I knew I should let go, but instead I twisted my fingers into his shirt and held him to me, enjoying the heat and strength of his big body up against mine. He groaned and our kissing found new levels of need and desperation as we both gave in to the urgency of the moment. His palms pressed into my cheeks and I could feel the hard, rigid outline of his erection and I wanted him. I wanted him so bad I could barely stand it. He breathed my name, desperately, over and over, and begged me to tell him it wasn’t over. And more than anything in the whole world, I wanted to tell him that it wasn’t because I was so fucking in love with him it hurt to even think about not loving him. But then I remembered Astrid and the baby, his baby, and I pulled away so damn quick I almost fell over. I steadied myself against the kitchen counter.
“You need to go,” I panted.
“Chastity—”
“Please!”
His eyes blazed across at me and his chest rose and fell heavily.
“Fine, I’ll go. But this isn’t over.” He crossed the room to the front door, but turned back to me before walking out. “This. You and me. We’re not done.”
And then he disappeared outside, slamming the door behind him.
RUGER
Gutted, I left Chastity and climbed on my bike. It was torture knowing she was ending it, but I wasn’t going to give up. I would give her the space she asked for and the time she needed to process everything, but we weren’t done. Not by a long shot.
She was scared. And I was going to break my back showing her she had nothing to be scared about. But in the meantime, she needed time apart and I was willing to give it to her, despite my overwhelming need to be close to her.
My life was better with her in it as my girl.
And I wasn’t giving up on that.
On us.
I steered my bike in the direction of the back highway leading out of Destiny toward Humphrey. I was going to ride to clear my head and let the hypnosis of the highway help calm the chaos taking place in my mind. But when I felt my phone vibrate against my chest I pulled over, hoping it was Chastity.
But it wasn’t.
It was Astrid.
And she was crying.
“It’s the baby,” she sobbed into the phone. “I’m in the hospital.”
Alarm detonated inside of me.
“What happened? Are you and the baby okay?”
Is my son okay?
“It’s been a complicated pregnancy, Ruger. That’s why I wanted you to come back to New Orleans, you know. Less stress. It’s been hard. I miss you. I need you.” She sniffed back more tears. “I need your help. We need your help.”
“Is the baby okay?”
“He’s doing okay. For now. But they’re keeping me here overnight.”
Relief spread through me.
“Where are you? Destiny General or St. Vincent’s?”
“St. Vincent’s.”
“I’m on my way.”
Twenty minutes later I was navigating the corridors of the maternity wing of St. Vincent’s Hospital. When I found Astrid’s room, she was sitting up in bed, her eyes red and swollen from crying.
As soon as she saw me, she started to cry again.
“What happened?” I asked.
“She started to have contractions,” came a voice from across the room.
I looked up and came face to face with Astrid’s sister, Thea.
Thea and I had never gotten along. She hated me. Except for that one time when she tried to stick her tongue down my throat and begged me to fuck her at a barbecue their uncle threw for Fourth of July a few years back. I never told Astrid about it because I figured we’d all done shit we regretted when we were drunk. And Astrid would never forgive her.
Since then, Thea had always treated me with contempt and never failed to put me down in front of her sister.
Now her eyes narrowed when she saw me.
“But they’re okay now?” I asked Astrid.
“No thanks to you,” Thea said.
The bitch couldn’t help herself.
But I simply ignored her.
“Do they know what caused it?” I asked.
“The doctors said it’s stress,” Astrid said.
“And she needs to keep her stress levels low,” Thea added. “I told her not to drive out here and do this. Not while she is so emotional and so far along in the pregnancy. But I was never able to stop her from doing crazy things when it came to you.”
“Thea—”
“It’s okay, Astrid. I’m not going to drag his balls across hot coals…” She threw daggers at me with her cold blue eyes. “… this time.”
Again, I ignored my ex-girlfriend’s sister.
“The stress caused the contractions?” I asked Astrid.
She nodded. “The doctor said I’m sensitive to stress. Because the pregnancy has been so problematic… if I get too stressed I could go into premature labor and… Ruger, our son could die.”