“I’ll get a nanny.”
Smiling, I nodded. “I’ll see you in court then.”
Zodiac’s hands wrapped around my hips and tugged me tighter against him. However, he also looked over my shoulder to see the TV.
“Lame,” I said and climbed off his lap. “I’m going to look at your bedroom. Should I be afraid of anything I might find?”
“Just my boa.”
I stopped at the doorway and frowned back at him. “I can’t tell if you’re kidding.”
“Oh, but I thought you knew me so well.”
“I do. You’re an open book to me, lover,” I cooed and flipped on the light. “I’ll be rummaging through your shit while you watch the game.”
Despite claiming to know him, I visually searched the room for a snake or its enclosure. Instead, I only found a deeply masculine room with a king-sized bed situated low to the ground and covered in a thick brown comforter. The floor was a rich, weathered wood. The ceiling was covered with a mural of the zodiac signs. Framed pictures of local landmarks covered the wall behind the bed. A sword and knife collection covered another wall. A simple black dresser sat in one corner. Rifles rested in another.
The room felt like Zodiac, interesting yet unknowable. I tried to imagine a crib in here. That visual wasn’t easy even without the smallarsenal. Hell, I couldn’t picture Zodiac holding a baby, let alone taking care of one.
As I stood in the middle of his room, reality wrapped around my heart and squeezed so tight that I could barely breathe.
Zodiac might have felt like mine in a way that no other man ever had, but he would never belong to me. I was a fool to hope otherwise.
ZODIAC
Elle remained in my bedroom for so long that I assumed she was taking a nap. During a commercial, I finally went looking for her. Rather than sleeping, she was sitting on my bed, staring out the window and daydreaming.
“What are you doing?”
“Coming to terms with reality,” she said and smiled at me. “Who painted the mural on your ceiling?”
“Ojai likes art.”
“Vanessa paints, too. I’ll have her do something cool for the baby’s nursery. She recently painted the periodic table on Sutter’s wall.”
Admiring Elle’s relaxed expression, I wasn’t sure how to handle this situation. A sexy woman was on my bed. Earlier, she’d been exceptionally horny considering she was sober. However, she wanted promises I wasn’t willing to give her.
“I never plan on getting married,” I said, refusing to ease my way to the point.
“Neither do I.”
Leaning against the doorjamb, I asked, “Why are you here exactly?”
“I’ve already explained my reasons three damn times.”
“I wasn’t listening earlier. Repeat yourself.”
“I was curious about you.”
“Because of your crush?”
“Yeah.”
“What did you think would happen?”
“We’d fool around. Maybe I’d see something sweet about you that would help me stop viewing you as a ruthless fuckwit. Then, we could get along for the baby.”
“You kept the kid a secret from me for months.”
