Jack (The Family Simon 2)

“No.”

Okay. He was scaring her. Really scaring her. Thoughts racing, she took a step. Or two.

But then he turned back, his eyes so dark they looked like liquid coal. He looked tired. Haunted. This man that she loved. Donovan made a noise and started forward, but he shook his head, eyes shiny, mouth grim.

“Don’t.”

One word was all it took for Donovan to know the jig was up. He knew.

“Oh god,” she whispered. He knew.

Jack shoved his hand into the front pocket of his shorts and pulled out his cell. She watched him scroll through it, her heart beating out of her chest and when he tossed it to her, she nearly dropped it.

He turned away from her again, and her gaze dropped to the message he’d opened.

Derek is MIA. Office inundated. How do you want this handled?

“Click on the link.” His voice was rough and low and so full of anger that it made Donovan wince.

Her fingers didn’t seem to work, but she finally managed to click on the link, one that led her to a report from the Hollywood Tattler website. There was a photo of Donovan and Jack from years ago and a smaller picture of Derek just underneath. Bile rose as she read the headline and blurb.

Donovan Does Derek. Reported sex tape being offered up, showcasing the singing sensation doing the nasty with Derek McKenzie, campaign manager to her on-again, off-again boy toy, Jack Simon. Makes us wonder, here in Tattler land, are Jack and Donovan officially off after their relationship heated up again?

Donovan read it over and over and over. It was as if her mind was stuck, and she just couldn’t move forward.

“Is it true?” he asked, still not looking back at her.

What to say to that?

I woke up naked with him inside me, but I don’t remember anything before that? He took pictures and video and used it to make me leave you? He blackmailed me with them? Made me promise to never see you again or he’d destroy your career?

How did she explain all that? How did she tell the man she loved that yes, I had sex with your best friend. Once she said those words the rest wouldn’t matter.

“You don’t have to say anything.”

Donovan’s head whipped up, and she found him looking at her. No longer were his eyes dark and shiny. They were hard and angry.

“Did you take the test?” he asked.

“What?”

“Are you pregnant?” he asked again.

Donovan winced at the tone. At the utter lack of emotion in his voice. “Yes,” she answered, holding his gaze. “I took the test.”

Jack’s hand fisted at his side, and he took another good swig of scotch. “And?”

“It said I was pregnant.”

Silence greeted her news, and Donovan slid onto the large overstuffed chair to her right. Her legs had nothing left in them, and she was just about done. Everything from the past few weeks—hell the last several months—hit her in the gut, and she thought that she was going to pass out.

“Take another one when you get back to LA, and we’ll talk then.”

“That’s it?” she said dully.

“It’s all I got.”

The pain in her chest was so tight that she clawed at her T-shirt in order to alleviate some of the distress. Gasping for air, she started to get up from the chair, but she had no energy. She didn’t even recognize her own voice when she finally managed to speak.