Being pregnant can be a pain. But I must say, it was kind of fun to watch everyone scramble to get me every tiny little thing I asked. Of course, the reason why they revered me so much was the root of my problems.

Dorian came into my room in the Thorn land castle, his golden-brown eyes weary, but his trademark smile was still there.

I did feel a little bad for what I was about to say, but I knew that if there was anyone who could get this for me, it would be him. Or, well, one of the servants that worked for him. I would've sent Jasmine, but I was too scared that Kiyo, my ex-boyfriend, who had flipped out when he'd discovered I was pregnant and had tried to kill me from stopping me from having our twins, a girl and a boy. It wasn't that Kiyo hated kids; it's just that mine and Jasmine's father, the much-feared Storm King, had nurtured this desire to take over the human world with a gentry – or fairy, if you will – army. And once he'd been killed, a prophecy surfaced, saying that Storm King's daughter would give birth to the son who would finish Storm King's dream, and that his mother would clear the way for her son.

No matter how many times I insisted I had absolutely no intentions whatsoever to allow such a prophecy to come true, no one seemed to hear me. Not that I can blame them much, after all, a few months ago, I had also sworn up and down that I would never get pregnant and now, thanks to a screw-up so much mine as human medicine's, here I was, with twins. And most importantly, unable to abort my kids.

Walking over to the bed, Dorian sat down next to me, and bent down, pressing a kiss to my lips. He pulled away, a soft smile on his face as he rested his hand on my stomach, which was already noticeable beneath the gentry dress Nia had managed to dress me in.

"You wanted to see me?" he asked softly.

I nodded. "I have another request…"

He sighed. "Eugenie."

I shrugged. "Sorry. It's not like I can control these desires, you know."

"I know," he said. "And you know I don't mind getting things for you, but lately, your requests have been… complicated."

I grimaced. "I know," I said. "I just want Milky Ways this time, though."

Relief flashed over his lovely face, and he nodded. "I'll send someone to get them, then."

I grinned at him, and lifted one hand, cupping his cheek. "Thank you."

He shrugged, taking my hand into his own free one, the other hand still resting lightly on my stomach. "Anything you and the babies want."

I nodded, steeling myself. "There… there was something else I wanted to tell you," I admitted, looking down at our hands clasped together. I took a deep breath. "I've… I've decided about the paternity claim."

He didn't say anything, but I felt him stiffen, and his eyes gleamed in hope. "We don't have to talk about this now, my dear."

I glared at him. "But I want to talk about it now, so shut the fuck up."

He didn't even blink. This kind of outburst was uncommon, even for me, but as the pregnancy progressed, I found my humors varying with an alarming speed, and soon, pretty much everyone around me just took it in stride.

I sighed. "Sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you like that."

He smiled, and stroked my hair back from my forehead. "You don't need to apologize for anything. You're a queen."

I scoffed. "And you're a king."

"Yes, but you rule two kingdoms."

I rolled my eyes. "We are so not having this discussion right now. And you're changing subject."

"I'm doing no such thing."

I just stared at him, but his winning smile never wavered, and finally I gave in with a sigh. "Fine, whatever. If you don't want to know, just give me the damn papers, or get me some herald, or whatever it is I need to do here to make my decision official and known."

"If you've decided, then it is official," he said simply.

"Yeah, but how do the people get to know about it? You said there were a few whispers."

And he had. The paternity of my unborn twins was the biggest talk in the Otherworld right now, even if it had already been two weeks since the news had first been broken – quite dramatically so, too – when Kiyo had chased me out of the human world after he'd have some really serious daddy issues.

"And there are," he agreed. "Most people aren't even questioning that they're mine, because of how I fast I accepted you back." He cut me a look which I ignored. Because the truth was, much as it might look to most as though Dorian had taken me as his consort again, the truth was, I was very much single for the first time in months. "But there are those who find it hard to understand why the kitsune found out before the father, and especially why you didn't tell me the very second you landed in my castle."

"Well, I guess it's time to put an end on all this, then, isn't it? I'm sure once I announce your official status of father, there shall be no doubt left. Right?"

Dorian blinked at me, and a slow, cunning smile spread across his beautiful face. "You mean it? I'm going to be a father?"

I didn't feel like reminding him that it was just words, and basically, he'd be the kids' stepfather, especially when a memory of the night I'd come crashing into his castle, running from Kiyo, with Jasmine with me. I hadn't been sure he'd grant me hospitality, until Masthera, his seeress, announced to his entire court that I was pregnant. With a boy. Later, when I'd recovered from the world-jumping, and the fight with Kiyo, he had told me I could tell everyone he was the twins' father, since Kiyo had made it perfectly clear he didn't want any other kids. At least, not with me…

When I had asked him why he would be so willing to take one another man's children, especially given that that very man was with whom I'd cheated on Dorian to begin with, he had told me that it was because someone else's kids were better than no kids.

So instead of pointing it out to him, I simply smiled. "Yes. Congratulations, Daddy."

Dorian looked so happy, I swore he could have floated off. He kneeled down by the bed, his eyes level with mine, and his gaze locked in my own. "You won't regret this, Eugenie," he said softly. "I promise."

My smile faded, and I looked away from his glowing face. A face I still loved, no matter what. A face that had hurt me beyond reason. "Don't make me any promises, Dorian," I said wearily. "I don't want to hear them."

He grabbed my cheek, forcing me to look back at him. "No," he said fiercely. "I know I hurt you. I'm sorry. I told you I regretted that, and I meant it, but dammit Eugenie, you know I'm not lying with this."

I sighed. "I know you mean it. In your own, twisted way. And that's the problem."

He shook his head, frustrated. "I won't let you tell everyone I'm the father if you continue insisting so obstinately to ignore me, Eugenie!"

I paused. "What do you mean?"

His smile turned bitter. "If you don't drop this silly grudge you have against me, you will have to admit to your people who the real father of the kids is."

I shook my head slowly. "I don't believe it. You want kids too badly."

"Yes," he agreed. "But I refuse to take in someone else's kids when their mother, the woman I love, won't so much as look at me."

"I'm looking at you now. And I let you kiss me, don't I?"

Dorian shook his head. "Eugenie, you forget that I have had you. I have had you in any conceivable way, and I have tasted your love; your desire. This? This pretense at a relationship? This is worse than when we first met."

I flushed. "You're being stupid," I said softly.

"Am I?"

There was a soft knock on the door, and Nia opened the door. "Your Majesties," she said softly. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but a messenger has arrived from the Willow Land. Queen Maiwenn wants to meet with you."

"I'm not meeting with her anytime soon, Nia. Please send her messenger back."

Nia curtsied and left, closing the door behind herself.

"How many times," Dorian mused. "Do I have to tell you that you don't need to say 'please' to them?"

I smiled. "Until my manners disappear."

He shook his head in dismay. "I shall go and fetch your Milky Ways, then," Dorian said, getting up after a few minutes of silence. "And I'll tell Nia to come back and dress you when she's done with Maiwenn's messenger. It would seem you have an announcement to make."

I sat up in bed, and caught his arm just as he reached the door. "Did you mean it?"

"Did I mean what, my dear?"

"Did you mean it when you said you wouldn't take them?"

He regarded me coolly. "Yes," he said finally. "If you can't accept that what I did was with your best interests in mind, and accept my humble apologies, then yes. I did mean it."

I hesitated. "I have accepted your apologies, and I suspect you know it."

He smiled. "Maybe. But you don't trust me."

I looked in his eyes. "You gave me reason to."

Suddenly, he grabbed my forearms, and turned me, pushing me up against the door. "And you can either accept that is who I am, or continue to delude yourself that I will accept these kids as mine, and not have you as my own again," he growled, his face inches away from me.

My breath hitched as my heart started beating faster. I wasn't scared of Dorian, not at all, after all, both of us knew who was strongest – both physically and magically – of the two of us, but I didn't try to get loose. Being held down like this by him, triggered up emotions I thought had faded; emotions that whispered of hours of pleasure as he ravaged my body, and did with me whatever he wanted to, pleasuring me beyond what I had thought was possible.

Noticing my reaction, Dorian smiled. "Ah. Not over that yet, I see," he said, leaning forward until his lips rested just below my ear. I fought to keep in a whimper. "We can do this again, Eugenie. As many time as you want it. Just tell me you forgive me. Tell me you trust me."

"I…" my hands, that had been lying along my body, suddenly flew up to his chest. I wasn't sure what they planned to do there, but I was pretty sure it involved pushing him back, and yelling that no, I couldn't let myself trust him again, not after how he had tricked me. Not after how he had traded me for power, lying to me to win a war. But the truth was, his method had ended the war, even if his reasoning behind me getting the magical crown that had ended said war, hadn't been my favorite, exactly. Still, he had said he regretted his actions. And he had protected me. Although of course, that might have been largely thanks to the prophecy and the boy I was carrying inside of me.

Still, when my hands, instead of pushing him away, pulled him closer to me, crushing myself between the door and him, and I felt his body responding to mine, and the correspondent bulge in his pants, I sighed in his hair, twining my arms behind his neck, and turning his head toward my own, seeking his mouth with mine.

But before I could get what I wanted, he pulled away slightly. "No," he said in my ear, his voice calm. "Not until you say it, Eugenie."

It had always been like this with Dorian, always a game of power, but this time I knew there was more to it than just a game to turn me on and make sex better. He needed me to tell him this; needed to know I still loved him.

And I'd never been able to lie to Dorian.

"Yes," I whispered brokenly. "Yes, I trust you, I –"

The rest of my speech was smothered in his kiss, as he crushed his mouth down on mine possessively, and I melted into his embrace.

"Mine," he growled, trailing kisses down my neck. He paused when his lips reached the neckline of my nightgown, and his smile was so mischievous, I would have been worried, if his hands hadn't been on my breasts already. And suddenly, those same hands, caught the delicate fabric, and yanked, tearing the dress. He tossed it over his shoulder, smiling at my startled gasp. "You," he said, kissing my breasts. "The kids." He kissed the hollow in between. "You're mine," he said, and then his skilled hands slipped beneath me, between my thighs, stroking that wetness they found there, making me groan as his lips continued sucking and kissing my sensitive breasts.

"Dorian," I gasped as he kneeled down in front of me.

He smiled up at me, his lovely eyes looked up to me, filled with love and desire. "You'll wish those kids were mine," he said, and when his tongue slid into me, my last rational thought before succumbing to the feelings he was giving me, was that, fuck, he was right. Did I ever.