The Alpha's Baby (15 page)

She lay down in bed next to him and patted his chest. "What's the matter?"

Sebastian turned his head toward her, then opened and shut his mouth several times.

"Well?" She raised an eyebrow. "Are you okay?"

"No, Emmy, I'm not." Sebastian ran a hand through his hair.

"But you seemed okay after we, you know, did it," she said.

"Yeah, but…" Sebastian swallowed. "I feel guilty."

If there were ever words to kill postcoital bliss, it was those.

"What do you mean?" she asked slowly, unable to keep her voice steady.

"I haven't been honest with you." Sebastian shook his head. "When you said I was hiding something, you were right."

Emmy sank onto the bed, feeling happiness drain out of her. So she'd been right about Sebastian after all. She'd felt that there was something wrong. Burning curiosity filled her. Even though she wanted to shake the truth out of Sebastian, she forced herself to remain silent; otherwise, the man might just stop talking.

"The thing is, I'm not who you think I am," Sebastian said. "I'm not even
what
you think I am."

What on earth was that supposed to mean? "Um, okay."

"I'm not human." Sebastian met her eyes.

It took her a moment to register what he was saying. Not human? Did he mean that he was so cruel he seemed inhuman or something? No, that didn't fit. Sebastian was many things, but cruel was not one of them.

"I don't understand what you're saying," she said.

Sebastian ground his teeth. "I didn't think that you would."

"Are you saying that you act inhuman?" Like did he devour squirrels in an attempt to get in touch with his primal side?

"No, sweetheart, I'm saying that I'm a…a…werewolf." He paused.

The man stared at her, waiting for a reaction.

"A werewolf?" she said.

Several seconds went by as she tried to digest what he'd just said. And unfortunately, it didn't digest well.

Her stomach was churning as she spat out, "Are you turning my concerns into a joke?"

Emmy seized a pillow and whacked him over the head with it.

Before she could hit him again, he grabbed her wrist. "I'm not kidding."

"Bullshit." She rolled her eyes. "I'm not a twelve-year-old at a slumber party, you know. Do you think I'm going to fall for some ridiculous horror story?"

He sighed. "No, I don't."

"I should make you sleep on the floor for winding me up like that." Emmy kicked him in the leg and flopped onto the bed. "You know, for a second there I thought you were serious."

Sebastian lay down beside her, his hands on his stomach. "Serious…yeah…"

"Were you about to feed me crap about our baby being a werewolf too?"

"Well, if I'm a werewolf, then yes, our baby would be one." There was something off about his voice, but since he was well enough to kid her, she wasn't that concerned.

"I can imagine the bonding exercises the two of you could do." Emmy wrinkled her nose. "Would you howl at the moon together? Would you teach our baby to hunt at a young age?"

Sebastian didn't say anything.

"You know what, a full moon is three days from now." She placed her hands behind her head. "Maybe I should be concerned that the baby is going to burst from my womb and start attacking people. After all, werewolves can't control their hunger for human flesh."

"You've been watching way too many horror movies," he said.

"Says the man who just finished watching,
Kill All the Teenage Girls Part 4
."

"I know that wasn't the title." The man began to smile again, but he was still tense.

"It might as well have been."

"I thought you liked horror movies," he said.

"I do like horror movies." For some reason, they'd always appealed to her. "I never said I didn't enjoy
Kill All the Teenager Girls Part 4
."

The man studied her. "So you like to watch a bunch of screaming girls get murdered?"

"I'm a bloodthirsty wench, what can I say?"

"Did you just call yourself a bloodthirsty wench?" Sebastian ran his fingers over her stomach, grinning from ear to ear. "That's kind of hot."

"Hey, watch your hand, mister." She pushed him away. "No more sexy time."

"Ah, why not?" He nibbled on her earlobe.

"I have to work tomorrow." Even as she said the words, she was grinning.

He fondled her breast. "Still no?"

"Still no."

"Hmm." The man shoved his hand into her pajama bottoms and stuck his finger inside of her pussy, making her suck in air. "How about now?"

Groaning, she stared at her fiancé as her cunt pulsed with desire.

"All right, just one more time," she said. "
Only
one more."

"One more it is, sweetheart." Sebastian winked and kissed her.

The next morning, Emmy cursed as her alarm clock went off. She couldn't believe that it was morning already. She sat up and glanced down at Sebastian who was lying at her side. Her exhaustion was his entire fault. One sex session had turned into two and then three. Okay, she may have agreed to make love every time, but really, who could say no to Sebastian? The man fiddled with her girlie bits and suddenly, she was willing to fuck all night.

Sighing, Emmy climbed out of bed, half wanting to whack him over the head with a pillow to rouse him from his sleep. Fortunately—or maybe unfortunately—no whacking was needed. Sebastian sat up, looking as gorgeous as ever despite the fact it was so early.

"You don't have to get out of bed." Though if he did, she'd at least have somebody to be tired with.

"Yes, I do. I'm going to the bakery." Sebastian yawned. "After all, I promised I'd keep you safe, didn't I?"

"Well, yeah." She just hadn't thought that meant he'd come with her to work.

"Trust me, I take protecting you seriously." Sebastian climbed out of bed, looking scrumptious with his tight ass and his bulging muscles.

Unfortunately, Sebastian saw her gawking. "We might have time for one more round of hot sex before we go."

"No." She glared at him.

"I bet I could turn that no into a yes." He gave her a seductive grin.

Since she also bet that he could turn her no into a yes, she did the only thing she could in order to keep her hoo-haw safe from her lack of self-control—she locked herself in the bathroom.

Sebastian roared with laughter outside of the bathroom door. "Nice. Real mature."

"Oh, go get the coffee started, you lecher," she said.

"Lecher?" He feigned hurt. "I believe it was you who jumped on top of me in the middle of the night."

Her face burned. "I was on my way to the bathroom and lost my balance while getting out of bed."

"Excuses, excuses." Sebastian laughed again.

"If you were in here with me, I'd throttle you," she said.

"Sure you would, sweetheart." Sebastian snorted.

"One of these times, you'll push me too far."

"Jeez, you're feisty in the morning," he said.

"Just make me some coffee before I commit homicide." If she didn't have caffeine in her system soon, she wasn't sure what she'd do.

"I'm on it," he said.

After she was certain that Sebastian had gone into the kitchen, she washed her face and brushed her teeth. Just as she was pulling her hair into a ponytail, Sebastian's words from last night floated into her head:
"No, sweetheart, I'm saying that I'm a…a…werewolf."
For some odd reason, the hair on the back of her neck stood on end.

"I really am the most naive human being on the face of the planet." She fluffed her bangs as she glared at her reflection.

Sebastian had been messing with her. She shouldn't believe a word of what she said. After she forced all thoughts of werewolves from her mind, she stepped out of the bathroom. Unfortunately, that was when she smelled something burning. Not good.

She hurriedly rushed into the kitchen. Sebastian had not only started the coffee, he was also cooking bacon. Or, more rather,
burning
bacon.

"What the hell are you doing?" Bacon was a holy food. It shouldn't be tarnished.

"Cooking breakfast?" Sebastian glanced at her sheepishly.

She looked down at the cinders in the frying pan. "This was beyond cooked two minutes ago. I believe what you have now is called ash."

"I bet it's still edible." Sebastian reached to pick a piece of bacon out of the frying pan.

"It's still hot. Don't—"

Sebastian grabbed the piece of bacon and then dropped it in a hurry. "Son of a bitch!"

"Grab it." She sighed in exasperation.

"Ouch." He glared at the bad burn on his finger.

"Oh, good grief." She shook her head. "I've seen five-year-olds with more sense."

"You aren't the pitying type, are you?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Not when I see a full-grown man stick his finger in a smoldering skillet I'm not." Yet even as she said the words, she grabbed a paper towel in order to clean his wound.

"Yeah, I probably shouldn't have done that." The man was grinning again, despite the fact that he must have been in pain.

She seized his wrist. "Let me see your finger."

"I'm fine." He tried to pull his wrist away.

"At least let me look at it." Scowling, she yanked at his wrist again and was shocked to see an untarnished finger.

He shrugged. "I told you, I'm fine."

"But I saw a burn." She stared down at his finger in disbelief.

In response, Sebastian said nothing. At that moment, she realized she must have been going nuts. There was no burn.

"Or I saw nothing." She threw up her hands. "You're fine."

Sebastian met her eyes.

"What?" She raised an eyebrow.

The man sighed as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.

"Seriously, what's wrong?" She placed her hand on his head. "Don't tell me the burned bacon fumes liquefied your brain."

"Ha, ha, ha." He rolled his eyes.

"What inspired you to make bacon, anyway?"

"Well, you're pregnant, so I thought you needed something for breakfast," he said.

"Leave the cooking to the chef." She winked at him.

She headed to the refrigerator and pulled out a package of microwavable bacon. After placing the pieces of bacon on a plate, she popped the food into the microwave for thirty seconds.

"Ta-da!" She waved dramatically at the microwave. "Bacon perfection."

Sebastian chuckled. "You're cooking skills are something else."

"Well, I can say that I'm smart enough to read the word 'microwavable' on the package…sweetheart." Then she laid a kiss on his lips and went to grab her purse.

****

By midafternoon, Emmy was puking again, and she couldn't even blame it on Sebastian's overcooked bacon. While she laid her chin on the toilet seat, she made inventive promises to God. If he stopped her from puking, she'd be nicer to employees. She'd even stop giving other drivers the middle finger on the freeway. Hell, she might share her double-fudge ice cream with Sebastian.

Okay, maybe she wouldn't share her ice cream, but she'd do everything else.

Unfortunately, God must not have been impressed with her promises, because five seconds later, she was puking into the toilet again. By the time she was done vomiting, she was shocked that she still had a spleen. Sinking to the floor by the toilet, she ran her hands through her hair and cursed underneath her breath. Naturally, somebody chose that exact moment to call her cell phone. Musical clinging filled the air, and she swore before answering it.

"Hello," her mom, Ann, said.

She should have known. Her mom always sensed when she was miserable.

"Hey." She wiped her vomit from her mouth.

"Are you okay?" her mom asked. "You sound hoarse."

"I'm okay. I just have a little stomach bug."

Liar, liar pants on fire,
she thought. Still it wasn't like she could say, "Hey, Mom, guess what? I'm knocked up!" over the phone. Her mom might faint, and her religious dad would take out his shotgun and chase Sebastian around with it. Turning the other cheek was all well and good—until a Catholic man's daughter got pregnant outside of wedlock.

"You're sick because you work too much," her mom said. "Don't I always say that you work too much?"

She rolled her eyes. Her mom lived fifty miles away and
still
nagged. "Yes, Mom."

"And it would help your immune system if you ate more. You're too skinny," her mom said. "You should come over. I'll have you fattened up in no time."

"Mom, I'm healthy."

"You're obviously not, if you're getting sick," her mom said.

She had to fight the urge to drop the phone in the toilet just to get out of this conversation. Yes, she loved her parents, but she always wondered how she'd managed to live with them for twenty years without jumping in front of a fast-approaching train.

And just wait until they find out that you're pregnant,
an evil voice said in her head.

Shit. Her hands shook at the thought, but she knew she had to tell them. They were her parents, after all. It wasn't like she could keep their grandkid a secret from them…or wait, maybe she could. She winced at her own cowardly thinking. When she told them, the worst thing that could happen was that her mom would cry and her dad would say he was disappointed in her. Still she'd always had the I-must-please-my-mommy-and-daddy gene. She wanted to make them happy, even if she never managed it.

"You know, I'm glad you called." Sort of. "I need to come over sometime. We have something that we need to discuss."

"Uh-oh. This has to be about the bakery." Her mom gasped. "You're running out of money, aren't you? I told you that starting a business straight out of college was an awful idea."

"Mom, my business is going fine." Her mouth twitched. Sometimes when she went a few weeks without calling her mom, she forgot how hard conversing with her could be. "In fact, my sales have been going up since February."

"Oh." Her mom sounded insultingly shocked. "What is it, then?"

"I'll tell you when I come over," she said.