Heir of Night (The Thorne Hill)

Lucas has one hand on my stomach, and we’re both looking into each other’s eyes. He said something that made me laugh, and we look so damn happy in that moment. Like a normal vampire and witch couple expecting their first child—because that’s normal, I know—without the threat of angels and demons and an impending apocalypse.

This will be my first public pregnancy announcement in a sense as well. I’m past the point of trying to hide my bump, of course. Betty sends me her caption to approve, and I smile when as I read it.

Meet Callie King! She’s the founder and co-owner of Novel Grounds. A Thorne Hill native, Callie as always loved the escape books offer. A fan of indie authors, Callie is excited to be able to offer a wide variety of her favorite indie authors to readers in the Midwest. Callie is an animal lover and the owner of the cats and Irish Wolfhound you see in our photos. And a big congrats to Callie and her husband Lucas on the expected arrival of their first child, coming early this summer!

Betty: How’s that?

Me: Good, but you forgot about my favorite hobby

Betty: Oh, sorry! But…what is it?

Me: Hunting demons.

Betty: Hah! I thought you were serious. But I can totally add in that you’re a badass, demon-killing witch if you want.

Me: I’m also the Queen of Hell. Well, former Queen of Hell.

Betty: hahahaha I’ll get right on that ;-) But for real…am I good to post?

Me: Yes! I love it! Thanks for doing this.

Betty:

I share some of my food with Scarlet, waste a good twenty minutes looking at nursery ideas on Pinterest, and then take Scarlet for one more walk before going back to the apartment.

“Hey, handsome,” I tell Lucas once I walk through the circular foyer and emerge into the living room. He’s standing by the windows, which I enchanted this morning, looking out at the city. He turns, smile on his face, and waits for me to come over. Then he presses me against the window and kisses me hard and deep. “I’ll never get sick of being greeted like this.”

“Good. Because I will always kiss you like this.” He kisses me again, and I know it’s only a matter of time before our clothes come off. “How was walking Scarlet?”

“Fine. She’s very well behaved when I talk to her in Enochian. It felt good to get out and move too. I’ve been sitting around a lot.”

“For good reason.” He moves my hair off my neck and puts his lips to it. “Though you do get in a decent amount of cardio daily.”

“Mmhh-hhmm,” I agree, feeling the heat rush through me. Reaching out with one hand, I fumble with the button on Lucas’s pants for a few seconds before giving up and using magic to pop the button and undo his zipper. With a flick of my wrist, his pants are around his ankles. He steps out of them and turns me around, taking off my jacket and then my sweater.

He stands behind me, kissing and sucking at my neck. I have both hands against the glass and slit my eyes open to look out around us. Anyone could look in, and I’m pretty sure the people in the building across from us, who are out on their balcony, are already watching. Spinning around, I pin myself between the window and Lucas, holding onto his shoulders.

“Take me to the bedroom,” I groan.

“No,” Lucas growls. “I want to fuck you in the sunlight.”

And damn, he does.

“Fuck,” I grumble, sitting up and looking at the time. “I’m going to be late.”

“Isn’t Eliza meeting you here?”

“Yeah, but I’m not ready.” I take my time stretching, not wanting to get out of bed yet. We had sex in the living room and then moved into the bedroom, and I quickly fell asleep. I have less than twenty minutes to pull myself together. “She told me not to be late.”

“I wouldn’t worry about her.”

“She made me take sexy photos of her.” I roll over, telling myself I’m going to get up in one minute.

“Good. She’d asked me and I told her no.”

I let out a snort of laughter. “She really asked you?”

“She has no shame, if you haven’t noticed.” Lucas is naked next to me and runs his fingers up and down my side. I could easily fall back asleep, dammit. I do need to get up and make myself look presentable, though. I’m meeting Abby and her friends at The Taphouse and want to make a good second impression. My first impression on them was at Penny’s birthday party, and things went well until Scott acted like typical Scott.

“Oh, I have. I admire it to a point.” Lazily, I get up and plod into the bathroom, needing to at the very least rinse off in the shower. I worked up a sweat riding Lucas. I shower and put on makeup in record time and then look at the minimal amount of clothing I brought with me. I’m going with leggings, no question there, because it’s all I brought. My dress from last night is too fancy, but if I remove the sash and put on my leather jacket, I think it’ll work.