He wanted her to forget for a moment what was going on, but she could not forget, not when she had not told him what she should have said from the beginning and when she was so worried for his safety.
"I love you," he whispered. Christine leaned against him and removed his mask, kissing the deformed side of his face. She would find some way to stop him from going.
She would not see him hurt. If tonight was the only night that she could share with him then she would make every last minute count, and pray that he would realize that if he went to that manor house he would not make it out alive. She refused to let that happen.
xXx
Anthony could hear his sister and her husband fighting through the walls and he instantly felt guilty. Perhaps he should not have mentioned it to Erik. Perhaps he and Raoul could have gone and saved her. But when Erik had said he would go Anthony had realized that if anyone could save the woman he was falling in love with it would be Erik.
But they had been fighting for a long time and he knew how worried Christine was that something would happen to Erik. He had not known that his sister's feelings for her husband had become so strong. He realized she loved him and Anthony was glad for them, Christine deserved someone who would love her for the rest of his life. He had not thought so in the beginning but that night Anthony had changed his mind about the masked man. He was not a bad man, most likely just misunderstood. He knew now not to judge someone when he did not know them just because they were different.
And Erik was definitely different.
xXx
"For the last time, Christine, you are not coming with me!" Erik shouted.
Christine's face was flushed from over an hour of yelling at her husband. Erik had decided to leave in the late hours of the night and so all that morning he had spent making love to the only person who meant anything to him. Christine had made those hours pressed against him last as long as she could, clinging to him long after each shattering climax. She had decided that if he would not stay then she would go with him. This had caused a very heated argument.
"I am going with you, Erik!" she said for the hundredth time. Erik went to her and grabbed her by the shoulders, staring angrily into her eyes. Christine stared right back. He wondered what had happened to the woman the night before who had been a crying mess. The woman in front of him was like an angry goddess, who would not take no for an answer.
He refused to take her with him. He did not care how much she ranted and raved. This was one thing that he would not give her. He was willing to give her the world, but not this. Erik would do whatever he had to do to protect her.
"I will no longer argue with you over this, I need to go and get things ready for tonight," he growled, angry. This was the spit-fire he knew, and though he loved her spirit right now he did not want to deal with it. He turned and began to walk to the door. Christine rushed to him and grabbed his arm, forcing him to stop or drag her with him.
"Christine, you are at the end of patience with this," he warned. Christine stared at him defiantly.
"You have no right to make the decision about this," she said.
"This has nothing to do with you! These men want me for killing their brother and son!" Erik growled.
"'Nothing to do with me'? Sienna is one of the best friends I have! You are my husband for God's sake! It has everything to do with me!" she shouted. His eyes held hers steadily. He hated it that they had spent the previous night and all of that morning sharing their love in their bed as husband and wife and here they were now arguing like two people that hated each other.
"I am going, Christine, and you are staying here."
Christine watched him walk to the door. His shoulders stiff. He had opened the door when she spoke her next sentence, causing him to stop dead in his tracks.
"I am pregnant."
In his life Erik had been surprised many times. But nothing had ever left him as completely speechless as what Christine had just said. He slowly turned from the door, closing it with a loud thud. His eyes found his wife's and she looked at him, waiting for him to say something. She had not planned on telling him like this, but she knew it was one of the only ways that she would be able to get him to stay.
Erik swallowed several times, trying to produce some sound from his mouth but nothing came forth. This little bit of information made him think twice about everything he had just been about to do. He needed a better plan other then running in and trying to kill his two enemies, hoping that he did not get killed trying to do so.
"If I cannot make you stay, I hope our child can," she whispered. Erik's eyes found hers and he could see that she was valiantly trying to hold back her tears.
She was pregnant with his baby.
The woman he was willing to do anything for was pregnant with his baby. For as long as he could remember he had wanted a woman who would love him in spite of what he looked like. He had never thought he would have that. He had always believed that woman would come to him for the pleasure he offered them in bed and they would be gone the next morning.
This had been the case with several women. But then he had found Christine. His little spit-fire. She was able to see beyond outer appearances and get to know the man on the inside. She had hated him in the beginning. Erik remembered that very well. The two of them had been night to day, darkness to light. Complete opposites. But that had only been because they had not known the other at all.
And slowly, as time went by and events began to shape their lives they both had realized that no one else would do. Erik admitted that he would have never believed that he would love Christine as much as he did now. And now she was pregnant. A woman was something he thought he might be lucky in if he waited long enough but children had never once entered his mind. He had believed that no woman would wish to bear a monster child. But as he looked at Christine he realized she was different, she wanted a husband and a family, some place to belong where she would be loved unconditionally.
"Please do not just stand there, Erik! Say something!" she pleaded.