• Thirty •

My own fucking baby mama.

King

I walked back into the bedroom to find Rumor standing there in nothing but a towel. Her head full of damp ringlets that I fucking loved. I was down to needing one crutch today, but it would be a week or more before I was free of the added support. Thanks to Gage fucking Presley.

“You’re back,” she said, smiling.

The way her eyes lit up when she saw me made my chest feel like it was gonna explode. Jesus, was there anything she did that I wasn’t obsessed with?

“Meeting was short,” I told her.

“Are you hurting?” she asked, concern shadowing her face.

Yeah, it hurt like a son of a bitch, but I wasn’t telling her that.

“No, sweets. Can’t feel a thing.”

She didn’t look convinced. “You need to rest. Sit down. I’ll get you something to drink, and you can watch TV.”

Damn, she was cute.

I let my gaze travel down her body slowly. “I’ll sit if you come straddle me. Naked.”

She shivered and held on to the towel tightly. “We just … had sex twice,” she replied, but I could tell she wasn’t against it.

“And you’re naked in a towel with all those pretty curls wet and hanging down your back.”

“Shouldn’t we talk?” she asked softly.

My eyes shot back up to her face. “Talk?”

She nodded, those big eyes of hers looking at me nervously.

I took a step in her direction. Damn crutch made everything hard. “What do you want to talk about, sweets?”

She shrugged, and it was real hard not to drop my gaze back to her tits. They were at least a size bigger.

“The … baby.”

I nodded. “Okay. Yeah, if you want to.”

I watched as she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, then let it go.

“Do you not want to?”

I wanted to do whatever the hell would put a smile back on her face. And possibly get her to either sit on my face or dick. Her choice. But clearly, she was worried about things, and I needed to reassure her.

I nodded toward the sofa. “Let’s talk,” I said. “But as much as this pains me to say, you need to put some clothes on. I won’t be able to focus on much else if you’re sitting there in a towel.”

A small laugh escaped her, and it was like a fucking shot of heroin to my system. I loved that sound. I wanted to hear it all the time. She stepped into the closet to get dressed. Her modesty was cute. I’d seen every inch of her body, but she still couldn’t get dressed in front of me. I didn’t say anything to her about it because if she dropped that towel for me, I couldn’t promise I wouldn’t bend her over and pound that tight cunt again. Talk be damned.

I walked over to the sofa and dropped the crutch before sitting down, then propped up my injured leg. I rested my head against the wall and trained my eyes on the door of the closet. When Rumor walked back out, she was dressed in a pair of black shorts and a white tank top that was cropped enough so that when she lifted her arms any, the smooth, tanned skin of her still-flat stomach showed. I narrowed my eyes, not sure I was okay with her leaving the room like that. I didn’t want anyone seeing her stomach. That was mine.

“Why are you frowning?” she asked as she walked over to sit next to me.

“Shirt is too short,” I replied.

She looked down at it, then back at me. “Your aunt gave it to me.”

“Don’t care.”

Rumor tilted her head to the side and smiled at me. I was pretty sure she could get away with anything when she smiled like that.

“King.”

“Sweets,” I responded, reaching for her hand and threading my fingers through hers. “Talk. I’m listening.”

She took a deep breath, and that only made her tits bounce.

Fuck, concentrate. Not on her tits either.

“I didn’t mean to get pregnant. I was taking the shot. I didn’t lie to you to trap you,” she said.

“I never thought you did.”

Where was she going with this? I watched as she chewed her bottom lip so hard that I was about to save it before she hurt herself.

Thankfully, she let it go. “And you are okay with this? You don’t feel trapped?”

Trapped? What the fuck did she mean?

I shook my head.

Her dainty shoulders lifted and fell.

Was she frustrated? What had I said wrong?

“King,” she said, looking at me pointedly this time, “I want this baby. But that doesn’t mean I intend to lock you into anything. I know this is a for-now thing, until we are … done. But with a baby, sometimes, it can feel like you are trapped. I want you to be a part of her life, but I am not demanding it. Or anything of you.”

I couldn’t sit here and listen to any more of this. “Stop.”

Rumor closed her mouth, eyes wide as she looked at me.

I shifted so that I was facing her. “What the fuck are you trying to say? Because right now, it sounds like you’re trying to tell me I’m not required in your life or our child’s life. And I’m telling you right now, that shit ain’t gonna fly.”

She opened her mouth and closed it again. I was tempted to pin her to the sofa and fuck her into submission. Make her scream my name and tell me who she belonged to until I had her so damn full of my cum that it was running down her legs like a motherfucking waterfall.

“I don’t want to trap you.”

“You mentioned that,” I pointed out.

She nodded and licked her lips. I wanted to lick those lips.

When she threw up her hands and stood up abruptly, I leaned back, ready for the rest of whatever this was she was trying to say.

“YOU are and will always be this baby’s father,” she said, placing a hand on her stomach. “But that doesn’t mean we are a package deal. You can be the father and not be my … whatever … boyfriend?” She shook her head, looking frustrated. “I will not use our baby to control you. You can come and go as you please. When I’m not here anymore, that is, and we are somewhere else. The baby and me.”

What the actual fuck?

I dropped my wounded leg to the ground and leaned forward. “You saying you’re gonna leave me, sweets? Because I’ll hunt you down. I’ll tie you to my goddamn bed.”

I stood, ignoring the crutch, and took a step toward her, feeling the urgency to tie her up now and not give her the chance to go anywhere. Fuck her until she realized she wanted me. She wanted to be here with me.

“I can make you want to stay,” I warned her. “You start talking about leaving, and I’ll never let you out of my sight again. What the fuck did I do that made you want to leave? Consider leaving? You think you’re gonna get bored of me? Because I can rip those fucking shorts off right now and bury my face between your legs until you’re begging me to never stop.”

She blinked. “I don’t want to leave.”

“Then, why are we talking about it? You’re clearly thinking about it!” I shouted, feeling the panic that she might actually want to leave me one day.

I couldn’t lose her. She couldn’t leave me.

“YOU!” she said, pointing at me. “You will get tired. You said this would end. That relationships didn’t work. Love wasn’t real.”

I paused. Fucking hell. I had said all that. Before. All before I got so damn addicted and obsessed with her that I didn’t realize I would never allow her to leave me.

“Love is weak,” I said, taking another step toward her. “It fades.”

She looked stricken.

Reaching up, I cupped her face in my hand. “So, it’s a fucking good thing that you possess my soul, sweets. You’re under my skin, in my blood, locked so damn deep inside of me that I could never let you go.”

Her lips parted as she looked astonished.

Had she not already known this? What more could I have done to show her?

“This isn’t about me being pregnant?” she asked softly. As if she was afraid to know.

Damn, I had failed at this already, and we were just getting started. She had no idea.

“I got shot before I knew you were pregnant. I told Blaise and the rest of the family to fuck themselves and turned to come find you, not having any idea you were carrying my baby. All I could think was, I had to get to you. I didn’t give a damn about anything or anyone else. But you were gone, and YOU are mine. My reason for waking up in the mornings. So, no, sweets. This isn’t about you being pregnant. But right now, I’d be lying if I said I’m not fucking relieved you’re tied to me because, apparently, you’re not as sure about the future as I am.”

She closed the space between us, grabbing my face and pressing her soft lips to mine with so much force that I had to put weight on my bad leg to keep from falling backward. I wasn’t gonna let her know that though. Not when she was kissing me like she couldn’t get enough.

I held her, giving her back as good as she was giving and relishing the sweetness that was only Rumor. I’d called a lot of women sweets, but until her, none of them had really owned the title. She did. It was hers.

Moving my hands down to grab her ass, I squeezed, pushing her up until I had my hard dick rubbing against the crotch of her shorts.

“Makes me think you want to keep me,” I said against her lips.

“Yes,” she said breathlessly.

“That’s my girl,” I said, smiling as I took her mouth again.

She broke free and stepped back suddenly, confusing the fuck out of me.

“Your leg!” she squeaked. “I am so sorry! Sit down.”

“I’m fine.”

“SIT DOWN,” she ordered, surprising me.

I backed up, grinning as she looked at me sternly. When I sank back onto the sofa, she moved to take my leg and prop it back up.

“You have to be more careful.”

“I’ll do whatever you want—on one condition.”

She narrowed her eyes. “What?”

“Take off those clothes and sit in my lap for the rest of the day. I swear I won’t get up again.”

A laugh burst out of her. “Seriously?”

“Deadly,” I assured her.

“Do you always think about sex?”

I nodded. “Yes. I think about fucking you every waking minute, sweets.”

“You won’t be thinking about it when my stomach is big and round.”

I reached out and grabbed her hand, tugging her to me. “You’ll have my kid growing inside of you. My own fucking baby mama. Yeah, I’ll think it. I’ll worship you like the goddamn queen you are.”

The musical laughter that trickled out of her as she fell onto my lap made every damn thing that was wrong in my life right.

“King,” she said softly.

“Yeah?”

“I love you, and it doesn’t feel weak. It feels like the most powerful, real thing I’ve ever known.”