The Alpha's Baby (13 page)

"Good things, I hope." Sebastian grinned.

"Well, they came from Emmy," Mary Lou said.

"So definitely not good things." The man had the nerve to shoot her a teasing grin, which she returned with a scowl.

Mary Lou began, "I know I should probably let the two of you go on with whatever naughty business you have planned—"

Sebastian met Emmy's eyes and mouthed the words, "Naughty business?"

"ButI just wanted to introduce myself and share some good natured advice."

"Okay, let's hear this advice." Sebastian's grin was growing broader by the second.

Groaning, Emmy buried her face in her hands. She could only imagine what kind of advice Mary Lou was going to give. Bedroom instructions? Maybe she wanted to share a copy of her
Kama Sutra
? Worse yet, perhaps she wanted to advise Sebastian to wear clothes that were eight sizes too small. Suddenly, she had second thoughts about letting this woman babysit her child. Mary Lou would turn her son into a playboy and dress her daughter like a hooker.

"Oh God." Emmy wasn't sure who she wanted to shoot more, herself or Mary Lou.

"Now, I hear that Emmy is giving you a hard time about this marriage business," Mary Lou said.

So the advice wasn't about the
Kama Sutra
or bedroom instructions. It was about her.

"Mary Lou." Emmy cracked her knuckles.

"She's a tad stubborn, but she'll make an excellent wife." Mary Lou patted his hand in a maternal way. "I just want you to know that, in case you're thinking of throwing in the towel."

"I know that Emmy will be an excellent wife." Sebastian nodded. "I never doubted that for a second."

"Good." Mary Lou beamed at him. "Now don't stop hassling her, you hear me? She'll say yes to marrying you eventually if you try hard enough. She's always been a bit headstrong. I think she gets it from her mother."

"I'm still here, you guys." Emmy scowled at them. "And I don't appreciate the way this conversation is going."

"Don't worry," Sebastian said, talking over Emmy. "I won't give up until there's a wedding ring on Emmy's finger. I'll take good care of our baby too."

Mary Lou looked as if Christmas had come early. "What a good man you are. If you were five years younger, I'd sink my teeth into you myself."

Even Sebastian paused at her words, but he recovered quickly. "I think I'm a little old for you. I'd be robbing the cradle."

"It's a damn shame." Mary Lou sighed.

"I think you two deserve each other," Emmy muttered.

Mary Lou glanced meaningfully at Sebastian. "You know, pregnant women always get a little bit cranky, so you have to get used to her sass. It's all that vomiting, you know."

"I'm not cranky because I'm pregnant," she said. "I'm cranky because the two of you are a trial."

"See." Mary Lou winked. "Told you so."

Unable to contain himself, Sebastian laughed. "That would explain some things. There have been moments when I feared for my life."

"One of those moments should be now." Emmy narrowed her eyes.

"Say, Mary Lou, would you like to stay and watch a movie?" Sebastian grinned at the older woman as he pretended that Emmy hadn't spoken.

"Say no, Mary Lou." Emmy elbowed the older woman.

"Of course I would." Mary Lou gushed. "You are such a gentleman."

"I try my best." He winked, and Mary Lou batted her eyelashes.

At that moment Emmy wondered whether it would be socially acceptable if she left her own apartment when there were people inside. Though she was considering it, her upbringing kept her from running out the door. Besides, she wasn't sure that she could trust these two in her apartment. If she left for even a millisecond, one of them might light her place on fire or smash a window. She shivered in horror.

"Cold, sweetheart?" Sebastian asked. He must have been watching her, even though she hadn't realized it. 

"I'm fine." She waved away his concern.

Despite her words, Sebastian shrugged off his jacket and handed it to her. "Here you go."

"But I'm not cold." And even if she was, she had plenty of coats in her closet.

"Still you shivered," he said. "It's not good for the mother of my child to catch a chill."

"Oh, good grief, Emmy, marry the man already," Mary Lou said. "He's so chivalrous."

She pulled on the jacket. "I'm thinking about it."

"You're thinking about it?" Mary Lou clapped her hand to her chest dramatically. "What are you waiting for, a Greek god to come floating down from Olympus?"

"No." Emmy shook her head.

"But you think he's hot, right?" Mary Lou said.

"Yes." She gave a begrudging nod.

"And smart?"

"Well, yeah," she said.

"And nice?"

It wasn't like she could say no after the man had just handed her his jacket. "Of course."

"Then what the hell are you waiting for?" Mary Lou asked. "My husband, God rest his soul, had a face like a horse and was about as smart as a mailbox, yet I still said yes to him."

The older woman looked at her expectantly. In fact, Sebastian was looking at her expectantly too. Suddenly, she couldn't think of what to say.

What was she waiting for? Sebastian was handsome, smart, funny, and sweet. She couldn't deny the attraction that surged through her body when he looked at her. She just wished he wasn't so secretive. After glancing at him, she chewed her bottom lip.

"Well?" Mary Lou asked eagerly.

"I'll think about it," she said.

Both Sebastian and Mary Lou groaned.

****

Emmy munched on popcorn as Sebastian and Mary Lou watched a horror movie. As the serial killer sank his blade into a teenage girl, she took another bite of her salty snack. Even with all of the action in the movie, her mind was elsewhere. She couldn't help but think about everything Mary Lou had just said. Maybe she should decide to marry Sebastian, yet he'd never told her about his past. She stared at Sebastian who was unaware that he was being observed. Was she being stupid? Mary Lou obviously thought that she was. Still she hated the idea of being married to somebody who wasn't one hundred percent honest.

Groaning, she shook her head. Maybe she needed to talk to Sebastian. So many problems were caused by a lack of communication. She sighed again, barely noticing that the movie was over. 

As Emmy was submerged in thoughts, Sebastian waved his hand in front of her face. "Earth to Emmy. Are you there?"

She blinked in surprise. "Yeah."

"Did you watch the movie at all?" He studied her. "I swear you were spacing out through most of it."

"I watched it." A little.

"What was it about?"

Frowning, she studied the screen. "A guy running around murdering teenaged girls."

Mary Lou glanced at her and shrugged. "Well, she's right, isn't she?"

The man snorted. "Yeah, she is, but I still don't think she watched the movie."

Emmy rolled her eyes. "Okay, maybe I spaced-out. What did I miss?"

"A lot of bloodshed," Sebastian said.

"A whole bunch of nudity," Mary Lou added with zealous.

Okay, so she was hanging out with Mr. Violence and Ms. Bang.

"Sounds like a real life-changing film." Emmy smirked.

As Sebastian snorted, Mary Lou stood up and yawned. "Well, I should probably head home and hit the sack. I need my beauty sleep. Tomorrow I'm meeting Edward Ferguson at bingo, and I think he might want to bone me."

Emmy choked on spit. "Mary Lou!"

"What?" The woman batted her eyes innocently.

"You shouldn't talk about things like that," she said.

"We talk about dirty shit all the time," Mary Lou said. "Sebastian, do you want to know what Emmy's favorite dirty saying is?"

"Don't tell him." Emmy was five seconds away from growling.

Sebastian's eyes sparkled. "What is it?"

"Stick a cock in me, I'm done." Mary Lou snickered at Emmy's sour expression.

"Ha, ha, ha." Emmy rolled her eyes. "Are you done mocking me yet?"

"Hmmm." Mary Lou checked her watch. "Well, I want to continue, but it doesn't look like I have the time. I really should be getting home."

Sebastian gave the older woman an encouraging smile. "I'm sure we'll hang out again soon."

Over my dead body,
Emmy thought, her eyebrow twitching.
Or better yet, over Mary Lou's.

Mary Lou winked. "Oh, we will. Then we can exchange juicy stories."

"No, there will be no juicy stories exchanged." Emmy glared at them both.

"Bye, Mary Lou." Sebastian waved at the older woman, ignoring Emmy's words yet again.

"Ciao, darlings." Mary Lou headed for the door and blew a kiss over her shoulder.

After Mary Lou left, Emmy seethed. "I want to kill her."

"I thought she was adorable." Sebastian was smirking.

"You would," Emmy said. "The two of you were torturing me together."

"Oh, come on. She loves you, you know." The man had the audacity to elbow her in the ribs. "I could tell."

His words had a sobering effect on her. Mary Lou did love her.

"She probably thinks of me as her own kid," Emmy admitted. "It's probably because she could never have any children herself. She miscarried them all. The doctor told her she had a problem with her ovaries."

"Which is likely why she enjoys driving you crazy." Sebastian stood up and stretched. "Moms love doing stuff like that."

"I guess I'm lucky then. I have her and a real mother." Then again, she had been considering killing both Mary Lou and her real mom for some time now.

The grin slid off Sebastian's face. "I wish I had even one. Mine died when I was still a kid. My dad did his best to raise me and my brother, but he couldn't replace her."

She stared at him, eyes wide. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Sebastian was smiling again, but she could tell his grin was forced. "Everybody has some sort of hardship in life. And with how I see it, I'm lucky that I have at least one good parent. Some people have no one and live their whole lives alone."

"You know, you can be awfully philosophical sometimes." And hearing him talk that way stirred her heart.

"Like I said, I'm a smart guy." Sebastian winked at her.

She rolled her eyes but didn't say anything.

"Ah, the eye rolling has begun already, and we aren't even married yet," he said.

Though she opened her mouth to say, "We are going to get married!" she stopped herself before the words slipped out of her mouth. The truth of the matter was, Mary Lou had a point when she said Emmy would never find somebody better than Sebastian. And truthfully, Emmy could see herself falling in love with him. She wrung her hands, uncertain of herself.

"Well?" Sebastian stared at her.

"Well, what?"

"I'm waiting for you to say something," he said. "You know, like, 'I never said I'd marry you,' or 'I'd rather drink from a toilet than be your wife.' Something like that."

"The thing is…" She hesitated.

His eyes widened. "Are you going to say yes?"

Sighing, she met his eyes. "I'll say yes on one condition."

"Anything." He kneeled before her and grabbed her hands, almost as if he was going to propose all over again. "I'll do whatever you want."

"Well, I still feel like you're hiding something from me," she said.

Something changed in his eyes. He looked darker, more intense, and…anxious?

"Emmy, please," he groaned.

"If you're hiding something, then tell me what it is now," she said. "That's my condition."

A moment of silence went by. She saw a war raging inside his head, but no words came out of his mouth. Still he tightened his grip on her hands, and he stared into her eyes desperately.

"Are you hiding something from me?" she repeated.

Sebastian looked her straight in the eye and said, "No."

Her breath caught in her throat, and her heart flooded with disappointment. Yet Emmy couldn't prove that he was hiding anything. And who was she to second-guess him? Maybe the problem was all in her mind. After all, it wouldn't be the first time. When she was in sixth grade, she'd been convinced that her uncle, Sam, was cheating on his wife. It turned out that the man had been meeting with a travel agent to talk about a European cruise.

So now the question remained, did she trust Sebastian enough to say yes despite her doubt?

As she stared into his eyes, her heart wavered. If he wasn't hiding something and she kept pushing him away, then she was an awful human being. And if he was hiding something, well, then he was a rat-ass bastard and she'd push him out the window. Yeah, that sounded about right. Violence was always the perfect plan B.

"Sebastian." She wrung her hands.

"Uh-huh?" His eyes were still dark, even as he stared at her.

"I…"
Oh man, here goes nothing.
"I'll marry you."

Sebastian sucked in air, and his gaze danced with excitement. The man pulled her into his arms and crushed her against his chest. His lips came down upon hers, and he kissed her once, twice, three times. Soon he was laughing and holding onto her. She couldn't help but laugh too. Who would have thought that a man would be so excited to marry her? One thing for certain, she didn't feel like a catch. More like, she felt like a rusty tin can that he'd reeled in instead of a fat tuna. But who was she to judge his strange taste? If he wanted her, he wanted her. And, well, she had to admit that she wanted him too.

As he kissed her lips enthusiastically, she embraced him back, her fingers curling in his hair. Soon his light kisses became a more passionate embrace that involved his tongue slipping into her mouth and tracing her teeth. She melted against him, thinking,
Oh my God, this is the man that I'm going to spend the rest of her life with.
She had to admit that she felt a wave of terror, but then all that fear was washed away by excitement.

After he kissed her until her brain turned to ooze, he pulled away.

"What made you decide to say yes?" Sebastian nuzzled her ear.

"Hmmm." She thought about it as he nibbled her lobe.

"Was it my good looks? My charm?" he asked.