AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yes, Aunt Marge.” Melanie blew her a kiss. “I love you.”
Her ancient relative grumbled something that sounded like “love you too” and then the holo finally flickered out and Melanie was free to go to the party.
But as she gathered her present for the Secret Santa exchange, she couldn’t help feeling heavy-hearted. Her ex was finally going to be a father but her own chances for motherhood, or even finding someone to share the rest of her life with, seemed very slim indeed.
10
“Melanie, over here!” It was Sonja, waving for her eagerly from across the large meeting room. It had been decorated for the party, with a huge Christmas tree twinkling with lights in one corner and a table filled with bright red punch and trays of Christmas cookies in another. Christmas carols were playing, though they were hard to hear over the chatter of people talking.
Melanie weaved her way through the crowd to get to her friend’s side. Sonja was wearing a long, silky gown in vivid purple that looked wonderful with her creamy brown skin tones.
“Hi, how are you?” She and Sonja kissed cheeks and she smiled at her friend. “You look great!”
“So do you! Look at you—flaunting your curves. How do you like the float dots?”
“They certainly make the girls a lot perkier than usual,” Melanie admitted, looking down at her chest.
“I know! And we busty girls can use all the help we can get. Not that Sahran complains about my, ah, assets,” she added, giving Melanie a nudge.
Melanie tried to smile, but she felt like her face was broken. The image of Steve and his pregnant girlfriend kept intruding in her mind, sucking away all the joy of the party.
“Hey, what’s wrong with you?” Sonja demanded, looking at her anxiously. “You look like somebody just stomped your kitty cat!”
“I’m okay,” Melanie denied. Then she shook her head. “No, that’s a lie. I’m not okay. I got a call from my Aunt Marge and she said my ex had come around again and she was pretty sure his new girlfriend was pregnant.”
“Okay.” Sonja nodded. “Is that what’s getting you down?”
“I guess so.” Melanie sighed again. “It’s just—when I was with him, he never had time for a family. He kept telling me to wait. And now look—I’m getting close to forty and I’m single all over again. I always wanted kids but…” She shrugged sadly. “It just doesn’t look like it’s in the cards for me to have them.”
“Don’t give up!” Sonja urged her. “All you need to do is find a nice guy to get Joined and have a baby with.” She grinned slyly. “Or maybe a couple of nice guys. Speaking of which, here come Clear and Strong.”
“Sonja!” Melanie hissed and shook her head. “Do not talk about babies in front of them—I mean it!” she muttered to her friend. “Keep it to yourself!”
“Yes, Ma’am.” Sonja saluted sarcastically and smiled brightly as Clear and Strong made their way through the crowd. They were both wearing the Twin Kindred uniform with tight black trousers, tall black boots, and emerald green button-down shirts that looked amazing on both of them.
“Hello and Christmas Greetings,” Clear said as he reached them. Strong nodded but was silent.
“Hi there, fellas!” Sonja smiled at them both. “Oh, will you excuse me? I think I see Sahran waving at me.” And she dove off into the crowd, leaving Melanie alone with the two large Kindred warriors.
“Oh, um…hi.” Melanie smiled up at them both. She’d seen Clear once or twice at work in passing the last few days, but this was the first time she was seeing both twins together since waking up-half naked in their bed.
And speaking of half naked, her braless breasts felt vulnerable and exposed, especially when she noticed Strong’s dark blue eyes flicking down to the points of her nipples, clearly visible under the thin red material. He looked away quickly, though, which was considerate.
“May I see your hand?” he asked Melanie. “I just want to be sure it’s all healed up.”
“Oh, it’s fine!” Melanie assured him, holding out her hand. “Even the other spots where the smaller heat beams got me are better.”
“Yes, the nanites were programmed to heal your entire hand—not just that one spot,” Strong murmured. “I’m just glad they did their job.” His warm touch on her skin made Melanie shiver and a tingle ran up her arm.
“Um…it’s a nice party, isn’t it?” she offered rather breathlessly.
“Is it? This is the first Christmas Party we’ve been to, so we can’t tell,” Clear admitted.
“It seems nice to me,” Melanie said. “And they have refreshments,” she added, nodding to the table in the corner with the punch and cookies. “I wonder what flavor the punch is?”
“Why don’t we get some and find out?” Clear suggested. So the three of them moved over to the refreshment table, which thankfully wasn’t as crowded as the rest of the room.
