Baby's Got Bite

by Candace Havens

  It was a tiny pair of jeans and retro concert T-shirt. There was also a cute little pair of red Converse. It was something Bennett might wear, if they made the outfit her size.

  “Oh—my—God.” Bennett held the Converse sneakers up. “Where did you find these? They’re perfect!”

  “I know, right? Where’s Linc? I bet he’d get a kick out of this.”

  Bennett put down the shoes and took a deep breath. “Before we go see him…I have something I want to tell you. But I need you to keep a secret.”

  Casey’s eyebrows waggled. “You know I’m the queen of secrets.”

  “No. No, you aren’t. You can’t keep a secret to save your life.”

  “That’s not true. I never told anyone about you dating David.”

  “God, don’t remind me.” He’d been one of their clients, which was strictly forbidden at the office. They’d done an ad campaign for his beer company. He was the perfect guy. Took her to all the best clubs and restaurants. The sex was great. Not Linc fantastic, but pretty good. They’d dated for almost a month, and then one night he’d invited her back to his apartment. Where he was holding an orgy. She was pretty open-minded about sex, but she’d taken one look at the scantily clad group and turned and run way.

  Casey was laughing. “I can honestly say when you showed up on my doorstep with ice cream, ‘David invited me to an orgy,’ was pretty much the last thing I expected to hear.”

  They giggled so long Bennett’s ribs hurt.

  “So this secret?” Casey urged.

  “I think…maybe…uh…”

  “You love Linc?”

  Bennett did a double-take. “WTF. How did you know?” She leaned back on her hands. “I just figured it out.”

  “You two can’t keep your eyes off of one another. It’s been pretty obvious from the beginning. I think you two are the only ones who haven’t figured it out.”

  So maybe she wasn’t imagining his feelings. He might really care about her. “It scares me.”

  Casey leaned over and put a hand on her knee. “But he’s a really good guy. And I’ve only known him a couple of months, but he’s never looked at any woman the way he does you. I give him a hard time about the man whore thing. But he really doesn’t sleep with them. Or not much. There was one about six months ago, but it didn’t last long.”

  “How do you know about it?” She and Linc hadn’t had a normal kind of relationship where they talked about past loves. Hell, she didn’t like sharing that shit. And she had a feeling he wasn’t much better about sharing his past than she was.

  “Nick told me,” Casey said. “We were talking about you on the way over. He was saying Linc has it bad for you. They’ve been friends for more than a hundred years and he hasn’t seen Linc this serious about anyone. And I see that brain of yours working. He loves that baby, but he also loves you.”

  “Do you think?”

  Casey raised her eyebrows, smirked, and nodded. “Oh. Yeah. I was watching him when we were at the gardens with your dad. He never once took his eyes off of you. And when you weren’t feeling well, his face… God, he was so scared. I’ve never seen him like that. Nick’s right. He has it bad.”

  Bennett grabbed one of the stuffed toy planes from the chair behind her. Did he love her? She would never know unless she asked him. More, she had to know if he could love her as a partner, not someone who would control her life in the name of protecting her.

  One way or another, they had to figure it out.

  “Can you hang out for a while? Let me get cleaned up, and then I’ll see if I can find Linc. I wanted to show him the idea for the mural.”

  Casey frowned. “You might have to wait a while. I saw your dad heading up to see him as I was coming down. And boy, he did not look happy.”

  Crap.

  Bennett’s hands tightened into fists. She’d asked them to leave each other alone and let her deal with the situation with her dad herself, but what had Linc done instead? Exactly what she’d been afraid he would do. He’d taken her choice away from her to handle this the way he saw fit.

  “Might be time for me to go kick some butt,” she said. “I’m tired of people trying to make decisions without me and for me.”

  Casey cringed. “I’m really glad I’m not Linc right now.”

  Bennett narrowed her eyes. “You should be.”

  Ten minutes later, she walked off the elevator. Linc’s raised voice vibrated the walls. She rushed—well, at that point, waddled—toward the office door and used the key card he had given her.

  “You’ll be dead before you even get close to her,” Linc said. “You want her to see her home? She is home. And if you think I’m going to let you take her from me, you’ll find out—”

  Bennett came around the corner. “He’ll find out what?” She didn’t bother curbing her tone. The jerk deserved it. “Threatening my father? Really? Because that’s helpful.”

  Her father grunted and walked toward the door. He paused by Bennett and said, “If this doesn’t convince you about him, I don’t know what will.”

  “Just go,” she said. “Please. I’ll meet you at your place later and we’ll…try to figure this out.”

  Her father looked like he had a lot more to say, but to his credit, he simply shook his head and left.

  When she turned back to Linc, he had a strained expression on his face. “Are you okay?” he said and took a step toward her, but she held out a hand to stop him.

  “I told you this was my decision,” she said. “I may be carrying your kid, but my brain and my body are mine. I will decide what I want to do. You have no say. Do you hear me? None.”

  “Take a breath. I’m just trying to protect you and your baby. You have no idea what that man can do.”

  He just didn’t get it. Probably never would.

  “That man is my father. He’s blood. You are some guy who knocked me up.” Linc flinched. Served him right. Asshole. “You don’t get to make my choices for me. Ever.”

  She turned and made a beeline for the elevator.

  She wanted to kill him. Of all the stupid, idiotic—he had no right to interfere with her life like that. Things were strained enough with her father, and he’d all but proven that wolves were temperamental beasts beyond control.

  “Bennett, wait. You don’t understand. Your father is dangerous. He might—”

  She turned, backing into the elevator. “Might what?”

  “Not might. He does want to take you home with him. Away from me.” That last part came out as a whisper.

  “Linc, do you care about me?”

  “Of course I do. You’re the mother of my son. Why do you think I’ve done all of this? Why do you think I brought your father here to settle this?”

  And there it was. He cared for her. But in the end, he was like every other man she’d tried to love and be loved by. His idea of caring for her was to make decisions for her, all for her own good.

  Another headache pierced her right eye. “We’re done.” She wasn’t even sure what she meant by those words, but she had to get away from him.

  Why did she have to have the feels for this guy? She didn’t doubt he would be a good father. But she couldn’t be with him as his mate, not when that would mean sacrificing the very boundaries that kept her safe.

  He started forward, but she raised her hand to keep him at bay until the doors slid shut.

  She held off the tears until the elevator started to move, but then she collapsed against the wall and sobbed. The universe had provided the slap in the face she needed.

  The baby fluttered inside her.

  “You have me, little dude,” she said. “You will always have me.”

  Perhaps she finally understood why her mother had left her father, because right then, running away didn’t sound like such a bad idea.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “What in the hell happened?” Casey screamed at Linc as she entered his apartment.

  “Not what. Who. Her father,” he said
, the words coming out angrier than he intended.

  He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, breathing deeply. Dammit. He was not going to lose her because he’d lost his temper.

  He opened his eyes and softened his voice. “Her father said she’d have to come back to the fae kingdom. What was I supposed to do? Just let him take her?”

  “Well, no. But you can’t fight her battles for her. That’s exactly what she doesn’t want.” Casey frowned. “Listen, I know you want to go running after her. But she called me and specifically said to keep you away until she calmed down.”

  “Bullshit. She’s going to listen to me.”

  Casey put a hand on his shoulder. “You stepped over the line with the dad business. She’s kind of independent. Maybe you’ve noticed.”

  At the time, it had seemed like the right thing to do to jump between her and her father. How could it have gone so wrong? So very fucking wrong.

  “I can’t lose her,” he murmured. “You’re her friend. Help me understand.”

  Casey put her hands together and cracked her knuckles, like she was getting ready to do some serious work. “Listen, here’s the deal. She’ll kill me for saying this, but she’s fallen for you. She’s been my friend for years, and I’ve never seen her in love. Ever. But do you know why she’s afraid of being in love? Because every time she’s tried to be with someone, they crowd her. Suffocate her. Try to do the man thing and control her life and make decisions for her. All for her own good.” She cocked an eyebrow. “Getting a sense of déjà vu?”

  Jesus. Some protector he’d turned out to be. He’d become her worst nightmare. No wonder she’d run.

  Of course he’d fucked it all to hell. If he’d been smart, he would have given her the space she needed. He would have told her that he’d loved her from the first moment he’d laid eyes on her. He would have trusted her to take care of herself. He would have promised to be her partner in whatever way she needed.

  That was what he’d been missing in all of his previous relationships. Of course he would eventually fail a woman who needed him to take care of everything. But a woman like Bennett? A woman who was fiercely independent? That was a woman who could offer him a true partnership.

  “I love her, too,” he said. “There’s no other woman, and there’s never going to be another one. She’s it.”

  “I’m glad to hear it. But you have a tough road ahead of you. After the crap you pulled today, all you did was confirm her fears. It’s going to take something big to convince her not just that you love her, but that you’re the man she needs. Do you understand?”

  He ran a hand through his hair. “I’ll do whatever it takes. She’s my love. My life.”

  She patted his shoulder. “That, my friend, is why you’ll win in the end. You want some advice? This thing with her dad—stay the fuck out of it. Seriously. You have to give her some space.”

  Space? It went against every almost every instinct in his body. But the strongest instinct, the one to love her in the way she needed to be loved, would always win.

  He had to show her she could trust him again.

  “Yep. You have your work cut out for you,” Casey said, as if she could read his thoughts. “So what’s your big play?”

  He ran a hand through his hair.

  “No fucking clue.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Bennett sat across from her father in the living room of his Grand Presidential suite at the Crescent hotel. There was a fireplace. In a hotel room. This man was used to luxuries she hadn’t even been able to imagine. The place reminded her of Casey and Nick’s penthouse—comfortable and super classy at the same time.

  The shock on her father’s face when she’d knocked on his door had been priceless.

  She’d taken off her boots and then quietly sat cross-legged on the sofa. Her dad was sitting on the other end.

  Nick and a few bodyguards were outside by her request. She was furious at Linc, but she wasn’t stupid. She’d called Nick to find out where her father was staying, and when he’d offered to come with her and bring a couple of security guys, she’d said yes. As long as they agreed to stay outside the room.

  “Do you think there will ever be a day when we have privacy?” her father asked, smiling softly.

  “That’s part of why I’m here. I need to know your endgame.” She was tired of pretending. One of her life mottos was to always put her cards on the table.

  “I’m not sure what you mean.”

  “Yes, you do. You just found out about me. The father of my baby is a wolf.” One she could never actually be with, but she couldn’t think about that right now. “I can’t live in your world unless my powers are unbound, and I have no intention of doing that. Ever. So what is your endgame?”

  Her father had a worried look. “I did frighten you today.”

  “No. I mean, it was overwhelming, but it wasn’t scary. What was scary was afterward. Something you said, and I think it’s the reason Mom bound my powers and ran away.”

  He leaned forward. “Tell me.”

  On the ride over, it had come to her in one of those weird light bulb moments. “You said with you and mom’s heritage that I’d have some whopping wild powers. I don’t think she wanted that for me. You kept saying she was never comfortable with being royalty, and she didn’t care for the politics. But having a child, one of two of the most powerful fae…”

  Her father frowned as sat back against the arm of the sofa. “You might be on to something.”

  “It was an extreme reaction, but being pregnant, I could understand. I wouldn’t want my child to be the center of all that. Look at England and all the pressure put on the royal family, and then add magic to that. I think Mom made the only choice she could. And you were king, so she couldn’t ask you to run away with her. She loved you, I realize that now. She never said a bad thing about you. Only that you didn’t exist in our world. I didn’t know the truth. Just that you were gone.”

  Her father flinched. He glanced away, and for a long time he stared at the painting over the fireplace.

  “I never remarried,” he said finally. “I’ve loved her for over twenty-five years. I’d hoped that someday she might come home.” His voice caught on the word home. “Where she would have been safe.”

  Bennett didn’t miss the implications of his words. He truly believed that she and her baby would be safer if they went back to the fae kingdom with him.

  She understood his fear. He’d found his family, but now he was in danger of losing them again. And, though he hid it well, he was in mourning. The woman he’d loved for a quarter of a century had been taken from him by cancer, and the daughter he’d never known he’d had was pregnant with the child of the fae’s enemies.

  They were a mess. Like father, like daughter.

  “At the end, before the cancer took her, she talked about the fairies,” Bennett said. “The amazing parties they threw, and how she missed her fairy king. I thought it was the morphine talking.”

  Her father raked a hand over his face. “If she hadn’t bound her powers, she wouldn’t have contracted the disease. I just don’t understand why she wouldn’t save herself. Why she wouldn’t come back to me for help. You were grown. She didn’t have to protect you anymore.”

  “I wish I had answers, but I don’t.” She couldn’t stand it. Despite everything they’d argued about, he was still her father, and he was in pain. She slid down the couch and hugged him.

  At first, his arms stayed by his sides, but then they wrapped around her. “If she’d come to me and told me, I would have helped her. It would have killed me for her to go, but I would have done anything to please her.”

  She released him and sat back enough to look him in the eye. “And how long before you’d have gone in search for her? In some ways, I’m just like her. I understand why she didn’t want to take that chance.”

  Her father stood and walked to the other side of the room, shaking his head. “It was my duty to k
eep her safe. As it is my duty to keep you safe, my daughter. I know you don’t want to hear this, but your mate…”

  “His name’s Linc. And he’s a good man.” She paused, tasting those words. An overprotective jerk, but he was a good man. Her son deserved to know him. “More like you than you realize.”

  “But he’s a wolf. That puts you in danger. I can protect you in our homeland, but I can’t do that with you out here. It isn’t safe. Even if we change the treaties, there are too many on both sides who think the old way is best.”

  She sighed and sat back on her feet. “I don’t know if you guys realize it or not, but this is segregation. And telling someone who they can or cannot love is just wrong.”

  He started toward her, and she rose to meet him. If this was going to turn into a fight, she’d show him what he should have accepted all along. She could take care of herself, and she wasn’t going anywhere she didn’t want to go.

  “Back away or I’ll call the vampire.”

  Her father took a step back. “Okay,” he said.

  “You and Linc will have to figure something out. I’m telling you, he will be a part of my baby’s life. Period. Understood?” She pointed her finger at him. No more pushy dudes.

  Her father held his hands up in surrender. “Yes. I won’t lose you again.”

  That was more like it.

  Now, how would she deal with her Wolf?

  Linc crumpled up another sheet of paper and threw it into the trash bin. He’d tried writing letter after letter to explain to Bennett why he was sorry, how he loved her, why she should trust him again, but they all felt wrong.

  Because in the end, what would a letter do to convince her she could trust him again? A letter was just words, and he’d ruined enough by saying the wrong ones.

  Maybe it was finally time to admit he didn’t have a clue what he was supposed to do next. Maybe it was time to admit even a lone wolf sometimes needed help.