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CHAPTER 36
Being pregnant in themiddle of the summer absolutely sucked. I had absolutely no idea how Eloise made it look so easy, but it was like having a hot water bottle attached to your front at all times.
At seven months, my stomach had ballooned out so fast that I was starting to forget what my body used to look like, and don’t even get me started on my cravings for strange food. My morning sickness had faded once I reached the middle of my fourth month, and from there I’d eaten anything and everything with the same suction quality of a hoover vacuum.
“Hi Madeline!” Alice, Marcus’s secretary, greeted me with a bright smile. She was an older beta woman and one of the nicest people that I had ever had the pleasure of meeting.
“Hi, Alice. Is Marcus on a call?” I asked, putting my purse down on the little chair that sat next to Alice’s desk. Vitaly, my ever present shadow, hovered behind me like he didn’t quite know what to do. The bodyguard that Adair had put on me was an older, grizzled looking alpha with a scar on his face that made him look more severe than he actually was. I was also pretty sure that he had a thing for Marcus’s secretary.
We had been in this office enough over the past three months for me to watch how the back of his neck always reddened everytime he said hello to her. So much so that I was currently in the middle of what I was affectionately calling Operation: Hook-Up.
“Well...I’m going to go ahead and see if Marcus is ready to head to my appointment. Vitaly, can you see what Marcus’s schedule looks like for next week? I think I have an impromptu appointment to go to, and I want to make sure Marcus can go with me.”
Vitaly’s blue eyes met mine, and I could see an out-of-depth panic in them as I grinned and slipped inside of Marcus’s doorway which was open a crack, leaving the pair to their conversation.
“Love, are you still trying to matchmake my secretary?” Marcus’s amused voice came from behind me, and when I turned I found my alpha leaning back in his desk chair, as he watched me with glittering green eyes.
He patted his lap and I went to him willingly, slipping my sandals off and sliding onto his lap so that my back was to his chest. I was confident that he would be able to cradle my ever-growing weight as I relaxed. Marcus then did the thing that I loved the most, he slid his hands underneath my rounded stomach and gently lifted. The relief was almost immediate, and I laid my head back on Marcus’s shoulder, moaning from the sheer amount of relaxation that it brought to my sore shoulders and back.
“I swear, just doing this makes you moan more than actual sex.” Marcus joked quietly, his breath curling over my neck and his birthday cake scent filling my nose.
“At this point you’re probably right.” I replied breathlessly as I practically melted into his chest. I had never known that pregnancy brought so much discomfort. Between my hips hurting and the baby constantly sitting on my bladder, I had yet to experience what everyone called ‘the pregnancy glow.’ Though, if you asked Marcus, Adair, or Rio, they would tell you that I was the most gorgeous thing that they’d ever seen.
I felt about as gorgeous and majestic as a whale.
Marcus sensed my shift in mood from our bond, and I felt the warmth of his feelings for me spread through the bond like massaging fingers, pushing away all of my negative self-thoughts.
“Adair and Rio will be back tonight.” Marcus commented as he pressed feather light kisses to the bond mark on my neck, sending very different warm fuzzies straight between my legs.
“Mhm,” I replied, basking in the sensation of his lips. Adair and Rio had been gone for almost four weeks on another tour, trying to get Adair’s face out in front of the media and make it easier to vote for him come November. Not that he needed much help with that. After the primaries, Adair’s name had shot to the forefront of the news cycle. He was twenty years younger than his opponentandhe was running on a platform of progress and change. His opponent was an older alpha named James Wright and to say the man was old school was an understatement, the man wouldn’t know change if it bit him in the ass.
I had only met him once, since I didn’t do as many events now that my pregnancy was progressing, but I knew enough to know that I didn’t like him. He had barely made eye contact with me and hadn’t wanted to shake my hand. His pack and omega hadn’t been any better, looking down their noses at me before moving on.
Luckily, Adair’s polling numbers were way up, and I was pretty sure that he was going to do really well in November. Announcing my pregnancy hadn’t hurt either. We had initially wanted to keep it private for as long as possible, but when I started to show within a month of returning from Cancun, Mortie convinced us that it was better to make an official announcement rather than let the media gossip.
That was when Vitaly had become my full-time bodyguard. People started to approach me on the street, especially since the media had been liberal with using pictures of me on air. I wasn’t sure where they were getting some of their pictures of me as a young child, but I had a sneaking suspicion that my parents were somehow behind it.
They had tried to contact me several times over the last three months, and it had gotten to the point where I had to change my number and Ric had to change his. That effectively cut them off and they hadn’t tried to reach us since.
Ric was pissed that they were trying to wheedle their way back into my life now that I was pregnant with the future Governor’s child. He wanted to put out a statement that told the world that we did not consider ourselves a part of the Zhao family, but I managed to talk him down. I didn’t want any drama, let alone drama that could hurt Adair’s chances of winning the election when he was so close.
“So, is tonight the night then?” Marcus gently nudged me out of my thoughts, and I turned my face so that he could press a sweet kiss to my lips.
I nodded, reminded of my plan for when Rio and Adair came home tonight. “I hope so, there’s no way that they would say no...right?”
Marcus scoffed. “Absolutely not. They’ve been chomping at the bit to bond with you ever since we came back from Cancun. They were just waiting for you to be ready.”
I had been ready for a while, but our crazy schedules had made it hard for us to be in the same place at the same time. It didn’t feel right to bond with Rio without Adair being there, and vice versa. So it had taken nearly three months to finally put my plan in place.
“It’ll be fine. They will shoot through the ceiling as soon as the request leaves those pretty lips of yours.” Marcus assured me before glancing at the computer. “We’d better get going, love, so we aren’t late. I don’t want to be scolded by Alwin again.” Much to my despair, he released my stomach and the weight and pressure returned immediately.
Marcus and my obstetrician had butted heads more than once over the past few months, and to be honest, my appointments were more like a comedy show rather than a clinical check-in, but I, for one, loved to watch as they bickered about the gel being too cold or Marcus being too close to everything and getting in the way.
Marcus stood up from the chair, picking me up in the process, and set me lightly on my bare feet which I was pretty sure were swollen. Before I could try to step into my sandals, Marcus swooped down and snatched them up in order to help me put them on.
“Thank you,” I sighed with relief. These days Marcus knew what I needed before I could even ask.
“Anytime, love.” Marcus brushed a kiss to the top of my hair, and I smoothed my floral sundress over my stomach, feeling the little kick that told me that the baby was about to start their daily gymnastics, right on time for our appointment. “Shall we go and see if your matchmaking plan bore any fruit today?” Marcus asked, sliding his fingers through mine.
