Highest Bidder

He grinned. “Are you calling me fat, Lady Lucan?”

“You know very well, you’re not fat. As a matter of fact, it’s me who is getting fat.”

He frowned. “You’re not fat. You know how I feel about it. I would prefer if you put on more weight. I liked you best when you were pregnant with Lance. I loved the way your belly was so full and round with our child, and how heavy and swollen your breasts were. I used to spend hours sucking them.”

I looked into his eyes. “Well, in that case, you’re going to like my body very soon.”

He jerked into a sitting position, his face incredulous. “What?”

I laughed. “Yeah.”

“Yeah, what?”

“Yeah, I’m pregnant.”

“What? How long have you known?”

“I knew last night.”

He grabbed me and held me close to him. “Freya. I swear, there is no man that could possibly be happier than me. I love you so much.”

“I love you too, Brent. So much.”

“I think we should christen this piece of good news, don’t you?”

“I think so too,” I agreed. “And I think you better hurry before Stanley wakes up.”

“Right,” he said, and got very busy between my legs.

The End

Find out more about the Blue Butterfly Club here: Dirty Aristocrat

Coming Soon…Saving Della-Ray

Chapter 1

Della-Ray

“What?” I croaked.

The cashier pulled my MasterCard out of her card reader, and stopped chewing gum long enough to say, “I said, your card has been declined.”

I felt my face burn with embarrassment. I wanted to run out of there and never go back, but this was now my local. Tightening my hold on my niece’s warm sweaty hand, I swallowed the shame crawling up my throat and said, “It can’t be. I just got paid. Can you please try it again?’

Her bored eyes were a dull amber as she held my card out to me. “There are lots of people waiting behind you, ma’am. I know a declined card when I see one.”

I forced a smile. “Please. Sometimes it doesn’t go through on the first time, but if you try it again it does. I work in bar and it happens to my customers occasionally.”

She looked at me blankly.

I let go of Jess and leaned towards the cashier. “Just one more time, please. I’m pretty sure it will go through.”

“Go on. Give her card another try. We haven’t got all day,” the woman behind me said.

I turned to meet the queue of eyes watching me with various expression, impatience, annoyance, curiosity, and outright pity. “Sorry about this,” I said with an awkward smile to no one in particular.

With a long-suffering sigh, the cashier slid my card back in. As I tapped in my pin number I could feel the sweat begin to gather under my arms. Silently, I prayed the card would go through. Otherwise Jess would be eating peanut butter sandwiches for dinner tonight.

The cashier turned the face of her machine in my direction. “Declined,” she said loudly, as if she was pleased to have proved me wrong. “Martin!” She bellowed. “Can you come here for non-payment re-shelving.”

“Coming,” a male voice answered from somewhere at the back of the store, but I didn’t bother to wait. I picked up my card from the cold steel counter, straightened my back and gave Jess the sweetest smile I could muster. “Let’s go, Sweetie.”

Gage

I looked at the blonde child’s head bobbling innocently. Then I looked again at the girl. Her face was flushed with embarrassment, but that smile she turned to give her the child. There was something majestic and noble in it. I saw that selfless smile once when I pulled a woman out of a burning car. “My baby. Is my baby safe?” she asked. When I said yes, she smiled like that just before she breathed her last. I stared at the girl in fascination. She was too thin and her clothes were clean, but well worn.

Let it go. Let it go.

She was not my problem. Her check would clear in a couple of days and she would come back for the groceries. Not the end of the world. Definitely I shouldn’t get involved. No way. Not with a girl like that. One look at her and I knew she would be a big complication. I didn’t need even small complications.

“What about the groceries, Della?” the little girl asked.

I saw her take the child’s hand with infinite tenderness and something happened inside me. I felt a tug in my chest. Like the first time I looked into the big, bottomless eyes of a child whose father I had just killed. He didn’t cry. He didn’t scream. Just stared at me as I walked away. Something inside me broke. I was never the same again.

I didn’t consciously plan it, but suddenly I had pushed my way to the front of the narrow aisle. She looked up at me, frowned and pulled the little girl to her.

I put my carton of milk on the counter and dropped some twentys next to it. “Add this to her bill.”

The cashier’s eyes widened. “You want to pay her bill.”

I didn’t answer her. I didn’t even wait for my change. I needed air, even if it was suffocating hot noon air. I grabbed up my carton of milk and walked away without looking at the girl. I couldn’t look at her. I couldn’t get involved. There should be no blowback from this. It could mean the difference between life or death for her and me.