Chapter 16

#Chapter 16 – Bedtime Story “Ohhhh no you don’t,” I say, laughing anxiously. I start to stand up but Alvin lunges for me and grabs my hand.

“Come on, mama, we want to hear the story!” Alvin looks up at me with big brown eyes, hard to resist.

“Yes, mama! We want to hear daddy’s side!” Ian stays curled up next to his father, clinging to his arm.

“Yeah, come on, mama” Victor says, smirking at me, his voice low and mocking. “What are you afraid of? That I’ll tell them the truth?”

I know I’m rising to his bait, but I sit back down on the bed. “Fine. But I get mediation privileges. I demand the right to correct you when you lie.”

Victor nods graciously and the boys cheer.

“Closer, mama!” Alvin tugs on my arm, pulling me to the top of the bed with the rest of them. I curl up on Alvin’s far side, careful to stay as close to the edge as I can without falling off.

I start the story. “Mommy and daddy met at a party,” I say, beginning to stroke Alvin’s hair as I always do at bedtime. I pause, wondering how to phrase Mommy had just put on her sluttiest dress, bent on revenge…

“There were lots of people at the party,” Victor’s voice interrupts me. I look up to see him watching me, smirking, “and they were bothering your mom.”

I nod and smile a bit, keeping his eye contact, thanking him, silently, for skipping over the parts the boys don’t need to know.

“Yes, so many people bothering me,” I say to the boys, lying easily, “and as soon as daddy saw them pestering me, he drove them away – whoosh!” I make a flying motion with my hands, and the boys laugh.

“It wasn’t quite like that,” Victor says, his voice low, resonant. I raise my eyebrow, surprised to hear his edits. “In fact,” he says, “your mother was very very tricky, like a little fox.” I can see him work to repress a smile. “She was pretending to be very pitiful and helpless, and letting all the people pester her, just so I would save her.”

The boys gasp, and so do I.

“Mommy, so tricky!” Ian laughs. I can tell he is impressed. Alvin also looks at me fondly, his eyes bright.

“Of course, I complied, even if I knew she was faking.” Victor says, quite the hero. “After all, a damsel in distress is… a damsel in distress. How could I say no?”

“That is not quite true,” I say slowly, willing to play Victor’s game. The boys heads turn to me, eager.

“You see, mommy didn’t even need to be tricky. Because as soon as daddy saw mommy, he was mesmerized.”

The boys oooo and Victor smirks at the twist. I can see him thinking up his counter move.

“Even if nobody had pestered me, daddy would have found a reason to come and help me, because he was swept off his feet.” I make another woosh-ing motion with my hand, and allow it to land softly on Alvin’s belly, tickling him so that he laughs.

“Your mommy is misremembering,” Victor counters. “The reality is, she stumbled, deliberately, so that daddy had to catch her and hold her up. And when I did“ he pauses for effect, “do you know what she said?”

“What?” yawns Ian, enthralled but tired.

Victor mimics my voice in a silly falsetto: “Ohhhh Victor, if you wanted to dance with me, you just had to ask!” We all laugh at that, and I’m surprised, again, at this new side of a man whom I had always thought so stern.

“Again, only a half truth,” I say, gathering myself and putting on a serious tone. “Daddy stepped on my toes so that I would fall in the first place, he wanted me to fall into his arms, so he could ask me to dance.”

“On the contrary,” he said, “mommy was on a mission to catch daddy, to make him all her own…”

I laugh shortly, hurt, a bit, by how close we’re edging on the truth here. “Daddy didn’t try very hard to escape. It didn’t take much.”

Victor’s voice drops low here, reacting to my jab. “Mommy knew that daddy had a lot of money at his –“

“Mommy never asked for a thing,” I hiss.

We both fall silent and look away from each other. I feel a little bit of shame, first because I let him bait me, and then because I let the boys see it.

“I think they’re asleep,” Victor whispers after a few moments have passed.

I look to each of the boys and am pleased to see that their heads have fallen heavy on the pillows, their mouths open slightly as they breathe slowly.

“We got lucky in that,” I say, pulling the blanket higher over Alvin’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, Victor,” I say.

“We shouldn’t fight about the past. What’s done is done.”

“I agree,” he says, and I note that he doesn’t apologize in turn. Always the Alpha. I let it pass.

“They can stay here tonight,” Victor says, moving to edge out from between the boys. As he does, Alvin lets out a little cry and clutches at Victor’s shirt. We both freeze and Alvin loosens his hand, still asleep.

“I think you should stay,” I whisper, “at least until they’re fully asleep. It won’t take long.” I then move to shift myself off the bed and Ian half opens an eye, letting out a little whine that breaks my heart.

“You stay too,” Victor says and I give him a nervous look. “It’s fine, just until they fall into a deeper sleep,” he says in response. “They have had a big day, they need to sleep in peace. We can give him that.”

I nod and curl up with my little Alvin, resting my head next to his, as Victor pushes a button on a remote and the room fades to darkness. I feel Alvin breathing slowly beside me and wait patiently for him to fall more deeply asleep.

When I open my eyes, the light is different. Did Victor push the button on the remote again? That’s stupid – the boys will never be able to sleep with all this bright orange light in the…

I raise my head and look around. s**t, it isn’t artificial light – that’s brilliant, beautiful dawn pouring through Victor’s floor-to-ceiling windows. I blink and look around further, my eyes and mind still blurry with sleep, and look down for Alvin to find…

Oh no. Oh god. What the –

To my right is not the softly-sleeping body of my little boy, but the broad, muscled chest of an Alpha. I jump, trying to get myself out of this embarrassing situation, but find that his right arm is wrapped around me, a steel vice.

I pull harder and Victor only grumbles, tightening his grip and pulling me further against his chest. I freeze against him, shocked, mortified, and can feel every breath pulsing in and out of his lungs.

A little panicked, I begin to scooch my body lower, seeking to slip out from beneath his arm so I can get out of this bed before anyone –

I am halfway out, one shoulder slipping free, my face about equal with Victor’s hips when he heaves a great snort and wakes up. Not knowing what to do, I freeze. God, should I run? Hope he doesn’t see me if I don’t move? Will he fall back asleep so I can continue slinking away unnoticed??

“Wha-?” Victor looks around, sensing that something is not right, and then spies me half crouched, trapped by his arm, inches from his crotch.

“Um…hi?” I venture.

“What the –“ Victor leaps up and out of bed so that I fall in a heap amongst the blankets. “Evelyn!”

I sit up. “What!? You were the one pinning ME down with your gigantic fricking arm-“

“What were you doing in my BED?!”

“We must have fallen ASLEEP Victor! God, it’s not as if I did it on purpose!”

He runs a hand through his hair, messing it further and I can’t help but think – god, what’s wrong with me? – that he looks really good in the morning.

I bite my lip and roll out of bed, straightening the soft pink velour sweatsuit that Amelia doesn’t yet know I’ve borrowed. For a night in bed with her mate. God, what a disaster.

“Where are…where are the boys?” Victor asks, looking around the room for them as if they’re hiding under the bed or the dresser or something. Not a bad impulse, actually.

“I don’t know,” I say. “I don’t think they’re here.”

“How did they…how did he…” he ventures, baffled.

“No idea,” I say, lying casually. I have a feeling the boys knew exactly what they were doing and are now off somewhere celebrating their victory.