Divided Souls (Captured Miracle #3) (17 page)
I needed my husband.
Pausing to stand beside the open doorway, I spoke quietly, unsurely. “Are you going to stay with me tonight?”
His eyes flickered over my body. “Do you want me to?”
I nodded. “So badly.”
“Then I’m here to stay.” He offered me a small smile that I felt deep in my heart as I moved quickly across the room in my housecoat. As though knowing I was making a beeline for straight for his arms, he stood from the bed to spread his arms wide. As I crashed against his chest, he asked in gravelly tones. “What’s this, love?”
“I miss you.” I whispered against his chest, already feeling my body melt against his. “I miss you so much.”
“I’m right here.” He cooed. “How can you miss me?”
“You’ve been in the house, Calix - but you’ve not been with me.” I tipped my head back to look into his brilliant eyes. “I miss you coming to bed with me and I miss you sleeping next to me throughout the night. I miss waking up to you beside me, Calix. I miss my husband.”
He cupped my cheek with one large hand and I nuzzled his palm, feeling my eyes close as though the lids were simply to heavy to remain open another moment longer. “Why am I just hearing of this now, love?”
“Because I know you need to work on - everything.”
“What I need is to be the kind of husband who knows when his wife needs him.” He lowered his head to press his lips to my forehead. “I need for you to tell me when you miss me, love.”
“I miss you now.”
“I’m going nowhere tonight.” He promised, quirking a decadent looking grin at me. “Actually, I have a surprise for you?”
I startled. “You do?” I felt my frown tug at my brow as I quickly scanned the room. “What is it?”
He grinned. “Sorry, love, no macaroons this time.”
I raised a brow at his teasing tone. “You have been working an awful lot. Do you not think I deserve macaroons?”
He chuckled. “I’m willing to bet that you love this surprise much more than macaroons.”
“Oh really?” I leaned back once again to pin him with doubting eyes. “I think I need to see this surprise before I say anything more.”
He chuckled. “Get into bed, love.”
I giggled, slipping from his arms as I teased playfully. “Well if this is my surprise - maybe the macaroons would have been a better idea.”
“You do not prefer macaroons to my cock, love. No amount of convincing will make me believe such nonsense.” His tone was darkly serious and I felt butterflies swarm in my belly as I snuggled beneath the thick duvet covering the bed.
“Very true.” I batted my eyes flirtatiously. “Do you plan on servicing me, or what?”
He smirked. “What happened to the romance my wife has always adored?”
“The pregnancy hormones have eaten every ounce of romance your wife had in her.” I patted the bed next to me. “Shall we, sir?”
Calix watched me with an expression that stated he was trying with all his might to restrain his laughter. His determination to keep his amusement hidden was almost enough to make me laugh out loud, but miraculously, I was able to practice a little of my husbands cool calm restraint - because I didn’t laugh. Not. One. Audible. Giggle.
Inside, I was laughing up a storm though.
“That’s not the surprise I had in mind, love.” Calix moved toward the bed. “Although - if you’re offering,”
“Nope.” I shook my head firmly, hugging the blankets around my swollen belly and breasts. “I want my surprise. If this wasn’t it, we’ll just have to revisit this after I receive my surprise.”
His eyes glimmered as he rounded the bed to his side closest to the door before opening the bedside drawer. He pulled his laptop from the cubby and I felt my heart thunder in my chest. I didn’t exactly have any good experiences with Calix’s laptops. Every time he’d shown me anything with technology, it had been to display video’s of my family for some twisted purpose or another. Seeing his laptop now, was most definitely a surprise. Hell, it was the last thing I’d been expecting.
“What are you doing?” I asked darkly - all humor gone.
His shoulders stiffened. “I’m showing you your surprise.”
“I don’t want it.”
“Nova,”
I interrupted him. “We’ve been having a nice night, Calix. Please don’t ruin it with a video - I don’t want to see a video.”
The depressing sound of his heavy sigh was painful. When he shook his head, I knew I’d been on the wrong track. “It’s not the kind of video you’re thinking, love.”
“Oh?” I shifted in the bed, suddenly curious despite my better judgment. “Well, what kind of video is it then?”
“May I show you?” He asked politely, shocking me with his request for permission. Calix had never particularly been a man to ask for - well - anything.
Swallowing my insecurities, I nodded. “Okay. I’m ready.”
“You have nothing to prepare yourself for, Nova. You will love this.”
“Okay.” I nodded, gesturing toward the laptop. “I want to know.”
Calix opened the screen and I gasped. It was a video, for sure - but he’d been right. It wasn’t at all what I had been expecting. “What do you think?”
“It’s our bedroom - in Alberta.”
“It is.” He nodded.
“But it’s different.”
I leaned forward, watching as the video played. I felt as though I were suddenly standing back in the bedroom he’d first brought me to, when he’d became my captor. But it was different. Where the wall had stood on my side of the bed, closest to the large balcony - there was now no wall, but an archway leading into another room.
Calix pointed to the screen. “I asked my grandmother to hire someone to connect the suites so that the nursery can be attached to our room.” He shifted beside me and I sensed his nerves. “What do you think?”
“I - I love it.” I looked at him, before looking back once again to the screen. I didn’t want to miss a thing.
“It’s been painted white. So all you have to do now is decide what colors you want the nursery to be, and I’ll have the decorator work them into the room with paint and wall art - if you, uh, want.”
I blinked, feeling tears fill in my eyes. I couldn’t help but wonder how I’d ever thought Calix was anything but father material. The man would make a model father - for a boy. I had a feeling he would be much too over protective of a girl.
“This is amazing.” I wiggled up to press a kiss to his lips. “Thank you, Calix.”
He smiled. “Have you thought of some colors you’d like to make the nursery?”
“Well,” I game a small shrug. “We’re waiting until the baby is born to know the sex - so we can’t go with pink or blue.”
He nodded. “You have a color in mind, love.” He predicted - he knew me so well. “Share it with me.”
“I was thinking white, yellow, and gray.” I smiled at the blank canvas of a room. “It would work for either a boys room or a girls.”
He beamed. “I’ll tell the decorator.”
“I’m glad you like it too.”
His eyes were shimmering with childlike joy as he asked. “Are you ready for the second half of your surprise?”
“The second half?” I felt my brows rise. “There’s more?”
“Definitely more.” He clicked a tab open from the bottom of the screen and I watched as a baby boutique ordering website filled the screen. “Now we have to decorate.”
Tears filled my eyes as I my mind began fantasizing about everything we could do to make our baby’s room comfortable, homey, and us. “You are a perfect man, Calix.” I pointed to an elegant white painted crib. “That’s our baby’s crib.”
Calix clicked his mouse over the crib before clicking on a bib that read
Daddy’s Boy.
My eyes landed on his face. “You think we’re going to have a boy?”
He nodded. “You think we are, and I trust your instincts.” Then he moved the mouse to the
Daddy’s Girl
bib and clicked that one as well. “But just incase, we’ll get one for each.”
The sound of laughter followed us for the next couple hours as we ordered everything we could possibly need for the arrival of our little one.
A loud bang rattles the bedroom door and I fly upright, just as Calix’s arm pushes me back down onto the bed. He curves his body around mine, encasing me in the protectively weak shell that is his body. We’re both wide awake now - all delirium from sleep had vanished as our hearts pounded painfully in our chests.
“Don’t move.” Calix’s low voice growls into my ear as his breath washes over my skin. “Not an inch.”
“Kay.” I squeaked, barely even moving my lips.
I was terrified. The last time we’d been interrupted in our bedroom, in the dead of the night, had been the night everything in my life had changed for the second time in such a short timeframe. Hell, that night I had thought I’d lost Calix forever. I’d grieved for him for months, aching for him, craving him. I could not go through that again. I would not go through that again.
“Stay here.” Calix whispered - and then I felt his body moving away from mine.
I felt a little like my very soul were being torn from within me. I’d only known this pain once before - the day that I’d been taken from Calix. There were simply some things that my soul couldn’t face - and living without Calix was one of those things. I needed him now - like I needed air to breathe. Calix had made me this way. He had conditioned me to ache for him with the senseless desperation of a heroin addict. I thought nothing of myself in that moment. In that moment I was entirely focused on Calix. Wrenching the top blanket from the bed, I pulled it against my chest as I pushed myself up from the bed, my hand reaching out to grip his wrist.
“Where are you going?”
The door rattled again and this time a voice rang out. “Calix, open the God damned door before I break it down!”
The sound of Neil’s voice put a pause to the rapid beating of my heart and I saw relief bloom in Calix’s troubled eyes as he sighed a deep breath. Pointing to the closet, he growled a command. “Get dressed.”
I nodded before scurrying off the bed toward the closet. I knew he was upset with me for not listening and remaining down where he felt I was safe, but something was obviously wrong. I mean, Neil would never come banging on Calix’s bedroom door if something weren’t seriously troubling him - or threatening us.
The thought lit a new flame under my butt and I reared into action. Shoving my legs into black leggings, I pulled a heavy gray knitted sweater over my large belly. The baby was due at the end of May, beginning of June. It was currently the middle of April and to say that I was anything but the size of a horse was just a blatant lie. I was huge - another point on the betting board that I was having a boy.
Suddenly, Calix appeared in the closet, already reaching for his jeans. As he was shoving his legs into the material, he commanded orders. “Get your boots on, love.”
“What?” I gasped. “What’s going on?”
“You’re father was spotted leaving the main dock. He’ll be here soon.” I watched, stunned in stillness as Calix shoved a black shirt down over his head. “You need to get your boots on, love. We’re leaving the island - now.”
“Calix.”
“Now!” He roared, stunning me into action.
Turning away from him, I shoved my feet into the suede black boots he’d bought for me. When I turned to find him holding a jacket ready for me to slide my arms into, I didn’t hesitate. When I was dressed to his satisfaction, he grabbed my hand in his - not my wrist - and pulled me from the room. We moved down the stairs quickly, straight to the back door where Neil and the other man met us. Neil looked ready for war, but the other man looked - slightly afraid.
“Where are we going?” I asked shrilly as we started moving quickly from the back door, along a path that led into the trees. “The boat - it’s the other way.”
“We have a back up to be used for situations like this.” Neil explained. “We need to hurry. There isn’t much time.”
As we moved through the trees, cold air washed over my skin. One would think I’d be hot with the physical exertion spent to move so quick, but I wasn’t. I was chilled down to the very bone. As we came to a small clearing, Neil uncovered a boat that had been hidden well by mock overgrowth. It wasn’t nearly as large as the boat we’d been using to travel back and forth between the main island and this one.
As I looked over the dark waters lapping at the rocky shore, I felt my belly churn in fear. Tightening my fingers around Calix’s hand I whispered. “The water - it’s dark.”
“It’s night. Of course the water is dark.”
“Calix - I can’t do this.” I shook my head, moving back away from the boat. “I can’t go onto that water.”
“Nova,” his eyes softened, but they were frantic none-the-less. “We don’t have time, love. You have to get on this boat.” He tugged me closer into the circle of his chest. “Everything will be fine, love.” His eyes looked up to land somewhere over my head. “Throw me a life jacket.”
Behind me, I heard rummaging in the boat, before a low curse sounded. “Fuck.” I closed my eyes as fear began to rush behind my ears. I felt dizzy. “Where the hell are the life jackets?”
“I,” The other guard stuttered. “I thought,”
Calix stiffened as his eyes swept up to land on the stuttering man. “You thought what? Were you not instructed to prepare the boat for emergency evacuation?”
“I was, Sir,”
“Where are the life jackets?”
“I forgot them.” He replied quietly and a small moan fled from between my lips.
As always, Calix commanded the situation. I heard him moving through the little boat before I saw him in front of me once again. Gripping my arms, he bent his knees to look down into my face. “You’ll hold onto this, love.” He handed me a small floatation ring before he set about tying the string around my waist. “Everything will be fine. It’s a short ride to the main dock. We will be safe.”
I felt ashen and sick to my stomach as I glanced once more out over the dark water. Then I whispered my words of fear. “Calix, there are creatures living in these waters. This isn’t like the lake at home - the things in these waters - they will kill us.” I shook my head adamantly. “I can’t get in the boat - I can’t. Not at night.”
“Nova, I know you’re afraid. I know you don’t like dark water - but I’m right here. I’ll be right here next to you and I won’t allow anything to happen to you. I promise you, love. I’ll be right next to you the entire time.”
