Hide and Seek (8 page)

For the first time in months, Josephine entertained the fantasy that she and William could raise the children together, happy and secure. Maybe if she simply ignored the problems back in Seattle she could truly try to start over again. Remembering that William was a cop, Josephine winced.

She doubted she could hide forever. While it had been difficult up until now, she had only had herself to hide, to protect. It would be near impossible to hide with two little children. She would have to use her real name on the birth certificates, which would bring Mason and Wells, as well as the Seattle police, crashing down on her head.

Her life was becoming more and more complicated. William stirred next to her, pulling her closer into his embrace, and began to nuzzle her neck. Wriggling, she turned around to face him.

With his hair all mussed by sleep, even straggling all over the pillow and probably knotted down his back, he still stole her breath away with his handsomeness. With his deep blue eyes staring solemnly down at her, she drowned in their sensual depths. In that moment, Josephine forgot all about the time she spent hiding and running, the fear and constant worrying she had faced. Only William, his perfect, broad chest and his smiling face waking up next to hers, mattered.

Josephine crept closer to him, until her large belly rested against his flat stomach. Reaching over, she grabbed both of his large hands in hers, and pressed them gently over her stomach.

“They’re more active first thing in the morning. Originally, before I could feel them moving about and kicking me, it was the morning sickness.”

Josephine grinned sheepishly at his shocked, worried expression.

“Were you badly sick?”

“Sick enough. It originally was how Adam and I met. I was puking my guts up as he was walking past my room. When he heard the retching and moans through the door he thought someone was messing up the room with a hangover. When he found it was merely a pregnant woman with morning sickness he was really good about it.”

Suddenly, there was movement under her skin. Josephine felt the familiar, rolling feeling. She giggled at William’s wide eyes and look of utter astonishment.

“He kicked you!”

Josephine rolled her eyes.

“Well, yeah! That’s a good sign. Anyway, you can’t do anything about it because we can’t tell which one it was.”

William merely grinned and pressed his hands closer. “Make them do it again.”

Sighing in despair, she told William a few of the funnier stories of her pregnancy. The babies kicked a few more times.

After they had been quiet for a couple of minutes, William commented quietly, “We must do this again. I feel as if I’ve missed so much already. You do want a large family, don’t you?”

Josephine paused. She always had wanted three or four children, but she had always envisioned the normal life. A house with the requisite mortgage attached, a husband, a huge traditional white wedding, with a dog and three or four cats and a white picket fence.

Being on the run from the cops, pregnant with twins, no husband, no wedding, and no safe place to decorate for the coming babies was not the situation she had planned.

“I had always planned on three or four. I suppose that’s a large family nowadays…” she trailed off, not really wanting to ruin the moment by pointing out her childhood dreams.

William merely nodded and snuggled her closer. Josephine put a hand up onto his chest and tried to think of words to express her question.

“Did you mean what you said last night?”

“Which bit?” he replied easily, not concerned in the least.

Josephine took a deep breath.

“The bit about being a werewolf. I’m sorry, but you must realize how strange and…just plain weird that sounds. It’s not that I don’t believe you, it’s just…”

“So strange, yeah, I get it. At least you’re not laughing hysterically at me, that’s a start.”

When William threw off the comforter and climbed out of bed, Josephine felt her stomach clench.

“William—’’ She wanted to explain, to justify herself and her doubts. When William merely cut her off with a shake of his head, and started stripping off his shorts, she closed her mouth with a snap of surprise.

What the hell…?

Josephine stared with her mouth agape. She worked her throat, wanted to say something, anything, but she simply stared instead.

William was tall, well over six feet. He was muscled, but in a lean, athletic way. She loved his skin, tanned a deep brown from the sun. His hair, even mussed from sleep, was long, shiny, and gorgeous. His flaccid cock rested against his thigh, Josephine whimsically thought of a sleeping giant. But it was his eyes that drew her, his eyes that she could drown in if she wasn’t careful.

Josephine stared at her lover, at the father of her children. A warm, safe feeling rested deep in her chest. This man, she knew without a doubt, would never intentionally hurt her, would care for her children with his last breath, no matter how odd his feelings about her seemed at times. Their children would always be safe and treasured with him.

Suddenly, before her eyes, William shimmered. Josephine blinked, instinctively not believing what her eyes were showing her. Yet even after blinking she still saw it. William’s body was…shimmering was the only word she could think of.

In the blink of an eye, William was standing before her one second, shimmering as if he were a cartoon mirage about to disappear, and the next second he was no longer there. An enormously large wolf with a dark brown, shining thick pelt of fur stood beside the bed. The fur was the same shade as William’s hair, the deep blue eyes held the same intelligence and knowledge Josephine had come to expect from her William.

Josephine felt her mouth hang open, totally unsure if she believed what was right there before her eyes. Unintentionally, she felt her hands come protectively over her stomach, pressing into her little sons.

This was their daddy.

Josephine took a few deep, calming breaths and still slightly stunned said, “Okay, that is one hell of a party trick.”

The huge beast rumbled, in what Josephine instinctively knew was laughter. That man was laughing at her!

“Yeah, yeah, you’re a comedian.”

Josephine crossed her legs Indian style under the blankets. Unable to help herself, she stared at the truly huge wolf beside her bed, totally unashamed. Never before in her wildest dreams had she imagined werewolves really might exist—no more than she believed in the tooth fairy, vampires or mermaids. She would never have expressed these views to a child of any age, nor would she ever get into arguments with adults who believed, but she
personally
had never thought they truly existed.

Yet watching her lover turn into a wolf in front of her very eyes had a strange effect on her. She felt no fear at all as the wolf pounced onto the large bed. Josephine was feeling a childlike curiosity. Yes, this was a wolf, but it was also William. The eyes that held her gaze were William’s. The fur of his thick coat reminded her of his long, soft hair. As the huge beast padded next to her, settled down beside her, she couldn’t help herself from stroking his soft fur.

The rich, warm scent of the forest ran through him, the heat from his fur warmed her chilly hands. She stroked him as if he were a gigantic cat. Surprisingly, a rumbling sound emanated from his chest. Josephine swallowed a giggle. He reminded her of a content, tame cat, if one could but ignore the fact he was an enormous wolf with sharp teeth and a cold muzzle.

The idiocy of this thought merely made her snicker more.

“Wow, I think you’re going to have some major explaining to do to our sons. I sure as hell won’t be able to help them out here. It must be so much fun to run free and wild, to explore as an animal.”

She stroked William’s soft fur. As the minutes passed, she felt lulled, surrounded by the cozy, safe warmth of his wolf’s body. Josephine found herself slightly jealous of William’s dual nature, where not ten minutes ago she had been highly skeptical.

When William-the-wolf stirred, she removed her hand. She thought he would jump down from the bed and change back into his human form. When he simply stood on the bed, and with his muzzle started nudging her to lie down, she complied, confused.

As before, the wolf shimmered slightly, then in the blink of an eye, William lay kneeling over her, totally naked. Josephine felt a million questions rise in her mind, yet she lay silent. Something in her knew William wanted, needed to do something.

William lay over her, covering her body with his. Gently, almost reverently, he kissed her, exploring her mouth and lips with his. The kiss was beautiful, yet she could nevertheless feel the leashed fire in him. He stirred her, but this wasn’t the ordinary, passionate, heat-filled kiss she had come to expect from her lover.

William moved down her neck, to the juncture between her neck and shoulder. There, he kissed her, but then bit her too. The tiny sting he created wasn’t painful, but some sort of heat, maybe some sort of essence or emotion, she whimsically wondered, moved from him to her.

Josephine had no real idea what passed between them, she only knew something did. This kiss had some significance to him, and hence should mean something to her.

Before she could query, or even voice a single word, William moved up from her neck and kissed her lips once more.

For a half second, Josephine wondered if she had dreamed the last ten minutes, wondered if she had finally cracked and gone mad. For just a moment she doubted herself. She questioned if her William had really just turned into a wolf, and if he had kissed and bitten her neck, placed his essence inside her.

When William raised his head and grinned a huge, feral grin, reminding her so strongly of the wolf he was, she smiled back. She hadn’t dreamed a thing—she just didn’t yet understand the significance of that kiss.

“William, what was that? There was something in that…kiss…”

William laughed and patted her cheek. “Why, Josephine, I just marked you as mine.”

With such a bizarre comment as his explanation, Josephine now had more questions arising from that one sentence than the whole previous ten minutes. William cut off her curiosity by climbing off the bed.

“Are you hungry? Sophie, my sister-in-law, was ravenous by this stage of her pregnancy. I swear she ate more than Art and I combined. Drove her nuts. We teased her that the baby had created all this extra room in her she was trying to fill, what with the huge belly she was carrying around. I swear if she could have managed it at the time she would have killed us all.”

Josephine climbed out of the bed and shivered. Even with the flannel shirt the morning air was still brisk.

“I don’t blame her. A woman is always touchy about her weight. If
you
tried carrying a watermelon around in your stomach for a while maybe you’d understand better. Not only is your body doing strange things to you, but also your hormones are totally out of whack. You suddenly feel not just awkward, but fat, ugly, and unbearably uncomfortable in your own skin. If you or your brothers start teasing
me
, I can promise a swift, painful retribution.”

Lost in her search for her underwear, Josephine was surprised when William embraced her from behind.

“I think you’re beautiful. Your skin glows, your hair shines. Your body is lush and so feminine it makes me ache with desire and emotion just to look at you. You’re still the witty, funny girl I met originally, and I think I’m the luckiest guy alive to have you here.”

Kissing her gently, sweetly, Josephine felt herself melting against him. Finally pulling back, she smiled.

“I’m hungry. What do you have to eat? Go cook up a storm while I get dressed.”

Licking her lips at the sexy body leaving the room, Josephine tried not to think of the conversation she would soon need to have with William. He undoubtedly wanted all the details of why she had left, why she had returned, and everything else in between.

A part of her brain knew, now that he had shared his secrets with her, he would want her to play fair and share all her secrets with him.

Running her hands through her hair, she took a deep breath and sighed. There was no time like the present, and it wasn’t like her to run. She needed to face this all sooner or later, so she might as well bite the bullet finally and make it now.

Pulling on her clothes and running her brush quickly through her hair, five minutes later she was leaving the sanctity of the bedroom.
Breakfast first
, she promised herself,
then
some truthful explanations.

Chapter Seven

William watched Josephine moan in ecstasy as she ate another mouthful of the omelet. The nearly sensual delight she took in eating surprised him. He knew she wasn’t putting on an act, as she had eaten three omelets with barely a pause for breath, and now finally she lingered over this one, her fourth.

Finishing the toast, and refilling her glass of juice, he seated himself next to her with a huge grin.

“I never realized you took such sensual delight in eating.”

“I never realized you cook like a five-star gourmet chef,” she countered.

William grinned and placed a slow, delicate kiss on the nape of her neck. He nibbled at the sensitive spot he’d found the night before.