gaze fixed on her distended abdomen.
"Lainey?"
She placed her hands protectively over her womb. "I'm pregnant."
"Pregnant?"
"With child."
Micah stared at her for a moment, his eyes narrowed. She was breeding. "You said you couldn't... I..."
He knew nothing of human reproduction. Looking at her, he had no idea how advanced her pregnancy might be.
He wanted to ask if the child was his, but couldn't form the words.
"I never thought I'd see you again," Lainey said slowly, and Micah felt a sharp pain in his heart. The child wasn't his. She had found someone else.
Lainey looked down at her hands, still clasped over her stomach. They had shared so much, why was it so hard to tell him the child was his?
"I never thought I'd be able to tell you about the baby," she said, still not meeting his gaze, "but I hoped you'd be happy."
"It's mine?"
Lainey nodded, wishing she had the nerve to look at him.
"Lainey!" With a triumphant cry, he lifted her off her feet and whirled her around.
Abruptly, he stopped twirling and drew her close, one hand resting on her belly. "Lainey, oh, Lainey."
"You're not angry?"
"Angry? Why would I be angry?"
"I don't know."
"When?" he asked eagerly. "When is the child to be born? Are you all right? Have you been examined by a physician?''
"Two weeks, more or less. I'm fine, and yes, I've seen a doctor." She looked into his eyes, drowning in the love, the happiness, reflected there. And then she glanced at the ship, shimmering in the moonlight. "How long can you stay?"
"As long as you want me."
"What... what do you mean?"
"I came to stay, if you still want me."
"You mean it?"
He nodded, his gaze intent upon her face. "I still want you to be my woman, my wife, unless you've changed your mind."
"I haven't. Oh, Micah!" She kissed him then, kissed him with all the love in her heart.
And he was kissing her back, banishing all the hurt, all the loneliness, of the long months of separation. He was there, to stay, and that was all that mattered.
Heart pounding with happiness, she watched as he walked back down the hill, withdrew a small remote from his pocket, and activated the molecular masking device that would render his spacecraft invisible.
He was beautiful in the moonlight, she thought. The pale light of the moon turned his hair to silver; the blue glow of his skin seemed to shimmer as he walked back up the hill toward her.
He stopped at the crest of the hill and buried the remote at the base of a tall tree.
"Will it be safe there?" Lainey asked.
"It should be. I don't want to take a chance on losing it, and if I need it in a hurry, it'll be here."
"I guess so," Lainey agreed dubiously.
"Why did you come here tonight?" Micah asked as they walked, hand in hand, to Lainey's car.
"I don't know. I was sitting at home, trying to plot my next book, when I seemed to hear your voice inside my head, and then I had the oddest feeling that I should drive to the mansion." She looked up at him and smiled. "Maybe, subconsciously, I knew you were coming."
Micah nodded. "I'm sure of it. You've been in my thoughts ever since I left Xanthia."
She squeezed his hand. "And now you're here." Happiness bubbled up inside her. "Blue glow and all."
Micah stared at his hand as he opened the car door. His skin was, indeed, glowing.
"You'll have to learn to drive," Lainey said as she slid her ample girth behind the wheel. And then she frowned. If Micah was going to be a permanent resident of Earth, he'd need a driver's license, a birth certificate, a Social Security number. How did one go about getting those things for someone from another planet?
She glanced at Micah, her heart swelling with such love and happiness, she thought she might die of it. She'd worry about all those other mundane matters later. Right now, she wanted only to get home, to be alone with him in the privacy of her house, to touch him and taste him, to listen to his voice. She wanted to know everything that had happened since she'd seen him last.
Micah stood in the middle of the living room, Lainey's hand tightly clasped in his as he looked around. It was just as he remembered, filled with plants and books and crystal unicorns that shimmered in the light, all of it reflecting the warmth, the love, the beauty, that was Lainey.
"I missed this