PITCH BLACK
She cuddled into his arms. She knew after that she would have let him go. It wasn’t something that he was happy about but he needed to sort himself out and she needed time to herself. He had to overcome his past, at that time all he did was posing a danger to everyone around him and himself. Her fingers ran up and down his bare chest, his eyes were closed but she knew he wasn’t asleep. His kind didn’t sleep, not ever. She had a chance to admire his naked body, she was convinced that every single cell in his body was strong and muscled he was beautiful.
“What are you thinking about?” He asked. “You do know that I have a mind reader on speed dial, do I need to get Solara here?”
She gave up on the silence all it would take was a single opening and Solara would have access to all her thoughts, “I was thinking about how I don’t want to give this up, but I have to.” She went silent, she could feel his body stiffen and decided not to say anything else that would hurt him. All she wanted was to be there with him and not think of anything else.
“I think that we should talk about this, I can’t let go of my past without facing them and that could be dangerous, I may not come back from it. You are going to come back to me. I just don’t want to have you live in guilt if anyone else got hurt. We already lost one person don’t risk anyone else.” She knew he knew she meant Sotera and Marcie. They had both been victims of his past and no one else deserved to die because of it. He knew how Marcie’s death had affected Scarlet and he wasn’t about o let her face that pain again.
“Besides I also have to leave. I have always wanted to do this. So we both have things to take care of. After we are settled then we can continue with this relationship.” Continue by raising the new life she had inside her.
“I understand.”.
She was leaving for Washington in a week. They had decided she had decided a clean break was best. After the terror four weeks ago she decided that it was best, for both of them and especially for him.
Scarlet didn’t know what else to do. The fellowship couldn’t have come at a better time. She ruled against talking to Kayla about it and she never thought about it when she and Solara around. She didn’t need another complication. One more week and they would be safe.
That night the Kayla and the guys had left to go hunt. She knew that it was a polite way of giving them space to say goodbye properly. They needed time alone for each other not only to make love but to talk. She hoped that they would eventually get to the talking part.
“Scarlet, I know and I understand your reasons. But I don’t want to spend this week away from you. Be reasonable I have given you what you want, so please give me what I am asking for.”
Stephan was desperate to spend the next seven nights in her bed holding her. Scarlet didn’t think it was a good idea. She thought that they needed to spend this week away from each other so that they could get used to not being with each other.
She was trying to convince him of this. She didn’t want him suspecting anything and she also didn’t want him to change her mind about leaving. She had to go. It was the best thing to do.
“I want to lie with you like this. Besides I don’t think it is safe enough for you to be here alone.”
“I won’t be unprotected. I think you are forgetting about the three other vampires who live in this house.” He was fishing and she knew it. She couldn’t allow him to stay, but she also couldn’t be away from him. Not when she was still in the city.
“I didn’t forget. I just want this week with you. Please just think about it and let me know in the morning.” He stroked her hair and let his fingers roam her back.
“You should sleep now. You have been looking a bit pale.” She was pale, she felt sick all the time. This was why she couldn’t let him stay. She couldn’t take the risk of him noticing anything else different about her. But she would do that much, think about it and decide in the morning.
She knew it was morning when the overwhelming smell of coffee attacked her nostrils. Before she relished it but now, it only made her stomach knot.
“Stephan could you please take that away, I’m not feeling that well to be drinking coffee.” She buried her nose in the pillow, desperately trying to hold back as the wave of nausea hit her.
“Oh! Sorry. Are you going to be alright? What did the doctor say?” He was stroking her hair again, and for some reason, it reduced the tension in her body.
“He said I was alright. I am just exhausted from all the running around. And the stress from preparing for the fellowship.” She talked into the pillow again. She thought it would be better to distract him. She lifted her head and the coffee was still there. When she wrinkled her nose Stephan threw it out after a quick apology. She rose to a sitting position and decided to lean on the headboard. She was getting dizzy all the time these days.
“I thought about it and I have decided it isn’t such a good idea for you to stay here.” She paused to see the reaction on his face. She could see the disappointment and pain as his eyes glistened with what she thought were tears. He didn’t try to hide them from her because he was looking straight at her.
“It is a bad decision, but so is living with three and a half vampires and half a beast. Not to mention sharing a bed and making love to a person who can turn into a jaguar in a second and drinks human blood for fun. But you are not allowed to try to change my mind about Washington.” His eyes looked more alive now, hopeful.
“So what’s another bad decision, so yes the break up can take effect the second I get on that plane?” She cupped her palm on his face, admiring the smile that had taken shape.
He got into bed with her and let her hold him in her arms. He was too big to cradle so she sank lower on the bed and let him put his head on her belly. At that moment she wished she could tell him everything but one bad decision a day was enough.
“Scarlet. What’s that sound?”
She was confused because she hadn’t heard anything. But his hearing was a thousand times better than his.
“What sound Stephan? I don’t hear anything.”
“It’s coming from you.”
At that moment Scarlet panicked she knew what sound he was hearing. She felt like an idiot letting a man who could hear the traffic in the next state so close to her belly. She needed to come p with an excuse and first.
“I’m just hungry and my stomach’s just complaining.” She gently pushed him away from her trying to make it seem casual. Praying that he bought into the cheap lie she continued with the pretense. “Some of us have to eat every day you know.” She stared at him trying to put on her best poker face. If this lie didn’t work she had to come up with another or tell the truth.
She played the scenario in her head, hey Stephan by the way I’m pregnant have known it for a while but kept it from you. By the way, did you know inhuman fetuses develop at an accelerated rate?
She shook her head shaking the thought out of her head too. She knew how it would turn out he would never let her leave with his baby. Danger or not he would come up with ways to convince her to stay. But she hoped that if he did find out the truth he would let them both go.
Scarlet scrambled to her feet and headed for the bathroom. Before she closed the door Stephan said her name so softly. She stepped out of the bathroom and looked at him. She was sure that he could hear her accelerated heartbeat.
“Thank you. I know a week may not seem like much, but it is everything to me.”
“I know.” She was glad that she had brilliantly evaded the disaster, but was sad that the only time and contact he would have with the child was a week of holding her.
“I’ll go get you some breakfast from the diner. I’ll be back in a while.”
“Thanks. Say hi to the girls. Please tell them I miss them.”
She waited until she heard the front door shut to go back into the bathroom. She stood in front of the mirror and lifted her cotton strap top. The small bump was easily noticeable, at least to her. She wondered how he had never noticed it.
Maybe he did and was being polite not to mention it. Living with her he was able to watch all the soaps she did. She knew he hated but he still watched them with her, so he knew that commenting on a woman’s weight was a big no-no.
She rubbed her hand over the stomach feeling the round bulge of it. Scarlet was too busy looking at herself from all angles to realize Stephan was back. He opened the bathroom door and watched as she examined her body.
As she was about to take a look from a different angle she caught his reflection in the mirror. She pulled down her top and turned to face him. She didn’t know what to expect but she waited for it, for his anger and rage, for him to phase into something murderous. One thing he had hated were secrets and having the things that concerned him hidden from him. She watched his expression but saw nothing but humor.
“Don’t worry you look perfect to me.” He chuckled and went to kiss her on her forehead. “I forgot to ask you what you want. These days I have noticed you are very picky.”
She had been selective of everything she ate. Nothing tasted the same anymore and she only liked salty foods. As much as she wanted other kinds of foods, she tried not to change her diet for it to be noticed.
“Just get me the usual and some salt crackers please.” She was getting nervous. He was standing too close to her. She didn’t need another close call. “I need to take a shower.”
She was kicking him out but as politely as she could. She waited for him to leave but he just stood there.
“Stephan. I need to take a shower.”
“I heard am not getting in your way am I?” He laughed. “I think a shower would be good. Your scent has changed.”
“New shampoo.” She lied. How did I not know that?
He had a cheeky grin on his face. Scarlet knew it too well, it had the power to easily break her will. She stood her ground, she wasn’t going to lose this one. The last thing she needed was him looking at her nude body without his attention being otherwise engaged.
“You promised to get me breakfast. And I am really hungry and need a shower. Please, Stephan.” She was going to play on his need to make her happy.
“Sure I will be back in a sec.” He kissed her and walked out of the bathroom.
“Stephan could you please drive. Don’t run.”
She needed the half an hour it would take him to get there get her breakfast and come back. She also didn’t need the neighbors to spot him making a ten-second dash to and fro the place.
Scarlet decided to soak in the tub, she needed to calm her rattled nerves. She turned on the radio hoping for some calming music. When she settled on a station she sank deeper into the bubbles. As she relaxed she thought about how the week was going to play out. Part of her dreaded leaving her new family, she could have stayed. She had made that decision once before. Before she found out about the baby, but now she had to leave for the baby.