Safe Hex With a Vampire (26 page)

“Really?” Aiden asked with a cocky grin.

“I was thinking that we could build a small
house close to the center so I would be available for emergencies,”
she explained. “Something with three bedrooms and a home office for
you would be nice. There’s plenty of open space on the
property.”

He hugged her tighter. “That sounds perfect.
We have time. I can find a place to rent, and we can date for a
little while. Maybe we should follow Justin’s example and start
using condoms. Why not spend a little time getting to know each
other better before we have a baby?”

“You know I could already be pregnant,” she
said and put her hand on her belly.

That made him smile. “Then I guess we had
better start on that house soon. Did you want to get married now? I
mean I suppose I should have asked before I just proclaimed that
we’d date.”

“Was that your idea of a proposal?”

“Proposal? Nah, I figured I’d drain you and
kidnap you,” he said. “It’s kind of my thing.”

She smacked him lightly on his bare chest.
“Let’s hold off on the marriage thing.”

“Are you telling me you aren’t ready to
commit?” he asked.

“No, but I think it will drive Roman crazy,
and he needs more people in his life who aren’t afraid of him.”

“I feel a little bad for my uncle,” Aiden
said.

“Why?” she asked.

“He’s just learned that he really lost
Claudia. I guess I never really took time to think about why he’s
the way he is. He really loved her and for a short time he thought
she might still be alive. He also recently lost his only son. Now
he’s here alone. I know he has Sofia visiting, but they aren’t
exactly close. I’m not really sure what she’s doing here. She’s
never been the maternal type. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not
even sure she’s his mother. I know what it’s like to feel
lonely.”

She gave a weak laugh. “I wouldn’t worry too
much about my grandfather’s love life. Something tells me he’s not
living in this house alone.”

“Why would you think that?”

“Does my grandfather often polish his
toenails?” she asked.

“What?” He shook his head in confusion. “Why
would you ask me something like that?”

“He has pink nail polish on his pants, so
either he was polishing his own toenails or there is someone
upstairs with pretty pink nails. Seems kind of strange that no one
is allowed up there. What did Roman mean about Justin checking on
the other patient when he was here? That’s what I heard when he was
talking to Justin at the warehouse.”

Aiden laughed. “Okay so my uncle may have a
guest upstairs.”

They were both silent for a short time.
“Thank you,” Tempest said quietly.

“For what?” he asked.

‘For following me into that alley,” she said
sleepily.

He chuckled. “I never thought I’d be
grateful for a serious head injury. I love you, little witch.”

“I love you, too,” she said as she drifted
off into a peaceful sleep.

It had been two weeks since her abduction
and Tempest was still feeling out of sorts. It hadn’t fully hit her
until she’d gone to the police station to give her statement.
That’s when people started calling her “the victim.” She’d never
been a victim and the label sucked. She’d suddenly developed a new
understanding of what the women she worked with felt. The term made
her feel powerless. Ivy told her that she needed to move from
feeling like a victim to feeling like a survivor. She was also
having a hard time coming to grips with the guilt she felt over the
women who had died because of Brian’s sick obsession with her.

At first, she’d tried staying at the center
and just seeing Aiden a few nights a week, but that hadn’t worked.
Part of it was the fact that she wasn’t ready to return to work.
The other part was that she didn’t like being away from Aiden that
long. So she’d moved most of her stuff into the two bedroom
apartment that Aiden was renting until they could build their
house. Aiden had grumbled that he would have rented a bigger place
if he’d known he was going to have to share closet space. His
complaint would have been more convincing if he hadn’t already
saved drawer space for her in the bathroom and left the largest
closet in the master bedroom free for her.

They hired a nurse practitioner to handle
most of the medical care until Tempest was ready to return to work
full time. After that, the nurse practitioner would stay on to
help lighten Tempest’s load. She had spent too many years obsessed
with her work. It was time to build a life outside of the
center.

That morning she was at the center for a
group therapy session, something that Ivy had been trying to talk
her into for more than a week. As she watched the other women leave
the room, she had to admit that she did feel better.

“So did you test today?” Ivy asked after the
other women had cleared out of the room.

“Yes,” Tempest said.

“And?” Ivy prodded.

Tempest shrugged. “I’m sure it was negative.
I really don’t feel pregnant. The only reason I even took the test
was to make Aiden happy. Can you believe that he actually wanted
Justin to come over and run a blood test last night?”

Ivy covered her mouth to stifle her
giggle.

“I refused so the man bought every pregnancy
test he could find and made me pee in a cup this morning so he
could dip a dozen sticks.” She smiled at the memory.”I left him to
it. Since he hasn’t been calling me over and over again, I suppose
I was right.”

“You really left him to do the tests on his
own?” Ivy asked.

Tempest shrugged. “I would have been willing
to do one test, but he insisted that we do more than one just in
case the first one was wrong. It’s crazy since I thought he wanted
to wait on the baby. We agreed that if I’m not already pregnant
we’ll wait a year or two to try again.”

“Are you okay with that?” Ivy asked. “I know
how much you want a baby.”

“We’ll have one,” Tempest said. “For now,
we’re happy to wait a little while.”

“The truth?” Ivy asked.

“Okay, I was kind of hoping I was pregnant,
but I’m fine waiting a little while.”

“Oh, there you are,” said Jenna, one of the
other counselors. “These came for you.” She handed Tempest a
bouquet of flowers and a box of chocolates.

When Tempest took the box, it rattled.

“Something tells me those aren’t chocolate,”
Ivy said with a smile.

Tempest almost fell over when she opened the
box to reveal more a dozen positive pregnancy tests, each carefully
wrapped in a plastic bag. There was also a sheet of paper folded
inside of the box. When she unfolded the paper she found a sketch
of herself, holding a sleeping baby in her arms.

“Oh my God!” Tempest gasped.

“Do you like it?” Aiden asked from behind
her.

Tempest spun around a put a hand over her
heart. “You scared me! How did you get back here anyway?”

“I hid him in an office down the hall during
the session, and then I got Jenna to deliver the flowers at just
the right time,” Ivy explained.

“You two planned all of this? In the short
time it took me to get to the center today?”

“Nah,” Aiden said as he hugged her close.
“We planned all of this last week. So what do you think we’ll have,
boy or girl?”

She shrugged. “What are you hoping for?”

Aiden smiled and placed his hand over her
belly. “I’m hoping for a sweet little girl with a fiery temper like
her mam.”

Her eyes widened with surprise. “I would
have thought you’d be hoping for a boy so I’d live as long as
you.”

“About that,” he said, “according to Roman
that might not be necessary.”

“Really?”

“He won’t go into details, but how much do
you want to bet this has something to do with his mystery
guest?”

“What the hell is my grandfather hiding?”
Tempest asked.

Ivy snorted. “What isn’t he hiding?”

“Now that you’re part of the family, you’ll
have to get used to the secrets,” Aiden said as rubbed Tempest’s
flat belly.

Tempest snorted. “I don’t think so. My
grandfather has spent way too many years acting all big and scary
so everyone is too afraid to approach him. I think we should start
going over to visit more often.”

“News flash, luv,” Aiden said with a patient
smile, “your grandfather is pretty damn scary and that wasn’t the
only crossbow he has.”

“I don’t think he’ll shoot me with a
crossbow,” Tempest said.

“No,” Aiden said, “he’ll shoot me in the
balls when he learns that I got you pregnant. Last time I talked to
him, he made it pretty clear that my intentions had better be
honorable toward you.”

Tempest laughed and leaned into him. “Don’t
worry; I’ll protect you from my grandfather.”

“You are such a sexy little badass,” Aiden
said with a smile. “Wanna go see the office I was hiding in?”

“Stop projecting,” Ivy said as she hurried
out of the room.

Aiden chuckled as he pulled Tempest up
against his body. “Now where was I?”

“Contemplating doing something less than
honorable with me?” she asked sweetly.

“Oh yeah,” he said as lifted her up in his
arms. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” she said with a smile.
“Now about that office you wanted to show
me . . .”

Dear Reader,

I know that many people who read
Vampires
and Vixens
were hoping to see Hannah, Noah and Nathaniel in
Safe Hex With a Vampire
. I promise that they are coming back
in the next book. When I originally wrote
Vampires and
Vixens
, Hannah’s cousin, Lydia, did not survive. At that point,
I had an Epilogue in
Vampires and Vixens
that introduced
Hannah’s daughter and showed Hannah happily married to Noah.
Needless to say, my decision to keep Lydia alive meant that Hannah
would need to return to her old life at some point. I plan to
release the next Pay-Vamp novel in September of 2014. Check out my
Facebook page for updates on the release. I’m sorry for the long
delay between books but I will be releasing the first book in a
different series first.

I want to thank all of you who have taken a
chance on my writing. I appreciate all of your support.

Sincerely,

Cassandra Lawson

Cassandra Lawson lives in the San Francisco
Bay Area with her husband and her two youngest children. When she
is not writing she enjoys spending time with her family, listening
to music, baking, and curling up with a good book.

You can follow Cassandra Lawson on
Facebook.

CassandraLawson