Charmed

Chapter Twenty Seven

Nine months later...

"Any day now, your grace," Phillipe said as I lowered my skirts. I despised the way in which he had to check to see if the baby was getting any closer to entering the world, getting up close and personal with areas that were specifically reserved for Darius. But Darius kept assuring me that it was okay, all for our child. "I'm afraid we have to wait for this little one to appear on its own."

I groaned, throwing my head back against the pillows. Darius smirked down at me. My rounded stomach had expanded to the point that I could no longer see my toes when I looked down at the ground. Walking had become very difficult, almost painful. I waddled everywhere I went, being forced to wear flat shoes after my inflamed ankles refused to be stuffed into heeled shoes. Phillipe had given me an estimated date in which the baby would be born, and I was currently two weeks overdue. It was getting irritably uncomfortable.

Phillipe left our chamber, leaving me and Darius alone. Darius kissed my forehead before he moved to the fireplace, leaning against the frame and watching me.

"Don't give me that look," I said snippily. My temper was being tested to its limits recently, and the slightest thing would set me off.

"What look?" Darius smirked. I glared at him, making him chuckle. He walked back to the bed, leaping into the air and landing beside me so that I bounced a little. I swore at him, swiping at his body with my hand. "I love how you look like this."

I stared at him. "What, fat and swollen and grumpy?"

"Glowing," he whispered, kissing me deeply. "Come, let's get ready for bed."

I took his outstretched hand as he helped me get to my feet. Every movement was exhausting, and all I wanted was for my little bundle to be in my arms, but it was refusing to budge.

"We really should think about names," I said as I shimmied out of my maternity dress. Joyce had given me a lot of her old maternity clothes, and I was pleased to find that most of them fitted me perfectly.

"I still think we should wait until he's born," Darius said, helping me wriggle into my nightdress.

I paused when my head popped through the hole. "He?"

"Yes." Darius looked over his shoulder and sighed. "I think that the baby is going to be a boy."

This was something I'd been afraid of throughout my pregnancy. Darius wanted a boy to be able to ensure that he had an heir. I feared if it was a girl he would lose interest and not love her the way he would if she had been born a son.

"Can we at least get some ideas?" I asked, climbing into bed with a grunt.

Darius smirked and compromised, lying down beside me and taking my foot in his hands. He'd been massaging my feet every night for the past few months, and that simple act of doing it without being asked just made me love him more. "I have a few ideas in mind."

"Tell me," I encouraged. "I want to know if I'll like them."

"What does it matter if you like them?" he asked, making me narrow my eyes. "Surely I should get a say in the name?"

I jabbed a finger at him. "You grow a human inside of you and push it out of a ridiculously small space. Then I'll let you decide the name on your own."

He chuckled, lifting my leg and kissing my calf. "I'm sorry."

"What are your suggestions?"

His eyes sparkled beautifully. "Well, I was thinking about Grigori." After his father. I smiled, silently telling him to continue. "Or Jack. Ned. Those are all I really have right now."