For all my running and hiding and denying, I never thought that when he asked me point blank, when he looked at me with those possessive eyes, the urge to tell him would be this strong. That I would have tostopmyself from saying it.
That I would have to tighten my body and clench my teeth to keep this thing a secret.
But I have to.
“I’m on the pill,” I blurt out.
I’m not.
I tried once, for my bad periods. But it messed me up so much, my hormones and made me throw up so badly that I had to get off it.
“Yeah?”
I jerk out a nod. “Yes.”
He licks his lips. “That’s an excellent lie, Fae. And it would work on me, if I hadn’t bought you dozens of your fucking cupcakes when you get your periods. Because those are the only things that make you feel better. Because you can’t even take a pill for it, can you?”
Oh God.
I didn’t… I didn’t think of that. I’d forgotten that he knows me so well, that he has seen me on my periods and I can’t tell him.
Not yet.
I have so many things to figure out. So many things to think about.
All I’ve figured out so far is that somehow that night wasn’t the end. No matter how much I wanted it to be.
That’s all.
And I need to think.
I need space. I need…
“One week.”
His words break my frantic thoughts. “What?”
Reed’s eyes circle my features, study my wide eyes and trembling lips before he takes his arms off the dresser. Before he lets the abused furniture go and opens the muscular cage that he was trapping me in.
He steps back and my sweaty palms slip on the dresser.
“You have a week,” he explains, all tall and unapproachable now.
“For what?”
“To come to me and tell me. And this time, Fae, you can’t run. You can’t hide. Because I need to know.” He glances down at my belly again for a second before looking up. “I have to.”
With that, he leaves and I sag in relief.
I take my first full breath and all the tightness leaves my body because I have time. He gave it to me.
To figure things out first.
Chapter Fourteen
My mother was eighteen when she had my brother Conrad.
She was a senior in high school and absolutely in love with my dad. When they found out she was pregnant, my mother dropped out and my dad got a job at a local construction company.
