He tensed up.
“Your mother survive giving birth to you?”
“Yeah, but you don’t get it…”
“Maybe I’ll survive too. There won’t be any nectar for at least nine months so we will have that time to figure out…”
“Kyla…” his voice was pained, “there’s shit you don’t know…”
“And then I can give you a baby,” she whispered, her voice sounding like it had never sounded.
She felt hope rise in her, “A baby, made from you and me. Imagine that?”
Emotion filled her.
A baby. Tristan’s baby.
She felt warmth all over.
His eyes roved her face and then they went liquid, “We would make the most beautiful baby in the world.”
His eyes were finally light blue again.
She nodded, tears filling up in her eyes. She’d always liked kids but hadn’t spent much time around them. She’d never really given much thought to the notion of being a mother. But right now the idea of having Tristan’s baby?
God…
“But no. Because there’s too good a chance you wouldn’t meet him or her. There’s too much risk that our child would never know your beauty. Your beautiful eyes, your beautiful touch. Your spunk, your sass, how crazy you can be, the sound of your laughter, how amazing you smell. He or she might never know it because you could die. Then I’d have no Kyla. If I don’t have you? I won’t risk it. I’d rather have nothing but you than everything in the world without you.”
“So instead you risk in a little while me bleeding out nectar and you maybe killing me. Or Liam getting me and for sure killing me. Or him raping me, getting me pregnant, and then I die anyway and leave his baby in the world.”
“If he got you and got you pregnant, I’d get you back and then we would have it aborted,” Tristan’s expression was stone cold.
A shiver ran over her body.
She took a deep breath,
“If I get the chance to make a baby it can’t be with him. No way. And how powerful will he be if my period starts and he gets me then and gets that blood?”
She felt his body tense even further.
“If you make a baby with me, I won’t get my period. And if I’m pregnant, will it change the composition of my blood? Maybe it would. Maybe he wouldn’t even want it… maybe…”
“Stop. You need the rest of the facts. Sleep. We’ll talk later.”
“I won’t sleep. No way can I sleep. Just tell me the rest. I need it. Just spill it all.”
“I need to sleep.”
“Well I won’t be able to.”
“Try,” he re-arranged the blankets over them and kissed her forehead.
“If I close my eyes, I’ll keep seeing him, feeling his teeth on me, and feeling him trying to …” she shuddered.
“I’ll help you sleep,” he said and his fingers found their way into her panties. At first she jerked in surprise and Liam’s touch flashed in her mind.
“No. Don’t let him do that to us,” Tristan growled, “Don’t let him take this from us. Let me touch you so that you’ll only see me when you close your eyes.”
Kyla took a breath, “Slow it down,” she pleaded.
Tristan gently caressed her hips, her belly, her breasts, and he took his time caressing her and building the fire until finally, she wanted it. He picked up on her want and then his fingers found their way back into her panties and he rubbed her at her centre. She reached for his cock but he stopped her
“I’m okay. Just you,” he said and she cuddled close and wove her fingers into his hair.
“Please, honey. This has been a shitty day. Let me help you go to sleep with something happy, too.”
“Okay, princess.”
She put her hand on him.
He continued until, after a really long time, she finally shuddered and moaned his name and then about thirty seconds later, he shuddered and moaned her name.
He stroked her hair and her back and kissed her forehead and eyelids and she cuddled up closer to him.
“Where’s your Mother, Tristan?”
“Montreal.”
“You see her?”
“Not much.”
“No?”
“It’s complicated.”
“You have other family?”
“No.”
“Why don’t you see much of her? Does she know about …”
“Kyla, let’s sleep.”
She sighed, “I’m tired. So you get a reprieve.”
She felt him relax.
“But I’ll be asking more questions tomorrow,” she added.
He kissed the top of her head. She nuzzled in and closed her eyes.
She didn’t know that he stared at the ceiling, in agonizing pain, mulling over some gut-wrenching options and decisions until a few hours later when she started to thrash and cry in his arms in the throes of a nightmare. At that point he tried to settle her down but couldn’t comfort her with soft words or with his strength.
He couldn’t figure out how to help until she said, “I need to feel you.” Then he knew he could settle her down with his teeth. So he bit her and he fed just a little bit. He bit at her throat over a spot where Liam Donovan had dared to take what was his and he didn’t let his hunger take over. He didn’t let her hunger for him fuel his appetite like it’d done when he’d nearly drained her a few days before. He didn’t let her know how distraught he was. Instead, he let himself feel what he felt for this girl. He let himself feel the scope of emotion he felt for Kyla Spencer.