Page 31 of The Aether

“I can’t go. Not without her,” she cried. “Please don’t make me leave here without her.”

“We’re in a bit of a pickle, aren’t we? She’s not setting foot off these grounds, my dear. I’d offer for you to live here, but I don’t trust you to not sneak away with her in the middle of the night—again.”

“If I promise I won’t?” she asked raggedly.

With a coldness of tone that made her heartsick, he said, “I wouldn’t believe you.”

CHAPTER11

3 1/2 YEARS LATER

“You have to come up with a solution, Damian. She won’t rest until she has a dog.”

Damian Dethridge didn’t respond to his wife’s comment as he watched beyond the window, where their daughter Sabrina played with the fallen leaves. Using her natural-born abilities, she transformed the foliage colors from yellow, orange, and red into black and tan. With a trick their neighbor Mackenzie had shown her, Sabrina then gathered the leaves and formed them into the shape of puppies.

“They resemble deformed hellhounds more than puppies,” he commented absently.

Vivian snorted a laugh. There was humor in the soulful depths of her eyes. “They do.”

Damian and Viv shared an amused look, the first one in what felt like forever. Although Damian had unbent enough for her to move in with them, it was exceedingly difficult to find neutral ground when it came to their marriage. Theirs had become one of convenience, and Damian mourned the loss of what they’d once had. Only for Sabrina did they try. She needed her mother more than her father needed to be free of a wife who didn’t love him.

Oh, but there had been one exquisite night after Vivian came back to the estate from some celebration or another, her face aglow with happiness and her inhibitions lowered from two glasses of honey mead. Due to his continued hopelessness regarding love, Damian had given in to his own urge to imbibe while she was gone. When she returned, he’d taken one look at the shining face she turned up to him and kissed her with pent-up passion from years’ worth of denial and loneliness.

She’d led him to her room with no hesitation, and they’d conceived their son. That glorious event was never to be repeated, much to Damian’s profound regret.

His gaze dropped to her expanding belly, and he desperately wanted to touch it. To feel the life growing there.

“How is Baby Nate this morning?” he gestured to her pregnancy bump with a warm smile.

She grimaced and wrapped her arms around the ever-growing mound. “He’s abusing my bladder, the little devil. It wouldn’t hurt my feelings if he made an appearance soon.”

Damian chuckled and shifted closer. “May I?”

“Please do.”

With one hand, he rubbed her lower back and placed the palm of his other over where he knew Nate’s head was positioned.

“Give your mother a break, little one,” he told his son. The pulse of energy he received in return made Damian chuckle. “Seems he’s just as eager as you are to have him out of there. It won’t be long, Viv.”

“Thank you.”

When she tenderly kissed his jaw, Damian closed his eyes and drew her close, resting his cheek against her silky white-blonde hair. Not caring if it was gratitude or her hormones urging her to touch him, he’d take whatever she offered. Goddess, he missed holding her and touching her the way he had when they were madly in love. Missed her willingness to touch him.

Sabrina’s delighted squeal ruined the intimate moment, causing Vivian to back away, color high in her cheeks.

Wiping all emotion—primarily regret—off his face, he smiled and nodded toward the window. “Should we get her a puppy for real?”

“It’s the only thing she truly wants for her birthday.”

“Say goodbye to any peace and quiet for the foreseeable future,” he said dryly.

Vivian laughed, and the sweet sound flooded his soul. “I think we did that when we created your female clone.” Wrapping her arm through his, she laid her head on his shoulder as she observed Sabrina. “And Nate is going to be just as bad, I think.”

“Thankfully, there are two of us. It evens the odds.”

“Pfft. We can’t keep up with the first one. What makes you believe we’ll have anything under control with the second?”

“Valid point.” Savoring the camaraderie between them, he didn’t move right away.

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