Bled Dry (Vegas Vampires #3)(20)
Author: Erin McCarthy

Her cheeks turned red. “I cut it, obviously. It will be easier to take care of this way after the baby is born.”

Corbin swung his legs over, wincing inwardly at the error he had just made. Her chin was raised defiantly, her eyes flashing. He hadn’t meant to give away his presence at all, or speak to her, but he had been unable to resist. He had been hovering on the rooftop so the other vampires wouldn’t sense his presence, contemplating the best strategy to get a glimpse of her. He had been intending to actually wait for her at her apartment, but had been in the hallway when he had heard her getting off the elevator.

So he had been hanging around outside like a rather pathetic lovelorn Lothario when he had heard the door open and Brittany step out with the others. He’d known it was her. He would recognize her scent anywhere, and while he hadn’t been able to understand her words, he knew that lilting compassionate voice well.

He had moved onto the balcony next to her to maybe steal a word or two, perhaps a kiss, but now he had ruined the moment.

“Your haircut is stunning.” Literally. Corbin tried not to stare and failed. It wasn’t that it looked bad, it was just so different, so much starker than what he was used to. “You look very beautiful tonight.” That was true. But she was changing, changing without him, it seemed, growing bigger still in the chest, her belly swelling slightly in the black dress she wore, her lips painted a rich brown, her hair edgy and sophisticated. She wasn’t looking at him in the way he was accustomed to—with soft eyes and pouty open lips, shoulders relaxed.

Instead she was angry and it showed in the set of her jaw, the proud tilt of her hair, and the way she kept her hands still at her side. She had diamonds in her ears and they flashed as she turned her head a little. There was a wariness and a reserve about her that was new, unsettling.

“Thank you,” was all she said.

“I have missed you,” Corbin said, feeling a little hesitant, unsure of her reaction. It seemed as if she was angry about more than his reaction to her hair. “I could not stay away, even if it is not wise.”

Silent for a moment, she leaned on the railing and stared out at the city. “The primary election is over. Ethan won so there’s no reason to be secretive.”

How did he respond to that? As far as he was concerned, there very much was still a need to keep their relationship a secret. “But just the primary, not the presidency. It still wouldn’t be prudent to advertise who the father of your child is,” he said carefully, well aware how close they were to fifty conservative vampires.

Her lips pursed and she whipped her head around. “You’re trying to ditch out on me, aren’t you? You don’t want anyone to know the baby is yours… all that stuff you said about us being together, about you wanting to be the father, it was a crock, wasn’t it?”

Corbin was startled. He leaped from his balcony to hers and dropped next to her. She flinched when he touched her arm. “Brittany.”

She didn’t look at him, but stared out at the night again. “Just be honest.”

While she looked strong and steady, harder, with the new blunt hairstyle, her voice trembled a little. Corbin was baffled, uncertain. He tried to embrace her from behind, but she shrugged him off.

“I meant everything I said. Why would you suggest otherwise?”

“You never called or e-mailed me or tried to see me or anything. You never asked about the baby!”

Horrified at the wail she gave at the end of her sentence, Corbin tried to turn her to face him, but she moved out of his reach. “I was keeping my distance, like we agreed. I don’t have e-mail, and I knew if I came and saw you, I would want to make love to you. Then I wouldn’t want to leave you, so I stayed away. I sent flowers,” he added, because he did want credit for something. He had thought that would suffice as a gesture of his devotion, though perhaps he should have given it more thought.

Because truthfully, he had not attempted to court a woman since the 1830s. In recent centuries he had slaked his sexual needs with women of questionable moral character, but it had probably been twenty years since he’d even done that. He’d been working, not dating. He supposed things might have changed a bit in the interim.

“Whoop-de-doo,” she said.

Corbin felt his jaw drop. “What es zat supposed to mean?”

“Nothing. It means nothing,” she said, though clearly it meant all manner of things. “So what have you been doing for the past eight weeks?”

Did she really want an answer or not? Corbin hesitated, concerned he might say the wrong thing. Perhaps this distress from Brittany was the pregnancy hormones at work.

She glared at him. “Well?”

“I have been working nonstop.” In fact, he had been injecting himself with drugs, trying to find the correct combination to inhibit the vampire virus. Interestingly, his aversion to daylight had decreased, as had his ability to mind-read, but other than that, he had seen no alterations in his behavior. He still needed and hungered for the blood. But he was convinced he was right at the edge of the correct combination. One or two more trials, that was all.

“That’s it?”

“Yes, that’s it. I’ve been in my lab sixteen hours a night.” He moved closer to her, starting to sense a little jealousy. “My work is very important.” He smiled. “But protecting you and our child is more important. I had a terrible time resisting the urge to come over here and make love to you every night.”

She turned her face away from him, but she didn’t protest when he took her hand, when he ran his lips over her cheek and jaw. “And I do care about the baby. So much so that I have done the strangest thing.”

Her head whipped around. “What?”

He still couldn’t quite believe he’d done this, but he had spent many nights worrying about the baby, worrying about his lack of experience with children, pondering some of the questions about child-rearing Brittany had raised. “I signed up for a class.”

“What class?” she asked suspiciously.

Corbin cleared his throat and tried not to wince. “It es a class for first-time fathers. Baby Boot Camp.”

Six

Ringo climbed carefully out of bed and stretched, watching Kelsey sleep. There was no sign of movement other than her naked chest rising and falling steadily. He almost regretted what he was about to do. Almost.

Traveling with Kelsey wasn’t bad. She had been brilliant in distracting the guard back at Carrick’s hotel in Vegas, and she hadn’t given much of a protest when he had suggested they extend their honeymoon, see the country, that sort of shit, even though they both knew he was breaking vampire law. She didn’t complain that he had her staying in flea-bag motels to save cash, and she gave amazing head.