Page 29 of Sold to My Ex's Brother
She raises her eyebrows as she looks at me, and, for a moment, I have no idea what to make of it. Sleep with her? Does she mean...?
“Not inthatway,” she corrects herself quickly, as if seeing what is going through my mind. “I just... I’m not used to having all this space to myself. I could use the company.” She glances down at her belly. “We both could.”
Now, that’s a damn dirty trick.
“I’ll take a shower first,” I reply gruffly. “Get yourself comfortable. You need me to bring you anything?”
She tips her head to the side, raising her eyebrows slightly. “I think you’ve already done enough for me tonight,” she replies, and I notice her fingertips flex at her side.
It’s almost as though she wants to reach out and touch me, though she seems to think better of it.
I know how she feels. There’s a strange tension in the air, both of us all too aware of the desire that still threatens to get the better of us, the desire that we both try to contain in any way we can.
It makes things a whole goddamn heap more complicated, of course, but that’s how I got into this mess in the first place. Because when she looks at me with those big hazel eyes, there’snot a damn thing in the world I could deny her, even if I wanted to.
“Thanks,” she murmurs, and she turns to head into her room, leaving me to get myself cleaned up and ready for bed.
I take the shower, like I told her I would, and as the water rushes over my body, I try not to let my mind linger too long on her. Because God knows I have been doing enough of that as it is already, letting her get stuck in my head, stuck in my chest, the thought of her body wrapped around mine.
The way she moved on top of me in the car, like she couldn’t imagine anything or anyone mattering more. I know that, even now, I want her badly, but the question is whether she is willing to overlook the enormity of everything that comes with being with a man like me.
I change into sweatpants and head through to her room, hesitating for a moment outside the door. I could just tell her no. I could just walk to my own room, let her hear the door clicking shut, and realize that there was no way I was going to let myself be alone with her after all that has happened.
But I can’t. I don’t want to. The promise of her presence is something that I can’t even think about denying myself, and I’m not going to start now.
I push the door open, and she lifts her head sleepily from the pillow, smiling when she sees me drawing close.
“Hey,” she murmurs, and she tugs back the covers, indicating for me to join her. I stare down at the clear sheets next to her, her hand resting beneath her head, delicate fingers tangled slightly in her hair.
“Hey,” I reply, and I slide into bed beside her, pulling the covers over myself swiftly. I’m shirtless, the way I always sleep, but for some reason, being shirtless around her seems as if it carries much more weight than it does when I’m on my own.
I listen to the sound of her breathing next to me, hands aching to touch her, to pull her against me right where she belongs.
But I know that’s not what she asked for. And I need to keep my distance. It’s all too easy to get tempted into something here, to let my mind get drawn in by the promise of her right next to be in bed, but I know that whatever we have here, it’s not like we can just pick up where we left off back in the city.
I don’t need to make things any more complex than they already are, and, soon enough, her breathing smooths out, and I look over to see that she is fast asleep beside me.
I take the opportunity to study her face, drinking in the sight of her features before me. She’s a strikingly beautiful woman, there’s no doubt about that. Her full lips, the curve of her cheek, her hair, dancing across the pillow beneath her.
It doesn’t surprise me that Arten found himself so obsessed with her. I’m not sure I wouldn’t have ended up the same way, in his circumstances...
I push that thought aside.No. No, I’m nothing like my brother.
I would never, in a million years, assume that I could just buy a woman’s company, or force her hand due to her debts so that she had no other choice.
That’s the kind of shit a monster does, and I’ve sworn to myself I will not let this life turn me into a monster, no matter how close I might find myself coming at times.
I wonder, briefly, how long it has been since I last had a woman in bed with me like this. Not for sex, God knows I’ve done plenty of that over the course of my life, but actually sleeping over.
It’s not something I make much of a habit of, nor do the women that I’m with. If they ever make it back to my place at all. Normally, when it comes to hook-ups, I want something fast, anonymous, something that will ensure the woman in question does not wind up drawn into my world and put in danger as a result. And yet...
And yet here I am, lying next to a woman who has asked me to stay the night with her. A woman who has a bond with me deeper than anyone else in my entire life ever has. I can’t stop thinking about that part, the part that ties us together so deeply, the part about our damn child.
I’m going to be a father.I’m going to be a father.
I have been turning that over and over in my head since the moment I found out, trying to figure out where this leaves me, how I feel about the entire thing.
I’m excited, sure, at the thought of holding my child in my arms for the first time, but I had imagined that I would raise my family in the home that I had grown up in. The home that my brother has stolen from me, the one he has made sure I will never set foot in again. I doubt that he knows a thing about the pregnancy, not yet, at least, but when he does, he will be ever more twistedly satisfied that he has taken my home from me.
