Page 6 of The Union
The hell with strategy. I was ready to march into Intech and demand answers. Carly was my cousin Junior’s wife, and she would talk to me. If she was involved, she might not come clean, but reading a person’s body language was gold. At the very least, I could snoop around.
Steven touched my shoulder, severing my idea. “You’ve had a rough day. Go with Jo.”
His patronizing demeanor revved up my temper, but I had to choose my battles, and he was partially right. My day sucked the big one. Almost falling to my death, killing the SWAT guy and supposedly my uncle too, and discovering that, oh, I’m pregnant with a vampire baby was enough to set my mind ablaze. Besides, warm blood was calling my name.
I followed Jo out into the blizzard-like conditions and scurried across the tarmac, careful not to fall. Once inside the warmth of the plane, I sighed heavily, shuddering while Jo beelined straight for the galley in the back.
Voices filtered out of the cockpit as Tripp and the pilot talked about the weather. Then something dawned on me. “Where’s Kendra?” She was the vampire who my uncles believed had a hand in my father’s murder. Jack had brought her with him to allow me to talk to her about my father. But Steven had asked her to wait on the plane.
I ambled in Jo’s direction.
“Not sure,” she said as she poured blood into a glass.
If I were in Kendra’s shoes, I would’ve bolted in a hot second, especially knowing that Ray and Jack wanted me dead. But given the raging storm, I was curious where she’d gone. But I couldn’t worry about her. I didn’t have the bandwidth, either, to talk about my dad. My head was brimming with enough problems.
I ducked into the bathroom near the galley. “I’ll be right out.”
Once I locked myself in, I leaned my head against the door and sighed. I took in several calming breaths, attempting to make sense of what had transpired in the last few hours. Or how in the world I was still alive. I said a quick prayer, thankful I was breathing, walking, talking, and that my body parts weren’t scattered in pieces over the snowy field.
I rubbed my stomach. “I’m so sorry, little one. I promise I will do my best not to do something stupid like that again. I want to see you born. I want your daddy to witness your birth, so I’m going to find him and make sure he’s with us from here until the day you’re born.”
I laughed quietly. I was talking to an embryo. It was hard to comprehend that I had conceived merely… I had to count back to the night Sam and I had intense, amazing, thrilling sex that would go down in history. Instead of trying to do the math in my head, I whipped out my phone and opened the calendar. Three weeks and one day from conception. I had so many more questions for Dr. Vieira about my pregnancy, but for now, I had to focus on Sam.
“Where are you, Sam Mason?” I would give anything to have a telepathic connection to him right now. I wasn’t sure telepathy worked unless I was close to him. But… would dreaming work?
We had shared the same dream. I closed my eyes and recalled that lustful night in the women’s barracks on the naval base. I’d been mortified when Sam had described every detail of my dream.
Water filled a bathtub tucked in an alcove, while a massive bed fit for six sat center stage.
I stepped into the room, my bare feet sinking into the plush brown carpet. “Hello.” My voice was low and shaky.
The door snicked shut behind me, and that sudden euphoria was replaced with icy fear. My breathing became labored. My palms clammy. My legs weak and trembling. I ran for the door. Large, strong hands grabbed me out of nowhere. I shrieked, but nothing came out.
“No need to be afraid,” the husky masculine voice said as he licked his way from my neck to my ear. “This is your fantasy.” He lifted me and carried me to the bed.
I blinked several times, and when I did, I was completely naked. I oriented my vision, struggling to see who the voice belonged to, but he wasn’t there. I frantically searched around, and when my eyes landed on the virile man near the bathtub, I gasped.
A solid wall of muscle stood there, naked, built as if the gods themselves had carved him out of stone. Thick thighs, narrow waist, broad back, hair grazing his shoulders. He turned the water off, and when he pivoted on his heel, my eyes went wide.
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t form words. I couldn’t even move.
Silver eyes glistened in the candlelight. Canines, sharp and deadly, seemed to drip with hunger.
My gaze traveled down his torso, tracking every breath he took, every dip and valley of his abs. I was prepared to go lower, but I couldn’t look away. He stood like a Viking, every inch of him hard and ready to do battle.
My tongue darted out to moisten my lips.
He closed the distance between us, eyelids hooded, chest rising and falling, and his erection… I swallowed the dryness in my throat. He was huge, thick, long—and he was ready to show me a world I’d never set foot in.
He grinned, and his dimples emerged, giving him an even sexier look that had my pussy dying to feel him inside me.
“Layla.” His voice was gravelly and caused goose bumps to blanket my body and my clit to throb.
I crawled to the edge of the bed, his voice pulling me, his body exciting me, and I wanted nothing more than for him to sink his fangs into me.
“Sam.” I said his name like it was a prayer, pleading and desperate, and as though it was the most natural thing in the world, I closed my hand around his shaft.
His eyes rolled back in his head as he groaned. The sound was glorious and sent excited shivers to swirl in my belly. It felt powerful to have this man, this vampire, who could end me in a nanosecond, become putty in my hands.
