14
Istared down at the white pregnancy test in my hand, tears flooding my vision. I hadn’t seen Damien in about three weeks, though I knew from Miles that he came to check on me while I was sleeping. I had texted him, but he just continued telling me he would be home soon.
But now, he had to come home.
Because he was going to be a fucking dad.
I washed my hands, and with shaking fingers, I tapped out a message to Damien on my phone. I then set it down on the nightstand afterward, not bothering to see if he texted me back or read my message.
I just walked out of the room and headed out to the pool, ignoring Miles’s worried gaze on my back.
Damien
Her text kept spinningthrough my head on replay as I quickly shut the door to my car and jogged up the steps to the porch.
I’m pregnant.
She hadn’t responded to me, and she hadn’t answered my calls. After speaking to Miles, I felt a bit more at ease knowing that she was just out in the pool. I hadn’t fucked up so badly that she was blatantly ignoring me.
I stepped into the house and dropped my bag by the door. “She still in the pool?” I asked Miles.
He nodded. “Surprised you’re home already,” he commented as I strode towards the door that led out to the patio. “You said you weren’t coming home until you cleared up a bit more shit with Tyrone.”
I shook my head. “She’s pregnant,” I grumbled as I stepped outside, shutting the door back behind me. I didn’t wait around to hear his response or witness his reaction to the news.
My eyes instantly locked on hers as she looked up from where she was laying on a float, letting the sun tan her skin. “Damien,” she breathed. She slid off of the float and came to the edge of the pool.
“Is it true?” I asked her quietly, running my eyes over her face.
She nodded. “I was feeling nauseous, and my period is a couple of days late.” She shrugged as she looked down at the water. She ran her hands over the surface of it. “I took a pregnancy test. It clearly said positive.”
I tilted her chin up and slanted my lips across hers. She softly sighed, her hands reaching up to wrap around my wrists as I cradled her face in my hands, kissing her tenderly. “I’m so happy that you’re home, Damien,” she whispered against my lips.
“You were so upset—" I started, but she shook her head at me, cutting me off. But God, I would never forget that agony in her eyes.
“I never wanted you to leave, Damien,” she told me, her eyes swimming with so many different emotions. “I was upset, yes, but I still wanted you here with me, Damien, no matter how angry or sad I was.”
“You’re way too good for me, darlin’,” I told her honestly as I ran my thumb over her cheek.
She smiled up at me. “Every bad guy needs a good woman on his side,” she reminded me.
I softly smiled down at her as I trailed the tips of my fingers over her cheek.
This woman was everything I ever needed in my life.
Hayley
Damien’s armsslid around me from behind as he stepped into the shower, his muscular chest and torso pressing against my back. My eyes slid shut as he pressed a kiss to my shoulder. “I missed you,” he told me softly. “I’m so sorry I left you when you needed me.”
I didn’t reply. He knew it wasn’t okay that he had left, and he knew that it wasn’t okay that he had killed Drake. Was I going to lie and say, ‘it’s okay’? No. And Damien knew that I wouldn’t say it.
“I’ve been working with Tyrone—building a truce,” he informed me. “Took a lot of apologizing and dirty work, but he’s coming back around. Mostly for your benefit, though, I think. He knows danger seems to follow you everywhere, and he doesn’t want anything to happen to you.”
I turned around in his arms and looked up at him. “Tyrone never talks to me much,” I told him honestly.
Damien shrugged. “He’s a man of few words these days. Scarlett has mostly mellowed him out.”
“She’s a quiet woman herself,” I commented.