Page 39 of His Gift
“Enzo, what are you talking about?” Shawn asked, reaching for me.
I jerked away. My body couldn’t stand being held by him right now. I broke out in a cold sweat and started trembling instead. He was going to hate me for this. If not now, then someday soon.
“I’m so sorry,” I said, hugging myself around my middle with protective tightness. “I just got pregnant.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Shawn
As it turns out, there’s a lot of admin involved in getting an omega pregnant.
The first task was convincing Enzo not to freak out and do himself or our growing baby any harm.
“It’s okay, it’s alright, I swear,” I told him as we sat on the edge of the disheveled hotel bed. I wanted to rub his back or put my arm around him and hold him close, but his post-heat aversion to touch was in full swing. Although he mentioned that it wasn’t half as bad as it usually was at the end of his heats.
“This is not alright,” he sobbed, face buried in his hands, elbows planted on his knees. “This is the exact opposite of alright.”
“Really, it isn’t,” I insisted.
He dragged his face away from his hands and stared incredulously at me. “Weren’t you listening when I told you the story of what happened to my papa when my dad knocked him up? It ruined his life.”
I was halfway through opening my mouth to say the two sets of circumstances weren’t even remotely the same when Enzo gasped and blurted, “Oh, God! I wished this into being by telling that story, didn’t I. I made this happen by thinking about it.”
“Sweetheart, that’s absurd,” I said as gently as possible.
Truth be told, I was losing patience with my overly emotional omega. But from the little I knew, that was part and parcel of heat. The hormones made omegas extra emotional for a few hours at the end of their heat, whether they’d conceived or not. I took it as a personal challenge to see how patient and understanding I could be.
“But what if it is, Shawn?” he asked, turning to face me, his eyes wide with horror. “What if I somehow willed this into being?”
“Aside from the fact that we’ve been having unprotected heat sex for two days and we’re both young and in the peak of health,” I started as if that deeply important fact were a side thought, “people can’t just will themselves to get pregnant.”
“You don’t know that,” he said sullenly, his shoulders hunched and reluctant agreement in his eyes.
I let him sit there and breathe for a second before risking the gesture I’d been longing to make for the last fifteen minutes and resting my arm around his shoulders. He flinched but didn’t pull away.
“Okay, Zo-Zo.” I couldn’t resist his pet name, even though it sounded like it was something special between him and his papa and he hadn’t given me permission to use it yet. It was adorable, and I was determined to earn the right to use it. “Here’s what we’re going to do. And mind you, this is coming from your friend and your alpha.”
He glanced slowly at me with a combination of dread, gratitude, and affection in his big eyes.
“We’re going to take a shower and wash off all this sex stuff.”
That made him huff into a smile and a blush.
“Then we’re going to get dressed and order room service, because I, for one, am starving.”
“So am I,” he admitted.
“Then we’re going to leave the hotel staff an obscenely large tip—” he laughed gently and blushed even more, “—before going back to your apartment.”
“Wait, what?” Panic filled Enzo’s eyes.
I held up a hand and went on with, “Where we are going to pack everything you own that you want to keep and put it in my car.”
Tears filled Enzo’s eyes and his bottom lip wobbled.
“Then we’re going to hand over the keys to that place to Mr. Asshole, along with a check to cover whatever remains in your lease,” I went on. “Once we’re done with that, we’re driving to Barrington, where you will come live with me in my condo.”
“Shawn, I can’t ask you to do any of that. It’s way too much,” Enzo said in a small, helpless voice.
