I shake my head. “Sorry. It’s hard to focus right now.”
“I’m not trapped. Rocker isn’t trapped. You aren’t trapped.”
Chills race down my spine the second before white-hot anger heats my skin.
“Is this where you convince me to get an abortion?” He glares at me, his jaw clenching. “I take it Rocker feels the same way?”
He doesn’t answer me, and even though I know he’s growing angry, he’s making it hard for me to interpret exactly why he’s angry.
“I don’t expect anything from you. No matter the outcome of the paternity test, I can do this on my own. That’s why I didn’t come knock on your damn door the second I found out.”
“You weren’t going to tell us?”
His words are low, heat filling his gaze.
“Eventually, I imagine I would’ve had to say something.”
He looks away, cracking his neck and it automatically puts me on edge. The first time Jeremy hit me; this is how it started. It was almost like he tried to fight it and couldn’t. Eventually, of course, he could backhand me without so much as a twitch in warning.
“I’d never tell you to get an abortion. That’s a decision for you alone to make.” His words grow heated with each syllable, and by the time he finishes, he’s standing over me. “But if that baby is mine, I have every intention of being involved in my kid’s life.”
I flinch away when he lifts his hand, my breath halting as I wait for the impact.
“Fuck, Simone.”
I peek one eye open to see him several feet away with his hands on top of his head.
“I’d never hit you. You know that, right?”
I shake my head immediately.
“I’m upset. That’s obvious. A lot has happened since last night, but I’d never touch you in anger. Never.”
The adrenaline that was building has nowhere to go other than escaping out of the tips of my fingers causing them to tremble uncontrollably.
Jinx walks closer, placing his huge hand over my own.
“Look at me.”
I swallow and do as he asks because certainty in my safety is something I’ve never had the luxury of.
A soft smile tugs up the corner of his mouth, but his eyes are still stormy.
“Never.”
He uses his free hand to lift my chin, urging me to look him in the eye. It’s reminiscent of the way he was that night when he clamped my chin between his thumb and index finger and demanded that I come. Confusion washes over me because I’m somehow afraid of his ability to hurt me and remembering the pleasure he so readily gave that night.
“I will never lay a hand on you or any woman for that matter in anger. Tell me you know that.”
I nod automatically in response, and his small smile disappears.
“You may not believe me, but I will prove it to you.”
My cheeks heat when his eyes dip to my lips, my tongue instinctively snaking out to trace the cut there. I’m hideous. I can feel the tightness on my cheeks and around my mouth from where Jeremy hit me over and over, but although his face is filled with several emotions, disgust isn’t one of them.
“That night was a wild ride,” he begins. “We all had a great time.”
I give him a weak smile when he releases my face and takes a step back.
“If the baby is mine, I’m not going to marry you or anything, but I’ll do the right thing.”
I can’t help but laugh at the first part of his statement, mainly because I don’t even want to think about what he considers the right thing. He’s already said he wants to be in the baby’s life, but there’s no telling what form that will take. He could mean financially. He could demand weekend visits and every other holiday. He could somehow get it into his mind that I’m unfit and try to take the baby away from me. This thought strikes real fear in me.
A man being involved in a threesome with his best friend is just a couple of guys having fun. To most in society, a woman who does the same thing is a whore. The double standard is real and could be a problem later on.
I take a long, slow breath, keeping my eyes on my hands. It’s too early to concern myself with any of that right now.
“I think it’s the wait that’s going to be the hardest,” Jinx says, his face turned toward the television even though I