Page 9 of Crimson Flames

“Tilt your head back a little and relax, Love,” Cillian instructs. I’m lying on the couch in his room while he sketches my very pregnant belly to frame for the nursery.

Pillows prop me up from every direction, and I don’t think I’ve been more comfortable in weeks.

“Are you happy?” Cillian asks, his pencil moving over the paper while his gaze remains on me.

I smile as I look into his dark eyes.

“I’m comfortable, spoiled, and so full of happiness I could puke.”

His lips lift so wide he looks slightly unhinged.

“I thought the nausea phase was over.”

“Oh, it is. Now it’s the hormonal stage where every emotion feels ten times as strong.”

Cillian gets to his feet, stalking over to me like a predator. He insisted I take my clothes off for the sketch so he could get the perfect form of the baby.

It was total bullshit, but I played along because the fuzzy blankets he laid down for me felt amazing beneath my skin.

“Does this feel stronger too?” His fingers trail down between my legs, my breath hitching as he glides them to that perfect spot, humming low in approval.

“Does that answer your question?” I ask, parting my legs for him.

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The sweet smell of bubbles surrounds me as I watch candles flicker, the flames casting us in a warm light. Boris holds me close as we soak in these last days of peace together.

Soon, we’ll have a little one to tend to, and these nights will be few and far between. Gentle fingers rub circles on my belly, and Adien kicks as if she knows exactly who is doing it.

“I think that tickles her,” I say.

“Mmm, or she just has the hiccups again.”

Aiden has had relentless hiccups, sometimes so strong that they even wake me in the middle of the night. But right now feels different, as if she is trying to push Boris’ fingers away with her feet.

“She is so strong,” Boris says as he feels her increasing her efforts. I can see the slight outline of her foot as she stretches my stomach, and Boris covers it with a chuckle.

When his movements still, and he holds me close, she finally settles. My head relaxes back on his shoulders as we soak in the peace, and I breathe in my favorite scent.

“I love you, Lisichka.”

“I love you too.” My fingers weave between his on top of my belly. “Together?”

He presses a kiss to my temple as he whispers, “Together.”

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I can’t see anything, but I feel it. Pain. All-consuming anguish. The peaceful dream of what life would have been like had we not gotten that phone call begins to fade. In its place is agony.

It drenches me from head to toe, mentally and physically. There’s yelling all around, and I can feel the panic in the atmosphere. It’s like I’m drowning in my own blood.

When my eyes open, that is all I see. Blackness surrounds me as I lay in an ever growing pool of crimson.

My hand flies to my stomach, my first thought of Aiden, but my palm connects with nothing.

She's not there. No one is there.

A bloodcurdling scream rips from my throat, a sound so powerful and full of anguish that I’m sure it splits the realms.

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