Total pages in book: 40
Estimated words: 37093 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 185(@200wpm)___ 148(@250wpm)___ 124(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 37093 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 185(@200wpm)___ 148(@250wpm)___ 124(@300wpm)
Cyrus’s gaze pinned me. “Must have been convincing.”
“I fell for a classic con. He claimed to love me, but there was always a reason he couldn’t take me out in public with him. I was only with him for a couple of months before I finally figured it out.” I sighed. “OK, so I didn’t exactly figure it out. I happened to run into him and his wife. And their two young kids.”
“When was this?”
“Three days before I got here. Two days after I found out I might be pregnant.” I closed my eyes, wanting to cuddle into Cyrus but not sure I had the right. Or that he’d want me to take comfort in him after hearing this. “You have no idea how hard it is to admit what I did. I slept with a married man. Got pregnant with his child.”
“You said he told you his wife was dead.”
“He did, but I should have known.”
“How? How were you supposed to have known he was lying to you?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Because there was no way for you to know. You were with him two months?”
“Yes.”
“I take it he doesn’t know about the baby.”
“I didn’t even know for sure until today, Cyrus. I saw them at a movie theater. He saw me and the second he met my gaze, I knew. I was going to leave but decided that no, I was there to watch a picture I’d been wanting to see for months. I wasn’t letting him run me off. So, I bought my ticket and went to stand in line for concessions. I tried not to watch them. I tried so hard, but it hurt. More that I’d been played than from the loss of him, but it still hurt. As I was headed into the theater, he met me in the hall. Accused me of following him and told me his wife would never believe a little whore like me if I tried to tell her he was fucking me. He said I wasn’t getting one cent of his money, no matter what I threatened, but I swear, Cyrus. I didn’t threaten to tell his wife or break up his happy home in any way. I don’t know anything about any money he has, and if I did I wouldn’t want it. I wasn’t even going to confront him at all. If I’d told him I was pregnant, not only would he not have believed me, he’d have blamed me.”
“Why didn’t you insist on protection?” All his questions were asked matter-of-factly. Like he could care less what the answers were, but his intense gaze said otherwise. He was extremely interested in my answers.
“I did. He was my…” I winced, unable to finish that sentence.
“Your… what? Tell me, Odette.”
“The first guy I ever had sex with.”
Cyrus took several breaths. His hands had slid down my body to rest on the tops of my thighs. Given the way the muscle in his jaw ticked, I expected his grip on my legs to tighten painfully. Instead, he simply slid his palms up and down my bare legs in a soothing gesture. It was funny how much he calmed me while fighting his own internal war.
“He know that?”
“Yeah. He used a condom the first few times we had sex, but made no secret he wanted to take me without it. I always said no, but one time, he pulled it off before we had sex. I thought it felt different but didn’t know until afterward.”
“Did you confront him?”
“I was shocked. He just laughed and told me not to worry, he was clean.”
“He know you weren’t on birth control?”
I nodded my head. “I don’t think he cared. Looking back, I’m pretty sure it was all a power thing.”
“Oh, I’m sure of it.”
We were silent for a long time. Just staring at each other. My hands still rested on his shoulders, though I occasionally moved my hand to toy with the hair at the back of his neck. I couldn’t seem to stop touching him. I wanted the right to explore every inch of him. The heavy muscles of his shoulders and arms tempted me in ways I couldn’t even begin to process.
“Now what?” I asked softly.
“Now you get what you came for. I’m takin’ over and helping you through this. You’re in the six-week window if you want an abortion, but you’ll need to tell me now if that’s what you want. I’ll probably have to get Wylde and Stitches both to pull some strings to make it happen in Indiana fast enough to accommodate you, but we can do it.”
I frowned, thinking seriously about it for the first time. Did I want an abortion? “No,” I sighed. “I don’t want to do that. Not really.”
“Good. Next thing is to make you my old lady and my wife. Easily done. Wylde probably has everything ready to go. He’s just waiting on the OK from Sting. You just have to tell him that’s what you want.” He hesitated, looking at me almost guiltily. “There are a couple things you need to know, though. Not that it will make a difference. You’re still mine. I don’t give up what’s mine.”