Page 84 of Little Devil

“I hate this, Xan,” she chokes out, dropping her head to rest it on her forearms. “I hate you.”

I hide a grin and lean over to hold her hair for her, gently rubbing circles on her back to help ease her through it. She tells me that every time I get her pregnant, but then the morning sickness goes away and she goes right back to loving me.

Most of the time.

She finally stops throwing up and stands up to walk over to the bathroom sink, glaring at me through the mirror while she snatches her toothbrush and brushes her teeth. This is the third time she’s been pregnant in four years, and I’m pretty sure the only thing she’s thinking about right now is how much jail time she’d get for killing me in my sleep.

“Baby–”

“Don’t talk to me.”

I snap my mouth shut and roll my lips in, silently staring at her ass while she bends over to wash her face. She looks so fucking sexy today, her tight little body wrapped up in a short floral sundress with her tanned legs on full display. As soon as she turns around, she catches me looking and tosses her hand towel on the counter, clipping the back of my head while she passes me on her way out. I laugh quietly and move to follow her, not missing the way she smirks at me over her shoulder while she walks away from me.

There she is.

She shakes her ass on purpose and I smack it, quickly stealing a kiss from her lips before I stalk her all the way down to the back yard. It’s her twenty fifth birthday today and most of our friends and family are here to spend the day with her, except her mother because of course the evil queen couldn’t take a day out of her busy schedule for her own flesh and blood. She married some rich asshole named Pierre a couple years ago and they spend most of their time in Europe with his children. It still pisses me off that Elizabeth doesn’t appreciate her daughter for who she is and what she’s made for herself, but Jordyn’s more than used to it by now and doesn’t let it bother her as much as she used to. She’s too busy with me and the boys and her big ass studio to give two shits about her absent mother. As soon as she graduated college four years ago, she became a full time photographer and now she’s got a waiting list three times the size of mine. She’s worked for celebrities and authors and even shot a few album covers for Justin and a handful of other artists she’s met through him over the years.

She’s fucking amazing and beautiful and mine, and I honestly don’t know how I managed to convince her to spend the rest of her life with me.

The humid air hits us as soon as we walk outside and Jordyn grins, winking at me before she makes her way over to the barbecue set up by the hot tub. She freaked out over the cold every winter when we lived in Seattle so we moved to LA the day after her last exam, bought ourselves this big ass house with a huge pool and more bedrooms than we know what to do with. I suggested we fill them up with kids and my parents were fully on board with that idea, but Jordyn just laughed at me and told me to go fuck myself.

“Dude, your wife is so fucking hot,” Justin informs me, snatching a beer from the cooler to uncap it with his teeth. “Maybe I should get me one of those.”

“A wife?”

“A pregnant girl,” he jokes, still staring at her chest while he lifts his drink up to his mouth.

I snort and shove his head away, secretly hoping it makes him choke on his own tongue. Jordyn’s jaw hit the floor when she met him for the first time and I almost broke his nose, but it’s been seven years and he hasn’t tried to fuck her yet, so I consider that a win.

Our friend Monica shows up a little while later and hits us both with a fake smile that screams fuck you, losers, then she hugs my wife and moves on to say hi to my parents and the kids. She’s one of the best tattoo artists I’ve ever met and she works her ass off seven days a week, which is why she’s pretending to be pissed at me for closing the shop today and forcing her to take a day off. She loves Jordyn like a sister, though, and she still shows up for her birthday every year without fail.

Justin stares at my employee and bites the edge of his fist, groaning into it when she pulls her shirt off and drops her jeans, revealing a black bikini underneath and a body covered in ink. She’s told him she’s into girls about a hundred times by this point but he doesn’t let that stop him, the fucker.

“Goddamn, that ass,” he hisses loudly, clearly trying to get a rise out of her. “Mon, will you let me lick your pussy if I cover your eyes firs–”

“Hey,” Jordyn cuts him off, looking up at him with a brow raised and a sharp knife in her hand. “Watch your mouth by my kids.”

“Sorry.”

She shakes her head at him and I laugh, walking over to see what she’s chopping considering me and the boys already cooked everything we had earlier. She drops down in her seat at the table and starts making herself a chicken and bacon burger, then she grabs a pineapple ring and places it right there in the middle. I scrunch my nose in disgust and she grins, lifting it up to her mouth to take a big ass bite out of it.

“No, baby, you can’t–”

“Can’t what?” she asks, speaking around her food. “I’m pregnant and I’m the birthday girl. Fight me.”

I hide my amusement and lean back against the table to watch her eat it, looking up when Nikolas comes rushing over to me from across the yard. Bear follows behind him like he always does and I scoop him up in my arms, running a hand through his dark hair until it sticks out like mine does. He’s three years old and he can talk until he runs out of oxygen, but I still can’t understand a damn word that comes out of his mouth.

He tries to say something to me and I frown, looking at Jordyn for help.

“He wants to go in the pool.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because he just told you,” she draws out, leaning over to wipe her hands with a napkin.

I frown some more but give my son what he wants, quickly shoving his life jacket on before stealing Jameson from my mom to take him with us. She feigns a pout at the loss of her grandson and crosses her arms over her chest, making us all laugh. My dad pokes her ribs and she smacks his hand away, but I don’t miss the sideways look she gives him that makes me want to gag. They gradually started working things out after they kicked me out in high school and now they’re pretty much back to the way they were before my brother was killed – disgusting as fuck, if you ask me – and even though I’m sure they still hate me for it sometimes, they never hesitate to tell me how much they love me and how proud they are of me and my girl.

Jameson squeals when he realizes where we’re going and smiles up at me, wrapping his tiny little arms around my neck while I lower him and his big brother into the pool. He’s eighteen months old and he’s the chillest kid I’ve ever met. Where Nikolas can run around for hours without stopping, Jameson would rather sit on my lap and stare at a book all day long.

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