Page 43 of Grave Curse

It was a wild, insane ride, an unadulteratedfuckingat its most basic level, and I loved it. Each impact drove me closer to him, to becoming utterly one with him in every way possible, and as his ragged breaths grew into savage grunts, and then into muted shouts I came a third time, winding my legs around his body to hold onto the one man who made me feel whole.

Chapter Twelve

A Shot at Beautiful

“Condom!”

It wasn’t the most picturesque way to wake up the morning after the best night of sex I’d ever had. After Tyr gave me three—three!—orgasms on the dining room table, he at last untied me and helped me to my feet. At the time, I’d been blissed out and so flummoxed by the weird turn in my life of having Tyr become my lover that I’d barely registered his semen leaking out as I went to shower, where he’d joined me.

Then he’d claimed that turnabout was fair play when it came to oral sex, and that I needed to get on my knees double-quick. I did so only because that sounded like a ton of fun, and by the time we’d fallen into bed—oddly the one place where we hadn’t had sex—sleep had claimed me almost before my head hit the pillow. Sleeping peacefully with someone in the bed with me was another first. I hadn’t had a significant other in years, and even then I hadn’t been big on having someone else in the bed with me.

With Tyr, though, I hadn’t given it a thought as he pulled me to him as if I were his favorite snuggle pillow, and drifted off to sleep with him half-lying on top of me.

But I was awake now. Horribly, terribly awake.

“Ginger. Baby.” Sounding more asleep than awake, Tyr stirred against the pillows and reached out a long, muscle-padded arm. “Come back here, the sun’s not even up yet.”

“I can’t, I’ve got to get to a drugstore.”

In the gloom, I saw his eyes shoot open, instantly awake. “What’s wrong? Are you sick? What do you need? Say it, and I’ll have it here for you in minutes.”

A fleeting warmth bloomed inside, almost distracting me from my mission. “No one’s picking up for me the one thing I need.”

“What do you need?”

“The morning-after pill. Or a time machine, whichever works. I’m not picky.” I made to push off the bed, but he caught me by the waist before I could take off like a rocket. “Tyr—”

“You’re not going anywhere.” His sleep-gruff voice did wacky things to my nervous system, making me shiver when the room was nice and warm. “Nothing’s open at five in the morning. Come back to bed.”

“There’s such a thing as 24-hour pharmacies, and I’ve got all the motivation to find one.” I took a deep breath and dived in. “I’m not on birth control, Tyr. And the timing of having unprotected sex… I mean, it’s not perfect for baby-making shenanigans like it would be a few days from now, but there’s still a possibility I could get pregnant from last night’s… whatever that was.”Temporary insanityfit the bill quite nicely.

The arm around me tightened until it felt like living steel. “In the long, long history of humans fucking each other, last night was the absolute pinnacle.”

He wasn’t wrong. “Yeah, but now I’ve got to take care of the consequences. So let me go so I can do that, okay? I’ll pick up some condoms for you while I’m at it,” I added, then was a little stunned and a lot turned on by my brazen assumption that lots of future sexy-times with him was going to happen. “Any preferences?”

“Yeah, I’ve got a preference.” In a shocking flex, Tyr suddenly hauled me backwards, pushed me flat onto the mattress and rolled over on top of me so that we were almost nose to nose. “My preference is none.”

“What?”

“None, as in no condoms. Not with you. And not when your biological clock is coming up on prime baby-making time.”

Either my ears were playing tricks on me, or I was still asleep and stress-dreaming about all the unprotected sex we’d just had. “Okay, I don’t think you understood what I said, so let me explain how things work. You see, a healthy woman’s body cycles roughly every twenty-eight days, so that means—”

“I know exactly what it means, Doctor.” A husky chuckle sounded before he kissed me lazily, then shimmied down my body so that he could fit his face into the curve of my neck. “You’re the one who’s not understanding me, but I’ve got faith in you. You’ll get there eventually.”

I stared up at the ceiling, beyond baffled. “Tyr, if I don’t take care of this, right now, we could be in serious trouble.”

“Mm-hm.”

“Baby-creating kind of trouble. Me-being-pregnant kind of trouble.”

“I’ve always liked the name Gus, short for Augustus. Or Augusta, if it’s a girl. No more god names, but I think the names of various Caesars are kind of cool. What do you think?”

Oh, my God. “I think one of us has lost their mind.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself, baby girl. You’ve always been a little weird, especially when you’re in pretend-goddess mode, but I’d never say you were crazy.”

I gave his shoulder a thump. “Will you take this seriously? I’m talking about a baby here, Tyr. An actual, brand-new human being that you’re responsible for, not some abstract concept. Not some squirming, crying, living thing that you can beat your chest about in a macho frenzy, but otherwise take no interest in. Not a trophy you receive nine months later for getting laid. I’m talking about ababy.”

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