Santorini Paradiso Ch. 15

Adonis wiped his face with one hand, looking questioningly at his brother, who shook his head slightly and looked back down at their delirious lover. She reached up, one hand gently stroking both of her boys' cheeks.

"Do you think we could do that again?" She asked, with a wicked gleam in her eyes.

"How did we do it the first time?" Adonis asked incredulously.

"It was Elena..." Petros said softly. "Did you see how she was... glowing?" His voice was just above a whisper. He ran a hand across her still feverish brow. "You're so hot, my darling."

This just made her giggle more.

"Well thanks very much!" She said playfully. Adonis likewise put the back of one hand gently against her forehead, his face etched with concern.

"No my love, he means your body temperature is too hot. You're burning up. How are you feeling?"

Sighing a little impatiently, she shook off their concern. "I feel amazing! Don't be such buzz kills, my babies! That was the most incredible orgasm, ever... so amazing that we - we - fuck! We levitated! Don't you think that is amazing?"

Petros turned and poured a glass of water from the pitcher on the nightstand. Adonis was tugging pillows up behind Elena to help her sit up.

"Drink some water." Petros urged, as he put the glass into her hands. Elena, suddenly very annoyed, was about to protest when she realized that she was, indeed, parched. Reluctantly, she began to drink, but found herself chugging the water until the glass was empty. She looked at the empty glass with a bit of surprise.

"I'm going to run the shower with cool water..." Adonis said, slipping off the bed to pad toward the bathroom.

"Good idea." Petros said, as he, too, rose from the bed and refilled her water glass.

"Why are you guys fussing so much? I'm fine." Elena asserted angrily. A tiny frown was forming on her brow at the abrupt end to their lovemaking session. Just when things were getting interesting. How frustrating, she thought. Leave it to men to think they can decide when a woman has had enough, she mused grumpily.

Petros sat back on the bed, handing her the refilled glass. Elena snatched it from him. As she drank it, he brushed her hair back and gently admonished: "Elena-mou, you are pregnant, baby. It is not good for you to become so overheated or exhausted at this stage."

She looked up at him, a vague protest beginning to form in the back of her mind. But the look of gentle devotion on Petros's face stopped her short. Elena paused, putting her palm to her own forehead. She was stunned by the feeling of heat against her warm hand. Guilt rushed up, causing her cheeks to flush bright pink. "Oh gods - you're right. What was I thinking?!"

Suddenly the sweat still clinging to her skin felt prickly and uncomfortable. She felt tears stinging her eyes. How could she be so irresponsible? Had she risked hurting the baby? What was happening? Was this how other pregnant women felt, or was there something wrong with her?

Adonis had returned from the bathroom, and as he and Petros helped her rise from the bed, they noted her distress. Glancing at each other, they tried to soothe her. Mood swings were not something they associated with their Elena, so they were at a loss for how to handle this 180 degree turn.

She allowed them to draw her into the bathroom and into the tepid shower. Standing mutely between the boys, she passively allowed them to bathe her. Her mind was reeling. It felt good to feel their soapy hands on her wet skin. The cool water was returning her skin temperature to normal, but Elena still felt afraid. After the incident, it was as if she'd vacated herself for a few moments and some selfish, hedonistic, unfamiliar Elena had taken her place. She didn't recognize that Elena, and didn't like her very much.

But what if that was who she really was, underneath it all? It could not be possible, could it? Elena prayed silently that this was all just hormones. That she wasn't turning into a different person as her powers developed. That she wasn't somehow going crazy, after all of the shocking events that had taken place over the last couple of months.

She was so consumed by her worries, that she didn't realize that she'd put up a mental wall against the boys. Giving up on their attempts to penetrate her thoughts, they contented themselves with trying to reassure her with physical touch. As they lovingly washed her hair and tended to her under the spray, they haltingly, anxiously mentally communicated with one another about their concerns.

Adonis assured Petros that he would try to ask the doctor about her mood swings tomorrow. While they both knew that it was normal for pregnant women to be nervous and moody, they couldn't help feeling that something else was going on with Elena. They had never helped a demigod come into their powers before - and in Elena's case, this was happening while she was pregnant. They felt ill equipped to deal with the situation.

As much as it pained him to consider it, Petros wondered silently to his brother if they should call their mother in to help. The goddess had not been around much lately, but she loved Elena and may actually have experience that might prove useful.

Adonis agreed, but reminded Petros that they had no idea where she was. A sudden thought occurred to him - that she had a habit of keeping close to Elena. She had not mentioned the goddess lately, but that didn't mean she wasn't in contact.

"Elena-mou..." Adonis began. She seemed to snap awake, her eyes becoming more alert as she looked at him, and then at Petros and her surroundings, almost as if she were surprised to be in the shower. He let that pass for the moment, and pursued his question.

"Have you been in contact with our mother, lately, my darling?" He asked softly, tucking strands of wet curls behind her ear. She seemed to be thinking for a moment, and a cute little frown formed between her brows.

"No, now that you mention it... I haven't heard from her in a while." A little pout pushed her lower lip forward. Glancing back up at Adonis, she asked "Why do you ask? Hasn't she been in touch with you, either?"

The men shook their heads. Petros leaned around her and pressed his lips to her forehead - partly in affection and partly to ascertain if her fever had subsided. He was relieved to note that her temperature seemed to have normalized.

"Maybe we should try to reach her, agape-mou. She's given birth to demigods and can probably help answer some of the questions we've been having about the pregnancy."

Elena stiffened a little looking from one to the other. "You think there's something wrong, don't you?" Her voice was a trembling whisper.

Adonis smoothly cut in, his eyes crinkling and his voice rumbling with humor. "My love, my brother and I may have walked this earth for thousands of years, but when it comes to this situation, we are just stupid men."

Petros released a bark of laughter, his arms wrapping around Elena from behind. "Yes, we are fucking clueless, my angel. We may love your lady parts, but we don't really understand how they work."

Adonis ran a hand through his wet hair, as he tipped his head back and released a loud belly laugh at the mention of "lady parts". His body leaned against Elena's and was shaking against hers.

Their laughter turned out to be infectious, and Elena felt a rush of relief as she joined them, collapsing against their bodies as she laughed along. It was all so ludicrous.

Even after they'd dried off, and tucked back into bed, one of them would begin to laugh and the other two would join in, until they were too tired to talk any further, and fell asleep in one another's arms.

***

The obstetrician's offices were luxurious, high-ceilinged suites of white leather, marble and chrome. Oversized black and white art photography of women with their children adorned the walls. The staff wore elegant, well-tailored lab coats and seemed to glide silently and efficiently about. Soft classical music filled the air, and rather mysteriously, there was a pervasive scent of jasmine. The few other patients waiting in the outer lobby were dressed in haute couture and had the vaguely familiar look that seems so common to the wealthy.

The nurse who called for Elena (by her alias) wore her pale blond hair in a perfect chignon. Her pretty face was framed by a pair of oversized glasses that enhanced rather than detracted from her fine features.

Adonis took a seat in the small examining room as she weighed Elena, took her blood pressure, and provided her with a hospital gown. She instructed her to put it on with the opening in the front, pointed a slim manicured finger toward the restroom, and smiled pleasantly as she let herself out.

Adonis struggled not to fidget. He felt unaccountably edgy. He listened as Elena changed into the "johnny", forcing himself not to communicate with her telepathically. They were outside the safety of the maison now, and he didn't want to risk flaunting his powers, lest there be any agents of Loki nearby with the ability to sense them.

Elena, for her part, was fully nervous. Being at the doctor's office made this pregnancy all too real. She had so many fears warring for dominance that she didn't even know how to name them. Fear of being ill-equipped to have a child, fear of her burgeoning powers, fear of the strange events that had been plaguing them of late, fear of the prophesies that seemed to hang over them like a dark cloud, fear of the complexity of her life with two beautiful demigods.

She didn't miss her old human life, per se. But she missed the clarity she felt back then.

Not, she reminded herself, that she'd trade the life and love she had now for anything. She wouldn't. As this thought rose to the surface of her mind, it seemed to brush away all the other worries like so many cobwebs. She loved Petros and Adonis with an unparalleled passion. It was worth enduring anything. And she was carrying the child of that love in her belly. That was a gift beyond measure.

So what, really, was she so worried about?

A warm peace filled her as these thoughts became more rooted. She found herself feeling almost euphoric. Looking into the mirror over the bathroom sink, she smiled, running her hands across her tummy inside the gown's opening.

'It's all going to be okay', she purred to the little life inside her. She felt a swelling of love fill her just then, making her gasp with delight. This rush of feeling flooded her veins with a gentle warmth - and more than a little zing of electricity. Elena laughed at the heady feeling she had.

'Yes, yes. I love you, too', she thought. It dawned on her yet again that these electrical feeling were not necessarily of her making. That it may be coming from the baby.

She felt a fierce protectiveness surface. It was her job to protect the life inside her, and so help her, she would do it. She was stronger than anyone knew. Elena felt like a lioness, willing to do anything to protect her cub.

As she hurriedly exited the restroom to rejoin Adonis, he rose suddenly from the little side chair. The look on his face was enough to make her blush. She looked so ethereally beautiful to him at that moment, he was almost overcome. His eyes were very dark, and the way he regarded her was a cocktail of pure love, and deep lust. She could practically feel it caressing her skin.

"Elena... gods, you are breathtakingly beautiful, agape-mou." He drew her close, and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. She looked up at him, eager to explain what she had just felt, when suddenly there was a little rap on the door and the doctor bustled in, breaking the spell.

She was surprised to see that he was a relatively young man. A man that one could easily call handsome. As she shook his outstretched hand, she had a moment of déjà vu. His aquiline features were like a classical painting. He had thick dark hair that seemed a tad long - though not as long as Adonis's. His eyes were a warm, treacle brown, and seemed full of mirth and curiosity.

"Excusez-moi, Docteur, mais, avons-nous rêncontrer déja?" She felt sure somehow that they had met before, but she could not imagine where or when.

He shrugged, grinning in a particularly French way. Charmingly, he said that he didn't believe so, because he would surely remember meeting such a completely lovely woman.

Elena could feel, rather than hear, Adonis growl his discontent at such a flirtatious response from the man. A blush suffused her cheeks from embarrassment and mild shock. In the United States, one would never expect an OB-GYN to be overtly flirty with his patients. That would be downright creepy, and he would likely be slapped with some kind of censure, if not a lawsuit.

But this was Paris, after all. And she didn't feel any sense of malice coming from him at all - quite the opposite. He turned confidently to Adonis and shook his hand warmly, obviously feeling none of the tension that Elena could sense.

As he walked over to the sink in the examining room to wash his hands, he briefly explained what would happen during the ultrasound, and instructed Elena to be seated on the examining table and lay back.

The nurse re-entered as he dried his hands and put on rubber gloves. She wheeled a large cart containing the equipment closer to Elena, helping her to get comfortable on the table. She covered Elena's lower body and legs with a light blanket, before adjusting the table's height. She invited Adonis to stand on Elena's other side with a simple gesture of one hand.

As he did so, he automatically took Elena's hand in both of his. She looked up at him, smiling into his eyes, which she was surprised to see looking rather distracted. She squeezed the hand cupping hers in a sign of support, and he seemed to shake himself, his expression relaxing.

The doctor returned to Elena's side, and parted the opening of her gown. Elena was grateful for the coverage of the blanket, which meant that only her stomach and abdomen were exposed. Still, she felt shy for some reason. Goosebumps rose on her skin, and her stomach muscles contracted as the doctor's eyes took her in. One gloved hand came down to rest on her lower abdomen, which again brought a rush of color to her cheeks. While there was nothing improper in it, Elena felt that it was a strange intimacy.

Suddenly, he was talking again, asking her pardon in advance for the cold, before squirting gel across her belly. She jumped a little as the chill spread across her tummy, and was again surprised as the doctor winked at her while he turned to reach for the wand of the ultrasound device.

"On peut regarder la moniteur, ici." The nurse interjected, tapping the large video screen facing them.

Adonis's gaze was glued to the screen, so he didn't see that the doctor stared deeply into Elena's eyes as he began to press and move the wide head of the wand across her midsection. She was on the verge of being freaked out, when he suddenly smiled and said in a soft, low voice:

"Vous inquietez-pas, je ne vous feriez jamais de mal."

'Don't worry, I would never hurt you'...

Why would he choose those words, exactly? It was very bizarre. Elena wanted to frame a question, but was struggling to know how to politely frame it.

"Regardez!" Said the nurse, which jerked Elena's attention away from the strangely intense doctor.

The screen was black, with white fuzzy images swimming in the center. Elena didn't understand what she was looking at. The doctor had turned his attention to the monitor, and was pointing out with a stylus the area they should focus on. There were small concentric shapes - more kidney shaped than circular - where the centers were pulsing.

"Ah! Quel surprise! Il y'a deux enfants. La, et la! Félicitations, vous avez des jumeaux!"

"TWINS?!" Elena and Adonis exclaimed this in unison.

A flood of emotions flew through Elena's mind at once. But somehow, she wasn't that surprised. Adonis leaned down and claimed her mouth in a deep, slow kiss.

When he raised his head to look at her, there were tears swimming in his beautiful green eyes.

Suddenly recalling they were not alone, Elena looked guiltily back at the doctor, who was regarding the couple with a strange, enigmatic look on his face. But then she immediately felt she'd been wrong, because he was shaking Adonis's hand and continued on to point out the twin's heartbeats.

The nurse turned up the sound so they could hear them. There were three nearly synchronous beats - the two babies' and Elena's. She felt tears sliding down her cheeks as she took it all in.

The nurse printed out a photocopy of the ultrasound image they could take with them, and then busied herself with putting away the cart. Adonis crouched next to the exam table and whispered sweet endearments into Elena's ear as he stroked her hair. She could hardly wait to tell Petros and their parents this latest news. This time, the news was amazing.

Sort of scary, but amazing.

Elena was struck by a sudden thought. She wondered whether these twins were like Adonis and Petros - whether she carried a child from each man inside her. But even as this question surfaced in her consciousness, she already knew the answer. How incredible would that be?! She felt her heart leap at the notion that she would bear each man a child.

Someplace in the back of her mind, there was a wisp of a thought that tried to push itself forward, but Elena was too elated to pursue it and allowed the elusive memory to stay hidden for the time being. For now, what was important was that they would be a family, and she'd have to start preparing a nursery for two. How magical.

She pulled Adonis closer so she could press her lips to his. Still not daring to use her power to communicate without words, she elected to show her feelings physically. He gladly reciprocated in kind.

No one in the tiny room noticed that the doctor, who had returned to the sink to remove his gloves and drop them into the trashcan, had an odd, self-satisfied little smile on his handsome face.

*** to be continued