Proposition

The Calm

"It was amazing Ezabella," I sighed, running my hand over my stomach yet again, a growing habit that proved hard to resist. "He loves me."

"Yeah, he's also married to a psychopath who hired you to have his child."

I looked at her and noted the frown that warped her beautiful features, her eyebrows furrowed and forehead creased while the edges of her lips were downturned.

It broke my heart to see, but I understood where she was coming from.

"I know, Eza."

"Then don't you think is all a bit convenient?"

"What do you mean?"

"Come on, you don't think it's weird that Avena is going to such lengths to have a baby? I get her being a shallow vámr, but what stopped her from going through this officially? There's no shame in surrogacy, so why use a back-alley method when you have all the resources you could want at your disposal?"

"True, I get where you're coming from."

"What if this is some sick game to them? Loki has a reputation for being vile and less than conventional."

"What kind of game?"

"Maybe," Ezabella paused for a moment and sighed, shaking her head, "what if they hire vulnerable women in the same vein as you and enjoy manipulating them? Get jollies off of messing with their heads, all the while Loki gets some different sex and Avena can get her rocks off watching."

I wrinkled my nose in distaste and chewed on my lip, frowning as I thought back to when Loki and I had conceived our...

No...

Their.

When we had conceived their child.

"He could have thousands of rejected children out there," she continued, "and just as many broken hearted women."

"He doesn't."

We both jolted and twisted in our chairs towards the door, Ezabella moving considerably more gracefully than myself.

Thor let out a soft laugh, the softest I had ever heard from him and held up a hand.

"I do apologize, I didn't mean to startle either of you, I just couldn't help overhearing your conversation in passing."

"It's all right," I smiled, watching as he moved further into the room and closed the door behind himself.

"Listen," he said, his blue eyes flickering between us both, "Loki may be many things but it's not in his vein of trickery to go to these lengths."

"So, what he said to me was genuine?"

Thor looked at me and smiled.

Curse him for having a smile that was quite contagious.

"I believe he has been far more genuine with you than he has with his own wife."

"Do they even like each other?" Ezabella scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"I wouldn't say so," Thor shook his head then gave a light shrug of his muscular shoulders, "but it's not for me to say, it is merely a marriage of convenience but there could be genuine emotions there after all."

"Do people really believe Avena is pregnant?" Ezabella asked.

"To begin with, yes," he nodded, taking a seat beside me on the blue-cushioned loveseat, "but some of us started to question things once she started showing."

"Really?" I asked, tilting my head while shifting in my seat to face him better, "why?"

"There were," he paused for a moment as if to consider his words before settling on, "inconsistencies."