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I continued to kiss her as I tugged her into me, wanting her as tight against my skin as possible.
“Benton?”
I kissed her shoulder on the top, my eyes on the mirror.
She held my look as she grasped on to me. “I want to have more children…”
I stilled as I held her against me, felt her heart pound a little harder against her flesh in anticipation of my answer. “Alright.” My lips dipped back to her shoulder, and I gave her hard kisses. “Now?”
“You’d…want them now?”
“I want what you want.” I turned her around then lifted her onto the counter so I could take her on the edge. My hand guided my dick past the tightness of her entrance, immediately smothered in her arousal. “So, if you want me to knock you up, tell me. Because I’ll do it.”
Nineteen
Constance
With Claire gone all day, it was just the two of us. We had lunch together, screwed on the couch, talked in front of the fire, had the solitude we never really had before. We fell into a routine right away, and then it felt like it’d always been that way.
I started to feel like Claire was mine even though I knew she wasn’t. I had memories of being pregnant, of giving birth, all of which were hallucinations. Beatrice could have had this life but chose not to. I chose to have it.
“What do you think about this place?” Benton turned the laptop toward me.
It was a large house on several acres of land, surrounded by tall pine trees, had a private gate. It was much too big for three people, so he’d taken what I had said about more kids seriously. “What about your horses?”
“It’d be too much work to move them. I know a couple places that will take them.”
“Will we get more horses?”
He turned to me. “Do you want more horses?”
“I think Claire would.”
He turned back to the screen. “I guess I’ll have the free time to do that…”
“But it’s beautiful.”
“It’s a ten-minute drive to school and town, both of which are great.”
“Sounds good to me.”
He handed the laptop to me. “Take a look and let me know.”
I clicked through the pages, seeing a beautiful fireplace in the living room, a kitchen much bigger than the one he had now, and plenty of bedrooms for a couple more children. I also noticed the price tag and did a double take.
He made himself an espresso in the kitchen then looked out the window as he drank it.
“I like it.”
“Alright.” As if the matter was settled, he returned to the couch and grabbed the laptop again. “I’ll get it done.”
“Do you like it?”
“I picked it out, didn’t I?” He grabbed his phone.
I checked the time. “I should go pick up Claire. Are you coming?”
“I’ve got to get the ball rolling on this.”
“Alright.” Before I left the couch, I planted a quick kiss on his lips.
His arms circled me and pulled me close, making something that should have lasted just a second stretch into several.
Not that I minded. “I’ll see you soon.”
I crossed the street and reached campus, passing parents who had gotten there before me. They went to their cars parked on the street or walked to their nearby apartment just the way I did. Some kids lingered on the benches and stone planter boxes, their backpacks beside them.
If I wasn’t there before the bell rang, Claire usually waited on the bench near the road, but she wasn’t there today.
I headed closer to her classroom, knowing she must have gotten caught up talking to one of her friends somewhere. But when I got there, she wasn’t there either. The door to the classroom was open, so I stepped inside, expecting her to be talking to her teacher at the front of the class.
But she wasn’t there.
Now I started to panic. “Mrs. Kyte, have you seen Claire?”
She looked up from her desk. “She walked out with Angelica when the bell rang. Are you having trouble finding her?”
“Yes…”
“Let me call the security guard. I’m sure he can help.”
“Yeah…thank you.” I walked back outside and scanned left and right, searching for the pink backpack with ponies. Now my heart was a hammer in my chest, and I could barely get a breath into my lungs. “Claire? Claire!” I started to run—even though I had nowhere to go.
I went to the principal’s office and then the bathroom, anywhere I thought she could be. “Claire!”
Then I halted when I saw them.
Across the street on the corners…the Malevolent.
Skulls with antlers hid their faces. They were the only ones there…because they’d scared all the other pedestrians away. They were sprinkled along other streets, extending at least half a mile away, only distinguishable because of their appearance.
That was when I knew. “No…”
With shaky hands, I fumbled for my phone, dropped it once, and then finally called Benton.
