Authors: Christine Warren
“Um, if I needed to exfoliate,” she said, eyes still closed, “you could have just said something.”
The rumble of his amused purr vibrated right down to her toes, which she flexed experimentally. At least they still worked. Now if only she could get them on the floor under her, she’d be cooking with gas.
She was about to brace her hands on the floor and try it when the door to the storage room swung open and light flooded in from the hall. Followed by a very amused male voice.
“Rafe, Rafe, Rafe. How many times do I have to tell you not to play with your dinner?”
Twenty-two
“Your grandfather tried to kill you.”
“I’m trying to focus on the possibility that he only intended to maim me.”
Missy collapsed into the sofa cushions beside Tess and shook her head, her brown eyes wide. “But … I mean, your
grandfather.
”
“Well, it’s not like we were close. And I really don’t think he knew what he was doing. I think he’d gone a few steps off the sanity trail.”
“How do you sound so calm?”
“I’m not dead.”
“And where’s your grandfather now?”
Tess sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. “Safely out of Rafe’s reach. After Graham showed up with the cavalry, we found out there was no council meeting tonight, so we had to take him to the home of one of the council members. He can be watched there until they can have a formal vote on how to handle him. He’ll be taken care of, but he won’t be getting into any more trouble.”
Missy leaned over and hugged her. “I am so sorry, Tess. Is there anything I can do for you?”
“Thanks, but I’m fine.” She laughed and sagged back against the sofa cushions. “Actually, it seems almost anti-climactic, until I remember there was no climax to anti. I mean, no one had any idea what was going on until it happened. It was weird. It was like he just snapped. But somehow I still feel like there’s something left unresolved.”
Missy cleared her throat. “Well, there is the little matter of the curse.”
Tess leveled her with a cold stare. “Do you even want me to get started with how not in the mood for that I really am?”
“I don’t think that matters much. It seems to be in a heck of a mood for you.”
“What are you talking about? Have the preggo triplets come by for another visit? Or maybe my friend Anisia stopped by to yell at me some more.”
“I don’t know anyone named Anisia, but the triplets have become septuplets.”
Tess blinked. “They’ve what?”
Missy nodded. “Seven. Four more of them crawled out of my woodwork this afternoon. That makes seven new Feline pregnancies in the week since Rafe met you.”
“Which is still so not my problem.”
Tess ignored the stirring of unease.
“Yes, it so is, actually. Until you came along, there were no Feline pregnancies in Manhattan this year. Zilch. Nada. Not a one. Yet one week after you, a witch, start boinking Rafe, the local Felix, no fewer than seven new women show up to report their pregnancies to the said Felix. Can you think of a single other logical explanation?”
“Fertility clinics.”
Missy threw up her hands, “Tess, I swear—”
“Don’t, okay?” Tess jumped up from the sofa and glared at her new friend. “Don’t swear. Don’t swear, don’t vow, don’t promise—don’t frickin’
tell
me. I don’t wanna know, do you hear me? This is a Feline thing. An Others thing. Shit, it could be an alien abduction thing for all I know, and that’s just it. It’s none of my business. If you want to know what’s going on, go ask Rafe. Or better yet, present him with the evidence, and then ask him what he thinks. I’m going home.”
“I already did.”
Tess looked up from using her wrap to cover up the sweatshirt and yoga pants she’d borrowed from Missy. Her unsexy dress had been ruined in the ruckus. “What?”
“I already sent Fawn and the others in to see Rafe. While you were changing. In fact, they should have found him by now.” Missy looked toward the doors of the living room. “I can’t think what’s keeping—”
“TESS!”
Missy smiled. “Ah. I think they found him.”
“TESS!”
“Missy, one day I’m going to make you—”
“TESS!”
“—pay for this. Don’t you—”
“TESS!”
“—realize—”
“TEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!”
Missy raised an eyebrow. “Did that sound closer to you?”
“—what he’ll be like?”
The door to Graham’s library, where they had been sitting, slammed open and Rafe loomed in the entrance, chest heaving, eyes glowing, hands clenched into fists at his sides. “Tessa Bryony Menzies.”
“Yes,” Missy said, grinning over Rafe’s shoulder at Graham. “I do believe that last one was louder, wasn’t it?”
“I think it was, yes. But I’m a bad judge. I think he permanently deafened me. But at least he didn’t wake Roark.”
The couple stood there and grinned at each other until Tess had to restrain herself from slapping the both of them. She could only watch them from the corner of one eye, anyway. The other one was trained warily on Rafe.
“I think you two need to leave,” the Felix growled, never taking his eyes off Tess’s face. She wondered if he could see her swallow convulsively. “I want to talk to Tess. Alone.”
The menace in that statement made Tess dig in her heels. “That’s ridiculous. We’re in their house. They don’t need to leave. Besides, what do we need to talk about? The stuff with my grandfather is resolved, and the rest of the council said they’d be happy to talk with you at their next meeting. Everything is resolved.”
He half roared. It made him sound like an irritated … well … jaguar. “Fine. You do not wish for privacy? You will not have it. Now tell me why you never mentioned you were pregnant?”
Missy blinked and sidled around Tess and toward her husband.
“Right. And on that note…” The Luna pushed against Graham’s chest to force him out of the room and away from the door. “I believe that’s our cue to leave these crazy kids to themselves.”
Graham let her tug him down the hall, but before the door closed behind him, he turned to look over his shoulder and laughed.
“The carpet in there is not too uncomfortable,” he offered helpfully, “but I recommend you try the sofa if you’re allergic to wool.”
Missy dragged him away, scolding as she went.
Tess considered running and hiding behind them, but it wasn’t polite to cause the deaths of one’s hosts in their own home. Still, she couldn’t keep her gaze from sliding longingly toward the door.
“Tess!” Rafe stalked closer to her, looking almost more like a cat than when he was a cat. Something about that loose, deliberate way he moved. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me?”
“Tell you what?” She stared at the center of that loose-hipped stride and forgot about paying attention.
“Tess…” His growl rumbled a warning. “Why did you not tell me you are pregnant?”
That made her gaze snap back to his face. “Not you, too.”
“Not me, too, what?”
“You’re not going to go on about curses and destiny and me getting seven women pregnant, are you? Because that’s, like, all Missy can talk about these days.”
“Stop!” He shouted it loud enough to make Tess jump. “Stop trying to distract me and answer the damned question. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I’m not.”
He opened his mouth to pour out another tirade, but stopped short in surprise. “What did you say?”
“I said I’m not pregnant.” She pushed herself up from the sofa and glared at him. “I keep telling people that, and they keep not believing it, but I’m here to tell you that it’s true. I. Am. Not. Pregnant.”
“Are you certain?”
If Tess had been holding a brick right then, she’d have thrown it at Rafe’s head with no hesitation. And a great deal of satisfaction.
“What is it with you people? Yes! I am positive I am not pregnant. Are you happy? Or do you have a rabbit you want me to kill to prove my point?”
His eyes narrowed. “How about you just let me check?”
He was on her before she could tell him what she thought he could go check. He caught her in his arms and tumbled her to the floor, twisting in midair to land on his back and cushion her fall with his body.
“This is all very helpful of you, and I appreciate your offer,” she bit out, already squirming to get away and struggling to ignore the way his slightest touch always made her crazy. “But get your hands the hell off me!”
“Not yet.” He yanked aside the collar of her sweatshirt and buried his nose against her skin. “Checking.”
He inhaled deeply.
Tess cursed and began to struggle. She felt the way her stomach turned over at his slightest touch and knew she needed to get away from him. Touching him turned her willpower into something out of
Mission: Impossible—
it self-destructed after fifteen seconds.
“Hands off, you furry bastard!”
He moved to the hollow of her throat, sniffed again. This time, his tongue darted out to taste her skin. She fought harder.
“I mean it! Get away, you lecherous lycanthrope!”
His teeth closed gently on her throat, and her womb contracted.
“Stop that!”
He didn’t stop that. Instead, he brushed aside the tail of her sweatshirt and slipped his hand inside her waistband, fingers gliding across her stomach and burrowing toward her already damp center. Damn him. She whimpered and tilted her hips forward. She felt his fingers dip between her slick folds and find her entrance. They slid deep, pumped twice, just enough to get her hips twitching, then pulled away. She suddenly realized she’d stopped struggling to get away. She was just about to kick him in the shins when he raised his fingers before him and inhaled. Then he frowned and licked them, savoring them like a spoon coated in cake mix.
He sucked the sheen of moisture off his fingers and purred with pleasure. Then she saw his eyes narrow and he glared back down at her. “You’re not pregnant.”
“Argh!” She felt her eyes roll back in her head and hoped it wouldn’t start spinning around while she spat pea soup. “What the hell have I been trying to tell you? The same thing I told Missy when she wouldn’t believe me, either! Well, to hell with all of you! I don’t need this shit!”
It would have made a great exit line, except that Rafe wasn’t about to let her exit. When her squirming became almost violent, he simply flipped them over and pinned her to the floor, making sure to settle between her legs where she couldn’t effectively kick him.
The sneaky bastard.
“Calm down.” He said this while he had her hands pinned to the floor beside her head and his erection nudged against the flimsy material of her yoga pants. “Do not be so upset. I was merely surprised. I thought you had to be pregnant.”
“Everybody seems to think I’m pregnant. Bad luck for all of you.” She tried bucking him off, but realized that was a very bad idea when all it did was slide his erection against her already aroused core. She went very still and contented herself with glaring at him. “But I’m not apologizing for taking care of things when you were so hot to trot you didn’t even mention the word
latex.
”
He reared and those amber Feline eyes glared down at her. “What do you mean you
took care of things
?”
“I mean I took care of things,” she snapped, not liking the way his eyes narrowed at her words. “Just because you’re irresponsible with sex doesn’t mean I intend to be. For God’s sake, if I hadn’t called Missy in a panic at two in the morning, I’d still be worrying about STDs. You never even bothered to tell me that shifters don’t get them.”
“You thought I might have infected you?” He was a picture of wounded dignity, but Tess saw his gaze soften. “I would never take a chance with your health, sweet Tess. Don’t you realize that?”
“But you did. You took a chance on getting me pregnant, which I had to take care of, and then you act like I’m some kind of villain when I tell you I did the responsible thing.”
Oh, shit. His eyes went all narrow and glaring again. “So you did do something to cancel my seed, then. Tess—”
“Oh, give me a break. What the hell kind of phrasing is that?
Cancel your seed?
” She snorted. “It’s not like I had an abortion, and if I had, it would have been totally my decision. For God’s sake, we had sex for the first time less than two weeks ago. We never talked about pregnancy or kids or even whether we might still be dating by the end of the month.”
Rafe looked less than impressed by her logic.
She tried to reason with him, still holding on to the naive hope that he was in the mood to be reasonable. “All I did was make sure that if one of your marauding little sperm happened to breach my defenses, that he’d quickly be shown the door. That’s it. It’s the responsible thing to do when two adults who should have known better didn’t talk about protection before they got down and dirty.”
“We will discuss responsibility later,” he said, looming over her like a personal black cloud. “Right now I wish to discuss what you used to
show my marauders the door.
Explain.”
She sighed and glared right back at him. “Wild carrot seed. I took a tincture every morning after we … had sex.” She found herself looking away, and realized she’d wanted to say
after we made love,
but she didn’t think one person could make love. That was the kind of thing that took two. “It makes the lining of the uterus too slippery for an egg to attach. So, no pregnancy.”
He hissed in displeasure. “And you did not think to discuss this with me? You did not think I had a right to be a party to this decision?”
She uttered a strangled scream. “What decision? Rafe, there was no decision. All that happened was me realizing I’d done the stupidest thing in my life and had unprotected sex with a man I’d just met. I realized that, and I took steps to make sure I wouldn’t end up paying for it for the next eighteen years. That is not something you needed to be involved in. If you wanted the right to voice an opinion, you should have voiced one before you decided it was okay to come inside me.”
He growled, sputtered and growled again. “That’s all well and good for the first time, but what about after that? It never occurred to you to discuss it with me?”