“That’s not exactly what I’m thinking right now.”
“I see,” Ellie replied, feeling the room get warmer.
“You would if you looked down,” Adam returned with a smirk.
Ellie gave him an admonishing shove.Adam obliged her by rolling onto his back.
She took this as an invitation to prop herself up on his chest.“But I’m serious!Do you think something like that could work for us?Could we even find what we required if we wanted to?”
Adam drew her head down to rest against his shoulder, Ellie’s arm draped across his chest.His fingers stroked through the tangled waves of her hair.
Her pins were scattered all over the floor.
“I can probably track something down if I ask the right people,” he mused.“Not sure whether it’d be legal, though.”
Ellie lifted her head with alarm.“I don’t want you to be arrested for purchasing contraband materials in a foreign country.”
Adam’s mouth curved into a wicked smile.“It’d be worth it.”
“Adam…” Ellie began.
He pushed a tangle of hair away from her face.“Don’t worry about it.I’ve got a fair amount of experience with not getting arrested.”His expression grew more serious.“But none of this stuff is completely foolproof.”
Ellie felt a burst of irritation.“One would think that the scientific world would put a bit more effort into such matters—perhaps by developing a safe and reliable means of pharmacologically adjusting a woman’s chemistry to prevent one or more of the necessary components for conception.”
“I’ll write to my senator about it,” Adam quipped.“But in the meantime—if we do this, we’d need to do it with an understanding that it’s still possible you’d end up pregnant.”
“How possible?”Ellie pushed back uneasily.
“If we use it right?Pretty unlikely,” Adam allowed.“But you’d need to consider how you’d feel about it if something did go awry.”
Ellie sat up.The conversation had become too serious to have while lying on the floor.“How wouldyoufeel about it?”
“Over the moon?”Adam replied where he still laid beside her.
Ellie blinked down at him with shock.“What?”
Adam sat up, running his hand through his hair as he gave a helpless chuckle.“This isn’t quite the conversation I thought we’d be having when I dragged you in here.”
“You hardly dragged me.As I recall it, I’m the one who had hold of your belt buckle.And I didn’t think we’d be talking about anything at all.”
Adam gave her a self-satisfied smirk.“Kept your mouth pretty busy for a while, anyway.”
Ellie blushed at the memory.
He sobered.“Getting back to what you were asking… I don’t want you to get me wrong.The idea of being responsible for something as helpless as a baby scares me more than an army of carnivorous ants.”
He raised his hand to her face, brushing his thumb tenderly along the curve of her cheek.“But I’d do it with you.In a heartbeat.”
The room began to spin.
Ellie stepped away from him.She plucked her combinations from the floor, pulling them back on.
“But we’re not married!”she burst out desperately.
Adam came to his feet as well.He tugged on his trousers and fastened his belt with a casual yank.He gently took hold of her shoulders.“I am aware of that.But I’m pretty sure I made it clear that I’m in this for the long haul.”
Ellie melted into him, her arms circling his waist.“You have,” she admitted—and then pulled back to look at him worriedly.“But what if I neverwantto have any children?”
