We hadn’t spoken in a long time. What else was there to say?
“Didn’t believe in a higher power,” Elden eventually murmured, cutting through the silence. “But I have to since all the sins I’ve committed, the lives I’ve taken and ruined…I still get you.” He stroked my face. “It’s impossible. But fuck, am I grateful for whatever it is that gave you to me. Every single year, every single minute I spent locked up, I’d do it over again in a heartbeat. So I could be right here.”
My breath hitched when his hand landed on my belly.
“You have to stop saying things like that,” I hiccupped. “There’s only so much a pregnant woman can take in a day. Getting married to her impossibly hot baby daddy in an impossibly perfect scenario with all of her friends and family in addition to all those orgasms… I’m at my limit.”
Elden chuckled and kissed my nose. “Well, hold on, baby, I’m about to take you to new limits.” Hec then spread my legs, cupping me between them.
My eyes rolled to the back of my head, unsure if I could take anymore. But as it happened, I could.
You would’ve thought that was it.
That was our happily ever after.
The perfect dress. Perfect wedding. Perfect wedding night.
All wrapped up in a tidy bow.
But things didn’t work that way.
They never did.
TWO WEEKS LATER
It was an accident that I happened upon them meeting.
I’d been shopping, and I wanted to show Kiera the cute outfit I got for the baby. Of course, I hadn’t been shopping alone. There was still a serial killer on the loose, and I was due to have a baby soon, so I barely went to the bathroom alone. Freya and Hades had been with me, which itself was amusing. It should’ve been against some law of physics for a man like Hades to be in a baby store.
But he managed to cross the threshold. And he also had opinions on things. You could’ve knocked me over with a feather. His opinions were fucking spot on too. Then again, he had a super stylish wife and a baby girl, so some of it had obviously rubbed off on him.
They had come inside and gone straight to the room he kept at the club—since they had a babysitter, were no longer babysitting me and had been giving each other looks all afternoon—and I went to find Elden. His bike was there, so I knew he was. I also wanted to convince Elden to take me back to the cottage for an afternoon quickie.
Although it wouldn’t take much convincing, and it definitely wouldn’t be a quickie.
Elden tended to give me anything I wanted these days, and sex wasn’t just somethingIwanted, it was most definitely something he wanted too. I worried that I was becoming unattractive to him with the swollen ankles, the stretch marks, veiny boobs and the huge belly. But no. If anything, our sex life had become more intense. Especially since the wedding.
Which, considering our sex life prior, was kind of insane.
My sex drive was almost out of control. Anything and everything turned me on. As expected, Elden had an opinion on that. He thought that I was dealing with my trauma by ignoring it and wanting to feel alive by having all the sex.
Which I had told him was a pretty healthy way of dealing with trauma since I wasn’t on coke or anything.
He hadn’t seemed that reassured.
He and everyone around me was worried. Waiting. For me to break down, I guessed. Which kind of made sense. I’d seen a dead body and been in a tousle with a serial killer. That kind of constituted a breakdown.
I was determined not to break down.
And apart from the nightmares, I was … okay. I was okay because Elden was there when I jerked awake from those nightmares. I was okay because our baby was healthy. Because I’d finished with classes. Because we had our little home. Because we’d broken ground on our house. Because Sariah was back and was even making noises about buying something instead of staying in her rental.
She was planning on building some kind of hotel spa just outside of town.
The Sons of Templar were the ones who killed all development and growth that haunted the town’s borders so that it never turned into a capitalist nightmare.
They’d chased off billionaires, celebrities, all sorts of developers. But I knew they would be no match for Sariah.
Despite the business opportunities, the town’s charm and its residents, I knew that Colby had a bit to do with her plans. Even though she wouldn’t admit it. Even though they were at each other’s throats whenever they were in the same room.