And then he settled me in the middle of the bed and parted my thighs. He entered me slowly this time, watching my face with his gorgeous eyes. He dropped kisses on my face, my cheeks, my lips. “Easy,” he said.
His hands shoved under my ass as he settled his bulk onto me and started to rock me slowly to another orgasm.
“Easy,” I echoed.
“I want you to come long and lazy and easy. And this time I want to come with you, love.”
I nodded, tears pricking my eyes. God, I was so fucking emotional it was stupid. “Yes,” I said.
“It will all be fine,” he said.
“It will,” I agreed.
We reassured each other, built a wall of love between us and the fear, and when he bit my throat at that last fluttering crucial moment, I came with a startling cry and he came with a soft growl.
Ellis covered us and I caught him laughing. “That should hold you till morning,” he chuckled.
“Should?”
He shrugged. “Might not. It’s hard to tell.”
“I am a horn dog,” I said again, but I was already half asleep.
At that last moment before sleep took me I heard him say, “Merry first Christmas together, Ruby. I love you.”
I was too far gone to answer, but my heart swelled at the words. How did I get this lucky?
* * * *
I woke to the smell of coffee and bacon. It was only when I opened my eyes to the startling whiteness of a fresh snowfall, that I remembered the date. I pulled my robe on and belted it, rushing downstairs yelling, “Merry Christmas, husband!”
To find Tyler, Peabody and Madeline in my living room. They all looked up and the call died on my lips. “Good morning,” I amended.
Odd, this wasn’t how I’d pictured my first Christmas in Town, but I had to remember that poor Madeline had lost her sister. Most likely because she resembled me and Frank’s die hard followers of old school violence wanted to send a message to Ellis.
Christmas morning hospitality was the least I could do.
“Good morning, baby,” Ellis said softly from the archway into the dining room. He handed me coffee, saying, “Decaf.”
I went to him and let him wrap me in his arms for a kiss. “Merry Christmas, Ruby,” he said right in my ear.
My whole body melded to his and I whispered, “Merry Christmas, Ellis.”
“We should go,” Madeline said in a small voice. It was the first time I’d heard her speak since the very moment I met her.
“No, no, it’s fine. Stay for breakfast, please,” I said hurriedly.
“This is your first Christmas and we’re here being all…” she waved her hands, looking lost and broken and my heart hurt for her.
“Hey, it’s the dysfunctional family Christmas,” Tyler said, a bit too much venom in his voice for it to truly be a joke.
There was a knock on the door and I rushed to it, the wind whipping my robe back, reminding me that I wasn’t wearing anything under it and I should go fix that.
It was Iris.
The outside world was windy and white. At least a foot of snow had fallen overnight. “Come in, come in,” I said. “Before you freeze.”
As if that would happen. She was a wolf, after all.
She had two big bags and Ellis rushed forward to help her. “I hope I’m not intruding. I just wanted to—” She straightened up, caught site of Tyler and gave him a huge smile that made him turn his head.
If Tyler were alive he would have blushed. Seriously.
“Come in, come in,” I repeated. “Not intruding at all.”
Ellis helped her with her bags and I shut the door to the wind. The cold air outside stole my breath. At least when I was a wolf, I’d be warm.
Realizing that I would change due to the birth, that there would be blood and pain, staggered me for a moment but I pushed the thought away. It was Christmas, no use worrying over the inevitable.
Ellis caught my scent or my fear or something because he froze and looked at me. I smiled. “I’m going to go get dressed before I am accidentally naked and scar everyone for life.”
Madeline was clutching a mug of coffee and she laughed. “Doubtful. But funny.”
It was good to hear her laugh. Even for just a second.
I hurried upstairs, shut the door and started to cry.
I was suddenly terrified. What if I failed this birth? This baby? What if I died during birth? Or worse, after? What if…
The door cracked open and Ellis stared in. “Are you okay?”
“I’m…horrified.”
“Why? Because we have the motleyest of all crews downstairs?”
“No. I’m horrified that I’m scared to give birth to my own child.”
“There’d be something wrong with you if you weren’t scared.”
He sat on the bed and patted the mattress. I got up off the rocking chair and went to sit by him. Let him wrap his arm around my shoulder and comfort me. “But of having my own baby?”
“For most women, having a baby doesn’t mean transforming into something else. But for you Ruby, you’re both having a baby and being reborn.”
“I know,” I said.
I heard laughter downstairs and it made me smile. It was Christmas. There should be laughter.
“They all have coffee?” I asked, changing the subject.
“Coffee, tea, wine.”
“Wine?”
“Lots of cultures celebrate Christmas morning with wine. We’re not going anywhere. It’s fine. And Iris brought some pastries. I’ll make eggs and such when you’re settled.”
I climbed onto his lap. “Settled?”
I felt the churning of attraction and sighed.
“What’s the sigh for?”
“Seriously? I’m horny again?” I asked almost conversationally as I parted my robe and unzipped his fly. Ellis popped the button and then there he was—hot and smooth and hard in my hand.
“It’s the hormones,” he reminded me. His voice had gone deep and raspy.
“I know but I feel like such a pervert.” I kissed him. Soft at first and then hard and then desperate.
Slowly I sank down onto his cock. I didn’t even need his pants off. Just open and pushed down a bit. I didn’t need my robe off, just hiked up and parted. All I really needed was Ellis deep inside of me. His hard length filling my soft entrance. His cock stretching me and burying deep.
I held his shoulders in my hands and he kissed a hot trail down my throat from my chin to my clavicle. He spread my robe and took my bare breasts in his hands, squeezing gently before trapping my nipples between his fingertips and squeezing hard the way that always got me off.
“God,” I gasped. Then, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I keep attacking you.”
“I think I can forgive you.” He dipped his head to suck my nipple into his mouth and I moved faster. I dropped myself onto his lap harder to feel his cock spear me deep. Each nerve ending started out soaked in pleasure and ended up bursting with euphoria.
I came with his earlobe clamped between my teeth and his fingers biting into the flare of my hips. Ellis growled deep in his throat as he emptied into me.
We stared each other down, the fog of love that seemed to hover around us was staggering to me when I let myself consider it.
He kissed my nose. “Take a shower and get dressed, Ruby.”
“Make eggs and such, Ellis,” I said and laughed.
He swatted my ass as I climbed off and it was all I could do not to push him down on the bed and start over again.
Thankfully, this was going to be a brief pregnancy. Could you literally sex yourself to death? Doubtful, but it would be a hell of a way to go.
I climbed into the shower and let the steam overtake me. I soaped and re-soaped and cleaned myself all spic and span.
When I was toweling off, I had a wave of trepidation crash over me. A sudden and consuming worry and fear that had nothing to do with the baby and was gone as fast as it had come.
&n
bsp; But I worried.
I went downstairs to call Samuel.
This was definitely an interesting kind of Christmas morning.
Chapter 12
“I’m stepping outside,” I said, waving my cell phone.
“It’s cold as hell out there,” Ellis said, frowning. He stirred and stirred and stirred his scrambled eggs when cooking them. Claiming scrambled means just that, not big clumps of eggs. So when you ate his eggs, you damn near needed a spoon.
“I’m warm,” I said, realizing it was true. I had been feeling warm. Past the initial cold that came with fear, I’d been warm since I conceived. “I think my bun is also an oven,” I said, patting my belly.
Ellis grinned and the pride and happiness in his face was so fierce in that instant, my heart broke a little from the unadulterated emotion I saw.
“That’s my baby.”
“You can say it,” I laughed.
“What?” He scraped the eggs into a serving dish and put about six pounds of bacon on a tray.
“That’s my boy.”
He turned to me. “Are you really sure about that, Ruby?”
I tapped my temple and said, “Psychic, remember. Or coming into my own at least. I can tell that this is a boy as surely as I can tell that I love you. Or that you just made me come. Really hard.”
He laughed. “Well, we can’t argue with that. And Mrs Psychic?”
I had one hand on the back door knob and I turned. “Yeah?”
“Keep your eyes open and yourself alert. Psychic and otherwise, got it?”
“I will.”
“And then come eat,” he commanded.
“No worries there. No nausea at all. Just a ravenous craving for meat and all meat byproducts.”
Ellis winked. “Now that’s my boy.”
* * * *
Outside my door was a bright-white, blustery Christmas morning. I peeked in the side window to our odd gathering. Tyler, Peabody, Madeline—who was getting some color back in her face—my handsome husband and Iris of the cherry red hair.
“Merry Christmas, Ruby. Merry Christmas, baby,” I whispered to my stomach.
I dialed Samuel’s number and waited.
“Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas!” he boomed into the phone.
“Merry Christmas, Samuel,” I laughed and then I asked about his and Bertie’s morning.
He filled me in on his new fishing rod and hunting socks and finally said. “Now tell me what’s troubling you, Ruby Bach.”
“These feelings of mine. The ones you said I’d start having…”
“What about them?”
“How accurate are they?” I remembered the invading sense of worry from upstairs and waited for his answer, holding my breath.
“Considering who you are and your role in all this prophecy business, I’d say pretty damn accurate.” His voice went wary. “Why, Ruby? What happened?”
I blew out the breath I’d been holding. “Nothing. Well, not much. My hormones are all out of whack. I’m pregnant with basically another species. It’s Christmas. I have a house full of various supernatural types and…it could be nothing.”
“Tell me, Ruby,” he demanded. It was a soft command, but a command.
“I was getting out of the shower and—”
The door opened and Madeline stuck her head out. “Can I smoke out here?”
“Sure thing,” I whispered, pointing to the small awning.
She walked as far from me as she could get and made sure the smoke blew away from the pregnant crazy lady. Sweet girl. Nice to see her smile.
“Ruby?” Samuel said in my ear.
“Sorry. Anyway, I was in the shower and I just had a feeling.”
“What kind of feeling?”
“A not good feeling.”
“Ruby, when you have those kinds…”
I lost track of his voice because I was watching Madeline turn to the man walking up the back deck steps. I almost called out who’s your friend? But then the man cocked a fist back and hit her. The cigarette went flying and Madeline hit the deck with a bang.
Someone was screaming loud, loud and then louder as the man, head bent—eyes blazing—rushed toward me, bent low. Like an animal.
I heard Samuel from far away, it seemed, and had the time to think this guy’s a shifter as he reached me and then the side door was flying open and Ellis was rushing out, a terrifying huge white wolf with piercing aubergine eyes. Not a speck on him, I noted for the millionth time as he rushed toward us baring his teeth. There was impact and I screamed again. His name.
I realized that was what someone had been yelling. EllisEllisEllis! And the someone had been me. Behind Ellis was a Peabody caught in mid transformation, huge paws erupting where his huge hands had been and from behind the attacker came Tyler, fangs bared, eyes blackened, pissed as hell.
They converged on the intruder as Madeline screamed and backpedaled to press herself flat to the side of the house. Tyler had come from the sunroom door on the back of the house and now, here came Iris, red hair flying, to collect Madeline and hustle her inside.
“Get in the house,” A naked blood speckled Ellis roared in my face. I could tell he’d been saying it for a while and I had not heard. I was moving in slow motion, uphill, under water. I was heavy headed and hearted and realized that Samuel was still shouting into the phone.
Ellis literally picked me up and dropped me inside the kitchen door and then pulled it shut.
They ripped the man limb from limb. I saw part of it, I heard all of it and I realized that now, blood had been shed in town and there would be hell to pay.
Ellis found me in the corner of the kitchen sitting on the stool we kept here for when one of us was cooking and the other wanted to talk.
“You okay, Ruby? Honey?
The front door banged and I heard Samuel’s voice. And then Roberta. And then a very calm Peabody assuring them I was okay.
Out on our deck several town men were disposing of the intruder.
So far, no one knew him from Town. He was not a resident. And there would be no getting answers out of him now.
“I’m a terrible mother,” I said.
I was numb—face, hands, heart.
“Ruby,” he said softly, brushing my hair out of my face. “You’re not even a mother yet. Not all the way.”
“I did nothing,” I said.
“Right. You did nothing wrong,” he said, nodding. Looking relieved.
“No. I mean, I did nothing. That man could have torn me limb from limb. Killed me, killed our unborn child. And I just stood there—still and stupid—and did nothing. I did nothing.”
A great sob burst out of me, and it startled even me. It sounded as if it had originated somewhere in my feet and traveled through the length of me. I started to shake. So unbelievably angry and disappointed at myself I thought I might be sick.
Ellis dropped to his knees and looked up at me. “If he had gotten to you, you would have kicked his ass,” he said. And he was serious.
I laughed. It was the saddest sound I had heard in a long time, that laugh.
“I mean it, Ruby. You are stronger than you think or know. You were momentarily frozen but you had us. Had he reached you…” He put his hand on my belly and took a deep breath. “Had he reached you, had he gotten any shot at harming the baby, you would have taken him out.”
“Sh’yeah, right,” I snorted through my tears.
“Do you remember what you did to Frank?” he asked, his voice stern.
I nodded. Going still, trying not to cry. “Yes.”
“Ruby, you would have saved our baby. And yourself. I promise you.”
I wiped my eyes, and grimaced when I saw my shaking hands.
“Ruby?” he said, making me engage fully.
“Yes?”
He took my face in his hands and looked me in the eye. “Do I lie to you”?
“No,” I sighed.
“Good. You would have taken. Him. Out,” Ellis said. Then he
kissed me.
I let him kiss him. I parted my lips and let the kiss soothe me and then I gasped.
“What?”
“Madeline!”
“Madeline is fine. I think Madeline is actually getting pissed off,” he said with a wry smile.
“Madeline is getting pissed off,” Madeline said, walking into our small kitchen. Iris was right on her heels, looking partly amused and partly concerned for the younger woman.
“I know it’s early, Ellis,” Iris said, “But how about more of that wine?”
“God, Ellis,” I said. “Give them the whole damn bottle.”
Chapter 13
“Tell me what happened,” Samuel said softly. We were in the kitchen alone, everyone else had managed to pry Ellis out to eat something.
“I was in the shower and I just got a feeling. A bad feeling. No vision or anything, just that sudden sinking feeling.”
His mouth was a tight line of upset. “I see. Just the emotion, nothing else at all?”
“Nada,” I said, laughing. “As you can see, not much to go on, right?”
Samuel sighed and ran a hand through his short dark hair. His skin was the color of caramel with a red undertone. His nose slightly wide, dark brown eyes always smiling. Samuel was the kind of person who made you smile if you simply looked at him.
“What are your instincts? Water can be a conductor. Try and focus a bit and tell me what you saw or what you see now.”
I shut my eyes, seeing the stranger, in my mind’s eye, come barreling toward me. How he’d come at me like a vehicle instead of a person. A runaway locomotive of man who could be beast. I remembered the crackle-pop-whoosh of his energy. Dark and slightly muddy, crazy and intense.
“Nothing. He felt so closed down and off for lack of a better word, I couldn’t pick anything up. And I was distracted so I didn’t even pick up on the fear coming off of Madeline when he started up the stairs. It was as if nothing was coming off her at all. My first instinct was that she knew him.”
He shook his head. “Hormones.”
“What?”
“You’re new to this and hormones can wreak havoc with your emotions anyway. They can also wreak havoc with your intuition if you’re still trying to find your way. I was hoping to know why he was after you.”
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