to slide lazily over to me.
“Can you get me pregnant?” I blurt out.
Movement behind Carrick catches my attention, and Maddox pops his head out from behind a bookshelf, his eyebrows raised and a grin on his face.
My entire body flushes hot with embarrassment.
Without even needing to look over his shoulder at his brother, Carrick says, “Maddox… you mind giving us a moment alone?”
“I’d really rather stay and listen to this,” Maddox quips.
Carrick twists in his seat toward his brother. While I can’t see his expression, it’s sufficient enough to get Maddox moving. He stops at the table and drops two books there before heading straight toward the stairs, which has him walking right past me.
He bends his head to the side and murmurs as he passes, “You are positively glowing this morning, Finley. I take it you had a particularly good night?”
I decide not to let him get to me, lifting my chin and smiling sweetly. “Didn’t get much sleep, but yeah… a very good night.”
Maddox tips his head back and roars with laughter before moving up the staircase and out of sight. My attention swings back to Carrick, waiting for the answer that will bring my heart rate back to normal.
“No,” he says with a shake of his head. “I can’t get you pregnant. It can’t happen between an immortal and a mortal.”
“Oh,” I reply, mostly in relief but damn it… a little bit sad. Stan had predicted me in a cliffside house with a man and children. It clearly wouldn’t be Carrick.
Not that we’d have time to reach that goal anyway when the prophecy was surely going to play out long before I could have kids.
So that either meant that Stan was very wrong that I’d live long enough to find love and have children, or he’s correct, but Carrick isn’t the man I’ll spend my life with.
That right there feels soul-crushing, but I can’t figure out why.
I barely know the man.
He’s annoying, frustrating, and domineering.
Yes, I respect him.
Yes, there’s some connection to him that is unexplainable.
But no… this is never going to be more than sex and Zaid is right… I can’t let that distract me from our goals.
Carrick’s long leg pushes the chair out from under the table opposite of him as he nods toward it. “Sit. We need to talk.”
Glumly, I move the chair and plop down, taking the initiative to discuss what needs to be said. “I know, I know. What we had yesterday and last night is only sex—nothing more—and we can’t let it distract us.”
Narrowing his eyes, Carrick tips his head. “That’s what you think?”
“Isn’t it what you think?” I counter.
“No, it’s not what I think. I think it’s more, and if you’ll be honest, you do, too. Although now that you’ve got me thinking about sex, I’m quite confident this table is sturdy enough to handle the things I’d like to do to you right now.”
I suck in a lungful of air. So shocked am I by his words and the blatant lust written on his face that I actually cause myself to choke.
Carrick chuckles and waves a hand. “But you’re right… we can’t get distracted, and, right now, we really do need to have a serious talk. Although I reserve the right to revisit the table idea after.”
Damn it… his words make me squirm in my seat, and Carrick is savvy enough to notice his words have an impact.
His eyes sparkle just briefly before the smirk slides off his face and his expression becomes serious. “We need to talk about your recklessness.”
My eyes flare, jaw dropping. “Excuse me?”
“Ditching Lucien, going out alone to meet the Strathertons,” he reminds me.
Defenses start pouring forth. “I was in public the entire time, picked a place close by, in a crowded coffee shop. There was no way Kymaris was going to do something.”
“What if that wasn’t really the Strathertons?” Carrick asks softly, but there’s an underlying tone of anger there. “What if they had been taken over somehow to lure you there just for the purpose of killing you? What if they’d been possessed somehow and had a gun and shot you right between the eyes as you were sipping on coffee?”
The blood in my veins turns to ice at the same time my face heats up with the embarrassing knowledge that I, once again, underestimated the danger I could be in. “I hadn’t considered that,” I reluctantly admit.
“I don’t know what to do with you,” Carrick says, letting the words hang heavy.
“Accept my