and future, and the hope of what is to be.

“What?”

“Me.”

Maxim pulls me down onto the floor in front of the fire, onto the soft sheepskin rugs, raising my slip of a dress and exposing my wet sex as he lowers his face between my legs.

I look up at the wooden beams of the ceiling and raise my hips to meet his mouth as he takes slow licks up and down. His tongue is cool as it flicks over my clit, taking his time as I moan and slip my hands into his hair pulling us closer together.

His mouth moves faster and I feel the sharpness of his new teeth rasp against my tender flesh as his mouth opens wide and he consumes me.

Thick fingers push into my slick opening, spreading me, and I want him as much as I did those first days when I felt it was my human hormones playing tricks on me.

Not so.

My need grows each day, and so does his. I don’t know how we will make it though eternity if that continues, but for now our need hasn’t faded in any way.

The bond we formed when we first gave ourselves to each other is unlike anything I could imagine. I want him, but not just like this. I want his thoughts, his good, his bad, his soul. It’s as though we are truly part of one another in ways that humans cannot understand.

My hips grind against his ravaging mouth as I tear at his hair and we become near animals.

I cum in a twisting explosion as he licks and sucks at my clit, wringing another wild climax from me before he rips his clothing from his body and spreads my legs wide.

He covers me, his massive frame held above my belly as he penetrates me in one hard thrust. I can hear our hearts beating, speeding, racing toward each other as his thick cock fills me.

We cum together as his thick seed sprays inside me. Maxim’s roar shakes the windows of the house as I claw down his back, just as I do nearly every time we make love.

Thankfully, he heals almost immediately, as do I, otherwise he would be a mess of torn flesh.

His hot seed is dripping from me as his face comes to my ear and he tells me all the loving and wonderful things I will never tire of hearing.

Then we lay there for a long moment, the fire flickering as Maxim raises his face above mine and kisses me softly.

“Did you ever believe this was possible?

I take a deep breath, my hands on his cheeks. “Not in a thousand lifetimes.”

“That’s what we will have. A thousand, then a thousand more. After that, we’ll renegotiate.” Maxim smiles and I give his shoulder a soft punch.

Before I can reply, there’s a giggle from the far wall and we both snap our heads around to see Anna standing there grinning, not even a hint of a blush on her cheeks at walking in on us.

“Don’t you ever knock?” I ask, neither Maxim nor I moving to cover ourselves.

“Knock? And miss this?” She turns her hand over, gesturing toward us. “Where would be the fun in that?”

Maxim sighs, lowering his head to my shoulder. “She’s your godmother. You deal with her.”

“That I am.” Anna turns and heads toward the kitchen. “But there’ll be no ‘dealing with me’, Maxim Forsythe. Have a little respect for your elders. I’ll give you two a minute, then I have news.”

Maxim slips out of me with a sigh, reaching over and grabbing a blanket off the leather sofa and wrapping me in it as I stand.

He quickly slips on his trousers, then we make our way into the kitchen to find Anna sitting there on my phone, talking to someone.

“Yep. They’re here. Come on up, I’ll buzz the gate.” She taps the screen and puts the phone down, smiling at us like a Cheshire cat. “Do you two ever do anything else?”

Without waiting for a response, she walks over to the security panel on the wall and pushes the button for the gate at the end of the drive.

I lick my lips and snap my tongue before answering. “You should try it sometime. Maybe you’d understand.” She rolls her eyes and I point to the phone. “And, who is coming over?”

“Dimitri.” Her eyes twinkle.

“He’s early.” Maxim grouses. “He wasn’t supposed to be here for an hour. I’ll go meet him, I guess.”

He disappears through the open door to the kitchen, heading for the foyer.

Maxim is helping Dimitri with some business expansion. With his newfound powers, Maxim took the money he had and invested it in some shorts on the market. Seems he can ‘see’ things that others can’t, and he’s built his portfolio to close to eight million dollars from just under a million in less than two weeks and that doesn’t include the insurance money from his parent’s tragedy.

He's keeping that set aside. Not sure for what, but that will be up to him and I’ll support whatever he decides when he decides.

He and Dimitri return to the kitchen a moment later, and Dimitri eyes the situation; me wrapped in the blanket and Maxim in just his trousers; then gives us a knowing look. “I’m early.” He looks between us, then at Anna his eyes suddenly stuck.

Maxim looks at him with playful annoyance. “Yeah. You are.”

He shrugs. “Sorry?”

Anna hops down from her place on the counter and extends her hand to Dimitri. “Don’t be. They need to take a break now and then, keep up their strength. I’m Anna. A friend of Seleme’s. We met at the...” She bites into her lip. “The thing a couple of weeks ago, but you fainted before we could be properly introduced. I had to go deal with a lot of angry and upset people, or we could have met properly. Sorry.”

“A friend of Seleme’s?” Dimitri looks to Maxim, and he shrugs.

We couldn’t hide things from Dimitri. For starters, he noticed the changes in Maxim the day after he turned, so he knew anyway. Add to that the things he remembered happening before he lost consciousness, and it was pointless trying to keep him in the dark.

Anyway, he’s taken to it all better than anyone could have expected. After the initial shock, he said it made a lot of sense, and he always believed in ghosts. We didn’t have the heart to tell him that ghosts don’t exist. Well, not to my knowledge, anyway. I suppose anything is possible.

“Well,” Anna licks her lips, then bites into her bottom lip. “Maybe more like family.”

Maxim comes to stand behind me, his hands on my shoulders, leaning in to kiss my cheek, then bring his lips to my ear.

“Family.”

I nod, leaning my head back into his chest, as Anna leads Dimitri into the living room, chattering on a million miles an hour about what she’s found out, how things are never going to be the same again. I don’t care about any of that.

“Family, forever and a day.” I reply to Maxim, feeling the first flutter of movement deep in my belly and knowing eternity will never be long enough.