He didn’t move, didn’t budge an inch. Just continued to lie there, staring at her stomach. She wasn’t even sure he was breathing.
“Gideon!” she insisted. He was really beginning to worry her now. What the hell was going on? Had he just now remembered something? Had he had some kind of vision?
At last, he began to move. Slow, cautious, he sat up, leaning back on his haunches. With exquisite care, he reached a trembling hand toward her. She wanted to move away from him, wanted to put her clothes on and run and hide. But unspeakable, nameless fear held her still.
Gideon flattened his hand gently against her lower abdomen. He sat there for a long moment, unmoving, simply touching her, the look in his eyes distant as if he was focusing very hard on something outside himself.
And then his gaze connected with hers for a heartbeat. In that one glance, she caught fleeting glimpses of tangled emotion. Panic. Fear. Disbelief. Shock.
Without warning, the room fell away in a swirl of color. Gideon’s den solidified around her as she landed with a thud, naked, on the worn carpet.
“Gideon! What the hell?”
“Oh Christ on a crutch! Oh hell.” He gasped, rushing over to her and helping her to her feet. “I forgot,” he stammered, clearly shaken to the core. She’d never seen him so flustered. “I didn’t think about—”
He conjured clothing for both of them. As soon as she was steady on her feet, he released her and backed away like she was a bomb with the timer quickly winding down.
“What’s going on?” she demanded as he began pacing around the room.
“Stupid! Stupid!” Gideon swore, long and loud. He stopped every so often to glance her way and rake both splayed hands through his hair. He’d throw his arms in the air or slap a hand to his forehead, only to resume pacing, mumbling beneath his breath. She couldn’t reconcile this frenzied, flustered Gideon with the otherwise soothing and unshakable Gideon she’d come to trust and lo—care about in such a short time.
“Gideon,” she tried again, but she couldn’t get his attention. “Gideon!”
Frustrated, she glanced around the room, her attention snagging on the pillow lying in the corner—the one she’d thrown at his head the last time he’d shimmered her there with no warning.
Snatching it up, she waited until he turned her way in his pacing, then launched it into his face. “Gideon! So help me, if you don’t start talking to me, and you damned well better start making some sense, the next thing I throw at your head is going to be something very heavy and very, very hard!”
Finally, she got his attention. He rushed to her, grabbing up her hands, only to drop them and back away as if he feared touching her. If he didn’t explain himself really fast, she was going to lose it.
“I’m so sorry! I wasn’t thinking,” he gushed. He was so rattled, and it was scaring the living hell out of her.
“You already said that,” she reminded him.
“No, not about the shimmering. Well, yes, about that too. But not that.” He shook his head, looking like he was about to take up pacing once more. Or throw up. His face was pale, too pale, his eyes all but bugging out of his head.
“Gideon,” she snapped, striding forward to grab his shoulders before he could resume circling the room, giving him a rough shake.
“Oh God, Maggie, I screwed up.” His wild-eyed gaze met hers. Suddenly, she was the one who felt panicked, she just didn’t understand why. “I didn’t use protection, didn’t even stop to think. Not once last night. All night! Every time we…I didn’t use protection. I was so caught up—”
At last, his words, his behavior, the way he’d touched her stomach earlier began to make sense. A wave of dizziness washed over her, and she took a staggering step back, her mind racing.
“No,” she whispered. No, that was ridiculous. To just assume…
It was impossible. Too soon to know anything, at the very least.
“It’s okay,” she whispered. Clearing her throat, she shook her head and offered him what she hoped was a reassuring smile. Someone had to be calm and reasonable here. And it didn’t look like that was going to be him. Besides, she was just as responsible for this mess as he was. “It’s okay. We’ll just have to be more careful from now on. Besides, the likelihood of…of…well, that happening has got to be pretty…ah, slim. I mean, it was only last night. There’s no way to tell so soon if… Why are you shaking your head at me like that?”
“Maggie,” he said, approaching her now with firm, sure steps. Gone was the panic, gone the hysteria. And in its place was a deadly, serious calm that terrified her far worse than she could ever imagine. His hands caught her shoulders with an urgency she’d rarely seen in him.
“Maggie, you are pregnant.”