by Elena Monroe
It was sour, but the sweet was knowing I was Grimm’s now and forever.
ABIGAIL
8 months later...
My pregnancy was confirmed when Grimm had to drive up to Seattle to handle more Clave business.
Zeus rode him even harder now, and I wasn’t convinced it was all at the hands of the headache we probably gave him.
I underestimated the Clave’s way to make life harder even if they accepted me.
Now it seemed pointless to use the solution, the proof Khaos captured to fake my death, to our advantage. He was still convinced I needed to stay hidden away until he could guarantee our safety, me and our little girl.
Maybe today will be the day Grimm will let me leave the house after basically living on the couch, watching everything Bravo had to offer in reality dramas and eating Oreos for every meal. I was begging to go back into the office or even get a smoothie with Jus.
Just to leave the house for any reason.
I was standing at the island the way I did every morning to send off Grimm to work, ready to ask him if it was safe to leave the house yet, like I did every morning.
I couldn’t shake the natural way I didn’t need an alarm to wake up for 7 a.m., even with the morning sickness still holding me hostage.
Being this close to the ocean was a saving grace. I swore it was the best remedy for any ailment.
Grimm was still shirtless, with his sweats hanging low on his hips, showing off the band of his boxer briefs and his shirt slung over his shoulder, while he dug through the fridge.
“Morning, sunshine.” He was never going to be a morning person.
He grunted while uncapping the orange juice I could no longer drink. The bun in my oven couldn’t tolerate the acidic foods or drinks anymore without burning my throat with acid reflux until I coughed up a lung.
Popping an Oreo in my mouth, I leaned my elbows ont0 the cold countertop, making sure not to press into my bump. “Sleep well? Excited to go to work?”
His bare chest pressed against my back, and his lips pressed against the shell of my ear. “No, the answer is no, toots. You aren’t leaving.”
Grimm exhaled after his routine answer told me today was not going to be the day I could leave the house or even text Jus back. I was still pretending to be non-existent, not pregnant, and not a problem for the Clave.
His hands cupped my bump and laid kisses down my shoulder. “I can play hooky. Stay home with you. Keep you company.”
“No, I want to leave the house. I want coffee. I want Trader Joe’s. I want LA traffic. I feel like a hostage.”
“Abigail. You’re still pregnant.”
I let my head hang between my shoulders and the disappointment take over.
“So I’m really gonna be stuck here until the moment I give birth? What if I’m overdue? Gonna control that too?”
“You’re not safe until you give birth. There’s a difference.” His lips crashed against my cheek like it made up for it.
With a groan, I put my glass of leftover milk in the fridge, knowing I’d need it later. Oreos were my only savior from insanity.
“Maybe you should set up a desk somewhere. Focus on what you can. You’ll be in labor in no time.”
“Why did we do a blood oath anyways? It’s like one of Khaos’s games. Pick a hand, except I could have had Starbursts.” Moving to the end of the counter, I felt our daughter kick, like she was protesting too.
Grimm’s arms wrapped around my chest, and his lips kissed my temple. “I’ll think about it, okay? I just want you both safe.”
Safe.
Controlled.
I used to like those words, but now I loathed them.
“You aren’t going to think about it, liar.” I was sulking like a child wrapped in twice as many hormones and feeling overstuffed. I had been homebound the entire pregnancy, and now I was only a week away from my expected due date.
“I could be late…” His kisses got slowly, softer, more purposeful when they trailed down my neck.
His fingers crawled up my bare legs, taking the hem of the shirt I was wearing with them.
His shirt, always.
“Grimm…” I tried to protest, but there was no real point in denying that him keeping me captive wasn’t sexy somehow. It was.
Being this pregnant made it difficult to find a position that actually worked. The bump in front of me was keeping me from all the things I loved and from getting properly laid, but being pushed up against the counter was perfect.
Tugging my panties down my legs, I stepped out of them while his mouth laid down messy kisses on the way back up me. He didn’t dare remove my shirt; he knew exactly how self-conscious I had been lately and OCD about cocoa butter to help with any stretch marks.
My whole body was on fire, blazing and making my heart melt all at the same time, with every touch. I didn’t want him to stop touching me. I wanted to stay right here in a state of bliss and arousal at just his fingertips.
Extra hormones.
Grimm pressed his body into my back more, making my head drop down to my side, exposing my neck to him even more while I felt his hard ridge push into my back.
“Grimm, I’m turned on enough.”
“Maybe I want you so turned on all I have to do is blow on you and you come for me.” His breath on my neck made my nerve endings beseech him for more.
“Is that part of the kink you refuse to show me? Why can’t we do that stuff?”
No matter how much I begged, Grimm refused to show that part of himself. The part of him that liked to make his pleasure painful.
I was hornier than I was willing to admit. The thought of Grimm restraining me took my breath away in a way that I knew would push me over the edge without him having to commit to being that side of himself.
“No, the answer is no, Abigail.”
Grimm had an Old Faithful answer to every desire I had and it was always no.
Swaying my hips, my ass rubbed against the outline in his sweats, hoping he would change his mind. “Don’t make me beg.”
His hand on my throat, loosely he jerked my head to the other side, where I quickly felt his tongue lick up my neck to my ear, sending me off the deep end, covered in goosebumps.
“But I like it when you beg...”
My hands were trying to grasp onto anything I could against the marble top, and I felt my hips still to a slow rock at the ecstasy. My mouth fell open at how easy he could make me come while pregnant. He barely had to try at all.
“See what happens when you beg? I get to watch you come undone so quickly.”
Grimm’s hand pushed between my legs, cupping my pussy before his fingers slipped against my clit. I was just regaining control of my breath when I felt myself shudder against his fingers pinching my clit under the long shirt.
My hand covered his, pleading, “Grimm. I… I already…”
I was slipping right back under the heat, the sensitivity and assault on my ability to control how quickly I come for this man.
“Shhh… you know you want to come again.”
“Not like this…” My hand was covering his, but holding my hips still. This time I wouldn’t let myself rock against his fingertips.
With his soft lips against my ear, he whispered, “How then baby? Tell me. I want to hear you say it.”
His grip on my neck was tighter, but not painful when I pushed back. “I want you… inside me.”
“More specific, beautiful…” He was toying with me in his grip and part of me wondered if he was showing me a glimpse inside that side of him I had been begging for.
My clit between his fingers ached even with him massaging the bundle of nerves already sensitive.
“I want to ride you…” My voice sounded strained just as much as I felt.
“Better. Still needs work. Come here.”
I felt my body turn cold the moment he pulled away from me, grabbing my hand and pulling me close behind him. Grimm fell into the plush couch, pulling me
onto his lap with his sweats still low on his hips.
He grasped onto my breasts through my shirt, and I gasped, making my hips rock on top of him, knowing I was rubbing myself all over his crotch.
I felt his hands against my bare thighs try to wiggle and push his pants down enough for his length to spring out. I could feel his velvet shaft against me, spurring me on.
“Grimm, I wanna see that side of you. It’s been months. I’m not going anywhere. I already love you.”
Grabbing my wrists, Grimm held them behind my back tightly, sitting up in the process, and nipping at my lips. “Is this what you want? To see the dark ugly parts? Why do you always think the ugly in me is pretty?”
Chasing his lips, I leaned into him, with my arms held back even tighter. “None of you is ugly…”
With his hand between us, I felt him line himself up, perfectly coaxing me to sit down on him, until I felt his knuckles brush against me.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you, beautiful.”
My wrists were still clamped together with his hands, and my back arched automatically.
“Open the box on the table...”
“Last time I opened a box, it didn’t go so well…”
His hands loosened, and I knew it meant pulling away from him to see what was in the box that I never considered opening on the coffee table. Prying the lid open, I looked inside at all the sleek, black, silicon materials: ball gag, butt plug, nipple clamps, handcuffs... All things I could easily identify.
Picking up the handcuffs with my wrists still sore from his grasp seemed stupid, but I wasn’t against stupid if it meant Grimm blowing on me the way he teased.
“These aren’t even that bad… I don’t get it.”
Taking the metal handcuffs from me, Grimm snapped them along my wrists between our bodies as I sank back onto his lap. “It’s about how you use them, Abigail. This is nothing, an introduction, an initiation…” His hands ran up my side so delicately it sent shivers down my back when I rolled my hips onto his length.
A right angle was all you needed when it came to Grimm. He always did the rest for you.
“No blindfold?”
His teeth closed down on my nipple when he whispered against my skin. “I trust you to close your eyes and not look until I give you permission.”
Closing my eyes, softly I rocked my hips back and forth, and I felt his teeth scrape across my neck. “Did I say you could move?”
The stubborn parts of me wanted to argue, complain, even whine that we were teasing each other this much, but I stayed quiet, unable to say anything under his authority.
I felt his teeth dig into my sensitive skin clearly as a punishment to doing anything without permission. Waiting for my next direction, I bit my lip keeping myself silent.
“Painfully slow…” I felt his breath against me before I really heard what he said.
Moving my hips slowly, painfully was the right word. I felt his hands leave my skin, and it made me ache even more. “Open your mouth,” he demanded, when I tasted the rubber enter my mouth and the straps of the ball gag fasten around my head.
Grimm wasn’t pulsating with agony or any more turned on than normally. It was hard to see the allure of this or what it did for him.
Couldn’t exactly ask either.
“It’s about controlling the control in between us, Abigail. There’s no push and pull, no cat and mouse, no chasing. All the control is mine, and it’s a high better than Xanax.”
GRIMM
It was an announcement to the world, one I didn’t have to make, but I wanted the people doubting us to see how solid we were.
Jason.
Monster.
Abigail.
Our daughter.
Who I am. Death. Grimm.
No one had power over us, and no one was going to ruin the days leading up to my daughter’s birth.
I didn’t lie when I said I went to work this morning. I did. I also left early to go to a diamond shop with the idea that I had something to say and a diamond was the best way to say it.
Khaos, being the nosy son of a bitch he was, was now acting like sticky paper, and peeling him from me wasn’t an option when he hopped in my car, wondering where I was headed.
Some part of me respected his protective nature over Abigail. Some parts of me wanted to hurt anyone else for trying to own that emotion when it came to her.
Parking along the curb, I walked up to the door without explaining anything to Khaos. This was a solo mission, and I wasn’t the sharing type.
“Wait, I know this place.” He followed behind me anyways, tossing a Starburst up in the air and catching in his mouth while walking.
He could make anything look easy.
The women inside greeted me, offering a hand I didn’t shake, when Khaos sidestepped in front of me just to kiss the top of her hand. “He’s not housebroken, yet. I’m Khaos.”
Smacking the back of his head, he flinched and moved to the side.
“You must be Grimm. We spoke on the phone. I already pulled some options for you… if you’ll follow me.”
Following the girl in the hip hugging royal blue dress, we went up a small set of stairs. Khaos couldn’t help but get my attention to make sure I noticed him noticing her ass.
Abigail and my daughter, who we still couldn’t agree on a name for, were my sole focus these days.
Everything else was background noise.
Bringing us both into a small private office upstairs, there was already a box of rings to choose from and champagne nestled in an ice bucket. She was banking on me choosing a ring with no issue. She also didn’t know Abigail was hard to sum up.
Sometimes you really couldn’t outrun tradition. I gravitated towards an antique setting with three diamonds, the exact amount I wanted, for me, her, and our daughter, but in reality, she was going to marry all three versions of me.
Jason.
Grimm.
Monster.
Handing her the ring, she asked me what size Abigail needed. I completely deflated, not thinking of the sizing and how long that would take.
“Take this one for now. If she needs another size, just bring it in, and we’ll put a rush on it.” Her focus turned to Khaos, who was trying not to cry and looking like a pure emotional wreck.
“Is the champagne for us?” He strutted over to the ice bucket when I proceeded to tell him we were leaving, so he’d take the hint. “I’ll just take it to go.”
Handing over my card, she excused herself to process the payment—a large payment that would certainly show up on the Clave’s radar, but playing nice with Jessica was the ultimate benefit.
Jessica owed me, and us playing nice made my parents believe I was right back to being Jason. That was the hardest part: not rolling my eyes or flinching at my own name.
Khaos was a fucking kid in a candy store, looking at everything that sparkled. My phone rang while he was popping the champagne, and I groaned, knowing whoever it was either was a psychic or bothering me.
I didn’t expect the Clave to be calling me this soon, but when I looked at the caller ID I saw Abigail’s name.
Everything in me dropped. I had been preparing for this moment, this call, for a week now. That’s exactly how overdue she was.
She wanted a home birth, and I was on board, because that meant no hospitals to remind me of the tumor still in existence in my head. Going under the knife was my last priority, and the chance I might be different wasn’t a risk I was willing to take.
I never did press my mother when she mentioned Dr. Lancaster alluding to some fucked up concept of control. I wouldn’t put it past her to have paid the good doctor to have faked some scans and deliver the news.
The Clave was child’s play when it came to controlling me. My mother was the real threat to my happiness.
It was unheard of: a woman loving all three versions of my kind of crazy. I wasn’t about to make it four if things went wrong and I developed another version of mysel
f.
Or if it was all a lie and there was no tumor at all.
“Abigail? Are you okay?”
“My water broke. I’m definitely in labor.” Her voice was smooth with a satin finish, making it hard to tell if she was in any pain.
I was sure Abigail never showed pain; she hadn’t yet, absorbing it like fuel.
“I’ll be right there. Just keep pacing. I read it helps.”
I never said those three words out loud around other people, but this moment she needed to hear it: “I love you, Abigail.” Pressing the red end-call button, I put my phone in my pocket.
“Call your mom. Abigail is in labor.” Tucking the ring box in my hoodie pocket, I was already leaving the room and questioning when Khaos got so soft. His eyes were glassy and wet.
Khaos’s mom was Abigail’s doula—pretty much the ancient version of a nurse and one of the only people I trusted right now. A hospital posed way too much risk.
Jogging down the stairs, I plucked my card from the blonde’s fingers and headed out the door with Khaos on my heels, just as a skateboarder rolled by, cutting us both off.
Expecting Khaos to drool once again, I rounded my car while he shouted, “Watch where you're going!”
A female that Khaos didn’t get aroused and flirty for? Color me shocked as fuck as I got in my car, focused on Abigail. I was about to leave him there and not care one ounce.
He was still fuming, looking out the window at the skateboarder, trying to pull up his mom’s contact without looking down at his phone.
After he called his mom and texted for probably longer than my average conversation, he freaked out. “Fucking bitch! She stole my watch.”
The skateboarder was multi-talented: not interested in Khaos and had sticky fingers I didn’t even notice.
Checking my hoodie, the ring box was still there, safely, thank god.
Ignoring his antics and sudden mood swing given to him by the blonde skateboarder. She was the least of my worries, with Abigail pacing in our kitchen about to give birth. Well, sometime in the next 24 hours realistically.
She didn’t think I was prepared or reading the books she gave me, but I was. I could probably deliver our daughter safely; that’s how prepared I was.
