To Love and Serve
Page 21
“Is that what I think it is?” She smiled and wiggled her fingers. “We were a little too busy last night for me to tell you.”
“You’re marrying him?” Jesus’s tones were hard to gauge.
“I love him.”
“Well, then. I guess congratulations are in order,” he said fixing his coffee. Light and sweet, like her own.
“Thanks.”
He was silent until he took his first sip and finally smiled. “He does make a great cup of coffee. You’re a lucky woman.”
She recognized avoidance when she saw it. “You and Ryder need to be square.”
Jesus took another sip. “That may take a little time.”
“As long as it happens.” She finished her coffee and slid the dirty mug into the dishwasher. Pushing off from the counter, she scooped up her purse and headed for the front door, but stopped, glanced at the guest room door, and gave him a go-ahead look.
With a sheepish grin, he went into the guest room and stood by the bed, gazing down at Michaela, his look filled with adoration. Unexpected, given what she’d come to know of her friend over the many years they’d worked together.
It filled her with warmth that he seemed to have found someone. But concern tangled with that emotion. It would be a hard road he would travel with Michaela. She hoped he would find it worth the trip.
He bent and kissed the slayer. She roused for a moment and skimmed her hand across his hair, the gesture so intimate Diana had to turn away because she felt like a voyeur.
She counted to ten and waited for him. Exhausted, and yet excited to be going to the office. Back to work.
His heavy footfall came behind her and she didn’t wait for him to catch up. They had work to do. Human work this time, and it wouldn’t keep.
Chapter Thirty-four
Ryder watched Diana pace back and forth, back and forth, in Sebastian and Melissa’s living room as they all waited for Maggie to arrive. An emergency case had kept Diana’s friend tied up at the FBI lab later than expected.
He took a seat on the sofa to wait with Melissa, clenching his knees with his fingers to keep them from fidgeting, as anxious as Diana to find out what Maggie and Melissa thought about the new symptoms she’d been exhibiting. The intense weakness and fatigue coupled with the stomach-twisting nausea worried the hell out of him. Finally, she sat beside him and tucked herself beneath his shoulder. He put his arm around her and pulled her close. It would be fine. It had to be.
She laid her hand on his leg. The sapphire and diamond engagement ring he’d given her winked at them, a vivid reminder of the promises they’d made to each other, of the life they would share together forever. He only prayed her two friends wouldn’t tell them that not even his transforming kiss could save her. That her new symptoms meant the contamination had damaged her body too badly for a turning to be successful. It would kill him to lose her.
It couldn’t happen.
When Sebastian came in, he settled himself on the arm of Melissa’s chair and she eased her hand nervously into his.
So not good. Diana must have felt it, too. She gripped Ryder’s thigh harder. His muscles tensed, like a defendant waiting for the verdict before a jury. The intercom buzzed, alerting them to Maggie’s arrival, and when she walked in, she took a seat in a nearby chair. The glance she shot Melissa was all business.
“Okay,” Diana ground out impatiently. “Say something. Please.”
“It’s tough to know how to start,” Melissa said, sharing a worried glance with Sebastian.
“Just get it out,” Ryder said sharply, then winced. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude.” Inside he was a mess, and he could only imagine what Diana was feeling. She had that almost eerie resolve about her that he’d noticed the other day.
Whatever it was, she would handle it, and so would he.
Maggie cleared her throat. “The lysis that was going on in your body has diminished.”
“That’s a good thing, right?” Diana asked, her voice hopefully expectant.
The two women looked at one another before Melissa explained. “But there’s something else going on in your body. We’re not sure if that’s the reason the lysis has slowed.”
Before either Ryder or Diana could respond, Maggie blurted out, “You’ve had a lot of queasiness lately, right?”
“A lot,” she answered.
“Your breasts are sensitive,” Melissa added.
Sebastian popped off the chair. “This is TMI. Maybe I need to leave.”
“You need to stay to hear this,” Melissa warned, and continued. “You’ve been very emotional and very tired, right?”
“For months. Tell me something new,” Diana responded gruffly.
Her two friends looked at one another again, and almost in unison said, “You’re pregnant.”
Poleaxed. That was the only way to describe how Ryder felt. For a moment he went completely deaf, unable to hear what else was being said as his brain repeated the one word over and over.
Pregnant. Pregnant. Pregnant.
“That’s not possible,” he heard himself saying over the excited babble.
Diana rubbed her hand along his thigh in a calming motion and he looked up at her. Her features were peaceful. Accepting.
“It’s okay, Ryder.” Was she kidding? What part of this was okay? Her body had barely been holding its own, and now she was pregnant? With his baby.
His baby.
A human baby.
The thought gripped him so hard, he couldn’t stay still. He surged from the sofa in a burst of vamp speed and rushed to the far side of the room to be alone.
He had to process everything he’d blocked from his mind moments earlier. Three months along. Vitals have stabilized. We don’t know how this will affect your health. We’re not sure you can carry it to term.
Her touch came against his back, the touch he would know anywhere. His senses filled with the smell of her and the beat of her life force. He’d sensed something different about its rhythm lately, and now he knew what it had been.
“I don’t know what to say, darlin’,” he admitted, shaking his head in disbelief.
“Say that you’re angry. Say that you’re happy. Just say something, please.”
Of all the ways to act, he realized he’d done the most wrong-headed thing by shutting her out. He’d had to turn off everything else because his emotions overwhelmed him. But he had to be honest with her, and share what he was feeling.
“I’m afraid,” he admitted. “For you. For the baby.” He lowered his hand to cover her still-flat belly.
“But I’m incredibly happy for both of us. I never dreamed— God, I never dared to hope—”
He pulled her into his arms, lifted her, and buried his head against her shoulder. He dragged in a ragged breath of her to keep inside and cherish.
…
Diana held Ryder close, understanding both his fear and his joy. She’d experienced them, too, and had no idea what would come next. As much as she’d longed for a baby of her own, she’d been truthful the other day when she told Sebastian she didn’t have time for a family. That she was too much like her father. Her life hadn’t been her own since she’d taken up his cause to do the right thing.
As she held Ryder and covered the hand that lingered over her belly, she realized that now, if she and the baby survived, she would have another role to play.
She’d been born to serve others on the day her father had died. But today… today she’d been reborn, and her mission had changed, yet remained the same in a way.
“We’ll handle this together. I know we will,” she whispered. He cradled her face in his hands and kissed her tenderly, sealing the promise. Smiling as they both finally allowed the happiness of the moment to chase away the fear.
She’d told Jesus that love would find a way, and it had.
Together. So, together they walked back to their friends and family, embracing the new life with which they’d been gifted.
Rebo
rn with the love that would sustain them, hopefully for years to come.
About the Author
New York Times and USA Today bestselling paranormal and romantic suspense author Caridad Pineiro wrote her first novel in the fifth grade when her teacher assigned a project – to write a book for a class lending library. Bitten by the writing bug, Caridad continued with her passion for the written word and in 1999, Caridad’s first novel was released. Over a decade later, Caridad is the author of more than thirty published novels and novellas. When not writing, Caridad is an attorney, wife and mother to an aspiring writer and fashionista. For more information, please visit www.caridad.com or www.rebornvampirenovels.com.
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