CHAPTER28
NOVA
Once I’min my room, I allow the total weight of my confession to lay across my shoulders and the squirming in my stomach to fold me over. The mix of relief and terror is a strange combination that my body has no idea how to process.
The murderous look in Zeke’s eyes gave me a small blip of hope that maybe, together, we can figure this out. I’m not an idiot; I know that this person has found me and is now tormenting me in real life. The online stuff is one thing. There’s only so much I can do to physically protect myself right now. Zeke is my smart option.
I don’t just need him, though. I want him.
“What should I do, Fig?” I ask. My cat stops licking the inside of his leg, and his little face says,how dare you interrupt my bath? Figure your own shit out, human.
I sigh. Some help he is.
I slip a deep purple dress over my leggings and adjust my boobs in my bra. They are huge now. My body is growing in all sorts of places, creating protection for the baby and me.
Both Zeke and I step out of our rooms, and his eyebrows shoot up at the same time mine do. He’s wearing a crisp, white button-down with black pants, and he’s in the process of rolling the sleeves up over his thick forearms, which is straight porn to me.
“You know, that’s just rude,” I start, and his eyebrow lifts higher.
He smirks behind his trimmed beard. “What is?”
I gesture to his entire body with an exaggerated groan. “All of that. How am I going to focus on anything else?”
He chuckles and steps around me, heading toward the kitchen.
I’m still frozen in place, facing the bathroom, wondering how and why it’s fair he can look so good in coveralls and a suit.
He reappears behind me, and I melt into his touch as he shifts my hair over one shoulder. I shudder, weakening under the feathery kiss he places on my neck.
“You’re not going to focus at all because I’m going to keep you distracted all evening.” He spins me around to face him to hover his lips over mine.
“And when we get back here tonight…” he trails out with a soft kiss, then abruptly backs away.
He disappears into the bathroom, leaving me a dizzy, heaving mess. “What’s going to happen when we get back here tonight?” I huff, my cheeks burning, thighs aching, brain swirling.
Zeke messes up his hair, then leans into the mirror to flatten it out a little. It’s longer again, back to how it was when we first met. He glances at me in the mirror and winks.
Realization at his game dawns on me. There’s that sexy smirk—but the kindness in his eyes makes it obvious what he’s playing at. He’s not just torturing me sexually. He’s using his ability to distract me from my thoughts, from the spinning fears that have had a hold on me for months.
This is playful and sexy and light. I heard he was a playboy once, and I think I’m about to learn how he pulled it off.
I fix my makeup next to him, teasing him back. “Well, I can’t wait to find out.”
The Christmas music blasts me backward when we enter the main house, where Del has barfed up red and green decorations everywhere. Tabby is in a red dress, spinning around the kitchen like she has four arms, her glasses fogged and slipping down her nose.
“Nova,” she calls, and I laugh, setting down the trays of baking we’d done downstairs.
Zeke moves up behind me, lacing his fingers through mine the moment my hands are free. Tabby glances down over the smeared lenses and gives me a look that saystold you so. I shake my head in a warning and reach forward to take her glasses off her face.
“Thanks,” she says. I pluck the cloth from her case on the counter and clean the lenses. “Can you help me for a minute?”
“Of course,” I say, placing her glasses back on her face.
I choose an apron that hangs beside the stove. As I tie it behind my back, Zeke grabs my wrists to stop me. He proceeds to tie it for me.
“How tight do you want it?” he asks, and I glance over my shoulder at his devilish grin.
“You are going to be terrible tonight, aren’t you?” I try to force myself to seem disappointed, but I’m not. I’m not at all. Not even a little bit.