Tit for Tat Baby (23 page)

“You are a bully, do you know that,
McGregor?”

“Sleep, Jenna.”

She mumbled and found her spot on his
shoulder and her leg automatically rose over his to fall between them. 
Her hand curled over his shoulder to tug in beneath his opposite shoulder. He
sighed contently and fell asleep on his next breath.  Jenna followed soon
after.

It was after one in the morning by the
time they arrived home.  Callum had wrapped Jenna in the sheet and carried
her out of the plane and again into the castle.  Ronan fetched them at the
airport and he carried their luggage inside.  Callum took Jenna to his
room and laid her on his bed, throwing the sheet on the chair.  He took
his clothes off and got into bed beside her.  He pulled her shirt off and
she hardly stirred. He settled back drawing her into his arms, breathing her
essence into his heart and fell asleep with a smile on his face.

Jenna woke slowly.  She stretched
slowly and felt fully rested for the first time in weeks.  She opened her
eyes and looked around, not recognizing the room. She tried to lift her head,
but her hair yanked her back.  She turned her head and her eyes were
caught by Callum’s, still half lidded from sleep.

“Where are we?”

“In my room.”

She pulled at her hair to get out of
the bed, but his arm tightened around her shoulder.

“I am still half asleep, Baby, can you
please just keep still.”

“I want to go to my room.”

“This is your room from now on.”

Jenna stiffened and turned her head to
scowl at him.

“Where is your fiancé, McGregor? 
I don’t think she is that liberated that she would …”

“Shelly is still in Washington.”

“Ah … so I am the stand-in then? 
Let me go!  I am not … no!”

Callum calmly rolled on top of her and
settled between her legs.  She shrieked and bucked to throw him off, then
moaned when he pushed his hard shaft slowly inside her.  Their eyes met
and he watched hers widen as he pushed deeper, slowly, inch for inch until his
blunt tip rested against her womb.

“You, Jenna Burkes, will never be
anyone’s stand-in.  There is not a woman alive that I need as much as I
need you.”

His hands stroked down her outer legs
to curl around her knees.  He pulled them up and hooked his arms under
them, spreading her open to stretch her to accommodate his still swelling
member. He pulled back and plunged back in, hard and fast.

“Now … I need you now, Jenna!”

Jenna clutched at his arms and
thrashed with each of his thrusts. Their need was too intense, they have been
apart for too long and Callum slammed into her with a ferocity that surprised
even him.  They plummeted over the edge together, their shouts echoing
through the room.

“You are mine, Jenna.  Remember
that.  I will never let you go!”

“Oh no … not again!”

Jenna tore out of the bed and into the
bathroom.  She just made it in time.  She hurled into the toilet and
felt as if her guts came out.  She moaned and sank down on her knees
weekly.

This was the third day that she
vomited.  She could not drink her morning coffee, nor could she hold down
anything but dried toast early in the morning.  They went to dinner on Sunday
at a new Taiwanese restaurant and since then she has been sick every morning.

She has been back at the castle for
two weeks and was back into her routine to restore the art. She was currently
busy with the second mural in the smaller ballroom on the opposite side of the
castle from the other.

Every night she went to her own room
to sleep and every night Callum went to pick her up and carry her to his
room.  He totally ignored her complaints.  He made love to her every
night.  Systematically breaking down her resistance until she begged and
pleaded for release.  Jenna was beginning to resent the hold he had over
her.

She decided to go into town to get
something from the drugstore for her stomach and fill her script for her
contraceptive pills at the same time.  The assistant at the drugstore
directed her to the shelf where she could find medication for her upset
stomach.  She remembered one specific medicine her mother always gave them
and just picked up a bottle when her eyes caught the shelves with the tampons
and pads.

Jenna froze, her whole body going into
shock.  She still had one full packet in her cupboard.  She brought
two with her and she has been here for four months.

“Oh my God!”

She nearly dropped the bottle she was
holding and replaced it on the shelf with shaking hands.  The last period
she had was just before Callum returned from Australia.  Her vomiting was
not brought on by Taiwanese food … she was pregnant.  Probably eight weeks
already.  She realized she must have fallen pregnant the first time they
made love on his return.

She grabbed two different home
pregnancy tests off the shelf and walked out of the drugstore in a haze.

Jenna stared at the two pregnancy test
sticks in her hand.  Both positive.  She was pregnant.  She sank
down on her bed, staring at nothing.

Oh Jenna, how clever is that? 
Pregnant by a man who is engaged to be married!

What was she going to do?  She
did not even have her passport to try and leave.  Her eyes were haunted
and she rose to stand in front of the mirror.  Her breasts were slightly
fuller, but other than that she was still the same.

It was a relief that Callum always
left so early every morning for work.  He was not around to witness her
nausea.  But he would be over the weekends! Jenna lay back on the bed and
moaned low in her throat.  She froze and her eyes were wide, realizing she
was already pregnant the day she got so roaring drunk! 

What if I damaged the baby!  Oh,
no! I’ll never forgive myself!

She ran downstairs screaming for Ronan. 
He came running from the kitchen.

“Is there a telephone directory
somewhere, Ronan?”

“What yer lookin’ fer, Lassy? 
Maybe I can help.”

“Er … no, just the directory please.”

“It’s in Callum’s study, by the
telephone.”

She nodded and made an appointment
with the first gynecologist that could fit her in that week still.  She
went back to cleaning the dust particles off the mural with the cylinder shaped
brush, her mind twirling.

That night Jenna clung to Callum and
did not even think to deny him.  Somehow silently begging for reassurance,
needing his closeness, his obvious need and passion to ease her tortured mind.

“What’s wrong, Baby?  You’re not
yourself tonight.”

“Nothing’s wrong.  I just … just
hold me, Callum.”

Callum frowned and folded his arms
protectively around her.  She has been preoccupied since he got home and
did not even struggle when he fetched her to his room.  He sighed and his
arms tightened around her.  He has been very busy at work, leaving with
sunrise and returning after dark.  He needed to remember he had someone in
his life now.  Someone that was becoming more and more important than
spending fourteen hours at the office every day.

Callum woke up and took a moment to
realize Jenna was not next to him anymore.  He frowned when he heard her
hurling in the bathroom.  He walked in just as she sank weakly down on the
floor.

“Baby, are you alright?”

He poured some water into a glass and
held it against her lips.  She took a few sips and smiled tremblingly at
him.  She nodded.

He helped her up and walked back to
bed with his arm around her.  She laid back and he pulled the sheet over
her.

“What are you still doing here?”

“I decided as the Boss and the owner
of the company I have more than enough staff to do the work.  I am not
going to devote so much time at the office anymore.  I can do just as much
from here.”

She smiled and folded her hands over
her belly.  There was a knock on the door.  Callum pulled on his
boxer shorts and went to open it.  Ronan walked in with a large tray.

“Morning ter ye.  Here be the
breakfas’ yer asked for Laddie.”

Callum smiled and took the tray from
Ronan.

“Thanks Ronan.  It smells
terrific.”

Ronan pulled the door closed behind
him and Callum carried the tray to the bed.  The moment he lifted the lid
from the plate and Jenna caught the whiff of the bacon and eggs, she
groaned.  The next moment she tore out of bed and back into the
bathroom.  Callum followed slowly, a frown between his eyes.

He tenderly wiped Jenna’s face and
gave her some water again and held her against him in support back into the
room.    She reared back in the door, holding her mouth.

“Please … take the tray out … I … oh
Lord!”

And back she went to the toilet. 
She heaved and groaned, sure she had nothing left in her belly.  Callum’s
hands folded around her waist and he held her hair back.  Again he wiped
her face and held the glass to her lips.  She sank down on the edge of the
bath.  Callum picked her up and carried her back to bed, having first
carried the tray out.

He sat down next to her and looked at
her searchingly.  He took her hand in his and rubbed her fingers.

“How long have you been sick, Jenna?”

“Since Monday.”

He looked into her eyes and slowly
pulled the sheet from her body.  His eyes traced every contour from her
chest down to her legs and back.  He reached out and cupped her breasts in
his hands.  His lips tightened and his eyes caught hers.

“Do you have something to tell me,
Jenna?”

She sighed and ran her hand over her
eyes.

“I’m pregnant.”

His eye flared and started to glitter
angrily.

“How long have you known?”

“I only realized it yesterday.  I
thought I was throwing up from the Taiwanese food we ate on Sunday.  I
went to the drugstore to get something and that is when I realized it.  I
took a home pregnancy test yesterday.”

“How far along are you?”

“Probably eight weeks.”

“When I came back from Australia.”

“You seem very sure it is yours.”

His eyes burned into hers and his jaw
was rigid.

“Don’t even try and pull that trick on
me, woman.  That baby in your belly is mine, just as much as you
are.  You are not going to blemish this moment with rubbish like that!”

He leaned down and kissed her softly
on her lips.

“We need to go and see an
obstetrician. I’ll phone Megan and get the one she uses’ number.”

“I already made an appointment for
tomorrow.”

“We will use someone that I know is
good and can be trusted, Jenna.  Where did you find the one you made the
appointment with?”

“In the telephone directory.”

He snorted and leaned over to pick up
his cell phone to ring Megan.  Jenna grabbed the phone out of his
hands.  Callum frowned at her.

“You can’t just phone her and ask her
something like that!  What will she think?”

“I will tell her we are expecting a
baby first of course.  Give me my pho …”

“Oh this is so easy for you, isn’t
it?  I suppose you are just going to tell your fiancé about the baby
too!  How is that going to work, Callum?   You get married to
her and I go back to the States to bring him up alone?”

“You are not going anywhere! Besides, I
broke the engagement off before I fetched you.”

She froze and incinerated him with
eyes that shone as hot as the sun.

“You what?”

“You heard me.”

“Why did you not tell me?  You
made me feel like a cheap slut for two weeks sharing your room, not being able
to deny you anything!  Now you tell me … now you tell me!  I hate
you!  Do you hear me Callum McGregor, I hate you!”

She jumped up and stormed to the door.

“Jenna, get back here!”

“Go to hell.  Hear me well,
McGregor. I am staying in my own room from now on.  You stay away from
me!”

She slammed the door against the wall
with the force she ripped it open and stormed into the corridor.

“Jenna, dammit get back here. You are
naked!”

Jenna hesitated and nearly ran back
into the room, then her anger bristled from anew and she shouted back at him.

“I don’t care!”

“Jenna! Woman, get back here!”

His voice came nearer and Jenna took
off at a run towards her room.  Praying as she did that none of the house
staff were around, especially Ronan.  She would be mortified.

She made it into her room without
running into anyone and slammed the door closed behind her.  Only to have
it slam back against the wall as Callum charged through it.  He scowled at
her with a vicious frown between his eyes.