“Gideon! Snap out of it. I’m your mate! You don’t want to hurt me. The baby! Remember the baby! Feel my belly, Gideon! Feel his power. Feel your baby!”
He paused again, less than two feet away now. His eyes narrowed, as if he were trying to make sense of what she was saying. His gaze lowered to her chest, zeroing in on her bare breasts, before dipping lower.
At last, he lifted his hand. His very large, very lethal, very bloody hand. And he laid it against her belly. Part of her wanted to cringe away, but she knew if she did that would be the end of it. The rage would take over, and he’d kill her without knowing what he was doing. Not until it was too late to make a difference.
And so she forced herself to remain still as the blood of his fallen enemy soaked her skin.
Finally, those black eyes rose, meeting hers with a lucidity she hadn’t seen since the moment he’d morphed into this being.
“Mag-gie,” he growled, his voice guttural and layered. “My Mag-gie.”
She sagged with relief, and sobbed aloud. “Yes,” she said, nodding. “Your Maggie.”
He eyed her dubiously for a moment. But he continued to touch her belly, and she took hope.
“Cut me down, Gideon,” she prompted.
His brow puckered, and he looked up at the chains binding her to the wall. He looked back down at her, and suddenly, he was leering. A look he’d perfected in human form, to be sure. But his interest was more than obvious.
Her eyebrows shot up. “No, Gideon.”
Oh, he didn’t like hearing that. Not at all.
“Stolas is coming, remember?”
Just like that, his gaze went flat, and the rage took over once more. She’d lost him. Scrambling to figure out how to bring him back, she bit her lip.
Gideon began to turn away, his body crouching to a fighting stance, his scowling face eagerly searching for another foe.
“Gideon!” Nothing. Desperate, she yelled, “Temptation!”
His head whipped around.
“Mag-gie,” he growled.
“Yes!” She could have cried with relief. At least they weren’t going to have to re-establish her identity. But time was slipping away, and she had no idea how long she had before this Stolas guy showed up.
“Cut the chains,” she ordered, praying that was the right tone.
He looked at the chains once more, then, as if giving a mental shrug, he reached up and jerked them free of the rock.
Not stopping to think about how he might react, Maggie threw herself into his arms. Sobbing, she peppered his chest and neck with kisses. He stood utterly still, frozen like a hunk of granite. He wasn’t even breathing.
And then, so slowly it broke her heart, he eased his arms around her, holding her like she was made of glass. Laughing, leaning slightly back, she tenderly caressed the side of his face.
“Take me home,” she said firmly.
“Home,” he repeated. “My Mag-gie.”
“Home,” she confirmed, smiling as the air around them distorted, and the dank, bloody cell fell away.
Suddenly, they were in the bedroom of the plantation. The nausea wasn’t quite so bad this time. But it still took her knees from under her.
Gideon, still in demonic form, swept her up and laid her upon the bed. As he reached up to touch her face, he must have noticed the blood on his hands. He began to pull away from her, but she quickly grabbed his hand and tugged him back. She cupped his cheek as she searched his face.
Her Gideon was in there. She could just see glimmers of him. It was time for him to come home too.
“I love you, Gideon.” She smiled when he blinked rapidly, frowning. “I. Love. You. No matter what you look like. No matter which form you’re in. I love you, and I always will.”
He looked down at her, wonder slowly turning his black eyes amber. Right before her eyes, he began to change back into human form. Once he was there with her, really there, he started, grabbing her hand up in shock.
“Maggie!” He gasped, tugging her into a bone-jarring embrace. “Maggie, oh, my sweet Lord! I can touch you! Look,” he said, pushing her away to show her their wrists sans the cuffs, only to jerk her right back into his arms. He squeezed her so tight she had to struggle to gain enough room to breathe.
“Why? Why can I touch you?” He pushed her back, gripping her by the shoulders as he stared hard at her. “What am I saying? I don’t care! I can touch you, nothing else matters.”
Maggie giggled at his exuberance—she couldn’t help it—and wrapped her arms around his neck.
Someone discreetly cleared his throat from near the doorway. Maggie glanced over, and felt Gideon stiffen in her arms. In the blink of an eye, Gideon was across the room. He had Asher by the throat, and slammed him up against the wall.
But he was still too close to the rage, and Maggie feared she might not be able to talk him down this time. She leaped from the bed and rushed to Gideon’s side. She wrapped both hands around his straining bicep and pulled. “Breathe, Gideon. Calm down. Just take a deep breath and calm down.”