Even with the interruptions and the extra problems piled on Colette’s lap, Tavis thought the trip did her a world of good. By the time they returned to the apartment on Sunday, she was smiling more and walking lighter on her feet.
He’d like to think his cock had something to do with her shift in mood, and maybe it did. He certainly hadn’t stopped making love to her. As promised, he made her come at least once a day, usually twice. Sometimes he was inside her early in the morning or late at night. Sometimes he woke her up with his mouth on her.
He loved the way she gripped him when she was out of her mind with arousal. She either dug her nails into his arms or pulled on his hair when he had his head between her legs. It was fucking hot.
The morning sickness stayed at bay, thank God. It could have lasted through the entire first trimester. Instead, it seemed to have dissipated significantly.
She wasn’t the only one smiling. He couldn’t stop grinning either. He felt like they’d leaped over an enormous hurdle together. They were more cohesive. He doubted she believed he would stay with her, but he had plenty of time to prove he was in this for the long haul.
They settled into a new routine, one where they didn’t have to tiptoe around the elephant in the room—sexual attraction. It was so much easier climbing into bed with her, knowing she wouldn’t shut him out. It was easier knowing he could walk in on her in the bathroom, join her in the shower, hold her the few times she got sick.
He loved to wash her hair, run his fingers through it while she moaned in appreciation. He loved to surprise her by suddenly sitting her on the counter in the kitchen or the bathroom and thrusting his tongue into her pussy.
If he lived to be a thousand, he would still get a hard-on from the memory of her moaning in pleasure.
A week after they returned to Kampala, Ryker and Ajax located Steve Lacoste in Ethiopia. The man was working for a diplomat as his protection detail. He was apparently undercover, which explained why they hadn’t easily found him.
Ryker couldn’t spare the resources to keep someone on Richard Tillerman at all times, and none of them could see the point anyway. The man was still going to work every day and living his life in the States. Following him wouldn’t change the fact that he got a kick out of tormenting Colette with another picture every few days. It would seem the man took thousands that night. Some of his shots were only seconds after the previous one he’d sent.
Colette hadn’t responded to a single text, but she had badgered Tavis about doing so. It didn’t sit right with him. He hated the idea of his woman letting another man believe she would be coming home to him at Christmas.
Of course, Tavis couldn’t tell her what to do. Maybe she would dump his ass the moment they touched down on American soil. That seemed increasingly unlikely, but they were definitely living in a bubble. This wasn’t the real world.
In this world, Colette was his. The baby was his. She wouldn’t be able to hide her belly forever. Soon it would grow round, and if her classmates noticed, they would believe Tavis was the father. Why wouldn’t they? He was her boyfriend as far as they were concerned.
Colette didn’t want anyone to find out, and she intended to go to great lengths to see that they didn’t, which was her prerogative. She was particularly concerned that if anyone found out, it would somehow get back to her father. The world could become very small very quickly. Right now, the only people who knew she was pregnant were Tavis and the doctor at the campus clinic.
It was Saturday. She’d spent the morning in the library, and now they were waiting on a call from Ryker with information about the security cameras at the bar.
Colette nearly jumped out of her chair when the phone buzzed, and he held her hand tightly in his as he connected and put them on speaker phone. “Ryker. You have me and Colette.”
“Oh, good. Hi, Colette.”
“Hi, Ryker.”
“What have you got?” Tavis didn’t want to beat around the bush.
“Can you open your laptop while we’re on the phone? I’m sending you some pictures.”
“It’s open already.” Tavis had thought this might happen. If Ryker had anything, he would forward it. “And…there’s the email now.” He kept his grip on Colette’s hand while he used the mouse to open the email. There was a zip file, and he glanced at Colette while it opened.
She was breathing deeply, probably trying to keep from panicking, and she pressed their combined hands against her thigh.
When the file opened and the pictures popped up, she gasped. “Jesus.”
“Yeah, they had really good security cameras at that bar. And we’re lucky they were backed up. This footage could have been deleted. I have a few hours of video, but I took several screenshots for now,” Ryker informed them.
Some of the pictures were blurry or far away, but as Tavis scrolled through them, a few were clearer. Colette’s leg started bouncing. He could feel her pulse racing in her wrist.
When he glanced at her again, she was white and he worried she might bolt for the bathroom. “Want to keep going?”
She nodded.
He scrolled through a few more. She was stumbling drunk, hanging onto the arm of a man who was also very drunk. There was no reason to ask if this was the man. In addition, there were enough clear shots that Ryker had probably already identified him.
Eventually, they switched to the camera in the parking lot, and Tavis gritted his teeth as he watched the amazing woman he considered his world head toward a truck where her life had changed forever.
Tavis’s heart was racing, but he didn’t want Colette to see him sweating. He needed to be strong. She was in a full panic.
“Fuck,” she muttered.
Ryker had remained quiet for all this time, but he finally spoke up. “Tavis, you got her? Because she’s not going to like what I have to say next.”
Colette started crying. Her entire body was shaking as silent tears fell down her cheeks. Ryker couldn’t know how gut-wrenching this was. He didn’t know she was pregnant.
Tavis pulled her chair closer to his and wrapped an arm around her. His mind went in ten thousand directions all at once. Maybe this guy was someone important. Would he want joint custody if he found out about the baby? What a clusterfuck. How had things gone from fucking bad to worse? Colette could not catch a break.
“Go ahead,” Tavis said.
“His name was Joseph Rhineheart. Twenty-four years old. He was out that night with his friends celebrating a birthday.”
“Okay.” Tavis didn’t like the tone of Ryker’s voice.
“He wrapped his truck around a pole two hours later and died instantly.”
Colette gasped.
Tavis had to hold her up or she would have fallen out of the chair. “Hang on a second, Ryker.”
“Take your time. Why don’t you call me back?”
“Thank you.” Tavis didn’t even reach over to end the call. Ryker did it. Instead, Tavis stood, lifted Colette in his arms, and carried her to the sofa where he sat, holding her in his lap, hugging her as tightly as possible while she cried.
There were no words. What did one say in a situation like this? All he could do was comfort her as best as possible. They’d both considered the fact that there was a chance Ryker would find the footage and identify the man, but neither of them could have predicted the man would no longer be living.
She cried for a long time, sobbing mostly until she was completely spent and sat limply in his lap. “I’m sorry.”
“Hon… You have no reason to be sorry.”
She tipped her head back and offered him a wan smile. “I keep crying. All I do is cry. I just didn’t expect… Well, that.”
“I know. And I would expect it to be upsetting. Even though you didn’t know him, not even his name, it’s shocking.”
“What if he has family? People are grieving his loss and I’m carrying his child.” She rubbed her temples. Her head was probably pounding.
“You don’t have to make any decisions about that right now, hon. It’s overwhelming.”
“Ryker must think I’m crazy. Why would I break down crying like this to find out some guy I fucked behind a bar died later?”
“Because you’re human and kind and caring and you would have cried if you’d heard that news even if he hadn’t left you with a gift. I would be shook up if I heard someone I slept with died later that night.”
“Why the fuck did he drive? He was as drunk as me. I was so wasted that I didn’t remember enough about him to describe him or even his name and I knew better than to drive.”
“I don’t know, hon. People drive drunk. It happens.”
She sat up straighter and grabbed Tavis’s hand. “I didn’t leave him in that car driving away. I swear. We both went back inside. I saw him five minutes later in line for the bathroom.”
He cupped her face. “It’s not your fault, Colette.”
She nodded slowly. “I know. But still…”
“He was probably still at the bar after you left. Ryker said the accident happened two hours later.”
Colette drew in a deep breath and rubbed her temples again. “I feel like my life is spinning out of control.”
He pulled her against his chest. “It is a bit rocky. Not gonna lie. But I’ve got you. You’re going to live through this awkward stage of life and be fine. I promise.”
“It doesn’t feel like it right now. What the fuck is going to happen next? A truck is going to plow through the front of my apartment? Food poisoning puts me in the hospital?”
She was rambling, but damn, she had every right to feel out of control. Life was dumping on her daily.
Tavis stood and carried Colette up the stairs and into her bedroom. He pulled back the covers and deposited her on the bed. “Why don’t you take a nap.”
She rolled onto her back and stared at him. “I have so much to do. My research is falling behind. I shouldn’t have taken a week off. And part of me wonders why I’m even bothering. I’m never going to be able to finish my PhD. This entire semester is a farce.”
He sat next to her and cupped her face. “It’s not. You’re going to finish your PhD. Look at me.”
Her eyes were wild, but she finally met his gaze. He liked to think it helped ground her when she looked him in the eye. “We’ve got this. Together.”
She blinked at him.
“Take a deep breath and let it out slowly.”
At least she did that.
“Good. Again.”
Her body relaxed marginally as she exhaled.
“Close your eyes. Let yourself relax. I’m going to call Ryker back. He’s probably wondering what happened to us.”
Colette rolled onto her side. “Go. Call him. I’ll be fine.”
Would she? Tavis wasn’t sure. He had to hope so.
He jogged back downstairs and returned the call.
“Everything okay?” Ryker asked as a greeting.
“Yeah. That was just a blow.”
“I would expect someone to be shocked and startled, but you said she didn’t even know the guy. It was a one-night stand.”
Tavis dropped onto the couch. “She’s stressed and tired,” he said, hoping Ryker would drop it. “Please tell me what you know about Tillerman.”
“Man’s a tool. Cocky bastard. I personally went to see him, watched him come and go from his office lobby. No wonder she doesn’t like him.”
“Yeah. He’s a gem. Based on the photos you were able to get from the security cameras, I imagine he has some rather scandalous pictures of Colette that he obviously snapped all evening long.”
“Do you think he followed her and took the pictures for the purpose of later blackmailing her?” Ryker asked.
“Who knows? He might have followed her hoping to casually run into her, which got thwarted and pissed him off when she started flirting with another man.”
“The blackmailing was probably an afterthought, though I do not understand why. There are millions of women on this planet. Who would want to marry someone who isn’t even interested in them? I can’t imagine being that desperate to make a connection with someone’s father that I would marry a woman I didn’t like. Or worse, one who didn’t like me.”
“It’s mind-boggling. That’s for sure. The man must really have a hard-on for her father. It also seems unlikely her father is aware of any of this because the man is still hounding her to give Tillerman a chance.”
“Good point. I doubt he knows. What about you? How are things between the two of you?” Ryker asked.
Tavis smiled. In spite of all their problems, he and Colette were on the same page. “If I had my way, I’d convince her to marry me and move to another country without ever returning to the States at all.”
“Wow. That’s pretty serious.”
“Very,” he admitted.
“And she agrees?”
“She’s worried. Rightfully so. I get it. She thinks we’re living in a bubble, which we are, and that I won’t be able to take the heat when we get back and face her parents.” For so many more reasons than I can possibly tell you.
Ryker chuckled. “She doesn’t know you very well if she thinks you can’t stand up to her father. Wouldn’t matter if he was president of the United States. You’d never let him walk all over you or his own daughter.”
Tavis smiled. There wasn’t much to smile about at the moment, but Ryker was right.
“Are you sure she’s not more worried about herself and her ability to go to her parents with a stiff spine and tell them she’s in love with a lowlife Navy SEAL?” He laughed.
“I’m not sure what to think. It’s hard to speculate.”
“But you’re in love with her.” It wasn’t a question.
“Yeah. I am.”
“Have you told her?”
“Not in those words. I don’t want her to panic and run, and don’t lecture me about how long I’ve known her,” he warned.
“Me? Have you forgotten how I met Xena and how fast I made her mine?”
Tavis chuckled. “You’re right. I’ve spent two months with Colette. Nearly every waking hour. It’s like our relationship went on fast track.”
“I hope you’re squeezing in plenty of sleeping hours too,” he teased.
“I’ll never kiss and tell.” Tavis winced quietly. “And on that note, I need to go check on Colette. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Sounds good. Later.” Ryker broke the connection.
The guys were going to drop their jaws when they found out Colette was pregnant. Not just Ryker and Ajax. All the guys. The entire SEAL team.
Gramps, Keebler, Pitbull, Viper, and Loki rounded out their crew. After the rigged mission they’d been on over a year ago in which six of them ended up in captivity for three months while Ajax and Ryker returned to Ethiopia to rescue them, they were tight. They’d gone into business together. Opened the Holt Agency.
And now? Jesus. Had it really been a year? The past few weeks seemed like months. Tavis was so deeply into the woman resting upstairs that he probably wasn’t even thinking rationally.
What the hell were they going to do when they returned? She needed to go back to Johns Hopkins and finish her PhD. He couldn’t return to Indiana and leave her alone. He needed to go with her. Hell, he needed to become a stay-at-home dad for a while so she could finish her classes and her dissertation.
A dad… Jesus. How was he going to be a dad in seven short months? Sometimes when it was late at night and Colette was asleep, he would rest his hand on her abdomen and stroke her skin. There was a human in there. A tiny being he intended to raise as his own.
Suddenly, he realized something he’d never fully thought about before. The baby… No one needed to know it wasn’t his. Joseph Rhineheart looked enough like Tavis that the baby wouldn’t raise suspicions.
Colette had gotten pregnant hours before meeting Tavis. Hours. Not days or weeks. By the time they returned to the States, she would be far enough along that people would think, wow, the two of them got together fast, but they wouldn’t realize it hadn’t been that way.
He’d take shit for it, especially from her father. The man would lose his ever-loving mind when he found out the guy he’d been paying to keep his daughter safe had been sleeping with her the entire time. A man who wasn’t in politics. Had no connection to anyone wealthy. A man who had been a Navy SEAL. But Tavis would bet money her father would think that was beneath his only daughter.
The plan had a lot of holes in it. People were going to be furious. He doubted Ajax and Ryker would be shocked by his commitment to Colette, but they were going to be disappointed to lose him because Tavis was moving to Baltimore. But her parents and their social circle… That was going to be a hotbed of contention.
Tavis started pacing as the picture became clearer. Clear as day. That baby was his. No one needed to know otherwise.
It was perfect for Colette. It would take the heat off her. Everyone would blame Tavis instead of Colette. She wouldn’t have to tell anyone she’d had unprotected sex with a man she didn’t know in a drunken night of defiance.
It could work. It would work. Now…when should he tell Colette? Not yet. That was for sure. She wouldn’t entertain the idea for one second right now. But in a few months…
There was one possible flaw in his plan: Richard Tillerman. If the man had pics of her in a compromising position behind the bar… But that didn’t mean anything. It didn’t mean Tavis wasn’t the father of the baby. Richard might speculate, but he wouldn’t know for sure.
It was settled. At least in Tavis’s mind. They would get an apartment with at least two bedrooms near campus. He would stay home with the baby while she finished her PhD. Afterward, they would move wherever she needed to go. When the baby got a bit older, they could arrange daycare and Tavis could go back to work for the Holt Agency. He was certain he could take a leave of absence and not be cut off for good. Those guys were his brothers. It wouldn’t matter where Tavis was living. Hell, he could cut back on his assignments to fit Colette’s schedule.