eight
Lukyan slid quietly between her legs, his head nestled between her thighs. This was by far Norah’s favorite way to be awakened. For Norah, morning sickness had hit fast and hard. Now in the fifth month of her pregnancy, she was constantly plagued by nausea and vomiting. For most women morning sickness had abated at this point, but because of the elongated term of the shifters pregnancy her morning sickness was in peak condition.
True to his logical nature, Lukyan had approached the situation with rationality and reason. After carefully plotting the times and intensity of her nausea, he discovered that she was unlikely to suffer from sickness during sleep and sex. Unfortunately for Norah, her body had a habit of waking around six every morning, no matter how rested she felt. Her luck wasn’t all bad, though. Lukyan had paid attention and discovered that his mate’s body very much preferred to sleep after an orgasm, and so that is what he provided every morning at 6 AM. As far as alarm clocks went, Norah could not imagine a better one.
She had thought him cute when he explained his plan of attack.“I’m going to wake you every morning with an orgasm. Then you will be so relaxed that you can fall back to sleep and rest for another two to three hours.”Most mornings she was awakened just as she had been this day, with his head nestled between her legs. She always came quickly. Lukyan had a way of coaxing pleasure from her. Often she would demand more, before falling asleep for another two to three hours. She smiled to herself. Lukyan really was the most logical, kind, thoughtful and unselfish of mates. She reached her hands down her body and pulled gently at his hair.
“Just lay back and relax, baby." Lukyan lapped at her center. Norah couldn’t stop her eyes from rolling back in her head. This really was the best way to wake up. Lukyan's tongue ran from her middle to her clit and down again, stopping in the middle and inserting his tongue deep inside her. She wiggled under his touch. His hand slowly rubbed at the ever blooming swell of her belly. She'd only just started to show. Lukyan seemingly adored her new curves and the slight swell of her belly. He was constantly touching her there.
“Oh god, Lukyan. That's amazing." Norah's words were a husky whisper.
Lukyan continued to caress her stomach with his hand while gently lapping her core. His tongue flicked in perfect rhythm. The sensation caused a buzzing of electricity to flow through her body.
“Just like that." Her voice was more demanding now. Norah needed all of it. She pumped her hips against his face, as he continued to lap slow and rhythmically at her center, stopping on occasion to rub his face in her juices. “I'm going to come." Norah threw her head back and willed her body to relax so that the waves of pleasure could roll over her and through her. Lukyan still caressed her center with his mouth. When her body’s pulsing finally quieted, he sat back on his feet and looked down at her.
“Go back to sleep, baby. We have a big day ahead of us.”
Norah looked up at him. His mouth still glistened from her wetness and a cocky grin played on his mouth. If she didn't know better she would say he was a very contented man, but she knew better. The tenting of his pajama bottoms told her in no uncertain terms that Lukyan wanted more. “I’m not ready to go back to bed, Lukyan. I need more." She darted her eyes to his erection and lifted her eyebrows a little in a teasing glance that told him exactly what themorewas that she needed. Lukyan looked at her questioningly.
“You don’t have to, Norah. I know you're tired a lot lately, and you need your rest."
“I know I don’t have to, Iwantto. I want you,Lukyan. Ialwayswant you."
Lukyan didn't have to be asked twice. Quickly he pulled his pants from his body. He covered her body with his, and pushed her gown up, quickly taking her nipple in his mouth. “Goddess above, Norah. I want you so badly this morning. So beautiful.” He said these words between gentle kisses on her nipple. It only took one flick of his tongue across her peaked, tight bud to have Norah instantly wet and ready for him again. She pulled at his head, urging him higher, desperate to have him inside her.
“No foreplay. Not this morning. I need you inside me." Norah wasn't sure what it was about Lukyan, but she couldn't get enough of him. Perhaps it was love, perhaps it was his beautiful body, perhaps it was a combination of everything. Or perhaps, as she most feared, it was simply animal instinct. Whatever it was she couldn't deny it. She needed and wanted him. Lukyan seemed to understand because he quickly thrust his thick erection into her body. Gently his hips began to push forward and back so that his dick slid in and out of her at a pace so slow it both excited and angered her. Her wetness increased. He knew what he did to her when he moved slowly like this. He could feel her body begging him for more. She tilted her hips, angling for more, angling for him to move deeper, urging him to take her harder and faster. Lukyan's slow pace continued. He was driving her insane and giving her bliss all at the same time. She could feel her juices flowing between her legs. She could feel the wetness of the sheets below them. She didn’t care.
“Faster. Lukyan. Please! Can't… take… anymore." Her words pleaded with him in slow, uneven gasps. Lukyan increased his pace, sliding in and out at a faster pace. Norah’s slick canal tightened, pulling him deeper.
“Fuck!" Lukyan half-whispered, half-grunted the word in her ear. “Goddess, Norah. You’re so tight." Norah squeezed tighter, pleasuring him with her warm, wet core. He pressed his chest closer to hers and rested his face in the crook her neck. His tongue snaked out and licked along her jawline, stopping at the tender spot below her ear where he swirled the tip in lazy circles. The sensation drove Norah wild. She clutched and his back and pumped hard against his thick length.
“I can’t last much longer, baby, if you keep this up.” Norah didn't need much longer. The fantastic pulses of her body had already begun. Lukyan must've felt them because he immediately went deeper and harder as her body started to squeeze around him. Growling he said, “Come for me.” Her body obeyed, clenching and releasing his cock. Lukyan's orgasm soon followed.
Panting, she wrapped her body around his, still connected and wet. Lukyan ran his hand up and down the curve of her spine. She closed her eyes, taking in all the sensations his touch afforded. “You need to go to sleep. I want you well rested for our outing today." Norah pulled her hands to Lukyan's chest and placed it over his heart. She snuggled her face tight in the crook of his neck.
“Today we get to see our little baby.” She whispered the words against the skin on his chest. He pulled his hand to her head and massaged her scalp.
“Yes, and I want you to be rested.”
“Do you think seeing him will help us decide on a name?”
Lukyan laughed. “I think he’ll still look like an alien at this point. We might want to hold off on our decision in case we’re inspired to name him Zarp.”
“I’m still leaning toward Jack.” She could almost feel Lukyan’s eyes roll. The night before Lukyan had listed all the reasons why Jack would be an inappropriate name for their little one. He had created a rather long list of possible teasing names a Jack might be given by the other kids.
“We can’t name him Jack. There are too many names kids could call him. Jack Off, Jack Ass, Jackamabob, Jack in the box, Jack My Cock Off, Jack Your Cock Off, Jack wad…”
Norah drifted off to sleep with a smile on her face. She loved this ridiculous, list-making man.
“Eat a popsicle” Lukyan reached in the backseat and fished a cherry popsicle out of the cooler behind Norah’s seat. She groped for it, without even looking. Per the usual, her morning sickness had returned with a vengeance. She unwrapped the cold treat and stuck it in her mouth. Lukyan patted her knee. “We’ll be there soon. I know it’s harder for you in the car.” Norah was so nauseous she couldn’t even bring herself to respond. This pregnancy was really doing a number on her. According to Mikaela, one of the pack’s older females, the morning sickness would end soon. Norah could hardly wait. The sickness had started almost as soon as her heat ended, and it was still going strong. Even though her belly was beginning to curve out, she had lost weight. She could rarely tolerate much more than a popsicle on her queasy stomach.
It had been over five months since she and Lukyan had mated. In that time she had grown ever more in love with him. It wasn't just animal instinct, not for her at least. It wasn’t just his beautiful face or perfect body, or the fact that he was smart and funny, in a nerdy kind of way. It was all of the little things that he did that combined to make him the one perfect male. She loved that he was quiet. That he didn't force her to talk. That the two of them could sit together and be content to just hold hands while they watched TV or had dinner. Never before had she known such companionable silence. It wasn’t that they didn't talk, they did. There were times when the two of them would have deep and meaningful conversation, but there were also times when they were comfortably silent. She had never experienced that with another man.
There were thousands of other reasons that made her fall more and more in love with him every day. Not only did he wake her every morning with a smile and an orgasm, her very favorite way to be awoken, he also did other little things to help ease the pressure of her pregnancy. One of the small things that Lukyan had discovered was that, more than any other remedy, the cold popsicles were the best at easing her nausea. She had tried medicine, but her new metabolism ran right through the drugs, rendering them practically useless. So her options were to sleep, have mind-blowing sex, and eat popsicles, or be unbelievably and irrevocably ill for the entirety of her first trimester. As soon as he discovered that popsicles helped ease her sickness, he stocked the entire house with them. He had mini refrigerators put in every room so that she always had access to the frozen treats.
There were other things her mate did that made her smile and made her love him. Alek teased Lukyan for his logic and his love for making lists, but Norah found those things rather charming. She smiled through her nausea. She had fallen asleep this morning as he rambled on about all the reasons they shouldn’t name their son Jack. Other women might find his need for logic annoying. Cate called him a nerd. He was a bit of a nerd, but he was her nerd. She loved him to the point of agony.
Nausea hit her harder. He squeezed her knee again. “Almost at the doctors, babe.” They had been looking forward to this day for weeks. “Today we get to see our little bean.”
Our little bean.That’s what Lukyan had started to call the baby growing inside her. The baby she loved so much. The baby Lukyan loved so much. She knew he loved their baby from all the small kisses he placed on her belly, and the sweet words he spoke to her stomach when he thought she was sleeping. She sucked on the popsicle and fought the tears that threatened at her eyes. She had everything she had asked for. Many women long for great careers or fancy lives, but all Norah had ever really wanted was a family. For years she thought that meant having a husband and a child to hold and take care of. Now she had the shifter equivalent of that. She had a mate that vowed to protect and honor her for hundreds of years. She was pregnant with her first child. Despite all that, she felt incredibly worried and fearful of the unknown. She felt like a fool for realizing too late that what she really wanted all along was to love someone completely and be loved in return. In the five months they had been together, Lukyan had never once said he loved her. She knew he cared, there were too many clues to not know, but she couldn’t trust that he loved her. Not without those three words.
She had grown up with two wonderful parents who loved one another, who still loved one another, to distraction. Before she retired, Norah’s mother had been a successful educator, having gone on to be a principal and then superintendent of her school district. Despite all those successes, she once told Norah there was nothing she had done in her career that could match the joy that she got from being loved by Norah's father. That’s what Norah wanted. To be loved completely and undeniably by her mate. There were times when she believed her love for Lukyan and the baby would be enough, but deep in her heart, she knew that it wasn’t enough. She couldn’t stay in a relationship with Lukyan if he didn’t love her.
She opened her eyes and looked at him. His hand was still on her knee, but his eyes were on the road. The sunlight glinted in his hair, making it look brighter than usual. Yes, she definitely loved him, and she had nine more months to find out if he felt the same.
