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little smugly, Rex finally figured out what he d walked into.
 Err& I guess, yes.
Pearl sat back into the pillows he d propped up behind her earlier and sighed out on a
self-satisfied breath,  Really?
112 Anne Douglas
Chapter Fifteen
It felt weird to be sitting in the same spot again, quite a wicked sense of déjà vu, really.
But Pearl had a feeling the answers she sought this time around were going to be a little less
life changing -- for her and Rex, at least.
For Vlad and Donkey, not so much.
Two months previously, Rex had come to her with puppy dog eyes and pleaded
Donkey s case. He d had no luck in finding the overenthusiastic dog a new home, and he
refused to put such a happy-go-lucky dog down, so would she, with all her room, and
menagerie of animals, take Donkey in?
A sucker for a sob story and in the grip of pregnancy hormones -- which, courtesy of
Rex digging out his medical books relating to Were-kind, she now knew a whole lot more
about -- of course she d agreed.
Vlad had taken one look at Donkey the day she d been dropped off and run out the
back door. She d been disappointed that it seemed the two dogs would not get along, but ten
minutes later, Vlad had crashed back through the doggy door and laid his three-week-old,
rotting beef shin bone at Donkey s feet with a reverent, paws out front, chest to the ground
bow.
Accidentally Were? 113
It hadn t been  til today that Pearl had questioned Donkey s increase in food intake and
Vlad s overprotectiveness and thought to check a few things out. Donkey was rather rounder
in the belly, and her stomach was extremely hard -- she also had no scars that would reflect
she d been spayed. Caught up in the changes in her own world, Pearl hadn t thought to ask if
Donkey had been fixed, and she knew Vlad hadn t been neutered.
But until Rex gave her firm proof, she wasn t going to think about the irony of the
situation. Not at all.
* * * * *
Half an hour later, the irony was all she could think about.
 You re certain? She s really pregnant?
Appearing shocked by his findings during his hands-on examination, Rex had pulled in
his portable ultrasound and triple-checked what his hands and eyes told him.  Seven
heartbeats.
 Seven?
Pearl sat down on the consulting room chair with a thump and started giggling. Tears
soon followed, along with large hiccupping gales of full-blown laughter.
Rex hefted Donkey down from the table, and they both came over to her, identically
cocking their heads to the side as they watched her. Donkey sank down on her belly with a
solo, inquiring,  woof and put her head down on her paws, while Rex hunkered down in
front of her and took her hands in his.
 Pearl?
 Do you not see the irony in this? You knocked me up, now my dog knocked your dog
up. How fucking perfect is that? Ignoring Rex s shocked look at her use of the word  fuck,
she tried to sniff back the tears that were now flowing in earnest.  Donkey and I can be
unwed mothers together.
114 Anne Douglas
Rex s arms came around her, and even though she was still on the chair, he started to
rock her against him, smoothing down her back with his hands and whispering quiet
nothings meant to soothe her.
 Pearl, what s wrong, love? This is isn t about Donkey -- even I m not that much of a
relationship dunce.
She sniffed, wiped the back of her hand under her nose, and washed over her eyes with
her fingers, trying to get herself under control.  People are noticing that I m fatter than
normal& and the cashier at the supermarket suggested I might like her gym& and at work
people keep looking at me funny when I have to do an emergency dash to the toilet  cause
I m going to be sick& and& and we need to tell my daddy. And that alone was enough to
make her start crying again, never mind the rest of it.
 Oh, Pearl, honey. Forget about those people. When they find out you re pregnant,
they ll be the ones kicking themselves; and as for your father, yes, we should tell him.
 We should? Well, she hadn t expected that answer.
 Yes, we should. Rex stood and pulled her into his arms. He walked them one-
hundred-and-eighty degrees around, then sat in the chair, pulling her onto his lap, his arms
back around her as he pushed her head down onto his chest and carried on rocking her.  We
are well into a viable pregnancy, and I think we two muck along well enough that we can
safely say that being together will not be the end of the world. I think it s time we started
telling people.
 We should? She knew they should, but after keeping mum for so long, it was kind of
hard to grasp.
 And I think that you should finally say yes.
 Yes? What am I saying yes to? A finger under her chin bought her head up, and she
stared into a very soft, caring pair of brown eyes and sniffed. To his credit, he didn t even
flinch.
Accidentally Were? 115
 Marry me, Pearl. Those dark eyes were dead serious.  I m tired of a night here and a
night there. When I leave here I want to be with you, not at my lonely house, and I don t
want to worry about racing off early just so I can get home to change clothes before going to
work. I want to tell everyone you re having my child, and not have you believing people
think less of you for not being married. He paused, his lips gently covering hers and
caressing them. His request was just a whisper over her skin as he asked again,  Marry me?
Red-eyed, snotty-nosed, and crying so hard she was hiccupping, and the man still
proposed marriage. What s to turn down?  Okay.
His eyes crinkled at the edges, and his lips turned up as he tried to stop the laughter
that burst out.  Okay? His lips took hers again with no gentleness this time. Staking a firm
claim on her body, his arms pulled her in tightly and one hand wound its way into her hair,
while the other slid under her shirt to stroke the soft skin at her hip before he pulled away.
 Okay sounds damn good to me.
His eyes blanked out for a second, and one brow came down in a frown as he
contemplated something.  You know I don t practice medicine on humans, even though I m
trained, but most of the equipment I have is the same. Since I have the ultrasound here,
would you like to take the first look at our baby?
 You can do that? Pearl had never thought to ask him if he could do anything like
that, and the Were-kind midwife she d started seeing hadn t yet scheduled her for a scan.
 And it won t hurt the baby?
 No, it won t hurt either of you.
 We can really see it? Now that he d suggested it, there was no way Rex was getting
out of the room without delivering the goods.
With only a small  umph as he stood, he rose from the chair and let her down by the
metal examining table. Rex reached for the disinfecting spray then went over the table and
the machine thoroughly, wiping it down since he d just used it on Donkey. When the table
116 Anne Douglas [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]