Tall, Dark & Furious (Pyte/Sentinel 6)

“No, I’m not,” Kale said absently with a heavy sigh as he pulled his phone out, hoping that it was an offer for a better job and found himself almost smiling when he saw the message waiting for him. “But lucky for you something better just came up.”

Irresistible

A Neighbor from Hell Novel

Chapter 1

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Melanie mumbled pathetically even as she shoved another delicious french fry in her mouth while she once again had to question the life choices she’d made that brought her here.

“Really? I can’t imagine why,” Rebecca, her best friend since elementary school and ex-roommate, said innocently with an equally innocent expression as she sat across the booth from her, clearly enjoying herself. Melanie considered kicking her beneath the table, but right now that seemed like a lot of work. So, she settled for taking another bite of her delicious french fry instead.

“I ran,” Melanie said in a daze, still trying to figure out how everything had gone so horribly wrong so quickly.

One minute, the nurse was calling her name and the next she was in her car, tearing out of the parking lot, and debating the pros and cons of taking Rebecca up on the suggestion that she’d made last year and move to Switzerland.

“I believe waddled is a more fitting term,” Rebecca, always helpful, added as Melanie absently dipped her fry in ketchup and popped it in her mouth with a tragic groan.

“I panicked,” Melanie said, sighing heavily as she stared down at the half-eaten burger on her plate.

“Yes, yes, you did,” Rebecca said absently, and Melanie didn’t need to look up to know that her best friend was probably licking her lips as she watched her husband do something that caused his insanely large muscles to bulge.

Her best friend had it bad for Lucifer and unfortunately, Melanie couldn’t say that she blamed her. Not that she was interested in Lucifer, because she definitely wasn’t into guys who loved to glare, but she couldn’t help but notice just how much Lucifer adored Rebecca. It was something that she would probably never have, she thought, popping another delicious fry in her mouth with a heartfelt sigh.

“You can try again,” Rebecca pointed out.

“I know,” she said, wondering how she was going to be able to go back to that office and face his staff after today.

She already knew that she wouldn’t be able to do it, which was probably for the best. Telling Aidan, the asshole that she’d had a one-night stand with that the Morning After Pill hadn’t worked after all wasn’t exactly something that she really wanted to do at his office.

Then again, it also wasn’t something that she wanted to do when she was six months pregnant, but she didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. She’d wanted to tell him sooner, had actually planned on telling him sooner, but things changed when she’d almost lost the baby and the doctor was forced to put her on bedrest.

She’d never been sicker in her life than she had in the last five months. Every day had been pure hell as she’d tried to make it through the day without ending up in the emergency room, terrified that she was going to lose her baby. It had been touch and go there for a while, but eventually they’d been able to get her nausea under control and she’d started putting on weight.

Five days ago, her doctor announced that her weight was good, her numbers were up, and that the baby, a very active little boy, was exactly where he should be, and that it was now safe to leave the confines of her bed. It had honestly been the best news of her life even though it meant that it was time to face the music.

She had to tell Aidan Bradford, the man that had made it clear that he didn’t want children that he was about to have one. She’d waited until she knew that the baby was going to be okay before telling him, because she honestly couldn’t think of anything crueler than telling a man that he was going to be a father when there was no guarantee that the baby was going to survive.

She wasn’t supposed to be telling him now, but she didn’t want to put this off any longer. She didn’t want to be one of those women that tried to keep her child away from their father, which was the reason that she was ignoring her Doctor’s orders to hold off until after she had the baby. He was concerned about what the stress would do to her. She didn’t want to do anything to risk her baby, but she had to do the right thing.

She had to tell Aidan.

“I can go with you if you want,” Rebecca suggested with that same worried look that she’d been giving her since this whole thing started.

She shook her head and said, “It’s better if I tell him by myself,” even though it was tempting to bring Rebecca along as a buffer. Aidan liked Rebecca and probably wouldn’t start yelling if she was there, but he would still be angry. She wasn’t sure that she wanted Rebecca around when it happened, mostly because her best friend would probably take it upon herself to beat the crap out of him if he made her cry. Melanie also wasn’t sure that she would be able to come up with enough money to bail her best friend out of jail.

“When?” Rebecca pressed, which was something that she’d been doing a lot this past week.

“I’m going to tell him,” Melanie promised as she popped another fry in her mouth.

“Better do it soon,” Rebecca said with a pointed look at the plate in front of Melanie, which just happened to be the third cheeseburger platter she’d ordered in the last hour and something that would probably give away the fact that she was pregnant with a Bradford soon, “before Lucifer figures it out.”

“He’s going to be mad,” Melanie said slowly exhaling and trying not to think of all the times he’d taken care of her over the past few months, checked in on her, brought her food, sat with her, and occasionally carried her to the bathroom when she was too weak to do it herself so that she could hug the toilet for a few hours.

He had no idea that his brother was the father, because they hadn’t told him and when he found out that they’d kept him in the dark he would probably never talk to her again. This was really turning out to be the best day ever, she thought dryly even as she had to wonder where her order of pancakes with extra butter, syrup, and bacon was.

“No, he won’t,” Rebecca promised her with a shake of her head. “He’ll just decide that gives him even more rights to be the godfather.”

That was true…