Rutledge Werewolves 1: Scent of Passion (15 page)

“What the hell did you think
you
were doing? These woods aren’t safe for you to walk alone in at night! Why isn’t Art with you? I should turn you over my knee!”

Sophie gasped.

“You wouldn’t dare! Art—Artemais was asleep and I’m a big girl. I can go walking at night alone if I want to! Neither of you are my keeper and I’m not locked up in some jail cell!”

William leaned closer, pulling her to a halt and leaning right into her face.

“Don’t tempt me, Sophie dear. You know I’m a cop, one of the very few all the way out here. If I think locking you up is best for your own protection, I damn well will. That man is strange, and you should be thanking your lucky stars I heard you leave the house and decided to follow you.”

“Follow me! Why—” Sophie spluttered and fairly choked on her words of annoyance, “How dare you—?” before she could finish her righteous rant, something else William just said hit her.

“Strange? Strange how, William? What did you pick up on when you shook his hand?”

William grabbed her arm and started striding back to the house. He finally answered as it came into view.

“That man is a werewolf. I just don’t think he knows it, or won’t admit it yet. I’m not sure. He smells…strange, like a werewolf, but also like a human. I don’t really understand. All I know is he’s strange, and you’re not to go near him again. Understand?”

Sophie sniffed, trying to look disdainful as she scurried to keep up with his long strides.

“I don’t take orders from you or any man, William,” she stated haughtily.

“We’ll see.” He muttered ominously.

* * * * *

“
You did what?
” Artemais shouted, still mussed and half-asleep. Throwing back the comforter and striding forward, gloriously naked, Sophie averted her eyes, suddenly a little less confidant. William stood at the door, arms crossed over his chest. Sophie would bet money he would have smirked if this had been any other circumstance. She blushed at Artemais’ nudity—even if neither he nor William seemed to care about it.

“William, tell me this is some sort of joke to piss me off.” Without even waiting for William’s confirmation, he turned back to Sophie.

“You can’t just go wandering off at night around here. Sweet Jesus, this isn’t a normal city park where the most dangerous animals are sparrows!” Running an agitated hand through his hair, mussing it further, Artemais seemed at a loss for words.

Sophie crossed her hands protectively across her chest. She had asked William to be quiet as she returned to Artemais’ room. He had said it wouldn’t make a difference—that Artemais would wake up as she returned anyway. But she hadn’t believed him. If she had she would have spent the night downstairs on the couch.
Next time she would
, she decided.

“Come on Artemais, you’d think I’d been caught stealing from the secret chocolate stash, from the way you’re acting. All I did was take a little walk for some fresh air.”

Artemais took a step further, obviously still angry.

“You’re more than welcome to any and all the chocolate in the house, Sophie, you know that. But for heaven’s sake, you can’t just go wandering off in the middle of the night!”

Sophie sighed. They were both tired and disjointed—obviously not the best time to start a fight.

“Look,” she soothed, going up to her agitated lover and wrapping her arms around his neck. “Nothing happened. I’m fine. I needed a bit of fresh air and simply wanted to go for a walk. I bumped into some guy called Roland purely by accident. I bet if I’d done this on any other night nothing at all would have happened. Can we go back to sleep now, please?”

Artemais exchanged a look with William. The two men almost seemed to communicate without speaking. William finally nodded, grinning. Giving Sophie a chaste kiss on her cheek, he wished her a good night, and left the bedroom, softly closing the door behind him.

“Now, Sophie,” Artemais started, but she cut him off.

“You can vent at me tomorrow Artemais. I’m tired, let’s just go to sleep.” As she started casually stripping her clothes off, Artemais drew in a ragged breath, and nodded.

“Tomorrow,” he promised, climbing back into the large bed.

As he drew her down, naked and pliant into his arms, he kissed her softly, gently.

Sophie opened her mouth, letting her tongue clash with his and join the mini-mating dance. Artemais groaned and deepened his tongue’s penetration. Rolling her over, so his long body totally covered her own, he nudged her legs apart with his thigh.

“I need you,” he whispered huskily. “When I woke up and saw you enter the room, realized you’d gone out without me, I felt so scared. Anything could have happened to you, to our baby…”

“Shh,” Sophie comforted him. “I’m here. I promise I’ll wake you up next time.”

Artemais groaned, kissed her again and fondled one nipple, feeling it bud in his palm. Sophie arched up into him, greedy for more attention.

“Now, Artemais,” she whispered heatedly in his ear. “I want you. Hard and hot. Right now.”

Artemais moved his hand down from her nipple, down into her curls. Feeling her wet and warm, just for him, he couldn’t wait a second longer. Placing his rigid cock outside her entrance, he paused for a second, making her squirm with anticipation. Without preliminaries, he thrust into her with one stroke.

Sophie cried out, the pleasure exquisite. She arched up into Artemais’ embrace, both his intimate one and his hot, embracing body. Scratching his back, marking him with her nails, she gutturally begged him for more. Artemais felt a surge of pride, of possession. This woman was his. She didn’t realize it, but she was marking him as hers, as he intended to mark her.

Bending low, thrusting his fiercely aroused cock deeper and deeper into her, he bit the spot just above her collarbone. Gently, he sucked and the skin, creating a warm tingle. Marking the skin in the non-visible, permanent manner of his people. Artemais branded Sophie as his alone and thus sealed both their fates.

For better or worse, he had branded her as his. Even as the love bite faded, his essence, his scent would remain on her, warning all others of his kind away from her.

As Sophie arched up, again and again, coming and creaming all over his heavy cock, he let himself go and climaxed himself. Shooting his seed deep into her body, he collapsed over her, sated and happy.

She snuggled into him, rested and warm, quickly falling asleep. Artemais lay quiet for a moment, knowing there was more to the story that William hadn’t told him, but hadn’t wanted to tell him with Sophie listening in. He had that feeling deep in his gut that something strange was afoot, and he’d have to fix it.

Sighing, he curved his body protectively over Sophie’s, wrapping his arms and legs into a tangled mess around her. No way was she getting up for any more midnight strolls again.

He had learned his lessons the first time.

Chapter Nineteen

Sophie came down the stairs and entered the kitchen, grumpy as always in the mornings.

Artemais had already gone down before her, calling out his intentions so she could hear him over the shower spray. One of Sophie’s few indulgences, other than chocolate and ice cream, were always long, hot showers. It was the only thing in the morning that even held the possibility of rousing her from her bed. She hated not being able to drink coffee.

She hated mornings, and she hated chirpy people who always seemed to expect others to be bright and cheery in the morning.

Glancing around grumpily at the four studly men lounging in the kitchen, buttering toast, scrambling eggs, and pouring percolated coffee, she pulled out a chair and settled herself down, rubbing blearily at her eyes.

“Good morning, sweetheart,” Artemais started, far too chirpily. He
knew
she hated the morning. It had taken him considerable effort and a lot of bribery to get her up this morning. “Would you like some eggs, or toast, or maybe some cold cereal?”

Sophie stuck her tongue out at him.

“Just some juice thanks. I’m not hungry. It’s too early to eat just yet.”

William sat down next to her, his mug filled with coffee and a huge plate piled high with toast. Grinning at her, he took a healthy swallow of the coffee and offered her some toast.

“Eat up kid. You’re packing it in for two now.”

Before Sophie could think of a witty comeback, William froze, looked at her carefully, and inhaled deeply. Sophie fought a smile at the thought that a few days ago this would have freaked her out. At some time over the last forty-eight hours she had come to regard these men as her family.

William stared at her collarbone, primly covered with her sweater against the morning chill. Sophie felt herself blush.
He can’t see the hickey
, she reminded herself. But with the strange reaction he showed, then the huge bouts of laughter, as he threw his head back and let loose with his chuckles, Sophie had the uneasy sensation that there was a huge joke going around she wasn’t privy to.

“Well done, brother. About time, even if I do say so myself.”

“What?” Sophie grumped hostilely. “What are you laughing over?”

Wondering about the huge ruckus, both Samuel and Dominic left their bickering over the skillet over whether to cook all six strips of bacon, or only four strips, to come over and see what had their brother laughing so loudly. Standing on either side of her, they also froze, inhaling deeply. Sophie decided enough was enough. She loved these guys, but she felt sick and tired of them sniffing around her like a bunch of dogs around a tasty bone.

“Stop it you two!” she grumped, crossing her arms over her chest for protection. Glaring at Artemais, who wore a huge toothy grin and a smug look of male satisfaction, she imagined for one wonderful moment how he would look while she choked him.

“Make them stop, Artemais.”

Snapping back to reality, Samuel patted her on the back while Dominic punched Artemais with brotherly affection on his arm. Both men congratulated him and complemented him on his prowess.

Not liking the undertones, nor her non-understanding of the joke, Sophie stood up to make her own damn breakfast.

“Would anyone like pancakes?” she sweetly asked, hoping to change the topic of conversation onto more normal footing.

“Oh man,” complained William, “I can’t do justice to those and the toast. Tomorrow?” he begged, eyes wide. Sophie sighed, and helped herself to Dominic’s almost-burning scrambled eggs and bacon.

Sophie ate and drank her fresh orange juice, slowly waking up and becoming her usual, happy self. When Samuel had gently and oh-so-carefully asked her about morning sickness and if that were the cause of her grumpiness, she had smiled, winking at Artemais.

“It doesn’t appear that I get morning sickness, Sam. I am always this grumpy in the morning.” Laughing at his confused expression, she had continued, “I seem to get afternoon sickness. I’m not a morning person, and neither is my child apparently.”

After doing justice to the food, and feeling much better for having something solid in her stomach, Sophie asked Artemais if he could show her around the park and little village nearby.

“Actually Soph,” Artemais cleared his throat, looking warily at her, “I was hoping you could do a bit of shopping yourself this morning. I’ll be more than happy to show you around the park and woods later this afternoon, after lunch. But I have…er…business…to do this morning.”

Sophie looked carefully at her lover. “Business,” she stated, tasting the word in her mouth. Something was obviously up, but what? Artemais flinched at that single word she uttered, but continued with his explanations anyway.

“Yes. Business. You know about the security company. Our main offices are in town, but I can take care of most aspects of it here from home. The wonders of phone, fax and the internet.” He smiled at her, but Sophie noticed it wasn’t his normal smile, it seemed strained and more than a bit forced.

Sophie looked around the table at the rest of his brothers. They all looked at her, with differing levels of expectation. Dominic seemed eager and even as if he looked forward to her exploding. William looked pensive, as if he didn’t agree with Artemais. Samuel grinned cheekily at her, obviously happy with any sort of reaction she gave him.

“Let me get this straight. You want me to go to that tiny village a couple of miles back down the road, and spend the morning shopping. While you do…” Sophie dragged out the word, obvious disbelief in her voice, “…business.”

Artemais grinned, obviously not understanding her skepticism and disbelief.

“Sure thing, sweetie. Here’s my card.”

Reaching into his back pocket for his wallet, he pulled out a gold card and pressed it into her hands.

Sophie realized Artemais was getting rid of her, and panic welled for a moment. It abated the moment inspiration struck.

“William is going to tell you whatever was bothering him last night about that man, isn’t he?”

She smiled at the shock her words created in the room. Dominic and Samuel’s stupid, cheesy grins had been replaced by an annoyingly masculine concern.

“Man?”

“What man?”

“Wills, what’s been happening?”