“Can you uh close the door?”
“Good God, MaryAnn. You act like I have never seen you naked.” He waves his hand around but does as I ask although he steps back in and turns the faucet on. He’s so damn thoughtful.
“Sometimes a woman needs her privacy,” I call out. Then I roll my eyes at myself I shouldn’t have to explain it but feel compelled to do so out of fear of hurting his feelings. He’s been so great to me. He is being so awesome about this I almost think he hopes that I am pregnant.
Chapter Ten
—Cupid
I’m pacing outside the bathroom door wearing a path in my navy-blue carpet waiting to find out if I’m going to be a father. I don’t want to get my hopes up but there is a part of me that wants it. I’ve not had much luck in affairs of the heart. Sometimes I have wondered if I were cursed. After I spilt with Mandy I had about given up on finding someone to spend my life with but then one day I was sitting around the clubhouse feeling sorry for myself and I noticed MaryAnn.
Her smile captured my attention first. It was warm and genuine. And when she looked at me it felt real. She wasn’t looking at me like the other girls did. Like I was a man of power, a status to knock them up a peg. Being with her made me believe in love again. That maybe a sorry bastard like me did deserve a shot at happiness. Hell, if Sara could marry Hades after he kidnapped her, and Shelly could find it in her heart to love Boogeyman then there is hope for me.
My cell phone goes off in my pocket. It’s an unknown number so I let it go to voicemail. Nothing is more important than being in this moment with MaryAnn. If it were the club I’d know. The voicemail notification chimes and I clear it as MaryAnn exits the bathroom with an unsure smirk on her face.
“Well. Spit it out, woman. We have a bun in the oven or what?”
Slowly, she pulls the test out from behind her back. Her voice comes out in a small squeak. “It’s positive.”
I take the test from her hand and stare at it with the biggest grin. “I’m gonna take such good care of you, baby. You’ll see.” I kiss her forehead, promising her the world and praying like hell I can deliver. Her eyes fall to the floor and I have a sinking feeling she’s keeping something from me. “I take it you aren’t too happy about this. Do you not want to have my baby?”
A lone tear trickles down her cheek. “I want this. I want to be happy about it but there is something we have to acknowledge and once we do I’m not sure you will still feel the same. I’ll understand if it changes your mind about things—about us…about this.” She taps the plastic stick I have in my hands. A plastic stick that has given me the greatest blessing.
I place the test on top of the dresser. “There is nothing you can say to me to change the way I feel about you. Absolutely nothing. I don’t want any secrets between us.”
Sucking in a deep breath she looks away from me and takes a seat on the edge of the bed. I move in front of her and take her hands in mine as I go down to my knees.
“Talk to me,” I demand. Her head moves back and forth as sobs wrack through her chest. I tilt her chin up and kiss her tear-stained lips. “Tell me now.”
“This baby…Ryan. I want nothing more than to make a life and family here with you. I want it so bad I can almost reach out and touch it, but this doesn’t just concern you and me.”
I look around the room waiting any moment for some other dude to jump out. “Why do I get the feeling there is a third person in the room with us?”
“Because there is,” she says in a hushed whisper. “Zo Zo. There’s a chance this child could be his too.”
All the air in my lungs goes whooshing out. She has knocked me right on my ass. I fall back on the floor and shake my head. “Goddamnit.” I punch the floor wanting to hit his face instead.
“I’m sorry,” she cries out. “I never wanted it to happen this way. I didn’t ask for this.” Hearing her guilt and seeing her in anguish brings me out of my own hurt. This is what has been eating away at her all day.
“What are you sorry for? I knew the score. Does it hurt? Fuck yeah. I feel like y
ou just shot me in the stomach and blew a hole straight through me, but we’ll manage. I don’t need to know. In my eyes, you’re mine and that makes your baby mine.” I tell her what she needs to hear but inside I am fucking gutted at the thought that this baby isn’t mine. Jealousy spikes through my veins. “Does he know? Did you tell him first?”
“What? No. No. I never even thought about it until today.”
I nod my head afraid to open my mouth. I don’t trust the words that might fly out right now. I’m pissed off. MaryAnn belongs to me. She can’t be having his baby. I refuse to believe the possibility. “Then he doesn’t need to know.”
“Ryan, that isn’t fair.”
“I don’t care about fair.” I move back to my knees and place my head in her lap. Her deft fingers move through my hair.
“I know,” she whispers.
I look up at her and when our eyes meet there is nothing that matters more to me in this world than her outside of my club. Her lips come down on mine hesitant but true. I shut everything out. The worry and the doubt vanishes as I move up to the bed and lay her back. I need to be inside her. I need her to know that I’m not going any-damn-where.
Our mouths fuse together as I push her shirt up, needing to feel her hot flesh in the palm of my hand. I pinch and tease her nipples as I kiss my way along her jaw and down her throat. “I need you, baby.”
She cries out as my mouth closes around her tender bud and sucks. We claw at each other unable to undress fast enough. Unable to join our bodies as one quick enough. I fucking need to fill her hot cunt with my cock more than I need the air to return to my lungs, so I can breathe again.