When I’d made the circuit, I came face to
face with a grinning face at the kitchen door. My heart nearly
stopped.
“Everything working now?”
I turned red as a beet. Moving to the door,
I snatched it open and stared at the utility man, trying not to
think about the hopeful jerk my heart had given when I saw a male
face in the glass. “I was afraid I’d have to spend my first night
here in the dark.”
“Mildred told me you were going to be out
here alone in the dark if I didn’t come. I couldn’t have that. You
want to check the tap and make sure the pump’s on?”
“Oh. Good idea!” I moved to the sink and
checked. “Yahoo! That’s working too! I don’t know how to thank you
enough for coming out so late.”
He grinned at me. “You can let me take you
out sometime.”
I stared at him blankly, abruptly
uncomfortable. Get back up on that horse, girl! I chided myself.
The sooner the better. He’s cute. He’s got charm. “Maybe when I’m
settled in?”
When he’d left, my shoulders slumped with
relief, and then I kicked myself. A hair of the dog, Nicole!
But I didn’t want a hair of the damned dog!
I wanted Gideon.
I wasn’t going to think about that, though.
I’d promised myself I wasn’t going to look back.
Settling in took so much work that time flew
for me. I didn’t have much to move in, but there was a hell of a
lot of stuff to wade through and move out. My mother, apparently,
had never thrown anything away—so much for thinking she wasn’t
already dotty before she left the farm. I found boxes filled with
nothing but used wrapping paper and bows, stacks of newspapers,
magazines dating back to forever.
I’d hired workers to take care of the
repairs I didn’t feel competent to handle, but there were a lot of
‘small’ things I had to take care of myself. Before I knew it a
week had passed.
Half way through my second week in my new
home I heard a knock at the front door. Startled, I backed down the
ladder I was working on and stepped in the tray of paint I’d left
at the bottom. “Shit! Damn it to hell! I’m coming! Give me a
minute.” I yelled the last in the direction of the front door. “Or
maybe a half hour,” I muttered to myself.
Slipping my shoe off, I hopped on one foot
to the bathroom and shoved my foot into the tub. The shower came on
instead of the tub spout, thoroughly drenching me. Fuming, I
finished rinsing the paint off my leg and grabbed a towel, drying
off as I hobbled through the house with one shoe on and one
off.
When I’d snatched the door open, I simply
stared blankly at the man standing there, trying to get my mind
around the strangeness of seeing him dressed like an ordinary human
being.
He stared back at me, his gaze traveling
slowly down my paint and water spattered form before it returned to
my face.
“I thought you’d gone home,” I managed
finally, still too stunned to allow myself to believe he was more
than a mirage brought on by my desperate yearning for him.
Something flickered in his eyes—uncertainty,
but then he set his jaw with determination. “I could not. I missed
you.”
My chin wobbled. I knew any minute I was
going to do something completely stupid—start blubbering like a
baby and make a fool out of myself besides scaring him off. I
didn’t want to do that—desperately. I wanted to feast my eyes on
him. I wanted to fling my arms around him and never let go. I
would’ve been happier with myself if I could have just been
nonchalant about the whole thing, though, maybe invited him in for
a quick fuck, or two or three rounds to keep him around a little
longer. I wasn’t happy to discover I’d been lying to myself about
him ever since we’d parted company, maybe even for a while
before—like from the first. Taking a deep breath to gather my
courage, I stiffened my spine, and my resolve, and said what I knew
I had to. “I don’t think I can do this anymore, Gideon. I was just
starting to get used to not having you around. I really do love
fucking you, but ….”
Something that looked suspiciously like pain
flickered in his eyes, and more doubt, but his face hardened with
resolve. “I love everything about you. I don’t want you to get used
to not having me around.”
Floored, certain I hadn’t heard him right, I
blinked in surprise. “What did you say?”
He hooked a hand behind my head and jerked
me tightly up against him, smiling down at me when I made no
attempt to resist, plastering myself against him gratefully. “I
could not go back, Nicole. I’ve no heart for the war anymore, and I
could not survive long anyway when I can think of nothing but being
with you. I will stay with you and our child.”
“Here?” I didn’t realize until much later
that he’d spoken of my pregnancy as if it was something he’d known
all along—but then, perhaps he had. The Elumi were bound to be
aware that they were potent breeders, on human females, anyway.
He looked around the house. “Yes. Here.
Wherever you are.”
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I did
a little of both. “You sure you’re cut out for this world? You’re
not going to change your mind? I love you, too, but I don’t think I
could stand ….”
He kissed me. I think it was just to shut me
up, but it still felt absolutely divine!
The End