Page 67 of Code Violation

“I couldn’t wait any longer, and when I went to the bathroom, I found blood in my shorts. I’m either about to start my period or⁠—”

“Or you’re implanting,” Silas finishes my sentence.

I push my head into the pillow so I can get a better look at him.

“How do you know so much about conception?”

He just smiles like I should’ve already worked that one out. “Because when the woman I love tells me she might be pregnant, I research the shit out of it. We’re in this together, remember?”

Silas takes the test from my hand, and all I want to do is kiss him.

He sits back on his heels, and the soft glow in the living room lights up every curve and sinew of his athletic body. It’s right at that moment I know I made the right decision not to take another one of those goddamn pills.

I want him to be a part of my life. To hell with what other people think. It isn’t our life that they’re being asked to live.

“Ves.” Silas’s eyes give nothing away when he whispers my name into the silent room, eyes fixated on the stick in his hand.

I can barely breathe, lungs fighting for the slightest trace of oxygen.

“Baby … you aren’t pregnant.”

“Okay, cool.” Two words of acceptance slide from my lips way easier than they settle in my gut.

Silas spends another second staring at the test before tossing it onto the coffee table, and his eyes find my face. “Are you okay?”

I’m determined to disguise the brokenness in my voice, the disappointment ripping through me. “Yeah, I’m fine. I guess the chances of me actually being pregnant were pretty slim anyway. It was only a onetime thing between us.”

I need Silas’s arms around me, but I don’t know how to ask for them.

Does he still want me? Because I want him.

After a beat, he settles down beside me. I’m lying on my back, and he’s on his side, facing me. I stare up at the white ceiling, a tear slowly trickling toward the pillow beneath my head.

“Give me your eyes, Vesper.”

“Can’t,” I choke out quietly. “I just need a minute, and then I’ll be okay. I’ll be like nothing ever happened and the past few days never existed.”

Silas’s heavy sigh fans across my face, and I close my eyes at the scent of him.

“If you want to act like nothing ever happened, then okay. In the meantime, I’ll cherish the fact that it did because without it, I wouldn’t have you beside me right now.”

When his lips caress my collarbone, I open my eyes.

“I hope this is okay,” he breathes between peppering kisses against my skin. “I know you wanted to take things slow.”

“You still want me?” I ask, the question causing his lips to pause.

Darkened blue eyes gaze up at me, but he doesn’t say anything as he peels my flimsy T-shirt up to just below my breasts and kisses his way across my stomach.

“I could ask you the same question.” His mouth trails lower, reaching the waistband of my sleep shorts. “Do you want me? I need to know if I’m going too far.”

I can feel how wet I am for him, how my body aches for his touch, his mouth, and his tongue.

“I want you, Si. I know I said to go slow, but I can’t hold back when I’m around you. We’re like a drug to each other, and I want you even more than I did before.”

It takes no time for him to strip out of his black boxer briefs and have me naked below him.

Kneeling between my parted thighs, he strokes his long, hard cock in rhythmic pumps. Hot arousal glistens from the tip.