Page 63 of Cinder's Trial

“How did I get so lucky?” he murmured, cradling me close as the aftershocks tingled between my legs.

“It wasn’t luck but fate,” I declared.

He snorted. “A fate that kept conspiring to keep us apart.”

I had to wonder because, after all, all those things that happened only drew us closer together.

We made love a second time, slower, more sensually, and finished with our gazes locked. So intimate.

But also sticky. “I need to bathe,” I declared when he tucked me into him, readying to sleep.

“As my princess desires.” Levi rolled out of bed and headed to the bathroom to run the bath. When I entered, I noticed he’d even added bubbles, but before I could step into the steaming pleasure, a head rose from the tub.

Nicola emerged, her green hair crowned in suds. Upon seeing her, I worried that Levi might be wrong about the wedding. Would she be angry we’d gotten married without her?

“Mother, what have I said about visiting me in the bathroom?” Levi stated in a chiding tone, his bulky nude body providing a shield for mine.

“I won’t be here long. Just wanted to say congratulations. You’ve chosen a fine bride, even if her hips are too narrow, but with today’s medical advancements, the babe in her belly should be born without issue.”

I blinked. Pretty sure Levi stopped breathing.

Nicola smirked. “I’ll leave you two to enjoy your wedding night. But will add, don’t forget your promise.”

With that, she sank under the water in the tub, while I rocked on my heels trying to wrap my head around the fact I was pregnant.

Levi faintly said, “Did she just imply…”

I nodded and grabbed his hand to place it on my belly. “We’re going to be parents.”

Levi keeled over and splashed into the tub, only barely missing smacking his head. I panicked and ran for aid since I couldn’t lift him out.

“Gerome! Help. Levi fainted.”

“Like fuck,” his initial reply.

“I told him I was pregnant.”

At those words, Gerome came at a run to help, and for the first time ever, I heard the quiet man laugh before he grunted, “Boss man is gonna make a great dad.”

And a great husband, because this was my story and I would live a happily ever after.

Epilogue

A few weeks later…

“Princess, I’m home,” Levi bellowed, walking through the door to our new place. An actual house with lots of bedrooms because I doubted we’d stop at one baby. All that extra space meant my friends were in their glory. The mice had been burrowing into the walls to create themselves cozy homes. Charlotte loved the dusty attic that came with built-in friends. As for Izzy, he adored the garden out back and spent much time sunbathing on the lip of the fountain, a fountain that spewed Nicola when the mood to visit struck her.

It drove Levi nuts that she kept popping in, but I didn’t mind. After all, the Nixie wanted to be a part of her grandchild’s life. But even better, she became the mother I never had.

Levi found me in the home office where I’d begun working almost every other day, skipping the ones when the morning sickness hit me hard.

“Hi,” I chirped, seeing him. “Give me a second to finish up this email.”

“No problems?” he asked, sitting on the corner of my desk.

“Nope.” As a matter of fact, the nursery rhymes involving me stopped the moment we got married. No more singing cats or fish in the tub. Although it took more than a week of Levi hovering before I could convince him I didn’t need watching twenty-four-seven.

“I brought you a present,” he stated.

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