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Not that game again. Gemma aimed her barb at his own expectations of being waited on. “Carla gets your coffee. I bet she has it there on your desk every morning before you’ve sat down.”
“In your absence, someone has to slave away for me, don’t they, Gemma?”
Damn him! The ground couldn’t swallow her up quickly enough. How did she let him do it to her?
“Oh, don’t be ashamed. The good doctor knows all about us, doesn’t she? So why the red face? Now, shall we let Mrs Henderson explain what is going to happen next? Then you can put aside any thoughts of making me feel uncomfortable about your e-mail correspondence. I have no problems with being identified as your Dominant.”
Jason turned to face the baffled Maggie Henderson. “I’m sorry, Mrs Henderson. Gemma and I have these little exchanges from time to time.”
Their rapid flow of words had fired across the doctor’s face without a pause for breath. He won the battle of humiliation. The moment her mouth opened and no sound came out, he had her on a back foot.
“Yes. I see,” said Mrs Henderson, picking a loose thread off her white coat. “The scan would be the best thing to do next. Then we can discuss how to proceed. The ultrasound scan equipment is in the next room. If you would like to follow me?”
As they walked out of the room, Jason nudged closer to Gemma and put his lips to her ears.
“Don’t try and second guess me. You don’t get to humiliate me.”
For several minutes, Jason and Gemma put aside their brief D/s tete-a-tete and took great pleasure in seeing their baby. Not in the flesh—the image was of a pixelated speckle of black, greys, and white. The procedure was carried out with modesty, a white sheet wrapped around her waist to hide her lower-body nudity. Gemma found it all amusing. Only a few weeks ago, on board their yacht, she’d spent a considerable amount of time naked, but in the pokey, dark room she covered herself up in front of her husband and a doctor.
She saw the heartbeat. A swell of relief flooded through Gemma’s body. It was a real, living thing growing inside of her.
“About eight and a half weeks, I should say.” Mrs Henderson printed a screenshot and passed the printout to Gemma. She gazed at the blur of black and whiteness before passing it to Jason. He had a quirky look on his face, as if bemused such a small thing could cause so much fuss.
“This is making you sick?” he grinned.
“The tea made me sick. Remember?”
Mrs Henderson quickly suggested she and Jason should withdraw to the consultation room, allowing Gemma to make herself decent. She slipped her knickers back on and smoothed her skirt down. The idea of leaving Maggie alone with Jason for too long didn’t enthral her. He appeared to be in a playful mood. The dangerous kind.
When Gemma re-entered the room, Jason returned the printout. She stared down at it until Maggie offered her a small picture-frame type piece of cardboard. The words ‘First Scan’ were embossed in gold across the top.
Gemma slipped the scan inside and there it was, her first baby picture.
The obstetrician offered her a batch of leaflets. Gemma sighed. More pieces of information to assimilate, dige
st, and cause her anxieties. She had to make a decision—whether to have a special scan done. Her brain exploded again. She heard Maggie’s voice explaining the process and how the results would be handled.
Gemma had never been very good at science at school. Faced with words like defect and chromosomes, she was at a loss to know what she should be deciding. Maggie gave her the relevant leaflet.
“Basically, Mrs Lucas, it’s a risk assessment. A noninvasive procedure with no side effects. Used to determine if there is an increased likelihood of birth defects.”
“I’m more into tangible assets, myself. Jason is the expert in intangible risks.”
He stared at her for a second. One of his puzzled faces, as if he hadn’t been expecting to make any decisions.
He pursed his lips. “If the procedure is noninvasive, then you should have it done.”
She fingered the photo frame. “Sure. Let’s go ahead with that. Did you say blood work?”
“We draw a few samples. Tests for the presence of certain hormones, blood group, etc. It’s all here.”
Mrs Henderson held out the rest of the leaflets, but Gemma didn’t take them. She froze. She could do the samples, as long as she kept her eyes shut. There would be bleeding during the birth, especially afterwards. She remembered watching one of those birth films at school. The type that put all the girls off while the boys made disgusting noises to hide their embarrassment. There was always blood trickling out, especially when the midwife delivered the placenta. Bright scarlet liquid spilling, dripping….
Since Jason’s stabbing on board Sublime, she’d convinced herself she could manage blood. She had saved his life, after all. Occasionally, in her dreams, she saw flashes of his arm, with the red liquid oozing between her fingers, but those images didn’t distress her. They had supplanted her own nightmarish image—the flowing blood from unwanted injuries. His rough hands, not Jason’s. Gemma slipped backwards in time, past Jason’s dreadful attack to her own personal hell of redness.
“Gemma!” Jason’s voice cut through the clutter of memories.
“Does she need a glass of water?”
