How Nina Got Her Fang Back: Accidental Quickie (Accidentally Paranormal Series Book 13) (7 page)

Galen tipped her chin up and stared down into the eyes of the woman he’d been head over heels for since day one. From the second she’d poked her head out of her swanky office door the day he’d moved into her medical building in Manhattan, he’d known she was the woman for him.

From her chestnut-brown hair in a thick braid, falling over her shoulder while stray strands floated about her heart-shaped face, to her petite but curvy frame and wide blue eyes, hidden behind black-framed glasses and peering at him intently, she was perfection.

And he’d known it was against his clan’s laws to even engage in polite conversation with her. He’d known the rules. He’d known the risks. He’d tried to look the other way, ignore her subtle hints, avoid brushing up against her in the elevator, shut his nose off so he wouldn’t smell her amazing scent.

But…

They’d both been working late, and he’d known better than to invite her to share a table with him so she didn’t have to eat standing up in the cafeteria while a late-night conference was in progress.

He’d known better, but his vampire lust, his entire existence, narrowed to only January after that first conversation. Her voice, her scent, her desire for him, so rich and real he could taste it, all drove him mad—absolutely mad.

And now they were here and a baby later, trying desperately to find a way to be a family.

“Galen? That you, man?” a voice called from behind him.

Shit.

Their cloaking spell must have worn off.

January stiffened in his arms. He sniffed the air, picking up the scent of Rowdy Goram, an optometrist from the third floor of the medical building where he and January housed their practices.

“Shit,” he murmured. Rowdy was a fellow clansman and a total ass-kisser. If he saw Galen with January, Artem would know the minute Rowdy could dial his number. If it could bring him some rank in the clan, he’d rat out his own damn mother.

Rowdy’s footsteps grew closer, and as Galen was about to scoop January up and whisk her away, she giggled.

He frowned, looking down at her. January—all buxom blonde and ruby-red lips—looked back up at him and winked a sultry conspirator’s eye.

Thank the gods for her cloaking spells.

“Galen?” Rowdy slapped him on the back.

“A little busy here, buddy. You mind?” He pointed to January’s head and made a face at Rowdy as he tucked January closer and wiggled his eyebrows.

Rowdy blustered, his pale, narrow face eerie in the dark of the night. “Sorry, buddy. Didn’t know you were otherwise,” he coughed and grinned like they’d just shared a dirty picture in
Penthouse
, “engaged. Just checking to be sure you’re okay. Anyway, ’night, you two. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” He wiggled his eyebrows at Galen and made a crude gesture before he was off, scurrying his lanky frame toward the office building and slipping inside behind the tinted glass door.

January let out a breath of air. “Gods, I hate your clan.”

“Ditto, Marilyn,” he teased, dropping a kiss on her nose.

She chuckled and shrugged her shoulders. “What can I say? She’s the absolute opposite end of the spectrum from not-so-va-va-voom me. Marilyn Monroe was the first image that came to mind. Sometimes it just happens that way.”

“Yeah? Well, I like your end of the spectrum way better, young lady. It’s all kinds of restrained hot. Now go, before this spell wears off and I get into trouble for having my way with you right here in the middle of the sidewalk.”

“It’s the pouty lips, isn’t it? What is it with men and big, poofy lips?” she teased, kissing the corner of his mouth.

“It’s your everything. Now scoot. Don’t change back until you’re halfway home. Promise me.”

She held up her fingers in a Girl Scout’s Honor and mocked a sultry smile, turning her head to rest her chin on her shoulder. “Promise. But what are you going to do here tonight? It’s almost midnight, Galen.”

“Just some research—besides, nighttime is my thing. Remember? Coffin-dweller here?”

Giggling, she stood on tiptoe and pressed a kiss to his lips. “I love you, Galen Marcus. We’ll figure this out or we’ll pack up and move to Siberia.”

“I love you back, January Malone. Like crazy. And I guess I could get used to borscht and an igloo,” he teased. Kissing her one last time, he sent her on her way, regretting instantly the moment she left his arms.

As he watched her sashay down the sidewalk, her Marilyn hips much fuller than her own, her sway accentuated by her heels, Galen fought the tight sting of fear in his chest.

If these women couldn’t help them, by hell, he would find a way to make their family whole—because there was still one more issue he hadn’t told January about.

One really big issue.

He was holding off as long as he could in the hopes Artem wouldn’t say anything until after the summit had gathered. But he’d have to tell her soon.

Closing his eyes, Galen sniffed the muggy New York air and once more made the promise he’d been making to himself since he’d decided January was his mate. He’d protect her and Calista to any end. Go anywhere to be with them.

Or he’d die trying.

“
Y
ou want?” Nina asked January, holding up half of her ham and Swiss on rye as they sat in her office, preparing to begin their next session.

Nina didn’t appear at all affected by the idea that she knew they were being recorded. In fact, she’d strolled into January’s office cool as a cucumber, sandwich bag in hand, plopped down in the same seat she’d sat in yesterday and began to eat her lunch.

If anyone was going to blow this sky-high, it would be January and her stupid nerves. Now that she knew Nina was aware of the recording, and she knew she had to keep her on course, she was far more worried about discovery than she had been when she’d feared Nina would find out on her own that she was being recorded.

“Doc?” Nina inquired again, waving the sandwich in front of her face. “Yum-yum. Cheesy goodness on rye,” she tempted with a comical grin. “Wouldn’t hurt you to put some meat on those scrawny legs of yours.”

January squared her shoulders and shook her head with a smile. “No, thank you. I had lunch.”

Nina shrugged. “Your loss.”

Clearing her throat, she licked her dry lips as Nina happily chewed. How was she ever going to get through this?

But then Nina looked up at her, her black eyes compelling January to look back—willing her to participate and help maintain their ruse. And when she complied, Nina didn’t bat an eye, but said, “So what’s on the fucking agenda today, Doc? You wanna probe me like an alien? Check my cholesterol? Maybe have me pee in a cup?”

That instantly broke the tension for January, making her laugh as her body began to relax into her chair. “I’m not that kind of doctor, Nina. No urine samples required.”

She took a huge bite of her sandwich and chewed, glaring at January. “So? Then what’s next? I don’t get what you want from me. I told you everything yesterday. I’m here because my nitwit friends say I need to be here. Do what you gotta do and get ’er done.”

“What’s next is you tell me what your state of mind’s been like since you were returned to your former humanity. How are you feeling since you became a human?”

“Hungry.”

“Are you really eating because you’re hungry or is it because of something else?”

“Like?”

“Like it’s a way to
remind
yourself you’re human. Are you using it as a form of punishment—a constant reminder of your new lot in life?”

“Because Ring-Dings and a fucking steak the size of my face are forms of punishment? Punish the shit out of me, is what I say.”

January watched several different emotions play over Nina’s face before she shrugged. “Maybe. You tell me.”

Sighing, the ex-vampire dropped the crust of her sandwich into the grease-stained bag and made a sucking noise. “Listen, I’ll admit the ability to snarf down whatever the hell I want, whenever the hell I want, is GD sweet after eight years of nothing but synthetic blood. So yeah, I’m making up for lost time, and I’ve got the trail of Cracker Jack crumbs in aisle seven at the supermarket to prove it. But it isn’t because I need to
remind
myself I’m a fucking human. I have the Ass-Sniffer and Mother Theresa for that.”

“And that bothers you? Do you think they do it to make a point or they do it to be helpful?”

She gave January a blank stare. “Do you?”

“Don’t avoid and deflect.”

Nina made a face. “Right, the dreaded D word.”

January gave her a thumbs-up. “You
did
read the packet. Kudos! Now, answer the question. Why do you think your friends remind you of your new station in life?”

“I’m sure they’re just looking out for me, but if I needed looking out for, I’d tell ’em.”

“So you trust they’re doing this because it’s in your best interest?”

“Didn’t I just say that? Listen, they don’t do it to shove the fact that they’re stronger than I am now in my face. I trust them. I don’t like that I trust a chick who wears more makeup than a clown and always takes two hours to get ready when we’re just going to the frickin’ Dollar Store. Marty’s nothing like me, and if
she’s
nothing like me, then Wanda’s a million times unlike me. She’s reserved, all about good manners and being a fucking lady. But trust them? Fuck yeah. It’s been ride or die since day one, and it always will be. End of. Move along to the next subject, little doggie.”

January believed Nina did trust her friends. She didn’t flinch when asked. Not an iota. “Okay, let’s look at your marriage then. How does your husband Greg feel about your humanity?”

Rolling her head from side to side, she cracked the muscles in her neck. “You wanna call him up and ask him?”

“No. I want you to give me your impression of his feelings. How do they come across to you? How do they make
you
feel? What do you hear when he shares them?”

Nina shrugged, and this time, she didn’t look January in the eye when she answered. “He was pissed that I risked my life for Marty, if that’s what you’re getting at. Not because it was Marty, mind you, but that I took a chance like I did, knowing I was human. Because of Charlie…”

January cupped her chin in her hand and assessed the gorgeous brunette. Nina’s husband played an integral role in how she felt about her returned humanity. It had to be hard for him to adjust, too. “So he was angry then?”

“Yeah. He was pretty pissed.”

“Did you argue about it?”

“We didn’t really knock-down-drag-out because we don’t ever do that. We get heated, but we don’t sling fucking mud. I know you prolly think coming from me, that’s bullshit, but my marriage is solid and keeping it that way means I have to use my words. But he was upset enough that he asked me to reconsider my role at OOPS.”

“And that made you…?”

“Tweaked at first, because I’m all kinds of mouth and posturing when it comes to somebody telling me what I can and can’t do—even my own husband. But I get it, and if I didn’t get it, Marty and Wanda are there to remind me I’m in a fucking partnership and something about consideration for my other half, blah, blah, blah. But it’s not like I don’t get that I have a finite amount of time here on earth. I know I’m a lot easier to kill now.”

“Do you still feel as much Greg’s equal as you did when you were a vampire?”

Nina said nothing. Instead, she rustled around in her bag of chips.

“Nina?” January prodded with a gentle tone.

She squirmed for a moment, as though she were deciding whether she should divulge one of her deeper fears—not to mention divulge it to their hidden audience.

Finally, she took a napkin from her bag and wiped her mouth before saying, “No, okay? No, I don’t feel like an equal anymore. I feel like I’ve been spending a lot of time showing Greg all the things I do day to day for Charlie and Carl so—” Her voice cracked a little then, but she rallied quickly. “So that if something happens to me, he’ll know what they like for dinner, or how Carl likes his broccoli cooked a specific way so it’s not too mushy, or the days of the week I take them to the library for story time… I guess I didn’t realize I was telling him all these things because I know one day I…I…”

“Won’t be here?”

Now Nina gulped, the slender column of her throat working. “Yeah. It’s like I’m preparing to die, and I’m not even dying, and…”

“And that sucks.”

“Fuck yeah, it sucks. But I’d do it again. So if you’re going to go back to how I should regret saving someone’s life, fuck off.”

January noted that was for the benefit of the hidden camera. “It can’t be taken back anyway. All we can do is move forward from this point on.”

Nina yawned and stretched. “Right. One foot in front of the other, yadda, yadda, yadda.”

“How do you plan to do that? Put one foot in front of the other?”

Nina made a face. “You want a demonstration? Fucking pictures?”

“No. I want to know if you have an active plan in place. How you’ll tell Charlie someday that you’re different than her. Carl, too. I want to know how you’ll mentally prepare for an ending you haven’t had to prepare for in several years.”

“Like a will?”

January shook her finger at Nina. She was toying with her. Playing dumb because she didn’t want to acknowledge anything beyond the next grilled cheese sandwich she ate. It was all part and parcel of coming to terms with this new journey she was on, and Nina was ignoring it, shoving it away, stalling.

And January knew she had to get to the heart of the matter before time ran out. If nothing came of this, if she ended up blowing this whole thing with Galen and Artem, she wasn’t going to do that before she helped Nina. She absolutely had to properly grieve the loss of her vampirism in order to accept and come to complete terms with her humanity.

“Don’t play dumb with me, Nina. I asked a question. Do you have a plan in place for the time when your life will cease, but everyone around you will carry on?”

Nina narrowed her eyes at January, straightening the ties on her hoodie, the knuckles of her fingers white, but still she didn’t bite. “I got plans for dinner. That’s about as much fucking planning as I’ve done today.”