I pushed her dress strap away and kissed her shoulder. “I’ve never been known for caring if I was rude or not.”
I heard her heart rate increase while her breath quickened. She leaned into me instinctively and I knew she was close to giving me the green light, but then my go ahead was interrupted when we heard a knock on the door. “I bet that’s Sol. I’ll get rid of him. Don’t move a muscle because I’ll be right back.”
I swung the door open to find Gia, Lairah, Jenn and Avery. “We came to see if Chansey needed help getting ready.”
Gia looked at me with a look of suspicion on her face. “Are we interrupting something?”
Chansey walked out of the bathroom and gracefully glided across the floor in her sparkling gown. “No, you weren’t interrupting anything. I’m ready. We’ll be right out.”
The little vixen was actually cutting me off.
She gave me a wink as she whispered, “You’ll enjoy it even more if you get to fantasize about it for a few hours.”
“Maybe I had already fantasized about it for hours. Did you ever think about that?”
“No, I didn’t,” she said as she kissed my mouth. “My bad.”
“Yes, you are bad...very, very bad,” I groaned.
She gave me her pouty look and it made things worse because I wanted to nibble her pouty bottom lip. “Forgive me?”
“I will if you promise to make that face for me later tonight,” I said.
Even in her heels, she was still several inches shorter than me and she stared up through her impossibly long lashes as she whispered, “I think I can do that for you.”
I offered her my arm and then we strolled to the living room where our family and guests were. Everyone was dressed in formalwear and the ladies all wore shades of white, silver or ice blue to reflect the colors of Winter.
Sol was the first to greet us. “Chansey, you are glowing. Pregnancy is beautiful on you.”
“Watch it, pal. She’s taken,” I faux warned. “There’s plenty of other women for you to flirt with besides my wife.”
His face turned from humorous to something else...something sad and I immediately wanted to take back my words for some reason.
“I’m sorry, Sol,” I apologized. “I was only joking.”
“No, it’s not you, Curry,” Sol explained. “I’m just having some issues I need to work through.”
“Anything I can do to help? You know that you can talk to me about anything,” I offered.
“No, it’s a problem I need to work out on my own and I just need a little time to figure some things out. Don’t spend tonight worrying about me. We’re having this party so we can have fun and relax.”
He smiled and patted my shoulder. “I’ll catch up with you later, man. I’m going to go talk to Mallory Black. I think she’s hotter than she was the last time I saw her.”
Something was off with Sol, but I couldn’t put my finger on it and that bothered me.
“Is he alright?”
“No, something is definitely going on with him, but I can’t put my finger on it.”
“Have you asked him what’s wrong?”
I thought about how little Sol and I had spoken recently. I hadn’t asked Sol anything about his life because I was too wrapped up in my own life to have any concerns for anyone else. “I’m ashamed to say that I haven’t asked him anything. There’s been so little on my mind other than you and these babies, but I promise to find the time to talk to him later tonight.”
We mingled through the room and all of our guests wanted to be introduced to the beautiful pregnant human at the party. They found Chansey intriguing and when one guest was sated by her attention, the next would be in line to steal her from me.
This went on for a few hours and I decided to take the opportunity to try to speak with Sol. When I didn’t find him inside, I walked out to the pool and found him sitting on the patio.
“It’s December. What are you doing out here?”
“I thought the cold might help clear my mind.”
“Has it?”
“No.”
“What’s going on with you, Sol?”
“It’s nothing you would understand.”
“Why don’t you try me? I might not have experienced what you’re going through, but that doesn’t mean I can’t help you through whatever is going on with you.”
He stared ahead toward the dark behind the compound. “I feel ridiculous saying this, but it’s about a girl.”
Jenn Ferrand. “A pretty little blonde living at our compound, perhaps?”
“Exactly! She makes me crazy. I can’t stop thinking about her. She smells so good and I want to touch her so badly, but I’m afraid. I can’t sleep anymore because I lay awake thinking about her. I think I’m in love with her, but I know I shouldn’t be.”
“Who says that you shouldn’t be in love with her?”
He turned and looked at me like I had lost my mind. Was he referring to his authority over her as her mentor? “You know why I can’t be in love with her.”
Did I know? There was nothing wrong with a mentor falling in love with someone he helped transition. “I don’t agree. I think it’s...”
I stopped mid sentence because something was wrong with Chansey. I heard her screams in my head and I felt her suddenly engulfed with pain and fear. I streaked into the house and looked around for her.
“She’s in here, Curry,” Sebastian called from the living room. “Dr. Knight had just left, Lairah is on the phone with her and she’s turning around to come back.”
I was immediately by Chansey’s side and I took her hand as she screamed in agony. “Where does it hurt, Love?”
She didn’t answer and I noticed the crowd standing around staring at Chansey. “If you don’t live in this house, I need you to leave now,” I yelled.
I reached for Chansey’s forehead to wipe the sweat from her head. “Love, you have to tell me what’s happening. Are you in pain from contractions?”
“It’s Marsala,” she whimpered. “She’s doing something to me.”
No, it couldn’t be. “What is it? What does it feel like?”
“Like something is shoving on my belly trying to push the babies out.”
I reached for the hem of her evening gown and pulled it up over her belly. She began to scream again and I watched as Chansey’s abdomen became contorted like an invisible fist was pushing down into it. I reached to the spot where the invisible fist would be, but I felt nothing and I realized that I couldn’t do anything to help her.
I whirled around to look at Sebastian and he shook his head. “She’s using Black Magic and I don’t know how to stop it.”
“Think! There has to be something we can do to help her.” When no one offered any kind of solution, I screamed, “Please stop, Marsala.”
“Curry, I can hear Marsala in my head. She says she will stop on one condition and if you don’t agree, she is going to kill me and the baby.”
The baby? “I’ll do anything you want, but please don’t hurt Chansey and the baby.”
“No! I won’t allow it,” Chansey yelled and then the pushing on her belly started again, causing her to scream out in agony again.
“Stop, Marsala. What is your demand?” I yelled.
Chansey stopped screaming and panted to catch her breath before she whispered, “She says that you must come back to her with the baby if you want me to live, but she’s not getting my baby. She’s not getting you.”
The cycle of pushing on her abdomen and her screams began and I couldn’t stand to see Chansey in pain, “Okay. I’ll do it, but please stop hurting Chansey. You could hurt the baby if you keep pushing on her uterus and I know you don’t want to hurt our baby.”
Chansey whirled her head in my direction. “You’re not doing this, Curry.”
“I don’t have a choice, Chansey. She’s going to kill you if I don’t.”
“It doesn’t matter because if you leave me and take the baby, I’ll want t
o die anyway.”
“I have to. She’s not giving me a choice.”
“I’ll hate you forever if you do this.”
“I rather you live and hate me than watch her kill you and our baby.” I leaned forward and stared deeply into her eyes. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Every word was a lie for Marsala’s benefit and I pushed my emotions into Chansey’s brain as I stared into her eyes so she would know I didn’t mean the words coming from my mouth. I would never let Marsala win and unfortunately for her, I knew how she ticked and it gave me the upper hand.