Black Dagger Brotherhood 11 - Lover at Last

didn’t think it would hurt me.”
    Qhuinn’s chest tightened up, a stab of fear making his heart pound. V and Payne had things about them that were not of this world. And that was cool. But not around his young—for fuck’s sake, V’s hand was a straight-up killer….
    “She took her hand and laid it on my belly, right where the young is….”
    A sensation like Qhuinn’s inner toilet had flushed all the blood out of his head hit hard. “Oh, God—”
    “No, no.” She reached for him. “It wasn’t bad. It felt…good, actually. I was…bathed in this light—it flowed through me, strengthening me. Healing me. It focused on my abdomen, but it went so much further than that. Afterward, I was so worried about her, though. She collapsed on the floor next to the bed….” Layla motioned downward, to the floor. “But then I lost consciousness. I must have slept for a long time. When I finally woke up? That was when I felt…different. At first, I assumed it was because the miscarriage had stopped because it was…over. I ran out and found Blay, and he took me down to the clinic. That’s when you came and Doc Jane told us that…” Layla’s elegant hand touched her lower abdomen, and then lingered there. “That was when she told us that our young is still with us—”
    Her voice broke at that point, and she blinked quickly. “So you see, I think she saved our pregnancy.”
    After a long moment of shock, Qhuinn whispered, “Oh…shit.”

    Back in the parking lot of the restaurant, Assail loomed over the hood of his burglar’s Audi, standing fully in the glare of the headlights.
    Much as he’d done the night before, he locked eyes with her by instinct rather than by sight.
    And as he stood in the cold, he was hot from his temper, and so much else: As that sack of excrement on two legs had escorted her to her car, and had the insanity to kiss her, Assail had been confronted anew by two choices: Track the man into the night and follow through on all that throat tearing, or wait until the human left, and…
    Something deep inside of him had made up his mind: He had been incapable of leaving her.
    His burglar put down her window, and the scent of her arousal made him hard.
    It also made him smile. It was the first time all night he’d caught a whiff of it—and that cooled his temper more than anything else could have.
    Well, except perhaps skinning that man alive.
    “What do you want,” she snarled.
    Oh, wasn’t that the question.
    He moved around to her side of the car. “Did you enjoy yourself?”
    “Excuse me?”
    “I believe you heard the question.”
    She threw open the driver’s side door and jumped out. “How
dare
you expect
any
explanation from me about
anything
—”
    He cranked his weight forward on his hips, leaning in toward her. “May I remind you that you invaded my privacy first—”
    “I didn’t jump in front of your car and—”
    “Did you like what you saw last night?” That clammed her up. And as the silence persisted, he smiled a little. “So you admit you were watching.”
    “You goddamn
knew
I was,” she spat.
    “So, answer the question. Did you like what you saw,” he said in a voice that was husky even to his own ears.
    Oh, yes, he thought as he inhaled deeply. She did.
    “Never mind,” he purred. “You don’t need to put it in words. I already know your answer—”
    She slapped him so fast and so hard, his head actually kicked back on his spine.
    His first instinct was to bare his fangs and bite her, to punish her, to tantalize himself—because there was no better spice to pleasure than a little pain. Or a lot of it.
    He righted his head and lowered his lids. “That felt good. Do you want to do it again?”
    As another bloom emanated from her, he laughed down deep in his chest, and thought, yes, indeed, this reaction from her had just ensured that that human man was going to keep living. Or at least die by the hands of another.
    She wanted himself. And no other.
    Assail eased even closer, until his lips were right next to her ear. “What did you do when you got home? Or couldn’t you wait that long.”
    She took a deliberate step back. “You want to know? Fine. I changed the cat litter, made myself two scrambled eggs and a piece of cinnamon toast, and then I put myself to bed.”
    He took a deliberate step forward. “What did you do when you were in between the sheets?”
    As that scent of hers flared once again, he put his mouth backwhere it had