Free LUCI (The Naughty Ones Book 2) by Kristina Weaver

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