Embrace the Heat (24 page)

“You don’t want me to go on patrol, do you?”
she asked.

“No,” he admitted quietly. “I can’t help but
worry about you putting our child at risk.”

“I’m not pregnant,” she said, but there was
no way for her to tell this soon. “Okay, I might end up being
pregnant, but it’s way too early to find out. In my defense, that
wasn’t something I considered when I was talking to Connor.”

“Will you think about it now?” he asked.

She stared at him for a long time, and he
knew she wanted to deny the possibility that she could end up being
pregnant. Simon knew she wanted to bury her head in the sand, but
Layla wasn’t a coward.

She nodded. “I promise to think about it
before I check in for my rotation assignment tomorrow.”

He leaned forward to kiss her, and she
yielded her mouth to him without hesitation. With great reluctance
he finally pulled away. “Let’s finish our food, and then you can
help me shower.”

She gave him a wicked smile. “Do I get to
wash you this time?”

His cock jerked to attention. “My body is at
your disposal,” he assured her.

Layla could not believe what a jackass Simon
was being. The stupid vampire was lucky her hormones were more
under control or she might have given in to the temptation to smack
some sense into him.

“For the last time,” she snapped, “I’m going
to training this morning.”

Simon gripped her arm and tried to control
his breathing. “What if you’re pregnant?”

Layla stopped fighting when she saw the fear
in his eyes. She took several deep breaths to calm herself. “Even
if I do end up pregnant, I still have to work out. Pregnant women
exercise all the time, Simon. I’ll be fine.”

“There is no reason for you to work out,” he
insisted. “You’re mine now, and I’m going to take care of you.”

Layla didn’t even know how to respond to that
stupidity. “Let’s see if I’ve got this straight.”

Simon backed away at her tone, and his eyes
grew wary, proving he wasn’t a complete idiot.

“Now that we’ve had sex, I’m supposed to sit
around here and wait to see if I’m pregnant. No, that’s not exactly
what you said. You said now that I’ve had sex with you a few times,
I somehow belong to you. Is that it? I’m your property in some way?
Get this through your arrogant vampire head; I’m not some stray you
adopted.”

Layla hated the part of herself that really
liked his possessiveness. She was not that kind of woman and never
would be. Stupid inner cat was practically begging her to push
Simon to dominate her again. She and her cat definitely had a few
issues to work through. While she might enjoy Simon being dominant
in bed, there was no way any man was going to control her life. Of
course her cat’s motives involved getting Simon back into bed.
Layla was annoyed to realize that she was getting turned on by
fighting with Simon.

Simon sniffed the air, obviously noticing her
arousal. That arousal pissed her off and seemed to encourage Simon
to act like a bigger jackass.

“Don’t act like a child, Layla,” he said and
stalked toward her. “That’s not what I’m saying, and you know it.
What we have is more than sex.”

“What I know is that you didn’t show any
interest in me until I neared my heat cycle.” It still felt really
weird calling it that. “Regardless of what you said in bed, you
were banging Narissa for months with no interest in me at all.”
Bringing up Narissa was unfair to Simon, and she knew it. It was
also unfair to make it sound like he only wanted sex now. He’d
proven his feelings were more than sex, and part of her wanted to
apologize for her bitchy comment. The other part of her was really
pissed at Simon for trying to control her life and wanted to lash
out at him.

“I already explained that,” he said and
reached out to grab her arm.

Layla jerked out of his reach. She didn’t
want Simon touching her now. Touching would distract her and her
sex crazed inner cat. “You’re right; it wasn’t fair of me to bring
that up. It has nothing to do with this argument anyway.” After
several deep breaths she tried again. “This is who I am, Simon. I
already talked to Connor and told him I couldn’t go on patrol until
I know if I’m pregnant, but I’m not going to stop training.
Honestly, Simon, I really need you to back off on this because I
can’t even think about the possibility of being pregnant right now.
Just the thought sends me into a panic.”

Simon flinched. “Is the idea of having my
baby inside of you really so awful?” he asked softly.

Layla closed her eyes and took a deep breath
before turning to Simon. “It’s not you,” she said.

Simon stepped back. “Don’t say anything. I
get it. After years of hating vampires, you might be pregnant with
a vampire baby. I should have thought about how that might affect
you.”

Layla started to argue, but then she stopped
and her brow furrowed. Was he right? Was that part of the problem?
Honestly, she didn’t know. Her shoulders slumped in defeat. “I’m
sorry, Si. The truth is, I don’t want to have a child right now.
That might never change. Children weren’t part of the future I
envisioned for myself. No matter how much I love you, the idea of
having a baby scares me.”

Simon stared at her for a long time before
speaking. “At least wait to train until you know if you’re
pregnant. Just do this for me.”

Layla let out a frustrated breath. “I’m not
going to sit around here and wait to see if I’m pregnant. Asking to
be pulled off of patrol was my compromise. You need to compromise
too. Now, I really need to go or I’ll be late.”

Simon pulled his phone out of his pocket and
used the pen to write a note on it. Layla felt her unease building.
When Simon’s phone buzzed he looked at the message and smiled
before turning the phone so she could read the message from
Connor.

Fine, Layla is off rotation and training
until you say otherwise. Don’t blame me if she cuts your balls
off.

“Bastard,” Layla hissed and stormed out of
the house before she gave in to the temptation to hurt Simon.

Simon wasn’t stupid enough follow her.

Layla refused to cry as she made her way back
to her own home. Stupid arrogant vampire! What right did he have to
run her life? She didn’t blame him for worrying about her going out
on patrol. Honestly, she hadn’t even been thinking about the
possibility of being pregnant when she’d asked to be put back on
the rotation schedule. After Simon mentioned it, she’d asked to
hold off on returning to normal rotations for a couple of weeks.
She’d only made that request because of Simon’s worries. In her
opinion, two days after having sex was a little too early to
restrict her activities. Her compromise should have made Simon
happy. It’s not like she was risking her safety, or even a baby’s
safety by training. There were vampires who trained through most of
their pregnancy with the consent of their doctor.

Layla sat down on the sofa and closed her
eyes. Okay, she’d been kind of bitchy about the idea of having
Simon’s baby and hurt his feelings by making him think her problem
was with having a vampire baby. Even though she’d explained it, he
still seemed insecure about that, and she felt a little bad about
hurting him. In fact, had he not decided to act like a heavy handed
ass, she probably would have asked to be excused from training
today to try to work this mess out.

The idea of being pregnant sent fear racing
through her body. It also sent that strange bit of excitement which
she attributed to the crazy hormones from her heat cycle. Those
hormones were probably also contributing to her desire to strangle
Simon at that moment. She knew she had every right to be pissed at
him, but she probably shouldn’t have stormed out.

With a muttered curse, she came to the
conclusion that she was going to have to wait at least a few hours
to sort this out with Simon because there was some big meeting
scheduled. It would probably be better to let things cool down
between them anyway. She could spend the day getting all of the
anger out of her system and tonight they’d work things out when she
didn’t want to stab him in the balls.

Simon hoped the meeting at Connor’s didn’t
last long. He’d been in a funk since Layla had walked out of his
house. She was right to be pissed at him, and he needed to
apologize for acting like a douche bag. He really hated
apologizing. Of course, she’d forgive him, and then they could make
up. The idea of making up with her brought a smile to his face.
Damn, he loved that woman.

When he realized what thoughts were going
through his head, Simon waited for panic or denial to set in, but
neither came. He really did love Layla. She was more than a woman
he wanted in his bed, she was his friend.

“What put that look on your face?” Ian asked
as he came up behind him.

“Guess,” Simon said with a wicked grin.

Ian laughed, and Simon was amazed to hear his
friend’s laughter. Having Mitchell to take care of had really
helped heal Ian in many ways. “Things are going well with your
little blonde?”

“Not at the moment,” Simon admitted. “I was
an ass, but I’m looking forward to making it up to her. Hopefully
this meeting won’t last long.”

Ian studied Simon closely, his expression
thoughtful. “I wasn’t sure what to think when I saw you on top of
her the other day. Honestly, I was pretty sure you’d lost it and I
was going to have to shoot you to get her away from you. Never
thought I’d see the day when you’d settle down, especially not with
a human.”

“She’s not exactly human,” Simon said.

“Yeah, I keep forgetting about the
shape shifter thing. That’s still a little hard to believe.
Connor hasn’t figured out how he’s going to spin this with everyone
else. I can’t believe she can turn into a lynx. Maybe I won’t
believe it until I see it with my own eyes.”

Simon found it hard to believe even after
seeing it with his own eyes, but it was getting easier. Still, he
wasn’t fond of the idea of anyone else watching her shift since she
had to be naked to do it. He wasn't sure why the idea of anyone
seeing her naked suddenly bothered him. He hadn't felt even a hint
of jealousy when she'd shifted in front of Connor and Raven. Now,
the idea of anyone seeing Layla naked made him angry. “You can’t
watch her change into a lynx,” he said gruffly.

“Feeling a little protective?” Ian asked with
a raised eyebrow.

“I don’t want you to see her naked,” he
admitted.

Ian nodded his understanding. “Yeah, I’m
pretty sure I wouldn’t have let you see Kate naked, so I get your
point.”

Everyone was already at Connor’s house.
“How’s the arm, Shelby?” Simon asked.

“Good as new,” she said, but it was obvious
she was still a little stiff.

While vampires healed quickly, the knife
wound had been pretty deep. It might take her a few days or even a
week for her to completely recover.

Connor sat on the sofa with Fang, the wolf
he’d rescued about a year earlier. Fang had recently taken a mate,
Luna, but she still didn’t get along with everyone in the group.
Seeing Connor with Fang always amazed Simon. They really could
communicate with each other. That was a wood nymph talent Connor
had picked up since he’d met Raven. Fang wasn’t a pet, he was
Connor’s friend, and Simon knew he shared a special bond with the
wolf.

“The human settlement at Treasure Island has
reported attacks by turned vampires on this side of the bay,”
Connor said. That was Con, no preamble, no small talk, just
business.

“Are the attacks by the new breed?” Carla
asked.

“Are the assholes that got away from Raven’s
old settlement building a new army?” asked Ian.

Connor shook his head. “Doesn’t look that
way. There’ve just been some disorganized attacks with no more than
three turned vampires in a group. Seems like there was a recent
outbreak at one of the smaller human settlements. There are a few
to the east that we’ve mostly ignored because they didn’t pose a
threat or want out intervention.”

“So are we sending out an extermination
team?” Simon asked.

“Seems like a waste of resources for a few
turned vamps,” Shelby said.

“I agree,” Connor said. “I’ve sent a small
group to Treasure Island to guard the end of the bridge in case the
turned vampires decide they want to wander that direction. In the
meantime, I’d like to start sending out small teams to investigate.
We don’t have the resources for more right now. Simon and Ian, I’d
like you to take a couple of humans from Raven’s team out there.
With an extermination team loaned to the community up north and one
still out cleaning up the Camp Parks outbreak, we’re already spread
pretty thin. Remember, this is to investigate and figure out what
we’re up against. I don’t want you hunting anything down or trying
to find the source. Just get an idea of how many turned vamps are
running around out there. Then we can decide what to do about clean
up. I’m going to bring back the extermination team from Camp Parks,
and I may bring back the one from up north depending on what we
find.”

Simon nodded. “Might be easier without the
humans. They’ll slow us down. Alone we can cover a larger area
while we’re out there today. No need for a large group if we’re not
hunting anyway.”

Connor hesitated, and it looked like he
really wanted to say no. Finally, he gave a reluctant nod. “Fine,
but I want you both well armed, and check in with me every
hour. I’m only agreeing to this because our resources are stretched
to the limit. I have the humans mostly covering guard duty at the
front gate right now.”

“We’ll head out now to get ready,” Simon
said. He decided it would probably be best to wait until he got
back to apologize to Layla. He was pretty sure by now she had Norah
and Raven over so she could complain about his behavior. Hopefully
she’d get it all out of her system and be more receptive to his
apology when he came back.