Altesse held himself in that way that men accustomed to power often do, with an unconscious assumption that everyone will acknowledge his superiority. Beside him, a huge white wolf sat staring at me with piercing blue eyes, his mouth slightly parted so I could see his very sharp looking teeth.
Aldwyn. Was he smiling at me? Or contemplating dinner? “Nice pet.” I didn’t have to fake the nervous quaver in my voice. “Does he bite?”
Altesse frowned slightly. “Not unless I tell him to, Miss Potter.”
Was that a threat? I raised my gaze to meet Altesse’s. He looked like an older version of Conrad: tall and lean, the gray in his hair barely discernible among the blond. His dark blue three piece suit looked unrumpled despite what must have been a long trip. I pretended he hadn’t nearly caught me in the act of doing his son, and managed to respond politely. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir.”
The older man’s brows rose almost imperceptibly and his gaze flicked for a split second to Aldwyn before returning to me. Maybe I should have acted more startled or afraid.
Altesse smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “The pleasure is all mine, I am sure.”
He was right about that.
“I’ll take you home.” Conrad picked up his jacket from the back of the couch.
“Oh no! You must not leave so soon, Miss Potter.” Conrad’s dad lifted a crystal decanter filled with amber liquid from the black lacquered sideboard and poured three glasses. “I would share a drink with you.”
Being around Altesse felt like sharing the room with a cobra. I looked to Conrad for help, but his gaze had snapped to his father, his brows lifted in surprise.
Altesse was already holding out a glass to me. Clearly he didn’t expect to be refused.
I said the only thing I could, “Thank you,” and took the glass. As our fingers touched I felt a brief tingle, and out of the corner of my eye I saw his other hand moving in a subtle pattern.
Conrad frowned. “Father—”
Altesse had worked some kind of spell on me. The sensation was nothing like what Kalisa had done. It was more superficial, like an army of tiny bugs crawling quickly over my body before disappearing, but it was clearly magic of some sort. Should I pretend I didn’t notice? Most people didn’t know magic was real after all. But if I didn’t react, he might suspect I was hiding something. Which I was, of course.
“What was that?” I stepped back, happy to put a bit more distance between us.
“That wasn’t necessary.” Conrad’s tone was truculent.
Whatever the spell was, Altesse relaxed, apparently satisfied with the outcome. He waved his hand in a light dismissive gesture. “Nothing to worry you, my dear. Static electricity, perhaps.” He lifted his glass for a sip. “Enjoy your port.”
Aldwyn padded over to me, moving with muscular grace. I held my free hand out to him as if he were a normal canid and he sniffed it. Then, also like a dog, he shoved his black nose into my crotch, snuffling noisily. For a Spirit, he felt impressively solid and physical. I stepped away, coming up against the back of the sofa. Aldwyn followed, thrusting his long muzzle between my legs again. I didn’t feel quite bold enough to shove the wolf away.
“Nice pet.”
“Aldwyn!” Altesse spoke to the Elemental as if it were a dog to be commanded. “Come here!”
The wolf jerked as if he’d been shocked, but he took an extra second to obey. When he pulled back to return to Altesse’s side he paused for a moment, looking up into my eyes. I had the distinct impression he was smirking, as if sharing a secret with me. No doubt he could smell that Conrad and I had sex, but I didn’t think that was what he was laughing about.
I started to take a sip of the port to sooth my nerves, then realized I shouldn’t. I was pregnant. There was no way I could know that, yet I was sure. Kalisa’s magic had worked. My hands and feet suddenly felt cold, and I shivered. The mission wasn’t hypothetical anymore. My life would forever be different because of what I’d done tonight. I gripped my glass with both hands to keep from touching my belly.
“Where did you two meet?” It was a normal question, asked in a smooth, urbane tone, but coming from Altesse it felt like the start of an interrogation.
“I’ll tell you all about it, Father. Later.” Conrad found my shawl and draped it around my shoulders, then relieved me of my glass. “Right now I have to take Mary home. Her brother is waiting up for her.”
Altesse didn’t object this time. There was a moment of confusion while Conrad and I looked for the sandals I’d kicked off earlier, then we said our goodbyes with courteous formality. Aldwyn watched it all, mouth open as if laughing.
Conrad stood as stiff as a Guard at Buckingham Palace as the elevator doors closed and the car started the long trip to the underground garage. After several floors some of the tension left his shoulders. He pulled me into his arms and rested his chin on the top of my head. “I’m sorry. That’s not how I wanted our first time to end.”
Our first time. Did that meant he wanted a second? I hadn’t been able to keep my hands off him on the ride up in this same elevator, now I felt indifferent. It was more than the bucket of ice-water that having the senior Altesse walk in on us had been. More than having my hunger sated. Conrad had done what I’d needed him to do. He was a nice guy, but that was all he was to me now. It bothered me that my feelings had changed so fast.
I forced a laugh. “Me either. Does your dad do that often?”
“Catch me with my pants down, you mean?” Conrad’s arms tightened around me. “No, thank goodness. His itinerary is usually planned out weeks in advance. Makes it easier to avoid him.”
His bitter tone made me wonder if Conrad was a very different man than his father. Maybe this plan to conceive hadn’t been necessary. Maybe Conrad would have freed Aldwyn from his slavery. I wanted to say something to lighten his mood.
“I had fun while it lasted, though.”
“So did I.” He dropped a kiss on my forehead, then pushed me away just enough to be able to see my face. “You did say you were on the Pill, right?”
“I am. My body. My responsibility.”
Conrad relaxed, but shook his head. “I should have been more careful of you. I will be next time. Unfortunately, that won’t be for a few days. We’ll have to put off our trip to the Del until my father leaves. He won’t stay long, though. He never does. Then I’ll call you.”
Something in his voice told me his desire had cooled, too. Maybe it was the thought that he’d slipped up with the protection. I hoped that meant he wouldn’t call, wouldn’t wonder where Mary Potter had disappeared to. That tonight would become just another pleasant memory of a romantic interlude like many others he’d had.
I played along with the fiction. “The green flash will wait for us.” I chuckled softly. “That sounds like we’re meeting a comic book hero.”
He laughed too, though it sounded forced. The elevator stopped and opened onto the garage and he guided me out with a light touch on my back.
Conrad drove through fog glowing white and red with head and tail-lights, his right hand never leaving the gear-shift. He’d left the top down, and the foggy air washed over me like a cold shower.
The engine of his Mercedes purred to a stop as Conrad pulled into a parking space near Dan’s apartment. It was after one in the morning, but the light from a television flickered behind the drapes.
Dan was waiting up for me. I felt a little warmer knowing that.
Still the gentleman, Conrad came around to my side of the car and helped me to my feet. He pulled me into an embrace and dropped a kiss on my lips. There was more heat than I expected in it.
“I’ll call you,” he said again.
I smiled because I should, even though his promise alarmed me. “You’d better.”
He watched as I walked to the apartment and waited until I let myself in. I lifted my hand for a wave, then slipped inside, leaning against the door as the soft rumble of Conrad’s car receded into the di
stance, and Conrad himself receded into my past.
Dan stood and crossed the room to turn off the TV, then looked at me as if he could read the events of the last few hours written in my face. The enormity of what I’d just done fell upon me again like a collapsing building. My life would never be the same. I was going to be a mother.
I let my hand cover my belly where the child would grow and sucked in a shaky breath. “It’s done.”
CHAPTER NINE
DAN
You okay?” Dan rested his hands on Marianne’s shawl-wrapped shoulders and bent to peer into her eyes. Tears welled and ran down her cheeks.
She shook her head no and sucked in a shaky breath.
“Did he hurt you?” He kept his voice calm, but inside a spark of rage flared to life. If Conrad had hurt her, Dan would make him pay, mission or no mission.
“No. I’m fine.” But she shut her eyes and swallowed a sob.
Dan didn’t know if this was a woman’s normal stress reaction, or if the tears were part of some side effect of the magic Kalisa had used, and he didn’t really care. All he knew was Marianne was hurting.
He pulled her close, enfolding her in his arms. “It’s okay. Whatever happened, it will be okay.” He stroked her back in gentle circles as he murmured, “You did great. The hard part’s over. You can relax now.”
Marianne sniffed, wrapped her arms around his waist, and rested her head against his chest. She felt right, tucked against his body, nestled in his arms. Whatever was troubling her, he’d find a way to fix it.
Several minutes later she sniffed the last of her tears away and straightened. “I’m sorry. I don’t usually lose it like that.”
Reluctantly, Dan let her slip out of his embrace, but he kept hold of her hand as he drew her over to the sofa and offered a box of tissues. “Don’t worry about it. Extraordinary circumstances.”
She gave him a wobbly smile and blew her nose noisily, and then looked around. Dan snagged a wastebasket from the corner and held it up. Marianne tossed the tissue in.
“She shoot. She scores.”
Marianne laughed softly and Dan grinned back, relieved to see her smile. He sat next to her, holding his anxiety in check, while she polished off a glass of water and several more tissues.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked when Marianne had regained he composure.
“I’m good,” she said.
It was time. Taking a deep breath, he slipped off the cushion and onto one knee, pulling a velvet box from his pocket. There was no good reason for him to feel nervous, and yet he was.
He flipped the lid open, revealing a modest diamond solitaire inside. “Will you marry me?” he asked.
“What?” Marianne sputtered.
Their marriage was supposed to one of convenience, a formality to protect the child and her reputation, but it could be more than that. Dan swallowed past the tightness in his throat. This might have started with duty, but he didn’t want either one of them to feel short-changed, even if theirs wasn’t to be a conventional union.
“I like you, Marianne, and I hope in time we’ll grow to love each other. I’ll do my best to make our life together a happy one. I’ll love your child as if it were my own.” His words tumbled out a little too fast even though he’d rehearsed what he planned to say. Why was he so nervous? It wasn’t as if she was going to refuse. “Even though we’ve already agreed on this, you still have choices. Will you marry me?”
“That should have been my line,” she said, a bemused frown wrinkling her brow. “You have a choice.”
He shrugged. He wasn’t sure he did. “You want to know why I’m doing this, don’t you?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“I’m doing it for your mom.” Dan had a hard time keeping a straight face even though he was dead serious.
“My mom?”
“When we visit your folks to tell them we’re getting married, your mom will want to know all the details: how long we’ve been dating, how I asked you, all that. And now you’ll have an answer for her. An answer that will be more than just a cover story.”
“A cover story would have been good enough,” she grumbled.
Was that disappointment he heard in her voice? Dan shook his head at his wishful thinking. “Nope. Not if your mom is anything like mine was. She could sniff out a lie from a hundred yards.”
“But what about everything else? We can’t exactly tell them I came home from screwing another guy and then you got down on one knee.”
Dan winced at her bald phrasing. “Well, no, I wouldn’t put it quite that way. But the important stuff will be true.”
“The important stuff?”
“That we met at work and started seeing each other six weeks ago. We weren’t dating exclusively so you went out on a date with another guy. That’s when I knew I didn’t want to let you get away. I asked you to marry me before you knew you were pregnant.”
“I’m pretty sure it took,” Marianne objected. “It was … I feel … different.”
“But you don’t know, so that’s what we’ll tell your folks.”
“I thought we’d wait to tell them I’m expecting until after the wedding.”
He snorted softly. “You think they won’t suspect? Why else would we be in a rush? I just hope your father gives his consent before he figures it out; he’ll be less likely to shoot me.”
Marianne straightened. “His consent! I don’t need his permission. I’m an adult, not chattel! No, we’ll elope and then it will be a fait accompli.”
Dan held her gaze as he slowly shook his head. “We’re not going to elope. Your parents need this. You’re all they have left. This is something a mother dreams about for her daughter, and she’s not going to get to plan a big shindig for you. This wedding is going to be rushed, but your dad will at least get to give you away.”
“Give me away!” I felt like I’d stepped back into the 1950s.
“You’re his little girl. I’ll ask for his blessing. It’s a formality, but it will make them happy.”
She stared at him, tight-lipped and annoyed.
He enjoyed a little flare of victory when she slumped and blew out a deep breath.
“Oh, hell. You’re right. It would break my parents’ hearts if we eloped. I just wish we could dodge all the fuss.”
“That’s why I’m doing this. All that fuss will make your mom happy. And you, too, if you let yourself enjoy it.”
Marianne narrowed her eyes at him, though a smile curled one corner of her mouth.
Dan laughed. “So is that a ‘yes’?”
CHAPTER TEN
MARIANNE
I wasn’t ready to let him win just yet. “What about you? Won’t your mom hate me? No mother thinks any woman is good enough for her son, especially not one that lets herself get knocked up.”
Dan shrugged. “My folks are gone. It’s just my older sister and me.”
“I’m sorry.” I felt like I should have known about his family already. We’d spent a good chunk of the last six weeks together, studying Conrad and learning about each other so we could pass as brother and sister, but I hadn’t learned something so basic as whether his parents were alive. True, we’d been studying our cover story, but I still felt I should have known enough to avoid making a gaff like that.
Dan, however, seemed unperturbed. “They died five years ago. Car accident. But my mom got to see my sister Jill married, so that was good.”
An older protective sister? I could still be in trouble here. “Is your sister as good at detecting lies as your mother was?”
“She’s getting there. She and Sam have a three-year-old boy. Tim.”
“You have a nephew. So you know about kids already.” I could see how Dan would be good with children.
He shrugged. “Some.”
“So who should we tell first, my folks or your sister?”
“Are you finally saying yes?”
I answered, even though the outcome had never really been in
doubt. “Yes.”
His expression brightened. “Excellent!” He slipped the ring onto my finger, then paused, looking into my eyes. Then he kissed me gently on the mouth. “For Mom,” he said solemnly, but his lips twitched and his eyes twinkled.
I laughed. “For Mom.” I kissed him back. Dan’s lips were warm and firm and tasted just as they should. Without thinking I leaned forward into his touch as one of his hands cupped my cheek. A spark jumped between us, arcing along my nerve endings. The wanting that surged through me was different from the magic enhanced desire I’d felt only hours ago with Conrad. Different, but just as strong. I wanted to snuggle into his embrace, but I pulled away, embarrassed.
I’d just come from another man’s sheepskin rug. It felt wrong somehow to be so turned on by Dan just hours later.
Dan released me instantly, but his eyes were dark and hot.
“I’m sorry,” I said, looking down at the floor. “I don’t mean to be a tease. It’s just—”
“I don’t think that.” Dan stood and pulled me to my feet. He kept hold of my hands and tilted his head to catch my gaze. “I just spent six weeks coaching you, remember? I have a pretty good idea of who you are. You’re not a tease, and you’re not a slut. I know that. And while it would be way too easy to get carried away with you, I know you need some time.”
I blew out a deep relieved breath. “Yeah.”
“Just the same, I think you should stay here tonight.”
I lifted a brow.
“It’s late, and you’re wiped out. Don’t worry. I’ll take the couch.” He brushed another gentle kiss across my lips.
Gentle, but with a promise of heat. I barely kept myself from stealing another.
Dan pulled back from the embrace, and suddenly fatigue swamped me. He was right. I didn’t want to drive back to my hotel tonight.
“Okay. I’ll stay.”
Dan showed me into his bedroom, which was barely three steps away in the tiny apartment. “The sheets are clean. I’ve only slept on them once.” The room was basic but tidy, with a worn, utilitarian dresser on one wall and a dark blue blanket doing duty as a bedspread.
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