Page 75 of Code Violation

Tingles overtake me as I hand Silas his phone back.

“Okay, so the next step would be to refer you for an eight-week scan at the hospital.”

Silas clears his throat. “As I mentioned earlier, money is not an issue.”

It feels like I’ve stepped into a parallel universe with this man. One moment, I was wondering how far I could stretch my next paycheck, and the next, money is no object.

The doctor hands me some information and schedules an ultrasound appointment, and we leave the room, Silas closing the door behind him.

He holds out his hand for me, and I pause before taking it.

“You know I’ll never be ruled or owned by another man again, don’t you?” I whisper in the stark white hallway.

Ducking his head to capture my attention, Silas steps toward me, lifting my chin with this finger. “Is that what you thought I was trying to do in there? Own you?”

“I don’t know,” I answer honestly. “The way you care for me and the baby is incredible. What you need to understand is, for the past three years, a man who never had my best interests at heart controlled and dictated my life.”

Silas frowns, and I feel like the shittiest person.

“I wasn’t trying to compare you to Kane,” I quickly add. “It’s just that I’ve invested so many hours working my ass off to afford rent, groceries, clothes, health insurance … and I don’t want that to change now that you’re in my life. I want our baby to know their mama has an equal part in everything they have.” I chew on the corner of my lip. “Including where they are born.”

After scrubbing a hand over his jaw, Silas holds out his hand for me again, and this time, I take it.

“What are you doing?” I ask when we turn in the opposite direction.

He knocks a couple of times on Dr. Buendia’s door and waits for her to respond. “Giving you what I’ve always promised, Ves. Making sure you get everything you want.”

25

. . .

Silas

“If your next words are to ask whether we should go and join the girls in town, I’m going to make you consume that soda in your left hand without the use of your mouth.”

Will’s jaw pops open as he looks at me from his across unnecessarily large living room.

I’m grumpy as fuck, and it has nothing to do with my teammates and everything to do with jealousy.

I’ve never been possessive over a girl, other than when it came to the prick who made his move on Vesper the last time she went out, and I’m certain there will be another fucker ready and waiting tonight.

Fuck me, that red dress she was wearing when I gave her a ride earlier, it hugged every curve of her body. Although, the only place it should be is on my bedroom floor.

“You can’t gate-crash your fiancée’s bachelorette party,” Mason points out, coming to sit next to me as I stare blankly at the hockey game on the flat-screen TV set above the roaring fireplace.

Playing tonight would’ve been less torturous than sitting here, overanalyzing all the ways Vesper could meet the guy of her dreams tonight and run away with him by the morning.

Mason turns to me as soon as we’re along in the room. “Speaking of fiancées, you should probably just go ahead and propose yourself.” He sets his beer bottle on the coffee table in front of us and sits back on the couch.

That has to be his third, maybe even fourth, drink of the night.

Forearms resting on my knees, I twist my neck to look at him. “Are you for real?”

He just shrugs and picks up his beer, downing at least half in one pull. “She’s pregnant, right?” he asks on an exhale.

“How did you guess?” I respond, my lips curving upwards.

Mason sets a hand on my shoulder. “Because you’re the kind of guy who only grins like that when the reason behind it is seismic.”