Page 128 of Reaper and Ruin

“Debatable, but whatever. And now you’re off in la-la land. I’m pretty sure you’re not thinking about what I was planning to do to you once we’re naked and in bed.” He squinted at me. “That grin is starting to freak me out.”

I couldn’t hold it in another second. “Violet’s pregnant.”

He froze. Not just his hand or his mouth, but a literal full-body freeze, muscles locked tight, eyes not blinking.

X chose that minute to crash through the back door. “Hi, Levi. Hi, Whip.” His gaze dipped. “Hi, Whip’s cock.”

He moved through the kitchen like catching me and Levi in the middle of a blow-hand-job combo was an everyday occurrence. He grabbed a banana from the kitchen counter and peeled it, tossing the skin into the garbage and munching down on the soft fruit.

He frowned, pointing what was left of it at Levi. “What’s wrong with him? Levi, you’re supposed to stroke his cock. Not just hold it like a dead fish.” His nose wrinkled. “I’d show you how but I think we’ve established I’m not for the butt stuff.”

I removed Levi’s fingers from around my junk and tucked it back in my underwear.

Levi still didn’t move.

I snorted on a laugh and clicked my fingers in front of his face. “Levi. Blink once if you’re okay. Blink twice if I need to get medical intervention.”

He snapped out of it, but he still stared at me like X wasn’t even in the room. “Are you serious?” he whispered.

“Serious about giving you some dick?” X asked around a mouthful of banana. “I think we all know the answer to that.”

Levi twisted to look at X like he’d only just realized he was there. “Violet’s pregnant.”

X’s fingers loosened on the banana so much it slipped and landed on the floor. He didn’t even try to pick it up. But then heshook his head and laughed. “I’m sorry, I thought you said Violet was pregnant.”

Harold meowed from the corner of the room and then darted out from his hiding place between the wall and the couch to pounce on X’s dropped food.

“He did,” I answered. “She just told me.”

X’s whoop of glee was the complete and utter opposite of Levi’s quiet shock. His shout sent Harold screaming back to his hiding hole, and X chased after him. “Harold! You’re going to be a big brother! Again!”

Harold didn’t seem to care. He hissed at X and swiped a paw at him in indignation.

X gave up and grinned at us. “This is the best week ever. Two kids. A baby. And a murder!” He sighed dreamily, like those three things were all he’d ever wanted and someone had handed them all to him on a silver platter. “And bonus, I got to see Whip’s cock.”

I rolled my eyes at him, but it was hard to be a downer when all I could think about was a tiny baby growing in Violet’s belly.

And that maybe, just maybe, it was mine.

I squeezed Levi’s fingers as X pulled out his phone, claiming he needed to start a new Pinterest board for our baby shower and that he would send a link to us all so we could add to it.

“You okay?” I asked Levi.

He nodded, a little numbly. “It’s a lot.”

It was. Especially for someone like him who had never really been around kids, nor had expressed any desire to have them. At least he hadn’t to me. I didn’t know what him and Violet had discussed. “Nobody would blame you if you were freaking out a bit. You had no kids a week ago, and now we have three.”

Levi shook his head. “No, it’s not that. The idea of Violet pregnant…” He grinned at me. “I was shocked at first, but fuck yes.”

I chuckled. “What then?”

He glanced at X. “I’m just trying to work out what a Pinterest board is and what I’m supposed to add to one?”

Xbusily pinned baby things to his virtual board, with Levi and I both watching on over his shoulder, adding our own suggestions. The three-way debate over strollers was getting heated when a knock came from the front door.

I dragged myself away from our ridiculously overexcited baby planning session and opened it. Dax stood on the other side.

My heart fucking broke for him. He looked completely and utterly destroyed. “Fuck, man. We thought you were out of town, still searching. Come in.”