didn’t want. That was the picture of a mother, and even if she didn’t admit it to herself, Regan loved the child.
The knowledge was both a relief and a fist to the gut. How could she love it, yet be so willing to give it up? Was it because the baby was his? Did she hate him so much that she didn’t want the reminder toddling around behind her?
Cursing, he stalked into his library. In a fit of temper, he swiped his arm across one of the shelves. Books, baskets, and baubles crashed to the floor. Something metallic clattered across the tiles. Reseph’s iPod.
Thanatos scooped it up, the smooth, black case so cold in his hand. Reseph had loved the thing, which was why it had been buried in the leather basket—Than had hidden it from him as a joke. Well, sort of. Reseph had often driven them all crazy by singing country songs at the top of his lungs. Sure, he’d actually had a great voice, but one could only take so many hours of twang.
“What are you doing?” Regan’s voice came from behind him, and crazily, his pulse jumped.
Thanatos gave a casual shrug, but his body wasn’t fooled, not when he saw her in the doorway, still in his T-shirt and a pair of his sweats she’d cinched beneath her belly. No female had ever worn his clothes, and an oddly primal instinct got him all growly and possessive at the idea that something of his was both on her and in her.
“Nothing,” he muttered, tossing the mp3 player onto his desk.
“‘Nothing’ involves making a mess of your library?” She walked over to the desk, her bare feet not making a sound on the stone floor. Even as pregnant as she was, her confident grace wasn’t diminished.
“You need socks.”
She blinked. “What does that have to do with the messy library?”
“Nothing. But I don’t want your feet to get cold.”
A soft smile curved her lips, and he wished she wouldn’t do that, because a smile like that could disarm him eventually. “You’re an odd man, Thanatos Horseman.” She picked up the iPod. The screen lit up, and her eyebrows lifted. “I wouldn’t have taken you for a country music kind of guy.”
“I’m not. Reseph is. Was. And you should be in bed.”
“I feel fine, and if I lay down for too long, my hips hurt.” She eyed the iPod again. “Alan Jackson. George Strait. Jimmy Buffett. Conway Twitty. Wow. Not a single rock band.”
“Reseph was the flightiest person I’ve ever met, but when he latched onto something, he went all out. Totally single-minded. He even had a couple of favorite country bars where he’d go to dance. He loved to two- step.”
Regan’s nose wrinkled. “I can’t imagine him doing anything…normal. Or nice.”
“In a strange way, he was the most normal of all of us. He was definitely the nicest.”
“I’m having a hard time believing that.” She shot him a sideways glance. “You know, seeing how he tried to kill me today.”
If that had happened… Thanatos couldn’t even go there in his thoughts. He was intimate with death the way regular people were intimate with their lovers, but it had been four thousand years since he’d experienced a personal loss. He was pretty sure he would react … badly.
“If Reseph had wanted you dead, you would be,” he said levelly. “His arrows don’t miss.”
“Maybe the baby was protecting me.”
Than frowned. He hadn’t thought of that. “Doesn’t matter. If you hadn’t taken off like that, he wouldn’t have had an opportunity to try.”
“Well, maybe you shouldn’t have kidnapped me.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t have seduced me,” he shot back, fully aware that they sounded like a couple of children.
Taking her bottom lip between her teeth, Regan looked down at her bare feet. “I really am sorry, Thanatos. I know you don’t believe me, but I am.”
Bitterness welled up like bile. “I told you how you can make me believe you, and since you have no trouble whoring for The Aegis, whoring for me shouldn’t be a problem.”
Something sad flashed in her eyes, and his bitterness boomeranged back at him, filling him with regret. Especially when, instead of snarking at him like he expected, she turned away.
Dammit. He tempered his voice so they could continue without the schoolyard squabbling. “Why did you do it?”
“I told you, we got information—”
“Yeah, yeah, save the world. But I mean, why did
“Saving billions of people isn’t enough of a reason?”
“There’s always a personal consideration. I don’t care how selfless anyone’s actions are. There is
She turned to him, her fingers fluttering over her belly. “I was the only one who
“Even if that were true, it’s still not answering the question about your personal angle. What was it?”
“Nothing—”
“
The scars at her temple and chin, scars he found so sexy, darkened like barometers for her temper. “Maybe I was desperate for a cock, like you said. Maybe the idea of screwing a legend tempted me.”
She was lying, although he couldn’t say how he knew. What was clear was that she wasn’t going to tell him the truth. Fine. He’d fling the crap right back at her.
“Good. Being desperate to fuck a legend will make the coming months go much better for you.”
Once again he expected her to snark back, and once again she did the opposite. But this time, instead of falling silent, she changed the subject. “What happened to the vampire who tried to stop me from leaving?”
Instant anger flamed hot at the memory of Serkhama launching an attack on Regan. The daywalker had deserved punishment for that, but Than had been too crazed to consider any option but death. His little self- gratification session hadn’t done a thing to dial back his tension. Only killing Serkhama and the frost demons had done that.
“He’s gone.”
“Gone as in dead or gone as in no longer here?”
“Yes.”
“You’re such a jerk sometimes.”
“You think I haven’t heard that before?”
She smiled sweetly, but her words were tart. “I’m sure you have.”
There was the fire he’d been looking for. He hated that he liked it. That he found it intriguing. His brain searched for a suitable retort, but when she winced and reached behind her, he passed on the comeback.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
“It’s just my back,” she sighed. “Back pain is a pregnancy thing, apparently.”
Without thinking, he crossed to her and nudged her hand out of the way, replacing it with his. “Let me.” She tensed, but as he began to massage her lower back, alternating a kneading motion with lighter strokes, she relaxed with a groan.
“Oh, that’s good,” she moaned.
He loved that sound. Loved the way it both eased his mood and stirred his blood. He wanted to purr like a big cat. And then rub himself all over her.
She arched her spine, pushing back into his massaging fingers, letting out a purr of her own. And yeah, that caused an instant hard-on. And how messed up was it that he was wanting to get naked with her?
Yes, he’d told her she owed him sexual favors, but he’d been pissed, confused, and still reeling from the shock of coming out of hibernation to find out he was going to be a father. He’d lashed out like a teenager who’d been dumped by his first girlfriend. Five thousand years of maturity had gone out the window in a matter of minutes.
He was such a dumbass.
The sound of a cleared throat startled him, and he jerked away from Regan. “What is it, Viktor?”
