by Ella Brooke
Gave him license to do everything I wanted.
Mewling like a cat in heat, I pressed against his hungry mouth even as he plumbed my depths, even as he licked and laved at my vagina. His thumb pressed out tight circles against my clit, and I groaned again.
My nerves were burning now too, like lava was spreading over me even as he fucked me. Then he snaked his head back and forth at a pace I could barely keep up with, until all there was consisted of the cinnamon of his scent, the flickering flames in the fireplace, and the constant and rapid pace of his tongue. The lava that was my blood—my nerves—flared up everywhere, bubbled over me.
Until I came, like a volcano erupting. I was goddamn Mt. St. Helen’s bursting forth. I shivered with my detonation and closed my eyes until I realized he’d settled me on his bed.
“You looked like you needed a nap, darling.” His eyes regarded me with such love and adoration that I could barely breathe. I certainly couldn’t understand what I’d done to deserve it.
“I might be a little tired, and okay, I’m definitely a lot boneless right now.”
“So, I take it you liked what I did?”
I giggled and buried my head in his blankets. “You don’t have to smirk so wide. You know you’re a sex god, Ryker.”
“Never hurts to hear it out loud. Besides, you’re not exactly a slouch yourself, siren.”
“Maybe, I—”
Then, I felt it. The nausea was back, and my head was spinning. But it was worse than it had ever been before. The chunks of my lunch started working their way up my throat, and I couldn’t push them back, couldn’t ignore them. Jumping to my feet, I rushed into the bathroom. I barely made it in time before I threw up into the bowl. I heaved and retched for several minutes before I finally stopped. Leaning against the toilet, I let my head chill against the cold porcelain.
Harsh breaths filled my lungs, and I wanted to stand and drink water to clear the taste from my mouth, but my legs were too rubbery to move. I knew they wouldn’t support me right then. Soon, a cool rag was on my neck, and Ryker was sitting beside me and bringing a cold water bottle to my lips.
“Hey, are you all right?”
I didn’t know what to say. It had to be the cold I’d caught from Lilah. That was all. I’d been suffering for a couple weeks, but it would get better. It had to. Taking the bottle from him, I gulped the water down greedily and relaxed as he rubbed comforting circles over my back.
“I’ve just been under the weather. My understudy gave me something. That’s all.”
“Then, I think I have some chicken soup around here and some crackers. You won me babying you for the night.”
I winked up at him even as a small corner of my mind was screaming it knew exactly what was wrong, even as my heart hammered against my chest. “I’m such a lucky girl.”
Hopefully he’d buy the lie for the night.
***
Three days later, my sister Mary and I were waiting at my OB/GYN’s office. My leg twitched in the exam room as I waited for the doctor to be back with the results of my blood test. I’d thought my Depo shot had been working. Then, on Tuesday, I’d received a call from my doctor explaining it had been a bad batch. What I’d been taking for almost a year hadn’t been preventing anything. Factor in the downturn in my health, about ten pounds of weight gain I’d been chocking up to amazing dinners out with Ryker, and my vomiting, and I had a sinking suspicion exactly what was wrong with me.
Now I was just waiting for the confirmation.
“We could have just had you pee on a stick.” My sister squeezed my hand. “That’s faster, and I can see you’re wigging out.”
“I’m not wigging out.” Mary glared at me, and I shrugged. “Okay, I might be freaking out a fucking ton, but those tests can be faulty. I’d rather be sure with a blood test than freak out over something I can get at the CVS along with a candy bar and a spare cell phone charger. I want accuracy, and I think you agree that’s a good thing.”
“I know, but I just want to know ASAP so I don’t freak out either!”
“Ladies,” my doctor called as she wheeled in the ultrasound machine and was followed in by a tech. “Ms. Riley, you’re pregnant. Congratulations.”
I gulped. Seeing the ultrasound made it real. “I…you were going to check the baby out today?”
“Standard procedure,” Dr. Chan said. “Especially with hormone levels this high. Honestly, I have a few things I need to ascertain. You seem to be about two months along, and we need to get you up to date as fast as we can and on track with prenatal care.”
My hand reached out almost with a mind of its own and gripped my stomach. “Is the baby okay? I’ve been drinking, and I didn’t know or take vitamins.”
“You need to stop all that behavior now, and getting an ultrasound will let us know how everything is going in there,” my doctor answered.
Mary was gaping at me. “Wow, just oh wow.”
I snorted. “You’re supposed to be the calm one here. You’re not pregnant, so you’re the one I need to just…you know…still remember English.”
“But my sis. Pregnant. I just…wow.”
“You already said that,” I groaned.
Lying down, I pulled up the hem of my t-shirt. Then, I let the doctor’s tech run the wand over my stomach. I looked at the screen but had no hope of making it all out. So far, everything looked like gray blobs to me. Wait, blobs plural?
The doctor leaned closer and frowned in concentration as the tech passed the wand over my stomach again and again. My heart pounded, and I felt nauseated in a way that had nothing to do with morning sickness.
“Doc, is it bad? Did my drinking do something to the baby?”
Dr. Chan shook her head. “Ms. Riley, congratulations, you’re pregnant—”
“We established that,” Mary said.
“…with triplets,” the doctor finished, enunciating each syllable crisply. “I can have my staff set you up with follow ups starting right away. This is a high-risk pregnancy, as multitudes of this magnitude are. We have to have a good plan of care in place and as soon as we can.”
Mutely, I nodded. This was too much too fast. At Ryker’s on Monday was the first time the thought of being honest to God pregnant had occurred to me, and now I was having not one but three babies. I swallowed hard and looked at the doctor and the tech.
“I can come and make the appointment and follow up plans soon. I just…can I have a minute.”
“Completely,” Dr. Chan said, offering me a kind smile. “I’ll have Sheila get you some water. I know this can be a shock. If you need to contact the father, I would stress you do. We prefer to have as many people in the babies’ lives involved. Again, there’s a lot of risk involved. If you and your sister are the team in this, that’s fine, but don’t wait to tell the father if you want him involved as well.”
“I will.”
The doctor and her assistant left, letting the door slide shut behind them. My sister squeezed my hand again, and there were tears in her eyes. For the longest time, our family had just been us, and now—whatever Ryker said—we were going to be more than doubling the size of our family overnight. At least, it felt that way.
“Sis, are you okay? You look even more pale and ready to puke than with the morning sickness, and that’s saying a lot!”
“Way to put a fine point on it, Mare.”
She smiled back at me and hugged me tight. Then she let out an eww and lunged for the paper towels. “Oh, the gel. My bad.”
“It’s okay.” I took some paper towels from her and patted at my stomach until it was dry enough and resettled my t-shirt over my already expanding stomach. “I think it’s safe to say both of us are shell shocked.”
“What are you going to do?”
There was hesitation in her voice, and it struck me then that Mary might have thought I was considering other options besides carrying the babies to term. I could understand that. Maybe even the idea I might put them up for adoption. We w
ere barely making ends meet as it was, and I’d lose my job as soon as Alan found out I was pregnant. It was in my contract rider anyway. No weight gain, and no pregnancy. It wasn’t exactly fitting with the sexy Green Fairy image.
But I couldn’t.
After having so much go wrong, never really knowing my father, and having Mom be such a terrible, strung out mess, I wanted this family. I wanted to grow something good with not just me and Mare, but to talk to Ryker. Maybe it wasn’t how we’d planned it, but there could be something amazing coming for our patched together family. I had to smile at that. After all, Ian seemed like the type who really would take to being a big brother. He’d teach all his little siblings everything he knew about dinosaurs.
Maybe we could get them stuffed animals like dinos for their nursery.
“Sis?”
I clutched my belly as tightly as I dared. “I want them. I don’t know what we have to do, and I don’t even know one hundred percent that Ryker will want them, but I want them. And I’m going to do everything I can to take care of them.”
My sister hugged me tight again, and then she kissed my temple. “That makes two of us. I’m behind you, no matter what we do. Do you think Ryker will want them?”
I swallowed hard. He was a great father to Ian, but Ian was his son with his late wife, the great love of his life. I was a fling he’d been having for a little over two months. They were completely different situations, like apples and oranges. You know, if the oranges were pregnant with three humans growing inside of them.
Actually nothing like that, never mind.
I was going fuzzy with pregnancy brain already.
He’d been a playboy for a long time, had dallied with every heiress, actress, and Instagram model in the country almost. Yes, for right now he was settled with me, but there was no way to know if he wouldn’t get bored of me in a month or a year from now. Besides, I’d promised him that my Depo shot was working. I was the one who’d been so forward about not using protection.
What if he didn’t want the babies?
Worse, what if he thought I’d been trying to trap him into a marriage or a family?
Sighing, I crumpled in my sister’s comforting grip. My voice wobbled as I spoke, and my voice was so small—so powerless—that I barely recognized it. “I don’t know. I hope so, Mare, I really do, but the only person who knows that is Ryker.”
“Can you schedule a time to meet with him? Maybe you and me and him…we could all sit down as a family. Would that work?”
I shook my head and then kissed her cheek. “I have to talk to him alone first. I have to make this right.”
Chapter Twelve
Ryker
“And I can’t wait! I’m gonna show Miss Savannah everything at the natural history museum. There’s a new exhibit on velociraptors, and it’s gonna be so cool. Then, we can go by the space museum and get the astronaut ice cream!” Ian was bouncing up and down as he rushed to his room.
I chuckled and sat down on the couch. We had to hurry to make it to Savannah’s to pick her up. Of course, Ian’s scout meeting had run late, but at least I’d worn jeans to pick him up from there, in my casual clothes after a quick morning at the office. Still, Ian had to get a move on. I bet he was collecting his favorite plastic dinosaurs into his backpack to take with him, maybe even one or two to show off to Savannah.
Relaxed was my perfect default state then, thinking of how happy and eager Ian was, how rarely I’d seen that from him, until the door opened.
Arching my eyebrow, I groaned when I saw Bella sashay across the room and then lean over me on the couch. I wanted to shove her away, some lizard part of my brain revolted by her fucking touch, but I was still a gentleman. I wasn’t going to use anything that could be construed as force. Just needed to talk my way out. Obviously, the first time she hadn’t been convinced that we were dead.
“How the hell did you get the code?”
She grinned, a look that was supposed to be alluring but just managed to make me want to puke. I knew the cold, calculating bitch who lived under that mask now. I was never going to be fooled again.
Bella straddled me then and sat on my lap. I stilled and glared up at her as I spoke. “You need to get off of me.”
She licked her lips like she was a hyena ready to devour anything in her path. So like the scavenger she was. “Davis gave me the code. He said you’ve taken up with a showgirl as an actual girlfriend, and he was concerned.”
“Better a featured performer than a damn thief,” I corrected.
Bella laughed, and I wondered how I’d ever been fooled before. Granted, I’d been grieving, but it was so obvious now. Even her laugh was rehearsed, all for effect.
“Ryker, honey, you need more than just some floozy showgirl. Besides, I explained it. I wasn’t well, I did my time and got the therapy I needed. Now? Now I’m ready to be the girlfriend you need.” She leaned closer and whispered in my ear. “I will be the lover you won’t forget.”
Before I could stand up and spill her to the ground—cause fuck being polite when she was basically riding me—Bella leaned over and kissed me. I froze under her kiss, clamping my mouth shut. But she persisted, and it felt like having a damn dead fish or slimy worm trying to reach its way into my mouth.
Awful.
Then, we both heard the gasp.
Standing up, I let Bella fall to the ground. I would have taken more pleasure out of her spilling to her ass. But the gasp didn’t even come from Ian, who had to be still messing with his dinosaurs in his room. Fuck. Bella had left the door to the place open when she’d walked in like she owned the place. Now, Savannah was standing there. Her lower lip was wobbling, and she looked like she was going to curl up into a ball and fall to the floor right there.
“What’s going on?”
Her voice was small and low, and I felt like the biggest asshole in the world for her seeing this. “Wait, Savannah, I can explain!”
Bella—never one to miss an opportunity—reached up from her position on the floor and wrapped her hand around my thigh, letting it come up to caress far too close to my dick. “Oh, sweetie, you must be the showgirl. We were just talking about you, and I promise, it’s exactly what I said it was.”
I pulled away from her and ran to chase Savannah who was rushing out the door. My legs were longer, and my strides were faster. Pouring on the speed, I caught up with my siren a few yards down the hall from my apartment door.
My hand snaked out and twisted her toward me. “Savannah, please. You have to understand that it’s not what it looks like.”
Her eyes were shiny with tears, and they were already pouring down her cheeks. “I think I can tell what I see, Ryker. This whole time, for months and months, you told me the last guy was an asshole. You made love to me on that very couch and told me it was ‘worshipping’ me. All of this was an act, wasn’t it? I was just another girl saved in your cellphone.”
“No,” I said, my voice frantic. “You weren’t that. Bella…”
Her eyes went wide. Fucking wrong words to say. “Your ex. So, you were fooling around with your ex? Are you kidding me?”
She yanked away from me and cradled her stomach. I wasn’t exactly sure why, but she was doing that. God, Savannah seemed so fragile and small like that. I wanted to comfort her, and the closer I edged toward her, the faster she backed away. All this time, and I was nothing like Samson…like that dick who’d messed with her before, but from what she’d seen, she had no reason to know that.
Fuck Bella. And fuck my prick of a “matchmaking” brother.
“Siren…darling, please. You don’t understand.”
She raised her head and glared at me, a fire surging through her chocolate brown eyes that made her seem taller than her petite five-foot-three frame. “No, Ryker, for the first time since I met you, I understand perfectly. Don’t you dare follow me.” With that, she turned around and stormed away from me.
And my heart broke watching her leave.
&nb
sp; Chapter Thirteen
Savannah
“Can you let the costume out a little?” I was frowning at Juliet, the head seamstress at The Bacchanal.
It had been almost three days since I’d stormed out of Ryker’s place…since he’d torn me apart, piece by piece. And I was trying to work as long as I could before we figured something else out. All of that hinged on hiding my pregnancy for as long as possible from Alan. That started with trying to fix my corset, which no longer fit right with a twelve-pound weight gain from triplets.
Juliet examined the boning in my corset and frowned. “I sewed this to custom order for your measurements as they were when you were hired. It’s why we have the ‘weight gain’ clause in all the contracts. It’s not just to be sexy for the customers, it’s because the outfits are made to fit like gloves for your bodies. If you even put on a little weight, it shows, and I have to resew everything from scratch.” She touched the line of boning with her fingers. “There’s no way to just undo a seam and spread this out.”
I gulped hard. “Nothing?”
“No.”
“What would it cost to have you make me a new one on the sly without Alan knowing?”
“A costume as intricate as your corset for the Green Fairy? It’d cost several grand, easy.”
I blanched. We already had three sets of everything to start trying to afford for the triplets, especially since Ryker Eden was out of my life. He’d sent me flowers and called and emailed. I’d just been ignoring his lies. I couldn’t trust him, and he had no place in our lives. Any of our lives. So, that left me and Mary with trying to afford the triplets. There was no way we could do that if I lost my job. Eventually…yes I would, but I was only two months in. I needed to hold onto it as long as I possibly could.
“Could you do it as a favor to me?”
Juliet frowned, and her eyes regarded me kindly. “Sugar, what kind of trouble did you get yourself in? I’ve been doing costumes on the strip for nearly forty years, and I know when a girl’s in a certain way. I can definitely tell when the weight gain is too sudden just to be junk food binges.”
