TEN
ISLA
The car ridehome felt longer than it should have been, or maybe it was just him sitting beside me. The minutes seemed to trickle by as I tried to keep my composure. I was doing my very best not to fall apart. Not because I didn’t think Kraven could handle it, but because I wouldn’t.
With the years of trauma I’d swept under the rug, this would drive me over the edge. I had to remain in control. The baby inside me depended on it.
Does that mean I’m keeping it?
I didn’t ask for a paternity test this time, which wasn’t lost on me, but neither did Kraven. It surprised me. He seemed to be full of surprises lately. He was anything but predictable, and now I was on this roller-coaster ride with him. We were all on one together, except Kraven appeared to be enjoying every second of it, and I had no idea how Julius felt.
Since Julius was inaccessible behind bars, it wasn’t like we could ask him for a swab of his cheek to compare his DNA with the baby’s. For now, we’d have to wait, again.
Who knew how long this time.
When Kraven gently reached for my hand in the back seat of the Uber, I kept my stare focused out the window, watching the blur of trees and sunlight streak across the glass as we drove by. The second I felt his hand holding mine, I swallowed hard, but I didn’t stop him. His skin felt nice against mine.
“You okay?” His voice broke into my thoughts.
I licked my lips, slow and steady. “Yeah,” I lied.
Thank goodness, we pulled into the driveway. The tires crunched softly against gravel as my gaze fell upon the house that loomed ahead. Suddenly, it was too big and too small all at the same time, but I shut down the emotion before it could fully form. I already had enough on my plate.
He exhaled softly, like he’d been holding it in for far too long, breathing out, “Kitty…”
“What?”
“We’re home.”
Home?
Within seconds, I blinked, and we were walking inside the house and shutting the door behind us. The walls instantly swallowed us whole. Every sound felt louder—the click of the door, the soft thud of our footsteps as we stepped farther into the place, and even the faint hum of the air-conditioning blasting through the air.
Kraven moved ahead of me, setting the keys down on the counter. I stayed near the entryway for a bit, unsure what to do.
My body.
My thoughts.
It all felt displaced, exactly the way the baby inside me did.
“You should sit,” Kraven suggested, looking back at me.
Feeling the thin strap I was holding on to snap like a flimsy piece of string, I declared, “I’m not fragile.”
“I didn’t say you were.” His tone wasn’t patronizing, which almost made it worse.
I sighed, moving past him anyway, heading into the living room. My legs carried me to the couch on instinct, and I sank down into it. A few seconds later, I heard him in the kitchen.
When he handed me a glass of water without a word, I grabbed it. Our fingers briefly brushed, too fast to mean anything, but way too emotionally charged to ignore. As if proving my point, an electric current sparked between us, and I yanked my hand back first.
He scoffed out a chuckle, remembering the first time that happened to us, I was sure. After I thanked him for the water, he nodded, then sat on the edge of the coffee table across from me, leaning forward with his forearms resting on his thighs.
He was close, but again, he wasn’t touching me.
Out of nowhere, he ordered, “Talk to me.”
I let out a humorless laugh. “About what? About the part where my life just completely derailed, or the part where I don’t even know what I’m supposed to feel right now?”
