Charity Case - The Complete Series - Piper Rayne Page 0,184

how horrible it was after we announced our marriage.” He pulls me into his arms, his hands holding my head to his chest. “Don’t worry baby, eventually it will all turn out okay. They’ll accept me. It might be fifty years from now, but it will happen.”

I say nothing, letting him think the assumption he’s made is correct. My mom’s approval can stay shoved up her ass.

My arms tighten around his middle, needing the comfort of his arms. I pray things turn out differently this time around.

“Come on, you look exhausted.” He shelters my hand in his, locks my front door and guides me down the hall. “I’ll even keep my hands to myself tonight.”

We enter my bedroom.

“What about Grover?” I ask.

“He can stay by himself and I’ll run back home before work.” He strips down to his sweatpants, leaving him stark naked.

“Are you going to be able to keep that thing away from me tonight, too?”

He slides under the covers. “I’ll try, but you know he’s got a mind of his own.” He winks, and the news sits at the tip of my tongue.

“Come.” He pats the bed next to him, his hand propped under his chin and holding his head up.

“You didn’t have to come,” I say.

I take off my clothes and pull back the covers. When I slide in, his arm drapes over my stomach, pulling me flush to his chest. “I’m not going to let you hide from me. We face this together.”

My body loses the fight and I sink into his hold, his one hand flat on my belly.

He should know. I should tell him.

Somehow, I just can’t get the words out.

His other hand grabs hold of my breast and I flinch.

“What’s the matter?” he asks. He massages it with his hand and I resist the urge to pull away. “Were you too hard on yourself last night?”

“What?” I ask.

“When I told you to pinch yourself? Are you super sore today?” His voice is low like he doesn’t want to disturb someone else in the apartment.

“A little.” Another lie slips out and more guilt piles on top of me.

His hand falls down and releases my breast. “Sleep baby,” he whispers, his thumb running a small circle around my stomach as though he knows our little bean is in there and he’s soothing it to sleep, too.

Oh Jesus, when did I get so emotional?

Oh yeah, when my hormones went into overdrive to grow a baby inside me.

At least I hope that’s what it’s doing.

The next morning, I’m at my desk. Early because I made up the excuse to Dean that I had an important meeting and I just didn’t have time to have breakfast.

I hear Victoria enter, her footsteps clicking down the hall.

“When I call you, I’d like an answer.” She sits down in the chair across from me.

“Sorry,” I respond, pretending to write down something important.

“What did the doctor say?”

Fuck me. Why didn’t I prepare an answer for her? No way it’s fair if I tell anyone before Dean.

“She scheduled me for an ultrasound.”

I say a silent prayer to be forgiven for all the lies I’m telling. But they’re necessary to protect the people I care about.

“So, it is out?”

I nod slowly.

“How? That’s scary.”

“She said when they inserted the new one a few months back, that maybe it wasn’t placed properly.” I shrug acting like it’s no big deal.

“So could you be…”

Of course, Victoria would ask me straight out. But if I tell her about the pregnancy and the fact I didn’t tell Dean, she’s going to tell me how wrong that is.

Yeah, yeah, I know she was right the first time she told me to talk to him when he first started pursuing me again. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have him in my life right now. A man who knows me so well, he shows up at my apartment late at night because he knows something’s wrong.

“We didn’t talk about it.”

Her eyes narrow. “The doctor didn’t ask you if you could be pregnant?” The sarcasm drips off her words like ice cream off a cone on a scorching hot summer day.

“She just said she’d have to schedule an ultrasound to make sure it’s not lodged inside me somewhere.”

Another lie. How many am I up to now?

“Chelsea,” she says, and I meet her eyes for the first time. “You’re lying.”

“No, I’m not.” I shake my head, swallowing down the guilt of all my lies in the past twenty-four hours.

“First off, you’re way too calm