Lucy's Liberation [Elk Creek 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (40 page)

“I think so, yes.”

His awestruck tone didn’t escape her and Lucy knew exactly how he felt. She knew exactly how Kelly O’Brien must have felt too when Ethan had come back to life in the icehouse, except that she wasn’t scared. She was too busy being grateful to be scared.

And that’s when Ethan’s body started to violently convulse.

Was he rejecting his good fortune? Did he not think he deserved to return? Did he not
want
to return?

The seizure seemed to go on forever, Ethan’s face no longer frozen in a serene mask of death, but distorted with suffering.

Lucy tried not to cry, but couldn’t stop stray tears from rolling down her face. She didn’t want Ethan to see her like this when he finally opened his eyes.

If he opens his eyes.

“Hold on, my Ethan. Just hold on,” Ki murmured as he held onto their lover’s shaking body.

Finally the convulsions stopped and Lucy could see Ethan’s chest moving up and down as he took a deep breath.

She held her own breath as she stared and waited before she and Ki were finally rewarded when Ethan coughed once more then opened his eyes.

His gaze instantly found hers, moving from her to Ki and back again before his face broke out into a half smile, half grimace from what must have been leftover pain.

“Are you all right?” Lordy, that was a daft question. The man had come back from the dead—twice. Neither could have been an easy experience.

Ethan reached up to cup her face, his grin widening as his brandy eyes twinkled.

Lucy saw a glimmer of her Prentice then—cocky, ironic, intense, and so vulnerable it made her heart ache.

“Ethan, say something. We need to know you’re all right.”

“As long as you both love me, I will be.”

“We both love you,” Lucy and Ki chorused then each burst out laughing as they looked at each other.

Lucy pulled Ethan close with one arm and reached her arm out to bring Ki into the circle, hugging him as tight as she hugged Ethan.

For the first time in a long time she felt tranquil and free and she knew she was finally ready for whatever both her men and the world had to offer her.

Prentice had never been as nervous as he was right then.

Everyone who rightfully resented his existence was gathered at Lily and Wyatt Baldwin’s house to welcome the couple’s latest addition.

“Will you stop squirming? You’re about as skittish as spit on a hot skillet,” Lucy said.

Prentice chuckled and grinned to prove to her he wasn’t skittish at all, which was a bald-faced lie since he was.

How was he going to face Lucy’s closest friends now that they all knew the truth?

He knew how he would feel if the man responsible for their kin’s death, responsible for almost killing them, walked in the door, and he wouldn’t have been very welcoming.

Prentice tried to tap into that reserve of bravado and nonchalance that had gotten him through his childhood and the business world in the twenty-first century. It had all been a façade, of course, but one he had learned to pull off flawlessly.

Now there was just him in this plain and simple town with his plain and simple love for Lucy and Ki. The latter was the only thing that kept him moving forward, looking ahead with hope, and making him feel like he was really worthy of absolution.

The trip to Europe for Lucy’s big art exhibit debut, from which the three of them were just returning, had been encouraging and invigorating, imbuing Lucy with the kind of self-confidence Prentice had always known was just under the surface of her prickly exterior.

Several important art aficionados had purchased some of Lucy’s pieces, ensuring that her name would travel in the right circles and that she would more than likely go international.

If Ki had anything to do with it, she certainly would.

While in Paris when they weren’t all doing the touristy thing around the city or making love in their hotel room, Ki had started to grease the wheels of the art world, laying the groundwork for Lucy’s next exhibit in New York. Maia, Thayne, Cade, and Sabrina had all already promised to attend.

Prentice, however, was more worried about seeing the close-knit group now, especially Maia, Thayne, and Cade, after what had happened in the woods.

He hadn’t had any real contact with the three of them since the shower.

After the incident with Boone, Prentice had kept a low profile, leaving the explanations for Ethan’s murderer’s death to Lucy and Ki once Maia arrived with the sheriff and his deputy.

As to his own “death,” aside from a little residual soreness that several days spent in the French Riviera with Lucy and Ki had gone a long way toward his convalescence, Prentice had never felt healthier. He knew that he had Goddess to thank for that.

He had known, however, that if Thayne did any sort of examination of Boone’s body, much less an autopsy, he would know what had happened and more importantly who had been responsible for the killer’s death.

In the days following his and Lucy’s abduction and rescue, Prentice had been on pins and needles, waiting for a confrontation from at least one of the threesome. None of them, however, had come knocking on their door and by the time he had left the country with Lucy and Ki for their ménage à honeymoon he had begun to hope that he could survive the fallout of killing yet another person with his powers.

Lucy put her hand on his cheek and caressed his face. Her touch grounded him as well as her next softly-spoken words.

“It’s going to be okay, Ethan.”

“Lulu’s right. And besides, we’re here for you, come what may.”

Prentice just smiled, allowing Lucy and Ki their illusions and enjoying the way they closed ranks around him as they all approached the front door as if to shield him from any harm.

He wondered if they knew how cute they were, trying to protect him now the same way they had protected him out in the woods when they had only had each other to count on.

That night seemed so long ago, but he still had nightmares about that bullet ripping through his chest. Lucy and Ki were always right there when he woke up in a cold sweat though, soothing his fears and driving away the mental pain.

Maia pulled open the door before any of them could knock and smiled a greeting. “You made it! Good.”

Was it just him or did she rest her smiling eyes on him for an extra moment?

“Well, come on in, we’ve been waiting for you.”

Maia stepped aside to let them in the house, playing the hostess for an incapacitated Lily.

Prentice brought up the rear as Maia led them through the well-furnished great room, up the stairs, and to the bedrooms.

She paused outside of one of the doors placing a finger against her lips. “She just put the baby down to sleep for her nap.”

“You should have said something. We could come back,” Lucy said.

“Not on your life. You’re here now and we’ve all been waiting too long to hear how your exhibit went. Telegrams and such just don’t do that sort of thing justice.” Maia put her hand on the knob to open the door. “Besides, the little princess sleeps like a log once she’s down. She’s the sweetest baby in the world. Almost makes me want to have one myself.”

Lucy, Ki, and Prentice all laughed softly as Maia finally opened the nursery room door.

The large space was exquisitely decorated in colorful shades of pink and various, bushy-tailed, doe-eyed woodland creatures. Prentice could definitely see Maia’s handiwork in the design and puerile paintings on the wall.

From allusive, erotic images of Lucy to whimsical drawings, Maia’s talent transcended genres, incorporating her sense of humor, passion, and sensuality through all her work.

Prentice noticed the look of appreciation and longing on Lucy’s face and could just picture her in a room like this, nursing a baby at her breast as she swayed to and fro in an old-fashioned rocker.

She glanced up at him, taking and squeezing his and Ki’s hands as if she had been reading Prentice’s thoughts.

Soon
.

He watched her lips form the single word and wondered if there was supposed to have been a question mark at the end of it or not.

Did she mean…?

Prentice was tempted to slip into her mind the way he had out in the woods and confirm or deny, but the situation with Boone had been life-and-death. He had promised himself to use his abilities the way Maia, Thayne, and Cade did and not without an individual’s permission unless it
was
a matter of life-and-death.

He thought that Aura would approve of this new leaf he had turned over.

Unable to let it go, Prentice tried to remember if Lucy had been suffering any symptoms of pregnancy during their trip abroad or since they had returned. He couldn’t remember any kind of morning sickness, but then he had been preoccupied about this visit and whether or not he still would be welcomed into Thayne’s practice.

“Come closer. She won’t bite,” Wyatt said.

Like sentries, he and Dakota stood on opposite sides of the hand-carved cradle within which their newborn baby girl lay peacefully sleeping.

Lily sat in a large cushy rocker adjacent the cradle and Wyatt, appearing ethereal and beautiful as she looked upon her baby’s face.

Prentice hung back as Lucy and Ki crossed the room to congratulate the three parents when he noticed the rest of the adults gathered in the nursery.

Standing around the foot of the cradle with their backs to him were Thayne, Sabrina, and Cade who all wordlessly made room for the two new arrivals around the cradle.

Maia stood beside Prentice and put her hand on his shoulder. “It’s all right, Ethan. You’re welcome here, too.”

He glanced down into her slanted espresso eyes, wanting to believe the sincerity he saw shining there, needing to.

Prentice, however, was frozen to the spot, hypnotized by the reverent stillness in the room until Lily and Wyatt’s little boy slid his hand into Prentice’s.

“You must come and meet my little sister, Winona,” Little Wyatt whispered.

Prentice smiled down at the boy and suddenly felt like a spotlight had been shone on him when everyone standing at the crib turned around to look in his direction.

He caught Lily’s, Wyatt’s, and Dakota’s tentative smiles first, gathering his nerve to look upon the faces of Thayne and Cade.

He hadn’t been in the same room with them and Maia all together since the incident in the barn last year, and he sucked in his breath when he caught the two brothers’ gazes.

They nodded at him, their expressions impartial rather than warm, but at least not cold and murderous. Neither did he pick up any antagonistic vibes from them.

Prentice wondered if maybe Maia had spoken to them and smoothed things over.

Or maybe Brielle and Caith had. After all, why should he have been the only one blessed with any contact from them?

While he was busy speculating, Thayne abruptly broke away from the group and made his way over to Prentice.

When Thayne paused beside him and placed a hand on his shoulder, Prentice froze somewhere between relaxing and tension.

“I’m counting on you to help me deliver a lot more babies in the future, especially your and Ki and Lucy’s baby when the time comes. I mean, since you missed out on Winona’s delivery and all.”

“You mean I can work with you?”

“The job is yours if you still want it.”

“Of course I do! I want it.” Prentice was almost near tears with happiness. The only thing that could have made things better was if… “So is she pregnant?” Prentice blurted.

“She is,” Lucy said and made her way over to Prentice and Thayne with a flabbergasted Ki on her tail. “I see my doctor has let the cat out of the bag?”

“Whoops.” Thayne shrugged, looking just barely contrite.

“How were you ever able to keep a secret like that from us?” Ki asked.

Prentice wanted to know that himself but before he could ask another question, the rest of the group, even Lily, converged on him, Lucy, and Ki to convey their congratulations.

Once some of the fanfare died down, Prentice placed a hand on Lucy’s belly beside Ki’s. “We’re going to have a baby.”

“We’re going to have a baby. All of us,” Lucy whispered. Prentice caught first Ki’s then Lucy’s glance, glimpsing his future in the depths of their loving eyes. Aware that Lucy was going to get her fondest wish in having her own child and even without the benefit of Maia’s visions Prentice knew that his future was going to be well-worth coming back for.

THE END

WWW.GRACIECMCKEEVER.COM

Gracie C. McKeever writes exclusively for Siren as Gigi Moore.

For all titles by Gigi Moore, please visit

www.bookstrand.com/gigi-moore

For titles by Gigi Moore writing as

Gracie C. McKeever, please visit