This scene takes place after To Tempt a Witch to Sin, book 5 in the Love and Magic series, and is best read after finishing TTAWTS.
***
Tallak glanced at Hazel in the passenger seat next to him. “You okay, love?”
“Hm?” She faced him with raised brows, and the beauty of her struck him hard. If possible, she was even more stunning and magnetic now than she’d been before—because she turned to him with such openness and unhidden love, it painted all of her features with a glow that warmed him from the inside out.
“It’s just,” he said, focusing back on traffic, “that you’ve been staring out the window with the kind of expression of someone high on some good shit and humming under your breath for the past few minutes.”
“Oh. Um, yeah.” She shrugged, a small smile flirting with her mouth. “Just thinking.”
He steered the car down the long road to the Murray mansion. “About what?”
“She’s so cute, isn’t she?”
“Who?”
She made a sound of annoyed indulgence. “Merle and Rhun’s baby.”
“Ah.” He cleared his throat, a weird little feeling unfurling in his chest. “Yeah. I guess. A bit squishy-looking.”
That earned him a gentle swat on his shoulder. “She’s a newborn!”
“So they all look like that?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know.” He made a helpless gesture with one hand. “Like…they’ve been a bit squashed.”
“Well, yeah.” Her soft laugh made his heart flip. “Considering they’ve been compressed for months in the womb, and then they got squeezed a lot during delivery, of course they’ve been squashed.”
He rubbed his nose with his free hand, keeping his eyes studiously on the road. “Not like I’d know much about that.”
The silence that followed held a gentle note.
Her touch on his hand, then—“I’m sorry you missed all of that with Basil.”
He grabbed her hand and squeezed it, his heart bleeding for all the experiences that had been stolen from him. When he spoke, his voice was rough. “I’d been looking forward to it. Before we got caught, when we’d planned to elope. I’d been looking forward to having a baby. Having a little one to take care of. Being a dad. My mom raised me alone, and when Roana told me she was pregnant, I vowed to be the father I never had. I wanted to be there every step of the way. I wouldn’t have minded getting up every hour to change or feed the baby. To rock him or her to sleep. I wanted that time, that connection. I’d have gladly spent my nights awake with our babe sleeping on my chest.”
“Oh, Tallak.” A whisper that eased some of his pain. Her thumb caressed the back of his hand as she held it, the quiet laced with loving support.
He brought their interlaced hands up to his mouth and kissed hers. “It’s okay. What’s done is done.”
She cleared her throat. “What if…it’s not?”
He frowned, throwing a quick look at her. “What?”
“I mean”—she lowered her eyes, a faint blush kissing her cheeks—“I thought that I didn’t want any more kids, but that was before…you.”
He forgot to breathe. The car swerved, and he had to focus on the road again to keep them from crashing into the ditch.
“And seeing Merle’s baby…” Her sigh was wistful. “I don’t know, I just feel like… Back when I had the kids, it was all me. Robert never lifted a finger. All the caretaking fell to me, and I was young and exhausted and overwhelmed. Even with my mom and Isabel to help out here and there, I felt like it all rested on my shoulders, and so just the thought of going through that again turned me away from ever considering having more kids. I didn’t want to do it all on my own again. And after Robert’s death, I was single for the longest time, so it was all a moot point anyway.”
Her eyes met his then for a searing moment, such warmth in the brown of her irises. “But now…I’ve got you.”
He couldn’t fucking focus on driving anymore. With a sharp yank, he stopped the car on the side of the road and turned to Hazel, his pulse pounding loud in his head. “What are you saying?”
She cleared her throat. “Hæmingr demons live a long time, right?”
“Yeah. Few hundred years, sometimes.”
“And you’re still young?”
“A young hopper compared to the lifespan ahead of me, yeah. Where are you going with this, babe?”
“Well.” She bit her lip. “I was just thinking. When we mated, I gained your lifespan, didn’t I? So I won’t age more for a long while.”
“Yes.” He made a get-on-with-it gesture. “You really need to tell me what this has to do with what you said before because you’re making me crazy right now, and I can’t read your mind to see where this is going, so—”
She laid her fingers over his mouth. “What I’m trying to say is that before, I was alone and without a partner to share the load, and I was getting to that age where, for human women, it gets harder to have a baby, and therefore it wasn’t even a possibility I considered, but now…now you’re here, and you’re wonderful and supportive and wanting to be an active father, and since my lifespan has adjusted to yours and my body seems to be adjusting along with that…I can see us having a baby.”
He stared at her in stunned silence for a few choked breaths. When she gently removed her fingers from his lips, he whispered, “You want to have a baby?”
Her smile was so fragile yet full of hope and love that it punched him straight in the gut. “Maybe not right away,” she said. “I mean, we’ve got time. But I just wanted to say that I’m open to that.”
He still stared at her as if she was the eighth wonder of the world. “You want to have a baby,” he whispered again. “With me?”
Her face softened as she studied him. “Tallak.” She cupped his face with one hand, her thumb stroking over his cheekbone. “Sweetheart, you are the most amazing male I’ve ever met. You’re the love of my life. You’d make a wonderful dad—you already are to Basil. I cannot imagine a better father to my child than you.”
His breath caught, his chest tight with the sweetest kind of pain. He unfastened her seatbelt and unceremoniously dragged her over the console until she landed in his lap amid giggles and protest, and then he hugged her so tightly that she wheezed a little.
“I don’t deserve you,” he rasped, his face buried in her neck.
“Yes, you do.” She hugged him back with equal measure. “You do, you big, bad demon with the softest heart. You deserve all good things.”
He nipped her lightly right where he’d drunk his fill of her during their mating, where the two lovely puncture wounds proclaimed for all the world to see that she was his. Hazel shuddered against him, arching her back.
“And you’re the best of them,” he murmured as he dragged his mouth up her neck to her face, to claim her lips in a kiss of need and passion and helpless awe.
When the kiss turned molten in its intensity, she broke away from him with a gasp. She thwarted his attempt to catch her mouth again with one hand on his lips.
“We need to stop,” she said in between heavy breaths. “I’m not having sex with you in the car on the road in our neighborhood in the early evening. Our house is just a few yards down this way. Two more minutes, and we’ll be home, where you can ravish me on a real bed, behind a closed door.”
He stared at her for a moment, then he smirked and let her clamber back into her seat. “All right, but just so you know, I’m only letting you go because of two things you said.”
“Oh?” She fastened her seat belt. “What’s that?”
“One,” he said as he steered the car back onto the road, “your wording makes it clear you’re open to us fucking in the car anywhere else as long as it’s later at night.”
“What?” she sputtered. “No, wait, I didn’t say—”
“Two,” he nonchalantly interrupted her, “you said our.”
“Huh?”
He slanted a look at her. “Our neighborhood. Our house.” A small smile snuck onto his face. “And you said home.”
She was silent for a heartbeat, then she softly said, “Of course it’s ours.” Her answering smile was a shot of pure bliss through his system. “You’re mine now, and I’m yours, and that big, old house is ours. Our home.”
His lips quirked up. “So I should get my stuff then?”
“Abs0-fucking-lutely.”
He barked out a laugh as he stopped the car in front of the closed gate to the Murray property. Turning to Hazel, he gently said, “You’ll need to adjust the wards, love.”
It took her a moment, then her face fell, sadness tinging her features. “Right. I forgot.”
She closed her eyes, muttered a string of words, made a sharp gesture, and then magic punched the air, illuminating a shield around the property for a heartbeat before it faded again. Next, she retrieved a key fob from her purse and pressed the button. The gate slid open before them.
“There,” she said, and faced him with a soft smile. “Welcome home.”
Chest brimming with a prickling feeling, he brought the car onto the circular drive of the Murray mansion.
Hazel gasped. “They’re here.”
“Hm?”
“The kids!” She pointed at the two cars sitting in front of the house. “They’re here.”
His gaze flicked to Lily’s blue Beetle parked right next to Basil’s red sedan, illuminated by the outdoor lights of the mansion’s entrance.
Tallak and Hazel had decided to come here, finally, after two days of hiding out at his apartment. She’d made do with wearing some of his clothes—or none at all—while over at his place, and he’d washed her things once, but obviously, she’d had to return to the Murray mansion at some point…which would now be his home as well. His chest bloomed with warmth.
“Well,” Hazel said quietly, “I guess this is where we tell them.”
He turned off the car and studied her face. “How do you feel about that?”
They hadn’t really talked about how they’d break the news to others, beyond their visit to see Merle and Rhun today. Lily had checked in on Hazel via phone the day after the big witch fight, and Hazel had reassured her she was fine and just resting after all the energy and magic she’d spent. Lily’d been busy with helping her in-laws after the whole trying-to-evacuate-everyone, and she’d promised to come by in the next few days, but they hadn’t heard from her today. And as for Basil…he’d been out on a trip to Faerie with Isa, but apparently, he’d returned now.
Which meant Tallak and Hazel were suddenly—and rather unexpectedly early—faced with making their new relationship status public knowledge among their respective kids. Well, Rose apparently already knew, but Lily and Basil… As soon as they saw them, they’d know what’s up. With their demon senses, both of them would immediately smell Tallak’s scent marking all over Hazel, and the bite on her neck was a dead giveaway in addition to that.
Hazel took his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “I don’t mind telling them. I want them to know. It’s just that I…wanted to mentally prepare myself a bit more.” Her soft laugh sounded self-conscious. “It’s kind of a big deal, you know?”
He didn’t respond, just interlaced his fingers with hers, listening.
“I never had another serious relationship after Robert,” she continued after a moment. “Never brought a guy home, never even let the kids meet anyone I was dating. It’s just been me for a long time, and…I’m not really worried about how they’ll react. I mean, they already know you. But somehow, I’m still nervous. That doesn’t make sense, does it?”
He squeezed her hand. “Sure does.”
She blew out a breath. “Okay. Let’s go in, then.”
* * *
They exited the car and took the stairs to the entrance. Hazel hesitated with her keys in hand, took a deep breath, and then unlocked the door and stepped inside.
“Hello?” she called out. “Kids? I’m home.”
“In here!” came a shout from the kitchen. Lily, judging by the voice.
Throwing a quick glance at Tallak, Hazel advanced into the kitchen, her heart beating a fast tattoo against her ribs.
“Hey,” she said as she stepped into the room and met Lily’s hug. “I’m okay. It’s good to see you, baby.”
Lily squeezed her tight, then grew still. She took a deep breath and drew back slowly, holding Hazel by the shoulders. Her indigo eyes flicked to her neck, then to Tallak, who’d walked up behind Hazel.
“Baz,” she drawled. “Come check this out.”
“What? Let me see.”
Basil shouldered Lily aside and studied Hazel, his eyes instantly zeroing in on the traitorous bite mark. He sniffed the air, then looked at Tallak.
“When?” Basil asked Hazel.
“What?”
“When did you get mated?” He waggled his finger between her and Tallak.
“Um…yesterday. So, I—”
Basil held up his index finger to stop her, then slowly turned to Lily with raised brows. She cocked her head and returned his stare with a mulish expression. They were clearly having one of their silent conversations—real twin bond or not. Basil pressed his mouth into a tight line, widened his eyes, and held his hand out to her, palm up.
“Oh, come on!” Lily put both hands on her hips. “I said this weekend, you said before.”
“Exactly, which is why you owe me twenty bucks.”
“Nu-uh. I was right, you were wrong. You owe me, buster.”
Basil flailed. “How would you be right about this?”
“Friday is already the weekend,” Lily snapped. “Everybody knows that. Now pay up.”
“No way! Friday is a fucking weekday. People go to work on Fridays!” He pointed his finger in her face. “Just admit that you were wrong.”
Hazel cleared her throat. “Excuse me?”
Both grown-up kids turned to look at her.
“You were betting on when Tallak and I would get mated?”
Neither of them had the good grace to look sheepish. In fact, Basil even shrugged.
“What did you expect? Did you really think we didn’t see this coming?” He gestured wildly at her and a suspiciously quiet Tallak behind her. “I mean, you haven’t exactly been good at hiding it.”
Hazel winced. “I thought I’d—”
“The perfume?” Basil gave her a droll look. “Yeah, that was a nice try, but you really shouldn’t have bothered. I mean, I don’t want to enter TMI territory here, but you do realize the walls in this house aren’t soundproof?”
Hazel’s eyes widened, her cheeks blazing hot. “Oh, my gods.” She buried her face in her hands.
The sound coming from Tallak behind her was awfully close to suppressed laughter.
She elbowed him in the stomach for it.
“What?” Tallak wheezed, holding up his hands in a placating gesture. “I’ve been wanting to make this official for a good week now, so don’t look at me like that.”
Hazel drew in a forceful breath and turned to Basil and Lily again. “So you knew.”
Lily tilted her head and gave her a duh-look. “Mom. Everybody knew.”
“What do you mean, everybody?”
“Well, me, Basil, Isa, Rose…” She waved her hand at the two women sitting at the breakfast nook table, watching the scene with rapt fascination. “Alek, of course, since I tell him everything, Merle—”
“Merle?” Hazel made a squeaky sound.
“Yeah, I mean, obviously, Rhun told her.”
“Rhun?”
Lily’s eyes flicked to Tallak. “Wanna explain that one?”
“No, no, I’m good,” Tallak said and coughed into his hand.
Hazel pivoted to pin him with a look. “What?”
“I really think congratulations are in order,” Tallak said loudly and clapped his hands.
“That’s right.” Basil grinned, and his whole face lit up.
Next thing she knew, Hazel was enfolded in a twin hug by Lily and Basil and showered with a many “congrats” and “so happy for you.” As soon as they let her go, Rose was there to draw her close and whisper in her ear, “I knew you’d make up.” Isa hugged her, too, wishing her happiness and much love for her mating.
And then everything blurred and she couldn’t see anything anymore, her eyes full of the kind of tears born of hard-won bliss and unexpected luck.
“Aww, Mom, don’t cry.” Lily pulled her in for a hug again. “He’s really not that bad. I’m sure you can still get him house-trained and teach him some manners, you know?”
“Oy!” Tallak barked, but when Hazel blinked at him through her tears, she caught the glint of amusement in his eyes, the grin pulling at the corners of his mouth.
“Wait,” Lily said, “so do I call you Dad now?”
Basil gasped and slapped the back of his hand against Lily’s shoulder. “Hey, you know, with my biological father and your biological mother mating, we’re actually siblings again.”
“Stepsiblings. You’re right.” Lily pursed her lips.
“Adopted stepsiblings,” Basil amended with a raised finger.
“Right.” Lily nodded sagely. “Adopted and stepped on.”
Hazel pinched the bridge of her nose.
“And just think,” Isa threw in, “should Hazel and Tallak have a baby, you’d both be linked to each other by having a mutual biological sibling.”
Eyes widening, Basil and Lily turned to stare at Tallak and Hazel.
“Nah,” Lily said after a moment, shaking her head. “You wouldn’t, right?”
Hazel bit her lip. “Well, actually…”
“Oh my gods!” Lily yelped and clapped her hands over her mouth. “You’re not—are you?”
“No!” Hazel held up a hand. “Not yet. But we…might. At some point. We were just talking about it.”
Lily inhaled on a long, awe-struck sound, her eyes shining. “Another sister.” She glanced at Rose, whose tentative smile mirrored Lily’s joy-filled one. “Baz,” Lily whispered, tapping his shoulder and bouncing on her feet.
He grinned at her, then met Hazel’s eyes, his gaze sliding to Tallak next. “That would be fucking awesome.”
And Hazel’s heart burst with happiness the likes of which she hadn’t felt in a long time.
********
I hope you enjoyed this bonus scene! I had a lot of fun writing this one. It was one of those scenes that I’d originally wanted to include in the book itself, but in the end, it didn’t fit anymore, because the book was already so incredibly long. But I’m happy I can make this available as a bonus scene for you to read. 🙂
