Aaron's Kiss Series Boxed Set (Books 1 - 7) (91 page)

~CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO~

“How you feeling today?”

Bailey had been napping again. She hated that every time someone had come in the room over the past two days she’d been asleep. Shade had come to see her twice a day and woke her both times.

“Better. I’m sorry. You must think I’m a slug or something. I don’t normally sleep this long. I feel ridiculous.” She began fussing with the covers.

“Oh gee, you think? Hummm, I was thinking more along the lines of a wood sloth. You have been such a nuisance.” Then she smiled at her. “Get real, you’ve been shot three times, saved the alpha and a woman you’ve never met, bringing her back from certain death. I think if anyone needs to rest, it is certainly you.” 

Bailey felt her face flame with embarrassment. Shade sat down on the bed beside her. She just noticed that she had a bundle in her arms. It looked like a load of laundry.

“I’m being stupid again, aren’t I? Tristan told me that I should be resting more. But I don’t know how that would be possible.”

“You’ve gone through a great deal. I think if anyone deserves to rest, it’s you.” Shade looked down at the laundry. “There was a trial for Patrice. She was found guilty of treason and murder. It sounds silly, but she was sentenced to death. How do you put a dead person to death?”

“They had to, Tristan said. Or his father and Aaron could be put into prison for a century for killing one of their own. It’s a way to prove that not only was Patrice a murderer, but that they were justified in killing her.” Bailey leaned back against the headboard before going on. “Abby said that in the old days when a vamp went rogue, they simply staked them in the sun for two days. If they were not guilty then the elders said they would live. Stupid as that sounds, they really believed it.”

“I’m glad for the council then. There is also talk of you being made a member of the pack. Honorary, of course. Bradley had a meeting with his entire pack and told them that you not only saved his life, but that of several members of his pack as well. He told them about a troll named Todd also.”

Bailey laughed. She wondered if Todd the dragon troll would thank her for his fame, or would he wish he’d never helped her at all? She thought Todd would love it. He would be telling his friends that he had helped the great Printer, yes, the Printer he had helped. 

“Todd was a good guy. Someday I’ll have to take you to meet him. He could read some children’s rhymes for you.”

Both women laughed and suddenly, Shade stood up. She looked nervous. But before Bailey could ask her what was going on, she started out of the room. She dropped her laundry on the bed and shot out of the room.

“I have…I have to run downstairs for a minute. I have something on the…I’m making you soup for lunch. I was wondering if…could you keep an eye on this for me?”

Before she was ten feet from the door, the bundle started crying.

“What the fuck? Hey, Shade!
Shade, get your ass back here!” S
he poked at the bundle and it cried harder. “Damn it, Shade, this isn’t funny.”

“Pick it up.” Tristan had come into the room, but she couldn’t hear a word he was saying over the din from the blanket. “Bailey, just pick it up.”

“What the hell is this thing? And why the hell would it cry? I didn’t do anything to it. It probably wants Shade to come back and get it.” She poked at it again. “What am I supposed to do with it?” She figured out it was a baby, but a baby what she didn’t have a clue.

“Pick it up.” He had enunciated each word like she was stupid. 

Well, she supposed she was. She knew
nothing
about babies in any form or creature. She reached down and grabbed the blanket it was wrapped in and held it up with one hand. 

“Christ, Bailey, not like that. You want to hurt her?” He had flashed across the room and took the bundle from her, thank goodness.

“I didn’t do anything to it. Shade just dropped that thing off and took off out of here like she’d been shot from a cannon. Then it started screaming. No one can blame me for that.” She was frustrated, but the thing had finally shut up. “How did you get it to shut up?” 

“I’m holding her like a baby and not a weapon. You probably scared it yelling like that. Don’t you know anything about babies?” 

He was rocking back and forth now. She didn’t know why that would be comforting to anyone. It was making her car sick just watching him. 

“I didn’t even know what it was until you said it was a baby. She’s lucky I didn’t kick it off the end of the bed when she left. I thought it was laundry or something. Who would leave a kid with me? And no, I have no clue what to do with one of them. That’s the first one I’ve ever seen this close.”

He looked at her strangely, but she was too embarrassed to try and figure out why. She leaned back on the bed and watched him. He seemed to know what he was doing anyway.

“Here, take her. Put your arms like this and I’ll put her in your arms for you.” She looked at him, her eyes wide as she could make them.

“Are you insane? Take it? No fu…friggin’ way. That thing hates me. Keep it away from me, Tristan, or so help me, when I can, I’ll hurt you.” She was backing as far away as she could, which wasn’t far because he had sat on the bed in front of her and on top of the blankets.

“It’s not an ‘it,’ she’s a baby. A little baby girl. Now put your hand out and take her. You scared her and you need to make it up to her.”

“I scared her? She’s the one who started screaming like I was cutting her leg off or something. Please don’t, I can’t hold her. What if I drop her or something?” It was no use, she thought. She either took it from him or crawled up the headboard and over the top.

He dropped the bundle in her arms. Well, he didn’t drop, she thought, so much as gently placed it in her arms. It was lighter than she thought it would be, but squirmy and limp. She held it stiff armed away from her. She looked up at Tristan. She was terrified he would leave her with it.

“Now what? Look, Tristan, it’s puckering up again. Take it!” She tried to shove it back at him, but he moved away from her. Not too far, she noticed, but far enough away she couldn’t just toss it back.

“Stop calling her an it. And she’s puckering up because you’re holding her like a sack of flour. Cuddle her to you, like this. That’s it, now relax.”

“Relax? This is a kid and it hates me. What if I drop it or something? They’ll all blame me for it and I didn’t even want the thing.” She tried cuddling it close, but it looked ready to scream again. “Tristan, help me, take it…her, please?” She knew she was begging, and whinny, but she was terrified.

“You’re in bed, honey. The only thing that will happen if you drop her is you’ll piss her off again. And you don’t need to have the death grip on her. She won’t fall out of your arms. That’s it. You’re getting the hang of it.” He was lying down at the foot of the bed now, looking like he didn’t have a care in the world.
Dirty bastard,
she thought.

“Okay, now take her. I held her, she’s not crying, I’ve made up. Take her back.” She moved forward to give her to him when the kid looked all tense again. Bailey leaned back on the headboard again and she looked fine. She glared at Tristan.

“What? She likes where she’s at. I didn’t put her up to it,” he told her as she glared harder.

Bailey looked down at the baby in her arms for the first time. She had a pretty face, she thought, and tons of black, shiny hair. She looked at Tristan, the unspoken question hanging between them.

“No, love, she isn’t mine. But thank you for thinking I’d be so callous as to do this to you like this.” He looked wounded and she felt bad about it. She hadn’t meant to think that, but he’d been so pushy about her to hold it, err, her.

“I’m sorry. But I don’t know anything about this. Shade comes in here and drops off a bundle of laundry that starts screaming and then suddenly, you show up all pushy and knowing what to do.” She looked down at her again and wondered if her cheeks were as soft as they looked. The kid kept staring at her and it was a little nerve wracking.

“Most of my brothers have children. Phil has two daughters and Mark had three sons. My oldest brother Daniel has six, three of each, and three grandchildren, all girls. My brother Aiden is the only one who isn’t mated, and I doubt he’ll ever settle down enough to let a woman love him. I’ve been around children for a long time. I’m sorry about being pushy, but I was surprised how scared you looked and I wanted to show off. I’m sorry, baby.” He did look sorry, she thought.

“Why does she stare at me like that? I can’t be that ugly, can I?”

Finally giving into temptation, she swept her finger gently down her cheek. She’d been wrong; her skin was much softer than it looked.

“You aren’t the least bit ugly; you are by far the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. And she stares because you are no longer shouting at her, and you’ve finally relaxed enough to not squeeze the life out of her.”

Bailey barely heard him. The little girl was puckering her little pink lips again, but not in a cry, but like she was sucking on something. “What’s she doing?” She just noticed that her voice had lowered and that she was leaning back, cradling her close to her. She suddenly didn’t care. She reached up to touch her again and the baby grabbed her finger. She jerked her eyes to Tristan.

“Its okay, love. She trusts you, that’s all. She looks like she might be hungry. Shade probably went to get her a bottle.” He sat up now and moved behind Bailey, settling himself behind her and her cupped between his legs. She leaned back on his chest and when he put his arm under hers to hold the little girl too, she relaxed even more.

“Tristan, I…I’m so sorry, but…you heard Patrice. I can’t have children. I’m sure you want some, but…I’m not able to have them. Please take her now. I’m really tired.” 

She suddenly hurt more than she’d ever hurt. She wouldn’t be able to give Tristan one of these beautiful precious babies of his own. And holding this one hurt her too. She had fallen in love with this little girl the moment she’d touched her cheek. She wanted to crawl into a hole and cry for the unfairness of it.

“You’re right, Bailey. I want to raise lots of children. Many, many children with you.” She burst into tears anyway, not even waiting for him to leave the room this time.

~~~

They had taken a chance with this. He knew this and he hated doing it. But Bailey was his life and he did want children with her. This one, this little girl.

Mel had told him that the Fates had informed her that he and Bailey were to raise a great child, that the child would be the one who brought the humans and the other beings together in such a way that it would mean greater things for all beings. And through their love, her strength and his mind, many children would be loved and cared for over the ensuing years.

Tristan held Bailey to him, comforting and soothing her. She was hurting and he had been the cause of it, he thought. He wanted to fix it, but he also feared that if told her that they were destined to care for the lost children, she would balk. That’s why they had come up with the plan to have her fall in love with a child and then ask her.

The little girl, who was probably about two to three months old, was of vampire descent, more than likely a pure blood. Someone had found her strapped into a car seat in an open field yesterday afternoon. Her parents, or as best they could tell, had been staked to the ground and left to meet the sun. There was nothing left to make a positive identification of them or the baby. Presumably, whoever had killed her parents thought that the little girl would meet the same fate. But children of vampires, pure or not, did not pick up the traits of vampirism until they were in their late twenties. Someone had dropped her off at Becca’s Place today, starving and cold.

Bailey moved back more and looked at Tristan. He marveled everyday that she was his. She had saved his mother’s life, and his. His mother was, at this moment, planning a huge wedding ceremony for them.

“You could have just asked, you know?” The baby was asleep now, her little fist stuck in her mouth.

He started to ask her what she meant, but he didn’t. What would be the point? They both knew what he should have done.

“What would you have said if I’d brought the baby in here and said I want us to adopt her? You were terrified of her as it was.” He ran his finger down Bailey’s cheek, and then he touched the baby’s.

“Hummm, I’m not sure. Told you to fu...frig off, I suppose.” She laid the baby on the bed and turned her in her arms to be held. “Why do I do that, change my language for her? She can’t understand a word I say.”

“Bailey, I love you. I don’t know, I think it’s instinct, maybe. My brothers all did the same thing. Even I do it when they’re around. We should talk about this. Plus, hummm, you should know that...Bailey, my mom is planning a wedding for us.”

“I know. She came in today and had me try on her dress. Said it wouldn’t do. I don’t know what she meant, but she went out shaking her head and muttering something about my breasts. Your father, he is...I like him. He makes me feel good about myself.”

He would, Tristan thought. “He told me he loves you. Said of all his daughters-in-law, you were by far his newest. But he did tell me that you would forever hold a special place in his heart for saving his mate and my brother…well, I don’t think you’ll ever want for bodyguards as long as they’re around. Aiden is quiet smitten with you already. I’ve warned him off. He’s the ladies man of the family.”