After a full day of no love from my lion, we arrived at my parents’ house. I hissed and sulked in my seat. “This is cruel and unusual punishment.”
“Your mating season is in full swing, you’re insatiable, and you’ll have to suffer for another week. Your virus needs to recover. It’s just a week or two. Once your virus tests at stable levels, I will ravish you properly. Would roaring at you help?”
“Maybe.”
He turned his head and roared in my face. As always, I purred.
He stared at me.
Idiot that I was, I kept on purring.
“Better?”
I thought about it. “Much, actually.”
“You can hide behind me for five minutes. After that, I’m tossing you to them. You’re beautiful with or without those scars, and you worked hard to get rid of them. You have nothing to be afraid of.”
“They might hate it.” Worse, they might be angry at me for having gotten rid of them.
“They won’t hate you or your face. They’re not going to be angry at you, either. They’re going to be curious about where you got the money, as you didn’t sell your new Corvette to get the funds. And yes, you could have sold the car to get the down payment. They probably knew that when they bought the vehicle.”
“I’d never sell a car they worked so hard to buy me, Sebastian.”
“I know that, you know that, but they probably wanted you to have the option. They do love you. I’m very convinced of that after the conversation I had to endure with your father. I mean, how do you tell a woman’s father she’s not nearly as innocent as he believes?”
“He’s not going to believe I’m capable of seducing anyone or being seduced until I show up with a litter of kittens, Sebastian.”
Sebastian snickered. “How long do you think that’ll take?”
“Eight months? Nine if they’re evil little twerps and hold out on me? I could show up here in six months about ready to burst at the seams, and they’ll just think I have gotten really fat because I have a lion feeding me every five fucking minutes.”
“I’m going to keep feeding you every five fucking minutes until the scanner reports your virus levels are back to where they belong.”
Damn it. “I wasn’t even hungry the last time, and you made me eat anyway.”
“My poor, poor little lynx. So terribly inconvenienced, forced to eat cake in your Corvette. Chocolate cake. With strawberries on top.”
I swallowed. “It was good cake, too. But my point stands, you made me eat that entire cake. By myself! I’m going to get fat.”
“You need to feed your virus, yourself, and the evil little twerps likely making themselves at home right now.”
“Stupid aphrodisiacs. Stupid virus. Stupid, sexy lion. Stupid idiot boss, tattling to my family. They kept trying to get me to accept my scars.”
Sebastian killed the engine, sighed, and got out of the car, closing the door. He came around to my side, opened my door, and said, “You can either get out and be your typical prideful, pain in the ass self, or you can be dragged out kicking and screaming. But you’re getting out of the car, and you’re going to reassure your family everything is fine. You don’t have to mention anything about a possible litter, which would, by the way, have been on the way before your little adventure hunting a serial killer.”
Damn him and his sexy lion ways. “It’s the Corvette’s fault.”
“Sure it is. I’m pretty sure you pulled over after being told exactly what would happen to you if you did.”
I purred at the memory. “I really did. I earned it. The whole point is to make certain that is the end result in the appropriate period of time. An entire litter, you hear me?”
“You’re the one in charge of the numbers, Wells. I’m the one responsible for the gender, you’re the one responsible for the size of the litter. That is science.”
“I’m still annoyed the CDC put a ban on lions hunting lynxes vigorously. I think this ban is stupid.”
“Be happy they recognized you’re a hormonal battlefield and need some exposure to my virus so you don’t go absolutely insane. You can wait a few hours. After you have convinced your family you’re alive, kicking, and there’s nothing the matter, I’ll take you home, where I will indulge in a gentle and extended seduction of my lynx.”
“You have my attention.”
“I just need to be in the same general area for that to happen right now. Your father had warned me lynx mating seasons were intense, but I hadn’t been prepared for the reality. How did you keep your hands off me in prior seasons?”
“The roars helped, but it was miserable, lonely, and generally awful.”
Sebastian leaned over and kissed my forehead. “Come on out of there. Nobody is going to be upset with you. Are you sure you’re going to tell them to truth?”
“Do you think they’ll believe it?”
“Well, we’ll find out in about five minutes. If you want to hide behind me for a few minutes until you’re ready, that’s fine, but you have five minutes to get your ass in gear or I’m going to help you put your ass in gear.”
“Don’t get a job as a shrink. You’d be terrible at it.”
“You don’t need a shrink. You have a lot to get used to, but it’ll be fine. They love you no matter what your face looks like.” Sebastian unbuckled my seatbelt, took hold of my hands, and pulled me out of the car. “I’ll even toss myself in front of your family as a sacrifice and use the ring if you think it’ll distract them. But you need to show them your face.”
“I could wear a bag. There’s a gift bag in the trunk big enough.”
Sebastian went to the trunk, popped it open, dumped the present out of the bag, and returned, shoving it over my head. “Now you’re gift wrapped. Excellent. You’re just going to have to follow my lead on this. You waited too long, so you lose.”
“What did I lose?”
“Your pride and dignity. You’re wearing a bag over your head. Now, move. I’ve got your purse. The bag had spa stuff in it, and I’ll clean it up after.”
With Sebastian’s help, I began the march to the front door. “Now I really look like an idiot.”
“Well, yes. You’re the one making a fuss over this.”
“It happened so soon!”
“So did the probable litter, because they usually don’t give lycanthropes pixie dust after operations. They use a harder sedative, which tells me they were giving you everything safe for expecting women. And they would have known from the incubus if you were, and it meant he wouldn’t have had to do any actual work on you beyond prepping for the curse. Which, by the way, is still intact. I asked.”
“Were we tricked?”
“It’s CDC policy not to notify in the first two weeks of a pregnancy because of the high rate of miscarriage. But with an incubus on board? You’re not going to miscarry. The incubus would have resolved any problems.”
Huh. “I had no idea.”
“They try to keep that one under wraps, but I’m in the know, because they have policies for rape victims. We fall under the mated couple policies, which means they try to do no harm. That, plus they needed you for the job, and if I thought you were pregnant, there would have been no completed job.”