Rutledge Werewolves 1: Scent of Passion (8 page)

“Ah!” he exclaimed, serving her up a full plate of bacon, potato bites, eggs and sausages, “Now
that
is a Rutledge manly trait appearing. Our son is already proving his superior genes.”

Sophie glared at him and bit down vengefully on the tip of the sausage. Artemais tried not to wince, but knew he had failed when he saw the glint of laughter in the gray eyes sparkling across the table at him.

Between the two of them, they managed to eat everything he cooked up, as well as drink down half a quart of juice. After listening to her bemoan for five minutes straight her unwillingness to drink coffee, for fear of the caffeine hurting the baby, he knew he also would be abstaining from drinking coffee in the mornings until her pregnancy finished. As she was a self-confessed morning coffee two-cup addict, it seemed the least he could do for her.

With breakfast eaten and the plates scraped, he decided it would be prudent for him to begin the rinsing of the dishes while Sophie went to clean her teeth. As he filled the sink up with fresh water and soap, he started washing the pans and crockery.

“You cook
and
clean?” Sophie exclaimed on returning back to the kitchen, raising one hand theatrically to her head, “be still my heart! You must be a gem among men!”

Artemais laughed.

“My brothers and I take turns, one cooks, another cleans, and we rotate through the days. I am a very house-trained male, never fear.”

Sophie laughed, so Artemais decided now would be the best time to broach his question.

“Have you seen a doctor yet, Soph?”

He noticed her still, like a deer caught in headlights.

“I was going to yesterday, but between quitting and eating a mountain of ice cream I never made it. Why?”

Artemais stacked the last dish on the drying rack and wiped his hands on the tea towel. Gently clasping both her shoulders in his hands he looked down into her face.

“Just wondering, love. Nothing sinister. I am under the illusion that it is standard procedure to get a general checkup from the doctor once you realize you’re pregnant, right?”

When she nodded, he smiled.

“Then let’s make the appointment. I don’t want anything bad to happen to my little man in there.”

Sophie released her breath.

“I’m sorry, Artemais, I know you didn’t mean it as a personal remark. I think I’m a tad grouchy first thing in the mornings.”

He laughed and kissed the tip of her nose. He couldn’t resist.

“You? Never! Come on—make the phone call and I’ll come with you—I’d like to see my son.”

Sophie rolled her eyes and bit down on her lip to keep herself from pointing out her child wasn’t necessarily a boy. She knew he would listen politely and then continue to refer to their child as male anyway. She might as well pick her battles.

Dialing the phone, she rebooked her appointment for later that morning. Hanging up, she waved him into the bathroom.

“Go on. Get cleaned up and we can head on out. We can walk from here, the fresh air might do us both good.”

Artemais quickly gave her a most chaste and fleeting kiss, then hurried into the sanctity of the bathroom before she could complain of his taking liberties. He liked this side of his mate, the grouchy, first-thing-in-the-morning rumpled look. He would never have guessed she had this side to her from what he had seen.

She was full of surprises and he couldn’t wait to unearth more.

Chapter Nine

Sophie twisted her head and shoulders back once again to look at the large ultrasound monitor and equipment attached.

“Relax, love. I’m sure the nurse has done this a number of times before.”

Sophie pouted.

“I don’t care. I’m not certain I trust this. I mean, what if the machine fries itself and hurts the baby? What if the ultrasound waves hurt her? What if she’s sensitive—or, oh my gosh!—what if she’s allergic to something? What if it hurts her?”

“Shh… I’m not going to let anything hurt you, Soph. Trust me. We’ve already asked that poor Doctor a zillion and one questions. She assured us everything was above board and nothing would hurt the baby.”

Sophie bit down on her lip. She knew she was being stupid, but she couldn’t help but worry. She twisted back to look at the handle-like object connected to the monitor.

“I still don’t like it. I’m not sure we should be doing this.”

Before Artemais could start pulling at his hair, a nurse walked through the curtain, obviously overhearing her comment.

“Don’t worry Mrs. Rutledge, I promise we do this every day. There aren’t any adverse reactions or effects. It’s all perfectly safe.”

“I’m not—”

Artemais squeezed her hand, tightly, so she cut off her words.

The nurse smiled soothingly, obviously used to calming half-hysterical mothers-to-be every day. Sophie mumbled under her breath something to the effect of cursing all men and the problems they bear upon their women. Artemais ignored the implied thrust to his ego and manhood. He simply felt too excited to be catching the first glimpse of his son.

The nurse told Sophie to raise her shirt and pull her jeans below her hips, baring her abdomen, then smeared a healthy dollop of conductive gel onto the handle of the ultrasound.

Artemais held Sophie’s hand as she squealed her protests of the chilly gel on her warm skin. It took all his control and effort not to laugh aloud at her girlish complaints.

Five minutes later the nurse turned the monitor so they could both easily see the screen.

“There’s your baby. It’s too early to determine it’s gender, but in a couple of months time we should be able to get a decent look—if we’re lucky and baby here cooperates by positioning itself correctly.”

Artemais looked carefully and the black and white grainy images on the screen. He and Sophie studied the image intensely. The more he looked, the clearer the grainy image appeared. He could detect the head, and the blob of the rest of the body.

His son was so tiny!

Artemais felt tears gather in his eyes, and he blinked rapidly, trying to force them away. His mouth hung partially open, and he could no longer resist. He stepped forward, right up to the side of Sophie’s bed and leaned over her, to touch the screen.

Delicately, as if the screen were made of a soap bubble  and to hurt it would shatter his son, he oh-so-lightly ran his fingers up and down his son.

“My boy.” He stated simply, completely overcome by the moment.

For once, Sophie did not retort her beliefs on the gender of their child.

Snapping back to reality, he realized that he could merely
see
his son on this screen, but all this was actually inside his Sophie. The instant the thought took hold he looked down at his woman, his mate. This woman bore his child.

He grinned, and looked down at her gel-smeared stomach. He swirled a few patterns in the jelly on her abdomen, reaching from just below her breasts to just above the line of her lower curls.

“Thank you, Sophie. Thank you for sharing this with me.”

He noticed a suspicious wetness to Sophie’s eyes also. As she was not mentioning the moisture in his, he refrained from teasing her. They simply stared at each other for a moment of simple understanding. They both cared for each other, and they both loved their child with all that was in them. They both wanted to protect it, cherish it and raise a happy, healthy baby. Nothing else seemed important when compared to that.

* * * * *

Sophie had forgotten how uncomfortable the hospital cot was, how the crick in her neck ached from staring back at the ultrasound monitor, even how annoyed and scared she felt with all this machinery and sick-people stuff surrounding her. Her fears this might adversely affect her little baby flitted on the edges of her mind, but she firmly squashed them.

All she could see was the touching love and devotion
radiating
from Artemais. If she had entertained even the
smallest
of doubts for his love and caring towards this baby, they were now set at rest. She knew with that natural instinct she came to listen to more and more, this man loved their baby, was
devoted
to the health and well-being of this baby. In this sense, she fully trusted him.

Unfortunately, this brought up a few tricky questions. If Artemais loved this baby, she had no right to deny him or the baby a happy, full relationship. Now she merely needed to know if Artemais could care for her apart from their child. Not an easy feat to work out. That would require trust, and probably much more time spent together.

Sophie looked deep into Artemais’ eyes. He had taken the first steps. He had stuck by her, even when his brothers left them to head back to his precious home. That had been a step of faith and trust and commitment from him. Surely she could return the favor? Just because she would come to spend a week or two out in
his
natural environment didn’t mean she was caving in, surely?

Sophie scrunched her face in thought. All relationships were two-way streets, and so far everything had gone her way. Artemais had found
her
—she hadn’t gone looking for him. Artemais had stayed
with her
—she hadn’t budged an inch for him. Artemais was here
with her
, holding her hand and soothing her fears about the evils of the ultrasound and promising to do battle with all sorts of nasty looking machinery to keep their baby safe.

What exactly had she done for him? Been stupid enough to miss a pill and fall pregnant? Have the well-meaning intention of looking him up in the near future to casually inform him he would be siring a baby?

Sophie berated herself. She was stronger than this! He had no right to insist she move house and cater to his whim—but so far he hadn’t offered her anything permanent! He had merely asked her to come back to his place to make life simpler for him so they could get to know each other.

Sophie barely registered the nurse freezing the ultrasound screen and mumbling, “I’ll leave you two to chat to your baby,” and exited the small space.

Sophie took another look at her child, her daughter. She was such a tiny, itsy thing sleeping and growing inside her. Sophie figured that she deserved to get to know Artemais much better, not just for her own peace of mind, but also for their baby.

“If I don’t like your place, do you swear to let me come back here? Come home?”

Artemais looked carefully at her, obviously weighing his words.

“I trust you to take some time, to let us get to know each other. I know we don’t know each other very intimately,” at her blush he hastily continued, “or at least know each other’s personalities very intimately. I just want us to make the best go of this possible. I always assumed to have a family unit much like I had myself as a child, two parents, many children, lots of noise and fuss in the house. I’d like to think we’re both mature enough and we care enough for each other to
try
and make this work.”

Sophie nodded.

“Let’s try. But we can drive up in my car, so I have a means of transportation. I’ve never stayed long in the country. It might drive me mad with boredom.”

Artemais grinned a toothy, half-feral grin she knew she would soon adore and make her melt every time.

“I promise you, Soph. You won’t be bored for long. Something is always happening around our place.”

She nodded. Looking back to the monitor, she nearly spoke again when the nurse came in.

She smiled. “Seen enough?”

Sophie laughed. “Never. Can you print that out? So we can take it back with us and show my partner’s brothers?”

The nurse looked at Artemais and nearly drooled.

“Of course.”

Artemais looked at Sophie and winked.

“Baby’s first photo. The boys will be totally stoked to see it. We might need to stop off at a copy shop before we drive back to make duplicates.”

Sophie laughed, feeling lighthearted for the first time in a while. She and Artemais were going to try to make things work, she might even have another few chances to try for that incredible sex again and her tiny baby was happy, healthy and safe.

“Maybe we should make a number of photos. I might want a couple myself. One for my handbag, one for the mantelpiece, one for my bedroom…”

Laughing at Artemais’ wry expression she tried to choke her giggles down. Taking his hand, she let him help her off the hospital cot.

“One thing at a time sweetheart, hmm?”

Chapter Ten

Sophie tried hard not to doze in the car on the way to Artemais’ house. It was late afternoon and she felt physically and emotionally wrung out. After making six copies of the grainy ultrasound photo and tucking away the original in her little keepsakes box on her desk, she and Artemais had ordered in pizza and New York style cheesecake to celebrate.

They dined heartily, laughing and swapping stories, guzzling milk and exchanging more and more outrageous first-date stories. They were having a blast, one-upping each other until a particularly unpleasant story of Artemais’—explaining why he could never look at green silk dresses in the same manner again—“C
an you imagine how well it covers vomit when your date drinks too much and then tries dancing in stilettos to the band’s music?
” This particularly unpleasant story had her clutching her stomach to stop her laughter, tears streaming down her cheeks.