“He’s going to get it out of us,” she says miserably. “We’ll stay here until we tell the truth, so we might as well. And he deserves to know. I know you hate him, Liam, but he wasn’t—he wasn’t cruel to me. In a way, he saved me, too, from Alexei. So I can’t sit here and lie. My period is late,” she adds, looking at Alexandre. “But that doesn’t mean anything. I’m too thin. It could be—”
“You are too thin,petit. I tried to feed you.” His expression is gentle when he looks at Ana, concerned in a way that makes me prickle with anger. I don’t want anyone but me looking at Ana in that way.
“It’s not pregnancy, Alexandre, I’m almost certain of it—”
“Oh,merde,” Yvette spits out, her eyes narrowing as she looks at the three of us. “Now the little bitch is whelping, after all of this? Who would want a child with this–” She wrinkles her nose, and Alexandre shoots her a sharp, angry look.
“Hold your tongue, Yvette,” Alexandre says sharply.
“I’m not pregnant!” Ana gasps the words, sounding desperate. “I’m not–”
“Clearly, that’s not what Liam thinks.” Alexandre shakes the bag containing the tests. “Clearly, Liam thinks that there’s a good enough chance—”
“He’s overreacting!” Ana’s voice is pleading. “Alexandre, let’s just discuss what you wanted to talk to Liam about, and then we can go. This is over between you and me. We can’t do it anymore. I told you—”
“You’re not going anywhere. There’s an easy answer to this.” Alexandre digs out one of the boxes and holds it out to Ana. “Take the test,petit.And then we will know.”
Ana is bone-white by this point, as if there’s not a drop of blood left in her face. “Alexandre, please. I don’t want to do this here.”
“It could be either of our baby,petit, if you are pregnant. You should do it here, with both potential fathers present. Or—” a new thought appears to cross his face. “Has Liam not—”
“I haven’t come inside of her,” I speak up quickly, hoping that it will deter him. “And it’s been a few weeks since she was in Paris. Surely you used protection with her. Ana is right. There’s some other explanation for her illness.”
I’m bluffing, of course. I haven’t finished in Ana, but I’ve been inside of her twice, for a good amount of time, without a condom. Anyone who’s gone through basic sex ed knows that while that might not be enough totryto get pregnant, it can certainly result in an accident. And the second time, I’d pulled out of her just as my orgasm had begun. I remember all too clearly the sight of her cum-stained thighs—and just a few days ago, I’d stroked myself to completion on her pussy, coating her with my cum without thinking of the potential consequences. That last can’t be the culprit of Ana’s likely situation—but I haven’t been careful. Neither of us have. Not as cautious as we should have been if we were trying to prevent Ana from getting pregnant. But truthfully—I hadn’t thought about it. The idea of Ana being pregnant with my child, while terrifying in a sort of abstract way, is also an exciting one. I’ve always known I would have children if my wife and I were able. I just hadn’t thought about it in any real, concrete way yet. I hadn’t had any reason to.
It’s not Ana’s pregnancy that upsets me in and of itself. It’s the possibility that it could bind her more tightly to Alexandre—and very well could, here and now, if he forces her to take the test.
Alexandre smirks, a look of satisfied glee crossing his face—likely at the thought that I haven’t enjoyed the same pleasures with Ana that he has. “Oh, I did not use protection,monsieur.” His cold, terse smile only grows. “You may not have come in her sweet pussy, but I most certainly have. More than once. Which only makes me all the more insistent,petit.You will take the test here.”
I round on him, black fury rising up in a storm cloud of nearly uncontrollable anger at the thought of him inside of Ana, filling her–
“You didn’t take any precautions?” I snap. “Were youtryingto get her pregnant?” The thought of it makes me feel sick.
Alexandre chuckles darkly. “Not trying,monsieur, no. But why would I not? Anastasia was–is–mine. And she certainly didn’t have a word to say otherwise.”
Ana goes very pale at that, her eyes flicking nervously to me. “Liam, I–”
I hold up a hand, unable to listen to any more of it. “Ana, no. I don’t want to hear about it. I understand–it happened. But I can’t–” I take a deep breath. “It doesn’t matter,” I manage to say, as difficult as it feels. “He’ll never touch you again.”
“We’ll see,monsieur,” Alexandre snaps. “The test, Anastasia?”
“It’s best taken in the morning,” Ana protests. “It might not be accurate—”
“Your Irishman was very thorough.” Alexandre shakes the bag again. “There are five more boxes in here. Twelve tests in total, including what’s in my hand. All twelve cannot be wrong. You will take them until we know for sure. Until we see a clear difference between results.”
“I can’t.” Ana shakes her head, visibly on the verge of tears. “Not with Yvette here, please, Alexandre. I can’t do this. It’s too personal, it’s—I’m going to have a panic attack, and I know how much you hate my fits. Please just let me go home, and I’ll call you. I promise.”
“You left me,petit.I am sorry to say that I do not trust you as I once did.” Alexandre does look as if he’s sorry, his mouth twisting sympathetically. “I do not trust you not to tell me a different result than the truth.”
“But—”
He holds up his hand, ignoring me entirely now in favor of Ana. “But if it will make you more comfortable,petit, I will ask Yvette to leave.”
“You will not!” Yvette starts to protest, her eyes going wide with shocked anger, but Alexandre pins her with a cold glare. It’s in that moment that I see that perhaps she doesn’t have as much of a hold on him as I’d believed—or at least not always. There are things more important to him than Yvette’s approval.
“You will leave, Yvette, so that we may conduct this matter in private. Ana is right about one thing, it is deeply personal and among the three of us. Please go down to the lobby, go to the bar, have a drink, have tea in the restaurant—I don’t care, so long as you are not within earshot of this room. I’ll call you when we are finished here.”
“Alexandre—” Yvette starts to protest, looking both shocked and more than a little hurt that he’s kicking her out. Still, Alexandre’s expression is as cold and impassive as I could have hoped it would be in this situation.