Noctis shrugged. “If you insist.”
Once again the Goddess filled his lungs with the water of life and drowned him a second time. He awoke sometime later that night on the floor of the sanctuary an immortal once again.
When Noctis returned to his home, the birthday party was still as lively as ever. His bride was playing strip poker with her friends on the dining room table. She was down to her bra and jeans.
“You lose again, Amara.” Dimitri winked at her and spread his cards on the table. “What will it be this time? The bra or the jeans?”
Noctis groaned from aggravation. He marched up to the table and said to his bride, “We’re going to bed. Now. Party’s over.”
“Wait a minute!” Dimitri protested. “We won fair and square so we demand our prize. Amara, strip!”
His bride hiked her shoulders even when she read the disapproval in his eyes. “They won fair and square.”
“I forbid you from taking another article of clothing off of that body!” Noctis said firmly. “We’re going to bed and you can take them off then.”
His bride looked up at him with pleading eyes. “I don’t want to be known as the loser that doesn’t pay out.”
“Must you insist on this?”
She nodded.
“Fine!” he said, his voice disgruntled. He then turned to the rest of the table and said, “I’ll do it in her place.”
The men made loud objections while the women giggled loudly. He didn’t give a damn about what they thought. The sooner he got it over with, the sooner he could take his bride to bed.
He tugged at the fabric of his shirt and yanked it open. He shrugged out of the shirt and dropped it on the floor. The men tossed their cards into the air and walked away while the women held onto their stomachs and laughed.
“Enough of this!” He bent over, grabbed his bride by her legs, and lugged her over his right shoulder. He then carried her upstairs and into their bedroom. She was still laughing when he deposited her on the bed. He shifted to his study to retrieve her gift and shifted back to the bedroom. He lightly tossed it into her hands.
She sobered up and asked. “What is this?”
“Can’t you tell?”
“You got me a present?” Her grey eyes visibly warmed up as she carefully undid the ribbon and unwrapped the gift. “Did you gift wrap it also?”
“No,” he replied. “It was complimentary of the purchase.” With the price tag that it comes with, it was only fitting that giftwrapping was complimentary.
She opened the box and stared at the piece of jewelry in it for a long while before she gave any reaction. Then, she whispered softly. “It must have cost a fortune…”
“It did,” he confirmed with a soft chuckle.
“Do you still have the receipt?”
“It is impolite to return a gift.”
“But… it’s so… excessive.”
He frowned at her reaction. He had had high hopes that she would like the gift he had prepared. He wanted to spoil his bride, but he didn’t even know how.
“I do love it,” she assured him. “But… what am I going to wear this diamond necklace to? It’s too flashy. I would get mugged wearing this outside!”
“It is yours and you do with it as you will. Throw it out of the window if it displeases you.”
“Don’t be angry,” she pacified him. “I didn’t mean it that way. It’s the most beautiful necklace I’ve ever laid eyes on. I really appreciate the gesture. But you see… my time is different than yours. I can’t wear this outside or it will blind people. People only wear something like this… well, only high-class people wear something like this at charity balls and whatnot. My goodness, even a royal princess would be able to hold her head high with this piece around her neck. But I’m no princess.”
“You would have been if I still had my titles.”
She smiled at him.
“Like it or not, it belongs to you now.” He picked the diamond necklace out of its case and draped it across the base of her neck. Her grey eyes were so beautiful that the sparkling diamonds couldn’t outshine her. She trembled as his fingers brushed by her satin smooth skin. The blush on her cheeks was incredibly sensual. The woman was just beckoning to be kissed.
He leaned over the bed and pulled her close enough to kiss her hungrily. Already, he was filled with the devastating need to have her. They were exchanging breath for breath and sigh for sigh in the gaps between their heated kisses. When his hands attempted to pull down her jeans, she stopped him.
“What is it?” he asked gently. “Was I too rough this morning?”
She shook her head. “…I went to the doctor earlier this afternoon.”
He cupped her face with both of his hands. “Why? Are you unwell? I thought that—”
She shook her head again. She took his right hand and slowly guided it to her lower abdomen. Nervous grey eyes were looking up at him. He was trying to decipher what she was telling him when it hit him like a boulder to the back of his head. One second, he was experiencing pure bliss and the next second he was in complete despair. He pushed from the bed and forced himself to stand on two numb legs. He had taken every precaution to prevent this from happening. Was it from the night he came back to her while his body was still in disfigurement from the burn?
His bride sat up and stared to him in a moment of nervous anticipation. He made her wait for so long that her expression turned to hurt.
“You shouldn’t have told me…” he muttered in cold sweat.
“But… but you are the father,” she said in a barely audible voice. “…or do you doubt that?”
“Of course, I don’t doubt the child is mine!” He retorted, his breathing rapid. He was so overwhelmed by her acceptance of him even at his worst that he lost control of himself. He wanted to possess her wholly and completely that he…“W-what are you planning to do with it?”
“What am I…?” She lowered her eyes when she realized what he meant. “Do you still think that I am capable of something like that?”
“Amara…” He was at a loss for words. Her grey eyes flared at him.
“So it wasn’t enough that you accused me of murdering your wife?” She grabbed a pillow and threw it at him. “Get out!” she screamed at him. “Get out!”
He wasn’t about to let her chase him out of his own bedroom again. He couldn’t stand another night apart from her. He hurried to her side and embraced her tightly in his arms.
“Get out…” she sobbed. “If you still think that I’m an evil and wicked woman then don’t share a bed with me…”
“I don’t think you are evil and wicked and I wouldn’t care even if you were. I fear that you still haven’t forgiven me for how I treated you.”
“So I would make an innocent life suffer for what you did? Am I messed up in the head like you are?”
“You weren’t going to…”
“No!” She cried. “I hate you for even thinking that! Haven’t you got any idea how important family is to me by now? I’ve spent my childhood living off whatever scraps I could find because I came from a broken family and a broken home. In my heart, all I ever really wanted was a home and a family of my own. When I found out I’m having a baby, I felt so much joy I didn’t think I could even breathe. I’m going to be a mother. This is a chance I never thought I would be blessed with. Why would you think I would do such a thing to my own flesh and blood? How could you stand there and accuse me of trying to destroy my own child? How?” She attempted to shove him away. “Oh, just get out!”
“Shh,” he hushed her. “Don’t cry.”
“I’ll raise my child alone!”
“The child is mine too. Even you are not allowed to take our child away from me.” He kissed away the tears on her cheeks. “Hush now.”
She struggled against his firm hold until she grew tired of struggling. He cradled her in his arms until she calmed down and the tears dried on her cheeks.
“I thought it was you,” he con
fessed.
“What?” his bride asked softly.
“At the time, I didn’t know Rion had taken your place to deceive me. I thought it was you that I couldn’t save. I had promised that I wouldn’t fail you but I–”
“You couldn’t face your own failure?”
He sighed. “If only it was just that. You were the only anchor that had kept my mind in place. When I thought I’d lost you, my mind began to drift. Daniela took advantage of the opportunity and filled my head with deceptions.”
“About Rion?”
He shook his head and frowned at her assumption. “I remembered you when I couldn’t remember you…if that makes any sense. I remembered a woman whose face was shadowed by my incomplete memories. I remembered a lover I had loved and lost. I remembered everything about you, but I couldn’t remember…you. I was full of rage and I wanted retribution for what I had lost.”
“Are you sure it wasn’t because of Rion?” Her voice was tinged with feminine distrust.
If he wasn’t mistaken, that was jealousy he’d detected in her tone of voice. Amusement laced his face. He did not want to revisit the subject of Rion, but there was a need to put his bride’s suspicions to rest. He refused to let her continue to believe that she was living in the shadow of another woman. Amara had a place of her own in their home and he would not let her doubt that fact.
“Before Rion attempted what she had, I offered her a new home and a fortune of her own. She refused and stubbornly wanted to chase you out of your own home.”
“Well, I–”
“She’d pushed me to dissolve our marriage,” he purposely interrupted. “By our laws, an unconsummated marriage may be nullified at any given time.”
“Because of me?”
“Not entirely. I was putting an end to something that should never have begun in the first place. Things would have ended similarly with or without your presence. I could not have cared less where that woman is concerned.”
His bride wrapped her arms around her abdomen. “Are you still holding a grudge against her because of her one mistake? Any woman would have done the same, you know.”
The gaze of his eyes sharpened. “Would you have?”
“I don’t know what I would have done in that situation. I’m only human.”
“Let us never find out.”
“Hypothetically…if I did…”
“I wouldn’t be in the right mind to find out what I would do to you either. Looking at you then would injure more than just my pride.” His tensed face eased into a knowing grin. “But I would never allow the slightest chance of that.”
“You sound so sure,” she taunted.
“Why shouldn’t I be?” He asked conceitedly. “I will keep you in my bed tonight and every night afterward. I will cater to you; fill your body with so much mind-blowing pleasure that all you will be able to think about during the day are thoughts of me. And when your womb ripens with another child as a result of our many, many love making sessions, I will know with certainty that it is mine!”
“You are so bloody aggressive about everything.”
He smirked as he dipped his head to kiss her. She swerved her head to avoid him and planted her hands against his chest. He sighed. “The answer to your question is ‘no’. I do not hold a grudge against her anymore. I just simply don’t care.”
“Is it a habit of yours to stop caring?” she asked curiously.
“Perhaps,” he said, and then added, “but one thing is certain.”
“What is?”
“I will never stop caring about you or the children we will have in the future. I will do everything in my powers to protect our family and our home.”
She smiled at his answer.
“Have you truly agreed on having my child, Amara?”
“Hmm,” she said as she wiggled her body to find a comfortable position. He loosened his hold to give her more room to move.
Noctis smiled to himself. Their child would have the best from the both of them. If a boy, then he would inherit his father’s powers and his mother’s unconquerable spirit. If a girl, then she would inherit her father’s good looks and her mother’s ability to win people over. It would be nice if they inherited his bride’s stunning not-so-blue and not-quite-grey eyes.
Gender topic aside, Noctis had never been more proud of the gift he had given to his future offspring. His bride had the warmth of a nurturer and the fierce protective instincts of a mother. Her heart was gentle, but she was also capable of standing firm. His offspring could not have a more suitable mother and he could not find a more suitable bride even if he were to spend the rest of eternity searching.
He pressed a light kiss on her soft coral cheek and said to the future mother of his children, “You are worth the wait, Amara Spelling.”
The End.
Dahlia Lu, The Dark God's Bride (Book 3)
Thank you for reading books on BookFrom.Net Share this book with friends