Checking the door handle, I twist it and it opens. Thankful it was unlocked so I could get to Lana sooner, I still shake my head. Trey is always telling Shayla to lock the door and she never fucking listens. Stubbornness runs in this family for sure.
I hear a pissed off Lana coming from the kitchen, so with heavy steps I tread into the kitchen. The minute I see her I lose my breath. Even pissed off at her I can’t help but be blown away by her sweet beauty. Her hair is down in waves framing her lean face. Her lips red and pouty from her nipping at them. Her brown eyes embed into my soul and I moan audibly when I see her sexy body wrapped in a loose-fitting silk slip dress, stopping mid-thigh and showing off her beautiful shoulders, collarbone and legs.
“Baby.” I can’t help but fall into her quicksand. I’m livid, but seeing her looking like that and glowing the way she is, I lose my footing a little bit.
Moving to her, she throws her hand up and steps back a few steps. “No. Stop.” My feet falter to a stop and I freeze in place, gauging her.
“Lana,” I challenge, tilting my head to engage her.
“Kingston Troy Donovan I swear if you come near me I will slap you.” I smirk, she’s sassy as ever.
“What is your deal? I just want to talk to yo
u.”
“You know why. You know that we can’t do this because the exact second you or I see each other we lose all our sense and fall back into the same old pattern.” She exhales, moving her hair behind her ear, showing me her red flustered cheeks and carved dimples that always show even when she isn’t smiling. My girl.
“Well, who’s fault is that?” I counter back, glancing over at Shayla for a second. She has her eyes glued to Lana and me, watching our train wreck roll into the side of a cliff.
“Not mine! I have given you plenty of chances to walk away and you keep coming back knowing I’m not ready for a relationship.”
I debate my next move carefully. I want to blurt out the pregnancy thing right here, but then I think I better just take her home and work our shit out alone. Not in the middle of my sister’s kitchen like a god damn Sophie’s Choice.
So I go with Tarzan instead. Go big or go. Fucking. Home. Closing the gap between us before she can even protest, I pick her up wedding style, careful not to hurt her belly just in case.
“Put me down! Now!” she bellows out, making me chuckle, banging my chest with her closed fist.
“Nope. We’re going back to your place and we’re gonna discuss a few things.” I say bye to Shayla, who stays stunned silent, shaking her head at us.
I make it to my BMW and I put her disgruntled, flailing body in the car, buckling her in and making sure I hit the lock button on my key fob a hundred times so she can’t get out. Climbing in I lose all my restraint.
“That wasn’t cool. Pushing me away and trying to keep me at arm’s length. This shit hurts me, Lana!” I yell, turning on the car.
“Yeah, well what you just did hurt me!” I fly out onto the main drag and head for our apartments, clenching and releasing the wheel, ignoring her while I try to gain stability.
“You don’t get to push me away, not anymore,” I finally speak when we’re on the freeway heading back home.
“To hell I can’t!” Lana turns her body away from me, looking out the window.
“Not when my fucking baby is inside you!” She swallows back, the gulping sound loud enough for me to hear over the engine of my car and the traffic around us.
“Who told you?” Just like that, my world flips, my stomach drops and my intel is correct. Lana James is pregnant with our baby. Holy fucking shit.
“No one and that’s not the fucking point!” I hit the steering wheel over and over again, my fist starts to throb so I pull back, my head spinning. Lana’s eyes are wide while she’s huddle close to the door, as far away from me as she can. “How could you hide this shit from me! Has our friendship and what we’ve been doing all this time meant nothing to you! Do my feelings not mean a thing to you!” She sobs next to me and for once, I’m not feeling guilty for those tears.
“Of course I do, Kings! That’s why I didn’t tell you! I’m not capable of being with you and you shouldn’t have to take care of a child you didn’t ask for. I’m sorry!” She cries into her hands.
“You don’t get to make that choice for me! You don’t get to tell me what I want!”
“What do you want then, Kings!”
“You, Lana! I want you! Have you not been listening to me! I’ve wanted you since the day I knew what wanting someone was! Fuck!” Gliding in and out of traffic is only amplifying my rage, while Lana sobs next to me. She has hidden our baby from me, lied and kept it a secret. How could she do this to me? To us?
“Kingston. I’m sorry,” she cries out.
“Yeah, me too.” Pulling up to the front of our building I stop and reach over opening the door. “Get out and go upstairs. I need some time to think.”
“But Kings...”