Gage didn’t bother to glance up. “Unpacking.”
“Why?”
He still wouldn’t look at her. “It’s what folks tend to do when they move into a new place.”
Feeling as though she’d been sucked into an alternate reality, Jenna stood staring dumbly at him. She blinked, but each time she opened her eyes, he was still there, and she could have sworn there was a buzzing growing in her ears.
Fainting would be good. If she could just hyperventilate a little harder, if the lightheadedness could just come on a bit stronger, then she might pass out. And when she came to… When she came to, Gage would be gone, she would be back on planet Earth, and everything would be all right again.
But she didn’t lose consciousness, and this didn’t seem to be a figment of her over-stimulated imagination. Gage remained standing before her, acting for all the world like an invited guest.
Swallowing hard, she found her voice and said, “You’re not moving in here. Are you?”
She still felt like she was drowning, and simply could not make sense of what was going on around her.
“Damn straight.” He lifted his head then, his coffee-brown eyes drilling into hers. “Got a problem with that?”
“Yes!” she blurted, her hands going to her hips. She had a million-billion-gazillion problems with that, starting with the fact that she didn’t want him there and ending with a rather unpleasant mental image of him trying to strangle her to death at some point… or perhaps her doing something similar to him.
“Tough shit.” He scooped up a medium-sized brown paper sack lying next to his duffel on the mattress, his fingers tightening on the package until his knuckles turned white. “You started this by tying me to the bed and forcing me to knock you up against my will. So until we know for sure whether you are or not, you’re stuck with me.”
The bag crinkled as he opened the top and reached in, then a small, light-colored box came flying at her. She cringed, but caught it as it arced past her waist on its way to the floor.
“Go take that,” he ordered.
She glanced down and saw that he’d tossed her an over-the-counter pregnancy test. One that promised one-hundred-percent accuracy.
“I’m not going to take this,” she told him, tossing it right back.
“Yes, you are,” he shot back through clenched teeth. “If I have to tie you up this time, you will take that test.”
“Read the instructions, you big jerk. It’s too soon to know anything, and if I pee on that stick, all you’ll end up with is a wet stick.”
“Fine,” he acquiesced, though he looked none too pleased that he hadn’t gotten his way. “Then you’ll take it later, but you will take it.”
She wanted to continue arguing. She really, really did. But when Gage got it into his head that he wanted something or something needed to be done, he became more stubborn than a Brahman bull. She’d be better off fighting with a brick wall.
She’d learned that the hard way nearly two years ago, hadn’t she?
Squaring her shoulders, she said, “If I’m pregnant, it’s nobody’s business but my own. But if you’d like to know, I’ll be happy to tell you-later, in a month or two, when I’m sure. Perhaps over the phone or through a registered letter.”
Okay, so maybe she shouldn’t have added that last part. Not only was it snide, but it caused a muscle to jump in Gage’s jaw, just below cheeks that were turning red with his rising fury.
For several long seconds, he didn’t respond. Then he shook his head and blew air through his nose in what might have loosely been construed as a humorless half-laugh.
“You always could piss me off faster than anyone else,” he muttered, almost as though he wasn’t even talking to her, but himself.
Then he straightened and fixed her with another of his hard, razor-sharp glares. “You started this, Jenna-you and your friends with your devious little plan. You wanted me to get you pregnant, and I may very well have done just that. But if you think I’m going to walk away and leave you alone now, you’re crazier than your aunt Charlotte, Grace, and Ronnie all rolled into one.”
“They’re not crazy,” she defended.
He arched a brow. “No? Do you know of any other sane person who would come up with the idea to drug a man and tie him to the bed until he unwittingly fathered a child with his ex-wife?”
“I didn’t hear you complaining,” Jenna muttered, crossing her arms over her chest.
“I didn’t know there was something to complain about. Somebody forgot to give me a copy of the game plan ahead of time.”
Jenna bit back her annoyance and any further reply she might have made because he did, after all, have a point. A small one, anyway.
“So what are you going to do?” she challenged, cocking a hip and raising a dark brow of her own. “Hold me hostage here until I agree to pee on your little plastic stick?”
One corner of his mouth lifted in the mockery of a smile that could only be called unfriendly and determined. “Bingo, sweetheart. You got it in one.”
Gage’s remark was rewarded with the blood draining from Jenna’s face and her arms falling limply to her sides. Her jaw dropped so fast, he was surprised it didn’t hit the floor.
Good. Maybe now she’d have a clue how he’d felt when he’d been hit by the bombshell of knowing she’d lured him to her aunt’s house under false pretenses, then used him to get her pregnant when that’s the last thing he ever would have wanted or agreed to.
But even though being a father wasn’t something he would have signed up for given a choice, if she was pregnant, if there was a child involved now, then there was no way he could ignore it. Jenna might have thought she could use him as a stud and nothing more, but Gage didn’t have it in him to walk away from his child. Wanted or not, planned or not, if he’d contributed his DNA to another human being, then he was in it for the long haul.
It might not come to that, but until he knew for sure… Well, he planned to stick to Jenna like superglue.
“You can’t stay here,” Jenna insisted when she finally found her tongue.
He raised a brow and almost, almost grinned. “Oh, yeah? Why not?”
“Because I don’t want you to,” she blurted. “Because we could barely tolerate living together the last few months of our marriage, and I can’t imagine trying to do it again now will be any better. Because you’re simply not welcome. Get out.”
She took a step to the side and pointed out the open bedroom door, as though that alone would be enough to send him scuttling.
He bit back a snort. “I don’t think so. Until I know for certain whether or not I’m going to be a father, you’re stuck with me.”
She looked like she was about to toss out another of her trivial demands that would bounce off of him like bullets off Superman, so he held up a hand and said, “Give it up, Jenna, you’re not going to win this one. I’m staying. And if it turns out you are pregnant, then I’ll be sticking around a hell of a lot longer than just a few days or a few weeks. I won’t abandon my child or leave him to be raised without a father or by another man.”
The very thought sent his blood pressure rising, and it took a second before he could continue.
“Consider yourself lucky,” he told her, turning back to his duffel to dig through the few items left inside. “I could be pressing charges against you and your little cohorts for what you did. Instead, I’m just going to be a thorn in your side for a while.”
A very long while, if she really was pregnant-something even he wasn’t particularly looking forward to.
“Fine,” she clipped out, her chin setting into a mulish slant, “you can stay. Just… stay away from me.”
With that, she spun on her heel and marched down the hall.