Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 121146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Slowly, Celia began to thaw. She wanted to believe what they were saying. She loved them—both of them. Cool, calm, collected Hold and fiery, intense, exasperating Fierce—they were both so completely different and yet she loved them both with all her heart.
“I…I want to believe you,” she said to them. “I want to believe you love me and that you’ll love my daughter too.”
“We will,” Hold said earnestly. He came back to take her hand. “Please, my lady—do us the honor of Joining with us and allowing us to raise your daughter as her fathers.”
“Yes, please lelka,” Fierce begged hoarsely. “Neither of you will ever want for anything. Hold and I aren’t rich like that idiot Peter, but we’ll work hard to give you everything you need—everything you could ever want.”
“It’s not about the money,” Celia told them. “If it was, I would have said ‘I do’ to Peter. Though I don’t know how rich he is now,” she added. “Apparently if he doesn’t get married by one o’clock on Christmas Eve of the year he turns thirty-five, his inheritance all goes to charity.”
“Really? How did you find that out?” Hold asked, looking shocked.
“The…the Kindred Goddess—she came and showed me,” Celia admitted, hoping they wouldn’t think she was crazy. “I was trying to convince myself it was just a dream or a hallucination, but it turned out to all be true—everything she showed me was true.”
“The Goddess came to us too!” Fierce exclaimed.
“She did?” Celia asked.
“She told us where to find the flower—it helped us understand why you left,” Hold said. He squeezed Celia’s hand. “My lady, please come back with us. It’s clear the Goddess intends for us to be together—I know she’ll bless our union.”
Celia felt almost dazed.
“Dios, not long ago I would have said I didn’t believe in any God or Goddess,” she said, shaking her head. “But now…I guess there is a Goddess and she wants the three of us together.”
“The four of us.” Fierce was still on his knees. Reaching up, he placed one big, warm hand on Celia’s lower belly. “This little girl is going to be our princess,” he promised, looking up at her. “She’s going to have everything she wants or needs and Hold and I are going to be the two best fucking fathers in the whole known universe, lelka—I swear it!”
Celia covered his hand with her own and smiled.
“Well, to start with, you have to stop saying ‘fuck’ all the time,” she told him. “I don’t want our daughter having a potty mouth.”
“Did you say ‘our daughter’?” Fierce’s dark eyes were suddenly shining with tears. “Did…did you hear that, Brother?” he asked, looking up at Hold. “She said our daughter!”
“Yes, she did.” Hold’s eyes were bright as well and he swiped a hand across his face.
It touched Celia to see both of her guys actually crying with joy—she was feeling pretty weepy herself.
“Oh, Fierce…Hold…” She whispered. “I’m so glad you two came back for me.”
“We are too!” Still on his knees, Fierce pulled her forward and buried his face between her breasts and Hold encircled her with his long arms, hugging her from behind. And right there, in the middle of the sidewalk, Celia felt completely surrounded by their love.
“Come on,” she said at last. “People are starting to stare—let’s get out of here.”
“Let’s go home,” Hold agreed. He helped Fierce to his feet and the three of them left together.
56
CELIA
“Just give me a minute to get out of this awful gown—here, unzip me, please.” Celia turned to Hold and the Light Twin obligingly unbuttoned and unzipped the tight white wedding dress.
Celia let out a sigh of relief as the tight fabric parted. It felt so good to be able to get a deep breath again…and to be back in Hold and Fierce’s suite in the Mother Ship. She walked into the bathroom with the long gown trailing behind her but Fierce followed her anxiously.
“Just be careful in there, lelka—don’t fall in the bathing pool!” he told her.
Celia shot him a look.
“I’ll be fine—I just want to get out of this gown and freshen up a minute. I promise not to go near the pool alone.”
“Good, because as soon as you’re ready, we want to resume our Claiming Period,” Fierce told her. He gave her a hungry grin. “If you’re up for it, that is.”
Surprisingly, Celia found she was. She had missed her guys—missed the feeling of their big hands and hot mouths on her body and their hard muscles surrounding her.
“That sounds good,” she said, smiling up at the Dark Twin. “But what do you mean, resume our Claiming Period? Aren’t we past that now?”
“Not quite,” Hold said, also coming into the bathroom. “Fierce and I would like to pamper you, my lady. We never did get to do our Bathing Week, you know.”