“I don’t know—I think some Kindred guys can be bastards too.” Meg shot Roark a glare.
Roark looked back at her.
“I deserve everything you’ve said about me and more,” he said quietly. “I was completely wrong about Samantha. I judged her harshly because I have been…hurt by a human woman in the past. But now, I would very much like to make amends.” He held out his hand. “May I have the think-me?”
“No!” Meg thrust the thin golden circlet behind her back. “I told you, Sammi’s taking a nap right now. Besides, you don’t deserve to talk to her—or to be with her for that matter. Not after the way you acted!”
“Now, Meg…” Liv put a soothing hand on the other woman’s knee. “I think it has to be Samantha’s decision whether she’ll take Commander Roark back or not. She is carrying his babies, after all. It sounds like this is all some big misunderstanding—why don’t you let them clear it up?”
“Not right now,” Meg insisted stubbornly. “You told me yourself how tired being pregnant makes you. Sammi needs her sleep.”
“Well, being pregnant does make you horribly tired,” Liv admitted, frowning. “Especially in the first quadmester.”
“Fine.” Roark nodded, though he wanted desperately to speak to Samantha and let her know how sorry he was. “I’ll leave her alone—for now. I should go down and speak to her in person, anyway. Communicating through a think-me isn’t as meaningful as speaking face to face.”
He pictured himself on his knees before Samantha, begging her forgiveness—asking her to come back to him so that they could raise their little girls together…
“Don’t you go bothering her right now!” Meg snapped. “Maybe if you’re still sorry I’ll give you the address of her aunt’s house in a couple of days. But she needs at least that long to process what you did to her.”
“A couple of days?” Roark protested. “But—”
“She’s emotional right now,” Meg snapped. “She needs some time to deal with everything you’ve put her through! I don’t want her agreeing to go back to an abusive asshole because she feels desperate.”
Roark thought about protesting that he had never abused Samantha…but was that really true? He remembered how it had been, the many times he had strapped her into the insemination machine, the many different phalluses he had thrust inside her. At the time he believed she was submitting to such treatment because she was as sexually aroused by what they were doing as Roark was.
But was that really true?
He just didn’t know anymore. Possibly Samantha had only been putting up with his experiments because she thought she had no choice. Without a job, she would have had to leave the Mother Ship and from what Meg had said about the human male stalking her, she hadn’t felt safe doing that.
Then he had forced her to go—by firing her and breaking her heart at the same time, Roark thought remorsefully. So maybe he was abusive after all. Maybe Samantha had hated and resented him this entire time. But…hadn’t she said she loved him, there at the last?
A tiny tendril of hope curled up from the barren, rocky soil of his heart. If she had loved him once, she might be persuaded to love him again, if only he could prove he was worthy of her.
But how could he do that if he couldn’t talk to her and apologize?
“I have to go.” Meg’s voice cut through Roark’s frantic thoughts. He looked up as she stood and headed for the door.
“Please,” he said. “I really am sorry. I love Samantha and I treated her horribly—I see that now. Won’t you give me the address of her female relation so that I can go and apologize? I give you my oath as a warrior that I won’t pressure her to take me back. I simply want to let her know how sorry I am for how I acted.”
Meg’s face, which had been set in stone, seemed to melt, just a little.
“Maybe I’ll tell you the address tonight,” she said at last. “But give her time to get settled at her aunt’s place, okay? And promise you won’t contact her until then.”
“All right, I swear it. And thank you.” Roark nodded.
“Bye, Liv,” Meg nodded at the human doctor. “Thanks for your help with this mess.”
“Anytime.” Liv smiled at her and then turned her attention to Roark as the door shut behind Meg. “Well, it seems we’ve all had an eventful morning.”
“Eventful?” Roark barked an unhappy laugh. “If you consider finding out I am the father to twins after believing myself to be infertile and also after I accused the woman I love of cheating on me and driving her away ‘eventful’ then yes, I would say so.”
“Look, the road to love isn’t always a straight path,” Liv said quietly. “When my husband, Baird, first Claimed me, I did everything in my power to get away from him.”