She kept her secret.
The morning sickness came back from time to time, but she stomached it. The phase left. A kind of hunger replaced it, and she found herself craving pickles covered in chocolate and sour juice that normally would have repelled her. Then that phase was replaced by another type of hunger, one that had her eyes following Garrett around and sneaking in glances when they both stayed in the mess hall to have dinner.
“How's your health?”
She bit into her salad with pickles and glanced at him. He was freshly showered and smelled of aftershave, and her senses went on alert. “Fine. Why?”
“Just checking. Flu didn't come back?”
“No. I'm as strong as an ox.”
“Good to hear.” He stood up and got two glasses of water. When he sat back down, he was decidedly near her, and his scent made her want to devour him whole—and no, not in a vampire kind of way. Realization slid in that she wanted him bad, and not in a normal way.
She was pregnant horny.
She tried to fight it off. She tried to pretend he wasn’t sitting inches from her, even while her body practically hummed in recognition of his presence.
His smell was intoxicating, and it was threatening to have her make little sounds that were absolutely inappropriate. She chewed on a piece of chocolate and looked up at him.
Dark blue eyes met hers, and she quickly looked down, her cheeks heating up at getting caught.
“Angel?”
“Yes?” she said, trying to sound nonchalant.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Of course I’m okay. Why do you keep asking me that?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. Then, to her surprise, he sidled even closer. “You seem flushed. Perhaps you have a fever?” His hand went to her neck, and she almost moaned as her body leaned towards him. She fought it off, fisting her hands and biting her lip before straightening up.
“No, I don’t have a fever.”
“Oh, alright.” His hand retreated, and she could have cried in relief. Or agony.
“Then…were you checking me out?”
She almost choked on her glass of water but managed to hold it in. Angel glared at him. “What? No.” She stood up, her meal finished, and put everything in the sink. Then she dashed out of there, ignoring the insistent throbbing in between her legs that was making her think naughty thoughts.
A quick shower and brush of teeth made her relatively calmer, but that was dashed when she saw Garrett waiting for her outside her bedroom door. He was dressed for sleep, too, his arms folded and muscles bunching under his shirt.
Her mouth watered. Her body turned hot, humming again.
Concern flickered in his gaze. She tried to pass by him to get to her bedroom, but his hand caught her wrist.
She glared at him. “Let me go.”
“Not until you tell me what’s wrong.”
“Nothing’s wrong.”
“Bullshit.”
“Language!”
“Bull. Shit. Let me take care of you.”
“You can’t.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Because I’m horny and there’s only one thing I want!”
The words she blurted out had his eyes widening and his hold going slack. She watched the flash of shock before his gaze darkened even further, and she knew had they been in the mess hall drinking, he’d have choked on it already. Embarrassment slid inside her, and she almost turned.
Until she smelled his arousal.
Until she saw the hard ridge beneath his pants.
Her resolve to stay away crumbled. The same thing must have happened to him because he cursed before pulling her to her bedroom. A kiss had her breath leaving her, and a touch of tongue had her body erupting in tingles until she was aching all over. But as if her instincts had a mind of their own, she found herself pushing him towards the bed.
And she was straddling him and whispering about the urgency that she’d been keeping inside for a while now.
“Shhh. Garrett…let me take care of you.”
Chapter 11
This was insane.
Firstfirst, he was kissing the little spitfire who tasted like heaven, reveling in how familiar she tasted as she exploded all over his tongue and sent a jolt of lust in his stomach. She’d been driving him crazy since she got back from her sick mode, acting like she couldn’t care less but following him around with hot gray eyes that she tried to hide.
He wanted to do so many things, but the concern for her had bypassed all of it because he didn’t want to be selfish and take her without her consent—one she hadn’t offered at all.
Now here she was—kissing him back like she meant it with her every breath, a soft sigh indicating words she didn’t say: that she missed him, that she missed this, and that this felt just as fantastic for her. Then she was pushing him away, and it crossed his mind that she might have changed her mind and he had to brace himself for the rejection.
But she didn’t change her mind.
Instead, Angel straddled him, looking like a fierce warrior in her cotton shorts and a loose shirt. She whispered words that had his breath stopping, then she crawled down to slide his sweatpants down—enough to take his cock out, which was already so hard and pulsing. Her eyes widened, and a flare of hunger entered them. She slid down to a kneeling position on the floor, and he used his elbows to hold himself up in a sitting position.
Pale, dainty fingers wrapped around his base, and he stifled the groan as he stared down at her in shock.
Her pink tongue came out to lick the tip. His hands fisted on the mattress, even while pleasure spiked so deep and sunk in his stomach. He gritted his teeth as she stroked him with that hand, a firm touch that was almost experimental.
“Angel…” he rasped. “If you don’t want to…”
“But I want to,” she whispered. “I want to so badly. Let me.”
How was a man supposed to fight that?
Licking turned to sucking, her lips wrapping around his tip. Noises came out of her throat—soft murmurs of appreciation, as if she tasted something really good. Then sucking turned to something else, and his eyes nearly crossed when she opened her mouth wider and let his shaft slide deep inside her, the flat of her wet tongue touching the base.
It was a goddamn blowjob of the hottest order, and Garrett felt his control running away from him. Groans slid out of his mouth, and soft little hums came out of hers. Even through it all, he could smell her arousal, which only served to heighten the sensation for him as she worked on him, eager and intense. Tongue and hand worked together, and electricity singed his body before traveling down to his balls.
His hands fisted through her hair. His pleasure exploded, and she swallowed every little bit and murmured how he tasted so good. Unable to stop his groan now, he yanked her up, ignoring her gasp as he crashed his mouth against hers and tasted the kiss. Then he ripped her shorts off and plunged his cock inside her, which had grown hard all over again.
The need drove him to delve hard inside her, and she straddled his lap and clung on to him as her body surrendered to what he was doing. He surrendered himself to the moment, too, yanking her shirt up to have a fistfuls of plump breasts that were just as beautiful as she was. It didn’t take long, as one press of his finger on her pleasure point while he pumped inside her was enough to make her body buck. Then he was following her into his second climax, this one even more intense than the last. He held her firmly against him, feeling her heartbeat and hearing his own, which was still trying to recover from all the overwhelming emotions he felt.
He heard a third heartbeat, one so faint that he almost missed it, if not for the total silence in the room and their surroundings.
Garrett froze.
Against him, Angel stilled, feeling his reaction. He sensed the exact moment dread slid in her, as a second later she was trying to scramble off him. But he held her firmly in place as he tried to sift through his stunned thoughts, o
nly one explanation making sense in his mind.
He looked up and met her stricken gaze. He voiced it aloud.
“How far along are you?”
The denial he expected didn’t come. Clarity came instead. It was followed by shock as her flu came back to him, along with her running to the bathroom to vomit.
Morning sickness.
He should have known. But he’d been too preoccupied, too unaware. And now…
Angel bit her lower lip, which was shaking. “I don’t know. Three weeks? I know it’s not supposed to have a heartbeat yet, but this one’s…different. Like me.”
“I thought vampire women didn’t get…”
“I thought so, too.” Despair slid into her voice, one she tried to control. “It’s an abomination. They’re going to try to destroy it if they can.”
The thought of anyone touching the baby—his baby—had fury rising in him, along with a protective instinct that was so intense, his body shook with it. He held her closer, smelling her scent. Hearing the heartbeat again.
“Can the others hear it?”
“I don’t know, Garrett. No one said anything. You’re the first one to hear, I think. It’s like he…she knows you’re safe.”
The fact that his child knew he was safe made something inside him soften. A strange jolt pulled at his stomach, making it ache—making him ache, and not in a sexual way. He met her eyes again, saw the wariness and uncertainty there that he wanted to disappear.
The decision came, an easy choice that he didn’t know he had in him. When she looked down, prepared to put on her strong mask, he took her chin in hand and slowly lifted her face up until she met his gaze again. He brushed her lower lip with his thumb, its softness tempting him…but oddly enough, also giving him the strength to say his next words.
“Then he or she is right. As long as I’m here, you’ll be safe. You both will be safe.”
He watched the emotion darken her eyes until they were almost black, watched as her lower lip trembled again before she steadied it. She leaned forward to kiss him, and in it, he tasted everything: her surprise, her appreciation, the fear that she’d been trying to hide for quite a while now. He took it in stride, taking that fear away from her as he kissed her back, as he waited until fear was replaced by desire and a tenderness they both didn’t know they could have.
When it was about to turn heated again, they broke the kiss, both breathing erratically.
“Maybe we should move in together.”
“It won’t work out,” she said.
“It will. We just have to be subtle about it. You can’t stay here. They’ll know.”
Reluctantly, she nodded her head. “Alright. But no funny business.”
“Of course. And Angel…if you want to give the baby up, if you think it’s the best for the baby’s safety…I’ll support it. I’ll be with you every step of the way, whatever you decide.”
Her eyes clouded as she nodded again. They stayed like that for a while, just breathing each other in—just reveling in what they shared, in what they created together.
He was going to be a father.
He was going to be a damn dad, and he might have to give up the baby if it wasn’t accepted here.
The thought made his heart tighten, but he tried not to think about it—at least, not yet. Belatedly, he realized he was still inside her, and the way her hot core tightened around him had him going hard.
She felt it. Her eyes widened, and lust filled her expression. It slid inside him, too, and he gave an experimental nudge up.
She moaned.
He kissed her once more.
Then Garrett did his best to make her forget for a little bit what they were about to face.
Chapter 12
There were plenty of apartments and houses in Orville that were still pending occupancy, mostly reserved within territories for new arrivals. That was how prepared they were for newcomers, even while only a few came to this middle-of-nowhere town and even fewer stayed. Those houses had stood there for years as generations came and went, renovated over and over until they followed modern design.
But none of them were suitable, not for the plan Angel and Garrett had in mind.
So, they both settled for her staying at his place, which was just about as practical as it could get. Garrett lived in a cabin that was near a field, one where he could run around at night, and it was so far away from the town center that practically no one visited the area. It was also not that far from the bunkhouse and her home, where she still needed to go to give off the appearance of normalcy as much as she could.
In short, it was practical.
They went about their daily routine, working their asses off until they got home. They used their free time to quietly leave Orville and search the vicinity for any places where the baby could stay after birth, coming up short each time but listing the next town they could visit to check.
They made love almost every night, taking the edge off and slaking their lust with each other because there really was no escaping it. The fact that she was pregnant and horny only made things more intense, as they tried to find positions that wouldn’t affect the baby. They both found out that her on her knees or on her side while he thrust inside her from behind was the most intense feeling ever, and they took advantage of each other as they frantically competed at who could make the other cry out in desperate pleasure louder.
It was perfect. In fact, it was so perfect that she felt like she was just biding her time, endlessly nervous about when the rug would be yanked from her feet and when she’d lose her balance. Every time they searched a new, ideal place for her baby, her heart broke just a little bit, the ache and fascination for the growing thing making her more emotional than she cared to admit. Every time they touched each other, she felt herself giving up a little bit more of herself to Garrett, and she became afraid of how she was growing attached—not just to one, but to two people.
As her hardness slowly chipped off, she tried to brace herself from the many emotions she was feeling. As her life slowly revolved around things she never considered important before, she tried to be strong, tried to find some sanity and an anchor to steady her from all of this. In the end, she found that sanity in the baby she was starting to love, found her anchor in the man who’d suddenly become her light.
It was a light that terrified her.
She fought it. But despite her fighting it, the walls kept crumbling, anyway, until one thought was clear and couldn’t be fought anymore: that she wanted to keep the baby and take care of it, and that she wanted to fight for whatever happiness she was feeling now instead. That shocked her, and she stewed on it for a while before she realized there was no stopping it, not when she didn’t want it to stop.
But she kept it to herself for a while.
The three vampires found their new homes, and they decided to live together. They found jobs, and they were slowly integrated into town life. Some shifters still came with their snide comments, and some vampires still hated Garrett’s kind with all their guts, but they learned to live with it, knowing they were above it. Garrett trusted her, and she trusted him.
The conclusion to the case came, with a meeting called again, and the council members gathered in the same hall room. Angel stepped forward first, detailing her observations of the three vampires, the process they went through and how their integration into the town was resolved. She also stated how Garrett adjusted well to staying with them and how respectful he was of their culture.
Then Garrett stepped forward, and his own detailing left her just a little bit stunned.
He talked about the vampires like they were his friends, talked about her like she was someone he admired very much. He was professional and intimate, and by the time he was done, there was no doubt in their minds where he stood on the matter of the vampire and shifter division and how he wanted to make an effort to resolve it. There was no doubt in Angel’s mind what that would do to her application for the council
member position, but she didn’t mind the delay when they told her they would review it one more time before giving her a final decision in a few days.
That was more than enough.
Giddy, revved up, she walked out of the hall room, with Garrett quietly following. They walked side by side, a respectful space between them and no words uttered as people passed by them in the huge hall. When a hallway they passed became empty, his hand clamped on her wrist, and it wasn’t long before he was dragging her inside a dark closet and making her gasp in shock.
The gasp was lost in a kiss, one that was full of hunger for her and made her own hunger escalate. Kisses turned to touching, and before she knew it, her skirt was lifted up and her panties removed as he slid that large cock inside her and made her feel oh-so-good. It was all she could do to keep the cries of pleasure muffled as he pleasured her on the spot, driving her against the wall over and over until she had to wrap her legs around him to keep herself from falling. He was relentless, never stopping, never slowing down, until she exploded so intensely that her body shook with it. Whatever moan was about to come out, he swallowed in another hungry kiss as he, too, found that release he needed.
When it was all done, and they were both sated, his hand slid over her stomach, a gentle touch. He kissed her neck, gentle as they came, and told her how damn glad he was that she was wearing something easy to slide up, and that made her laugh so hard that she had to bite her lip to keep from doing so loudly. He licked her bottom lip and tried to seduce her again—but she pushed him back and tried to appear stern, even while her body craved more.
Jesus, he was turning her into a sex maniac.
“Let’s get to work,” she scolded in a whisper, her voice firm. “Let’s focus on work before we get caught here.”
Sensual lips smirked, distracting her. His blue eyes practically glittered. “I’m not done with you yet.”
Her legs throbbed. “I’m not done with you, either.”
“Good,” he rasped. “Now get out of here before I turn you around and fuck you on that old, battered desk.”
Bear Guards: A Paranormal Romance Page 13