LUCI (The Naughty Ones Book 2) Read online

  He laughs, the ass, and comes over to peck my cheek.

  “You look good. Now stop fishing for compliments and eat your yogurt so we can get going. And yes, I’m carrying you to the car after last week’s almost disaster, so don’t even start.”

  Sheesh! I trip one time and the man thinks my legs are useless!

  “Fine but if my fat ass breaks your back and you can’t walk for shit, do not complain to me. I warned you,” I mutter around my spoon as I scarf my yogurt in a minute flat.

  The morning sickness leveled off just two days ago, and now that I can finally eat without blowing like a volcano I want to devour everything in sight.

  Current company included.

  “You’re not fat.”

  Even I hear the slight hesitation there. As I look down at my belly, I can’t say a thing to deny it. I’m growing at a rapid rate.

  We leave for the doctor’s not long after, Cage carrying me like promised, and by the time I get into the exam room and the doc is waving that cold ass wand all over the place, I’m about ready to have a Dot meltdown.

  “What is it? What’s wrong? If there’s something wrong in there, I will sue or kill you all,” Cage barks, his eyes narrowed and trained on the monitor like a freaking madman.

  His antics make me want to laugh my ass off but I can’t, not now when my heart is beating so hard I’m sure he can feel it through the hand he’s clutching.

  It’s just as the doctor start smiling and is about to talk that I hear a ruckus outside before the door bursts open and four pissed-off maniacs come barreling through the door.

  I already told them all about the baby and moving in with Cage, and after some violently un-repeatable statements they’re all happy for me and ready to be aunts to the second addition to our family.

  “Jesus. What the fuck, Luci? You look ready to explode and you’re not even halfway through,” Indie yells, shoving the nurse out of the way and coming at me like a freight train.

  “Hey! You know I have feelings, right?” I mutter as Cage growls and throws her a filthy look.

  “Don’t listen to her, baby. She’s just an asshole in a cute package. She doesn’t mean a word of it. Do you, Indie?” he grates.

  Indie just shrugs and looks a little discomforted as Percy, Dot, and Callie come closer, eyeing my belly as if it’s radioactive or something, though I note with amusement they don’t say a damn thing as Cage glares.

  “Well now, ahem! If you are all ready for me to proceed?” Doc Sparks mutters, shaking his head at the circus that is my life.

  “Go ahead, Doc. Don’t mind us, we’re just here to see if she’s packing an elephant. Wouldn’t that be totally icky? If they somehow got the sperm mixed up with—”

  “Percy! Be quiet,” Cage growls.

  She zips it with a long suffering sigh and we all watch as the doctor starts rubbing the wand around again.

  “Ah, just as I thought,” he mutters, fiddling with his machine and peering at the monitor as we all wait with bated breath.

  “Oh for crying out loud already, man! Just tell us if she’s packing a mutant or not.”

  “No, it’s just as I suspected when Mr. Cage called yesterday. Here, listen.”

  I don’t know what the hell I’m listening for when he turns up the volume, but I think I lose a few brain cells to shock when a cacophony of thumps reaches my ears.

  “Twins?” Callie gasps, going high-school cheerleader as she claps and squeals.

  “I’m afraid not.”

  Oh shit.

  “Trips!” I yell, looking at my belly with fear.

  “Ahem.”

  Oh hell no!

  “Oh God. It’s not really happening. It’s a nightmare. It’s a nightmare and you haven’t woken up yet. Wake up, Luci!” I start yelling as the knowledge of what he’s saying and not so much saying slams into me.

  I look up with wide eyes at Cage. I can’t help it. He’s like my rock, my go-to, and as I feel the doctor look back at the screen and then at me again, I see Cage’s eyes go wide, too.

  “Quads?”

  That’s not happening. That is so not happening. I have one tiny little hole down south that’s already going to try and crawl off my body and abandon this sinking ship.

  “Yes Mr. Cage.”

  I hear nothing else as shit starts going fuzzy and I pass the hell out.

  ***

  Cage

  Holy shit.

  When the doctor confirms that I did hear four little heartbeats and that there are four babies inside my girl, I don’t know if I want to cry in fear or start cheering the roof off.

  First and foremost, I want to have a heart attack when I finally look down again to see that Luci is out like a light and dead to the world.

  “Fuck.”

  That’s Indie and I can’t quite blame her for her language as I glance at the others to see equally shocked faces staring down at Luci’s prostrate form.

  I feel like a bus hit me, turned around, and came back to finish off the job. It takes a few minutes of silent shock as everyone just looks at everyone else, but I dig deep and finally find my balls where they’ve lodged in my throat.

  I can so do this. Hell yeah I can do this!

  Now Luci will definitely need me around, and as soon as she wakes up and maybe stops screaming like I know she will, I’ll take her home and start talking to her about the practicality and logic in getting married.

  Four babies need a daddy and as far as I’m concerned, I am just that man. All I have to do is revive my girl and find a way to stop her from going hysterical. And then convince her that she needs and wants me.

  “Ahem, Mr. Cage? I trust that you understand the dangers involved in your girlfriend carrying multiples?” the doctor asks when Luci still hasn’t come around.

  “I do.”

  I don’t but admitting that right now aloud, to myself, may just pitch me right back into WTF territory, and Luci does not need that right now. No, she needs a rock when she wakes up, and I aim to be that rock, if only to keep her from going ballistic.

  “Good, that’s good because from here on out we can’t allow her to miss ultrasounds like she has been or ignore the facts. Her body is under a considerable amount of strain as it is, and it’s only going to get worse as the months draw on. Now as you may know, she will not carry to term. It rarely if ever happens, and definitely not when the woman in question is of Miss Braxton’s small stature.”

  You’re telling me! The woman barely comes to my nipples and half her weight is her damn boobs.

  I can’t even contemplate the fact that right now she has four little humans inside her, living off her body. Shit, when I first met her I wondered how she kept her little self alive at all without people stomping all over her.

  “She’s…oh my Lord. How the hell is she going to survive this?” Callie breathes, her face now green.

  I feel the same way as I look over and see Luci starting to come around.

  “Miss Braxton? Luci, dear?”

  The doctor continues to revive her as I sit silently and try to hold my shit together.

  I’m struggling and I can’t deny it. To learn that the woman I love has another man’s baby inside her was a blow that almost felled me.

  To hear that she’s got four…

  It’s a blow that I have to breathe through as I clutch her hand and start thinking.

  You love her and these babies are yours. You hear me. They’re yours and you love them like yours because as far as you’re concerned, they are of your blood.

  Yeah, yeah that’s right, I yell to the universe, daring anyone to dispute my claim. These babies are so mine and nothing anyone else says will change that fact.

  Ever.

  With that settled I feel myself smile for the first time in minutes and I look over at Luci as she blinks her beautiful eyes open with my heart near to bursting.

  “Hey, babe, you okay?”

  She blinks again and glances at the monitor, her eyes r
ound as saucers as they land on me.

  “I-I think I need a drink, Cage. A big one with an umbrella and everything.”

  The chortles behind me seem to shake her up again and I see her scowl before she launches herself at me and starts bawling.

  “Well. I guess I’m going to have to go shopping for more baby shit, huh?” Percy mutters.

  Yup.

  And I can’t wait. I can already see the spare bedrooms I plan to turn into the nursery. I need to call the contractor to break down a wall and get estimates and cribs and—

  “Oh, Cage, what the hell am I gonna do now?”

  I grin at Indie, Callie, and Percy over her head as she wails and feel heartened when they smile back, giving me the thumbs-up.

  Not a damn thing, baby, because I’m taking care of it all, I think as I kiss her head and get ready to fight my biggest battle yet.

  Chapter Nine

  Mummy

  Luci

  We all end up at Gruffy’s house after the doctor appointment from hell. I’m still reeling and staunchly denying it all as I sit on the sofa and stare blankly at the wall while everyone seems intent on laughing and joking around me.

  Of course I am the butt of all their jokes, but right now I’m too done in to beat them to hell as I have visions of four little genius babies running circles around me.

  Oh God in heaven, what am I going to do? I was at the point of actual hysteria just contemplating single motherhood this morning, and now…

  I can’t look after four babies!

  They’ll kill me. I just know they’ll be little geniuses with my evil temperament. Oh Jesus, I’ll be raising savages.

  “Snap out of it already, you wee kelpie, and grow your balls back already! So what you have four in there? You think it was easy for me to raise the likes of you lot after Grampa Landry left me alone with you? Five! I had five of you Naughty wee bastards to raise and look at me.”

  I do. And promptly start wailing when I see the wrinkles and grooves lining her face. Oh, I know what this is! This is karma hitting only me for every wicked, naughty, terrible thing the Naughty Ones ever did.

  Why me? Why not Callie who needed a muzzle till the age of twenty when she finally stopped fighting with her teeth? Why not Indie who constantly used to have Gruffy in the principal’s office when her family refused to go anymore? Why not Percy with her freaking uncontrollable need to beat the tar out of the cheer squad just for existing?

  I won’t mention Dotty because I love her and she’s a rock star—she hasn’t made fun of me once today, not once after finding out that I’m carrying a freaking litter.

  Cage hasn’t left my side and Woody can’t stop grinning and congratulating him.

  As if he has a reason to be happy right now and…

  And now I won’t ever get to seduce him after I stop being a hippo, I wail internally, my damn and blasted optimism truly crumbling beneath the news.

  “WHY?!”

  I can’t help the wail from bursting free, and I also can’t help actually shaking my fist at the ceiling.

  I can’t even imagine what I look like right now, but I don’t care and I definitely ignore the chortles around me as I start muttering to myself and planning shopping lists and the battalion of cars I’ll need to get it all home, and now I’m gonna have to move back to my apartment.

  “Shh, baby. Come on now, Luci, it’s not that bad,” Cage croons, pulling me into his side and kissing my forehead.

  I don’t want him to kiss me there. I want lips and some tongue and maybe some nipple action since my boobs are sensitive enough to get me off, and dammit, I wanted sex with him again and now I won’t ever have it because how will he ever get hard for me when I look like this?

  “It is. Oh God, it is. I just, I need to go home.”

  “That does it. Woody, get the car. The rest of you say good-bye.”

  I’m not even present as they all rush to greet and kiss me and I hardly feel it when Jack hugs me tightly and kisses my hair with a few whispered words of encouragement.

  All I feel are Cage’s arms around me and I savor it as I know tomorrow I could be on my own again. This could be my very last Cage hug.

  I think I’m somewhat calm when the car that Woody called pulls up outside Cage’s and I’m at least able to walk on my own when we get out off the elevator and enter the apartment twenty minutes later.

  Cage doesn’t say a thing as he leads me to the sofa and pushes me down before stalking out again. It’s not totally unexpected that he may need a few minutes to himself to think about this whole day, so instead of following behind him and begging him to stay and talk to me, I rise slowly and walk to my room, my shoulders slumped.

  I need to make this easy for both of us now and do what I need to do instead of forcing him to be the bad guy and give me the “this is way too much” speech I know is coming. I drag a suitcase out of the closet and start packing, my heart breaking a smidge more with every article of clothing I pack.

  As I do this I start planning my path and even make a mental note to go over to see Mummy and Daddy tomorrow and break the news. Oh boy, I wonder what they’ll say. How they’ll feel at the prospect of not only one but four grandchildren, although God knows I thought Mummy was going to orgasm when she found out I was making her a grandmum.

  I think of a million ways that I can possibly do this all alone and raise and care for four children at once when I hear Cage stalk in right before he bellows and just snatches me up, takes me down to the mattress, and shoves at my suitcase to send it toppling to the floor.

  I’m a little dazed at the fast change in position and I finally blink up at him only to see him hanging over me on his outstretched arms, his hips cradled between my legs as he glares down at me.

  He looks so angry I feel another piece crack, and I can’t stop the single tear that rolls free and glides into my hair.

  “What the fuck are you doing, Luci?!”

  “Making things easier on you. I know you’re probably in an awkward position here and I didn’t want to have to let you be the bad guy and send me home. I just, I wanted to do the right thing after you’ve been so great.”

  Cage’s blue eyes go so hot and furious, I don’t even want to examine the fact that my sex spasms and I feel myself get wet.

  “So what are you planning on doing? You were just going to pack your shit and walk out on me? That easily, Luci!” he yells, making me flinch.

  “No. I mean yes. I mean…dammit, Cage! You’re being a douche again. You and I both know that we’re never going to be anything more than friends again, and I also know that even if I wanted to make love with you, and trust me, my hormones and vagina are so onboard with that, that’s all it will ever be. This, whatever chemistry we still have going after everything, is all fine and well but it doesn’t mean that you have to pretend to want me here when we both know—”

  “Don’t,” he growls, cutting me off midsentence, his eyes flaring again. “Don’t you dare fucking put words in my mouth. I may not have you anymore, and you may not want me in that way, but fuck it, Luci! We’re friends at least, aren’t we? I’ve spent over a month now trying to show you that we’re friends and that I’m here for you. That’s not going to change just because you’re having four babies. Shit, that just means that you’ll need me more from here on out.”

  Responsibility. I suddenly get what Callie was talking about all those months ago when she pushed Jack away because she was afraid that she and the baby would be just another responsibility to him.

  I laughed at her at the time, but now that I’m in that same boat, damn, it freaking sucks. Especially knowing that Cage does love me, but only as a friend. Fool me once…

  “No. I don’t need or want to be coddled anymore, Cage. I am a grown woman who made these choices and it’s about damn time I faced up to them and started acting like the mother I’ll be in a few short months. I can’t continue living here and depending on you for the most basic things just because it turn
s out I’m a ninny. I can’t afford to be that way anymore, and I sure as hell cannot afford to get comfortable when I will soon enough be all alone with my babies. I need to grow the hell up and stop letting everyone else fix my problems.”

  “Problems? Those babies are not problems, Luci! They’re a blessing and a gift and by God I will make you believe that if I have to drag you kicking and freaking screaming.”

  I’m cut off from replying when Cage slams his mouth down on mine and starts kissing me like a man starved. I should push him away, but as his tongue spears through my lips and I feel his naked erection settle over my slit, all I can do is moan and push closer.

  Oh yes. Oh, that feels so good.

  My sex responds to the pressure of his shaft rubbing against the wet, narrow crevice, and I feel the slow, hot slide of my arousal when he twists his hips and hits the bundle of nerves with just the right amount of pressure to have me moaning into his mouth and gyrating against him.

  I’ve wanted this, needed this for so long that I can barely breathe when he finally pulls himself away and starts tearing at my clothes in a frenzy.

  I’m still panting and trying to recover my wits when he pushes himself back over me and takes my mouth again, the head of his cock settling over and rubbing, sliding against my hard clit.

  “Christ, yes,” he growls into my open mouth when I moan and grind up, needing him harder, wanting him to fill my empty, clutching sheath. “Shit, Luce, ahh, you’re so hot I can feel it.”

  My response dies when he finally stops tongue-fucking me and immediately latches on to a straining nipple.

  “Cage!”

  I can’t help my screams or the fingers I dig into his head to pull him closer because right now all I can do is feel his teeth, tongue, and strong suckling as my sex goes molten and starts sucking at thin air.

  His cock is still sliding through the moisture coating my labia, hitting my clit, teasing me so perfectly that before I know it I’m coming, the added stimulus of his mouth switching between my sensitive breasts pushing me over the edge of the abyss.