Page 122 of Filthy Rich Vampires: For Eternity

“I know.” She shifted toward the wall, tucking her knees against her chest.

Or maybe I was getting this all wrong. “Thea, if you don’t want...I’m sure something can be done.”

Her eyebrows nudged together as she considered this. “What do you mean?”

I sucked in a deep breath, allowing it to fill my chest and hoping I could tamp down my emotions enough to say what needed to be said. “If you’ve changed your mind, I will support you. If you don’t want to have a baby—”

“What?” She bolted unsteadily to her feet. “Why would you say that?”

Okay, maybe I had read her wrong. The trouble was that I was having a hard time reading her at all. Even our mating bond felt fuzzy, as though the changes happening to her were fucking it up. In the end, all I had was the truth. “I don’t know what to say,” I murmured, not daring to move closer to her. “Tell me what to say, Thea.”

Her eyes closed. “Just tell me you love me.”

“I love you.” I took a step toward her.

“I love you, too.” She opened her eyes one at a time and gave me a brittle smile. “Tell me that it will all be okay.”

“It will—”

But she cut me off, “Tell me that the Vampire Council won’t try to assassinate me the minute they find out about us. Tell me my father won’t try to kidnap me again. Tell me that I’m not powerless to protect our...”

I closed the space between us. Wrapping her in my arms, I vowed, “No one will touch you.”

“How can you be sure?” Her face peeked up at me, searching my eyes for an answer. “If you can sense changes in me, if Celia can sense them...we can’t hide it. What are we supposed to do? Stay here forever? They’ll come for us. You know that!”

“And I will be ready. The Scourge, remember?” I forced a tight smile, knowing I would become that monster again if that’s what it took.

“That’s not a solution. You forget that I feel everything you feel. I know what it does to you when they call you il flagello. I won’t let you become a monster for me,” she argued, showcasing the willfulness that I’d fallen for when we met.

And I loved her for knowing that and seeing what others could not—for what others refused to. But for her… “Then we find a nice private island with a lot of security. Oh, wait, we have one.”

“We can’t just disappear.”

“We could with a glamour.”

“A glamour?” she repeated, tearing free of my arms. “I spent my whole life glamoured!”

“I know.” I reached for her, but she stepped farther away.

“And what am I supposed to do? Hide behind magic, and then what? Send it away? Maybe you can ship our child off to be with Camila’s children, wherever they are.”

I flinched. “We will not do that to our children.”

“We can’t just hide this.” She took a shaky breath. “If...”

There it was again: If.

“We will find a way to keep you both safe.” I had not endured nine centuries without her to lose her. I would do whatever it took to keep her safe. Damn the consequences.

“If there is danger, we will face it together,” I swore to her. “No one will touch you. No one will touch our child.”

“I feel selfish.” Her voice was small. “How can I bring a child into this mess?”

And there it was. The reason she’d been holding back. The reason she’d fought the joy I felt flickering and vanishing through our bond. And I wished I had a better answer for her, but once again I could only be open. Vulnerable. “As you are always pointing out, I am much older than you,” I said dryly. “But with age comes wisdom, so believe me when I say that life is always a mess.”

She choked back a little sob. “Still, maybe we should have waited.”

I shook my head. “To be happy? You can’t wait for that. Happiness has to be seized. It’s in short supply most of the time. We can’t waste it.”

---