Hidden (Stolen, Book Two) (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) (4 page)

H
er phone buzzed
.

Again.

She lifted her arm to hail and cab and hit
Accept
. Listening to Ethan throw accusations at her would be the icing on the shit cake that this evening had turned into, but why the hell not.

“What?” she barked with zero patience left.

“Harper, stop avoiding me.”

“Ethan...” she had no words left. Why had she even answered? The cab pulled over and she climbed in and rattled off her address.

“We have to talk in person,” Ethan said in her ear.

All of a sudden the entire disastrous evening dumped on her shoulders and she slumped in her seat. “What do we have to say to each other?” she asked, her voice suddenly tired.

“You don’t sound well.” Concern came across the line loud and clear and it only made her eyes burn hotter.

“I’ve had a really shitty night and I just want to go home and pull a blanket over my head and shut everything out.” God, she was too tired to even lie.

“Come over, I’ll take care of you,” he said instantly.

She wanted to believe him, but she was certain he was reacting out of guilt. He thought she might be pregnant and it was all his fault, but she knew that wasn’t the case.

“It’s nothing that you need to worry about. Listen, I took a test.” She sucked in a breath and ignored the way her chest hurt. Her voice went higher and she fought the urge to break down. To laugh? Hell she didn't know what she wanted to do but she might as well let him off the hook. “It was negative, so you don’t have to call again. Okay? Look, I’m almost home so I’m just going to hang up and...”

“The doctor called me, Harper. The blood test was positive,” he said.

Her mind literally stopped. There was a faint ringing in her ears as the enormity of it hit her like a ton of bricks.

Sound muffled around her and she stopped breathing for a few seconds. “What?”

“You’re pregnant, Harper. The doctor just called and told me that the blood test was positive. The result is not in doubt.”

That wasn’t possible because she’d taken a test earlier. There weren’t two lines. One line meant not pregnant. She knew that because she read the instructions a dozen times then had Kylie reread them just to be sure.

But then again, she knew that the blood test was more accurate. So between the two tests, the truth was obviously…oh God.

She felt suddenly sick.

“Harper?” he asked.

She heard him exhale and it unleashed everything that she'd been holding at bay. The tears streamed down her face and pressure built inside her chest. Her hand shook. No, her whole body was shaking. In about three seconds she was going to implode and end up a gross smear on the cab seat.

It was all too much and she just couldn't deal with it.

“I need some time,” she said quietly.

“I wanted to do this in person, Harper.”

“I know. But not right now. This is a lot to take in…”

“And that’s exactly why I should be with you,” he insisted.

I don’t want your pity, she thought, but grit her teeth and didn’t say. If only their families weren’t at war with each other. If only Ethan Wentworth truly loved her, and wasn’t just operating out of obligation, doing what he thought was right. But she knew now that their entire relationship was nothing but a mistake. The kind of mistake that happened to a million couples, people who slept together before knowing each other well enough and didn’t think ahead, didn’t take proper precautions.

This wasn’t love. This was just stupidity and tragedy piled one on top of the other.

“I’ll call you tomorrow,” she said softly and hung up the phone. As she climbed out of the cab, her phone buzzed. She held down the power button until it shut off. No more.

An hour later, she was still curled up on the couch in her favorite yoga pants and an oversized sweatshirt, in the dark, staring at nothing. She’d removed her makeup and twisted her hair into the messiest bun known to mankind. On autopilot, she’d poured herself a glass of wine, and at the last minute remembered why she shouldn’t drink it. It only made her cry harder.

Her face felt puffy and she knew her eyes were red and swollen. But it didn’t matter. Because after tonight, after this allowed pity party for one, she’d put on her big girl panties and figure out what the hell she was going to do.

Her doorbell rang and she ignored it, figuring it must be her mother. She didn't want to argue with her mother anymore. Didn’t want to listen to her justify what her father was doing.

Several silent beats passed and there was insistent knocking.

“Harper, I know you’re in there.” Ethan. His deep voice rang out and her entire body went rigid except for her pulse, which raced through her veins like wildfire. What the hell was he doing here? How the hell did he know where she lived?

She pulled her feet onto the couch and wrapped her arms around them. He’d go away. All she had to do was stay quiet. Some part of her yearned to let him in because right now, she felt so alone that she could barely take a breath. The other practical part argued that he was only there because she was pregnant and he felt some kind of obligation to do something.

“I’m not leaving, Harper. I’ll sit here all night if I have to.”

Another silent minute passed.

“Fine.” She heard a thump and then nothing.

Slowly she let her feet down and crept toward the door on her bare feet. There was a curtain on the sidelight, so she carefully pulled it back just a little and her stomach dropped as she looked out the narrow window. Ethan was sitting on the step, his back against the door, long legs sprawled out in front of him, boots crossed at his ankles. Harper ground her teeth together.

“You’re really going to sit there all night, aren’t you?” she asked through the glass.

His head swiveled toward her voice and his eyes locked onto hers. He looked as ragged as she felt. “Yes.”

They were going to have to do this eventually, so why not rip the band aid off right now. Maybe if she put all the shit into one night, she could sweep it all away in the morning and try and piece everything together again.

She let the curtain fall and turned the lock, then opened the door. He was already on his feet. His body filled her doorway and she couldn’t stop the wave of admiration, no, attraction that swept through her. He was too good looking for his own good.

His gaze roved over her and he stabbed his fingers through his hair, but he waited.

She took a step back. “Come in.”

He moved past her and the air filled with the scent of his cologne and that scent that was all him. She’d buried her nose in his neck and just breathed it in yesterday, reminding herself that her memory of Tahiti wasn’t wrong.

Right now she was holding her breath.

He shrugged out of his bomber jacket and set it over a chair. He had on a tight dark blue t-shirt and faded jeans that hung low on his hips. The shadow of stubble covered his jaw and his hair hung down just over his eyes. As Kylie said earlier, he was the entire package wrapped in a big red bow. The only thing that kept Harper from drooling all over her floor was why he was there.

“I brought you these,” he said, handing her the bottle of prenatal vitamins from the drugstore. “Not exactly flowers, but…”

Harper took them with a shaky hand. It shouldn’t make her eyes water that he brought her a bottle of vitamins, but it did. She set them on the hall table.

“Let’s sit down,” he said.

She waved her arm toward the couch but he waited until she sat down first before sitting across from her in a chair.

His gaze moved over her face and he stared at the red puffiness around her eyes for a few seconds before letting it fall.

Her lips turned up in a half smile but she knew it didn’t reach her eyes. “It’s yours by the way, in case you were wondering. ”

His intense gaze pinned her to the couch. “I wasn’t. You would have said something right away if there was another possibility.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I can see it in your eyes every time I look at you. You’re a good person Harper. I could see it the moment you opened your eyes after I plucked you out of the ocean.”

“That’s not what you said today at the drugstore,” Harper reminded him. “You looked at me like I was capable of anything—you lumped me in with my father.”

Ethan winced. “I was angry, and shocked when I found out about the new lawsuit. I took it out on you and that’s not right. It wasn’t fair, the way I acted.” He made eye contact with her once more.

Her heart thudded against her ribs and she couldn't look away from his stare. When he looked at her like that, like he really saw her, it did things to her insides. When was the last time anyone had taken the time to really
see
her?

Tahiti. The race track. His apartment.

“Thanks for saying that,” she whispered.

He jerked his fingers through his hair again and finally looked around the room. His chest rose and fell until he finally caught her stare again. “Look, I know we don’t really know each other that well, but…” His eyebrows drew down and his jaw went tight as if he were fighting some inner battle. “Could you not make any permanent decisions until we’ve had a chance to talk about it more?”

The look in his eyes, the distress she saw there, hit her like a sucker punch to the gut. He was scared. Her heart thudded against her ribs. Did he...

“You want to keep it?” Her voice broke and a dull ache started in her chest. She’d only had an hour to digest what he’d told her over the phone, and had all but figured that he’d push her to get rid of it. What single twenty four year old guy wouldn’t? Add in the fact that they were stuck in the middle of the scandal of the year and she never considered that he’d want this. Of all the scenarios that had run through her head, and there had been a lot, none had been of Ethan telling her this was okay.

Fresh tears burned her eyes.

He reached out and laid one hand over hers. “I know it’s your body and it’s a lot to ask...” his voice cracked and her fingers curled around his without any go ahead from her brain. He cleared his throat and she felt the way his hand grasped at hers. “And the shit storm that is all around us isn’t going away anytime soon, but…”

Her heart lodged against her ribs.

When he looked up, his eyes were soft, vulnerable, and a tear slid down over her cheek before she even realized it.

He reached out with his free hand, tentatively and giving her time to push him away, but she didn’t because she knew what he was going to do. He slid his big hand under the bottom of her sweatshirt and pushed it under until it rested against her still flat stomach.

“That’s my kid in there, Harper. Ours.” His voice had turned thick, so low and deep that she could almost feel it. “The how and why aren't important right now, okay? All that matters is this.” He pressed just a little harder where there was now a baby.
Their
baby growing inside her.

Her shoulders shook. He let go of her hand and brought his to her face. He cupped her jaw, ran his thumb along her chin. His gaze was steady and raw and real.

“So to answer your question? Fuck yes I want to keep it, Harper. More than anything else in the world right now.”

She crumpled. Sobs burst from her chest and she felt him lean in, wrap his arms around her back and pull her against his chest. It wasn't until that moment that she knew her own truth.

She turned her face, pressed it deeper into the groove of his neck and took a ragged breath in. The entire situation was against them, but maybe together...

“Me too,” she whispered against his skin.

His entire body relaxed and he dragged her onto his lap, held her tighter as she listened to the heartbeat thundering in his chest. Right that minute, cradled in his arms, she could really believe that everything would be okay.

That they could do this even with all the horrible things her father was doing to hurt Ethan’s family. She had to believe that there was a chance because the alternative would tear her apart.

“I’m staying with you tonight,” Ethan whispered against her ear. “I’m not leaving you alone after everything that’s happened.”

The warm breath raised goose bumps over her arms. All at once she was aware of his thumb softly stroking the exposed skin along her stomach between her shirt and yoga pants. When he brushed her hair back from her shoulder and pressed his lips there, her breath caught in her chest.

She didn’t want to think about tomorrow or the fact that no matter what they decided, their families were enemies. They might as well be the Montague’s and Capulet’s right now and everyone knew how that story ended, no matter how hard Romeo and Juliet tried to be together.

But Harper was tired of feeling like shit. She was tired of feeling all the bad things, honestly. The ups and downs of the past few months were taking a toll and right now, in Ethan’s arms, she wanted to forget about everything except him. He made her feel wanted. Special. Worth more than a reluctant ally to pull out and use when needed.

She shifted on his lap.

Between her legs she felt him grow harder and heat spread through her body, centering on that one spot that pulsed with need. Her nipples tightened when she rocked her hips and he sucked in a harsh breath. His fingers tightened at her waist and the other hand slid around to her chest.

Tonight she just wanted.

When he brushed over the rigid peak through her thin cotton shirt, she arched and moaned. There was so much unknown spread out in front of them, but this, the way he made her feel, was real. And she wanted it. She wanted him.

“Ethan,” she said on a soft groan.

He shifted, pressing his cock harder against her center and moved her hips back and forth, grinding her onto him. “That sexy little moan you make drives me fucking crazy,” he growled in her ear.

Then his hands dug into her hips and held her in place while
he
rocked up against her center. The thin cotton of her yoga pants did nothing to dull the hard denim bulge she was practically riding now.

“You feel so good,” she murmured, resting her hands on his shoulders to brace herself over him. In this position, she was a little higher than Ethan so she leaned down and pressed her lips to his.