The Consequence (The Evolution of Sin 3)

“You’re scaring me.”

He nodded. “Je suis désolé, ma sirène. I’m nervous.”

“No,” I said with faux dramatic shock, “not the ever unflappable Daniel Sinclair!”

A reluctant smile tipped his lips as he shook his head at me. “You are aware that I’m crazy about you, correct?”

“Correct. Now tell me what has you acting so strangely.”

He tipped his forehead down to press it against mine. I swallowed the irrational fear that was building in my chest because I knew that whatever faced us next was no match for the two of us together.

“I think you are pregnant.”

The bottom dropped out of my hollow stomach.

Sin leaned back to take my cheeks between his large palms so that he could properly scrutinize my face. My brain had blown a fuse so I didn’t know what he could have been reading in my expression.

“Elle?”

“Mhmm?”

The corner of his lips twitched. “How are we feeling here, siren?”

I blew a gust of air into his face. “I’m not pregnant so I feel fine.”

One red brow rose.

“I’m on birth control!”

“Because no one has every become pregnant while using contraception.”

Guilt seeped into my mind as I searched my memories, recalling how many times I had been forced to double up on the pill in the last few months. I wanted to blame the total upheaval of my life or even Sinclair, for being so distractingly sexy…

I choked on my exhalation and looked up at him with wide eyes. “You wanted this.”

His eyes were clear and bright, unrepentant. “I hoped.”

“Sin!” I shoved him in the chest and scrambled to get out of his grasp but he only held me tighter to his chest. “You can’t just do something like that. Did you throw out my birth control in Paris? What kind of person would manipulate their partner into getting pregnant?”

“The same kind of person who fell in love with their girlfriend’s sister,” he said with exceptional calm. “Before you get angry, let me ask you this; is the idea of having a baby with your hair and my eyes so horrific to you?”

Before I could help it, the image of a toddler with a shock of red curls and cerulean blue eyes appeared behind the screen of my closed lids.

“We would have good looking babies,” I whispered, mostly to myself.

“We will,” he corrected me, running his knuckles down my cheek so tenderly it made my heart ache. “I want a little girl just like her mother.”

I groaned. “So did I, but eventually, not now, not when Elena hates us so viciously and our family is completely at odds. Not to mention that you and I have only been together for a few months!”

“Hush,” he said.

I opened my mouth to protest but his lips caught my breath, gently crushed against my own in a searing kiss that I felt all the way to my toes. I sighed into his mouth, surrendering to the craziness of our love, the inexorable pull between us. My hands locked in his hair and pulled him even closer.

He smiled against my lips. “Please, tell me you are happy.”

I pressed one hand to his cheek, ran my thumb against the prominent ridge of his cheekbone. It still bewildered me every day that somehow this ridiculously perfect man was mine.

“You own the lease on my happiness,” I murmured, reminding him of the night we had finally succumbed to our attraction and slept together again despite all the things working against us.

Our life wasn’t easy, but that didn’t mean our love had to be difficult too. As long as we focused on each other, I knew that no matter what happened, I would live happily ever after.

“My love for you is greater than the world,” Sinclair said, pressing his forehead against my own. “And I will feel the very same about our daughter.”

“Son,” I said automatically, my hand flying to my stomach. “I think we are going to have a son.”

“Want to bet?” Sin asked, with a raised eyebrow.

“Are you really going to bet against a mother’s intuition?”

He groaned softly. “Is it strange that I am incredibly attracted to you, right now?”

I tipped my head back to giggle. “If I had known the image of me barefoot and pregnant was all it would take to pin you down, maybe I would have tricked you.”

He scowled at me playfully so I laughed again.

“I guess I need to make a doctor’s appointment,” I mused.

His silence was conspicuous enough for me to notice.

“Sin…”

“Mmm?”

“Did you already make me a doctor’s appointment?”

He shrugged. “You haven’t been feeling yourself for a while, it was just a precaution.” When I slanted him a look, his lips twitched. “We have an appointment on Wednesday with the preeminent Ob/GYN in the city.”

“Of course we do. Nothing but the best for me, right?”

“Exactly,” he agreed solemnly, despite my sarcasm.

“You are crazy, have I ever told you that?”