“It will be easier for me if I don’t have to face him.”
Eve’s expression was compassionate. “I’ll ask, but you know Lann. Nobody makes up his mind for him.”
Despite the fact that it was Monday, the monastery was quiet when Kat and Eve arrived. Only the security guards and Alfonso were around.
“Where’s everyone?” Kat asked.
“Lann had to give them the day off,” Eve replied. “We didn’t want to risk any info leaking out.”
At least Lann had left with them. It was no small measure of relief. Kat took in the garden she’d once found serene as they made their way down the hallway past the library. Now the small paradise in the middle of town only left her with sadness and a sense of loss. They took the stairs to the first floor, she guessed to use one of the unoccupied bedrooms, but at the top of the staircase she stopped dead.
Tall and imposing with an unreadable expression, Lann stood on the landing.
Eve shot Kat an apologetic look. Moving past him, she said, “I’ll wait inside.”
Kat approached slowly, as if she could postpone the inevitable.
“Thanks for doing this,” he said in a formal voice, adjusting his glasses.
She couldn’t help the bite in her tone. “I’m not doing it for you.”
“You’re not doing it for yourself, either. That’s brave.”
“I am doing it for myself.”
A frown marred his features. “What do you mean?”
“I’m hoping Eve will find a cure.”
At the end of the hallway, Eve entered the bedroom where Kat had stayed when she’d lived here.
A warning flashed in his golden eyes behind his glasses. “Katherine.”
She got it. He didn’t want her to have hope. There was nothing more to say.
When she walked past him, he grabbed her arm.
“This is not what I want,” he said.
Meaning a baby. It stung. His rejection was still too fresh a wound. She couldn’t deal with this too. Not now. Freeing her arm, she said, “Then I’m on my own.”
Not sparing him another glance, she carried on down the hallway and entered the bedroom into which Eve had disappeared.
Her old room had been converted into a lab. There was a desk with computers, a long counter with microscopes and various other instruments, and an ultrasound scanner.
“You can lie down,” Eve said, pointing at the bed.
The air shifted around them as a memory of what Lann had done to her in that bed made Kat’s stomach flip. At the click of the door, she spun around. The reason for the subtle displacement of air was standing in front of the closed door, his arms crossed over his chest and his stance wide.
Oh, no. This wasn’t going to happen. “I’m not doing this with you here.”
The golden color of his eyes turned to a frosty yellow. “You’ll have my support whether you want it or not.”
“Please, don’t put yourself out on my behalf. I’m sure you have places to be.”
He narrowed his gaze. “I’m going nowhere.”
She crossed her arms, mirroring his stance. “I don’t want you here.”
“Why?”
Despite how much seeing him hurt, the air she dragged into her lungs tasted sweeter. Breathing was easier, and it only made the pain in her heart worse. “It’ll be easier for me if you’re not present.”
His tone was uncompromising. “This concerns me too.”
“He’s right,” Eve said, touching her arm. She shot Lann a stern look. “He won’t upset you.”
Not being able to argue the fact that Lann was as implicated as she was, Kat removed her shoes and lay down on the bed while Eve moved between monitors and equipment to prepare the setup. Kat stiffened when Lann perched on the side of the bed. Resting his elbows on his knees, he clasped his hands together. His eyes shone a pale yellow from behind his glasses, and his jaw was tight.
“I first want to check your vitals,” Eve said, “and then we’ll take the samples.”
The doctor took Kat’s blood pressure, temperature, and heart rate. Lann considerately turned away for the vaginal sample, as if he’d never seen her naked.
While Eve was preparing a hypodermic needle for the blood sample, Lann said, “Can I get you anything, Katherine?”
“No, thanks.”
“Blanket? Drink? Something to eat?”
She shook her head, and offered her arm for Eve to insert the needle.
Eve filled three vials. “Your vitals are normal. I’ll send the samples to my lab for analysis. I don’t have the technology here to do it.”
“Any idea when you’ll have some answers?” Lann asked.
Kat assumed he was referring to the mysterious reversal of his infertility.
“It may take