Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 77889 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77889 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
“Oh good—Sammi’s awake.” Meg nodded at Sammi and grinned. “And she wants to see him too.” She turned back to Sammi and squeezed her hand. “Now remember, don’t try to talk! But I’m sure you’ll still be able to communicate just fine.”
Leaning over, she gave Sammi a kiss on the cheek and then, with a promise to see her later, she left the Med Center room and at last, Roark came in.
Sixty
Sammi’s heart jumped in her chest the minute she saw him standing there, so tall and handsome. But there was a haggard look on his sharp features that worried her.
“Samantha,” he said formally and came to sit in the chair beside her bed where Meg had been sitting when she first woke up. Sammi wished he would reach for her hand but instead, he crossed his arms over his broad chest, as though to keep himself from touching her.
“Samantha,” he said again, shaking his head. “I have so much to say to you—so much to apologize for… I hardly know where to start.”
He looked down meditatively, a frown on his dark face. At last he looked up at her and took a deep breath.
“The children you are carrying are mine,” he said, lifting his chin. “The entire time we were doing, er, ‘experiments’ with my machine, I wasn’t using fake seed as I had told you—I was using my own seed on you every time.”
Sammi felt her eyes widen at his confession. She had suspected something like this—of course she had. But to hear him admit it like this, so bluntly… She shook her head, unable to quite take it in.
“It’s true.” Roark nodded, confirming the fact. “I did it because I thought my sperm was completely nonviable and that there was no way I could make you pregnant. But also…” He took a deep breath. “Also because I wanted so desperately to Claim you and I didn’t dare try to bond you to me, the way I should have.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “What a coward I was,” he muttered, clearly talking to himself. “And what a fool.”
Sammi wanted to reach out and touch him—to tell him it was okay. She knew she ought to be mad—hell, she ought to be furious. But she couldn’t find anger in her heart for the tall Shadow Twin. She only wanted to love him…only wanted to know that he loved her in return.
“Anyway…” Roark cleared his throat. “I was so certain my sperm was nonviable, I was sure I couldn’t be the father when you told me you were pregnant. And the fact that the babies you’re carrying are twin girls, well…” He shook his head. “The astronomical odds against a Kindred male fathering twin females convinced me that I couldn’t be to blame for your condition. But I was wrong.”
Damn right, you were wrong, Sammi thought indignantly. She wasn’t angry with him for trying to Claim her by injecting her with his own seed. She probably should have been, but that wasn’t what was bothering her. It was the way he had reacted when she showed him the two precious pink flowers proving her pregnancy.
Her righteous indignation must have showed on her face because Roark winced and nodded, as though agreeing with her.
“You’re right, of course. I have no excuse for the way I treated you,” he said in a low voice. “Though I have thought of a way to make things better. To make amends, in the only way I know how.”
Sammi’s heart started to pound.
Now he’ll ask me to marry him, she thought, looking up at Roark. He’ll say he wants to marry me and help raise the twins and spend the rest of his life making this awful misunderstanding up to me!
She was so certain of what she was about to hear that Roark’s next words flattened her like a steamroller.
“I have a way you can be free of me,” he said, looking down at his hands. “A way you’ll never have to see me again. It’s a ceremony called a Blood-Letting or a Severing. It…it’s the closest thing the Kindred have to divorce.”
What? Sammi looked at him, horrified. Divorce? What was he talking about? Why would he even think of such a thing?
“It cannot sever the partial bond we have between us,” Roark continued, still looking at his hands. “But it will absolve you from any need ever to see me again. I will, of course, be involved in our children’s lives if you want me to. If not, I will simply pay for their care.” He took a deep breath and looked Sammi in the eyes. “You don’t have to worry about being kicked off the Mother Ship—now that you’re carrying Kindred babies, you’re automatically granted permanent citizenship here. So you don’t have to go looking for another job or feel like you’re stuck in a situation where you have to do whatever your employer demands, no matter how unethical or unreasonable…”