Page 39 of Shark’s Rise

Our child was inside her body. Right now. The thought was so fucking amazing and terrifying at the same time. When she threaded her fingers through my hair and held my head tighter against her, the moment froze in time. I didn’t deny its importance. The crest upon which we stood. Maybe what I’d been working and waiting for my whole life. The edge I’d really been looking for.

A new beginning. A chance to start life over again.

“Sebastian,” she whispered at last. “I’m pregnant.”

“Abbigail.” I turned my head, lifted her shirt an inch, and kissed her soft skin. “I know.”

“You…what?” she croaked.

“Well, I had an idea.”

She started breathing faster. I lifted my head to look at her. Her beautiful eyes were still filled with tears, but now they were luminous with fear.

“Hey. Abbi—”

“I swear I didn’t do it on purpose.”

I crunched my brows. Gripped one of her hands. “Why would you say that? Or feel you needed to? Of course, you didn’t get pregnant on purpose.”

She pulled her hand free and joined it with the other, cradling the sides of my face. “I…I was so afraid,” she confessed. “So terrified you’d think I was trying to…”

“To what?”

“To trap you.”

“Trap me?” I showed her every shred of my bewilderment.

“Bas,” she chided. “You didn’t even want a girlfriend, for God’s sake. And now you’re going to have a child.”

“We.” I covered her hands with my own while stressing the word. “We, Abbigail. We are going to have a child.” I actually chuckled by then. “And God help us all, there’s a part of me that wants to be a father. That wants to raise a family.”

Abbi flared her gaze. “There is?”

“Yes. But I would never have given that wild idea a second thought with any other woman besides you.”

Her bottom lip wobbled. “I’m…I’m so scared.” She stopped the trembling by biting hard into her full flesh. “The timing of all of this…”

“I know, I know.” I rose to sit beside her on the bed. “And I don’t have a poetic sentiment to cover that one up. The timing is completely shitty. But baby, life is like that sometimes.”

“I guess you’re right.”

For the first time since I sent her to stay at this house in the desert, she gave me a genuine smile. As I cherished the swell of warmth in my chest from it, she abruptly stood. When she marched to the bathroom with such purpose, my mushy feelings fled. I was afraid she was about to be sick again. Instead, she returned with a small brown shopping bag in her hand. She returned to her spot next to me and pulled out the pregnancy test and handed me the white stick.

“Well, would you look at that.” I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face. “You passed this thing with flying colors, baby.”

“I did, didn’t I?” She laughed. “God…” She rubbed her stomach. “I just wish I felt better. This little person has your temperament already, I can tell you that much.”

“Or possibly yours?” I gave her a disapproving scowl. “I hear you’ve been quite the fierce housemate still.”

“Elijah Banks is not exactly Mary Poppins,” she said with bite.

I burst out in a full laugh. “Oh, I know. Trust me, I know.”

The doctor arrived a little early, and Abbigail asked to be left alone with the female obstetrician so she could be examined without me hovering. They both promised to give me a full report as soon as they were through.

When I went out into the great room, I found Elijah and Grant sitting on the sofa, sipping glasses of whiskey.

“How is she?” Grant asked.