The second kiss was everything. Jude felt her body tighten with a climax. The kiss taking her to peak was scary when she thought of what he’d do to her when they made love. Duncan lifted his head once again and held her to him while she got herself under control. Telling her heart it was all right for it to continue to beat while inhaling slowly, she felt Duncan set her up on her feet and hold her. Her nostrils filled with not only his scent but the smell of her own lust as well.
“Are you all right?” She couldn’t answer him, so she simply shook her head. “Yes, I think I feel the same way. I didn’t expect—I suppose I should have guessed it would be wonderful to taste of you, but I never thought the world would move for us.”
“I came.” As soon as the words left her mouth, she was mortified by them. But he didn’t tease her or even laugh at her. Instead, he leaned his forehead to hers and held her upright. “I’m not sure what I should be saying to you right now.”
“I don’t either, to be honest. I never thought a kiss could do so much to one’s body. I know I’ve never felt this way with anyone before.” She told him she’d not either. “I don’t want to allow you to walk away from me. I have a feeling, and I have no idea why, but if you walk away from me right now, I’m going to think this was all a dream.”
She pinched him, taking a chunk of the flesh on his arm and twisting it hard. When he asked her what she was doing, she smiled at him.
“I was making sure we were neither one dreaming.” He looked at her with furrowed brows. Jude wondered if he hadn’t thought it was funny. Then, he did the most incredible thing—he threw back his head and laughed. It was just like hearing his mother laughing at some joke decades ago. “Your mother laughed like that. She never cared what people thought of her when she was in good humor. And she was a great deal—in good humor.”
“When she’d come to visit me, Mom would always have a tale about you and the other birds. How Mercy would take her up too high in the sky. How easily you were able to take down a kingdom. She loved you six like her own children, I think.” Jude told him she had loved Dante just as much. “She knew that, as well. Mom, she told me once that without you birds there with her, she would never have survived life. Living to be as old as she did, it wasn’t something that common to women of that era.”
Jude made her way to the gift room. It was actually the living room, but the furniture had all been put in storage, and gifts for the children had been brought in. The large bags, filled with several gifts, had a name on each of them. Jude was glad when Duncan joined her in the room. It didn’t even bother her when he was close to her any longer.
“Before I forget to tell you, I’ve spoken to your neighbor, Mr. Bloom. And before you ask, yes, he’s still alive.” Duncan asked her what he wanted now. “I’m sending a car for him to be here in the morning when the children arrive. I told him we needed someone here to tell the children the Christmas story. I appealed to his sense of duty in making sure it was done correctly. I also know this will be his last holiday. He isn’t long for this world.”
“Does he know?” Jude told him what she’d found out. “So you have the gift of seeing as well. I do, but it is sort of temperamental on what it shows me.”
“Mine is much stronger since I came here.” She turned her back to him as she continued. “I know too that you and I are going to have a child by the next Christmas. It’s not of our body.”
“I don’t have a problem with that if you don’t.” Jude told him she didn’t care so long as he knew she knew nothing of small children. “I know a little. For a while, I was a children’s doctor. I know seeing them as a doctor isn’t the best of circumstances, but I did learn a great deal. What do you think of my grandparents living here?”
The change of subject didn’t bother her—it was the question. Turning to look at him, she wondered why he’d think she would have a problem with them living in his home. When she told him what she thought, he shook his head.
“No, it’s our home. I did this for us. All the improvements were done with you in mind. The perches have been put back the way they were simply for us to use when we fly. This house, that’s all it is—just a house. I want to make it a home with you. It seems silly to say this, but I’ve never lived in my own home before. I’ve lived in other people’s homes, lived with people in a big house. But never have I lived in my own home before.”
Jude thought about what he was saying. She hadn’t either. It had either been a small place where she could store things, a place so people wouldn’t be asking questions about where she lived when she was out. And if it hadn’t been just a place for others to see and know about, she’d lived with the other birds.
“I don’t know much about having a home either. I’ve
