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hyperventilate in two shakes of a lamb's tail."
"Lamb's tails. Cute. The babies. Two babies. At least two babies. Probably a boy
for Adam, a girl for you. Since I am naked with no coin to toss no pockets, ya see--
Adam is older. First baby is his."
"Honey, you can't get pregnant, remember? Maybe we should discuss this
tomorrow, when you're awake."
"Am awake sorta. Can so get pregnant."
Adam sat up, and turned Lorelei's face so she could look at him. Dazed and
sleepy, but looking in his direction.
"Don' be mean to me, wanna go ta sleep."
"Babe. You can't drop a bomb like that and then go to sleep." Adam had
everything he could do to hold himself together. Could she be serious? Please, let her be
serious. A baby? A son? Adam had given up hope of ever having a family of his own, of
having what Lucian had a real family when they joined the Marine Corps. The
Duquesne mob had been his surrogate family. Is she serious?
"Babe. Tell me. Tell us. What babies?"
Lorelei yawned, and tried to snuggle on Adam's lap.
"Our babies. First Terminator Guy, then Volley Ball Dude." She faded out again.
Lucian tried once more. "Honey child, you can't have a baby, remember?"
"Can too."
"Can't."
"Can too."
"Hon . . . ."
Lorelei sounded agitated. "Don't hon me. Adam's damn horse cock. Maybe yours,
too. Musta knocked the thing loose, worked its way out."
At that, Lucian sat up, too.
"The IUD? Hon, did the IUD come out?"
"Yeah, whatever." She held up a hand and flicked her finger. "Plink. All gone, no
more."
Adam, unable to speak, pulled her up into his arms, and kissed her.
Lorelei put her good arm around his neck and patted his shoulder. "Can we go to
sleep now?"
The guys finally lay back down. She settled between them again.
Lucian whispered to her. "Yes, darlin' girl. You can sleep."
Exhaustion took its toll, the adrenaline finally tanked, and Adam collapsed
under a slumbering heap of entwined limbs.
* * * * *
Lorelei woke up in a cold sweat, and tried to untangle herself as she fought to sit
up. Adam grunted and held her tighter. Lucian turned on his other side.
Her heart pounded, and not in a good way. He'll see. Stanford the lunatic hadn't
said they'll see or you'll see, his words were clearly he said so . . . he'll get it for me . . . If
Stanford was dissing any or all of them, he wouldn't say he . . . .
Fuck it. He's dead. This can wait. But the chills continued, and Lorelei snuggled
back into the warmth of Adam's arms and pulled Lucian closer.
Who the hell is the puppet master? Is it really Robson? Who's been pulling Stanford's
strings? Who's sleeping with the enemy?
* * * * *
When Lorelei finally wandered down to the kitchen the next morning, Adam
served up breakfast hot fruit over thick French toast, with honey butter.
Lucian fiddled with the kitchen TV to find the morning news and annoy Adam,
who didn't like the television on until after they ate. If at all.
"Hey, guys, I had an epiphany last night. Listen . . . ."
Lucian turned to her. "Did the epiphany have anything to do with babies?"
"About what?"
"About babies." Lucian made a measuring motion with his hand at knee height.
"Babies. Y'know, the short version of people."
"Darling man, as adorable as you are, it's still too early for you not to make
sense."
Adam put her plate on the table, and motioned for her to sit. "Hot food, hot." He
wiped his hands on a kitchen towel. "Now, about last night's announcement?"
Lorelei wasn't sure, but it almost looked like Adam was . . . well . . . blushing.
Nah, that's not possible.
Lucian set a mug of herbal tea in front of her.
She pushed the tea away. "Coffee, please. I need coffee."
He pushed it back. "No caffeine for you. Babies?"
"Are you guys gonna listen to me, or what?"
"After the baby chat, we'll listen to whatever you need to say."
"Fine. The IUD broke loose, dislodged, displaced, whatever. I grabbed the thing."
"Why didn't you tell us? You could have been damaged. Someone definitely could
have been damaged." With a houseful of sisters, not much in the way of intimate female
details was off limits to Lucian.
"We were a little bit busy, don't you think? CIA, clandestine services, espionage,
agent trying to kill me, y'know, silly stuff like that. Any of this ring a bell?"
"Babe," Adam began.
Lucian held up his hand. "I'll field this one, hoss." He turned to Lorelei. "Getting
pregnant might be an issue, don't you think, if we didn't know about it?"
"Okay, fine. I can get pregnant. I might be pregnant. Now you know." She
spooned warm sweet fruit into her mouth so she couldn't talk.
"Lorelei, darlin' "
"Jeez, you guys aren't gonna give up, are ya, so I can tell you something really
important?"
"No. This is really important." Lucian slid his coffee mug out of her reach.
"Fine. The IUD dislodged and came out. I can get pregnant. As embarrassing as
this is to share, I have no idea what my monthly cycle is hello, hormones so your
guess is as good as mine. I also had no definitive plan for the rest of my life, other than
working my ass off, so I'm sorta flying by the seat of my pants. Since you both decided
to keep me, I decided why not have babies at least two . . . then go back to work.
Welcome, Mr. Mom. Mr. Moms, plural. Okay, I probably should have mentioned it, but
someone was trying to kill me and national security was on the line. It slipped my
mind. My bad."
Adam looked shell-shocked.
Lucian shook his head and grinned. Widely.
"If I remember last night correctly and I'm a bit fuzzy on some of it I decided
to flip a coin to see who would be a daddy first. Not that it matters, now that I think
about it. So, I came up with the birthday thing. After I was targeted for termination,
sorta damaged, saved from death, and righteously fucked within an inch of my life.
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