Bonded by Accident

“So…what are you saying?” Brandi seemed to have as hard a time comprehending his words as he’d had comprehending hers. “You just met me and you’re saying you want to raise a baby with me?”

Slade put a hand on her arm and leaned forward, looking into her eyes.

“Listen to me sweetheart: if I put a baby in you—if your belly swells with my child—I want to be there. To support and protect you and the baby—and Emmie too. No male of worth would ever even consider doing anything else.”

“No Kindred male, maybe,” Brandi said softly. “I’m afraid an awful lot of human males wouldn’t feel the same way. Earl only offered to marry me after I knew I was pregnant with Emmie because my stepfather, Bud, threatened to shoot him.” She gave a broken little laugh. “It was literally a shot-gun wedding, you know?”

“All I know is that I care for you—more than seems possible after such a short time,” Slade told her in a low voice. “And I know I want to keep you safe, Brandi. Safe and provided for. I’ve heard your thoughts—your worries about money. You shouldn’t have to worry that way—not when you have a mate who can provide.”

“I’m not looking for a sugar daddy,” she protested, but her words were without heat. She still seemed bewildered that he was even offering. “I’m not asking you to support me.”

“But that’s what bonded mates do,” Slade argued softly. “They support each other.”

“I can’t…I don’t even know what to think about that right now.” Brandi sounded uncertain. “I mean, we’re still mostly strangers and now you’re asking to support me if I have your baby?”

“Even if you don’t,” Slade told her in low growl. “I don’t want you to have to worry about money. I have a good job on the Mother Ship—”

“So that’s what this is about? You want me to move to the Mother Ship?” she demanded.

“It would be a hell of a lot easier to take care of you there,” Slade pointed out.

Brandi frowned. “For the last time, you don’t have to take care of me! I’m doing just fine on my own! I can meet all of my own and Emmie’s needs without any help from you.”

“I can think of one need you can’t meet on your own.”

Cupping her cheek in his, Slade gave in to what he’d been wanting to do for hours and took her mouth in a long, hot kiss.

Chapter Eleven

Brandi’s first impulse was to push the big Kindred away—how dare he kiss her like this out of the blue, right when they were in the middle of an argument? Yet her body couldn’t seem to follow through with her brain’s impulse.

Oh God, I shouldn’t be doing this…shouldn’t be letting him do this, Brandi thought disjointedly as the hot, delicious kiss continued. But somehow, despite knowing it was all wrong, she wasn’t trying to stop the big Kindred. Instead she leaned into the kiss, feeling so hungry for him she could barely breathe. His warm bonding scent surrounded her, making her want him even more—God she was going crazy with need!

Slade’s big hands found her waist and Brandi covered them were her own and slid them up until he was cupping her breasts. She couldn’t forget how good it had felt when he’d pinched and sucked her nipples. She wished she had on the same stretchy pink top she’d been wearing to the Mother Ship so he could pull it down and get to her bra. She could just imagine him peeling the lacy cups down and tugging her nipples, making them hot and swollen with his big hands…

Slade seemed to know exactly what she wanted. Unbuttoning the front of her white business blouse, he tugged down the cups of her bra just as she had imagined. But then, instead of twisting her nipples, he leaned down to suck them.

Brandi moaned and threw back her head as he circled one wide areola with his tongue and then sucked hard, taking her nipple into his hot mouth.

“Gods, sweetheart, love your big, full breasts,” he growled through their link. “I love how puffy and swollen your nipples are—turns me on so fucking much.”

Brandi couldn’t help thinking that it was a real plus to have a man who actually knew how to dirty talk and who could keep on doing it even with his mouth full. Earl hadn’t had any of those skills.

“Don’t think about your ex-mate,” Slade growled in her head. “Think about me and the things I’m going to do to you.”

He’d been sucking her other nipple but now he released it and slipped to his knees before her. “Like right now I’m going to eat your sweet pussy,” he told her, his mismatched eyes glowing.

Brandi felt as though about a thousand butterflies had just taken off inside her stomach.