SAPPHIRE
Ican’t look. I’ve peed on four sticks and the timer has dinged and I still can’t move. If—when— I look it’s over. I missed my period and that never happens. I don’t need to see the tests to know what is going on with my body. What if I could just get out of here? I could toss the tests out the bathroom window and just run for the elevator. I could probably catch at least two of them off guard.
It’s just your fear, Sapph. Stop fearing change.
“Shut up, Sapphire. You sound stupid.” Sometimes my inner voice needs a lesson in how life really works. I do a single thing to these tests and the three men on the other side of the door will assume I have something to hide. I know I would.
AKA That I am pregnant. No win situation.
Being with them isn’t what scares me. All my life I cared too much about what others thought of me. Why else would I have agreed to work with my cousin if not to reclaim a little bit of dignity after what my father did to the family?
And now here I am. No better than him.
I stand and throw the bathroom door open.
“Elyah, I can’t look. Please. Someone do it for me.” I exit the bathroom and pace along the end of the bed.
I face killers every fucking day but this scares this shit out of me. Go figure.
All three brush past me and walk into the bathroom. A minute passes before all three walk out with their faces the same as when they walked in. Calm and collected.
Wait? I am wrong? I’m not pregnant?
“Well? Am I staying or am I going?”
Three, large formidable men advance on me and I back up until the backs of my knees are hard-pressed against the end of the large bed.
Shirts come off and I am gifted the very surreal sight of three men with glorious muscles and tats I still haven't had the chance to lick.
“Ugh, guys?”
What are they doing?
Starting with Elyah, one after the other fall to a bent knee. Knives are produced from sheathes at the back of their belts. I should have noticed they were armed in some way since I haven’t seen a gun once this afternoon.
They hold up their right hand.
Oh no. I know where this is going.
“No!” I blurt but it’s too late. Razor-sharp knives slice through tender flesh. I look on as blood wells from the long slashes over masculine skin.
Slapping their hand over their hearts they say in deep, rugged voices, “We swear to protect you and our child with our last breaths. Our lives are yours. Before you leave this earth it will be only after we have given ours to protect yours and there is no one else left to defend you.”
Chills erupt over my skin.
“I’ve never had anyone pledge their lives to me before. My father ran out, my mother died birthing me. My extended family dealt with me until all the dirty secrets of my family came out. Sorry, I don’t mean to cry.” I madly dash at the hot drops of water blurring my vision but they keep coming.
Elyah is the first to speak. “We will never run out.”
“Maybe over time you can come to love bastards like us. Either way, our oath stands.”
That's Gregor. I give a watery grin and fall to the floor and take each of them in my arms. “Does this mean the tests were positive?”
Elyah takes the back of my head in his large hand and kisses me. He passes me to his sworn brothers and I fall into their open arms. They press their lips into my belly that will swell with a baby over the next months.
“You need to know my cousin will either put a hit out on me or put out a retrieval contract.”
“We will handle that later.”
“Since we are all being honest, you should know we went to Club Sin intending to seduce you. We wanted you the night we came looking for your cousin’s help. We wanted what you could offer us. A way to align with your cousin. Unite our territories in an alliance.”
Gregor picks up where Lev stops. “But we got something so much more. Something we never expected.”
Gregor bends and presses more kisses not to my belly where our child grows, but over my heart.
Spread between all three I feel wanted. Welcomed. Even sought after.
“We never thought we could fall for a Constantine, but here you are and I can’t get enough of you in our arms.”
I hear their unspoken words as well. I think I’m falling too. Not just in lust, but in love.
“I had no idea you even knew I existed before Club Sin.”
“We noticed. We just had to wait until the time was right.”
It’s surreal to think about. Our attraction started two years ago and now I’m having the enemy’s baby.
“Take me to bed.”
I’m in their arms and we move through Gregor’s condo. Tonight is about us. No goal. Just learning each other’s wants and desires and right now I desire nothing more than to be here with them.
Tomorrow’s problems can be for tomorrow.