He wrapped himself around her. “Mmm. Hello.”
“Hiya. Do strange, naked women plop themselves in your bed very often?”
He smiled. “Don’t call yourself strange, sweetheart.” He cracked open an eyelid to spot her smile.
“Did you eat lunch?” she asked.
“Mmm-hmm. With Peyton.”
“What’d you guys talk about?”
“Pack business.”
“Ah.”
When he immediately felt her mentally disengage, he nearly smacked himself. Just like he didn’t pry when it had to do with her job, neither did she.
Oh, shit.
Maybe this wouldn’t be as difficult as he first thought.
He opted to push the barrier a little, since luck seemed on his side.
“Peyton had a good suggestion.”
“He did?”
“Yeah. How about we take a mini-vacation before the baby arrives?”
One eyebrow slowly arched skyward over a gorgeous mocha eye. “Really?”
He closed his eyes again and drew her even closer, snuggling her tightly against his body. “He made the valid point that you and I have been cheated out of relaxation time twice now when we’ve tried to take vacations. I’d like to go to the beach. Doesn’t Manasota Key have a lot of condos and stuff for rent?”
That immediately defused her suspicion. That beach, a barrier island straddling Charlotte and Sarasota Counties, was her second-favorite place in the world, next to here in Idaho. “Yeah?”
“Can we please take a weekend or something? Just you and me? Maybe a Valentine’s Day trip? Let’s rent a room, or a condo, or something, and get away for a long weekend. You’ve got two more Enforcers now to help keep the peace. They can get by without you for a few days, can’t they?”
She nearly melted against him. “Probably.” She nuzzled her face against the hollow of his throat. “Don’t suppose I could talk you into letting me drive us down on the motorcycle, could I?”
When he felt the low warning growl start deep in his chest, he let it loose instead of holding it back.
“All right,all right,” she muttered. “Just asking.Sheesh.”
Chapter Two
It wasn’t that long ago when Dewi could remember she never imagined she’d everhavea mate, much less a mate like Ken, or a baby.
That wasn’t a complaint, either.
Her husband might not be a wolf shifter, or the biggest, beefiest guy around, but he wasdefinitelycoming into his own in terms of figuring out how to stand up to her.
Which…to be honest, shelovedthat about him. That he let her beherand didn’t try to change her. The few things he did want to control…well, she couldn’t blame him.
Not the bad kind of controlling, either, but thegoodkind of dominance. The way Beck had always—okay,sometimes—been able to stand up to her when they’d been dating.
Before she’d met Ken.
The loving kind of dominance that wanted to protect, not be domineering. Like Ken—rightfully—feeling pissed off because Dewi didn’t consult with him first about her plan to capture Manuel Segura, using herself as bait to draw the psycho in close enough for her to take control of him. Had Dewi not been pregnant, Ken wouldn’t have been so upset.
