“What the hell, Fallon? You left me high and dry back there,” Tersch's loud voice barked from the doorway.
Sheridan had a hard time thinking of him as Gunnar. Tersch sounded like terse. Just like the man.
“Oh, wow. What's this? Girl-on-girl action?”
“Shut up, Gunnar. Something's wrong,” Olivia snapped.
“What? What's wrong?” Jesse growled. “Sheridan, talk.”
“Nothing's wrong.” Sheridan let the power of her energy soak through Olivia, warming the new life just beginning. “Something's very, very right.” She stepped back and rubbed her hands together to ease the tingling.
Jesse nudged past her and pulled Olivia into a sitting position. “What's wrong with my wife?” he growled.
Sheridan glanced from them to Tersch, not sure whether to tell them all or to keep the news in private, for Olivia at least. It was Olivia's exam, after all, and Olivia's body that would feel those changes for the next eight months.
Jesse paled.
Is he reading my thoughts? “Um, I would tell you this in private, but you seem to be a family, so maybe I could just—”
“Spit it out, Doc.” Tersch's command brooked no refusal.
When Olivia nodded as well, Sheridan gave in and smiled. “Congratulations, Olivia. You're going to become a mother in another eight months or thereabouts.”
Jesse's eyes grew as round as saucers, and his grin stretched from ear to ear.
Olivia's mouth dropped open. Tersch blinked in amazement, then frowned in what looked like disbelief.
“Olivia, to verify your pregnancy, I'd like you to take this.” Sheridan dug through a nearby drawer for the pregnancy test she'd seen earlier. Someone had been thinking of a future for the Circs, apparently. “I believe the bathroom is that way.”
Jesse didn't speak. Sheridan had a feeling she'd blindsided him.
Olivia squealed, jumped off the table, and grabbed the box from Sheridan's hands. She turned and kissed Jesse on the mouth before hightailing it into the bathroom.
“Shit. Mates, babies. Where does it all end?” Tersch slapped Jesse on the back and glanced at Sheridan. “Of course, this could be a bullshit story to distract us from what you're really doing here.”
It took Sheridan a moment to understand. Tersch was suspicious of her motives for being there. She hadn't considered any of them would actually think her possible of harming them. She glanced down at herself, then up at his six-six frame.
“I'm sorry?”
“No man,” Jesse rasped. “She's right. There's been something off with Olivia.
Nothing bad, just a different scent. She's richer, if that make sense.” His flushed cheeks made him look that much more attractive.
But still not as good-looking as Jules.
Jesse's gaze shot to her face, and he grinned.
She didn't want to think about the smile he sent her, because the smugness of it suggested his grin had less to do with his own happy news and more to do with what she'd just been thinking.
The object of her affection soon arrived with Morgan and Kisho in trail. “One minute we're sparring. The next, half the team disappears. What's up?” Jules glanced at his men before fixating on Sheridan.
His appraisal made her warm—and wet.
“Man, is it hot in here or what?” Jesse asked.
“Dude, it's freakin' weird in here,” Tersch muttered. “Jules is staring at the new doc like he's about three seconds from doing her. The annoying twins have been flirting with each other instead of fighting with each other all morning.” He frowned at Kisho and Morgan, who winked at him. “And now Olivia's pregnant.” The others froze. Jules arched a brow at Sheridan.
She nodded. “Olivia is confirming the diagnosis.”
“Pregnant? But, how?” Jules asked.
“Dude, do we really need to have this conversation?” Tersch asked his team leader.
“Ass. I meant, how did the good doctor know?” Jules growled.
“Hell if I know.” Jesse shrugged. “Olivia called me, scared.” He tapped his head, confirming what Sheridan had suspected. Jesse Fallon was a telepath, which explained his timely arrival.
“Scared, why?” Jules asked, suspicion in his tone.
Tersch answered with a shit-eating grin. “Maybe because your girlfriend was feeling her up.”
Sheridan wanted to sink into the floor when Tersch said girlfriend, mostly because she wanted it to be true. I am so pathetic.
As one, the men stared at Sheridan in speculation. The look on Jules's face was positively carnal.
“Feeling her up, hmm?” he rasped and licked his lips.
For God’s sake, I look like a frump. They can’t possibly be imagining me and Olivia together.
“Oh yeah, we are,” Jesse murmured. “Never thought Olivia would go for that, or I'd have suggested it before.”
“Holy crap. You read my mind. I mean, you really read my mind.” She blushed and refused to look at Jules. Please tell me I didn’t think about him in any way but platonically.
“Oh no. You've been having all kinds of interesting thoughts about him,” Jesse answered with a chuckle.
Her face felt hot, and she didn't know what to say. The wicked look on Jules's face spoke volumes, and she just knew Jesse had told Jules how much she wanted him.
A moment of silence passed. Sheridan desperately tried to raise her inner shields, hoping the thought of blocking everyone out would work since she'd never had to deal with such an invasion of privacy before. She was marginally satisfied when Jesse frowned at her.
“Stop it.” She said and avoided Jules's hot stare. “I work with my hands.
Massage is an accepted form of therapy, and one I use in my practice. I was touching Olivia's stomach when I felt her energy bunch.” Fortunately, Olivia interrupted the awkward moment by bounding out of the bathroom chanting, “I'm pregnant. I'm pregnant! I am so pregnant!” She flew into Jesse's arms, and the pair kissed each other with so much love and affection, it brought tears to Sheridan's eyes.
She wanted to give them a moment to themselves and backed away. Right into Jules.
He grabbed her arm and tugged her with him and the others, minus the happy couple, out into the hallway. “You better not have hurt her.”
“Jules, ease up,” Morgan said, frowning at Jules's tight grip on her arm.
“Shut up. Sheridan, tell me you didn't hurt her.”
Offended he, of all people, would accuse her of that, she wrenched her arm away and glared at him. “I don't hurt people. I help them.”
“What are you saying?”
Should she tell him what she'd heard? What if he decided she knew too much and treated her like a liability? But as she looked at him, really looked at him, she saw the beast in his eyes staring out at her with longing. Damned if she wasn't a sucker for that possessive animal inside him. Jules's beast had protected her in the jungle. But, she admitted, it was the man who had made sweet love to her. She couldn't believe the worst of him. And why should she? Because Raul had said so?
“You know what? I don't care what you think.”
Jules grabbed her hand and laid it on his cheek. “There it is—the heat.” The dark satisfaction on his face alarmed her, because he raised an answering lust in her own body. One that felt distinctly unnatural. That link that had been between them in the jungle still remained. She tried to pull back.