She grinned. “And so what if I do?” She reached out and touched his taut belly, trailing manicured fingernails over the ridges of his abdomen. He hissed in a breath.

“Your fingers are like ice. You need to feed, my darling.”

“Ugh. Don’t call me that. We’ll start sounding like one of those sappy little couples who are so in love with each other it makes everyone around them sick to their stomachs.”

“But we are so in love with each other. It’s a hard, freaky kind of love, but it’s still love.”

“Do you have to remind me?” she said with an eye roll. Then she looked at him and chuckled. “How did you ever convince me of this? This whole mating thing?”

“It wasn’t easy,” he said, bending down so he was nose to nose with her, their breath mingling. Jasmine’s belly tightened with anticipation. “But I managed to get you eventually.”

He leaned in and caught her mouth with his, kissing her deeply. Then he broke off with an “Ugh!”

“Ugh?” she cried indignantly.

“You’re cold. You need to feed. How did you let it get so bad?”

“There aren’t exactly a lot of humans floating around. I can’t use the ones here…I’d drain them dry in a week. I have to go into town. And it’s such a small town.”

“Not that small. I’m sure there are plenty of buffet items to choose from.”

“Female buffet only. You won’t let me drink from any male except you.”

“Well, as I see it you have two choices. You run into town or…” He bared his neck to her.

Jasmine went immediately wet with desire, her body screaming with two very different types of hunger.

“I can’t keep feeding from you, even if you are a Nightwalker and can heal from it quickly. Nightwalker blood is very rich and very powerful. Too powerful. It’s too easy to get addicted.”

“I don’t mind, as long as you are only addicted to me.”

A slow smile curled her lips. “You do have a point. It’s no different than being addicted to chocolate, except chocolate can make your ass fat.”

“I’m not going to make your ass fat.”

“Not yet…but give it another three or four months.”

Adam frowned. “I don’t like it. I don’t like you being here when you’re—”

“We talked about this. Like, a hundred times. I’m pregnant, not fragile.”

“Yes, but…”

“Geez. First-time fathers are such a pain in the ass.”

“First time mothers are stubborn as hell.”

“I can’t believe you talked me into this whole parenting thing.”

“I didn’t talk you into anything! We just…we’ve never exactly been careful about these things. I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner.”

“I refused to allow my body to get pregnant. I’m a Vampire. I can do that.”

This took him by surprise. “You can?”

“How do you think I managed to stay un-pregnant all these years?”

“So that means…this wasn’t an accident? You planned for this?”

She bit her lip and looked unsure for the first time in a long time. “Is that all right?”

“Hell yes, it’s all right! I just thought we were like Damien and Syreena, unable to conceive because…I don’t know…because we’re from different species.”

“Damien and Syreena couldn’t conceive because of a curse. But they have now, so all is right with the world.”

“Any word yet? She was supposed to drop that kid a week ago.”

“You know it’s hard to tell about these things when it comes to cross-species reproduction. Lycanthrope pregnancies are almost as long as Demon pregnancies while Vampire pregnancies are about as long as human ones. He’s a Vampire, she’s a Lycanthrope, anything in between is possible. The same will happen for us.”

“Us.” He smiled. “Thank you. For us.”

She smiled back at him. “I wouldn’t want to do it with anyone else. And I haven’t…for over five centuries. I never wanted to. Until you.”

“But you won’t change my mind about you being here. I don’t like it. I can easily talk to Noah and have him send someone else in our stead.”

“If you refuse an order from the Demon King, he’s going to want to know why. And I don’t want everyone to know just yet. Vampires miscarry a lot. Especially in the first few months. Once we get past the first trimester we’ll tell everyone.”

“You don’t think you’ll be showing by then?”

“There are ways of hiding that.”

He snorted. “Not for you. You flaunt this tight ass and that belly chain as much as you can.”

Jasmine pouted. “My belly chain. I’m going to miss it.”

“So am I,” he said with a little growl. “Now c’mon. Feed. It can’t be good for the baby to let yourself get this cold.”

“All right. I’ll go into town.” She pushed him back and got out of bed. “I’ll see if anyone wants to come with me. I think some of us are going a little stir crazy.”

“We’re going to have a battle-readiness training session today. I’ll whip the boredom right out of them.”

“I’m sure you will. I look forward to it.”

“Jas…” he complained.

“If I don’t play with the others they’ll wonder why. I’ll be all right, I promise.”

“You better be.”

She waved at him over her shoulder and went into the bathroom to shower. The hot water helped to warm her extremities.

Vampire body heat worked like a bull’s-eye. When they fed they warmed from the center of their bodies outward toward their extremities. As the day wore on, the extremities began to cool in slow degrees, the center of the body remaining warm the longest. She had not fed for the better part of two days, so she was pretty cold. Adam was right. She couldn’t allow this to happen again. No one knew what caused Vampire pregnancies to fail so often, and she wasn’t going to give hers any opportunity for weakness. She had been foolish. She wouldn’t be again. This baby was too important to her. To them.

Once she was showered she went back into the bedroom. Her husband was now dressed, much to her disappointment. But it wouldn’t be fair to ask him to make love to what amounted to a cadaver in coldness. All the passion in the world couldn’t change the feeling of making love to a Popsicle.