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The Demon’s fists were going everywhere and she’d started to kick. Shit. He turned around and carried her back into the water.
He’d be damned if he’d moo.
8
MAT GAZED DOWN at the naked baby playing with his toes in the bottom of the shower stall. How had this happened? How had he ended up taking a shower with a baby? Now, taking a shower with Nell, that would be different.
He belatedly remembered that big, pregnant belly and shook off the image. They were still parked by the covered bridge, and at this rate, they weren’t going to make it to Iowa before the Demon hit puberty. He slicked the last of the soap from his chest and decided he’d been caught in one of those nightmares where he was trying to get somewhere, but no matter what he did, he couldn’t make it.
A frightening thought struck him. First he’d acquired two kids. Now he’d picked up a woman. It was as if some satanic force were building a family around him.
“How are you doing in there?” Nell called through the door.
The Demon bent forward and sank all four of her teeth into the top of his foot. He yelped, wedged himself down to scoop her up. “You little—”
“We have no idea what kind of microorganisms were swimming in that river water,” Nell said. “Are you using lots of soap on her?”
He shoved her under the spray. “A whole bar.”
“You’d better not be tr
ying any funny business with her in there, Jorik!” Lucy exclaimed. “I mean it!”
“Hush, Lucy,” Nell said. “Don’t make him any madder than he already is.”
The Demon was starting to sputter, so he pulled her out from under the water, then tucked her against his bare chest. She went after one of his nipples with her fingernails.
“Ouch!”
“You’re hurting her!” Lucy shouted. “I know you are!”
“I’m not hurting her!”
The Demon didn’t like anybody yelling but herself, and she started that lip-quiver stuff.
“I’m immune,” he growled down at her.
The quiver disappeared and a beamy smile took its place. He could swear he saw adoration glimmering in those blue eyes, and every bit of it was directed at him. “Forget it. I can’t be bought. ”
She gave a delighted baby vampire squeal, turned her head into his chest, and bit.
“Damn it!”
Just then the shower spray faded to a trickle. He’d been in such a hurry to get away from Sandy’s place that he hadn’t bothered to fill the water tank all the way, and last night at the campground he’d been too preoccupied with his bottle of Jim Beam to finish the job.
“None of this would be happening if you hadn’t taken the baby swimming in that dirty river,” Nell felt duty-bound to remind him, sounding just like a nagging wife.
He spun the Demon so her teeth were facing outward and squeezed himself through the tiny shower door and out into the minuscule bathroom. As he reached for a towel, he banged his elbow into the wall. “Damn it!”
“Two damn its already,” Nell said from the other side. “It doesn’t seem to be going very well.”
“If you don’t want to see a naked man, you’d better get back from that door.” He wrapped the towel around the Demon, opened the door, and set her on the floor outside. “She’s all yours.”
He shut the door in the face of Nell’s amusement. The baby immediately began to howl.
“She wants you,” Nell said.
“Tell her to take a number.”
