"Why what?"

"Why hold that back until now, and why the hell did you make me experience that without you interfering, for once?!"

"Lugh cannot be here. Your life is here, Maria. He is tied to that realm, and he wants his child to be free when he can't be." As usual, Mark chose to start as far away from answering her question as possible.

"Seriously, you're doing it again?" Maria pushed herself to sit up as best she could with the little tub of Lugh in her. "I need direct answers and you start all the way out there in story-land, to avoid the point."

"Damn it, Maria, I'm trying to explain why he ordered me to withhold that memory!" He pulled his hands off the bed to pace a little.

She hasn't seen him so close to tears since the day he bit her. The old scar throbbed-apparently it responded to his turmoil a little. She found herself rubbing her shoulder as the baby turned over quickly, making her feel like her stomach flipped, testing her ability to not throw up from stress. "Go on, Mark."

"He wants you to depend on me and me alone. He loves you and that child, probably more than I'm capable of loving."

"Mark, I don't understand."

"Maria, you do know that I'm a created being, right? There is no way a demon that feeds on memories can be intimate with a crow in this realm or my home. Lugh is not my master, he is my God-my Creator-and I was the first thing he created, waiting for the day where he gives up the love of his life and his only child to his creation. How much love did your God have for Mary? How much trust did he place on Joseph?"

Maria almost fell back on the bed, to give up. "Please tell me that this child isn't supposed to save the world. I don't think I could watch their death."

Mark's laugh was dark. "No, Lugh wouldn't choose that, but you know the factions are snared together in a deadlock and this child is going to upset the balance of power. I don't think many are aware of that, but that point is issues for another day. Back to here and now, the very God of me wants you to be mine on every level, even though it means giving up on your connection."

That helped fit it all into place. "He wanted you to wait until after I loved you for me to remember how I loved him, too. Then showing it to me so viscerally is on you. Why? You've tainted every memory of him until now, why leave me to only remember him so deeply that I forgot you were there?"

"He wants you to love me, to forget about him. Is that what he needs? Isn't that part your decision? You couldn't be here without becoming attached to me-that's part of the Fey curse. Obviously by how you reacted, it would have been very painful to be with me if you knew."

"Is that why you kept pulling away from me back then?"

"Maria. I'm your lover, protector, and in this, I'm your betrayer." Mark didn't even pause in his pacing to throw his hands up in a shrug of frustration. "I don't even like myself."

Maria sighed. Perhaps they all screwed each other over in this situation. She knew she wasn't happy with either man, but at 8 months pregnant and demons waiting to pounce, what else was she going to do? So, she made a decision as she laboriously crawled out the bed to go to the bathroom, fussing him on the way out. "I am too far along to go chasing after you as you wear a hole in the floor. Go on to bed and hold me, let's sleep on it. I don't think I can sustain enough anger to make it worth kicking you out."

After using the restroom and a quick shower, she went to bed draped in a beach towel-the only thing that could fit her anymore-to find Mark on his back, staring at the ceiling. "You just kind of shut down when I'm not here, don't you?"

Mark watched her as she dropped the towel on her bedside stool to put on her favorite nightgown-pj pants just hurt to wear, with the baby constantly kicking at the restriction. "You think human men don't do the same? They go to work at a job they hate, endure a list of chores, just so they can get to this point in their day."

She wanted this man-probably always would. Despite how much easier it was to love Lugh, this man felt more real. He had highs and lows, needed reassurance, would walk through fire to keep her by his side. "No memories."

"Fey commands?"

She nodded.

"Come here."

The joy of being able to get on the bed and crawl over him-with his help to make it easier to straddle his waist-helped ease the heartache she was feeling. He guided her on him as he slowly breathed out. "Ahhh, there is absolutely no room up in there."

Maria had to agree. Sex now bordered on painful while she was the most turned on she'd ever been in her life-that as the constant background. There was never a need to build up the pressure because it existed the whole time. It was the little movements that made this worthwhile.

Mark was generally huge, but not so much that it was noticeable until close to the end of her pregnancy. When he first placed her on, he let her feel the full depth of him in her, but she couldn't move against that without feeling bruised. Slowly, he raised his legs and leaned her back against them, which wasn't the best angle for depth, but it was good on letting her relax.

"Spread your legs wider, sweet morsel." He had not called her that in ages, but the shaking of her legs was a pleasure under the whip of his voice. He reached down and gently pinched her bud. "You are to practice everything I do to your clit on your nipples."

Her hands went to her chest almost involuntarily. As usual, he manipulated her clothes into a soft see-through fabric that make her chest feel seductively touched with every breath. It was thin enough that her aroused nipples were easy to grasp between her fingers. Thank God he has a type... "Oh, fuck me..."

The crow smirked as he thumbed his treasure until it was severely stiff. Her own thrumming did the same for her work. Minor orgasms-the waves of a mini-high and release--happened randomly, when one of their hands hit just the right spot. She gasped each time they made the perfect connection-not that he needed to hear it, the way she gripped him told the same story. He switched to a gentle twisting and pinching and those little relaxing joys became more turbulent, causing muscles to jump and those gasps became far more vocal.

"Keep playing with them, and I want you to let go and cry out when it just right."

Mark barely even shifted his hands to her thighs when her first, "God, yes!" left her lips. But his hands did move, and he guided her through the small circular motions that gently bobbed her on his shaft.

Like the wind in the Otherworld, Mark gifted Maria with the sensation of feathers gently caressing every spare inch of her body. The little highs became punctuated with little muffled shrieks due to her biting her lips.

"Bear down hard on me, now." Until this point, he had guided her, but she picked up the rhythm on her own. He went back to stroking her tip and she desperately tried to follow the pattern as she had earlier been shown.

"Mark!" She strained her voice calling for him as she teetered over the edge. Only then did he drop his legs back down, letting her fall onto his complete length.

Maria came so hard she almost fainted, dragging Mark with her. She nearly fell backwards, but he moved his legs back up to catch her. She was still idly touching her chest as she slowly regained her eyesight through the dark haze, each flick sending a little shiver of joy down her spine. "Ah...can I stop now?"

He slowly lifted her off himself and laid her on her back. "No, we're going to do it again, then I'll release you."

He took her towel and gently cleaned her out as she stroked her chest. Little ripples of pleasure continued to dance along her spine. Mark pushed two fingers inside of her before taking her clit into his mouth, knowing her hands couldn't keep up with what his tongue could do, but damn she tried. She rapidly reached that high with a whirlwind of gentle touches and his thoroughness.

He repeated giving her this pleasure until she lost sensitivity, then he pulled her against him and fell asleep to the baby kicking his face as he rested his cheek on her stomach.

Maria's last coherent thought was He wouldn't have gone so far if he wasn't feeling insecure over the memory he last opened.

She fell asleep with a smile on her face.