Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 77692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
It’s not until I can control myself enough to stop arching that he stops stroking into me, his body sagging into mine. Any other time, and I truly do love his weight on me. Right now, though, my mind goes to the reason for everything that I planned tonight, and a scared gasp escapes me before I can stop it. Halun sits up in an instant.
“What is it?” he urgently asks.
I chuckle and his brows furrow.
“You know, there was a reason I set up this dinner for us.” I sigh. “But as usual, you distracted me with sex.”
He just smirks, unashamed. “What was the reason?”
Instead of telling him, I take his hand and bring it to my stomach. His brows furrow even more, but only for a second. Then, his eyes are widening as his brows rise.
“Preg …” he breathes, not even finishing the word before saying, “Baby … you and me?”
“You and me.” I smile. “We’re having a baby, Halun.”
“And you’re happy about this, right?” he cautiously asks.
I bring my hand to his cheek. “I am beyond happy, Zawla.”
He keeps his hand right where it is when he leans over to kiss me. Soft, sweet, and deeply.
“You are my everything,” he says against my lips.
“Soon, you’ll have two everythings.”
“I can’t wait.”
A door loudly opens, but before I can even get up to my elbows to look around Halun, a surprised shriek echoes through the hall. The door slams shut and I fall back to the table, covering my eyes. Halun just laughs, though.
“I mean … you’ll be showing soon. I think everyone will know we have sex.”
“No one needs to see it, though.”
“Ah, but what a beautiful sight someone just saw.”
I have to agree with him on that one.
FIFTEEN
“Are you proud of her?”
“Very,” I tell Bothaki.
The her in question stands far too many yards away from me where she smiles in the middle of the palace’s grand hall directing and overseeing the final touches of a project I left solely in her hands. Luna’s very capable hands, I’ve come to learn.
There is no need to underestimate my mate.
She shatters all ceilings.
“I do remember that you suggested at one point that she might want to have a board or council to be available to help her,” Bothaki notes.
Yes, well, I’d only said that when we realized she was pregnant, because I thought on top of her pregnancy and duties as queen, along with being my mate, that she might want a group of capable individuals to handle things in a timely manner. Mostly because she was determined to see her Seasonal Hallan Mating Ball happen before our child makes his or her way into the world. Which I also tried to explain.
Quite uselessly.
At those thoughts, I just shake my head.
Into the final stretch of her pregnancy now, Luna made it through the first two-thirds swimmingly, and even when she was bedridden with sickness and exhaustion some days, I’d find her huddled in blankets with paper and pencils from the market, where human goods have found their integration into our lives, making her lists or sketching visual ideas.
Meanwhile, she also coordinated the design of our baby’s suite of chambers connected to ours. A place she calls the nursery.
So, yes, I eat those words now. Just like I did when I first made the suggestion, fumbled through an explanation I already could tell she didn’t want to hear, and my mate told me with her signature fuck you smile that she would let me know if help was required.
After that, I let her handle it.
The whole damn ball.
And what a ball it will be.
“Was it not Selina who told you that all males still make stupid comments, sometimes?” I return, smirking.
That question shuts Bothaki up fast. He and I know well and good that we don’t need to revisit the many times his helpful intentions were not necessarily wanted by his own mate. My brother half glowers from me at the side, but I know he doesn’t mean it.
I chuckle lowly. “Let’s just admit that we’ve both come to the understanding that even if we think we’re trying to be helpful—”
“They’ll just ask,” he interjects, finishing the thought for me.
“These are facts.”
Deep within the grand hall, Luna begins walking backwards as the home-sized candelabra chandelier decorated with glowing flowers and ropes upon ropes of draping silks and satins connecting to the far ends of all sides of the room is lifted once again. The Hallans hoisting the heavy centerpiece and decorations high are as careful about their task as Luna is watching them in silence, her head moving up the higher the candelabra goes. Lifting it also rises the shimmering cloths overhead, creating drooping lines of colors that will soon match the flower arrangements that will cover the hall.
“A little slower,” I think I hear Luna say to the three Hallans lifting her work to its final creation. She’s still too far away from me, but I can’t bear to interrupt her now. Unfortunately, there are some things in this world that are more important than me.