The delicate rustle of pages filled the still, dark room. Only the silvery moonlight illuminated Raina’s office. She’d been too intent on getting to her calendar to worry about stopping to light anything.
A faint chill hung in the air. Not expecting them to be home, Mrs. Taft hadn’t lit any fires in the house. Kevin had run upstairs to get the woodstove in her room burning. Since they were home, he figured they might as well stay. They’d been away long enough for most threats to fizzle out.
Raina touched a finger to the current date on the calendar and then flipped back through the weeks. Almost seven in all… Sitting back she swallowed against the sudden dryness in her throat. Carefully, she eased the desk chair back and stood. In a bit of a daze, she somehow managed to get to her room.
The curtains in her room where drawn tight. Only the faint glow from the woodstove Kevin knelt before, gently working the budding flames into life cast any light in the space. He glanced at her for a second, continuing to encourage the fire.
“Did you find what you needed?” he asked, setting the poker to the side.
Raina’s spine stiffened. “Who said I needed anything?”
“You did, when you blew off your father to get here so quickly.”
Raina tugged at the fabric of her skirt nervously. “Oh, yes, I found what I needed.”
“And?” he prompted, leaning a hip against her footboard and crossing his arms over his broad chest.
She licked her lips and stared past him to the headboard. “And… I’m late.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “Late for what? I imagine you missed a lot of appointments while we’ve been hiding.”
Sighing, she crossed the distance between them. Taking his hands, she led him to the bed and forced him to sit with her. He was going to make her come right out and say it. Why was she so nervous about that? Would he be excited? Angry? No… he’d never be angry. She released a slow calming breath.
“I’m pregnant.”
Silence followed her announcement. At first Raina wasn’t sure he’d even heard her. Then his fingers slid from hers and shifted to her jaw. Before she could ask how he felt, Kevin’s mouth moved across hers. The slow, sensual glide of his lips and tongue silenced any words she could coherently form. Opening her mouth, she lost herself in the depth of his kiss, barely registering when he shifted her onto his lap, until he forced her knees apart to straddle his hips. The thick bulging proof of his desire pressed against her center. She let out a shuddering gasp of pleasure, unable to stop herself from moving her hips to feel more.
Raina wrapped her arms around his shoulders. Her fingers grazed through his short hair along his scalp. He swiftly removed her clothes, while she fumbled with the buttons of his shirt between freeing her arms from her sleeves. Not quick enough for his liking, Kevin took over the task, breaking their kiss long enough to shift her onto the mattress beneath him and remove his pants. Impatient for more, Raina lifted her hips and ran her toes along his thighs.
“Slow down,” he breathed into her mouth, his hand slipping between their bodies to search out where she so desperately needed him.
“No,” she exhaled, bucking as his finger glided along her slickened flesh, heightening her desire. How could he make her want so quickly?
But he left her no other choice. Loving her with slow, leisurely strokes. First with his touch, then with his mouth, he coaxed her to climax twice before finally sliding deep inside her with equally drawn-out strokes. He loved her like they had forever, his lips whispering kisses along her throat, jaw and temple. When the delightful friction of his body moving above and inside her mounted into an intense eruption coursing through every cell of her being, she screamed and arched off the bed, her nails digging into the flesh of his hips.
Still, Kevin didn’t stop. “You are everything to me,” he whispered into her ear, pushing her closer to another earth-shattering orgasm. “Everything.”
Raina could only reply with a cry of pleasure, tears burning as she held him close, shaking from the power of her release. She held him when he finally allowed his own release to claim him. Despite being breathless and spent, she clamped her legs tightly around his waist when he moved to roll from her.
“I’m too heavy, you know that.” He kissed her cheek and then shifted his weight, forcing her to relax so he could.
“I like you where you are.”
“I know, me too, but I don’t like the idea of squishing you, especially now.”
Raina smiled and hugged him tight. “I don’t think you can hurt either of us.”
He helped her stand so he could pull down the sheets. She crawled onto the supple mattress. Thankful to be in her bed, she sighed, gliding her fingers along the finely spun cotton sheets as she laid on her belly. Kevin joined her, but instead of covering them, he urged her onto her back. His fingers laced between hers, he laid his head on her stomach. With her free hand, she stroked his damp hair.
“What are you thinking?” she asked.
“What if our son or daughter is like me?” His arm tightened around her hips. “I don’t want this life for them, Raina.”
Raina’s hand froze mid-stroke. Uncertainty tightened in her chest. “You’re unhappy about the baby.”
His fingers unwound from hers. Laying across her abdomen, he gripped her ribs, making her feel tiny. “Never.” He kissed between her breasts, his short beard tickling and teasing.
“But you’re anxious about the future?”
The rough texture of his whiskers brushed the insides of her breasts as he gently nuzzled her flesh. “You aren’t?”
Raina relaxed and went back to smoothing her fingers through his disheveled hair. “Not really. We will love our children, both of us, and make sure they’re given a future they get to choose, no matter what the choice is. Whether they decide to become a Guardian, or wherever else their passions lie.”
On a sigh, Kevin shifted until he once again laid across her belly. His large hand spanned the distance between her hips. “I don’t know how I’m going to be able to go on my next assignment.”
The confession was spoken so softly, Raina barely heard it. Her fingers clenched in his hair. With a gentle tug, she forced his attention back to her face. “Only you can do what you do for your team. And when you come home, we’ll be here. Waiting. Safe where you left us.”
“I’ll be leaving you with your father,” he muttered.
Raina stiffened. “This house has always been safe enough, and I’m sure my father will send guards if you ask.”
He pressed a kiss above her navel before easing away, dragging the blankets with him. “Synintel lives in a virtual fortress. Until this, whatever it is that’s happening in this country, cycles through, you aren’t safe like you used to be. You know too much, not to mention because of your father, you’re a target. One they’ve made very clear. You have more to think about than yourself now.”
Sighing in aggravation, she rolled onto his chest. Propping her chin on her hands, she met his concerned gray eyes. “That’s true enough. Fine, if you get called away, I’ll stay with my father.”
“Not if, princess, but when. When I’m called away.”
A fist clenched around her heart and she dropped her cheek to his chest, her hand smoothing along his firm stomach. She didn’t ever want to think of him leaving again, especially now. Everything had changed between them. They had a real marriage, with love, hopes and dreams. The moment her father’s men, or Sean, arrived with their orders, she’d have to say goodbye. Not knowing when she’d see him again, clinging to the hope a next time would arrive.
Kevin yanked her attention away from their somber future by asking, “How did your mother die?”
Confused by the change in subject, she met his stare again. “What?”
His hand stroked up her spine, causing a delicious shiver to race through her. “Your mother, how did you lose her?”
Raina swallowed against the painful memory, and the sense of betrayal that always came when she recalled how she’d lost her mother. “She… she poisoned herself.”
“Suicide?” Kevin asked gently.
Taking a deep calming breath, Raina rubbed her chin along his pectoral muscle. “No, I don’t think she did it on purpose. Then again she may have. I was only eight. The only reason I know how, is I overheard the Medical Scientist telling my father what he believed happened.”
“How did she poison herself then?”
“Alcohol. They also found a half-smoked cigarette laced with halioke on her nightstand, too. They didn’t know if she’d smoked it or not, but if she did, it helped explain why she died. Everyone, including the paper, was told she died of heart failure.”
He hugged her tight to his chest, kissing the top of her head. “I’m sorry.”
“I’ve never been able to touch alcohol.”
“I know.”
Of course he knew. Even before he knew every inch of body more intimately than she did, he knew her. Not an Arch Guardians daughter. Not a pocket of wealth to reach into. Not a pawn to be utilized. Simply Raina Merrick, his wife. Who mattered to him enough to know when she needed to act her station, and when it was okay to simply be herself.
“I love you,” she whispered, rising enough to reach his mouth.
With a growl, he tugged her across his chest. “I know.”
Muted light filtered in from the wall of windows into Synintel’s office. The rustle of pages accompanied the occasional pop of a log in the fireplace. Cup of coffee in hand, Kevin stared out a tall window, watching rain pelt the leaves on the many plants lining the curving driveway.
“I think it’s all here,” Raina said with a note of wonderment. “I even think the warehouse locations are noted on the manifests.”
Kevin raised a brow and turned. “Wouldn’t that make everything easy.”
“I know.” She sighed and sank back into the chair. “A break, finally.”
“What’s a break?” Voklane asked, strolling into the office and taking a bite of a pastry in his hand.
A server followed closely behind, clasping a tray filled with fruit, sliced ham and muffins. She set the tray on a table before the fireplace, bowed swiftly, and then exited. Raina’s spine straightened, her eyebrows lifted as she peered over the desk and licked her lips.
Kevin grinned. “Would you like something to eat?”
A pretty flush spread across her cheeks. “Yes, please.”
Setting his cup on the corner of the desk near a bronze dragon, he asked, “Something of everything?”
She nodded and went back to looking over the documents. Kevin loaded a small plate with food. Voklane polished off his pastry looking over Raina’s head to the papers spread across her father’s desk.
Raina twisted in the seat and glared up at Ryan. “If you get crumbs in my hair, I will be upset.”
The man had the good sense to take a step back. “What was the break you think you caught?”
Kevin placed the food in front of his wife, barely managing to keep from laughing as she attacked it before he’d completely released his hold. “She thinks they wrote the warehouse locations on the original manifests.”
Voklane’s pale brows rose with interest. “Really?” He leaned over Raina again and she waved her hand above her head in annoyance until he shifted to the side. “Where do you see that?”
Raina searched through the sheets. Kevin went to the side of the desk and braced his hip on the edge, crossing his arms over his chest, unable to take his eyes off her. Her glossy light brown hair was in a sloppy bun atop her head, something she never would have dared leave the house with before their Northern Boundary escapade. One of the simple skirts with a long ribbon tie for the waist fell over her legs in crimson ripples. A billowing cream peasant blouse completed the comfortable attire she’d dressed herself in this morning. Pride swelled in his chest. She’d taken her newfound freedoms to heart, not caring what anyone else thought.
If it’d been up to him, they’d still be in her bed, doing more of what had brought about the miracle currently growing inside her. He figured now it was their bed actually, since she’d told him before the sun rose she’d only be sleeping alone when he wasn’t around. Which was more than fine by Kevin. He couldn’t get enough of the woman. His woman.
Voklane took the paper Raina held up and Kevin sighed in annoyance. Too bad the man was here, or Kevin would have shown his beautiful wife how much he loved her again. In her father’s office, like he should have done all those years ago. The thought made him smile. Raina caught his smirk and raised a brow. He shook his head and her little giggle told him she’d figured out exactly what had been on his mind. Ah well, maybe next time.
“Where is my father?”
Voklane shifted, reaching for the radio behind the desk. He adjusted the dials and flipped two switches. “At the FIO, no doubt seeing what his little internal spies have found out.”
“Are you over them, too?” Kevin asked.
“No, that’d draw too much attention if I was seen too often with more than Synintel’s Guardians. The only input I had was who I determined to be loyal enough to carry out the task.”
Kevin had always wondered how the man established loyalty. But looking over Voklane’s intense expression as he adjusted the radio, he knew he wouldn’t get an answer. “Who are you calling?”
“Asherwick.”
“Why?”
“Isn’t he the one you all have been working with?”
“Yes.”
“Then he’s the one who needs to make one of the warehouse discoveries. He already knows the stakes, and I know he can be trusted. Also, if HCES is involved, it’ll make the papers, and I definitely want that.”
Nothing says ‘This round goes to us, maggots’ like reading it in the paper, Kevin mused. He picked up his coffee and took a slow sip. “You sure you don’t want us there?”
Voklane slowly shook his head. “I don’t want any of you near that place when a shipment is confiscated. This is a very intense game of chess. We take a pawn, I don’t need them taking one of my knights over it.”
Kevin conceded the strategy. “Very well.”
The radio beeped, signaling an out-going transmission. Ryan let it continue for a full minute before cutting the feed with a growl of frustration. “He’s at Enforcement Services.”
“Doesn’t he have a radio in his office?”
“Yes, but I’m not risking someone else overhearing this particular conversation. I’ll go find him.”
Raina twisted in the seat to face Ryan. “Are you taking one of the manifests with you?”
Voklane nodded. “Would have been handed to me anyway.”
“Are you going to see my father afterward?”
“I’ll be going to the FIO, yes. As for seeing your father, I can only go to his office if I’m summoned.”
“Will you be?”
His lips twitched into an almost smile. “Very likely, why?”
“I need you to deliver a message for me, I wrote it already.”
“Why can’t you tell him in person?”
A frown pinched between her brows and Kevin’s stomach tightened, knowing what she was going to say. “Because he’d have to schedule time for me, and I don’t want to worry about when. I’d rather he know what I need to tell him now. If he wants to speak to me, he knows where we live.”
Voklane grimaced. “And this is why I’m perfectly happy simply being a Guardian without a ranking.”
“Do you mind?” she asked.
“No, of course not. I’ll make sure he gets it.”
Raina dug around underneath several pages. She flourished an envelope and handed it off to Ryan’s waiting hand. “Thank you.”
He inclined his head and then turned to Kevin. “Do you have anything?”
“No, he knows pretty much all I have to say to him.”
Ryan did laugh at that. “All right then, I’ll see you two later.”
Raina let out a long exhale after Ryan left the room. Kevin set down his coffee, and went to close the door. Once alone, he disregarded the pretense of propriety, scooping Raina out of the seat on a squeal and carried her to one of the plush chairs in front of the fire. She settled across his lap without protest, wrapping her arms around his shoulders.
“They won’t leave us alone too long,” she warned.
“Then we better be quick.” He nibbled at her collar bone, smiling at the tremor and breathy sigh he coaxed from her.
“Do you think it’ll really work?”
Kevin leaned back in the seat and took her worried face between both his hands. “Synintel will make sure, you can trust in that.”
Her hands covered his, her frown deepening. “It doesn’t excuse what I did.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Yes, I did!” When she attempted to untangle herself from his lap, he wrapped his arms around her waist and held her still. “My ignorance does not excuse my involvement in what amounted to what is looking like treason.”
“Raina, they used you. At no point did you knowingly participate in their scheme. The forged manifests will prove that.”
“But I helped forge those manifests. My innocence hinges on my word against theirs, should they be caught and tried. Barring a full confession from Enbrackon, or whoever else is involved…”
“And we handled the situation the moment we became aware, we didn’t hide it, or try to play it down. No council member in their right mind, or on the right side, will believe you were tied to the group, whoever they are.” He pressed a kiss to her tight lips. “Please trust me.”
“I do. But…” She bit her lip and looked away from him.
“What?”
“What if I do something so stupid again?” she whispered.
Kevin pulled her into his chest, hugging her. “You won’t.”
Her fingers bunched in the fabric at his shoulders. “How do you know?”
“Because you aren’t the same person they took advantage of.”
She gave a little sniffle and sat back, her eyes searching his. “What do you mean?”
Kevin traced the pout of her lower lip with his thumb. “You aren’t Raina Edmond, daughter of Arch Guardian Synintel pretending to be Raina Merrick, wife of Master Guardian Raiventon. You are Raina Merrick, Guardianess Raiventon. And no one is going to tell or treat you otherwise.”
Pride and love shone in her gaze. “No, they aren’t.”
“See?”
In a single blink, her eyes filled with tears. “How did I get you?”
Kevin smiled. “I keep asking myself that very same question about you.”
She burrowed against his chest. “You know, when Patricia first met you, she asked me how I wasn’t pregnant.”
Kevin laughed. “Oh really?”
“Yes. She’ll be most happy when I tell her I am.”
“Shouldn’t we tell your father first?”
Raina shrugged. “If he wants to know first, he’ll come to the house tonight. I told him I have something to share and I won’t do so in writing.”
Kevin slid a hand under her shirt to caress her back. “What did you write to him about?”
“I told him I made the decision for you, and now you’re honor bound to me.”
Kevin raised a curious brow. “What decision?”
“About whether we would be normal people should the E&R meeting not go in your favor.”
“Ah.” He’d almost forgotten about that unhappy scheduled event. “And what did you say?”
She rose on her knees, taking his face between her hands, her answer feathering against his lips, “I chose you. Any way I can have you.”