Sleeping with the Enemy (An Enemies to Lovers Collection)

“I have no idea what to do about it,” I heard Damon say to Hayley. “No, I don’t want this…”

I’d heard enough. I climbed over to the driver’s seat. I guess I had my answer to how Damon felt about the pregnancy. I locked the doors, started the car, and pulled off heading for the next town. Tears streamed down my face as pain ripped through my heart. I was glad I hadn’t given Damon the stupid letter I had written him last night after I’d snuck out to the corner diner and gotten some food and a milkshake. Okay, I got two milkshakes and some cherry pie.

I wasn’t sure if Damon and I would ever be able to have a conversation with each other again without one of us exploding. And I was certainly not going to start a conversation when he was in the dark funk he’d been in for days. I’d been driving for only a couple of minutes when I got behind a truck with three cows and a calf in it. The back of the truck had no roof and looked like a moving cow pen. I needed to use the bathroom urgently and my stomach felt like it was hollow. I was so hungry. Plus, I wanted to put as much distance as I could between myself and Damon who must now be a super angry Damon.

But the truck was going even slower than Damon had been driving. We were on a road with multiple twists and turns and I couldn’t see past the truck to overtake it. Even though we’d been driving on these roads for what seemed like an eternity, and we’d hardly passed any traffic, I wasn’t going to chance it. I knew I was driving too close behind the truck but I was getting annoyed and my baby and I were hungry. I was learning that this new hungry me was a very cranky me.

I would normally never do that, but I ended up hooting and cussing then apologizing to baby bean for cussing and flashing my lights at the driver like a road raging Miss Daisy.

I did notice when one of the cows backed up against the railing and lifted its tail. At first, I thought it was the cow’s way of flipping me off until a big pile of gooey cow poop flew right onto the hood of the car. I watched in horror as more of it hit the windshield.

I put the wipers on, and cow poop sprayed in all directions and the smell made the bile start to rise up from my belly. The truck hit the one and only pothole for miles, and the cow whose poop was all over my car hit the back rail and it bounced open. The cow tried to right itself but skidded and bounced out of the truck, onto my hood, and then skidded onto the grass next to my car. I pressed the brakes and stopped just as I saw the other two cows knock the little calf out of the truck. It fell and bounced along the tarmac to land in a heap. It tried to stand up but struggled and fell back down. I saw its little white legs turn red with blood.

“Oh, no, no…” I jumped out of the car, grabbing my wrap from the passenger seat.

As I ran forward, the cow managed to push itself back up onto its legs. I found myself face to face with the cow. I’d never been this close to a cow before. It was huge. I backed up to give it space and leaned against the hood of the car when my hand squished into some of its cow poop. I felt a little sick, but I couldn’t move because the cow stood glaring at me with its big eyes and long lashes.

“Easy girl,” I lifted a poop-stained hand, trying not to think of the foul stuff that was now under my manicured nails. “I’m not going to hurt you, so please don’t hurt me. But I need to go and help the baby.” I pointed toward the little calf mooing and trying to stand up.

The cow didn’t move.

I tiptoed backward one step at a time away from the creature and backed into a wall of muscle. Strong arms wrapped around my stomach, and I screamed. I flayed my arms about wiggling free of the arms and turned around swinging. Damon’s hand shot out and caught my fist.

“Calm down, it’s me.” Damon’s eyes were filled with worry. His shirt was drenched in sweat as was his brow and hair I noted. His shirt was now also covered in cow dung that he got from my bottom that had scraped along the side of the car.

“Are you okay?” His hands shot out and grabbed my upper arms while his eyes frantically searched my body before dragging me into his sweaty, poo-stained body. “Jesus, I thought you were dead.” His hands stroked my hair while he planted soft kisses on my head.