Blaze (Virtues & Lies 3)

“Really?” he spits.

The indignation and disgust on his face make me so mad that I throw myself at him, my hands shoving into his stomach.

I’m the one that’s growing a human inside me. I’m the one that has to deal with the consequences. I have to make choices that I will have to live with forever. Even when he walks away and forgets about me.

So how dare he act so fucking righteous and holier than me. For once, we’re on an even keel.

“Really.” My fists grind into the hard muscles. “If I’m not with you, I’m with Cassie. So how the fuck am I meant to be sleeping around, you big fucking idiot?”

I swallow down the bile that burns up my throat again, his sweet gesture turned bitter.

“You think I haven’t asked myself how this has happened?” Hammering his chest with my fist, I push my tears all the way back to wherever the hell they’re coming from now. “You think I want to be pregnant? Do you think I want to be a mother?”

Something stirs deep in his narrowed stare. Holding my wrists in one of his hands, he pushes me away from him like he wasn’t inside me minutes ago.

“I don’t.” I fall back a couple more steps, my gaze glued to his hand around mine. Bronzed and gorgeous with all the tattoos.

“No one knows,” he grumbles.

“If I don’t know what I’m going to do, why would I tell anyone?”

Casper drops my hands with a shake of his head, his jaw clenching so tightly that I’m certain he might grind his teeth to nothing.

“There are options for this kind of unexpected thing.”

Silence has never been so loud. Casper steps forward, making me step back. He doesn’t stop until I’m backed up to the glass shower wall. An intense scowl shadows his bleak features.

My words haunt me. Insensitive. Harsh. Awful, given his sister lost her baby a little over a month ago.

“Casper…” I didn’t mean to be cruel. This is new, uncharted territory for me.

“Blood doesn’t wash out, Fleur,” he breathes. His eyes have that same sheen and torment they held me with that first time. “Blood stains, and no matter how many times you try to get rid of it, you can’t.”

He walks out of the bathroom, and following him, I watch as he pulls his T-shirt back on.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Of course I know what it means, but I don’t want to be on my own right now, and he’s leaving. Maybe if I manage to keep him talking, he’ll stay longer.

“It means think about what you want before you make a decision you can’t live with.”

Dressed, he opens the balcony doors and climbs over the railing. The tears I’ve managed to keep staunched flood my eyes as Casper holds me with his haunting stare.

Please stay. Don’t leave me, I beg silently before I ask, “What do you want?”

Nothing will keep him here. I know it, but still…

“Tell me what you want.”

Without answering me, he disappears from sight. I go to the balcony and watch as he rounds the side of the house, the deep rumble of his Lamborghini fading as he leaves.

Prologue II

FLEUR

One month earlier

I pop one more of the anti-sickness tablets with as little water as possible. Stuffing them back in my make-up bag, I contemplate for the millionth time how I’m going to tell my father I’m pregnant. He’s not been around at all lately, and the handful of chances I’ve had to tell him, I’ve chickened out. Although, the fact that he hasn’t said anything about all the stomach bugs I’ve caught in the last six months is disappointing. We’ve never been close, but with Mum being gone, he’s the only family I have left.

“One, two, three…and four.” I give my bedroom the once-over to make sure all the lights are on.