Full Moon Rising

It set the scene for the rest of the day. Sex that was hard and fast. Anywhere and everywhere

It was early afternoon before the fever faded and either of us was able to rest. By then, we were in one of those swim spas that seemed bigger than my whole bedroom. Walls of glass surrounded us on two sides and would have allowed us the view of the city and the bay had the rain not come in and turned the world gray

I floated in the bubbly heat, the faint scents of lemon and lime teasing my nostrils as I flicked water up with my toes, watching the droplets glitter in the cold afternoon light

“You seem pensive, little wolf.”

I looked at him. He sat on the molded bench seat down the far end, golden arms stretched out along the edge of the spa, muscular body touched with the warmth of the water

“Just worried about Rhoan.” Liander hadn’t yet phoned, and that couldn’t be a good sign. If he didn’t ring in the next half hour, I was calling him

“You found him.”

It wasn’t a question, more a statement, which was odd. I nodded. “He wasn’t well, so I’ve a friend at home watching him.” I might trust Talon with my body, but I wasn’t about to trust him with my twin’s safety

“He’s a wolf. We’re strong by nature. He’ll be okay.”

I nodded again. I knew that, but the worry was, what had Moneisha been doing to him? Just because there’d been no visible cuts or bruising didn’t mean there weren’t any. Didn’t mean deeper damage hadn’t been done

“Champagne?” Talon asked, reaching for the half-empty bottle near the steps

I shook my head. “No. It doesn’t seem to agree with me.”

He poured himself a glass and drank it down in one gulp. It seemed he liked the bubbly stuff the way he preferred his sex. And as much as it was physically satisfying, part of me was begi

My gaze drifted back to the gray-clad sky. What would it be like to make love with Qui

“Have you ever thought about the future, little wolf?” Talon poured himself another glass of champagne, then leaned against the wall again

I slanted him a curious glance and wondered where he was headed with a question like that. “No, not really. Why?”

“So you have no idea where you want to be in ten, or twenty years’ time?”

“No.” Mainly because no one seemed to know how much time I actually had. Werewolves generally lived somewhere between one hundred fifty and two hundred years. But vampires were eternal, unless killed. No one knew which side of the fence I would fall on. So far, my development was slower than a wolf’s normally would be; but, by the same token, I wasn’t years behind the norm

I tended to treat the longevity problem the same way I treated the whole fertility problem—by not really thinking about it. When it became a problem, then I’d worry

“So you’ve had no yearning for children or marriage or anything like that?” he asked

“Of course I have—but the time isn’t right yet for such things.”

He reached out as I drifted near to him, snagging my hand and tugging me closer. As I settled on his lap, he said, “And if it was?”

“Then yeah, kids and marriage would definitely be on the agenda.” I could feel the rising force of his erection, but for the moment, he made no attempt to enter. “What about you? Do all these questions mean the lone wolf is actually thinking about settling down sometime in the near future?”

He laughed. “No. But I do want a son. I want my name carried on in the next generation.”

I gri

“There are ways to ensure gender.”

“I prefer to rely on nature.” Although if I relied on nature, I’d never get pregnant

“So you do want to have kids sometime in the future?”

I frowned. Hadn’t I just answered that question? “As I said, yes. If I meet the right man.”

“And if you don’t?”

“I don’t know. I’ll worry about it when the time comes.”

His hands slid down to my hips, shifting me, then holding me still as he slid his cock deep inside. And while the lingering moon heat had me half-ready to take him, his continuing avoidance of any form of foreplay was begi

And I said as much

He merely gri

“It may not matter to you, but it does to me.” I pried his hands off my hips and pushed away from him, kicking water in his face as I floated back to the center of the spa

Surprise flitted through his golden eyes. He hadn’t expected me to be so strong. “You weren’t so concerned about the foreplay this morning, little wolf.”

“That was this morning. This is now.”

“There’s no satisfying you females, is there? No matter what we do, we’re wrong.” Though it was said with a smile, the spark of anger lit his eyes. He didn’t like being denied, even for something as simple as sex

“What is foreplay going to cost you? Ten? Fifteen minutes? Not much, in the scheme of things.”

“Do I satisfy you, little wolf?”

“Mostly.”

“Then what is the problem?”

I shook my head. I’d beaten my head against this particular wall before and knew from past experiences that nothing would ever change. Talon was what he was—I either put up with it or left

Still…

“The problem is you just presume. You never even bother to ask.”

He studied me for a moment, expression one of thoughtful consideration. I had a bad feeling that our relationship was about to change in some unfathomable way

“Then I have a question for you, little wolf.”

Though that bad feeling was growing, I gri

“That wasn’t the question.”

Like I didn’t know that? “Then what is?”

“Will you have my child?”

Surprise hit like a club but I somehow managed to say, “What?”

“I want you to carry my child.”

“But…” My voice faded. Was he absolutely crazy? Maybe the heat of the spa had fried a brain cell or two. Surely he had to realize I wasn’t about to take the risk of having kids with a man I didn’t love. “We’re not soul mates.”

“So? I don’t want to swear eternity to the moon, little wolf. I just want a son.”

“So wait for your soul mate.”

“I don’t want a soul mate. I want to take my pleasure when and where I choose. But I also want a son to carry my name and take over my empire when I die.”

Empire? Lord, his businesses weren’t that big… were they? I shook my head, unable to believe he was actually serious. “So why me?”

“Because you are unlike any female I have met, and a son of ours would be strong.”

“This is madness, Talon. I don’t want a child with you—or anyone else—at this moment. And just in case I’ve never mentioned it, there’s a history of conception problems in my family. That’s why the red packs are so few.”

Which wasn’t a lie. The red packs were small in number for precisely that reason. Which is why none of my earlier doctors had picked up the real reason behind my fertility problem. They’d all been working on the premise that I’d inherited the barre

“We have read your medical files—”

“We?” I interrupted, a

“There is nothing that can’t be bought if you have the money. And I am, of course, talking about the specialists I have consulted. It is their belief that all you need is a series of injections to help ovulation.”

If he and his experts believed that, then they’d obviously gotten hold of my earlier medical records and not the more recent ones from my Directorate-approved, and therefore carefully screened, doctor. No one could get into those files without an alarm being raised back at the Directorate. It wasn’t common procedure, and while the precaution had made me feel a little easier about using a Directorate doctor, I’d always wondered why Jack had implemented the procedure for me. Of course, his reason was now pretty clear. He’d known all along what I was and was keeping my secrets even as he kept an eye on what was going on within my system