37. Stella

37

STELLA

I sigh at the feeling of fingers in my hair and blink up at Ben.

“Hi,” I say, hiding my face for a moment in my favorite pillow, embarrassed with how I cut him out earlier. I fell asleep on top of the covers of our very desecrated bed. I’d usually have napped in my workshop, but with Stoneheart’s gift of the decor and all the time we’ve spent together here, it soothes my raw heart.

“Hey.” His smile is soft. “Did you have a good nap?”

“It was okay,” I say. It would have been better cuddled with either of the men I’m intimate with, but that would be too much of a luxury. “What time is it?”

“It’s almost dinner time, but I planned something. Stoneheart is meeting us there.”

I tilt my head in curiosity. We’re going out together as the three of us? Before I can interrogate Ben, he moves on.

“I wanted to offer you something.” He hands me a blue vial with a yellowed label.

“What’s this?” I ask, even though I can read the words Fertility Aid just fine. Fully awake now, I sit up.

“It’s a potion. It’ll help you get pregnant outside of your natural cycle.”

“Really?” The worry and unnamed disappointment that had been keeping my stomach heavy lifts. A giddy rush has me smiling.

“You don’t have to take it,” Ben says, unaware of my reaction. “There are side effects, but the biggest one the potion master mentioned was that you may feel different…like you’re going into heat.”

My laugh is full of relief. “I think I can stand being horrendously horny to accomplish the goal.”

I’m going to get pregnant. We won’t have to wait months to try again. When I committed to trying to make an heir, I’d been shaky on the decision.

But with the days we all spent together and the promise of making something together and the reality that it might not be in the cards at all…I want this.

And now I have help to make it happen.

Ben tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear. His expression is soft, and I want to wrap myself in it to keep it close.

“Thank you. If this works, you’ve saved us,” I say.

He blushes. “Of course. I told you. My job is to find solutions.”

“I’m sure you won’t mind handling me while I’m horrendously horny either,” I tease.

He waggles his eyebrows. “I couldn’t leave you in your greatest hour of need.”

Something passes over his face for a moment that I can’t track. Am I seeing things? The moment and the doubt stall our joke, and I clear my throat.

“You said we’re going somewhere?” I ask a little confused. Where would we be able to go and use the potion on the same night? Because I’m itching to put this to use. The sooner I’m pregnant, the sooner the territory becomes more stable.

His grin blinds me and is assurance that I imagined the blip before. “It’s a surprise.”

“Fuck me,” Ben says, his eyes traveling down my dress. I’ve departed from the classic cut ones I’ve been wearing for something a little more risqué. The black dress clings tight to my curves with a tease of lace accentuating my cleavage.

“Is this okay?” I ask, my hand smoothing down the fabric. “It’s not too much for where we’re going?”

“More than okay. You look like the best dessert.”

“Well, you need to feed me dinner first.”

“Oh, don’t you worry. I’m not getting distracted. It wouldn’t do for Stoneheart to get there before us.” He offers his hand and pulls me into his arms, waiting for me to close my eyes.

I do and take comfort in the feel of him as the world changes around us.

The air takes on an echoey humidity. When I open my eyes, we’re in a room that looks like a lobby of sorts with white mosaic patterned up the walls and ceiling.

A man strolls forward from the massive front desk.

“Oh good, you’re here. We really need to reopen the lobby. If you make this a habit, maybe we’ll change the wards so you can teleport into a broom closet or something,” a man with auburn hair and a slight frame says, his tone teasing.

“Good to see you too, Lowell,” Ben says.

“Are we at a bathhouse?” I whisper halfway in squeal to him. “Is it by chance a sexy bathhouse?”

I’d been terribly jealous at Katarina detailing the date she and Kalos had here, but with everything going on, had completely forgotten.

Ben laughs at my hardly contained glee. “Don’t get too excited. We’re staying in a private room.”

I wave my hand. I feel like I get plenty of group sex with the two men I currently have. The joy of this place is in the luxury and ambiance of it as much as the novelty.

“The lady has good tastes to get excited. Welcome to the Love Bathhouse,” Lowell says with a courtly bow.

Ben flashes a frown at Lowell and pulls me closer. “If you could show us to our room, I’d appreciate it. The rest of our party hasn’t arrived yet, has he?”

Lowell shakes his head, smiling at the show of jealousy from the demon beside me. “I’ve seen no scary gargoyles yet. I gave him directions to come in the back way, and the door is keyed to him so the three of you will have your privacy.”

He directs us to follow him down a hallway, and I do, barely catching the sound of a cut off moan from the public bathing area.

“Thank you,” I say. “I’m really excited to be here.”

Lowell beams at me as we get to the last door down the hall, opening it. “And we’re very happy to host you. Please do enjoy your night.”

I enter the room and gape. Lowell must leave because somehow, we’re alone with the door securely closed. The mosaic on the walls and floors has all my attention. Deep blues flow in an organic swirling design shot through with silver.

The walls look like the most intricate jewelry with the altar holding thick pillar candles to the side of the door serving as the centerpiece. That’s where the spell that gives our consent for the magic cultivated here by sex to be stored is activated.

One side of the room has a steaming pool of water set into the floor, and the other is piled with cushions and pillows. There’s even a low table with silverware.

“Stoneheart is bringing dinner,” Ben says. He takes the blue vial he stored in his pocket and sets it on the table. “You should really eat dinner before drinking that.”

My lips twitch. “You sent a territory leader on a dinner errand?”

Ben snorts. “He demanded it. I think it’s a part of his kind’s courtship rituals.”

His cheeks are flushed when I turn toward him, and I’m glad he realizes that Stoneheart is courting him as much as he’s courting me. The piano in the bedroom made that clear.

“Ben, this is amazing.”

There’s something sad in his expression, but he smiles. “You deserve only the best.”

Before I let myself succumb to the instinct to get shy at that, I grab his hand and pull him to the candles. “We need to light these before you start being too charming.”

“Am I that tempting?” he teases, almost surprised.

Does he really not realize? He gives and gives, and I’m struck with the need to do the same because he’s essential to me, and he should know it.

A flame kindles in my belly as I light one of the long matches and the closest candle. I step in close until our lips brush and hand him the burning match.

“You tempt every part of me,” I say.

His eyelids droop, and I nod for him to light a candle. When he does, I brush our lips together again. “My body.”

My hand takes his, and we hold the burning match together. “My soul.”

The middle candle comes to life, and a static crackles in the air with magic, the sealing of the act. I hold the match up and blow it out before setting it aside and taking his face in my hands. “And my heart.”

Ben looks hypnotized. “Stella?—”

I cut him off with a deeper kiss.

“I’ll keep you forever if you let me,” I whisper.

The sound from his throat is raw, and it lights up my senses as surely as the magic candles do.

I take a step back and pull him toward the padded area of the room.

“When Remy gets here, he’ll add his flame to ours,” I say, and Ben follows me, his movements slow and curious, kicking off his shoes when I kick off mine and stepping forward until we’re surrounded by soft places to land. I turn to him. “In the meantime, the spell will take what we offer.”

My fingers run under his suit jacket and push it from his shoulders.

“You’re playing a dangerous game,” he says.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Whatever would we do in a sex bathhouse while we wait?” I ask, breathless, undoing the buttons of his dress shirt one by one.

“Are you trying to anger your husband?”

My smile is slow and sure. “He’d never deprive me of a taste.”

Ben swallows but helps me remove his shirt. “A taste?”

“A taste,” I confirm, my hands spreading over his bared chest and down the demarcated lines of his abs to the buckle of his belt. I step closer and give an open-mouthed kiss to his throat.

He shudders, and I continue my kisses over his collar bone, to the expanse of his chest, each flick of my tongue going lower. He stops me from kneeling, grasping my shoulders.

“Stella,” he says, hoarse. “You can have your taste another time.”

I tilt my head, trying to figure out why he’s suddenly showing me the walls he’s built around himself when he’s been so open with us the last few days.

The strap of my dress falls, and he strokes the skin of my shoulder, entranced by the sight. “You should really eat dinner beforehand. I don’t want you hungry.”

“Is food really what you’re hungry for?” I ask, pressing my body to his, pouting that he’s stopping my fun, but hopeful that he doesn’t seem to want to stop completely.

“If you give me what I’m hungry for, I fear I’d devour you whole.”

And with that promise, he kisses me.