“We’ll say a prayer for her,” Lauren assured her quietly. “That she’ll be safe and find her way home.”
“Thank you. I miss you all.” Nadiah’s lovely new blue-green eyes encompassed all of them for a moment and then the viewing screen went dark.
“Oh dear,” Sophie sighed. She looked close to tears herself and Lauren could understand why. From what she’d heard, during her time on Tranq Prime Sophie had practically adopted Nadiah as a little sister. To see her good friend so upset and not be able to ease the pain must be hard.
“It’s okay, womb-mate.” Olivia put an arm around her twin sister’s shoulders. “They’ll find her—I’m sure they will.”
“I hope so.” Kat shook her head. “Too bad she insisted on going out in the desert without a stitch on. I hope she at least brought some heavy duty sun block.”
“I don’t want to think about it anymore,” Sophia wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “Let’s all just go back to my suite and talk about something else. We can plan Lauren and Liv’s baby shower.” She looked at Kat. “Or your joining.”
Kat looked vaguely uncomfortable. “Babies come first.”
“Speaking of babies, fellow pregnant lady…” Olivia let go of Sophie and came to hook her arm through Lauren’s. “You said you were looking for me. Was there a problem you needed help with?”
“Um…” Lauren felt her cheeks growing warm. “No, that’s okay. It’s no big deal.”
Liv gave her a sharp look. “It’s not, huh? Okay. Well, at least come back to Sophie’s with us for a snack. We were about to call you over when we heard we had a call from Nadiah.”
“Well…” Lauren hesitated, but really, what did she have to go back to? Xairn was out of the suite and Little One had probably settled down for the night. “All right,” she said at last.
“Great. And I’ve got plenty of pregnant-lady snacks,” Sophie said, leading the way out of the viewing room and down the long corridor.
“Pregnant-lady snacks?” Lauren frowned at Liv. “What is it now? Are you still eating seaweed sandwiches?”
“Of course not.” Liv made a dismissive gesture. “Seaweed is so last quadmester. I’m into stuffed mushrooms now.”
Lauren smiled. “Well, that doesn’t sound so bad.”
Kat made a face. “You should hear what she stuffs them with!”
“I’m almost afraid to find out.” Lauren laughed and shook her head. Though she was still worried about her problems with Xairn, she suddenly felt lighter. Just being around her girlfriends seemed to lift her mood. She told herself that her questions could wait—at least until after their girl time was over. Then, as soon as Kat and Sophia left, she would take Olivia aside and get all the information she could.
* * * * *
"Okay, I can tell you're hanging around here after everyone else has gone for a reason. So come on, spill," Olivia demanded.
Lauren sighed and ran her hands through her hair. How to begin? She’d been trying for days to get her cousin alone and now she was almost too embarrassed to talk about the problem. But she had to—she needed some answers, now.
“It’s about Xairn,” she began at last, in a low voice.
“He won’t touch you, right?” Olivia raised one blonde eyebrow. “You guys probably haven’t made love in weeks—ever since you found out you were pregnant.”
“Exactly.” Lauren blew out a breath. “I know I told you and the other girls some of that already, but how did you know it’s been so long?”
“You have that edgy look—hungry. Unsatisfied.” Olivia frowned. “I don’t know about you, but being preggers has made me so damn, well…horny—for want of a better word. It’s almost like another appetite I have to feed and Lord knows I spend enough of my day eating already!”
“I know exactly what you mean,” Lauren exclaimed. “It’s making me crazy. But Xairn won’t come near me and I even thought, well…” She cleared her throat. “I thought maybe being pregnant had changed my scent or something. I mean, the Kindred and the Scourge both seem to have such a sensitive sense of smell…”
Olivia nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah, Baird has told me that being pregnant has changed my scent a little. But he said it made me smell sweeter—even more desirable. So I don’t think that’s the source of your problem.”
“What is, then?” Lauren burst out. She hopped up from the couch and started pacing. “What’s wrong with him? He’s acting exactly like he did before we finally bonded. When he was so afraid he was going to lose control and hurt me.”