"Okay. I'm going to choose to not think about that too hard, but I feel fairly certain that, for Storm, he would make shit up for free."
Litha gave Elora a full-throated, sexy laugh she'd never heard before. Over time, she'd grown more and more fond of Litha. She admired her poise and the serene calm she wore so naturally, not to mention that she was as multifaceted as a prism. She was a perfect match for somebody as complicated as Storm and, most importantly, she loved him the way he deserved to be loved.
"So moving on to a normal question. How's married life?"
Litha simply smiled like a person who was happy with her choices.
"That good?" Elora laughed softly. "Just what I wanted to hear. He looks happy." She glanced at Litha and smiled. "You, too."
"The vineyard is heavenly. Married life is heavenly. But Edinburgh is starting to feel like quicksand. Choking me, trying to drag me under. If they had their way, I'd be working for them round the clock like a robot."
Elora stopped and turned to face Litha with a look of concern. "Does Simon know you feel that way?"
Litha shook her head. "No. I haven't said anything."
Elora searched her face. "It's not selfish to want a life, Litha. You need to take a lesson from the boys on this one. They would say that if you don't stand up for yourself, then you get what you get, and that's the way it should be. Figure out your boundaries and then fight for them."
"Oh. Look who's talking. You have three of the strongest men in this world who would run, not walk, but run to stand up for you."
Elora's eyes sparkled. "I know it looks that way now, but I did have to stand up for myself in the beginning."
"What's goin' on?"
The women both jumped like they'd been caught doing something wrong. They'd been so lost in the conversation they hadn't noticed their husbands approaching.
Storm angled his head toward Ram. "What do you suppose they were up to that would make them jump like that?"
"Do no' know, but it will definitely be keepin' me awake."
"We're jumpy because we've spent an entire evening being stared at by vampire in an overtly sexual way," Elora lied smoothly. Litha didn't dare look at her or she'd give that away for sure.
"I see," said Ram. To Storm he said, "You might think that women who'd been made skittish by wicked horny biters would want to stick close to their males."
Storm slid his eyes to Rammel. "You would think so." As he looked back at Litha his face broke into a grin. "Fortunately for us these women are not like any others."
Ram grabbed Elora and pulled her in tight while bathing her in the light of one of his signature sexy smiles. "The talk about horny biters is downright arousin'. How 'bout skippin' dinner?"
"Come on. We'll eat fast."
Elora made a point of calling Litha almost every day after that because she was concerned about the pregnancy and knew that Litha, whose relatives consisted of an incubus and seven monks, had no women to confide in. Storm's girl was a new case study for The Order's annals and the delivery of a mostly demon hybrid was an event. Elora didn't want the woman to get lost in the shuffle.
With each passing day that she called to ask for a report, she felt closer to Litha, and as she became more fond, she realized how much she'd missed female companionship - her cousin, Madelayne, and even her younger sisters. Litha managed to couch her concerns and physical complaints in an entertaining dry wit so that Elora was never sure which of them benefitted most from their talks.
***
CHAPTER _6
The next morning Elora woke to her phone buzzing on the bedside table. She looked around. Ram must have gotten up with the baby. She heard voices in the next room and knew that nanny had already arrived. She tilted the phone to look at the caller ID. Love Bites. He'd changed it from White Fang when he was cured. The first time.
"Hey. Did you get a plane?"
"I did."
"Good. When will you be here?"
"Two minutes. I'm stepping off the sixth floor elevator and coming down your hallway."
Elora sat straight up. "I haven't brushed my teeth yet."