Free NocC 020 - Michele Hauf - Wicked Games 03.75 - Moonspun - Harlequin 2012-08 by Nocturne Page A

anything.” Creed stood. “How do we contact him?”
    “You don’t. He already knows,” Vail explained. “And if he’s
curious, you’ll speak to him soon enough. That’s about all I can do to help you
two. I’m sorry.”
    “No, you’ve helped,” Creed assured. “Names are good.”
    “Yeah, well, be careful with that. You don’t want to call upon
something that you will regret.”
    Blu and Creed met gazes.
    “Er, right.” Vail clapped his hands in the tense silence. “I
gotta run. My flight takes off in a few hours. Heading home to Lyric and
Johnny.”
    With a firm tug, Creed helped Blu to stand and she caught Vail
in a hug. “Thank you. Give this to Lyric when you see her.” She hugged him
again, then tweaked his cheek. “And give that to Johnny. I wish we could have
summered in Paris, but with my big belly, it was out of the question. I do plan
to visit in the spring.”
    “You’ll bring your baby along then,” Vail said.
    “I hope so,” she whispered, then caught a tear against her
palm, and had to turn away from him so he couldn’t see her heartache.
    *
    Blu watched as Creed sank into the pool next to her and
stretched out his arms along the tiled edge. For as much as she’d once hated to
swim, she’d spent a lot of time in the pool lately. She enjoyed the sense of
weightlessness and felt the babies liked the water also. At least someone was
happy.
    Her husband stroked her cheek. It felt too tender. And she felt
too…much.
    “What’s wrong?” he asked quietly. “I’ll find a way to contact
the Unseelie king. Promise.”
    “I know you will.” She glanced skyward. “Full moon
tonight.”
    “Ah.”
    “Creed, I need to shift. It’s been months. I need to run, to go
hunting. To get all furred up!”
    “You’ve done well resisting the shift. This will be the last
month for sure, Blu. You can do it. And you know I’m here to help. Let’s make
love.”
    She snorted and swished her hands through the water, sending
out waves. “Right. I feel so desirable lately. Not. Hell, I look like a freakin’
whale.”
    “Yes, well, I’ve fucked a werewolf. I guess tonight I’ll have a
go at a whale, eh?”
    She speared him with a hard glare. “That was not funny.”
    “So it wasn’t.” He edged away from her and she felt his
chagrin.
    “Sorry. I’m so ready to have these babies. And yet…” Sighing,
she floated over to him and buried her face against his neck above water level.
“I’d hold them inside me forever if that meant I could keep them both. I can’t
do this, Creed.”
    “Whatever you have to do , we’ll do
it together. I intend to call out the faery king. There must be a bargain we can
agree to.”
    “I don’t want your sacrifice. We’ve already sacrificed so much.
And for what? For selfish greed. We wanted a baby so desperately we were willing
to give another away? How terrible is that?”
    “Stop beating yourself up about this, Blu. And me. Do you think
I don’t feel the weight of our mistake?” His chest heaved and she heard him
sniff. She’d never seen him cry, and he wasn’t now, but it was the closest he’d
ever been to showing such raw emotion. “I will make it right.”
    “I know you will,” she whispered, believing, if only for the
moment, that he would. “Make love to me so this itchy urge to shift will
leave.”
    He bent to kiss her, and she drew him forward, floating until
her shoulder nudged the first underwater step. “You sure about this union
between a vampire and a whale?” she asked, forcing a smile.
    “You are the most beautiful sea creature I have ever laid eyes
upon.”
    He slipped down her bikini top and her breasts became two
islands in the water, her nipples cooling in the night air. He pressed kisses to
each one, gently, not rough or hurried as his kisses could sometimes be.
Reassuring almost. Claiming. Sweet.
    With one of Creed’s arms under her back to anchor her to him,
Blu closed her eyes and spread out her arms, floating. His