Dream Five, Chapter Thirty-Two

(Anything in asterisks is meant to be italicized.)

The next several hours were an endeavor Barrons and I undertook for him to remind me that I am his—mind, body, and soul, and for me to reiterate that the only woman allowed in his bed is me. We belong only to each other.

Sex with Barrons is always hotter than the sun. He knows just where to touch me that will drive me insane and beg him for more. Harder. Faster. I know just how to rattle his cage, too. What part of his dick is the most sensitive, how best to tease him, and just what tone to use whenever I say his name to make him growl at the back of his throat in that way that I love.

The only pauses we took were for Kenna and when he made me eat. I was lying on his chest with my head in the hollow of his neck for the first time in way too long. Once I'd finished tracing a tattoo, I propped myself up and began outlining the features of his face with my fingers. My serene smile got wider when I started outlining his sexy full lips. I leaned down and kissed him before I said softly, "I really missed you."

He arched an eyebrow ever so slightly and said, "Ms. Lane, I have rarely left your side for the past several months."

"True," I said with a nod of acknowledgment. *And thank you, Jericho.*

*Always, Mac. *

That was our code. Whenever I thanked him, I was really saying he's my whole world. His response was him telling me I'm his sun, moon, and stars. I had to kiss him again before I could continue speaking, whispering what I said next in his ear.

"What I meant was that I had missed you being somewhere in particular."

"Christ, Mac." I laughed as I suddenly found myself flipped onto my back. He stretched over me, eternal as the night, the muscles in his shoulders bunching wonderfully.

It was a couple of hours later that I was lying on my side with his arms wrapped tightly around me. I rolled over and smiled up at him.

"What's with that smile?" he asked as his dark eyes studied me.

"I think this room is my favorite place on earth," I told him. "Apart from my bookstore, that is."

"Why is that?" His lips turned up smugly.

"And you think you give me too many compliments?" Every time I hear that laugh, I want to pause the moment and rewind just so I can hear it again.

"Are you going to tell me why my bedroom is your favorite place in the world or not?" I smirked and pushed him onto his back so I could lie on top of his chest and rest my head in the hollow of his neck again.

As I was happily surrounded by the smell of spices, I said, "This is the one place I don't mind being underground, and you know how much being underground freaks me out. This was also where you first told me you loved me. You kissed me and you told me I exist in a place outside of all rules for you. That first night down here when I finally slept, I woke up and realized that for the first time since coming to Dublin, I truly felt safe and secure."

"Ryodan later read me the riot act for disappearing when we did," he said, and I could hear the smile in his voice.

"Those were some of the best days of my life," I said as I sighed happily. "And not just because of the amazing sex." I felt Barrons move and he tilted my head up to kiss me. We'd started to get more handsy when Kenna started crying.

"She definitely got your timing," Barrons said as I moved away and sat up.

"Oh, don't give me that tone," I said as I stood and stretched. "You can get irritated with me all you want, but please don't get irritated with your week-old daughter for interrupting sex."

He was suddenly behind me, his arms pulling me back against him before growling in my ear, "I will get irritated with anyone who interrupts me fucking you, Mac. Even my week-old daughter."

"What about my own exhaustion?" I said as I yawned and leaned back into him, teasing him just a little with rub of my ass against his leg. It was followed by a sharp intake of breath. "Even if she's not crying because she's hungry, I'm going to have to pump now. And as much as I hate to admit it, I should sleep soon. We have to be somewhere tomorrow. I've been away from my kingdom for too long and too often. They'll get suspicious. I'm surprised they haven't sent someone to bring me back yet."

"That's because Masdann, Christian, Sean, and Jayne have been covering for you," he reminded me.

"Oh, yeah. Forgot about that. We're going to have to do something nice for them as a thank you." Though I wasn't sure what.

"No, we don't. You're their queen; they're following orders." I could tell by his tone that he was starting to get annoyed because I was in this room and naked but not fucking him.

"Huh. Forgot about that, too." I tried to push his arms away but he only tightened his grip. "Jericho, I either have to go feed her or I have to go pump before I start leaking. I'll fuck you afterwards, okay?"

He dropped his face into the hollow of my neck and inhaled before he said, "I'm holding you to that. You pump, I'll feed her."

I turned around in his arms and kissed him before telling him that he was the best. He thought he didn't have any buttons but I'd found a bunch of them. Blatantly stroking his ego on occasion while doing it subtly more often went a long way to keeping him in a better mood. Especially because I had taken him for granted for so long.

Also fucking him. That one went a *really* long way.

I had grabbed one of his button-down silk shirts and wore it half-buttoned as I sat in the rocking chair in Kenna's nursery and pumped. Barrons had thrown on a pair of black sweatpants (that I had been shocked to learn he owned) and stood and rocked her as he fed her a bottle. The features of his face softened as he looked down at her and I watched them with a smile.

He glanced up at me after a while and sent, *Got something you want to say, Rainbow Girl?*

"You look good holding a baby," I told him.

*Don't get used to it*, he told me with a pointed look. *We still need to find a way to prevent another little surprise.*

"I know, I know." A small part of me was hopeful that whatever Fae birth control solution we hopefully found wouldn't be permanent and would be somehow reversible. I definitely didn't want another child right away—or anywhere in the immediate future—but I didn't want to rule it out entirely if Kenna didn't inherit a beast of her own. He really did look good holding a baby, especially because it was ours. As much as I loved the beast beneath his skin, I liked this slightly gentler side, too. The way his face softened when he looked at her was entrancing.

Kenna wasn't his weakness; that would only ever be me and it was a fact I relished. But he loved her and there wasn't much he wouldn't do for her. All of that showed in the way his features softened when he looked at his daughter.

I was glad we'd had a girl. My fear with the thought of having a boy was that we'd only ever see his other son's face when we looked at him, the one K'Vruck had finally put to rest. I knew he still mourned his boy and he always would. I knew he regretted the finality that K'Vruck held of killing the soul, rather having agony for himself than a true end. But I also knew that he didn't view Kenna as a second chance, an attempt at redemption. He didn't want redemption because he didn't need it; he's not the hero or the antihero, he's him. He just viewed Kenna as his daughter, and like every parent—be they human, animal, Nine, or whatever—he'd do his best to do right by her and be the father she deserved. And if we were able to have another someday and gave Kenna a little brother, he'd do the same for that boy as he'd do for Kenna.

That got me hoping whatever we found wouldn't mean no more children for all of eternity and something in my head clicked.

"Wait a minute," I said as I narrowed my eyes at him. "How did you not smell it on me?"

"Smell what?" he growled.

"Everything," I said softly. "If the Unseelie King's essence gave me his elixir, my scent would have changed. You could smell the elixir on me after Cruce gave it to me."

"Not until my son ripped out your throat. I smelled it in your blood."

"There was a lot of blood after I gave birth." Things felt like they weren't adding up here. This man was practically invincible. I could count the number of times I'd seen him truly surprised.

"Uterine blood that was contaminated by pregnancy hormones," he shrugged. "It would have also had to have been a lot closer to me for me to detect it even if it wasn't contaminated."

"Alright," I said after a moment. "I guess that checks out. But how were you not able to smell my pregnancy?"

He exhaled slowly and glanced at me before he said, "I could smell it."

"Then why didn't you say anything?" I gritted.

"For the same reason I tucked the memory of the first time I fucked you under a rock in your mind," he said softly. "You needed to deal with it on you were ready."

We were both silent for a while, the only sound being my pump. Barrons had already finished feeding and burping Kenna, now just standing and rocking her back to sleep as I was a few minutes away from being done when I asked, *Are you going to have to rip out my throat in order to detect the smell of the elixir?*

*No*, he told me as he swiped his head once to the left in negation. *I just need your blood.*

When I finished pumping, I marked the bottles and brought them to the freezer as he finished putting Kenna down. I was headed back to the nursery when he intercepted me in the hallway.

"Would you prefer I cut you myself?" he asked as I leaned back against the wall.

I smirked and said, "Sure," as I pushed up the sleeve of the shirt I had borrowed from him and held out my forearm. I knew he was actually the one who preferred doing it himself. There was amusement in his eyes as his fangs slid out. I covered my mouth with my free hand and squeezed my eyes closed before he ripped open the skin of my forearm. Not enough blood escaped to drip onto the floor before the wound closed itself, but he was able to scoop some out of the wound onto his fingers. My hand muffled my hiss of pain and I held my arm where it was as he sniffed deeply.

"It smells very similar," he eventually told me. "I should be able to make a determination by smelling both the elixir and the additive before comparing them to your blood."

"I think we can arrange that," I told him, knowing I had a loyal prince who would find the additive when we went to Faery. "I'm going to go wash off the remaining blood."

"No need," he told me, crimson sparking in his eyes as he raised my arm to his mouth again. Once it was all gone, we returned to his bedroom and I stayed true to my word.

After we had taken care of that, he was spooning me from behind again and I said as my hand moved up and down his arm, "When can we call this *our* bed and *our* bedroom?"

He snorted into my hair and said, "When we share a last name."

I considered making a joke about why he hadn't changed his yet, but there had been a certain edge to his tone and I decided against it. I love his fire but not his pain.