Royal Reckoning by Stephanie St. Klaire

13

“I’ve hadbreakfast in bed but never…dinner,” Cally said as she lay propped against the headboard of the bed she shared with Eli. “Or was this lunch? I think we missed a part of the day in there.”

“Who is serving you breakfast in bed, love?” Eli said, taking away the last of their dinner and setting it aside to deal with later.

“Nobody important,” she said. “I think I prefer dinner in bed…with you.”

He climbed back on the bed next to her and pulled her into his side with an arm draped around her. “That is what I like to hear.”

She tilted her head up and looked at him. A slow grin began to grow.

“What?” he said, wiping at his face, afraid remnants of dinner were still present in his day-old scruff. More like two- or three-day-old scruff, he’d lost count.

“Nothing,” she said, the grin growing to a smile.

“Surely, it’s something. You look like you’re about to bite me or prank me, and I can’t tell which,” he teased.

“Bite you?” She laughed, and he enjoyed the sound. “When have I ever bit you?”

“Well, you’ve never looked at me like that before, so there’s clearly a first time for everything,” he defended.

“I’m not going to bite you,” she said softly. “I’m just sitting here thinking about you….as a dad.”

Eli began to twirl his finger in her loose locks, locked in her gaze. “Oh yeah? And what are you thinking?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “The look on your face when you saw him on the screen from the ultrasound was priceless. Then when you heard his heartbeat…”

She looked away, a sweep of emotion coming over her. “It was so sweet. I’m so glad you got to be there this time.”

“And I’ll be there for all the rest as much as I can control it. You can bet on it,” he said. “It was one thing to know he was coming and seeing that strange little paper with his picture on it. I mean, you can’t even tell what he looks like. He looked like every other baby on that thing.”

He paused and relived the moment she mentioned because it truly was pure joy and a feeling he wanted to remember and feel forever. “Seeing him on that screen of Doc’s, moving around in there, it was so…”

She waited for him to finish the thought, and when he stalled a moment too long for her, she prompted him to finish. “It was so what, Eli?”

“Magical. I don’t know how else to say it. It was like I met him for the first time. Suddenly, he was real, like really real, ya know?”

She nodded in understanding, her smile sweet, and she allowed him to keep speaking because the newfound excitement he found was as joyous for her as it was for him.

“I see your belly growing and know that’s my son in there, but it’s just a sense of knowing, like, hey, there’s a kid coming. But seeing him move, his little fists punching around, it was like I was getting to know him – personality and all,” Eli admitted. “The heartbeat, though. Pheew.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose and shut his eyes, battling the emotions he was about to expose. She laid her arm across his abdomen in a lazy embrace and tucked her head further against his chest.

“That…was the magic,” he said, sliding her arm off him so he could rest his hand on her baby bump. “That was my boy in there. He’s real. He’s just growing and waiting to make an entrance. We’re going to have this little person so soon. I guess it all just kind of hit me in a different way today.”

“I get it,” she replied, placing her hand over his. “I have lots of daily reminders that he’s coming, like when I have to opt for leggings. Pretty sure the rest of this pregnancy will be in yoga pants and baggy tops. Nothing fits.”

“I love you in yoga pants,” he growled, taking her mouth for a sweet kiss. “I also love you out of yoga pants.”

When his hand started to drift down her belly, he quickly halted. “Did you feel that?”

Eli shot straight up, his hand never leaving her belly. “Tell me you felt that, Cally girl.”

She began to laugh. “Of course I can feel that.”

“He just… He just moved? Or was that your dinner?” Eli was wide-eyed like a deer in headlights.

“My dinner? No, it wasn’t gas, if that was just a polite way of saying such. That was your son. He can hear you, ya know. They hear everything going on outside of his little nest in there.”

“I always thought that was a crock,” Eli admitted, lowering his head to her abdomen. “You hear me in there, my boy? You hear your dad? You know it’s me?”

When the baby kicked again, his brow shot up, and he let out a high-pitched cackle. “He hears me? Really? Was that just a coincidence?”

“Considering I don’t feel him moving much yet on the outside unless he gets me just right, I’d say he hears you. Keep talking to him. See what he does,” she encouraged, enjoying Eli’s reaction to the baby.

He laid his head just above her growing bump and began to speak to his son. “You go easy on your mum in there. Be a good boy, okay? Save the fists for your dad. I’ll teach you to use them the right way, my boy. I’ll teach you lots of things, anything you want. Except fishing. I’m not so great at that and find it bloody dreadful. Some of the guys around here like it, though, so they can teach us both.”

Eli popped up his head and looked at Cally with a pained expression. “Wait, he can hear them too, can’t he? Has he had to listen to that loudmouth Wit?”

Her head fell back in laughter. “I’m sure he’s heard him, but he liked the soup Wit gave us, so he might already have a favorite.”

“Bloody hell,” Eli said, laying his head back down. “I mean, heck. I suppose we should watch what we say. The team will have to clean it up around you. I don’t want him born with a foul mouth asking for a beer.”

Cally laughed at the silly side of Eli. It wasn’t as common to witness as his serious or even his sweet romantic side. She seemed pleased to be witness to it now.

“Ahh, they’re good people, boy. A little crazy, but good. They’ll always watch over you, just like I will too. They already love ya, boy, almost as much as I do. You know, they came for you. They helped Daddy get you and your mum home safe. They’d do anything for ya, for us. You’re a lucky lad.” Eli’s tone was soft and sweet.

“He is a lucky kiddo. You’re his father,” Cally said. “I know this was all out of nowhere and totally not planned, but I’m glad that you are his dad. You did come for him. You came for both of us. I might not know the details of what happened, and I know you’ll tell me when the time is right, but I think I kind of knew all along you were going to come for me. That you’d fight for us.”

“I’d fight a thousand battles for you, love,” he said, kissing her belly. “And I’d go to the ends of the earth to make sure you were safe, and he was safe,” he said, looking up at her.

“I know,” she whispered as her eyes welled with emotion. “I know that now.”

Eli sat up and leaned in for a kiss. “Does that mean you’ve changed your mind or made up your mind, rather? You’ll wear my ring and be my wife…my life partner?”

She kissed him back, then kissing him again, she hooked his chin with her finger and drew him closer. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Today was a good day. We met our boy together. Let’s see what tomorrow holds and the day after that.”

Cally dragged her nails down his back to the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his head. When he was bare, she let out a sultry sound, and she took in every peak and valley of his hard chest, defined abs, leading to the perfect v where his gray sweatpants hung loosely from his hips. Leaning in, she dragged her tongue between his pecs and moaned as she did.

“Eli, there is something I’d say yes to right this second,” she teased, maneuvering herself beneath him.

“Oh, you vixen, love. You tempt me.” He lowered his forehead to hers and enjoyed the sensation of her hands dragging down his chest and just below his waistband. “You little tease. I’d love nothing more than to make love to you right now, but I don’t think it’s a good idea with the baby…”

Her hands stilled. “The baby? I don’t think he’ll mind. He’s occupied.”

“But he can, you know…” Eli whispered.

Cally grinned. “No? I don’t know. He can what, Eli?”

“He can…hear everything. He’ll know we’re…you know. Won’t that scar a kid?” Eli had taken her far too seriously.

“Eli, he’s a baby, a really little baby who has no concept of anything outside of the womb, especially that. Besides, it’s good for expecting mothers to have sex,” she said. “It takes care of those insatiable needs that come with pregnancy.”

“Insatiable? When have I ever left you unsatisfied?” Eli teased as though he was offended.

“Never, and that’s why I need you now…I need you to take care of me – all that ends of the earth stuff.” Cally began to move against him, her lids heavy and her mouth pouty.

“Jesus, Cally. Don’t beg me. Don’t move like that…”

“Or what?” she whispered before cupping his length with her hand and trailing her tongue down his neck.

“Don’t start anything you can’t finish…” he moaned.

“You’re the one who said no, Eli. Are you changing your mind?”

When she pushed his pants below his hips, his length fell against her center and caused her to gasp in pleasure. She grabbed him and began to stroke him. “You sure seem like you want to take care of me.”

“I don’t know if it’s safe,” he pleaded, moving his hips against her grip. “The baby…”

“Will be fine,” she answered before he could further protest. “He will be just fine. I got the all clear from Doc today. I’m okay. The baby is okay.”

Dropping to one knee, Eli pulled her shirt over her head and quickly did away with the lace she was wearing underneath. Her expression became drowsy and intoxicated with him while he then dragged her pants down her legs, finding her bare for him underneath. He discarded the clothing and slid her legs apart and kissed the inside of her legs, switching left to right, then back again, all the way to her hip. He pushed past the very place she wanted him most, earning a pout.

His mouth landed on her belly once more, and though he hovered there, he looked up and stared into her eyes as he whispered, “Go to sleep, son. Daddy needs Mommy now.”

She hiccupped a giggle, but it was short-lived because he dragged his tongue down her abdomen and buried his face right where she wanted him. She let out a barely-there cry while her back arched and her hips tilted so she could get his mouth exactly where she needed it.

“Eli,” she cried. Gripping his hair, she felt every single touch of his mouth, his roaming hand, and each finger he dipped inside her.

Eli moved up her body when he felt her begin to tighten. He wasn’t finished with her yet. He needed to see her, smell her, taste every inch of her now that he had her home. Safe. He kissed her hip, her side as he trailed up her body to her breast. They were fuller, and she was beautiful. Taking her nipple into his mouth, he toyed with her, using his tongue to pleasure her, hardening her nipples as they demanded more of him while his fingers danced at her core.

He still didn’t have enough of her. Eli needed more. It was always about her pleasure first. Worship her. Show her how loved she was, how needed she was. It was a plea, a promise, a display of the love he had for her. It was deep, it was enduring, it was frightening, it was joy.

“I need inside you, Cally, love. I need you like I’ve never needed you before,” he said as he hovered over her and rested at her entrance. “I need to feel you and consume you like you consume me.”

“Eli,” she moaned and pushed against him.

It was all he could do not to finish right then and there. Seeing her so needy and hungry for him – as much as he was for her – was the kind of pleasure that didn’t come easy. That wasn’t promised. That was rarely shared. And they had it. A deep, virile savage kind of love that couldn’t get enough of each other. As he thrust into her, he hoped that feeling lasted forever, and this was how their love would always be. Raw, emotional, primal, endless.

Cally cried out his name, and as her body quaked beneath him, he joined in that euphoric place of pure bliss. And they basked in it until they caught their breath and did it all again because he needed to know this was real, what they had, that she was real. And that she was his and only his. To love forever and a day.

“I love you,” he whispered, dragging his fingers up and down the length of her arm as he held her body against him, both completely satiated. He could hold her like this forever and die happy.

“I love you too,” she said in a muffled tone somewhere between a new level of satiation and sleep.

“I know you’re not ready to accept my proposal, but at least consider moving in with me. I don’t ever want to spend another night away from you. And if I have to go out of town for work, I want to know you’re at home waiting for me in our bed. I want to look forward to that image every time I go out and see it when I come home. Crawl in next to you. Feel you. Smell you. Make love to you. I don’t ever want to lose you again, sweet Cally girl.”

Cally didn’t say a word. Her weight against him had grown heavier, and her breathing slow and shallow. She’d gone to sleep.

He kissed the top of her head. “Stay with me forever and a day, and I’ll make you happy beyond forever.”

She was exhausted from the previous week’s events and, of course, from what they’d just done. She didn’t answer, but he knew her heart heard him. If he knew anything, it was that their souls were mates and hearts locked forever, and both knew she belonged with him.

Eli slid out of bed and pulled on his clothes. As much as he wanted to stay with Cally, his mind was racing with the details of the case, and he didn’t want his restlessness to disturb her. Especially now. Having her back meant everything to him, and he didn’t want to cause any stress or discomfort for her. He grabbed his phone and went to leave the room.

“Eli?” she said softly as he approached the door.

“Yes, love?”

“Longer than forever…”

Her heart was his, and that pleased him more than anything could…