Gift of Fire (19 page)

And now she was pregnant with his baby.

The knowledge gave him an odd, almost euphoric rush. Soon there would be three of them—a family. He was going to have all the responsibilities and obligations of fatherhood.

It was a role he knew little about. His own father had walked out on his mother before he was born. But Jonas figured he knew what he had missed as a kid. A father’s love, a firm hand when he’d needed it, someone to talk with about life. Someone to help him prepare for the world.

Thus, Jonas knew what being a father was going to entail. It meant giving his kid the things he had never gotten from his own father. No sweat, he could handle it.

But first he had to give Verity what she needed.

He had been blind, deaf, and dumb not to realize how insecure and unstable their relationship had appeared to her. He had been so content with the situation that he hadn’t bothered to consider how Verity felt.

The fact that she had delayed so long in telling him about the baby was proof enough that he had been inexcusably remiss in making her feel secure. Emerson Ames loved his daughter dearly. He’d taught her to look after herself and had given her a fine, albeit unusual, education. He had given her a lot, but the one thing Emerson had not been able to provide Verity was a stable home life.

Jonas chastised himself thoroughly for not having realized weeks ago that after the rootless upbringing she’d had, Verity would need a strong sense of security before she would feel comfortable about having a baby. No wonder she had been distant and withdrawn. She was nervous, even scared, probably.

Jonas had invaded and taken over the neat, orderly, home-bound little world Verity had created for herself. Then, before she had fully adjusted to having him in her life, he had given her a baby.

The lady who had planned to be alone and independent all her life had suddenly had her whole world turned upside down, in the span of a few short months. Jonas mentally ticked off the things Verity now needed from him.

She needed reassurance.

She needed security.

She needed to know she could count on him.

She needed a last name for the baby.

She needed a husband.

Jonas rolled onto his side and gently shook Verity awake. Her lashes fluttered and then rose lazily, revealing the beautiful depths of her aquamarine eyes.

“What is it?” she asked, yawning. She stretched languidly, her breasts gently undulating. “Something wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong. I’ve just decided we’re going to get married,” he announced. “As soon as we get back to Sequence Springs.”

Verity, caught in midyawn, stared at him for a good thirty seconds. Then her mouth closed with a snap. “
Married.
Why?”

Her dumbfounded expression wasn’t quite what he had expected. Jonas narrowed his eyes.
“
Why?
”

She nodded. “Why?”

“For all the obvious reasons,” he exploded. “We’re living together, and you’re pregnant. How many more reasons do you need to get married?”

Verity sat up and reached for her robe. “It just now occurred to you that maybe we ought to get married?” she asked politely as she secured the robe.

“I was lying here thinking about the baby and the future, and how you grew up without a permanent home. I realized you’d probably be a lot more happy about the baby if you had a sense of security. So I’m going to marry you.” Jonas realized he was sounding a bit pompous, perhaps even a touch patriarchal. He couldn’t help it. He had expected her to leap at the idea of marriage. The fact that she wasn’t absolutely thrilled left him floundering.

“Well, that’s very nice of you to offer to marry me, Jonas, but I really don’t think it’s necessary, thank you very much.”

Jonas’s mind went blank for a moment. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. When his brain kicked into gear again a few seconds later, it was all he could do to keep from yelling so loud that every guest on the floor would hear.

“What the hell do you mean, you-don’t-think-it’s-necessary-thank-you-very-much?” he ground out between clenched teeth. “We have to get married.”

She drew her knees up under the sheet and wrapped her arms around them tightly. Her hair was in wild disarray, and the expression on her face was more set and stubborn than Jonas had ever seen it.

“I don’t see that anything has changed much, Jonas. If we didn’t have to get married last week, we don’t have to get married this week.”

“You’re pregnant!”

“So?”

His mind raced, searching for the correct approach. “You want this kid to be born a bastard?”

“There are no bastards in the state of California. By law every child is legitimate. Your name can go on the birth certificate.”

“Thank you very much. Jesus.” He quickly abandoned that tactic and tried another. “I thought you’d want marriage. I thought you’d be happier married, more secure. I thought you’d appreciate the sense of stability. Verity, this is ridiculous. You know you’d be happier married now that you’re going to have a baby.”

“I don’t want to be married simply because I’m pregnant.”

Jonas’s mouth fell open as he dimly began to perceive the source of the trouble. “Oh, Christ,” he said. “Don’t tell me...”

“If you had really wanted to marry me you could have asked me anytime during the past few months. You never said a word.”

“Now, Verity…”

“I wonder when Caitlin is going to call.” Verity glanced at the phone, then at her watch. “It’s only ten. She’s a night person. She’s probably still going through those old files.”

“Verity, shut up and listen to me, dammit. You’ve got this all wrong,” Jonas said harshly. “The only reason I didn’t ask you to marry me before now was because…because…”
For Christ
’
s sake, think, you fool.
But how could he explain that he had just never thought about the matter until now? Everything had been so comfortable. He had been content. “There was no need. No rush, I mean. Everything was going along fine, we were getting to know each other. Establishing a relationship. Yeah, that’s what we were doing—establishing a relationship.”

“A relationship, Jonas?”

Jonas wished he’d read some of those pop psychology books about male-female relationships that were always being churned out. Trouble was, women were the only ones who read that sort of thing. Therefore, only women knew the right words and euphemisms; only women had a good command of the vocabulary needed to talk oneself out of a mess like this. A man was left stranded and helpless.

“I would have gotten around to marrying you eventually. The baby just speeds things up a little, that’s all.”

Verity smiled wryly. “Relax, Jonas. You don’t have to think of any excuses. I appreciate the gesture, but I assure you it’s not necessary. There really is no need for us to get married.”

“This is not a gesture, dammit. I am not thinking up excuses. You want an apology? All right, I apologize for not having asked you to marry me before you got pregnant. It was just an oversight.”

“Don’t
apologize.
I don’t want any apologies. And I don’t like being an oversight.” Her self-control slipped for a moment. For a split second Jonas caught a glimpse of the wariness and the very feminine anger that lay in the depths of her eyes. Then she had herself back in hand. “You’ve been honest with me this far, don’t spoil your track record. As I said, I appreciate your offer of marriage, but there’s no need for it. There’s no reason things can’t continue just as they have been for the past few months.”

“What about your father? You think Emerson is going to like this?” He was clutching at straws and he knew it.

Verity chuckled. “You know my father well enough to realize that if he hasn’t come after you with a shotgun by now, he’s not likely to ever. He likes you. I’m sure he’ll be pleased about the baby. But he raised me to make my own decisions. If he gives you a hard time, just tell him you did the noble thing and offered marriage. When he hears I’m the one who chose not to accept the offer, he’ll back off. He knows me.

“I know you, too, Verity. Well enough to realize you’re making the wrong decision here. You’ll be much happier married. Trust me.”

“In spite of the psychic link we share, Jonas, there are still a lot of things we don’t know about each other. Don’t assume you understand me perfectly, and don’t assume you know what’s best for me. You don’t. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go down the hall to the bathroom.” She reached for her cane and slid out of bed.

“Maybe you don’t understand me all that well, either,” he shot back, feeling frustrated. “Maybe you’re making some dumb assumptions here, lady.”

She didn’t bother to answer. She was sliding her feet into her slippers.

Jonas’s hand clenched and unclenched as he watched her with brooding eyes. A few minutes ago everything had seemed crystal clear and totally straightforward. He and Verity had been living together. They were in love. She was pregnant with his kid. It was time to get married. Nothing could be simpler or more logical.

It hadn’t even occurred to him that she would refuse him. But it should have, he thought angrily as he watched her make her way to the door. He should know by now that Verity was stubborn, unpredictable, and far too independent for her own good. He’d complained to her father about those faults on several occasions.

But this was one of the few times Jonas had run up against Verity’s feminine pride, and he didn’t know quite how to deal with it. Apparently the little firebrand was too proud to marry him just because of the baby.

She had wanted to be asked properly, he realized. She had wanted to be married for her own sake, not simply because there were extenuating circumstances.

But he wasn’t marrying her just because of the baby. He knew that, even if she didn’t understand.

Why in hell hadn’t he thought about marrying her last month? Jonas wondered in disgust. The answer was simple: last month he had taken everything about their relationship for granted. It hadn’t occurred to him to formalize things, for the simple reason that everything was working out just fine. He had assumed that Verity was happy too, at least until she had started subtly withdrawing from him.

Jonas wondered how long she would hold his bad timing against him.

The phone rang just as Verity reached the bedroom door. Her hand on the knob, she turned around to watch him answer.

Jonas grabbed the receiver. “Quarrel here.”

“Did I call at a bad time?” Caitlin Evanger asked politely. “You sound upset. I can call back.”

Jonas reached for a pen and paper. His eyes stayed on Verity’s face. “Now is fine. What have you got?”

“Tavi and I turned up nothing on all but one of the names you gave me,” Caitlin said. “But we found a file on Preston Yarwood.”

Chapter Ten

Verity let go of the doorknob and moved back across the room. She knew who was on the other end of the line, and she could tell from Jonas’s intent expression that Caitlin had found something of interest. She leaned over the bed to watch as Jonas wrote down Preston Yarwood’s name.

“Yarwood?” Jonas was all business now. “How long ago? Who did the testing? Which tests? Are you sure? The whole battery, or just the initial workup? Okay, okay, I’m listening.”

There was silence on Jonas’s end as he stopped talking. Verity could hear the thin sound of Caitlin’s voice rattling off information, but she couldn’t make out the words. It was several minutes before Jonas hung up the phone with a brisk “Thanks.”

As the receiver clattered into place, Verity looked at him expectantly. “Well?”

Jonas sat on the edge of the bed, adding a few final notes.

“The only name that turned up in the old department records was Yarwood. He was tested in the lab during the same time I was going through my tests, although I never ran into him.”

“Yarwood has psychic talent? Real talent?” Verity was startled.

Jonas shook his head. “No. But he was totally convinced that he did, and he demanded to be run through the standard tests time after time. According to Caitlin, the lab researchers finally had to tell him they weren’t going to waste any more time on him, no matter how much he contributed to the department. He claimed the tests were faulty. He believes in his own talent.”

“A lot of people who are into the psychic thing believe their own talent,” Verity mused. “A few coincidences, a couple of dreams that could be interpreted in a variety of ways, and presto, they’re psychics.”

“Yarwood is in that category, according to the lab report Caitlin found. Some lucky guesses, a good sense of intuition, smart enough to reason through matters and leave other people wondering how he reached his conclusions. And above all the useful skill of being able to convince others he’s whatever he says he is. But he couldn’t fool the machines or the Vincent researchers. Yarwood has all the talents of a successful con man, but no psychic ability. That’s not the problem.”

“What is the problem?”

Jonas looked up from his notes, his eyes thoughtful. “Caitlin says there’s an entry on one of the reports stating that Yarwood might be dangerous under certain circumstances.”

“Dangerous? I don’t believe it. He’s not the type.”

“There were a lot of psychologists involved in the testing at Vincent,” Jonas said slowly. “I remember them. Always looking for an abnormal psychological pattern to parallel the paranormal development. There was a strong theory that people who tested positive for psychic talent would test weird in other ways. I was a walking testimonial to that theory.”

“Nonsense. You’re a perfectly normal person.” Verity said instantly.

He gave her an odd smile. “I love it when you immediately jump to my defense, in spite of all the evidence.”

“What evidence?” she demanded.

“I nearly killed an innocent man.”

“Not because you’ve got a warped psychological profile,” she insisted. “Only because your talent is so strong, and you hadn’t learned how to control it.”

“I’m not sure the shrinks would fine-tune their analysis that far, but thanks for the vote of confidence. Speaking of confidence, if you have so much of it in me, why don’t you take a chance and marry me?”