Rutledge Werewolves 1: Scent of Passion (18 page)

“Do you need pointers, brother dear?” Dominic teased as he entered the kitchen and sat himself down. “Last time I saw you, the two of you exuded sex and couldn’t wait to get to the bedroom. Or is that the problem? You took her somewhere else and she’s pissed at your lack of sensitivity?”

“Shut up, Dom,” he snapped, setting up the percolator.

“Maybe we ought to get him some of those self-help videos? You know, those kiddie ones for the high schools, you put A into B and you shake it all about,” Samuel added his two cents.

“Shut the fuck up, Sam,” he snapped, snarling.

“Well, we can’t very well help you if you don’t tell us why Sophie is pissed at you, Art,” William said gently. “So spill, and we’ll see what we can do.

Artemais looked up at his brothers, all of whom now sat quietly at the table looking back at him. He felt a warm rush of love for them. No matter what problems they’d had and troubles they’d found themselves in, they had always been able to rely on each other.

“I asked Sophie to marry me,” he confessed.

“That’s fantastic.”

“Why is she pissed then? Women like that sort of thing.”

Artemais gave Dom a hard look. As usual, William’s comment snared his attention. Sometimes his younger brother was far too damn perceptive for his taste.

“What reason did you give her?”

Artemais felt his shoulders sag.

“I told her it was best for the baby and I felt tired of being jealous of her with other men.”

Three outraged “
Whats!”
made him hunch his shoulders even more.

“Well,’’ he pouted, “I couldn’t think of anything else to say!”

When he looked up all three of his brothers looked like they wanted to go a round with him out behind the barn.

“Art, man, you can’t tell them that sort of crap! You have to say you love them!”

Samuel snorted at Dominic’s perception. “Yeah,” he sneered, “but how many women have
you
told you loved?”

Dom gave him back a dirty glance. “
I
haven’t proposed to any, so I haven’t needed to yet.”

William looked rather pleased with himself, and much more like the old Will Artemais knew and loved.

“Art, buddy, you better go after her or she’ll skin your balls off and hang them from the front gate. Get down on your knees and grovel. She might forgive you.”

“But…” Art trailed off totally confused; he hadn’t realized he loved her until just then. When had this happened? “But…I didn’t know…didn’t realize…”

Looking around the table at his brothers, they each looked comically surprised and astounded at his lack of personal knowledge.

“Oh shit,” he cursed, the crushing knowledge of just how badly he had screwed up his proposal. “She’s going to kill me.”

When his brothers laughed and agreed, jeering and adding filthy comments on what else he could do to appease her, Artemais stood up.

Pointing to each one in turn, he said in his most serious Big Brother voice “If any of you
dare
to mention to Sophie that I needed help in this…!” When they laughed more, he simply held their gaze to show just how serious he felt. They all sobered up and promised.

Artemais ran from the kitchen, scenting Sophie and determined to make it up to her, any way he could.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Sophie sighed and looked around her. She usually had such a good sense of direction, but these woods seemed to always turn her around and around in circles. She had been looking for that special spot Artemais had taken her to yesterday. She had found the creek, but she must have been following it the wrong way. Ten minutes of walking and she could neither see the house, nor anything else, for that matter.

Sitting down where she was, she looked at the gorgeous clear water and frowned, finally letting her mind wander.

It had come as a truly terrifying shock to realize she loved Artemais. She had been blissfully unaware of her state until he had tried to talk her into a marriage of convenience.

She frowned again; this whole situation felt like Artemais’ damn fault. If he hadn’t proposed, then she wouldn’t have realized until later that she loved him, and she could have stayed with him until he realized he loved her too.

Damned men
, she groused,
always screwing up perfectly good relationships
.

Sophie heard twigs snap behind her, and she turned to see Artemais walking towards her. She frowned and turned back to the river.

“I’m not in the mood to talk to you Artemais. Don’t you need to get back to the village to yell at poor Roland?”

Sophie resisted the temptation to turn around when Artemais didn’t reply, but simply stood behind her, obviously waiting. Hunching her shoulders, she fought the impulse to stand up and fight him.

As the seconds ticked by, each one dragging out longer and longer, Sophie gave in to temptation. Standing up fiercely and whirling around she planted her hands on her hips and glared at him.

“How
dare
you ask me to marry you simply for the baby’s sake? Do you have any idea how many children grow up happy and healthy and well-loved with separated parents? I would
never
deny our child her father, but neither will I live in a home with a man who simply wants to keep me around so I won’t run off with his child.”

“Sophie, I—”

“And how
dare
you rationalize your actions by saying you’re tired of feeling jealous?” she continued, not even pausing for breath and totally ignoring Artemais’ interjection, “How the hell can you be feeling jealous? Your brothers wouldn’t do a single ungentlemanly thing, even if I asked them to, out of respect for not only you and me, but because they love me like a sister, not a lover! You’re just pouting because there’s no such thing as jealousy without love, and you haven’t uttered a word about love! Not one single word!”

Belatedly realizing just how much she had told Artemais, Sophie turned back around to stare down at the small creek. She couldn’t tell if she felt upset, or really angry. She seemed to be both, which confused the hell out of her. How can you be angry and upset at the same time? Angrily, she blinked away the tears that formed in her eyes.

Damned pregnancy hormones! Damn them to hell!

She shrugged her shoulders when she felt Artemais come up behind her to lay his warm hands on her. She wasn’t interested in his sympathy or pity. Picturing the mess she must look, she could only imagine how he cringed at having to soothe the irrational, weepy pregnant female she had become without noticing.

It was just too bad. Maybe she should just move back into the city?

“The guys are going to hang shit on me. You should have seen their outrage when I told them the excuses I gave for marrying you.”

“Excuses? I don’t recall asking you to marry me. It’s not needed in this day and age Artemais.”

Sophie felt his sigh brush across her neck. She felt the gooseflesh rise, and the heat of his breath caressed the nape of her neck as he rested his head against her shoulder, pressing in.

“I know you don’t
need
to marry me, Soph. But I really
want
to marry you.”

Sophie bit her lip, refusing to ask “Why?” again. She didn’t think her heart could take any more male rationalizations. When Artemais sighed and rubbed his face into her back, she knew she wouldn’t like his next statement.

“The guys told me to tell you I loved you. And I swear it hit me right in the balls. I didn’t realize I did until they said it. I don’t think they’ll ever respect me again. They were laughing their asses off when I ran from the kitchen. They’ll never take advice from me again. But I swear it’s true.”

Sophie felt herself turned into Artemais’ embrace. She didn’t resist, she wasn’t sure what sort of thoughts were running jumbled through her head. All she knew she felt was the first warm trickle of hope run through her blood.

Sophie looked up into Artemais’ deep blue eyes, and saw love and honesty shining within them.

“I swear I do love you. I love the way you smile and tease me. I love the way your hips swing when you’re tempting me. I get hot and hard when you simply look at me.” Artemais placed one large hand over her still-flat stomach. “I want to go to the doctor’s with you. I want to be there when we get our next ultrasound photo. I want to be there when our son is born.”

“Daughter,” Sophie mischievously injected.

“I’ll make a deal with you,” he replied, laughter glinting in his eyes. “You pick the girl’s name, I’ll pick the boy’s name, and we won’t let the doctors and nurses tell us the gender. It’ll be lots of fun in the delivery room making you eat crow, and saying ‘I told you so.’ How about it?”

Sophie laughed. She quieted down when Artemais took both her hands in his and went down on one knee, right there in the middle of the forest, the damp earth seeping into his jeans and staining them.

“Sophie Melanie Briggs, will you do me the very great honor of becoming my wife and mate in all ways?”

Sophie stared down at Artemais. She smiled slowly, letting her love for him show through her own gray eyes. Pulling him upright she leaned into him and kiss him fiercely.

“I will. I love you too, Artemais, I didn’t realize until I was so very mad at you for those dumb-assed reasons for marriage. You can be the biggest moron sometimes.”

She kissed him hungrily, pulling his shirt out of his jeans so she could run her hands over his warm chest. Feel his heart beat faster and faster as he became turned on and his magnificent cock rose to attention. She blinked, surprised when he pulled away slightly, regretfully.

“I’m so sorry darling. I need to go back to the village…” he trailed off, regret and frustration etched into his face.

Sophie smiled, knowing what she could do in the intervening hours.

“That’s okay, I knew you had to go back. But I want you to promise to put off your brothers on tonight’s poker rematch. Tell them we can do it tomorrow. I want to make plans for us tonight. Upstairs in your rooms.”

Artemais smiled hugely, cock still straining against his jeans.

“I’ll look forward to it. I’ll leave William here with you.” At Sophie’s raised eyebrow, he hastened to explain, “I don’t want you alone if your afternoon sickness is really bad. He can cook you something nice and bland for lunch that you hopefully won’t bring back up again. I want to take Dominic and Samuel with me to see and speak to this Roland guy.”

Sophie frowned, “Artemais, promise me you will listen to him. His mother ran off on him when he was just a boy, and he’s had a hard life. Play nicely with him okay?”

Sophie couldn’t read the expression he wore, but it seemed almost as if pieces of a puzzle were falling into place.

“I’ll be taking him to see old Mona. I won’t beat him to a bloody pulp, I promise.”

Taking his hand in hers, Sophie started walking in the direction she assumed the house stood.

When Artemais cleared his throat, and oh-so-politely inquired in a bland voice, “Where are we going, love?” she smiled, trying to look worldly and innocent at the same time.

“Why I’m leading you back to the house, where else?”

Sophie laughed at Artemais’ wry expression as he turned her ninety degrees and started walking in a totally different direction.

“I think I’ll have to invest in a compass and map for you sweetheart.”

Sophie laughed harder.

“I can’t read a map, or use a compass. The arrow always points north. Now it’s interesting to know which direction north is—but how the hell does that help me if I’m lost? You might want to know I also have trouble reading a map.”

Artemais sighed the long-suffering sigh of a man in love.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Artemais knocked a little more loudly on the door to the small cottage.

“Hey Mona!” he called, “Can we come in, please?”

Artemais, Samuel, Dominic and Roland stood on the small front porch. Dominic had a large grin on his face and a sack full of groceries in his arms. He eyed Roland up and down, trying to disconcert him. Artemais leaned over and growled, “Be nice” into his ear. As he stood back, a tiny old lady opened the door. She seemed wrapped in a patchwork shawl and an ankle-length dark blue skirt.

“This had better be good,” she mumbled, “you’re interrupting my nap and Jerry Springer. Oh, it’s you young Artemais.” She stood back and opened the door wider. “What have you got there, little Dominic?” she eyed the big grocery bag distrustfully.

Dominic bent down and kissed her cheek.

“Some bread and milk and meat, Mona. And a container of your favorite Rocky Road.” A small smile appeared on the old lady’s face.

“Well, I might just put the kettle on then. Come on in you four.”

Artemais felt much better when he realized Mona knew there were four of them. She often ignored someone until she had something to say to him. Hopefully she could answer a few questions he had. Manners were everything to Mona. He had warned Sophie and William they might be gone until dinner, as Mona would likely take her own sweet time telling them anything they wanted to know.