Page 148 of The Dragon's Mate

As if she sensed his discomfort, she said, “Allmy tests are clear, Bren. I promise.”

“Mine are too,” he said. “Are you on thepill?”

She didn’t reply and he smoothed her hairback from her face. “Kaida, are you on birth control?”

“No,” she said before rolling out of hisembrace. She climbed gracefully to her feet and walked across the clearing toher cloak. He sat up and tucked his dick away, buttoning and zipping his jeansbefore grabbing his shirt and putting it on.

He stood and snagged his jacket from the groundbefore walking to where Kaida was waiting for him at the clearing.

“Come, human,” she held out her hand, “we needto get you home before you freeze to death.”

“Kaida, wait.” The tone of her voice wasnormal, but she wouldn’t look at him. He tugged on her hand. “Look at me.”

She took a deep breath before raising hergaze to his. “What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong?” He frowned at her. “Wejust had sex without a condom and you’re not on birth control. We need to talkabout what we do if you get pregnant.”

She shook her head. “It’s not going to happen.”

“You don’t know that,” he said.

“I do.” She pressed a quick kiss againsthis mouth. “Dragons have a hard time getting pregnant, remember?”

“I remember, but…”

“It isn’t possible,” Kaida said. “We haveto try for years to have a baby. One bout of unprotected sex isn’t going toresult in a baby. I promise.”

“And if you’re wrong?” Bren said.

“I’m not.” She kissed him again. “Look, Iwouldn’t have asked you to come in me if I thought there was even a smallchance it would result in pregnancy. I’m not trying to trap you into anything,if that’s what you’re worried about. I am not going to get pregnant from this.”

“I didn’t think you were trying to trap me.I’m a big boy, I could have said no.” He could hear the anger in his voice,and she smiled apologetically at him.

“You’re right. I shouldn’t have said that.I’m sorry. C’mon, you’re freezing, I know you are.”

“But what if you’re wrong,” he persisted ashe followed her into the woods. “What if you are pregnant?”

“I’m not wrong,” she said. “Trust me, Bren.”

* * *

“Go home, Bren.”

Bren glared at Morales. “I can do my job,Captain.”

“You were followed to that break and enterI assigned you this morning, weren’t you?”

Bren didn’t reply and Morales said, “They followedyou back to the precinct. We’ve got reporters camped out in front of thebuilding.”

“They’ll lose interest soon,” Bren said.

“Probably. But it won’t hurt for you totake the rest of the week off. Hell, it’ll probably be good for you. You worktoo much anyway. Give it a few days for shit to calm down and come back to workon Monday.”

“Captain, I don’t -”

“Not a choice, Matthews.” Morales’ voice wascalm but there was no compromise in it. Once he’d made up his mind about something,there was very little chance of changing it.

Bren shut down his laptop. He started topack it up and Morales shook his head. “Time off, Bren. The precinct will survivewithout you for a few days.”

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