“I’ll give you a second baby without drugs. Don’t worry.”
“That’snotwhat I’m worried about.”
“Then what?” Magnum asks, pushing some of my pink hair out of my face and making my chest do that uncomfortable flutter again.
“What if they drug us and cut the baby out of my womb to sell on the black market.”
He scowls as if we don’t exist in a world of outlaws where terrifying criminal acts affect members of the Rebel Barbarians every other month.
Magnum’s hand strokes my cheeks as he murmurs, “You have a dark mind.”
He kisses my forehead, clearly hoping to put me at ease, which would have worked if he weren’t Magnum Sinclair.
“I’ve been through some shit,” I respond to him, still trying to sound tough as I expose the smallest vulnerability to Magnum.
“You don’t have to worry about that anymore. Worry about your new business and staying in bed ready for me to fuck you again whenever I’m ready.”
Does Magnum really think it’s that simple? My heart throbs. I have huge problems going on right now, namely my missed period. I don’t need to be in bed with Magnum waiting for him to take yet another dangerous risk with my womb.
“That seems risky,” I tell him. “And unnecessary.”
He’ll get suspicious of my missed period and demand a pregnancy test soon. I can’t bear the thought of finding out the truth yet. I’m just not ready to know if that fucked up night I don’t even remember will ruin the rest of my life too. I don’t want Magnum to detect even the slightest change in my emotional state.
I know what a missed period means, but I don’t want to admit it to myself. Magnum seems suspiciously calm about my outward rejection of him, and there’s a nagging sense in the back of my mind that it’s because he knows he’ll have a way of making me stay with him for far longer than I would have otherwise.
A worrying smirk crosses Magnum’s face. “You’re right. It’s unnecessary. That doesn’t make me want to fuck you less.”
I hate the way my stomach flips when he says that.
“I have no need to stay here, Magnum. I got my period.”
He snickers.
“I’m serious. We can stop messing around and once the business opens, maybe we can be business partners. Write me a bill for everything you have spent on me thus far.”
Magnum raises his eyebrows and his cheeks turn red the way I would expect them to if I slapped him across the face. What the hell is wrong with this man? I’m offering to be the complete opposite of a gold digger and he doesn’t appear to be the slightest bit receptive to that. Isn’t that what men want these days? An independent woman who leaves them alone?
“Damara, you’re pregnant,” Magnum says, cutting through the air with his vicious, life-changing words that he says with so much certainty that my knees wobble.
How could he possibly know that? He can’t know that. I can’t remember the last time I evensawmy period. Oops. The body gets confused when you don’t sleep with a man for a while and then you start all over again.
“I’m not pregnant. I got my period.”
I double down on the lie. Magnumcan’tknow that I’m pregnant, which means I can keep talking and weasel my way out of this, just like I did in the past whenever I needed to escape men and their bullshit.
“You didn’t, Damara.”
“Then why am I bleeding right now?”
“Damara, you’re pregnant. Lying to me won’t change that.”
“I’m not.”
“I have proof.”
What?My immediate sense of anger, violation and just absolutely loathing for Magnum reaches a sudden peak. Without thinking about the consequences, I lunge across the bed and slap him hard across the face. My hand connects – because of course it does – and Magnum stands there, allowing me to whack the shit out of him.
His non-violence takes the steam out of my slap and I lean back away from him, trembling with adrenaline as I scowl at him, ready to lunge at him again but planning to hit his peaceful ass with an even harder blow the next time. It’s bad enough I’m stuck with this man, but he just keeps taking from me.
