Page 59 of The Pregnancy Pact

Her face went a little slack. Her eyes wide.

“Never?”

I shook my head.

“What did you do, then? Force them to get up and leave after you were done having sex?”

“That, or I got up and left,” I replied, striding to the bed myself. Stripping off my outer clothing, which I tossed on the floor for mechas to deal with later, I chose the nearest side and sank down. “This will work. I will sleep here.”

Even as I lay down, she stood there gazing at me, frowning.

“What is it?” I asked, drawing the blankets down on her side for her.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I know my marriage was a bust. Obviously. I just can’t…I guess I can’t imagine having sex with all those different people, for one thing. Not that I’m judging,” she added quickly. “I can’t imagine doing it. And then to never actually sleep with any of them, but to get up and walk away or to send them away? It seems so…cold.”

She moved to seat herself on the edge of the bed, but she did not lie down. The hem of my shirt pulled up, revealing more of her thigh than I’d seen yet. I tore my gaze from her flesh to her face.

“To begin with,” I said with a small smile, “they were not all people, as you humans use the term. They were of many different species.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Yay. Not sure I even want to know how that worked,” she shot back.

I chose not to enlighten her.

“For another, unlike you with your husband, my wife did not care if I had mistresses. She had lovers of her own. Yes, I have lain with a good many females. No, I cared little for any of them.”

In truth, I’d cared for some a bit more than others. I’d born a certain fondness towards Caide’s mother, a former housekeeper, seeing as she’d given me another son. Albeit that son was an embarrassment in some respects and a problem to deal with.

“That’s just it.” She twisted towards me on the bed, folding her legs under her. The hem of the shirt, already high, was pulled even higher by the action, drawn tight against the top of her thigh. I caught glimpses of her lacy panties and could scarcely force my gaze away.

“Don’t you think sex should be something meaningful, at least? Something sacred?”

“What is sacred about it?” I laughed. “It is an act for pleasure and procreation. Typically for pleasure. We both experience pleasure, then we are done.”

“I don’t know, I…” She stared down at her lap, where her hands were twisting against one another. “Maybe it’s harder for me to have that view of sex because my husband did cheat on me. I always wondered how our marriage vows could mean so little to him. How could he go sleep with all those other women when he promised to be faithful to me? I was faithful to him. I kept my word. I meant what I said. I—”

She stopped. Sniffed. I realized she was fighting away tears. Unexpected compassion filled my heart.

“Lorelai,” I said gently, reaching out to lay my hand on her thigh. And if the shape and feel of her leg was enough to drive my senses mad, feeling true compassion helped counteract my raging desires. “My wife and I had an agreement that we could both see who we liked, as long as no children were impacted by our affairs. I broke that agreement,” I said, when Lorelai gave me another questioning frown. “It was not meant to happen. An accident. But Caide was born. You know that. Beside the point. In your case, you and your husband had no such agreement. He took advantage of you, lied to you, and deceived you. Neither my wife nor I acted so. We both knew full well what the other was about.”

She lifted her chin to gaze at the wall, as if her piercing stare might unlock some secret behind its painted panels.

“What you’re trying to get at is, you and I don’t have such an agreement. So, you’ll be faithful to me, even though my husband wasn’t?”

“Yes,” I said, squeezing her leg gently to lend weight to my assurance. “Yes. I will keep my word. So long as our pact stands, I will be faithful to you.”

She held her posture a little longer before sighing. Her shoulders slumped. Her chin came down.

“I can’t think about this anymore,” she said. “I’m way too tired.”

With that, she scooted around, throwing off my hand in the process, maneuvering her body until she was under the blankets with me, her head on the pillow next to mine.

I lay down too. Silence draped itself over us. I was not sleeping. I was thinking. Mulling over everything she had told me.

“Lorelai?” I asked quietly.

“Yes?”

Her alert tone proved she’d not been sleeping.

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