Littler Conversations (Conversations #1.5) Read online

  © 2014, Sibylla Matilde

  [email protected]

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the Sibylla Matilde.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. With the exception of the original material written by the author, all songs, song titles, and lyrics contained in this book are the property of the respective songwriters and copyright holders.

  Dedication

  To Shell, because she, more than anyone

  else I know, wanted more Ronin.

  And to Ronin… I’ve missed writing you.

  Summary

  She was his. The love of his life. Forever…

  The last few years have been a bit of a dream, reminiscent of the mythical stories woven into the stars above. Ronin and Devin now find themselves embarking on a new journey that draws out feelings they never expected. Stronger together, wrapped tightly in the security of their love, Devin’s burgeoning maturity feeds off Ronin’s quiet strength and conviction, but nothing is guaranteed. A blast from the past rattles them both, and then, in the midst of a dream come true, emerges a sudden fear of losing it all.

  Published works by Sibylla Matilde

  Little Conversations (Conversations #1)

  Littler Conversations (Conversations #2)

  In the Firelight

  Because of Kian (Bitterroot #1)

  Always Conall (Bitterroot #2)

  Table of Contents

  Published works by Sibylla Matilde

  Prologue

  Chapter 1 ~ Gettin’ Ready

  Chapter 2 ~ Old Flame

  Chapter 3 ~ Baby

  Chapter 4 ~ Sleepless Nights

  Chapter 5 ~ Fire

  Chapter 6 ~ Orion the Hunter

  Chapter 7 ~ The Towel Drops

  Music that inspired the story

  Acknowledgements

  About Sibylla

  Stalk Siby

  Prologue

  A glimmer of pre-dawn starlight flickered through the window as Devin shifted her legs, softly rubbing them against Ronin’s own. The soft touch of skin made him pull her tighter against him, his fingertips brushing against the smooth warmth of her shoulder tucked beneath the flannel sheets.

  In the darkness of very early morning, this all sometimes felt like a dream.

  Best. Dream. Ever.

  Today was their anniversary. Three years. Three years after their wedding, he still couldn’t believe sometimes that she was his. That she’d vowed to love him forever. That he’d placed the Orion ring on her finger and she’d kissed him so gently, sealing their union with a quiet whisper of her love.

  Ronin’s lips grazed her forehead, rousing Devin from her heavy sleep. She pressed her face against his neck and kissed him sweetly on the collarbone. They lay there quietly for a while, just… feeling. Finally, Devin spoke through the darkness.

  “Did I ever tell you the story about Ursa Major?” she asked in a low whisper.

  Ronin’s fingertips reverently smoothed the tousled ends of her hair. “Nope. That’s the Big Dipper, right?”

  “Part of it is,” Devin murmured. “The Big Dipper is actually just kind of the ass and long tail of Ursa Major.”

  Chuckling softly, he nuzzled her sweet-smelling bangs. “Uh, Dev… honey, bears don’t have long tails.”

  “Do you want me to tell the story or not?” Devin giggled quietly and kissed his chest, sending a tingle through him.

  Ronin’s hands moved to her jaw and traced the curve of her cheek, tilting her chin up to face him. Her skin glowed with a flawless sheen in the pale starlight that filtered through the curtains. “Sorry, honey, I’d love to hear it.”

  “Well, you remember Zeus, right, and what a manslut he was?” she started quietly with a sweet smile. Her nails traced the firm contours of his chest, and he clasped her hand in his, pulling it up to softly kiss her fingertips. It was hard to listen to her stories when she was doing that, and Ronin loved her stories.

  “Sure do,” he murmured, holding her hand tightly in his so he could concentrate on what she was saying. “He was a stud.”

  “He had a lot of women even though he was married to Juno. Obviously, she had a bit of a problem with his philandering and was super jealous,” Devin said as she pressed closer to him, her cheek to his chest. He could feel the faintest brush of her eyelashes on his skin, and he wondered for a second if there was a single cell of her body that couldn’t stir him somehow.

  “Anyway,” she continued on, completely unaware, “one of Zeus’ favorite hotties was a nymph, a huntress named Callisto. One day, she was out hunting and got all tuckered out, so she laid down to rest under a tree. While she was sleeping, Zeus saw her and went all bonkers about her because she was just stunningly gorgeous. Well, Callisto got knocked up and had a boy that she named Arcas. As he grew up, she taught him how to hunt. But Juno was still pissed about everything and caught up with Callisto, turning her into a bear. Juno figured that Zeus would forget all about Callisto if she wasn’t pretty anymore.”

  Her fingertips slipped free of his grip and began to lightly caress his hand as she spoke.

  “Zeus, though, he still had a heck of a soft spot for her and watched over her as she lived out in the wild of Arcadia. One day, Arcas was out hunting, and Callisto saw him. She was so happy to see her son that she got all excited and ran up to him. Arcas kind of freaked that this bear was coming at him, and he shot an arrow at her,” Devin said, raising her head to look at him wide-eyed, “but Zeus was watching and stopped the arrow from hitting Callisto.”

  As she lowered her head back to rest upon his chest, Ronin could feel the sweet smile touch her lips. She was truly the most hopeless romantic he'd ever known, and he found himself grinning in the darkness.

  “So Zeus grabbed her tail,” Devin continued, “and swung her up into the sky to save her. It stretched her tail out, which is why it is long now.”

  “Gotcha,” he murmured into her hair.

  “When Arcas realized what happened, that the bear was his mom, he started to cry because he missed her.” Her voice lowered with a trace of mourning for the mythological kid. “So Zeus turned him into a little bear, Ursa Minor, grabbed him by the tail and tossed him up into the sky, too. As he flew up into the heavens, Arcas turned to look at Callisto, which is why Ursa Minor is curved towards Ursa Major.”

  “Awe… nice that they could still be together.”

  “Yeah,” Devin grinned as she rolled slightly to lie on her back. Ronin turned to his side with the movement, sliding his hand down to her waist and pulling her more tightly against him, loving the silken touch of her skin so warm against his body. He gently pressed his lips to her temple.

  “Of course,” Devin continued quietly, “Juno was still being kind of a bitch, so she went to the sea gods and made it so Ursa Major and Ursa Minor could never go into the ocean to wash. Another one of those weird mythological insults, but that's why they never fall below the horizon. Instead, they just go around and around the North Star, which is actually part of Ursa Minor.” Devin's tender caresses began to dust across his arm where he held her, and she gave him the starry-eyed expr
ession that made his heart squeeze against his chest. “But Zeus really loved Callisto, so much that he made her the brightest of the constellations.”

  Devin slipped her hand down to Ronin’s, her fingertips tracing along his strong forearm thoughtfully as her expression grew serious, focusing intently on his face in the dim light.

  “Hopefully,” she whispered softly after a few moments of thoughtful quiet, “we’ll never have to worry about that kind of drama with this baby.”

  For a second, Ronin froze solid.

  His breathing stopped completely.

  His heart quit beating.

  In a barely audible voice, he asked, “This baby?” He stared at her intently in the darkness. “Devin, honey… what baby?”

  Devin guided his fingers to rest over her flat stomach and gave him a tremulous smile. “This baby,” she breathed.

  The emotion of what she was telling him ripped through his consciousness. His breath left in a rush at the news. This baby… his baby… their baby.

  “Oh God, Dev…” Ronin whispered as his brain function slowly began to return. “How long have you known?”

  “I kinda wondered for a couple days. Just took a test yesterday morning,” she answered with a soft hint of a smile.

  “Oh my God, this happened so quickly. You just went off the pill like three weeks ago,” Ronin rambled on in a warm, incredulous voice as his fingers caressed the soft skin of her abdomen.

  “It happened a little faster than I thought it would,” she admitted softly, “but it does in some women, I guess.”

  “Baby… our baby. Oh my God…” He gently pulled her close, resting his lips against her hair. “I love you, Devin,” he breathed out in a rush.

  “Happy Anniversary,” she murmured against his chest.

  “Fuck,” Ronin chuckled, still slightly dazed by her revelation, “all I got you was a necklace.”

  “Oh, Ronin,” she whispered as she brought her lips up to meet his, “no, honey. You gave me so much more than that.”

  She clasped his jaw on either side, and her lips opened under his. Still stunned at what she’d told him, Ronin barely registered the sweet brush of her tongue as she drew the kiss out, pulled him closer and kindled the need in him. She always felt so delicate beneath him, and suddenly he was afraid of breaking her. He lifted his head and looked down at her in the pale shadows.

  “I just hope you still like me when I’m all fat and shit,” she whispered, a thread of worried truth underlying the lighthearted jest.

  “Well, I love every part of your body, but, I’ve gotta say, it will be interesting to see what happens,” Ronin rolled slightly and pulled the blanket down to uncover her breasts. “These will get bigger, right? Fuller?”

  She nodded and her breath caught as his hand covered one breast. Her nipple, already peaked because of the coolness of the room, pebbled hard against his palm, and her eyes drifted closed as he tenderly caressed her sensitive skin.

  Ronin took her breathy sigh as an invitation and trailed his lips along her slender throat, down the swell of her breast to her taut nipple, pulling it in his mouth, sucking gently. He then released the hardened bud, laving at her skin with his tongue. A soft moan slipped from her lips as he drew upon her breast again, then shifted to her other one and cupped her soft flesh in his large, warm hand. His hand slowly skimmed down across her slim waist, resting it on her stomach, and he raised his head.

  “It’s amazing,” he whispered, and felt goosebumps rise on her skin as he spoke, the heavy breath tickling her sensitive breasts. He lifted a little more, moving down her body to press a kiss just above her navel, then below it. “Truly amazing.”

  Ronin looked back up and saw she was watching him, a mixture of passion and tenderness in her eyes, the slight glint of wetness in her gaze. He looked back down at her stomach, holding his hand in a way that seemed to almost cradle their child. He dropped another soft kiss to her stomach and rolled to lay on his back, pulling her over him.

  “Fuck, I want you, but right now I’m a little afraid I’ll squish you.”

  Devin’s quiet giggle sounded muffled against his chest, but she pushed up over him, bracing herself with her arms on his chest. “You won’t squish me, but this works too,” she breathed as she followed the guidance of his hands to shift her hips and take him inside.

  So warm and wet and hot and sweet. There was nothing in the world like that first push into her. The soft gasp she emitted every time. The way her nails dug into his skin. The way she squeezed him tight when he had fully entered her.

  And as he watched her slowly rock above him, he couldn’t help but glide his hands up her ribs to her breasts, cupping them, pressing them together. Her eyes, glazed over with her need and desire, opened to meet his gaze, and she slowed for a minute, barely moving.

  “Your body will change, honey, but you’ll always be the most beautiful thing in the world to me,” he rasped with a husky intonation.

  Pushing himself up on one arm, he sat up, lowering his hand to keep her tightly against him, to keep himself tightly inside her. His grip guided her to move around him in small circles, as his lips lowered to hers. Their breath mingled, and he drew in her quiet gasps.

  “I love you, Devin,” he whispered against her lips before sweeping his tongue inside, kissing her deeply.

  The warm ache began to build inside him and his hands at her hips started pulling her a little faster, a little stronger, as his own hips moved in synchronicity, causing her gasps to melt into soft cries. Her arms wrapped tightly around his neck and shoulders as he felt her quiver and shake around him. Her muscles tensed, and he held her and slowed their movements, watching her in the shadows as she slipped over the edge, tightening and throbbing around him, a pulsing heat that drove him to move again. A few more strokes, and he joined her, lost in the release, a quiet moan muffled against her neck.

  Chapter 1 ~ Gettin’ Ready

  The winds of late fall blew down the mountains, bringing with it an early winter. Finally, the frigid chill melted into spring. The snow flew less often, although still returned from time to time, as was common for spring in the mountains of Montana.

  Devin had pretty much hibernated as the cold weather months hit. For the most part, she felt good. Tired, but good. Waking in the morning with Ronin before he went to work, she would get in a quick doze before she went into work herself. She’d take another quick snooze after work, snuggled in a blanket on the couch. And yet she still had no trouble sleeping when she curled up in the warm flannel sheets at night.

  At first, this sorta freaked Ronin out a little. He wondered if she should keep working, even if it was only part time at Evergreen Floral, and even that was mostly at a desk doing the books. No matter how many times Devin told him that fatigue was normal for early pregnancy, he worried. Constantly. Consistently.

  At least the morning sickness had been fairly well-controlled by keeping saltines by the bed so she could munch on a few before getting up. The few times she didn’t, she felt it and ended up retching in the bathroom and swearing to never ever get out of bed without taking a few bites first. Even the blast of botanical scents that enveloped her upon entering the flower shop, while normally calming and relaxing, had her about as green as the plants displayed around the store.

  Both the fatigue and the nausea wore off after the fourth month, though, and Devin seemed to kick into high gear. The clock was ticking on a gazillion little projects, and a few rather big ones, that Devin had planned before the baby came.

  As the crocuses began to peek through the snow in the flower bed out front, Ronin began to work on an addition to the cabin. In time, they’d outgrow this space, but neither of them was really ready to let go of their little sanctuary, a home that meant so much to them. Handed down from Ronin’s gramma, there was a comfort and security to it. A warm, welcoming air that lingered, almost like a soft lullaby that spread contentment through their souls. A history. This was where they had become friends… where th
ey had become more.

  It was a given, though, that they’d need a room for the baby and that the baby would bring frequent visits from family, primarily Devin’s mother. So, they decided to expand along one side of the house to add two bedrooms and an additional bath. Ronin, along with Joe and Shane, spent long hours to get it put together quickly. Once the rooms began to take shape, Devin set into baby-proofing. She plugged the outlets, installed little latches on all the cupboard doors, and put brackets on every dresser and set of shelves they owned to firmly affix everything to the wall. She even put some weird little fence thing around the fireplace.

  Ronin didn’t ask questions. He simply did as she requested when something was out of her reach or awkward, knowing she’d read about the necessity in some book. After all, she voraciously read every baby book she could get her hands on.

  Ronin tried to do the same, but he never seemed to get past the parts about things that could go wrong. Then he’d lie awake at night wondering how likely it was that those things would go wrong. And how wrong. And what he could do to stop it. If he could stop it. Knowing he couldn’t really stop it. And then, out of sheer exhaustion, he’d finally doze off, her soft little body pressed tightly against him, knowing that fretting and panicking wouldn’t do shit. All he could do was fervently wish and hope that everything would be okay.

  A few more months became a few more weeks…

  After a visit from her mother, Devin also began to sew. It seemed like every other day, Ronin came home to see her hunched over the sewing machine with every pattern and color of flannel she could find. Flannel baby sheets, receiving blankets, fluffy quilts, matching curtains.

  At least the kid would be warm enough, he mused. Although, considering spring had blossomed into summer and the temperatures often hovered around ninety degrees Fahrenheit, that didn’t seem to be an issue at present.