The Rising (The Rising #4) - Kristen Ashley Page 0,172
his wife could fight her corner, brilliantly—it’d be bloody annoying, if he didn’t admire it so much) argument with his wife.
He saw nothing but sea.
Normally, this soothed him.
Now, it did not.
“Aramus, you can breathe under the water. We go swimming all the time. You—”
He turned to her and gritted out, “You’ve been sick…all day…every day…for a month.”
Her curls bounced as her head jolted.
She then unfolded her legs from beneath her, took her feet beside their bed, and moved to him.
She put one hand to his chest, the fingers of the other she curled around his neck, and she got up on her toes.
“Even non-Mer women retch and do it often during pregnancy,” she assured.
His brows rose. “All day, every day, for a month?”
“Yes. Or for three months. Sometimes the entire pregnancy.”
Fucking hell.
He did not know this.
He did not like this.
“But Auntie Ha-Zahlah feels The Deep will help,” she said softly. “So I would like to try, but not without you.”
“You go bloody nowhere without me,” he decreed.
Her face grew gentle, and she leaned closer. “Of course not. And if it doesn’t work, we will come back.”
He grunted.
“Aramus, I will be fine.”
“I am sure,” he retorted. “You are strong and smart and give up on nothing. But this will be our only child.”
She blinked, and when she was done, her crystal eyes were huge.
“Pardon?” she asked.
“I will not have you endure this another time. It doesn’t matter. I’ve already decided, boy or girl, first born will take over the kingdom…or queendom as it were.”
“As much as I very much like that, my darling, we are not only having one child.”
He curled his arms about her and looked out to the sea, murmuring, “We shall see.”
“Yes, we will,” she murmured back. “Now, let us see about rectifying the fact you haven’t made love to me in a month.”
His eyes fell to hers. “You’ve been ill.”
“I’m not ill right now.”
“And I’m not making you ill.”
She pressed to him and her siren’s voice became a siren’s song. “You won’t make me ill.”
His cock took notice.
It was his mind that refused. “Absolutely not.”
She stared up at him.
“We will abstain until I am certain you are well,” he announced.
“Have you gone mad?” she breathed.
“No,” he stated the obvious.
“Aramus.”
“Ha-Lah.”
“Aramus!”
“Ha-Lah.”
She frowned.
Then she grasped his head, pulled it down to her, and she kissed him.
She did things with her tongue and things with her hands that no man with an intent to abstain should have to endure.
Thus, he failed at enduring them.
Spectacularly.
Ha-Lah did not get ill during the festivities.
Though she stayed that way the first seven months of her pregnancy.
Two months later, she gave her king a boy.
The next two she gave him were girls.
Sisters of the Beast
THE ENCHANTMENTS
Black ringlets mixed with locks of honey and chestnut and ebony in the grass as the women lay on their backs forming a cross with their heads together, their eyes aimed through the leafy trees to the blue skies.
Each had a wee babe snuggled asleep on their chests.
“He’s ridiculous,” Ellie was saying.
Silence giggled.
“You are not unaware he spoils his girls,” Ha-Lah noted.
“Yes, well,” she gently patted the rounded bottom of the wee one on her chest, “this one only has to chirrup and he’s there, cooing at her and demanding an entire citadel meet her every whim, be it containing a draught or bringing a toy or changing a nappy.”
“King Cassius Laird of Airen doesn’t change nappies?” Farah asked.
“Hell no,” Ellie answered. “Though he does stand over the nursemaid, or, say, me, scowling as he inspects we’re doing it right.”
There were chuckles all around.
“Does King True Axelsson of Wodell do it?” Silence inquired.
“We get into our chambers and the world melts away,” Farah said serenely. “So yes, when it is us, our family alone together, and there is no one else to do it, for he allows no one there, my husband has no issue.”
“Mars doesn’t either,” Silence said.
“Aramus has gained the skill of a noble Mer and becomes invisible when this one,” she gave her son’s round tush a tender shake, “starts to get smelly.”
Low feminine laughter drifted into the skies.
Then they fell silent.
Silence broke it.
She did this with a whispered, “We did it.”
“We did it,” Farah whispered in return.
“We’re here, together,” Ellie said quietly.
“We’re always together,” Ha-Lah declared.
“Yes,” three other women agreed.
Brothers of the Beast
THE ENCHANTMENTS
They stood in the trees, tall, regal, shoulder to shoulder, and studied the women that lay on their backs in the grass, babes at their chests, eyes to the sky.