Alex shoved me out of his lap. “Say start at 8, invite all your friends,” Alex said then walked into our bedroom leaving me staring after him with two pretty girls doing the same.
“He knows how to make an exit,” Anne Marie said.
I could only nod. “I guess I’ll see you tonight,” I said following Alex inside. He was sitting on the bed grinning madly at me. “A party?”
“You need a distraction,” he said putting on his shoes. “I’m going to the liquor store to go buy more booze. And I’ll stop at the bakery and deli down town while I’m there see if they can whip us up some food so you don’t have to cook.”
“Alex…”
My love was on his feet and standing in front of me. He placed his hands on my hips and pulled me close. “Nox,” he mimicked me.
I rolled my eyes. “This is supposed to be a family vacation, not a party.”
“Nox. You need to relax and chill out – what better way than with a bunch of strangers invading your space.” He grinned at me then from the look on my face it fell. “I know it’s not really your thing, but let me show you off.” Alex leaned back with a bright grin. “I mean look at what I got.”
The admiration made me blush and Alex laughed softly. “God I love making you blush.” He pulled me close and kissed me softly. “Almost as much as I like making you come,” he said before pulling away and walking out the door.
“Alex,” I said but he didn’t stop. I followed him hurriedly, “Alex.”
He stopped by the front door and winked at me. “I’ll be back.”
I sighed. “Fine.”
And he walked out the door to go find things for this party of ours.
There was lots of giggle through the back door. Alex had left the other way and now my family was coming home. Rider was carrying Hunter and he squirmed out of his uncle’s arms and ran towards me wrapping himself around my legs. “Daddy, you are up.”
“Yeah.” I handed Rider his bracelet. “I don’t need this anymore.”
“You still look like shit.”
“I probably will but I need to be me. And I’m not me with that.” I grinned at my brother and picked up my son.
Ant came in with the rest of the group trailing. “Your boy is a mini you, Nox. The sand set him off until I told him the same thing I told you.”
“Just magick it away?”
Ant nodded. Hunter held out a piece of glass in his hand. “Can you add it to your collection?”
I nodded. “I can. It’s pretty.”
Hunter beamed and I smiled back at him pressing a kiss to his forehead. “Alex went to the store to get stuff for the party he’s apparently hosting here.”
Isabelle walked through the large double doors in a bikini and looking not pregnant at all which was helpful but my heart skipped a beat. Ant laughed, “Under normal circumstances I’d tell you off for that sort of reaction.”
I looked at him and blinked my confusion. “Most people don’t panic when they see a pretty girl wearing nothing unless they like them.”
“I like Isabelle.”
“She doesn’t make you hot and bothered though.” Ant chuckled. “Like a normal hot blooded boy.”
“She is a she and I kinda sort of like boys and I’m taken.”
Isabelle laughed and wrapped her arms around me and Hunter. “I like that the first thing out of your mouth is she’s a she, like you have never liked women.”
Ant laughed. “He’s never liked women like he likes Alex. I know I’ve only known him for five years, but in those five years he has never openly stared at a woman and gotten a hard on. Have I seen him get busy with a girl – yes. In the moment yes, but she could be ugly as dirt to the rest of us – all he cares about is willing.”
I shrugged. “He’s right. Girls don’t do it for me. But it’s easier to get laid when you bat for the right team.”
Isabelle sighed and rolled her eyes. “Is that what you are going to teach your kids. That sex is just sex and shouldn’t be between two people who love each other?”
“Did you love the guy who you slept with the first time?” I asked.
“I thought I did at the time.”
“Love is fleeting when you are young. Sex is a physical reaction to a stimulus. You love who you love but sex is an enjoyable outlet as long as you protect yourself and others,” I said.
“And that’s what you want your kids to hear? You have four teenage boys living with you and you want them fucking their brains out?”
I shrugged. “As long as they are safe and don’t get anyone pregnant.”
Ant pulled Isabelle away from me. “Nox grew up in a world where marriage isn’t a thing Izz. He’s not traditional. Look at him. Really Izz. Does he look like he’s going to have your moral standards?”
She sighed. “But he’s worried about my reproductive organs.”
“No. Isabelle I’m not. I don’t care about your reproductive organs. I care about your fucking life. And the life of the children you possess inside you. I won’t worry about your life if you think it means so little to me,” I said and walked away with Hunter in my arms.
He wrapped his little hands around my chin and made me look at him. “Daddy, she’ll be okay. She’s with us.”
“You mean after all this?”
He nodded and I accepted that but it didn’t alleviate my fears but if she would be with us then that was good. And it means she made it through the birth of the twins. “You’re gonna have two new siblings.”
“New brothers,” Hunter said.
I sighed. “You know you make waiting hard.”
Hunter giggled as we stepped down on to the sandy beach and I shuddered. We went for a walk – me and sand phobic mini me.
The Mind of Nox 