Broken Road (Fate's Intent Book 7) (10 page)

Chapter 16

Adele

I wasn’t happy about this but he was right. I wasn’t very welcoming when she arrived and I needed to change that. It wasn’t her fault what she went through. Zayden did the right thing.

“She’s probably still inside.” He said, stopping us at a door on the third floor.

“All right. I can do it alone.”

Zayden nodded and walked away with Rift, leaving me standing outside of the door. I stood with a sigh then knocked.

“Oh, Adele. Hi.”

“May I come in?”

“This is your home.” Meg opened the door a little more so I could fit through.

“Thank you. I came to say welcome. I know I may have come off a little strong when you got here and I’m sorry for that. I’ve spent the last few days wondering how I was going to tell Zayden that he’s going to be a father.”

“Oh.” She was acting suddenly nervous and moved her hand down to her own stomach. “Well, I guess I should be saying congratulations to you.”

“Are you—?”

“Oh—” She quickly moved her hand. “I don’t know. I was forced to—”

She trailed off and I stepped closer and took her hand. “I know and it was wrong. I’m glad that Zayden was able to get you out.”

“It may have been too late I’m afraid.”

“Even if you are, you’ll get through it. No one will find you here.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“We’ll make everything okay. No one denies us of anything without regretting it. We’re the only ones who can really protect you. After all, we’re the best killers in the world, protecting someone shouldn’t be that hard.”

“Well, I thank you. I do feel safe here.”

“As you should. Well, I’m the cooker around here so I better get started if we want to eat tonight. You don’t want anyone else trying to feed you.”

“I’ll take your word for it. Thanks, Adele.”

“Of course. I wouldn’t want your stay here to be uncomfortable. See our home as your home and you’re not required to stay in your room. Join the others. I’m sure they’re gathering in the lounge by now.”

Meg nodded and we left the room and walked all the way down to the first floor.

It was quiet but I kept a smile on my face. “I hope there’s room for one more. Can you keep our guest company while I get dinner started?”

They looked around at each other and I’m sure they were curious about why I was seeming so happy about it now but no one asked.

“Ah, sure, Adele.” Ruby said with a big smile. “Come sit with us Meg.”

“Ruby, thanks.” Meg walked over and sat on the other side of her.

“Great.” I started to turn away just as my voice became harsher like they would have expected. “Jaylyn! A word?!”

Chapter 17

Jaylyn

My eyes widened, my heart raced and I immediately looked over at Ruby.

She only laughed. “What did you do?”

I was unsure of the answer but I rose to my feet and briskly followed Adele into the kitchen. She sounded mad and I didn’t know why. “Yes? You want to—”

“I’d like you to examine Meg if you can without her knowing.”

I was relieved I wasn’t in trouble but was getting more curious. “Why? Did something happen to her? She sick?”

“No. She was forced to stay in Wyatt’s bed.”

I gasped to the awfulness. “Oh, that poor girl! You think she might be—”

“I’m not sure but I’d like you to check and don’t do that stupid thing and make obvious signs that you feel bad for her. It happened. There’s no changing it. She probably doesn’t want our pity.”

“Okay. I can act normal but I don’t know if it’ll show up yet. It wouldn’t have been that long.”

“Just keep doing it for as long as she’s here and do it discreetly.”

“I will. So, what’s on the menu?”

“Whatever I make so get out.”

I laughed and started to turn away. “Okay. I’m going.” I knew she liked doing it her way and alone so I walked back out to sit on the couch next to Troy. Naturally, everyone was watching. “What?”

“What happened?” Ruby asked obviously.

“Oh, it was nothing. Just a food quantity thing.”

Darius tried holding back a laugh but it escaped. “Because you’re going to eat more than you already do?”

The others were able to quiet their laughs.

“Something like that.” I couldn’t tell them the reason with Meg right there and I probably wouldn’t have until I knew the answer.

“But she sounded angry.” Ruby whispered.

“She’s Adele.” I said, trying to play it off so no one would get suspicious. “She’s always like that. It’s no big deal.”

“I’m going to make sure she’s fine.” Zayden got up and started to head for the kitchen with Rift waking out of his sleep just to follow. It was cute how he was like that but I just hoped that Zayden didn’t plan to aggravate her even more. She probably didn’t want the whole house to be worrying about Meg like I already was.

Chapter 18

Zayden

“Didn’t I say get out?”

“I don’t recall that actually.”

Adele turned right around when she heard my voice. “Oh, Zayden! I didn’t know it was you.”

“It’s all right. You okay?”

“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be? Please don’t tell me you’re going to ban me from this. You’ll all starve.”

“We could always send for someone to cook for us.”

“Zayden, that’s not necessary. Don’t take the only thing I have away from me. I’m fine.”

“Then I’ll let you for a while at least. We’ll see about the future.”

She smiled as she stepped closer to me and put her hands on my waist. “You need to be the one that stops worrying. Nothing is going to happen to me or our baby. You have to let me do this my way. You’ve already done your part.”

“My part isn’t over. It’s just beginning.”

I kissed her and the moment our tongues touched, Adele became aggressively into it. She turned me right to the counter and pushed me up against it while moving her hands up my shirt.

I was letting her because I’ve been waiting days for this but all the feelings were halted when she pulled back. “I’m sorry. We really should wait till later for this.”

“You don’t think I’ve waited long enough? It’s the first thing everyone did when they got here besides me and well, Meg but that’s different.”

She laughed and started getting back to preparing dinner. “It’s not a competition, Zayden. We will but anyone could just walk right in here and I don’t want to overcook dinner because I got distracted.”

I sighed and stepped up behind her. “All right.” I kissed her cheek and more lightly on her neck, making her groan with the wanting I longed to hear. “If that’s what you really want.”

“Don’t make this hard on me. I’ve already started making everything. I couldn’t stop it all for that.”

“But I could make it quick.”

She turned around and my eyes were black. Surely she knew exactly what it meant. My senses are more sensitive in this state and when we’re together, it makes hers just as sensitive.

She was getting a smile on her face and I knew she really did want to. “Really quick but—” She walked to the side door and opened it. “Rift, why don’t you go out and play?”

I looked down at him and laughed. It amused me how she hated even him watching but I went with it. “For a few minutes.”

He didn’t take it too hard. In fact, he really seemed like he wanted to and ran right out.

Adele smiled while she closed the door and came back over. I wasn’t going to waste a second of this or have her change her mind again and rushed into her lips. She didn’t seem to want to stop it and I turned her around to the other counter away from the fires of cooking and slid my hands up the side slits of her long skirt. Her skin was just how I remembered on my fingertips but I soon realized that she conveniently wasn’t wearing anything underneath it.

I backed away with a look of almost surprise.

“I had a feeling you’d be home today.”

She planned this. It only made it more perfect and she pressed her lips back into mine. I missed her enthusiasm and she wrapped her arms around my neck while I spread her legs apart with one hand and undid the front of my pants with the other. I couldn’t take not being with her and reunited our bodies after having days apart and even weeks before that.

The feeling immediately hit me. Adele was trying to keep her volume down while I pressed my hips into hers though I knew she wished she didn’t have to. It’s been just as long for her.

I missed it. It was such a powerful sensation with the extra sensitivity. She backed off me and leaned herself back on the counter. My hands were on her hips and I was pulling her into me as she kept her balance. My speed was hastening and so was the feeling.

Adele looked up at me with black eyes of her own and she leaned back up to kiss me just at the most perfect ending. I haven’t realized how long I’ve been waiting for that until it finally happened and we were both glad of it. She fell backwards on the counter and closed her eyes like she was ready to sleep.

“Too good?”

“I just have to get back into the routine but now I want to sleep.”

“No. Now you need to finish dinner or no one will eat.”

She sighed as she hopped down off the counter and stood next to me, putting her hand on my chest. “I will. Just don’t tell anyone about this.”

I laughed. “They’re not going to be surprised that we had sex.”

“It’s the place really, Zayden and we’re married. You won’t need to brag about it.”

“Sure I do. They can’t get sex like that.”

“Hate to be rude but get out.”

I laughed again and kissed her on the head as she turned. “Okay. Love you.”

She put up her hand to wave to me as she had her back turned and I walked to the side door to let Rift back in. I didn’t know where he was. I actually had to whistle to get him to show himself but he was just as happy to come in as he was to go out.

“Out of here.” I said. “She’s making dinner.”

We left Adele to it but at least now we were both in a better mood. She was able to get dinner finished quickly and we ate together that night for the first time in days, setting another place at the table for our guest.

Chapter 19

Darius

A week has passed since we returned with the Hintin Princess and so far everything has seemed to go as planned. There haven’t been signs of Hintins searching the area for her while she has been kept safe in the mountain palace.

It was morning and breakfast was the first thing I thought about.

“Hungry?”

I approached Ruby so we could walk down together but she shook her head in a tired voice. “No. I can’t think of food right now. Excuse me.”

She rushed out of the room into the bathhouse on our floor and locked herself inside. She must have been sick or something. I thought it was weird since we had Jaylyn for that kind of thing but that was okay. I guess she could eat whenever she was ready.

I walked down to the dining room by myself and everyone else was already in there eating without us.

“Where’s Ruby?” Adele asked. “Her breakfast is going to get cold.”

“She’s still upstairs. I mentioned breakfast and she ran to the bathhouse.”

“Oh.” Jaylyn said in a sad sigh. “The morning sickness thing is really getting to her, I guess.”

“What morning sickness thing?”

Everyone looked up at me and was a little confused about how I asked that question but I seriously didn’t know what they were talking about.

“You know, morning sickness.” Jaylyn said. “A lot of women get it when they’re pregnant.”

My whole body froze and I drop my fork. It hit the plate making a loud sound as if the plate cracked but I didn’t look. I had my intense stare right at Jaylyn for being the one to say it.

“I don’t think she told him.” Troy whispered.

“Oh. It’s been a week since she told us. I figured she did. Sorry.”

Was it true? I finally blinked and slowly started to rise. “Please excuse me for a moment.”

“Darius, wait!” Adele said, standing up right after me. “Don’t be mad at her. You’ll only make it worse if—”

“Why would I be mad at her?” The question was something of a curious nature and I didn’t know why she would say that.

She paused there for a moment and looked around the table. Everyone else stayed silent. “Because. It’s the timing. She’s known for a while but couldn’t come to telling any of us until now.”

I only looked at her for another second before turning away without replying. I needed to see her―now. I left the dining room and walked slowly to the stairs still trying to take it all in but when I reached them, I raced right up to the fifth floor to our room. Ruby was laying on the bed under the covers with her back to me.

I was worried for her but I slowly walk to her and sat on the edge, leaning over her to see her face. “Hey, you okay?”

Ruby opened her eyes. They were glazed with tears but none have yet to fall. She didn’t say anything. She just stared up at me.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

She closed her eyes and looked away as a tear left her right eye and she put the blanket up over her head. “How can you even look at me?”

I laughed a little when I climbed over her and laid on the other side, trying to take off the blanket so I could see her face. “What are you talking about?”

She was holding the blanket tight so I couldn’t take it off her head then suddenly she did it herself in one quick motion, looking directly at me. “Do you even realize what this is doing to my body? You’re not going to want to look at me so get used to it.”

She put the blanket up over her head again and I laughed to the foolishness of her thinking so. “It’s not going to be like that. You’re going to look beautiful.”

“Have you ever seen a pregnant woman? I know for a fact that it’s not close to anything you think is beautiful.”

“But it’ll be you. I could never see you as anything else but beautiful no matter what.”

She slowly took off the blanket but just showed her eyes. “Really?”

“Yes, really but I wish you would have told me yourself. We knew this would happen. We just didn’t know when.”

“Did they tell you when?”

“When what?”

She moved the blanket off her body and slowly lifted her shirt. Her fingers grazed the tight skin over her stomach to show its roundness.

I just stared. My eyes were completely focused and I brought my hand, able to cup the bump with it. “Is this why you’d wait until the lights were out before you got in bed with me?”

“I didn’t want you to see and I’m sorry I’ve waited this long to tell you. I didn’t know how I would.”

“How far a long is this? It seems larger than what I would expect.”

“I’d say roughly five months almost six.”

“Really? Are you sure? That’s close to how long we’ve known each other.”

“I know.”

I looked right up and met her eyes. They just kept watering, keeping the moisture strong within them and it wasn’t hard for me to understand what she was saying.

I pulled her right into my arms when she began to cry. “Oh, Babe, it’s okay. I’m not angry even if you did know this whole time.”

“But I didn’t.” She pulled away but was still crying. “Not completely. It started to sink in my head that maybe I was when we visited Madam Carla and I was being treated differently but it only started to scare me because there was that short time that you were away and I was with Trever but then they said that it happened even before then and—”

“Wait. They who?”

“When we got back, that day I spent at Trever’s, he knew my worry and he had Kole and Ryon both come by to do whatever it is they do as well as completely embarrass me. That’s when they said it happened sooner and I just didn’t know what to do. They promised not to breathe a word of it but I kept it to myself anyway because of how you’d always react to talk about children and—”

“You don’t have to be worried about that, Ruby. I was that way a lot because I don’t like looking ahead that far. It was kind of ridiculous to talk about it without knowing when but now, we seem to have a better idea.”

Ruby sighed and dropped herself back down on her pillow.

“What?”

“I’m sorry. I guess I’m not excited about it so far.”

“Feeling any better?”

“I will. It usually goes away throughout the day. So, you’re really not disappointed about this?”

“Of course not. Why would you think that?”

“Well—”

“Ruby. You’re my wife. That makes you my life now and our son will be too. I want this as long as it’s with you.” I would have liked to tell her about seeing him and how much he was a part of each of us but I honestly don’t like to think about that day. We were putting it behind us.

A smile slowly started to appear on her face after listening to me and she replied with a joking tone. “Good because I don’t think I can take it back.”

I laughed and kissed her forehead. “I’d never want that but what I do want is for you to rest as much as you need. I’ll do everything.”

“That’s not necessary, Darius. I’m fine.”

“Just to be safe. Now, is there anything you need right now? Hungry yet?”

“Maybe a little but I don’t know what I can handle.”

“I’ll go find something for you then.” I got up off the bed and started walking towards the door. “I’ll be right back.”

I left and walked all the way back downstairs to the dining room where the others were still finishing their breakfast. I was unusually feeling very optimistic about this. I guess I just couldn’t wait to see her reaction when she would finally get to see him.

It suddenly got quiet when I walked back to the table for my plate and reaching for Ruby’s. “What?”

Adele and Jaylyn looked at each other and started to smile.

“So?” Jaylyn said. “That was quick. We expected a good celebration ravishing from you to take longer.”

I scowled. Usually that would be something I would say but not during a time like this. “Is there something wrong with you? She’s sick and don’t use the word ravishing. It insinuates a form of rape which is something I would never have to do. She’s always willing.”

I left it at that and just walked out. I didn’t care to stick around and hear any replies. I just wanted to get back to Ruby but she had fallen asleep the way I left her. I smiled as I walked closer and set our plates down on the stand beside the bed. She looked so peaceful with her rose red hair placed around her face that I just wanted to sit here forever and watch her.

She let out a groaning sigh as she started to move and her hand came off her stomach, touching me beside her. She rubbed me for a moment and I took her hand, bringing it up to my lips.

Her eyes started to open with a smile. “You’re back. How long was I asleep?”

“Just a few minutes actually. I brought your food. I didn’t mean to wake you if I did.”

“It’s okay. I’m feeling a bit better.”

“Well, here.” I reached for her plate and brought it over in front of her. “Think you can eat? You should. You both need it.”

“It’s sweet, Darius but you don’t have to worry about me or the baby. We’re going to be fine.”

“Because I’ll make sure of it. Now eat.”

Ruby started picking at her food with a smile as I got up off the bed and brought my plate around to the other side.

“You’re a little late to feel like you need to take care of me. It’s more than half over. He’ll be with us in just a few months from now.”

“I know. All the more reason to care for you now. This is the time you’ll need it the most.”

Ruby laughed. “I’m going to get so huge in a month from now. I just know it. It’s been going steady but I’ve seen how it can make a rapid change.”

“You’ll be beautiful.”

“We’ll see. So, what’s your plan for today?”

“I don’t know. Maybe a quick workout with Zayden and Troy later when we’re more awake but other than that, I’ll do whatever you want.”

She leaned into me with a smile, giving me a little nudge in the arm. “How about a workout with me?”

“I’m not so sure that’d be safe.”

“What?”

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Darius.” She made me look at her. “Please tell me that you’re not serious? You can’t go a day without sex let alone months.”

“It’s for a good cause.”

“So, you’re going to make me suffer and that’s okay?”

“You won’t suffer. You’ll have a bigger job to worry about.”

“You’re really serious about this, aren’t you? How can you be? Don’t you love me?”

“Of course I do and it’s because I love you that feel I must protect you.”

“From what?”

“From me.”

Ruby sighed and put her plate down in front of her on the bed. “I suddenly don’t feel like eating.”

“Ruby, you know you need it.”

She looked away from me and started to get out of bed, speaking softly. “Maybe I don’t want it anymore.”

I sighed when she walked right out of the room. She couldn’t have meant that and I didn’t want to think that she did. I set my plate down on the bed to go after her. “Ruby.”

I walked out into the hall and heard footsteps going upstairs. I followed after them and it led me all the way outside to the back balcony and up the outside stairs to one of the five towers. Ruby was sitting on the stone windowsill with her back up against one side and looking out. I stood in the doorway as the steady breeze from outside was the only sound.

She hadn’t looked over at all but I knew she was aware of my presence. “Ruby, I’m sorry, okay? I just couldn’t bear the thought of what would happen if I ever hurt you.”

She finally looked over and her eyes were wet from tears. “But you never would. You haven’t so far.”

“But there’s always that chance for me to lose control and I don’t want to risk that while you’re carrying our child.”

“You won’t.” She was eager to assure me of that and came over, her hands eager to touch me. “I’m really going to need you, Muscles.”

I became more relax when I looked down into her eyes. She used the nickname she’d call me before she could come to using my name and at that point, I couldn’t say no. It was my weakness. “All right but you have to promise me that you’ll keep it slow. That means hold the aggression.”

“I’ll take slow over nothing. See? We compromised on something. Thank you. I feel better.”

I laughed to her sudden change in behavior and brought up my hand to graze the side of her face. “And that’s all I wanted.”

She got up on her tiptoes and kissed me so passionately that I wrapped my arms around her and picked her up so she was at my height. I held on to her gently as her arms were wrapped around my neck and our lips never left each other’s.

She wrapped her legs around my waist and we were both getting heavily into it. Our breaths were coming out hard through our noses until I pulled back. “We should take this inside.”