“Molly?” Damon followed me through the apartment naked.
I grabbed my phone from my purse and pulled up the calendar.
I looked at him.
It had been six weeks since my last period.
“Molly, what’s wrong?”
I didn’t know what to say. I sat on one of the chairs embroidered with the Sauvage family crest in the center. My head spun. Was it possible I was pregnant? I had heard stories about IUDs not working, but I couldn’t be one of those cautionary tales, could I? This wasn’t the time to fall into an online rabbit hole of birth control gone-wrong blog posts. I needed the truth.
I had gone to bed last night with a terrible headache. I had blamed it on too much screen time researching. I had fallen asleep two days ago while I was working on chapter outlines in the middle of the afternoon. I had been exhausted all week, but my body was coursing with heightened sexual energy like never before. And the smell of the champagne this morning had made my stomach turn. The signs had been creeping up on me the past couple of days, only I hadn’t noticed them—or maybe I didn’t want to.
“I think I need to buy a pregnancy test,” I blurted.
He was silent and motionless.
“Damon, did you hear what I said?”
He nodded. “I’ll go get one now.”
“Wait.”
He turned slowly. He was in shock. He had to be. I expected him to curse or roar. React with his deepest emotions.
“It could just be all the stress of the past few weeks.” I looked into his eyes. “I might be overreacting.” I shouldn’t have said anything to him until I knew.
I reached him in the doorway. He cradled my cheeks, drawing my lips upward. “I hope you are pregnant.”
“You do?” My eyes darted back and forth, trying to read his mood. It was the last reaction I expected from him. My stomach flipped. Was he serious?
“Yes, love.”
The words warmed me, sending heat through my chest. “I-I can’t believe this. You want a baby?” First a proposal, and now this.
His lips burned mine. The kiss was fiery and raw. I tried to catch my breath. I gripped his neck. I was off balance, falling into his arms.
“I want our baby,” he growled.
“Ok.” I nodded. “A baby? We want a baby?”
He laughed. “We do.” He kissed my cheek. “Now, I’ll go get what you need. I don’t trust this errand with the staff. Wait here.” He broke free and disappeared to get dressed.
I heard him depart in one of the side tunnels instead of the elevator.
I returned to the chair. I couldn’t move. My hand instinctively moved to my belly. Was this really happening?
“How long did it say?” Damon paced outside the bathroom door.
I tugged on his arm. “It’s only three minutes,” I replied.
The suspense was killing both of us, but he didn’t handle this kind of wait well.
“Did I buy enough boxes?” he asked.
“Yes. I think six is plenty. Hopefully, one will be enough.” I tried to smile, but really all I wanted to do was throw up. The enormity of this situation was starting to sink in and I didn’t have a result.
I still wasn’t sure how he had pulled off leaving the palace and buying so many pregnancy tests undetected, but he had years of experience maneuvering through the system.