When her orgasm washed over her, she cried out as her inner walls pulsed against him. Conall rocked his hips against her until he came, rolling her under him to see who had captured her attention.
Leon and Penny. He immediately understood her fascination.
Leon Arnaud was a French were, and his mate, Penny, an African American female. She was darker than Vivienne, with ebony skin that was at stark contrast with the paleness of her mate’s. They were against a tree, Leon supporting Penny with his hands under the upper thigh of one long leg hiked around his waist. His head rested against hers. Both were breathing hard. They’d finished recently. As if sensing the attention, Penny looked over Leon’s shoulder and grinned.
Lowering his head, Conall kissed his mate.
You’ve turned into a voyeur, Vivienne.
It’s only fair that I get to watch them since we put on a very good show tonight.
Conall laughed again, and lifted his head. Leon and Penny were gone, probably shifted to their wolf forms to hunt, or observe another couple.
Yes, only fair.
She was silent for a moment, and he moved to his side, watching her as the moonlight played across her skin. He could easily slip into her mind to know what she was thinking but he waited for her to tell him.
***
Marry me.
At his look of confusion, she clarified, You’ll have to marry me. My parents won’t settle for less. It can be a small ceremony, with Eli, Raoul, Sloan, my family and Drew. She paused and her eyes grew sad for a moment before she pushed it away and forced a smile.
Whenever you want to and whatever you want, Vivienne. I already have the license.
Really?
Yes, alainn. I always intended to marry you, for the sake of legality if nothing else.
When she frowned, he explained. Mating is much more serious than marriage. A contract can be broken, but there is only one way out of this, and I hope it does not come to either of us for many centuries.
She smiled up at him. Locking her arms around his neck, she kissed him. I love you, Conall.
Vivienne, you have only to look into my mind to see how much I love you.
Chuckling, she teased. I never pegged you for a romantic, mate.
He rolled onto her and smiled. I’m not romantic, alainn. I’m honest.
As he lowered his head to hers, her last coherent thought was that she could live with honesty. Oh yes, she certainly could.
Epilogue
If Vivienne thought Conall treated her like a priceless China vase before, she was wrong. They had been mated for about seven months and Vivienne was pregnant, heavily so.
She’d known about a week into her pregnancy, when she’d awoken to find there were other presences in the room with her. Scoping the room, she’d found no one, and then she’d recognized that the presences, the auras, were inside of her. She’d wanted to take a pregnancy test to be sure, but when Conall had come to her that night, he’d held her after they’d made love, and had spent long minutes lovingly caressing her belly. Just as she instinctively knew they were there, so did her mate, her husband. That was confirmation enough for her.
As the weeks passed and she began to show, Conall grew even more protective. Her first and second months were bearable, and she found him amusing. She’d even teased that if she had daughters, he would be the typical, intimidating father, except unlike most fathers, the threat of breaking bones limb by limb could actually be achieved. By her third month, Conall didn’t want her going anywhere without Sloan or Raoul, even places in Cedar Creek, like Zahira’s house. By the fourth, he seemed intent on establishing a rule that included her staying inside the house, or in the back yard, off her feet.
She was not having it.
The resident doctor had told her that much like a human pregnancy, nine months was the normal time of delivery for females who conceived in their human bodies, which she had done. He’d said slightly earlier or later was fine, and had been monitoring her. Her fifth month was when she really began to show. It was almost as if overnight, she went from having a slight pooch to a beach ball. With that constant and obvious reminder of her state, Conall grew even more protective.
He didn’t want her leaving Cedar Creek without him, period. Zahira had mentioned that the males became irrational during the first pregnancy but she hadn’t stated just how much. By her sixth month, she found herself constantly between amused and irritated. She grew irritated with him for his extreme over protectiveness, but when she was allowed to think back on it, she found it amusing. Conall would be a great father.
“You’ve been smiling since you got here. What’s so funny?” Cassie asked from where she was perched, lazily, on their parents’ sofa.