He had several kinds of smiles. Diplomatic, humoring, sarcastic, and then there was his most genuine, all walls down, I’m completely yours smile.
That’s the one she saw now.
Danielle knew she was staring stupidly. She’d only been doing that since they’d first met fifteen years ago. Their kind aged slowly, and so her decade and a half crush harbored for him was not entirely ridiculous.
Okay, it was ridiculous. Who takes fifteen years to work up the courage to tell a person you love them more than life? Other than her.
And him, who as it turned out, had secretly loved her all along.
She forced herself into motion, Lothar sliding her onto his lap when she’d reached him. He was tall, lean, black-haired and brown-eyed. Unless of course agitated, or as the case may be, libidinous, then his eyes were jet black. Hers were the same. Brown to black.
His arms came around her waist, hands over her stomach. She closed her eyes and focused inward, heard her blood pulsing through her body, heard Lothar’s too. She reached out and touched, for lack of a better word, him with her mind, and heard his body come into alignment with hers. Their pulses matched. She couldn’t reach the children in the same way she could Lothar. They were entirely separate from her.
She finally looked at the monitor on Lothar’s desk, letting go of the connection between them, focusing instead on real time and space. He faked all kinds of documents, since technically, they didn’t exist, had even made them a marriage license. That had been for her. Having been raised human she was attached to ideas like marriage. Werewolves weren’t supposed to marry. It led to Territorial Aggression in males. But it had been too late for that anyway. Lothar was territorial, but by sheer will—and with the help of her empathic connection to him—managed to control his anger toward anyone that posed a threat to their family, whether real or imagined.
Danielle finally looked at the name on the passport he was creating.
“Kendra?”
“Alessandro is moving her out of States,” he said in his thick Baltic accent that had a way of making her want to fan herself and pretend to be completely unable to stand without his help.
Which was kind of true at the moment, thanks to their children.
“It’s bad then?” she asked.
He leaned his chin against her cheek. “Alessandro withholds information. She is all right. She is alive.”
“Alive, and in what state?”
He knew she didn’t like Alessandro anywhere near her beautiful mortal friend. It was a recipe for disaster.
“He has not killed human in over hundred years,” he said.
“As far as we know he hasn’t, and that’s not what I meant.”
“I know.”
“Sending them a jet?”
“Rather not fly them commercial.” Dripping with sarcasm. She let it go. It was just his default setting.
“Can you send two jets?”
He leaned back for the express purpose of giving her a warning look. “Like it or not, he is her best chance.”
“Closed up on a private jet together? A three-thousand year old seducer and my beautiful widowed friend?”
“Let them work out.”
There was something about his tone that sent a chill down her spine. “Lothar?”
“Some things need to remain between men, Darling.”
“Don’t give me that bull.”
He stood with her in his arms. “Time to feed you,” he said.
“I hate it when you hide things from me.” Just because she was madly in love with him didn’t mean they got along all the time, or even half the time, or that he didn’t drive her crazy.
He kissed her forehead, whispered to her, “All in time, Darling.”
Lothar carried her across their chambers and set her carefully in her usual chair at the table. “You have one job,” he said, leaning over her.
“I know. Get fat.”
He tipped her chin up. She knew he was going to try and shut her up by kissing her senseless. Well, she knew this routine, and she wasn’t falling for it.
Then his mouth closed warm and perfect over hers. She felt her womb quicken as if the children were completely on his side, and then she felt herself leaning closer for more, her hands buried in his smooth black hair.
He drew back, eyes like polished onyx laced with silver electric threads. “One job. Give me reason to live, and make new life.”
She lifted her brows. “That was two things.”
“You are talented. You can do.” Grinning, he turned away. “What are we having, Darling?”
Darling. It sounded so arrogant, his name for her. And it was. He was. But she’d gotten the name by chance. The first time they’d met, his English had been better written than heard. He’d called her darling instead of Danielle, either by accident, or as a Freudian Slip. Fifteen years later he called her nothing else. Unless he was frustrated. Then she was Danielle again.
“Eggs,” she said. “With a disgusting amount of cheddar cheese.”
His back was to her, but she could sense his smile. His humoring smile. As he cooked, her stomach growled like it wanted to eat her alive. Unable to wait any longer she got up, poured herself a glass of chocolate milk, then opened a cupboard for her jumbo jar of peanut butter that served her during difficult hunger spells. She reached for it not really paying attention, and a tiny black box with a matching ribbon tied around it fell onto the floor.
She stared at the box, then at Lothar’s back. What was her disgustingly rich mate up to this time? She bent and retrieved it, her head swimming from the motion. She grabbed the counter and breathed.
A moment later she was back in his arms and being deposited into her chair. Her milk, jar of peanut butter, and a spoon were put on the table in front of her.
He went back to her eggs, leaving her with food and her box, still in her hand. “Lothar?”
“You are supposed to open it.”
She stuck her tongue out at his backside. Then she grinned. It was a very nice backside. She’d been the one who’d wanted him, bitten him, injecting him with venom that as far as they knew, only the females of her pack had. She’d bound him to her. He had no complaints about it and had told her that he was perfectly happy to be her prized possession.
He was just arrogant enough to see the wisdom in her choice of men.
She tugged free the ribbon then took a breath and opened the velvet box. Good grief. The light coming off that rock could blind a person for life.
“Lothar?”
He turned off the heat under her eggs, setting them aside. He came to her.
“Too small?” he said. “I knew I should have gone for two and a half carats.”
“How big is this?”
“Only two carats.”
“Only?”
He shrugged. “Did not want to embarrass you.”
“Too late for that.” She didn’t know anything about diamonds, what cut this was, or the quality. She did know that Lothar Ludvitski would not have settled for anything less than perfection. The diamond was all in one single stone, in a setting shaped like a star, surrounded by either white gold, or platinum. She wasn’t sure. “You, ah,” she cleared her throat. “You’re supposed to put it on me.”
She handed him the box.
He took the ring out, setting the box aside. Then watching her through black lashes, he dropped down on one knee.
“Don’t, please,” she whispered, feeling her face flush hot. Suddenly she felt like a thousand eyes were on her even though they were alone.
“I am not getting up until you give me your hand,” he said, expression completely neutral.
Rolling her eyes she shoved out her left hand.
One brow lifted. “Are in Europe now, Darling.”
“Oh.” She supplied him with her right hand, and he slid the horrendously expensive ring onto her finger. It fit. Naturally. That just figured, perfect little brat that he was.
She looked at it
there, sparkling by its own compulsion. Danielle had grown up with little in the way of excess. Having a nice place to sleep and plenty of food was enough for her. Diamonds, fast cars, and a castle were beyond her wildest imagination.
He came to his feet and she knew she was staring again. There was something about being pregnant by the man you’d crushed on for fifteen years, and had previously assumed was sterile. Something beyond amazing.
“Better feed me before I get lightheaded,” she said. “Then I’ll go warm your bed for you.”
He shook his head, heading for the kitchen counter. “It was not pay off,” he said, the slightest edge to his voice. To say that they triggered each other was an understatement. They did that just by breathing. Yet all they could do about it was chase each other down for more. They were two souls quantum entangled.
She knew exactly what had triggered him. He had grown up with an uncle who’d regularly brought women to bed right under Lothar and his sister, Vesper’s, impressionable young noses.
She watched him dish out their food. “I didn’t mean it that way. But I do want you. Because I love you more than anything.” She searched for words that wouldn’t come. “You make me want to be your reason to live.”
He returned with their food. “Is good, because I need one. And I was worried you would not wear ring.” He smiled.
“I’ll wear it,” she said.
She ate, because she had to, otherwise she would have skipped out on the food and had him for the main course. Getting enough to eat, she came around and slid onto his lap. He lifted her up, carrying her back to bed.
“Seems I just left,” she said.
“Maybe you should just stay in bed permanently.”
“Funny man.”
He set her down next to their slay bed, brushed her crazy hair back, and looked at her now with his tender smile. In about a minute that would change. He lifted her hand, looking at the ring on her third finger.
“It’s perfect,” she said.
“Could have been bigger.” He let go of her hand to unbutton her shirt.
“Please, no more diamonds.”
“Emeralds?”
“You’re pressing your luck.”
He pushed the shirt off of her, eyes darkening as he looked her over.
“Looking pregnant,” she said.
“You think is bad? Is not. You are perfect.” Lothar brushed her hair all over one side of her neck, smelling her skin. She lifted her chin and growled low in her throat.
Reaching for the button on his jeans she undressed him then crawled into red sheets, pulling him down with her.
Being pregnant was no burden on their love making. If anything, it seemed to heighten it—that fantastical electric charge between them. She couldn’t imagine any two bodies being better suited to each other. She climaxed quickly, but that was okay, because she knew she’d break again. And again. It really was that ridiculous between them.
He couldn’t stay with her very long afterward because he needed to get the papers out to Kendra. Just long enough to catch his breath and descend back to reality, Danielle releasing the claim she had on his soul through her empathic connection.
He leaned over to kiss her as she severed the last of that link. “I keep dragging you back here, just to be with you again,” he said.
By with, he meant her soul. “I know.”
She lay there, watching him back away, neither of them breaking eye contact until he’d turned to pick up his clothes.
Danielle took a shower and dressed in jeans that wouldn’t button, pulling an oversized sweater down to hide the fact. She pulled up a chair and sat next to him, running a wide toothed comb through her impossible hair.
She took his phone and scrolled up Lothar’s twin, Vesper Ludvitski, took a picture of her ring and sent it to her, along with the words, you knew.
A reply came in. Of course. I helped pick it out.
No surprise there.
Tell Nick, Kendra is okay. She cringed over the word okay. Keeping company with vampires was not okay. She’s being moved out of the US tonight.
Nick wants to know where, vesper responded.
She looked at Lothar. “Nick wants to know where Alessandro is taking Kendra.”
“I do not know yet. Tell him I will let him know when I do.”
She relayed the information. It was pathetic that Nick and Vesper were right next door to them but they still communicated by text more than anything. Nick and Lothar had gotten off on a rocky start, what with Lothar wanting to, well, kill him and all. Territorial Aggression in werewolves was serious. He and Nick were tolerating each other now but just to be on the safe side she and Vesper kept their men apart as much as possible.
It wasn’t that Lothar wanted to kill just any male. Nick happened to be genetically compatible with her. Lothar could smell it, and it triggered his aggression.
She set the phone aside. “I really hate this. We should bring her here.”
“First Gerald, and then Kendra? We cannot bring every mortal we want.”
“Don’t you have some pull here, High Councilor?” Big hint.
He eyed her. He was alpha, but they were ruled by a council, and he’d have to convince at least seven of the twelve members.
“I know, I know,” Danielle said. “But I don’t think there’s any going back. We’ll have to move her someplace safe.”
He sent the passport and driver’s license off to the printer in his office. They had all the right materials there. “She will be safe.”
Lothar stood, pulling her up with him. He carried her to the couch, which was completely unnecessary since she was pregnant, not an invalid. He put a blanket over her and then handed her a novel she’d been reading. She sighed.
“I will be back in bit,” he said, kissing her forehead.
***
Vesper Ludvitski set down plates for her son and daughter. They dug into their macaroni and cheese, providing her with a much needed moment.
“What are you thinking?” she asked Nick, turning to face her mate.
His serious teal-eyed gaze cued her in, and she took a breath to steady herself. Checking to make sure Gabriel and Julina would be okay while she and their step-father had a meaningful discussion in the bedroom, she took him by the sleeve and led him into their room, shutting the door.
“You want to trail them,” she said.
He winced subtly, ran fingers through eternally messy hair that was as sexy as anything. “Pretty much. She’s my sister-in-law.”
Kendra’s late husband, Jason, had been Nick’s biological brother. Vesper loved Nick for many reasons, and one was his stubbornness. He felt a responsibility toward his brother’s wife and she could understand that, but it didn’t mean she was going to let him run off and get himself killed for it.
Nick couldn’t shapeshift. He was a Carrier, born to carry the venom of his genetically compatible mate. Nick was doubly blessed, or cursed perhaps, depending on how you looked at it, in that he carried the venom of two shapeshifting females.
Herself, and Danielle, who was his genetic match, and who had subsequently rejected him in favor of Vesper’s twin brother, Lothar. There’d been no revelation there. Even Nick had stepped willingly aside, knowing Lothar was bound too deeply in Danielle for either of them to be complete with anyone else.
Nick and Vesper weren’t compatible. As a Shifter she aged more slowly than him and could, literally, rip him to shreds if she wanted to, but she’d chosen freely to give him the right to be her alpha male because he could do something no other man was capable of.
He could protect her heart.
“I am going with you,” she said.
“No, you’re not.”
“Yes.”
“And the twins?”
“They can stay with Gerard and Lizzy. What twelve year old girl would not want spending money for playing with a couple of eight year olds.”
She was also rich, after all. Which was good because Nick had
quit his job with the NYPD to kill vampires. Which paid nothing at all.
“I will buy you all guns and ammo you could dream of,” she said.
He crossed impressively muscled arms over an equally proportioned chest. There was a reason why they’d gotten rid of their bed frame and slept on a mattress on the floor. After breaking two beds in a row, they’d decided to give up on the concept altogether.
It wasn’t easy, being mated to an alpha female, but Nick got the job done with admirable zeal.
“You’ll never have to worry about running out of venom for your bullets with a venom making machine at your disposal.” She bared her teeth.
He was thinking about it, she could tell. He ruffled her long black hair. “I’d rather not be away from you if I don’t have to,” he said.
“Same. You are stuck with me.”
“But you’re there to watch my six.”
“Taip. You can have all fun you want with new rifle I buy you, and I will keep anything from sneaking up on you while you do.”
He shook his head, slipped an arm around her waist, and pulled her hard against him. Vesper grunted from the impact. She was six foot tall, two inches shorter than him, and liked to play with her food. Her favorite prey was wild boar because they fight back. Any man who couldn’t keep up with her was soon set aside. That was why she’d slept alone since her redheaded Irish mate, Ian, had been killed.
She lifted her chin. No other invitation was needed. He lowered his face and kissed her. His hands formed into her waist, pressed her against him.
Where was a babysitter when you needed one?
“I think children can play outside after lunch,” she said breathlessly.
He grinned. It lit up his face. It lit her up. “I was just thinking the same thing.”
Chapter Eleven
After showering, Kendra brushed her teeth, this time with her very own toothbrush. They were leaving the US tomorrow night and heading for Paris. She felt jittery, in a cold feet kind of way. If she stopped at all to think, she’d begin to miss her little house in the woods and the predictability of her old life. She missed the privacy Alessandro wasn’t giving her, but after everything that had already happened in her life she didn’t think she could live out in the woods again. Especially not alone. What she missed was a way of life that she could never have again.
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