Firstborn

by Carrigan Fox

  In an effort to avoid the inner conflict of whether or not to tell Will, she had gone to her sister’s the night before and briefed her. Will had called after dinner to invite her to spend the night, but she had politely declined. He had sounded hurt and rejected, but she had assured him that she had a previous engagement with her sister. After promising to go to dinner with him the following evening, he had sounded more confident.

  A woman walked past the shop and slowed her pace to glance at some jewelry in the window.

  “Come on, come on, come on,” Jac chanted and urged, desperate for a distraction. And when the woman continued walking past the door, she cursed, “Dammit!”

  By three o’clock, she couldn’t stand it any longer. She closed and locked her shop, ran upstairs to take a quick shower, and then walked briskly to Will’s office. At the office, May Fielding indicated that he was with a patient. Jac impatiently strolled down the street and purchased a decaf latte in order to give herself a small distraction while she waited. She called her college roommate to chat while sitting on a park bench and then made small talk with an elderly man who was feeding stale bread to the squirrels from that same park bench. After another hour, she tried Dr. Archer again.

  He was typing his notes when she breezed into his office. He glanced up with a nervous smile, still unsure if she was preparing to blow him off as she had last night. He thought everything had gone beautifully when they had spent the night together two nights ago. He never would have thought he would be in a relationship where he needed reassurance, but that’s exactly how he felt. Somewhere along the line, Jaclyn MaCall had begun to matter to him.

  “Do you know Aislin Kearney?” she greeted, dropping into one of the delightfully large leather chairs opposite his desk.

  “I don’t think so. Who is she?”

  Telling herself to be quick and to-the-point, she rushed forward in a semi-prepared speech. “A young Irish lass who is one of my regular customers. Her mother had the sight and was certain that Aislin did as well. She’s been working for months on fine-tuning her visions and has been asking me for coaching, as well.”

  “How is she doing, Coach?” he asked, not really caring or seeing how this was relevant to him.

  “Exceptionally well, actually. She came into the shop yesterday afternoon and asked for a moment of my time. Once we were alone, she told me about the last two visions she’s had. The first was a glimpse at the future, which is pretty damn depressing, I might add. And just when things appear as though they couldn’t get worse for the U.S. and the world as a whole, a miracle leader will arrive on the scene. He will create alliances for peace while also implementing successful education and economic reform. He will save the U.S. and its relations with other nations, as well.”

  “Fascinating,” he answered dryly.

  “You still don’t believe?”

  He sat back in his chair and propped his ankle up on the opposite knee. “Jac, you have proven yourself more than once in my eyes. As much as my scientific mind struggles with the logistics, I cannot deny that there is something substantial to your visions. But this future as predicted by Ms. Kearney sounds a bit far-fetched.”

  She nodded stoically. “Fortunately, you don’t need to believe it. Someone else, however, clearly fears that there could be some truth to it all.” His eyebrows drew together in confusion. “The miracle leader who will turn the world around, according to Aislin Kearney, is none other than the firstborn child of a certain Dr. Will Archer.”

  “What?”

  “Yes. At least, that’s what her vision predicted. And that’s what she has told her boyfriend, who may or may not be connected with the militant organization that has sent a couple of hired killers after you and your patients.”

  He sat dumbly for a minute while Jac watched his face and ticked off the seconds on her clock. When his eyes widened and he muttered, “Shit,” she concluded that he had just recalled their night of lovemaking and the condoms that they had not used. He turned his attention to her and opened his mouth.

  “No. There’s no need to be on the pill when you’re a virgin,” she explained in answer to the question he had not asked.

  “They’re looking for you.” He glanced down at the flat belly he had kissed fewer than forty-eight hours before.

  She pursed her lips and nodded.

  “And you’re pregnant.”

  “Easy, eager beaver. Nobody is pregnant.”

  “Not yet.”

  She had to agree, “Not that we are aware.”

  “And you may not be. She might have seen my name on the office sign and then created this elaborate story to get the attention of her boyfriend.”

  “She got a lot more attention than just that of her boyfriend.”

  “Damn.”

  Jaclyn only nodded.

  “What are we going to do?”

  She stood up and walked to him, gently lowering herself onto his lap. She placed a gentle kiss on his mouth and smoothed his eyebrows with her fingertips. “Detective Wilson will be meeting us at your house for breakfast.”

  Will looked at his watch with irritation. “That’s hours and hours from now. What do we do in the meantime?”

  “I was thinking that we could go back to your place, order Chinese for dinner, curl up to watch a movie together, and have lots of very protected sex.”

  He grinned in response and pushed her off of his lap, swatting her rear before putting his files away and logging off his computer. He paused a moment to consider if he had Jac’s name on any documents, files, or emails in his office. When he was confident that they were all clear, he sent May Fielding home and closed up the office for the night.

  ***

  Reaching for him, Jac lay naked on his bed and aching for him to join her. He grinned down at her as he settled himself beside her and lightly ran his hands up and down her body. He nudged her to roll her over and let his fingertips play lightly over the backs of her knees, her thighs, and her back. Then he nudged her again and brushed feather kisses across her breasts and belly before moving lower.

  He had her begging him to stop one minute and then crying out his name in release the next. And when she was certain that she couldn’t keep her liquid body awake for another moment, he rolled onto his back and pulled her on top of him her. He gasped with surprise. “God I love you.” Caught up in the pleasure of control, she moved on top of him until they found their release together.

  They were lying in bed shortly thereafter, both of them still naked and still delightfully sated. She had her head resting on his shoulder and was keeping time with the beat of his heart. He was lightly tracing a path along her neck and shoulder. They lay that way in silence until she was certain he must be asleep.

  “I meant it, you know,” he finally whispered. “I hardly know you, and I feel like I’ve been in love with you all my life.”

  She leaned up on her elbows and looked down into his very serious face. “Isn’t that how it’s supposed to feel?” she comforted.

  “You too?”

  She loved him for the uncertainty in his voice. “I fell in love with you the moment I caught you staring at my belly button ring and you blushed. I’ve never seen a man blush. You were so freaking adorable.” She shrugged. “I couldn’t help but fall for you.” She leaned forward to kiss him sweetly and then nuzzled down beside him again. When she felt his chest trembling with laughter, she pushed herself up on her elbows again. “What’s so funny?”

  “Everyone in my family has a PhD.”

  She grinned at him playfully. “Do they all announce it multiple times each day?”

  “I do not.”

  She shook her head, dismissing his denial. “You do. But I get it. You worked hard for it and take pride in your accomplishment.”

  “My mother used to tell me that I had to marry a doctor to keep the family tradition alive.”

  “Do you think she’ll be terribly disappointed in me?”

  He gazed into her lavender ey
es and saw the love she felt for him. “Not terribly,” he answered with a smile, confident that his mother was enough of a romantic to approve of any woman who loved her son.

  “Is your father as much of an elitist as you are?”

  “I’m not an elitist,” he argued.

  She snorted. “When I dared to compare my work to yours, you considered strangling me. You were so insulted. I was already in love with you at that point, but that was when I decided I would marry you and have your babies.”

  That statement brought them full circle to the vision of the firstborn Archer baby, and it struck fear that silenced both of them. But in that silence, Will’s thoughts wandered, from concern over his parents’ approval of Jac to the terror he felt over the prospect of being a father to any child, much less a prophesied golden child. What in the hell was he supposed to do with that?

  C

  hapter 13

  “Listen, I think it’s just ducky that you’re all in love and all, but I don’t think that means I have to listen to you gush about how perfect your man is every time I call you. It seems a bit overkill to me.”

  Jac made a face at her phone and simply suggested, “You should go find a man yourself. Whatever happened with the obnoxious mechanic? Give him a call.”

  “For cripes sake, Jac. He was the most annoying pig I’ve ever met.” He was also one of the sexiest men she’d ever met. She wondered if, knowing what she now knew about his military background and his purple heart, he would be less obnoxious to her now. She mentally ran through her routine automobile maintenance, trying to manufacture a reason to bring her car in to his shop. What was she doing? She made it a general rule to not play games or make too much effort to get a man’s attention. Come to think of it, she hadn’t really captured any man’s attention in a long time. Let’s see, the last guy was a man she had dated fairly casually…two years ago? She definitely quit seeing him after her father named her VP of MSC. She simply hadn’t had time for anything other than the business. Two years.

  Jaclyn was rearranging her stock again, having just received a new shipment that morning. She had ordered, on a whim, a new series of CDs that contained the sounds of nature. Personally, she was dying to open up the stormy rainforest version and play it full blast on the sound system in the shop. It had been three weeks since Will had told her he loved her and since Aislin had told her that she was going to have Will’s baby. She had grown a bit edgy, waiting for the militia to carry out another attack on Will.

  “Hold on. I have another call.”

  Jaclyn carefully shifted the quartz cluster crystals to create room in one of the displays for the new music selections while she waited to hear her sister’s voice again.

  “Jac, are you there?”

  “Yeah,” she confirmed.

  “That was Sean.”

  “Is everything okay? Did something happen to Will?” Her breath seemed to come in short bursts, and a pain in her chest moved up into her throat.

  “He’s fine. He’s perfectly fine,” she assured her sister. “But there was another break-in at the office. Nothing appears to have been taken, but there was some vandalism. Will was going to call you to see if you can’t get a sense of what’s going on, but he asked me to pass on the message when he learned I was on the other line with you.”

  “Shit.”

  “Yes. Get going. But call me later,” she urged before her sister could hang up on her.

  Jac locked up, her heart racing, and did her best impression of a mall walker as she practically jogged down the street to Archer Family Counseling. The door was locked when she arrived, but May Fielding came to the door to let her in.

  “Did he call Detective Wilson?” she greeted.

  Mrs. Fielding was wringing her hands nervously, her face flushed in fear. “Not yet. You should just go on in and let him know what you think.”

  She raced into the office and stopped short, staring at the letters that had been painted in red on the opposite wall. She looked at her feet and realized that there were rose petals all over the floor of the office.

  “Well?”

  She noticed him standing nervously in front of his desk and looking at her expectantly. His cheeks were flushed in excited anticipation, and she didn’t know if she should slug him in the gut or kiss him on the mouth. Instead, she looked back to the letters on the wall.

  Will you marry me, Jac MaCall? (If it makes a difference, I do have a PhD.)

  She lifted her eyes to his again and then looked back at the lettering.

  “What? Did I spell something incorrectly?”

  “Give me a minute. I’m in Buffy mode right now and prepared to kick ass. I have to downshift to Scarlet.” She held up her index finger and nodded her head. “Okay, I’m there now.” In a couple of steps, she was in his arms and kissing his mouth passionately.

  “Is that a yes?”

  “That’s a definitely.”

  “What did she say?” Mrs. Fielding stuck her head around the corner of the doorway as Will’s cell phone began to ring. He looked at the read-out and handed the phone off to Jac.

  “She said definitely,” he answered his administrative assistant.

  “Hello, Taryn. Very clever of the two of you. Ha!”

  “Were you surprised?” her sister asked over the phone.

  “Stunned. Speechless, even.”

  “Speechless? You’ll have to propose every day now, Dr. Archer, in order to get some quality quiet time while you’re married to my crazy sister,” she teased.

  “We have to go, Taryn,” Will called over Jac’s shoulder and into the phone. “I still have to give her the ring.”

  “There’s a ring?”

  He took the phone from her and disconnected the call. “Of course there’s a ring.”

  Jac shrugged apologetically. “Of course there’s a ring. The man has a PhD and so he must know how to propose properly.”

  He grinned. “Did you like that?” He tilted his head in reference to the graffiti proposal on his office wall.

  She only smiled in response as he produced a ring box. Inside was a beautiful square cut amethyst surrounded by a single row of diamonds. The band was also lined with diamonds set in platinum. “It’s gorgeous, Will.”

  “Amethysts are great for stimulating mental clarity,” he informed her.

  “They are,” she confirmed, acknowledging that even without the PhD, she was going to marry the smartest man in the universe. “I never was one of those girls who wanted a fairy tale ending with Prince Charming. And yet, here I am.” Even as she said the words, she remembered her vision that had pushed her into Will Archer’s bed.

  Will smiled down at her and she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down for a kiss. He indulged her briefly before strolling to his office door, closing it and walking back to her side. He pressed her back against his desk and dipped his head for a kiss.

  “What are you doing? You’re in the middle of business hours and I imagine you have patients coming.” She pointed a finger into his chest playfully. He bent lower to nip her earlobe.

  “I don’t see anyone for another hour. I didn’t want to be interrupted in the middle of my marriage proposal.”

  “Very convenient, Dr. Archer.”

  “Some have called me brilliant. I do have a PhD, you know.”

  She laughed. “One would think that would get old, but I think that proposal just earned you a bonus of a lifetime of PhD reminders before I grow tired of it.”

  ***

  “Hello.”

  “How much information did you get on Jaclyn MaCall when you were doing recognizance on her to determine if she and her visions might be useful?”

  The tone of the voice on the phone was insistent with a hint of urgency. “John?”

  “Focus, Adam. Jaclyn MaCall?”

  “Oldest daughter of Joseph MaCall of MaCall Securities Consulting. She has been getting visions since she was a teenager. She has a younger sister. Her mother died when s
he was young. After graduating from college, she came home and went to work for her daddy’s company for two years before opening up her own shop. She sells crystals and weird shit.”

  “Where did she go to college?”

  “MIT, actually. She’s a bit of a genius. Multiple degrees. She double majored in Philosphy and Physics and minored in Computer Sciences and Engineering. Then she finished her PhD in Physics with the majority of her work in theoretical quantum physics.”

  “And she owns a shop selling crystals?”

  “Apparently.”

  “What made you back down off of Jaclyn MaCall?” His tone was definitely official sounding. Something had happened. Adam considered refusing to share additional information until John was more forthcoming. But in the past, power struggles had not gone over well with John Rundstrom.

  “She was a little too competent.” He hesitated for a moment, expecting ridicule or condescension from the other man. When Rundstrom remained mute, Adam continued, “Aislin seemed a better mark. More compliant. What’s going on, John?”

  “Jaclyn MaCall is the one we’ve been looking for. We thought she was working his security detail, but it turns out she’s wormed her way into his bed.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I’ve seen the read-outs from the text messages myself. And he charged an engagement ring to his credit card last week. My sources tell me that she’s in his bed at this very moment.”

  Rundstrom’s resources never failed to impress Holt. “You can’t blame the man. She’s a hot piece.”

  “She’s smart, too, as you’ve confirmed. I already had most of that information, but I just wanted to check in to make sure we hadn’t missed anything major.” Of course he already had that information. A man like John Rundstrom, a man with the power and wealth and influence of John Rundstrom, would have made sure he had the information himself before asking someone under him for details. It had been a test of Adam’s loyalty and competence. “I need you to take care of this, Adam. Take care of both of them. And be discreet, won’t you. As it is, the local police have a dead Ray Walker, which could end up leading them to your front door.”