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Reality Bites

Chapter Four

"Babe, in case you've forgotten, I've got enough money to buy her way into any college that suits her fancy," Dave replied, grinning as he dropped a kiss into her dark hair. "Or yours," he added solicitously, sliding his hand over her flat abdomen.

Swatting ineffectually at his chest, Emily growled, "We can't keep buying her whatever it is that she wants, Dave. That's just rewarding bad behavior." Something she was all too aware her significant other knew way too much about. Groaning as she shifted restlessly against him, Emily sighed. "This all started when you let her have all the teething cookies she wanted when she was little. She wrapped you around her little finger then, and because she got my intelligence, she knows she's got the upper hand in the relationship!"

"Nothing I'm going to say is going to mitigate the charges that are being laid at my feet, is it?" Dave asked rhetorically, well versed in the language that was Emily Prentiss and aware that the previous incarnations of this discussion had always ended with him accepting blame and begging for forgiveness. And, he thought to himself as he grinned, a reconciliatory make out session had usually followed in quick succession. Man, he really wanted to fast forward to THAT portion of the program. If Emily Prentiss was hell on heels outside the bedroom, she positively radiated fire in the intimacy of his embrace. She had certainly never ceased to make him burn.

"Not a chance in hell," Emily snorted, arching her back as she felt his hand sweep warmly against her spine. Capturing the marauding appendage before he could find a way to refocus her thoughts, Emily said sharply, "No hanky panky, Dave. Our daughter's entire academic future could be at stake, and you're not going to distract me this time." Biting her lip as she contemplated their options, she shook her head. "We need to come up with a plan," she determined with brisk precision, her mind already formulating and discarding options with alacrity.

"You know," Dave said softly, pressing his lips to the throbbing pulse in her neck, "I usually think of my best solutions when I'm thoroughly satisfied."

"You've got to be kidding me," Emily snorted, turning her head to stare into his gleaming obsidian eyes.

"I never kid about getting laid," Dave replied seriously, lifting a hand to cup her breast through her thin silk shirt. "A good orgasm can clear the mind like nothing else can. It helps a guy clear the cobwebs and focus on what's important," he informed her soberly, only his twinkling eyes revealing his mischievous intentions.

"You know what else can do that?" Emily questioned sweetly. Watching his devilish lips quirk in silent invitation, she leaned toward his ear. "A gun," she whispered, violently pulling his chest hair through his shirt.

Yelping as he attempted to capture her wicked hand, Dave snorted, "You've grown violent, Emily Prentiss. I'm beginning to see where our daughter gets her penchant for biting first and asking questions later."

"You're blaming ME for Mari's juvenile delinquencies?" Emily's eyes narrowed as she met Dave nose-to-nose. "I think it was YOU who was expelled from four different Catholic kindergartens for, and I am quoting your mother here, "everything but crippling a nun"."

Arching a dark brow as he grinned at her, knowing good and well that he was enjoying making the stormy expression on her face become a full-blown hurricane, Dave replied easily, "It's not my fault that the parochial school system was not prepared for my overachieving mind."

"These are really things I should have investigated before letting your swimmers mate with my defenseless little egg," Emily muttered, shaking her head as she shimmied against him, his hand sliding lower and lower against her hip in a way that had proven to be very advantageous to him in the past. Slapping her palm against his fingers, she added darkly, "And if you want to keep your appendages, Rossi, I'd suggest you quit exploring. No means no!"

"Come on, Bella," Dave wheedled, grinning as he captured her lips for a second. "You know we've been talking about giving Mari a brother or sister. We could…."

Slamming both hands against his chest, Emily glared into his obsidian eyes. "You want to talk to me about a second child when the one we have is intent on becoming this generation's answer to Bram Stoker? Really?"

"Every kid worth their diaper gives their parents a good run for their money," Dave soothed calmly, sliding his hand over her arm.

"Mari started in utero, Dave," Emily retorted, shaking her head as she fought the urge to scream, their daughter's antics having tested the last level of patience she professed to possess.

"So, she was getting a head start on things. It'll be easier the second time around. We'll have home field advantage this time. We know the terrain now," he assured her.

"And we're navigating it oh sooo well," Emily snorted, rolling her eyes at her mate. "Face it, Rossi, our daughter is handing our asses to us."

"We're stronger, smarter and faster, Emmy," Dave sighed, leaning his head back against his leather chair. "We'll figure something out."

"Hmmm," Emily humphed, not quite believing him. "And while we're working a plan, our daughter is daycare-less. Any thoughts on that? It would be handy if you had one before our kid develops any other cannibalistic tendencies."

"Father Jimmy owes me a favor. With a hefty donation to the Catholic orphanage, I'm fairly certain I can buy our way into the Church's daycare."

"You're going to bribe The Church?" Emily gaped, her mouth forming a perfect little circle as she stared at him, aghast.

"I'm going to donate some of my hard earned funds to a worthy Christian cause…then I'm gonna ask my old buddy for a favor. The timing is…coincidental," Dave smirked, satisfied with his solution.

"You are going to hell, but if it gets Mari into a safe daycare, I can live with it." Emily nodded after a pregnant pause. "I'll miss you in the Hereafter."

"Then how 'bout you make it up to me in the here and now," Dave suggested with a devilish smile, moving her against him. "If I'm gonna put my soul on the line, I oughta at least reap some benefits in the mortal realm."

"You've been reaping plenty of rewards for almost four years now," Emily returned, looping her arms around his neck as she settled against his lap, rising proof of his arousal lifting beneath her.

"Then you won't mind handing over another, will you?" Dave asked, touching his lips to hers.

Sinking into his familiar kiss, Emily felt their parenting problems dissolving into the periphery. So what if her child was part vampire? Her father was a complete demon. And together, they were her world.

And she wouldn't have it any other way.

Finis