Spawned By The Dragon: A Paranormal Pregnancy Romance Page 17

Tommy cringed, sending a fat tear running down a chubby cheek. “Okay.”

  “Just remember that Uncle DJ loves you so much, and I’ll always love you, no matter what. And maybe some time, I can come visit you, and maybe me, you, and your dragon can all play bee-ball together.”

  “Okay.”

  When Tommy and DJ soon said goodnight and ended their call, I was brushing away tears that were running down my own cheeks.

  After making his way across the couch on his knees, Tommy took my face in his hands and kissed each of my cheeks multiple times. “No, Mama. No cry. All happy now.”

  When Gavin got home later that evening around nine, Tommy still wasn’t yet asleep, and he bounded out of bed when Gavin poked his head in the door.

  “Gagrin! Mama, gagrin candy! Please help! Where he candy?”

  Setting aside a storybook I’d been reading to Tommy, I got up, smiling, headed over to the dresser, and got from a drawer the piece of candy that Tommy had grabbed for Gavin at the flower festival. Tommy snatched the candy from my hand, ran over to Gavin, and held the candy out to him, nearly breathless.

  “A candy for you, gagrin. From me. For you…Daddy.”

  With the corners of his dark brows tilting upward, Gavin slowly knelt, took the candy from Tommy’s hand, and spoke in a voice thick with emotion. “Thank you so much, Tommy.”

  Tommy grinned. “Eat candy, Daddy. You eat.”

  With his eyes shiny in the soft lamplight, Gavin unwrapped the candy, popped the tiny yellow square into his mouth, and nodded a few times. “I think this is the sweetest candy I’ve ever tasted.”

  THE FINAL CHAPTER

  The following day, I couldn’t keep thoughts of Gavin out of my mind to save my life. Since Tommy and I had arrived in the FDS, Gavin had definitely been on my mind a lot, for sure, but on this particular day, my mind just seemed completely unable to go in any other direction. It was as if my brain was just “stuck” on him, flashing pictures of his face and physique through my mind on a continuous loop.

  It had started the night before, once Tommy was finally back in bed and asleep. Gavin and I had somehow made our way into his room, where he pulled me into his arms and began kissing me, thoroughly reigniting desire I hadn’t felt in three years, since our night at the fair. We’d just tumbled onto the bed when Gavin’s phone had started going off. We’d ignored it for a while. Finally, Gavin had tossed it on an area rug beside the bed. But it had still continued ringing.

  Eventually, swearing, he’d gotten out of bed, picked it up, and answered in an angry growl. Then, after listening for a few seconds, he’d simply said he’d “be right there” and had hung up before pocketing his phone and starting to put his boots back on with movements that seemed a bit overly forceful for the task.

  “My men in the far north have just observed a fairly large group of Traitors, at least a few dozen of them, flying out of Darkwood heading southeast, probably intending to see if they can find any breach in our eastern guard.

  Which, they won’t, but nonetheless, I want to personally see what this group will do after, and then no matter what direction they fly in, my men and I will head them off and kill them. Which means that unfortunately, I probably won’t be home until very late. Maybe even dawn.

  Tomorrow night, though, Alyssa, I promise you…I’m leaving Dan completely in charge, no matter what. Unless Asher’s entire army charges out from Darkwood at once, I’ll be home all evening and all night.”

  I’d told him I’d be counting on that.

  What I hadn’t counted on was being nearly unable to think about him the entire next day.

  When he got home that evening, Tommy was already tucked into bed, asleep, door closed, and I was in Gavin’s bed, lights off, baby monitor on one of the nightstands. The windows were open, allowing a balmy breeze to flutter the navy blue curtains every so often. On the dresser, I’d lit a long row of pillar candles similar to the ones I’d lit the first night Gavin and I had made love.

  He came in the bedroom with a low growl, gaze immediately going to me on the bed while he shut the door behind him. It had been at least ten minutes since I’d been wearing any clothes. They were now on a heap on the floor.

  Half-teasing him, because I was pretty sure what his answer would be, I asked Gavin if he still found me sexy since I’d become a mom. Practically ripping his clothes off, his response was another growl rumbling deep in his chest.

  However, when he got into bed beside me, completely naked and already semi-hard, he pulled me close and spoke in a low voice near my ear. “Do I still find you sexy now that you’re a mom? Why don’t I just show you?”

  He began by kissing my mouth, his full lips firm and warm. Then, he began trailing his kisses lower, down the side of my neck to the base of my throat, making me knead the bedsheets with the hand I wasn’t using to tangle my fingers in Gavin’s thick, dark hair. When his kisses reached my breasts, and he took a little detour to tease my stiffened nipples with the tip of his tongue, I had to begin biting back moans, not wanting to wake Tommy up next door.

  However, he was usually a very hard sleeper, and by the time Gavin had trailed his kisses to my inner thighs, I just couldn’t bite back my moans any longer. Now with both hands tangled in Gavin’s hair, trying to direct his mouth exactly where I wanted it to go, I began to lose myself in the passion I’d been fantasizing about all day.

  Gavin apparently wasn’t quite ready to allow me to lose myself fully yet, though. With agonizing slowness, he raked his tongue up and down my slick feminine lips several times, making me arch my back, becoming desperate for him to move his tongue inward.

  “Please, Gavin. Don’t tease me anymore. Please.”

  Seeming to be in a real mood to be cruel, he again gave slow, deliberate attention to my outer lips, though without bringing the tip of his tongue anywhere near the throbbing source of my need.

  “I’ll pay you back for this later, Gavin. I don’t know exactly when, but I do know that I will. I’ll tease you until you’re just begging me…oh!”

  Making me grind my head back into the pillows, hips jerking, he’d finally, and rather suddenly, begun raking his tongue over my most sensitive spot with a prolonged, low growl.

  “Yes, Gavin, yes. Don’t stop. Please don’t stop.”

  He didn’t, and several minutes later, I cried out, involuntarily squeezing my eyes shut, as a powerful climax crashed over me in waves. By the end of it, I was actually seeing stars, little pinpricks of light that disappeared and reappeared, twinkling, with each surge of my rapture.

  Once Gavin had pulled himself up alongside me, though, I found that I still wanted more and didn’t even want to wait.

  “I want to feel you inside me now. I just want all of you.”

  Seeming incredibly eager to give me all of himself, Gavin rolled me on my side, facing away from him, hiked a leg up over my hips, and then quickly entered my slick depths from behind with one powerful thrust. Moaning, I found the sensation of being filled with my legs closed to be one of almost unbearable pleasure, slightly uncomfortable in some way but completely rapturous at the same time. And when Gavin began thrusting, this sensation only intensified, bringing me close to the brink of another climax within minutes.

  Seeming to sense this, and possibly wanting to stave it off for a while, Gavin slowed the pace of his thrusting considerably, then soon pulled himself out of me, rolled me over to face him, and hiked my leg up on his hip before entering me again.

  “I want to watch your gorgeous face.”

  I wanted to watch his.

  In the glow of the candles, we looked into each other’s eyes deeply many times over the next several minutes, until finally, as Gavin increased the pace of his thrusting, I couldn’t hold back any longer.

  With a cry, I gave into my cresting pleasure and just let it take me, meeting Gavin’s every thrust with my own bucking hips while I saw stars for the second time. Almost simultaneously, he growled out his own release, kneading the softness of
my hip with one strong, long-fingered hand.

  A short while later, we rested in embrace quietly while a stiff breeze blew in through the curtains, cooling our slightly-sweaty skin. The baby monitor was silent. The candlelight danced along the cream-colored walls.

  Eventually turning my face to look at Gavin, I was the first to speak. “This is what I want. Us, together and happy…sharing a home and a future with our son. This is all I want. I just want to know if you want it, too.”

  The candlelight revealed Gavin’s expression to be one of unmistakable sincerity.

  “I do want that…more than anything, Alyssa. Your happiness and Tommy’s happiness have become my top priorities in life. I love you both…so very much.”

  Smiling, I reached for his hand and twined my fingers with his. “I love you, too…and so does Tommy. And I think today was the start of a whole new story for the three of us…one that will soon lead to a happily-ever-after.”

  Gavin attempted a smile, but I could see that it was only that- just an attempt. The smile didn’t reach all the way up to his eyes.

  *

  I asked Gavin what was wrong, and he didn’t answer right away.

  “There’s been a surge of trouble with the Traitors lately, as you know….”

  “Yes, but…everything’s pretty much all under control, isn’t it?”

  “Yes…but I don’t think we’re going to get our happily-ever-after just yet. Dan and I have come to think it’s possible that there’s a traitor here in our midst somewhere in the FDS…maybe even right here in Everett. And I don’t mean an actual Traitor, like a shifter from Darkwood…I just mean someone from ‘our’ side who’s become disloyal.

  And until this person can be found out and dealt with, you and Tommy will never be completely safe…and the three of us can never move forward and be truly happy. I know I can’t…not knowing that there’s someone out there, maybe even very near, who might wish harm for you and Tommy.”

  “Well, how do you and Dan figure there’s a traitor?”

  “There’s been too many things with the Traitors lately that just don’t make any sense. For one, they seem to have some inside knowledge about our northern guard patrols and movements, as if someone has been feeding them information.

  On the other hand, and for the second things that just doesn’t make any sense, they’ve been doing some things that are just downright inexplicable lately. Things like making feeble, half-ass attempts to attack some of our posts, but they’re not attacking with enough men to really have hope of doing anything, and they know it.

  "It’s almost as if they just want to distract me, and my council and my army, from something else that’s really going on, like someone feeding them inside information. At any rate, I’m done playing their games. Until this can all be sorted out, and until I can determine who, if anyone, is the traitor in our midst, I’m not going far from Everett. I’m also going to increase the number of protection service members that accompany you and Tommy whenever you go out. You’ll have four agents with you now, at all times.”

  Knowing that Gavin was just trying to keep us safe, I bit back a groan. “Don’t you think that’s a little excessive, though? And shouldn’t it be you who has the increased protection? After all, Cameron Asher wants you harmed or dead, right? Hurting me or Tommy really wouldn’t further his cause. In fact, it would probably just serve to make you angry enough to attack Darkwood regardless of how many women and children are there. So why would he want that? It just seems like if anyone should have additional guard protection these days, it should be you.”

  Slowly stroking my hair, Gavin heaved a sigh. “Well, it won’t be me, because as a dragon shifter, I’m more than capable of taking care of myself. You and Tommy, obviously, are not. And being that I can’t be with the two of you all the time, I won’t be able to have a moment’s peace unless I know that you’re both heavily guarded when going into town. Here at the house, you already always heavily guarded anyway.”

  Deciding that whatever would make Tommy as safe as he could possibly be was what I wanted, too, I nodded. “Okay. We’ll learn to live with the additional protection patrol members. As long as they’re as nice as Chet and Mark, I have no problem with that.”

  Smiling, Gavin pulled me even closer. “Good. Because you don’t have any choice about the matter.”

  The next several weeks were some of the happiest in my life. Despite the threat of a possible traitor, and despite Gavin not being able to determine who it could possibly be, our little family thrived, with Gavin and I becoming much closer, Gavin and Tommy becoming much closer, and with the three of us becoming much closer all together.

  I began sharing Gavin’s bedroom with him, and Tommy got a “big boy room” all to himself, just two doors down from Gavin’s and mine. Just like he’d had back in Michigan, he got a racecar bed, and I asked him if he’d like a racecar wallpaper border, too. He vetoed that, though, choosing instead a border printed with colorful cartoon “gagrins.”

  August rolled into September, and Tommy started at one of the local preschools, along with Kenzie. The first day he got home from preschool, Tommy declared it to be the “best daycare ever.” Best and ever were two of the new words he’d picked up in the previous few weeks. One of the words that he’d lost from his vocabulary, at least for the most part, to Gavin’s and my relief, was shit. He’d only said it once, after tripping over a toy and wiping out, but then he’d looked up at me, shaking his head.

  “We no say that, Mama. No-no word.”

  Hands on my hips, I sighed. “Then why did you just say that if you know it’s a no-no word?”

  Tommy just shrugged. “Me forgot. I forgot.”

  He hadn’t said it since.

  One thing he hadn’t done at all in the previous month was do any shifter “light shows.” However, this wasn’t really that surprising because there was never a time where he got very frustrated or angry about anything. Like most toddlers, he had the occasional moments of frustration and irritation that he’d always had, but nothing where he’d become as worked up as he had the three times he’d “lit up.” Still, Gavin and I warned his preschool teacher that a future classroom disturbance was a distinct possibility.

  At the beginning of Tommy’s second week of preschool, I asked Gavin if maybe we could dial back the security team now. “It’s just that with four black sedans accompanying us to school every day, we’re just kind of conspicuous, and I don’t know if that’s really good for Tommy. He’s already going to grow up ‘different’ because he’s the son of the commander-in-chief. Do we really want to draw attention to that?”

  Gavin set down a glass of after-dinner whiskey he was enjoying, glanced over at Tommy, who was playing on the floor nearby, and then returned his gaze to me. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with continuing to be safe.”

  “But you said yourself yesterday that all that weird Traitor activity up north has really settled down in the past week or two. So, maybe the time for extra security is over. I think even Chet thinks we have too many cars going to the preschool, and he’s Mr. Hyper-protective most of the time.”

  Eventually, Gavin agreed to reduce the number of cars going to the preschool to two. “Two cars, two senior agents.”

  “Definitely Chet and Mark.”

  “And the same going into town. Always two cars and two agents.”

  “All right. Thank you, Gavin. This’ll be a little better.”

  The following day, I rode with Chet to pick Tommy up from preschool and found him to be in an unusually quiet contemplative mood. Our father-daughter-like closeness had grown and blossomed along with pretty much everything else in my life the previous several weeks, so naturally, I was concerned. I asked Chet if anything was the matter, but he just kept shrugging me off. And it was only after Tommy was in the car, nearly falling asleep in the backseat, that he finally came clean.

  *

  “I really don’t even want to ask. I hate to burden people.”<
br />
  “What is it, Chet? You can ask me anything. And you could never be a ‘burden.’ Please just ask me whatever you want to ask. I want to know what’s on your mind.”

  While dozens of other cars crawled past us in the preschool parking lot, Chet just sat with the car in park, staring straight ahead. “I built a memorial site for Brianna and Nicky…up on the tallest hill, west of the valley.”

  The words Chet had spoken is his slight southern accent had sounded unusually flat, devoid of emotion, which made me think that just below the surface, Chet was hiding more emotion than he could even acknowledge or deal with.

  "Since I was one of the dragons who fought against the United states government in the Great Dragon War of Independence, they won’t ever let me back in the US, not even just for a short visit, so I can’t ever go back down to Georgia to visit Brianna and Nicky’s graves…and it’s been bothering me. Just to not ever be able to visit them in a quiet place that’s just for their memories.

  So, I made a memorial. It’s nothing fancy…just some wooden crosses, rock arrangements, and flowers…but it’s for them. Well, anyway…I just wanted to know if maybe you and Tommy wouldn’t mind going out there with me today. I kind of want to ‘dedicate’ the memorial, but I don’t want to do it alone.

  I don’t want to do it with any of my male friends, either, and I don’t really have any lady friends at the moment. I just want to say a prayer or something with a couple of people by my side…and I was thinking that with you and Tommy reminding me so much of my daughter and grandson….”

  “We’d be honored, Chet.”

  My voice had come out a little froggy over a lump in my throat.

  “We’d really be honored.”

  Chet turned his face to meet my gaze. “Really? You wouldn’t mind?”

  I shook my head. “Not at all. Gavin’s meeting with the council right now and won’t be home until dinner, so Tommy and I have the rest of the afternoon free.”

  “Great. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this, Alyssa. And, of course, Mark will be going with us, too, but I’ve already talked to him, and he’ll just be sitting in his car the whole time. Says he’s not one for funerals or memorials or anything like that.”