However touchy-feely and loving Pete had been to Myka up to that point, it was a pale fraction of how close he stayed to her after she'd let slip her little secret. Still snuggled into his shoulder, she'd felt him seize up at her reasons for not swallowing that mouthful of whiskey. He was quiet for almost ten seconds, his hands stilling on her back as he waited for her to point both finger guns at him, grin wide, and say "Gotcha!"
Myka could hear his train of thought and smiled wide against his throat, not moving a muscle and not recanting.
"I'm sorry," he said finally. "I just hallucinated. Come again?"
Her fingers spider-crawled up his back as she giggled softly. "Baby," she repeated. "Whiskey isn't good for our baby."
Pete snorted violently in disbelief and Myka felt the need to pull back and face his incredulity head on. Brows raised high, she silently dared him to challenge her.
Staring back at her with his mouth slightly ajar, his eyes turned to ink, their intensity drilling into hers. He didn't call bullshit on her statement like she expected. Instead, she gasped as she felt him gopher savagely into her thoughts, his consciousness burrowing deep, rooting out her sincerity. Her brain felt like it was being exposed to sunlight for the first time, his mind raking it out into the light for his vigorous perusal. The memory of Leena's words were accessed remotely without her authorization. She felt Pete remembering it with her, pouring over Leena's every whispered word.
"A girl," Pete murmured as he watched the reader in her head. "With my eyes."
Myka felt too overwhelmed to speak. Pete was astonished. It was the most blinding thing she'd experienced since they'd discovered their link. Stunned happiness followed, filling his head and overflowing into hers. He fried her brain with his joy, short-circuiting her ability to make words. Instead, she loosened her hold on her thoughts, giving him room to look around. She watched him, no longer his playful self. He gripped her by the waist and planted his thumbs squarely over her flat belly. Tearing his eyes away from hers, he looked down, trying desperately to see what Leena had described. Myka felt his annoyance as, like her, he saw nothing. How could they? The baby inside her was less than two days old. There was nothing a normal human could detect so early on in a pregnancy.
"Not normal," Pete huffed at her thought, startling her with the realization that they were thinking openly to each other once again. His eyes flitted up to hers again, a determined light flashing in them as he pulled her closer. I'm not a reader, he thought to her, but dammit, I'm still a supernatural Superbad.
Myka chuckled as Pete shut his eyes tightly. He abandoned his attempts to read her aura and pushed solidly into her with his vibe. She closed her eyes as well, placing her hands over his on her stomach. Feeling him sink into her physical awareness once again, she chided him silently. I can't feel her either, Pete. It's too soon.
Hush, he shushed her lovingly, his fingers dancing on her tummy under her hands. Just let me work.
She sighed out loud and stopped thinking, letting him rummage around as he liked. It was a fascinating experience. Pete was determined to get a read on their baby, somehow, but he was also being exceptionally careful as he maneuvered between her brain's output. His presence felt like cool gel moving around in her skull. He was searching through her physical state first. Just like in the plane, she allowed him to read the slight pain in her arms. Her weariness. Her slight hunger. Her cold fingers. He took the information gratefully, but stubbornly butted harder into her torso. She smiled blindly at him. Fine, she acquiesced. She exhaled softly and brought her forehead to rest against his. Still standing in the middle of a deserted street in a one-horse town, the two psychic agents flayed their minds open to each other in a rush of silence.
Pete pushed into the warmth of her womb and smiled back at her. He didn't sense anything unusual. As she'd said, it was too early for her body to register their handiwork. He huffed mentally, already impatient to feel his baby girl. But he could still read all of the other indicators that whispered to him via her very sated body. You're still warm there, he noted with an air of satisfaction. Is it still from me being such a rockin' sex machine?
Myka scrunched her nose and sank her nails warningly into his hands. Shut up, she rebuked jokingly. You're such an egotistical jerk.
Is that any way for my baby momma to talk to me? he teased, leaning in to kiss her softly.
Baby momma? I swear to god, I'm gonna smack you. She kissed him back, or at least tried to as they both kept smiling.
Jeez Louise, My. Physical and verbal abuse and we just made up? I'm already doubting your parental abilities. I may have to take my Button and run away to Mexico. I can't have her around such a nutjob mommy.
Myka stopped smiling and opened her eyes. "Button?"
Pete opened his and found her watching him with wide, surprised eyes. He grinned and pushed on of his thumbs into her navel, through her shirt. "Yeah, Button. Geddit? She's tiny, and she's under your bellybutton. It works on so many levels."
"Two," she specified, her expression still suspicious. "So, you saw that, then. You saw Leena tell me that."
His brow contracted. "Tell you what? About the baby? And how she'll look like us? Yeah, I saw. You saw it with me, remember?"
"No," she shook her head. "I mean about calling her that. Leena said..." her surprise deepened as Pete continued to blink innocently, "...she said you'd call her Button."
He grinned, not caring one bit that the reader had called it. "Just me? You won't call her that?"
Myka have a huff of pleased befuddlement and shook her head. "No. She said I'd call her Cupid."
Pete's grin softened and his hands slid from her stomach to wrap warmly around her back. "Of course you would," he predicted sagely. He pulled her in that last inch and put his lips to her ear. "Now gimme some sugar."
Myka felt him push the memory of her hugs into her mind, his sexual and emotional addiction to how soft they were, how bad they turned him on, how much comfort they gave him. His attachment to her hug was so strong that she felt it give off actual heat. Her eyes dilated, stunned that such a small gesture of hers had such a severe effect on him. She immediately put her arms around his back, pressing herself into him while her hands rubbed down his jacket.
"Like this?" she asked against his cheek, nestling into his stubble and making happy little coos.
"Yeah," he rasped into her hair, pushing it aside and latching his lips to her earlobe. Pete groaned raggedly and Myka went limp and boneless in his arms. Pleasure shot out from both of their minds and collided in midair with the same violence and unlikeliness of two bullets. Twin thoughts echoed simultaneously.
I love when I do this.
I love when you do that.
Myka burrowed into the side of his neck and kissed him desperately. Pete, I am so in love with you.
He growled with feral contentment and cinched his arms tighter around her. Baby, I love you so damn much that it's killing me.
Take me home, she repeated his plea to him. Make love to me. I'm serious, I don't want to be able to walk for a week.
His growl grew louder as he bent down and swept her up into his arms. She gasped at her sudden weightlessness and Pete's thoughts went decidedly mischievous. Oh, sure. Send me slutty thoughts when all I can do is cuddle you.
She saw his thought of a fetus and she laughed, cupping his jaw and kissing his nose. "Such a gentleman. But I'm pretty sure we're still allowed to get it on."
Turning towards the car she'd driven to find him, he walked as if she weighed nothing, sighing melodramatically. "We can't take that chance. If your eggo is preggo, then I ain't sexin' you up until she's in college. That way we know she'll be okay in utero and not scarred for life by accidentally walking in on us at any point in her childhood."
Myka shrieked and flailed mightily in his grasp. "Don't you dare!" she wailed at him as he laughed. Opening the passenger door, he deposited her into the seat and pulled the safety belt securely around her while she slapped at his hands. "Pete, shoo. I'm not an invalid."
"God, hormonal already. Just liiie back and let daddy do aaall the work," he patronized before slamming the door shut.
"I'll seriously shoot you! Don't think I won't!" Her shout was muffled as he walked around to the driver's side.
As they pulled up to the B&B and walked up to the front door, they were pleased to notice that no one else appeared to be home. Leena had made herself scarce. Myka ascended the stairs first, crossing the landing and walking straight into her room.
Come, she ordered softly, not the Pete needed to be invited. There was no way in hell he wasn't joining her. He locked the door behind him and immediately started pulling off his clothes, wincing slightly as stiffened pain ratcheted through his body.
Myka stilled at the bed, feeling his soreness. As she undressed beside it, she soothed him.
Poor baby.
He turned to her thought in nothing but his boxers. Bruises and blood covered some of his arms and upper back. Myka went pale and he felt her sadness at his injuries. He said nothing, merely walked up to her, now only in her bra and panties, and gently pushed her onto the bed. Looking down intently, he thought back to her.
Then hold me. I need you to hold me.
He let himself imagine it openly now, seeing Myka wrapped around him and comforting him with her naked body. Far more intimate than sex, he saw them trusting themselves to each other, letting their unguarded selves heal in the other's presence.
Myka smiled at his thoughts and imagined the shower. She was about to suggest she get him clean first, but he shook his head at her. Bed, his mind showed her again forcefully. Hugs.
She smiled wider and opened her arms.
Pete dove into the warmth of his lover and unborn daughter.
