Page 49 of Redemption's Inferno

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“Let’s not tell anyone we’re heading home,” Emilie said to Chains that night as they lay in bed. “I want to surprise everyone.”

“Why?” he asked.

“I really want to surprise Jamie,” she admitted. “He’s had such a rough year, and I know how much he wants a child, so I’d like to be able to hand him the test and see his face. I want him to be with me at the first doctor’s appointment. I want him to be there for the first ultrasound…will all this bother you?”

He hesitated, trying to wrap his mind around everything that was about to change in his life. They hadn’t discussed living arrangements, how their new dynamic would affect them at work, or any of the other issues that would inevitably come up by being together. She had a kid, an ex-husband who was now married to the father of the new baby she was carrying, and apparently they were all going to be one big family. He’d known all of this, but with everything else going on, it hadn’t seemed like something he needed to worry about. He definitely needed to at least think about it now.

“Chains?” She turned onto her side to look into his face. “It bothers you, doesn’t it?”

“I…” He let out a deep sigh. “I don’t know. It doesn’t bother me you’re having a baby for Jamie and you know I like him and Viggo a lot. I just…I’m having a hard time with the idea of you and Jamie sleeping together.”

“We’re not going to anymore,” she pointed out. “And since I was married to Viggo, you know I’ve slept with him in the past also, but you didn’t mention that.”

“I don’t know why, but it’s different. This pregnancy makes your relationship with Jamie more…intimate.”

“Very.” She reached for his chin and tugged it so he was looking at her. “But there are different definitions of intimate. I have an intimate bond with my twin; he knows me like no one else, for obvious reasons, but although it could be described as intimate, we certainly don’t have sex!”

He grimaced. “Bloody hell, I hope not. You Swedes are definitely more sexually liberated than us uptight Brits.”

She playfully swatted him. “Shut it! That’s terrible!”

“I know the intimacy with you and Jamie is related to the child, not to any romantic feelings you have for each other, but I’m the outsider, yeah? Karl and Viggo go back to childhood. You and Viggo were married and have a kid. You and Jamie are having a baby…where does that leave me? When it comes down to it, I’m nothing but hired help—the rest of you are family.”

“Silly.” She pressed a sweet, tender kiss on his lips, letting them linger before sliding her mouth down his throat and along the edge of his collarbone. “You’ve never been just hired help! And remember, Jamie and Viggo have known each other less than two years and are married. I’ve known Jamie less than a year and we’re having a baby.” She paused to look at the dragon’s wing tattooed on his right shoulder and bent to lick along the edge that disappeared over his shoulder. “If you still want me and my crazy life when we get home, you’ll be family too.”

“You thinking you’re going to want a ring and all that?” His voice was gruff but his eyes told her something else.

“I don’t know.” She used her finger to trace the linear pattern of an intricate design that went up his side and around to his back, and then ran her tongue along the length of it with careful precision. “Depends on how many babies you want.”

He chuckled. “So, just one baby and we don’t have to bother, but any more than that…?”

She giggled. “Seeing that I’ve already got two, it might be a bit late.”

“If you wanted a ring,” he said, closing his eyes at the delightful sensations that ran through him as she licked and traced his tattoos, “I’d be all right with it.”

“I thought this was a trial?” she countered, kissing the British flag on his right hip bone. “That you weren’t sure about me yet.”

“I’ve been sure about you since the first time you set those blue eyes on me,” he hissed, gritting his teeth as her mouth moved closer to his growing erection.

“But?”

“You were married.”

“You wanted me even then?” She paused to look up at him.

He gently pushed her head back down, anxious to feel more of her mouth on his over-sensitized skin. “I didn’t know it yet,” he muttered. “Or was too stubborn to think about it.”

“And now?”

“Now that I’ve got you, I’m not quite convinced I could let you go.”

“You’re holding something back,” she said gently, lightly blowing on the tip of his penis as she held it in her hand. “Tell me.”

“Later,” he grunted.

“Now.” She squeezed his cock harder than he was expecting and she smiled to herself as he jerked but then instantly caught himself. To keep him on edge, she dragged her tongue down the length of his shaft, but rather than sucking him into her mouth, she waited, keeping her hand around him firmly.

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