“I think you’re going to be a gymnast with all that rolling around,” I said.I could feel the faint ridge of Millie’s belly button against my upper lip.My image of Millie from that night at Naese’s party appeared in my mind.Her stomach had been flat and smooth, her belly button a sweet indentation.Now, it popped outward, like a turkey timer.
“More like a martial artist,” Millie said with a wince.I pulled back just as a foot or elbow slammed against the skin.
“Let’s get you to the bathroom,” I said, rising.“Then you and I need to talk.”
Her demeanor changed, becoming colder.“Ican’tstay, Luka.”
“Well, you can’t go anywhere tonight except to bed.”
“You don’t understand.”She pressed her hands to her belly protectively.
“Then explain it to me,” I snapped.
She shuddered, and I didn’t think it was because my baby had drop-kicked her organs.Millie’s face contorted with fear.“My father is here,” she whimpered.
“So?”I asked.“You don’t have to see that prick if you don’t want to.”
“It’s not that simple,” she said.“He’s Chasten Philip Jones IV.”
“I know.”
“Then you know he’ll try to take Bree from me,” she said.
Millie
“Over my dead and rotting corpse,”Luka snarled.
“You don’t understand.My father is controlling.”
“That’s a nice way of saying a douche gargoyle shit bag,” Luka snapped.He inhaled and then blew the breath out through his mouth.“Look, I get the guy has money falling out of his pockets, but you’re Bree’smother.I’m herfather.We’re raising our kid.”
“He has the best lawyers—ones I can’t afford, especially after he cut me off from my bank accounts.And he wants to punish me.”
“For what?”
I tucked my arms tighter around myself, glancing around, desperate to break this conversation.Bree rolled, and my belly contorted to the right, bulging before resettling.
“I need the bathroom,” I squeaked as I hurried back down the hall toward the powder room.
After a few minutes I came stumbling out, more unsteady than when I’d gone in.
Luka leaned against the door, all leopard grace as he shifted his bulk and rose to his full height.His eyes were worried.“Tell me, Millie.Why is your father going to punish you?”
“We…we have bigger problems than my dad.”I opened my mouth, shut it, opened it again.“I’m bleeding.”
Luka’s gaze dropped to my stomach, eyes widening with horror.“Bl-bleeding?FromBree?”
I tried to march toward the door, but Luka’s arms banded around me.He slid one under my knees and picked me up with ease.There was something so sexy about a man being able to lift me.I felt safe, and that made me uneasy.I knew better.
Yet in that moment, I couldn’t help but sigh with relief.I was so damn tired of always trying to think three steps ahead of my father, trying to be strong.I was scared for my baby.
I’d been strong when I’d walked out on Trent and when I’d blended up my engagement ring and couriered it back.I’d been strong when my dad pitched his epic tantrum and issued his ultimatum: I get back with Trent or he’d cut me off and cut me out of his life.
I didn’t want to be strong now.I wanted to curl into Luka and let him carry me, carry the burden of my fears.But that wasn’t fair, and I refused to do it for long.Yet I needed a minute to orient to the fact that Luka already considered us a team, that he planned to fight for our daughter, for our family.For me.
I heard Ida Jane and her mother asking about me.Luka responded, worry lacing his tone, which had me pressing my nose even tighter to his shoulder.He smelled good.Of course he did.But he also smelled safe.
I was safe with Luka.
