Worlds Apart (44 page)

“Is that it?” Roo whispered. “She’s not going put us all to sleep for a hundred years and wrap the castle in impenetrable vines or turn this into an ice palace?”

“My great-grandma already tried the first two,” Niall said.

Roo gaped at him.

Taylor kissed her but glared at Niall.

Niall felt a tug on his arm and turned to see his father smiling at him.

“How did you do that?” Niall asked.

Endor guided him to a quiet corner of the room. “Do what?”

“Put the tarsis on Roo and Taylor. She didn’t, you couldn’t and I don’t know how, so—” Niall sighed. “Ah Oisin.”

“With help from Daire and Aeden,” Endor said. “You think I’ve spent all these years watching this thing cover my body without trying to find an escape? I know it intimately yet can’t remove it from myself. I needed to fool the court into believing your mother had put her blood mark on the mortals. Seems fitting that she’s outed in a bloodless coup.”

Niall laid his fingers over the tarsis on his father’s hand. “Will she stop this?”

“She might when she realizes she’ll be on her own if she doesn’t.”

“Now you have to live with her. You’ve sacrificed your happiness.” A lump rose into Niall’s throat.

“Happiness is always within reach. And I had my moment in the sun. Her name was Katy Elizabeth Sutton. A very beautiful mortal. Taylor’s great-aunt. I was her imaginary playmate as you were to Taylor. But our love was never consummated.”

Niall’s jaw dropped.

“You think you’re the first to find that tear between the worlds? The only difference is that I came from the west, you found it from the east. Katy died just before Oisin was born. I could have protected her from disease, but not a crumbling crag face. I crept to the house and heard the sobs of her parents, of her brother. Your mother was right that a mortal had my heart. If Katy hadn’t died, perhaps life would have been very different. Love your mortals well, Niall. They’re a precious gift.”

“Niall?”

He turned at the sound of Taylor’s voice and his fist caught Niall straight in the jaw and knocked him off his feet.

Taylor’s heart pounded so hard he could hear it in his head along with two words.
Roo pregnant.
He threw himself on top of Niall and pressed his shoulders into the floor. He felt hands reach to pull him off but then let him go.

“You told her you couldn’t get her pregnant.”

“I didn’t think I could,” Niall said with a groan.

Roo yanked at Taylor’s arm. “Get off him. I said I was on the Pill.”

Taylor growled. “Your come so special it bypassed that?”

“I didn’t do it on purpose.” Niall pushed Taylor off and sat up.

Taylor sagged on the floor, shoulders down, chest heaving.

Oh damn.
Niall pulled him into his arms and kept hold despite Taylor struggling to get free. “I didn’t do it on purpose,” Niall repeated.

“I’m going to kick you both in a minute,” Roo snapped, and Endor laughed. “I’ve got Harry Potter growing inside me and you two are fighting?”

“I wanted—” Taylor pressed his lips together.

Roo pulled him to his feet. Niall stood at his side.

“There are things I wanted too,” she said. “Like not to be told in public that I’m having a baby before I even knew myself. If the time came, I’d planned to buy four of those kits from the chemist and we could have watched them together, and we wouldn’t have known whose baby it was until it changed its diaper itself.”

Endor roared with laughter. Taylor bit his lip.

Roo squeezed Taylor’s fingers. “This is something you couldn’t both be first at. But you can be second at.”

“It wasn’t my—” Niall shut up when Roo glared at him, but he sent Taylor a desperate look.

Taylor got it. Niall hadn’t been trying to get Roo pregnant. Taylor smiled at him. Maybe it was better this way, a done deal. And there was one thing Taylor could be first at.

He took Roo’s hand in his. “Will you marry me?”

Roo exhaled with a smile. “Even though I’m apparently carrying another man’s child?”

“Especially because of that,” Taylor said. “And I was thinking…” He glanced at Niall and mouthed, “Ask her.”

“After you’ve married Taylor on the other side, will you marry me here?” Niall asked.

“I get two rings, two dresses, two cakes?” Roo grinned.

Niall laughed.

“You get two of everything,” Taylor whispered.

Roo took hold of their hands. “Then the answer is yes.”

Epilogue

“OhmyGodohmyGodohmyGod,” Roo wailed.

“Breathe,” Niall urged.

“You try and breathe when you’re fighting to give birth to a bowling ball.”

“I’m counting how long the contractions are apart,” Taylor said.

“Good for you,” Roo said through gritted teeth.

“Anything you want?” Niall asked, clutching her hand.

“An epidural, gas and air?” Roo had already asked for those, several times despite being told they didn’t exist on this side. Nor could magic be used to help her give birth.
What was the fucking point of
— “Yooowww,” Roo wailed as her body tried to turn inside out.

“Breathe,” Niall blurted.

“Pant,” Taylor said.

The pain fell away again and Roo relaxed into the bed. The faery midwife had examined her, said she’d be ages yet and then buggered off. Niall and Taylor were making such a fuss that Roo wasn’t surprised the woman had left.

She closed her eyes and thought back to her two weddings. How lucky was she? Niall had been Taylor’s best man. Taylor had located her mother and sister who still lived in Greece and had asked Roo if she wanted to invite them. Damned if she did and damned if she didn’t. Roo didn’t want them to refuse and yet felt they had no right to come to her happy day, particularly in case they spoiled it. So she said no to asking them.

The pain came again and Roo groaned as she squeezed the guys’ hands. Whose bright idea was it that giving birth had to hurt quite this much? It was a wonder anyone had sex with the risk of this to follow.

Taylor had been Niall’s best man when they married on this side. Endor and Vanda had come back for the ceremony, minus the tarsis. Vanda looked different—younger somehow. Maybe it was the smile on her face.

Maybe the best thing of all was that Oisin had married Stephanie and taken her to see her parents at Sutton Hall. Taylor had asked them to come home, not told them why and then explained everything when they arrived. His mother had believed instantly, his father had taken longer but had cried when he realized his daughter still lived.

“Owwwwwww,” Roo grunted. “You still timing these? Aren’t they close enough yet?”

“You’re doing great,” Taylor said.

“How do you know? You’re not a doctor,” Roo snapped. “I want a doctor.” The pain faded and she groaned. “Sorry. Can’t help it.”

Niall wiped her forehead with a wet towel. “Won’t be long now.”

Roo had lost count of how many times she’d heard that. She wanted to go home. Home was Sutton Hall, now owned by Taylor, and the three of them lived both there and in Faeryland. Taylor had passed on the private detective business, which had never had his heart, to Jonas, who’d insisted on being the baby’s godfather.

The pain came again, gripping her body like a monstrous claw, and Roo clenched her teeth.
Please let this baby be all right.
She didn’t care if it had magical powers or not so long as it was healthy. Maybe it was slow to come out because it had wings?
Shit. That’s going to hurt.

“Talk to me. Distract me,” Roo said. “Oh no, it’s okay. It’s gone off. Ooh, that’s better.”

Taylor had set up an internet business called what-you-need.com to supply lists for every occasion—what you need for a wedding, a new baby, to move house, the perfect picnic, what to do in case of vampire attack. Roo had come up with that one. The list was endless, as Taylor liked to say. Advertisers loved it. All three of them worked for the company and they were already on their way to their first million.

“Here it comes again,” Roo gasped. She sighed and then hiccupped. “It’s going off. Arrgghh. No, I was wrong.”

She heard someone telling her she could push, and when she did, the relief was so instant, Roo gulped back a sob. Two more pushes and Roo felt the baby slither out.
No, bad word, not slither but jump into the world.
Niall and Taylor were messing around at the business end, their eyes wide, faces wreathed in smiles.

“Oh my God,” Taylor gasped. “You did it.”

“Totally beautiful,” Niall said with a sigh.

Not at the moment. Oh yes, they mean the baby. Damn.

“What is it?” Roo croaked.

Niall lifted the bundled-up newborn into the air to show her.

“Yes, I know it’s a baby, but what is it?” Roo asked.

Taylor leaned down and kissed her. “A velociraptor.”

“That isn’t funny,” Roo said with a moan.

“A girl,” Niall said. “She looks just like you.”

Roo could guess. Red-faced and bad-tempered.

“Beautiful,” Niall and Taylor said in unison.

Yep, her guys holding their child. Roo thought she’d never seen such a beautiful sight.

About the Author

Barbara Elsborg lives in West Yorkshire in the north of England. She always wanted to be a spy, but having confessed to everyone without them even resorting to torture, she decided it was not for her. Vulcanology scorched her feet. A morbid fear of sharks put paid to marine biology. So instead, she spent several years successfully selling cyanide.

After dragging up two rotten, ungrateful children and frustrating her sexy, devoted, wonderful husband (who can now stop twisting her arm) she finally has time to conduct an affair with an electrifying plugged-in male, her laptop.

Her books feature quirky heroines and bad boys, and she hopes they are as much fun to read as they are to write.

Visit at
www.barbaraelsborg.com
or
barbaraelsborg.blogspot.com
.

Look for these titles by Barbara Elsborg

Now Available:

Cowboys Down

Stockbroker meets stock breaker. But who’s taming whom?

Cowboys Down

© 2012 Barbara Elsborg

London stockbroker Jasper Randolph flies to Jackson Hole with hopes as high as the Grand Tetons. Hope that the getaway will force him to let loose, get dirty, and overcome a deep-seated phobia about horseback riding.

He hadn’t counted on an attraction to the dude ranch owner’s son, a man with sun-tousled hair, eyes bluer than Wyoming skies…and a father who’d rather eat tofu than accept his only son’s sexuality.

The moment Calum lays eyes on the uptight, buttoned-down Brit, he’s lost. But with his own saddlebags full of emotional baggage, he knows he should be looking at anything but Jasper’s spotless riding boots and tight-fitting jodhpurs. Trouble is, Jasper makes his heart buck like a wild horse trying to break free.

Despite the differences that set them oceans apart, they fall hard and fast. Trouble isn’t far behind, and they’re in for a rocky romantic ride. Especially since there’s growing evidence that someone is willing to do anything—no matter how dangerous—to poison their love.

Warning: Mix one sun-bronzed cowboy with a yummy Brit who’d give Darcy in his wet shirt a run for his money. Mix gently. Try not to drool.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Cowboys Down:

“You have to be in control of everything?” Calum asked in a quiet voice.

“Not everything.” Jasper’s cock uncurled like a sprouting plant.

“Because I’m a sort of controlling guy too.”

Shit, shit, shit.

Calum brushed a smear of dust from the knee of Jasper’s pants. The slightest touch and Jasper’s breathing hitched. Every muscle tensed.

“You resisted wiping that off,” Calum said with a mouth-watering grin.

Maybe I was hoping you’d do it for me.
Jasper averted his gaze and stared at a tree. Of course the words stayed in his head. Ultra-decisive in his professional life, he was a different person in his private. The chances of Jasper making a move were zero.

Calum lifted Jasper’s sunglasses off his face and set them aside.
Oh fuck.
Now Jasper had to look at him.

“The getting dirty thing could be because you grew up too fast.” Calum stared straight at him. “No time to be a kid. Probably had something to do with what happened to your brother. You stayed under the radar by being a good boy.”

Clever guy.
Except how could Jasper begrudge the time his parents had spent with Ben and not with him? Jasper had to behave, stay in his room, keep out of trouble, not make a nuisance of himself. How could he have fun and laugh when his brother was able to do little more than blink? How could he be happy when everyone in the house was steeped in misery, when every conversation was about Ben and never about him?