Came Back Haunted (Experiment in Terror #10) - Karina Halle Page 0,124

might be weird if she’s still my therapist, though I think she’s already broken a whole bunch of rules and oaths by both helping us in the house, and also going into my head. And advising us to use sex blood magic as well. But hey, it all worked out. I don’t even have scars anymore.

“Okay,” Dex says, pushing the empty drink into the sand and then grabbing my arms, trying to pull me up. “Let’s go in. I’m hot.”

I push myself up, swinging my legs around, and we walk down the slight incline of the beach toward the water, the sand burning the soles of my feet. I check the skin around the straps on my tankini and so far it looks like I’m not getting burned.

Dex runs the last few feet to the water, splashing through the surf before diving in effortlessly.

I take my time, yelping as the waves break on me, and then he’s swimming over to me, grabbing me by the waist and hauling me into the water.

“Stop!” I yelp, but he’s laughing and throwing me through the air so I land with a splash, saltwater going up my nose. The water is so nice and warm but now I also have sand in my bathing suit, the waves pounding me.

Dex pulls me back away from the break, and then I wrap my legs around his waist, my arms going around his neck, laughing.

“Can you touch the bottom?” I ask him, peering down beside us at the sand below.

“Just how tall do you think I am?” he asks me. “I’m treading water.”

Of course he’s so strong that when he treads water, he’s barely moving.

“So where do you want to eat tonight?” he says, kissing the salt from my lips. “How about room service,” he adds before I can even answer. “We stay in. I eat you for dessert.”

I grin. “Room service sounds great,” I tell him, kissing the tip of his nose.

His lips curve into a wicked smile. “Where in your cycle are you?”

His question doesn’t take me by surprise because we’re always double checking my cycle via the various period apps I have. I didn’t want to go back on birth control so soon after going off of it, so we’ve been going by my cycle when it comes to sex. On the days where I’m most fertile, he usually just comes all over me instead, which I actually kind of like. Guess the blood play desensitized me or something.

“Actually, I think today I’m heading into the fertile window,” I tell him, prepared for some disappointment. “I’m supposed to ovulate in like five or six days.”

“Do you want to try?” he asks, a sweet hopeful tone to his voice, a tone I don’t hear too often.

I stare at him. “Try what?”

His eyes grow serious, water droplets sticking to his dark lashes. “To have a baby.”

My brain does a double-take.

The baby thing is something we’ve touched on only briefly this last while. We talked about how seeing ghosts, doing the documentary, just living the lives that we do shouldn’t have any bad effect on us having a child. That I shouldn’t lose my mind and get almost possessed each time I deal with the supernatural. We talked about what Lana had said, that this time it was brought on by that deep, scary need inside me, and since I didn’t deal with it properly, it allowed Samantha to use that energy to manifest herself.

But we didn’t discuss it beyond that. I still want a baby, a child, a family with Dex. I’ve just been learning to deal with the feelings properly, to try appreciate the cards I’ve been given, the wonderful life I have in front of me. This wonderful man who would do anything for me, who has done everything.

To be honest, I didn’t think this was something we’d discuss so soon.

“Are you sure?” I whisper, afraid to get my hopes up, my hands tightening around the back of his neck.

He nods, swallowing. “Yes,” he says. “I’ve never been more sure.”

“Dex,” I say, my heart swelling in size, pressing against my chest, all this hope growing and growing. “Please don’t…please don’t tell me these things and change your mind again. Promise me.”

“I won’t promise you that,” he says gravely. “I can’t. Because if something comes up again, I will always choose you first. You’re my wife, Perry. You’re my life. My everything. There will never be a point where you’re not what matters most.” He