Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 132791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
“What’s this?” His lips moved around a tight jaw. His gaze was trained hard on my face, refusing to travel lower.
I tossed him an incredulous glare that said, What does it look like? I’m waiting for my examination.
He pressed his lips together, and I had a horrible, devastating feeling he was suppressing a laugh. The door opened a crack again, and he turned around, slamming it shut.
What was happening?
Panicked, I scooted to the edge of the table, watching as he ate the space between us with one step. His palms were splayed where I could see them, lifted in surrender.
“Not gonna touch you without permission.”
Why would he need to touch me at all?
Oh, God. The gown was the other way around, wasn’t it? My face flamed cherry-red, down to the tips of my ears.
“Help?” he offered.
I nodded. My ears were on fire.
“I’ll have to touch you.”
My heart nearly raced out of my chest. I jerked my chin in a second nod.
He grabbed me by the waist and lowered me to the floor with gentleness that made me question if he touched me at all.
Shame swirled in my stomach. I was humiliated and mortified.
“Close your eyes if it’s too much.”
He reached for the tied strings at my front, tugging them free without touching my skin. The heat of his body, of the masculinity he radiated in electric pulses, made my nipples pucker. They stood on end, pink, sharp, and needy. So needy. It felt like his body spoke to mine in a language only they understood. I fought the urge to press against him, to lean my body against his.
I worried if he touched me somewhere, anywhere, I’d combust. It felt like I was on the verge of experiencing something big and foreign and exciting.
His expression remained inscrutable as he slid the sleeves off my shoulders.
The soft caress of the air between us made my stomach dip and my nipples harden even more.
They now grazed the expensive fabric of his dress shirt.
Gasping, I covered them with my hands. I stared at my feet to hide my blush.
What was wrong with me? Why was my body doing this?
My husband clasped my chin, tilting my head up so I could see him.
“It’s normal.” His neck strained with veins I hadn’t seen there before. “Your nipples will go down in a sec.”
I stood completely naked before him. The air buzzed and sizzled with an energy that bound us together, vining us in invisible ropes.
I didn’t know what was happening to me, because suddenly, I wanted him to hug me. To kiss me. Show me how to order things from the internet. Take me to see sunsets.
There seemed to be an increasing number of reasons why I should reveal my secret to Tiernan, and none at all why I should keep hiding.
And if he’d want to have sex with me? Maybe it wouldn’t be so awful. If sex really was terrible, wouldn’t mankind be extinct? It seemed to run contradictory to the foundations of civilization.
Tiernan twisted the gown to the other side and covered my chest and stomach. He turned me around and secured the strings tightly around my back. Paused. Took one, deep, enormous breath I could feel in my own lungs, like he was gathering every atom of self-control in his body.
Then I felt him step away.
I scurried back to the examination table, and he opened the door, gesturing for the doctor to enter. It was a woman. She had gray short hair, thick glasses, and a stern face. She asked me if I approved of my husband being present during the examination.
I nodded.
Tiernan sat beside me, readjusting his slacks. He kept folding his legs and changing positions in his seat, like he had ants in his pants. He refused to look at me.
My anxiety notched up another level when the doctor looked over the chart my husband filled out on my behalf. I ping-ponged my gaze from her to him when they spoke.
“I understand Mrs. Callaghan is nonverbal?” she asked.
“Mm.”
Was helping me really putting him in such a sour mood he couldn’t even speak?
“Will you be communicating on her behalf?”
“Uh-huh.”
Well, hardly, seeing as he refused to even speak. My God, was touching me really so appalling to him?
The look on the doctor’s face suggested she was appalled by the idea he had impregnated me, and she made no effort to conceal it.
“You indicated in the form that her last menstrual cycle ended six weeks ago.” She raised her fist to her mouth, probably clearing her throat.
“Eight days before our wedding.”
That wasn’t true. It had been at least thirteen weeks. But my father and Tiernan must’ve figured out a timeline to coincide with our wedding.
The obstetrician placed the clipboard on a counter, removing her reading glasses and cleaning the lenses with the edge of her white robe. “In that case, I recommend a vaginal ultrasound. It’s unlikely we’ll see anything substantial through an abdominal ultrasound, and I’d like to check for a heartbeat and get your estimated due date.”