Chapter Ten
Pearl had to admit, the clinic of a world-renowned OB/GYN was far more luxurious than the free facility she had gone into before. The waiting room was elegant with furniture that probably cost more than a few months of her rent, and the receptionist was soft-spoken, telling them that the doctor would only be a few moments.
Then her name was called, and Pearl stood. Luciano did the same, but then he hesitated. In that moment, she could read his mind. Nothing was going to stop him from being part of the appointment, but he did not know if he was welcome.
"Come on," she said softly. She took his hand, startled all over again by the size and warmth of her Italian billionaire.
Dr. Arora was a small woman with a long, dark braid and wings of silver hair at her temple. She greeted them with a no-nonsense sweetness and showed Pearl where she needed to lie down for the ultrasound. Pearl made a small sound at how cold the layer of Vaseline was smeared on her belly, and Luciano was at her side in a heartbeat, hand clinging to hers. He looked so fierce that Pearl had to laugh slightly.
"Don't worry," she said. "You told me she was the best, and I can take a little cold."
"Indeed," Dr. Arora said archly. "If Pearl is tough enough to give birth, she will be tough enough to handle the ultrasound, I think."
Dr. Arora worked swiftly and competently, but after a moment, she frowned, clicking her tongue over something on the screen.
"What is it?" Luciano demanded. Pearl felt a slight surge of relief. If he hadn't asked, she might have hung on in stress.
"A moment, please," Dr. Arora said. “Let me see something.”
She passed the paddle over Pearl's slick belly again, letting a second image take shape, and then Dr. Arora made a quiet sound of surprise.
"Well. All right then. Mom, Dad, may I present to you your four new children."
"Four?" Luciano and Pearl asked in unison, and with a slightly practiced flourish, Dr. Arora spun the screen around so they could see.
They're...what's in me? Pearl thought, awed and slightly appalled.
The image on the screen in silver and soft blue against the black was almost painfully clear. Not one baby but four floated in the darkness of the screen, their small bodies curled and so small that they looked like kittens. Before she could stop herself, Pearl's hands flew to her belly, cradling her child—no, her children—protectively.
"Were you on any kind of fertility drugs at all?" Dr. Arora asked. "This is unusual, but certain drugs do make it more likely."
"I was actually on birth control," she blurted out. "I only stopped when I was certain that I was pregnant."
Dr. Arora smiled faintly. "Birth control works most of the time, but there are several things which can reduce its effectiveness. Some women just get unlucky. Do either of you have multiple births in your family? Twins or triplets would be the most common, but quadruplets might have occurred as well.”
"My mother was a twin, I think," Pearl volunteered hesitantly.
"My uncle was of a set of triplets," Luciano agreed, and Dr. Arora nodded.
"That's probably the culprit then. Multiple births certainly run in the family, but you two seem to have beaten the odds in a few ways."
When both Pearl and Luciano seemed disinclined to answer, Dr. Arora nodded.
"I can see that this is going to take some getting used to," she said. "I can schedule you for a consult tomorrow or the next day, and we can talk about what you want to do."
"What we want to do?" Luciano asked in surprise, and Pearl nodded.
"She means if we want to keep the babies or keep some of the babies...or none of them."
Pearl felt a shock go through Luciano, and she could feel him steeling himself to fight. She squeezed his hand, however, and felt him calm.
"I'm keeping them," Pearl said decisively, and Dr. Arora, perfectly neutral, nodded. If she thought it was strange that a mother here with a father was referring to herself as “I,” she didn't comment on that, either.
***
Back in the elegant Bentley that Luciano drove in New York, they were both silent. Pearl realized that she had rested her hands over her stomach gently without even thinking of it.
Aw baby, she thought. No...babies.
"So. Four," she said, her voice still stunned.
"There are four little sparks inside you," Luciano responded, and she wondered if she could hear awe in his tone. "Each one is half me."
His hand hovered over her belly, and his dark eyes glanced up at her. There was something soft, almost pleading there, and Pearl would have had to have a heart made out of stone to deny him. Instead of saying anything, however, she took his hand in hers and pressed it against her belly.
"Warm," he said. "I don't feel a kick yet."
"It'll be a bit yet," Pearl said, smiling slightly. "Though god, that's going to be four pairs of feet tap dancing inside..."
Not taking his hand from her belly, he glanced at her. "Are you scared?"
She started to say something about being tough enough to handle it, but she was stopped by his eyes. They were dark and frank, and suddenly she wanted to tell him the truth more than anything else.
"I have been scared," she said, her voice small. "Ever since I found out. This is...this is amazing, but yeah. Little bit scared."
To her surprise, he smoothly stopped the car at the curb before a row of buildings, got out, and came around to open her door. Before she could think of what he intended, he swept her into his arms, holding her tight.
She could feel a dim echo of the sensuous warmth that flooded her whenever they touched, but this embrace was different. It was meant to comfort her, to make her feel protected against the world. She had a shield now.
"You don't have to be afraid," he said gruffly. "It can be frightening, but it won't be for you. I'll take care of you."
I can take care of myself, she almost said, but then Pearl understood what he was saying. She didn't have to. The thought was so intense and strange to her that she could feel tears fill her eyes. She leaned against him, pressing her face to the crook of his neck, and she simply rested there for a moment.
He'll protect me, she thought with wonder. He'll protect me and our children.
In that moment, she could feel something inside her open and thaw that had been frozen before. She didn't have a name for it, but it flowed around her, through her, and circled her and Luciano, making her smile.
***
They had had a light dinner at a small bistro, and after they had both eaten, Pearl felt Luciano's gaze on her.
"What is it? Did I get some of that spinach on my teeth?"
"Not at all. Only...I have a question for you."
"What is that?"
"Let me keep you."
She stared at him, wondering at the strangeness of his words.
"That's not a question,” she pointed out finally, and he shook his head.
"It's not, is it? Forgive me, I'm not very good at this. You have an apartment in Florida that's just about empty and no job down there. I'm not sure you should have a job at all right now when you're trying to nourish children inside you. Leave Florida. Come stay in Manhattan. I have a place that can be just yours for the duration of your pregnancy if not longer. Let me give that to you. Please."
"You want to keep me like a mistress," she said, her tone half-accusing, and to her surprise, Luciano grinned.
"Believe me," he said, his voice weighted with sensuous promise. "If you wanted to be my mistress, I would certainly say yes. I would love the idea of you waiting for me, open to receive me whenever I called..."
Pearl couldn't help a subtle shiver from racing down her spine. Would she like that life, living for Luciano's whim, greeting him with an impassioned kiss every time he came in the door? There was a small part of her that liked that very much indeed, and perhaps the larger part did as well, but right now, she couldn't afford to indulge it.
"Be serious," she said, and he nodded, professional again.
"I have every intention of taking care of these children," he said bluntly. "This means taking care of you as well."
"Just while the kids are inside me?"
He grinned at her turn of phrase, but he also shook his head. "I'm not such a monster as to think that children are walking adults by the time they are born. Children need their mothers, and yes, a more long term arrangement should be made. We will need to talk about that at some point, but that's not what I'm talking about today. Today, I'm talking about the pregnancy on its own.
"Let me keep you. Let me keep you close. You can't tell me that it wouldn't be safer for you. A pregnancy like this one, it's easy for things to go wrong. Having someone around...that would make it better, wouldn't it?"
Pearl couldn't disagree with him. Dr. Arora had said she was healthy and that everything was going the way it should be going, but that didn't change the fact that the human body did not frequently deal with carrying four children at once. Even having twins could push her into a high risk pregnancy, let alone having quadruplets. Even the phrase alone made her a little nervous.
"And what about after?" she asked, unable to keep some of the strain from her voice. "When the kids are here, do we...do we split up? What?"
A guarded look came over Luciano's face, and she wondered what was going on behind those dark eyes.
"After...perhaps we will leave that to itself. There is quite some time to go yet, and it is important to make sure that you are healthy now."
"Yes, I understand." Pearl took a deep, calming breath. She knew her days of making impulsive decisions were behind her, especially now that she was going to have children to think about.
"Do you agree?"
"Yes, I do," she responded, and she wondered what in the world was going to become of her.
***
Luciano left Pearl eating dinner at the restaurant he had taken her to, and he stepped into the lobby to make some calls. If he were going to be the politest possible about it, he would have stepped out onto the street, but at the moment, he couldn't bear to let Pearl out of his sight. It had been like that ever since Dr. Arora had given them the cautions about Pearl's pregnancy. Pearl seemed to take them in stride, confident about her body and her ability to manage. Luciano didn't doubt her, but there was a deep and pervasive fear that had set in for him. He didn't want her out of reach, and he knew he would have to get it under control sooner rather than later.
Getting his Manhattan penthouse set up for long-term habitation was easy enough. They would probably be ready to move in the next day. Getting the apartment settled relaxed him, but that rest only lasted for a few minutes. He tensed whenever he thought about what would come next, when the babies arrived.
They were already so real to him, four children born of himself and his mermaid. He had never understood love at first sight before, but now he knew it had more to do with the spirit than with anything like touch or scent or vision. He already loved their children fiercely and without reserve.
He was fairly certain he loved their mother too, and that was a bigger problem.
Luciano was man enough to know that his pride was hurt when they had talked about marriage. The disgust and contempt in her eyes was shocking, but she was a free spirit who went her own way. He hadn't expected her to be a mistress, but the entire idea seemed to repulse her.
He wondered if it was possible for him to change her mind by the time the babies were born, but he knew better than to gamble on the human heart. All he could do was try to win her over, and in that regard at least, he had some experience.
He realized he was gazing at her across the restaurant, taking in her profile, marking every curl of her short blonde hair. God, but she was beautiful now. How much more beautiful would she be when she was further along? When she was feeding their children from her small and lovely breasts?
Luciano shook his head. If he wasn't careful, he would simply dissolve into a lovesick fool, unable to convince her or seduce her into seeing his way, but he was already wondering if it was too late.