Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 98961 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 495(@200wpm)___ 396(@250wpm)___ 330(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98961 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 495(@200wpm)___ 396(@250wpm)___ 330(@300wpm)
Eliza, who must have been listening from down the hall, cracks the door and steps inside, offering to sit with Juliet while Lucas and I shower. I go into the bathroom to get the shower turned on, giving Lucas and Eliza a moment to themselves. Lucas is thanking her for stepping up when I turn the water on, and I know now more than ever that my nonconventional family is every-fucking-thing to me.
I get in the shower and shave before Lucas gets in. It’s been several days since I’ve shaved, not caring enough about leg hair when my husband was stuck in the Underworld. Lucas joins me and we utilize the large shower and have sex again. My brain is doing that wonderful thing of ignoring my issues and I allow myself to feel happy again for the first time since Lucas swung up on that horse.
Eliza takes Juliet downstairs while Lucas and I get dressed, and then it’s as if things are back to normal. Lucas grumbles about all the missed emails he has to catch up on and I go into the butler’s pantry, annoyed at myself for not rinsing out my coffee pot yesterday. We all know what lies ahead, yet we need this bit of normal. Even if it’s just for the day.
Once my coffee is ready, Lucas and I go into the family room, laying on the floor to do tummy time with Juliet. Lucas reads to her and then I get her down for a nap, ready to pounce on Lucas as soon as I see that Juliet is sound asleep in her Pack n’ Play. Lucas leaves the family room, and I assume it’s so he can go reply to a few more emails.
But he’s not in his office, and I’m a little startled to see him in the foyer, standing by the front door. He’s looking at the tattoo on his arm, brows pushed together.
“Hey. What are you doing?” I ask, telling myself that wasn’t a weird, vague look in his eye. Lucas is here and he’s fine. Completely fine. But then I see him put his hand on the doorknob.
“Testing a theory,” he says and opens the door, stepping out into the sun.
Chapter
Twenty-Seven
“Lucas!” I yell and sprint forward, ready to magically shove his crazy ass back inside. He’s made it all the way down the steps and is halfway onto the cobblestone path by the time I get outside. Binx and Pandora shadow behind me, able to sense my panic.
But Lucas isn’t on fire. His skin isn’t even starting to char. Blinking rapidly, he holds his hands out in front of him, turning them over.
“Is the sun always this warm?”
I come to a stop in front of him, eyes wide and mouth agape. “This…this is nothing. Wait until August.” I shake my head. “What…h-how?”
“The Horsemen can go out during the day.”
“And you…you guessed you could too?”
“It’s more like I just knew,” he confesses and turns to me. “Your hair shines in the sun. More so than it does when you’re in front of a window.” He combs his fingers through my hair. “And your eyes sparkle.” His lips curve into a smile. “It’s so warm.”
I laugh. “It’s the sun.”
He tips his head up and inhales. This is the first time in over sixteen hundred years Lucas has smelled fresh air during the daytime. He hasn’t felt unfiltered sunlight since he was a human, and even then, his final years as human were as a captive, kept in the dark unless being made to fight.
“We should take Juliet for a walk,” Lucas says, trying to be practical and make use of our little time together.
“Maybe we should stay close to the house,” I suggest, still terrified that this fits into the too good to be true category. Not being able to go out during the day has bothered Lucas since we first started dating and it ate away at him more and more as my pregnancy progressed. It was no secret that he would miss out on things with Juliet, from walking her to the Covenstead door on her first day of classes to just being outside with her in the summer. Did becoming a Horseman open up some weird loophole that will allow a vampire to day walk?
It doesn’t matter since there’s still the issue of being a Horseman.
Though it proves that magic is capable of allowing vampires to walk in the first place.
“You’re going to get sunburned,” I say and then make a face. “Which will heal. I think? I don’t know how this works.”
“Neither do I.” Lucas takes my hands and eyes me up and down. “I want to fuck you in the sunlight.” I feel all squishy inside when he says that and I realize we have so many places to check off our list now, considering that the sun basically changes things.