by J. E Hanson
He studies his cell phone, “I have to check in on some of my clubs. Christian sold me back my businesses. He wants more time with Jeannie. I chose to promote MJ as owner over a few things for me, because I also need more time with you. But, while you’re at school, I can keep things running smoothly. I’m set to leave in two hours.”
I purposely take off my clothes in front of him, and I wink at him.
“I would normally go for it, but you’re more tired from the baby. I don’t want to overdo it.”
I pout, but he shakes his head no again. My shower finishes in thirty minutes. I walk out in nothing but a towel. His wraps his towel around his waist, and he has to take a shower. I kiss him madly before walks inside the bathroom.
The great debate wages on with what I want to wear today. I want to seem hip and trendy, but not overdo it. Today, I will wear an eggshell with canary sunflower dress. My matching sunflower shoes will make me stand out. Next to the bed, I notice a small box with a yellow bow. He surprises me with a set of yellow diamond earrings. I quickly place them in my ears, after I read his love note, “I hope you have a great day at school, and I love you.”
I snap two hair dryers in the air, and I tease my hair. I struggle to decide whether to leave my hair up—or down.
I hear a brisk knock on our bedroom door, “You need to hurry up! Come on, diva!” I recognize who it is, and I realize that Ember is here.
I’m still fighting with my hair, “I struggle to decide if I want to wear my hair up—or down!”
“Wear it in the back! We have to wear our lovely tiaras today!” she shouts through the door.
“Are you serious?”
“I’m serious as a heart attack, and you need to hurry up, sis!”
I point to the back of my head, and snap my hair into a French twist. My husband emerges with steam rolling off his shoulders. I have to kiss his lips a few more times, and I offer to dry him off.
“I don’t think Ember wants to hear what we do behind closed doors. You need to get moving,” he objects.
“But, I want to be with you all day!”
He smacks my ass, “Not possible babe and you know that. Go and make me proud. You need to earn all those college degrees.”
I smack his bare ass, and I wait for him to pull his dress slacks on. I try to help him, but he refuses again.
“Are you forgetting to wear something?”
He confuses me as he pulls his canary tank over his head. He wears an expensive dress shirt over his tank.
I am completely dumbfounded, and I try to figure out what’s missing, “What am I forgetting?”
He quickly buttons up his dress shirt, and he pauses long enough to snap his fingers at me. I feel something hard press on top of my head. He placed my tiara on my head for me.
He smirks at me, “You’re not supposed to leave home without it, babe. Did you forget already?”
I make sure that my tiara is on straight, but I still help him with his tie.
“I want to forget and avoid it. But, I will make sure the tiara is on my head, when I leave the house from now on.”
I help him with his cufflinks, “I told you that I can dress myself, Rosalie. You need to leave, or you will be late. By the way… you’re not driving are you?”
“Ember is driving today. Remember… you banned me from driving.”
He shakes his hair from underneath his collar, “I didn’t necessarily ban you. I’m looking out for your best interest. We have our baby to think of. Please be careful today. I’m sending Snow and Ice as your two escorts for today.”
“Are you ready yet? Gadriel and Noel have this burning need to yell at me for being late!” she yells through our door again.
“I’m almost ready! Wait… you have escorts too?”
“Unfortunately, my darling husband issued them to me! I’m equally annoyed as you are right now. At least they will be the lead car. I assume Snow and Ice plan on bringing up the rear?”
“They need to add psychic to you, Ember. Yes, they will be bringing up the rear,” he shouts.
I kiss my husband, and hand him his matching socks.
He stops me by placing both of his hands on my arms, “Go, and be a teenager. I love you babe, and I will see you later.”
I give him one last kiss, and then I pick up my backpack. The laptop strap rests on my shoulder. The bedroom door opens to a very unimpressed Ember with a pair of dark shades on. She chose a pale blue with eggshell floral summer dress also. I grab a glass of fruit juice with no lemons in it. I even pick up a bran muffin on my way out. My snap makes a pair of shades appear over my eyes. Ember has a cerulean Mustang Convertible with slate racing stripes on both sides. She waits until her brother-in-law takes over the wheel in the front car with Noel. We wait for Snow and Ice to take over the lemon Mustang with the slate racing stripes behind us.
She places her hands on the steering wheel, gripping it tight, “This is so annoying, Rosalie! I love the guys, but I wish they would trust us. I know Khan is out there, but I feel like we’re going to our deaths. How will we have a normal college existence with all this crap?”
We follow behind her Enforcers. I recheck my makeup in the mirror, “I had my first midwife appointment yesterday, and our baby is developing normally.”
“Are you also seeing Dr. Hail? She’s whom we are seeing. She apparently knows her shit amongst all the other supernatural creatures. She gave me a quick lesson on how we are cousins to the fairies. She says that my baby will have a spice smell, if our baby is a girl and a musk smell if our baby is a boy in about eight weeks. Our baby is developing right on schedule also. I have a due date of late April. Do you know when your due date is?”
I’m a little upset, “She never told me! But, she did say that my stomach will turn mustard, when I’m about to give birth.”
She pulls us on the Autobahn, and there is no set speed limit here. She automatically stays on his tail until she passes him.
“I’m in a hurry! I’m sure Gabriel will bitch at me later. She never said what my stomach does. I guess my stomach will turn dark blue or some crazy shit like that.”
We are driving ninety, and pass by several cars. Nobody here enforces the speed limit. There are no signs on either sides of the interstate. Gadriel makes sure that he passes us, and he retakes the lead. We follow behind a neon green Mustang with slate racing stripes. We see another ginger girl driving with two familiar men in her car. Ember is singing as I dance to the music.
She sits up straighter, “I think we’re following the vampire princess. Apparently, she has the same taste as us, when it comes to cars. I guess this is Jeannie. She’s talking to Ian and Zane, and they must be her bodyguards.”
Gadriel passes Princess Jeannie, “Jeannie has her tiara on also. I thought Gabriel was going to college with us.”
“He had to drop out, because he has too many things going on. Joey and Gabe opened another nightclub together. I’m not happy about it either. He told me that he would go to college with me, but he changed his mind at the last minute.”
We pull into the college parking lot, and she parks right beside Gadriel.
He seems angry, when he walks over to us, “Are you aware that you are pregnant? You have no business driving like that!”
“This is exactly what I have to go through every day, and these little snide comments. Does Joey ever criticize anything you do?” She stops talking to me then turns to Gadriel, “Sorry to say this, but there’s no speed limit, and we are just fine. You can go tell your brother on me, who should be here instead of you. Thanks for your opinion on my speed, but we are both okay.”
She snatches her backpack and computer case. Gadriel is on the phone trying to call his brother. She rolls her eyes as she locks the doors. We can hear laughter from a few cars down. Ian helps Jeannie out, and she looks like our sister. I have no clue what to say to her.
“I want to introduce ourselves to her. Do you want to?”
Ember smiles warmly,
and she nods her head yes. Ember follows closely behind me. Ice and Snow take either side of me instantly. They worry about me, and I notice. I carefully walk over to Jeannie. There is a foul stench of rotting flesh, but she also has a pulse. This takes me off guard, and this is rather odd. Her hair is cerise with raven lowlights, and she keeps her hair in a loose bun. Jeannie is a couple of inches shorter than we are. She has a long face with high cheekbones. She’s really pretty and angular. The only thing ‘off’ about her is the stench and pulse. Her skin is alabaster, but she has clear complexion.
She notices me, and her nose sniffs the air, “The scents tell me that they are fairies and angels. Am I correct?”
Ian and Zane surround her, “Yes chick, these two are...”
“I believe one is Rosalie, and the other is Ember?” she answers for them.
I nervously hold out a hand, and she takes hers out, “I finally get to meet you two. I’m Jeanne, but you can call me Jeannie. Jeanne sounds way too formal.”
I shake her ice-cold hand, “I’m Rosalie, and this is my cousin Ember.”
She nervously toys with her hair also, “I don’t know if you met them yet, but these two are my babysitters for the day, Ian and Zane. I think they are distracting, but they keep me safe, since I learned my lesson the hard way.”
I nervously bit my bottom lip, “I know exactly what you’re feeling too. I just don’t understand why there are so many photographers dying to take our pictures.”
Jeannie points to a few photographers hiding in the trees and bushes, “They like to follow us, because we are all princesses, and they want to know when we had our last bowel movement. They also want to know whose bed we’re sleeping in. Oh… and this is my personal favorite. When will you have your eight babies?”
I laugh with her, “Yeah... I dearly love them too.”
The Enforcers relax after we introduced ourselves to each other. The tension eases up greatly. We continue to laugh and walk inside together with six Enforcers surrounding us.
Ember takes out her class schedule and asks, “Do we have the same classes together?”
Jeannie unfolds the schedule, and she compares it to ours.
“I wonder… why do we have the same classes together?” I ask.
“Are you two majoring in business and fashion also?” Jeannie asks.
I wave my schedule with excitement, “Yes we are! Cool! By the way, I love your dress.”
Jeannie glances down, and smiles, “This particular one… my boyfriend hates to see on me. It drives him crazy, when I wear a minidress, but thankfully he left for work, before he saw what I’m wearing today.”
I giggle with surprise, “How would he be upset over your beautiful dress?”
She’s wearing a cardinal red strapless and sleeveless minidress. I almost went with a similar canary version of her dress.
Jeannie gazes at me, “Not upset, but he would be kind of… what’s that word?”
Ember fills in the blank innocently, “It will arouse him?”
Jeannie snaps her fingers, “Arouse is the word.”
We arrive at our first class on time. Jeannie sniffs around, and she makes us laugh, “I smell a really wet dog, and the smell is awful,” Jeannie pauses and then she peers over at Ian, “now… I see what the men were talking about.”
A girl rotates with raven hair, and she has emerald eyes. She also has a tiara on her head. We notice two beastly looking men standing right next to her. They have hairy arms, faces, and that can only mean one thing.
The other princess chuckles, “I smell rotting corpses, and that must mean the vampires are in the house. This should be interesting.”
Jeannie's eyes open wide, “I think I know you! Are you Ransom's wife?”
She grins, and she flashes her huge emerald ring, “We have been happily married for over a year. I’m currently expecting our first baby too.”
Jeannie smiles warmly, “You must be Tanya.”
Tanya smiles at us, “Yes I am, and I see that you gorgeous women also have bodyguards too. I’m the werewolf princess. It shocks me that all four of us are going to school together. I’m majoring in business, so I can understand what the fuck my husband does for an existence. I need to open up my own business, so that I can have my own identity.”
The Professor walks in, and he instructs us to take out our books and laptops. I gaze over at Ember, and she giggles. She found a new way to talk to me through instant messaging. We have to write down our email accounts, and hand them to our professors.
The way they do things is if you have a question, you type the professor the question in a large chat room. Each class has their own chat room. The other instant messenger allows all four of us to chat with one another. The four of us princesses latch on to each other quickly. Every now and then, one of us would giggle.
Lunchtime sounds by a bell. We all decide that we would sit together, and laugh over our stupid homework. All four of us earned honors from our prospective high schools. We can see why the men chose each one of us. We never expect visitors either.
“You should try it sometime,” I give her advice.
Jeannie laughs in shock, “I struggle to believe that, and I’m in shock! I have one more personal question. Did you all have the v-card when you met your husbands?”
I peer over at her, “He sampled, and he bought it after he took it. I lost that card quickly.”
Ian shakes his head, and he smiles at all of us.
“I think it was the stripping that did mine in,” Ember confesses.
Jeannie looks wide-eyed at us, “What stripping? Did I miss something?”
Tanya laughs, “I have a feeling that you two did a lot of shit together.”
Ember flashes her an innocent look, “We were stripping in Las Vegas, Joey wasn’t happy with us, and he even chastised us. Gabriel gave me a long lecture in decency. I never, or have never done anything since. We did receive a lot of tips that night though.”
All four of us laugh at Ember and my story this past summer.
Jeannie grins, “I didn’t actually strip for mine, but I had a lot of nude shots done. So there went my v-card.”
We giggle for another five minutes, when four men walk in with our lunches. I have my back turned.
Jeannie's face changes, “Oh, shit! Either we’re in deep trouble, or they want to do something really sweet for us.”
She points and Ember's jaw drops, “I think we did something wrong. I know I did.”
Gabriel leans in, and he kisses her, “I have a surprise for you after school. Do you mind, if I give Gadriel your car keys?”
Ember peers over at me, “I will be here to pick her up, and you don’t need to worry,” Joey answers.
Our husbands and boyfriend are wearing shorts, tanks, and shirts now.
Ransom sits by his wife, and he hands her a rare steak, “You need to eat.”
He looks good for a werewolf. The jet-black hair and emerald eyes tells me exactly who he is without the smell. He appears olive skinned with jet-black hair. Ransom is equally tan as Tanya is. He matches our husbands in height. Christian hands Jeannie an ebony mug, and I can smell the blood from her drink. He gives her a straw to drink. Joey makes me a normal burger with cheese. I smell bacon from a distance, and snap a bucket quick. Jeannie seems surprised, when she watches me run out of the room to throw up.
He feels horrible, “I am really sorry, babe. Are you sick, because of the scent of blood?”
I continue to lose it, and Jeannie appears, “Chris just informed me that you are pregnant also. I had no idea, and I’m so sorry, Rosalie. I would never have drank it, if I knew it made you sick.”
I stop heaving long enough to tell her, “I normally love bacon, but for some reason the smell of it send me over the edge.”
Jeannie hands me a napkin, “I know this isn’t much, but I can ask Erik to make you something to kick the nausea. He has a secret herbal tea, and it kept me from throwing up all over the place, when I was pregnan
t.”
“I’m so sorry for your loss, Jeannie.”
Jeannie closes her eyes, and she takes a deep breath, “I’m dealing with our loss okay. I understand that it wasn’t my fault. Chris is taking me or us to therapy. I thought it would be pointless, but the therapy is actually helping me out a lot. We are closer now than what we were in the past. I understand that Ember is also pregnant, and I want to congratulate all of you.”
We hug each other, and she takes a deep breath, “I will admit that the loss of our baby is hard to deal with. I understand now, since Christian finally came clean about our baby. The baby was malformed, and now I can finally deal with it.”
We finish our lunches, and the men left. Christian wants to take Jeannie out to dinner tonight. Ransom is giving Tanya a special treat. My husband is picking me up after school to take me home.
The rest of our day drags by smoothly. We type down expectations for certain classes, and I left school feeling extremely exhausted.
~~~***~~~
Joey opens his car door for me, “You look tired, baby. I need to take you home.” We drove off into the sunset, and he glances at me, “You are extremely beautiful, and I love you very much, babe.”
I gaze at my wonderful and sexy husband, “Thank you, Joey. I need to hear that also. I love you too, and I can’t wait to fall asleep in your arms.”
The drive seems to last forever. I focus my attention on my beautiful husband. I’m one lucky girl to have him in my existence. We have come a long way from where we started. I love how sexy he looks with all his tattoos. I keep focusing on him, and then I close my eyes. I thank the Creator for the love of my existence. I’m so grateful that I never shut the door on him for good. I learned a valuable lesson, by never judging a book by its cover. I realize that the drive is long, but this is so worth it in the end.
The series continues with book three “Bloody Vows.”
