Baby Number Two(33)

I held up a hand to stop him. Maybe it was the few glasses of wine I'd  downed, but I was no longer in the mood to argue with him. "It's fine," I  said instead. "Let's just forget last night ever happened."



Jack gave me this look like he didn't think that was possible, but he  nodded anyway. We stared out at the night sky for a while without  speaking, but all it took was a few more drinks from that bottle of his  before we were chasing each other around my backyard like a couple  teenagers.



It was exhilarating.



I bent over and took a moment to catch my breath, but Jack took  advantage of my moment of weakness and tackled me to the ground without  any warning. "I win," he whispered, his breath warm, his eyes never once  leaving mine.



It was all it took to rip away any veil of decency we still had left.  Had any of my neighbors stumbled out onto the beach at that precise  moment, there was no way they'd peg the man straddling me in the grass  as my stepbrother. I held my breath in anticipation of his next move,  watching as he scrambled to his feet and began stripping of his  clothing.



I couldn't take my eyes off of him. His body was a work of art, and  unlike the few other men I'd been with in his absence, he didn't seem to  mind me admiring him in all his naked glory. In fact, he almost seemed  to garner satisfaction from it.                       
       
           



       



"What are you waiting for?" Jack called out to me, making his way up the back porch to my hot tub. "Come on."



I shook my head and remained firmly in the grass. As much as I wanted to  join him, I knew better than to make the same mistake twice. If I got  in that water, I'd end up doing something I'd regret, and I couldn't  risk adding another reckless thing to the long list of infractions that  were already building up on my conscience.



"Am I going to have to throw you in?" Jack threatened, refusing to take no for an answer. "Because I will if I have to … "



Jack continued taunting me until I eventually gave in, stripping down to  my bra and underwear. I told myself that it was just a hot tub, that  there was nothing immoral about it, but the closer he inched to me in  the water the more it started to seem like a lie.



"Jack," I whispered, letting out a shallow breath. "We can't."



Jack ignored the threat and continued moving towards me until his hard  physique was only a few inches from my own. He waited for me to object  again, but I never did, and within seconds he was kissing me with a  force so powerful I felt as though fireworks were going off in my head.



I didn't resist.



Not even for a second.



My fingers tangled in his hair as though they belonged there, and all I  could think about was how I wanted more. One small fix of Jack was never  enough. I was a moth drawn to a flame, but damn if the burn didn't feel  good.



"Sorry," Jack whispered, brushing the pad of his thumb over the faint  hickey on my neck. The gesture sent goose bumps straight down my spine.  I'd attempted to hide it with foundation, but the water did its part in  washing it away.



I pulled back to look at him in the darkness. Tomorrow would come,  inevitably, as it always did, but right now I intended on enjoying this  moment while I still had it. "I know," I whispered, following his gaze  down to my collarbone. "You should really be more careful."



~ CHAPTER ELEVEN ~



Malika ambushed me as soon as I got into work the following Monday,  demanding to know why I'd never returned to the office on Friday. The  look on her face let me know that she'd probably spent the better part  of her weekend on the phone complaining about me to Peter, which really  wasn't anything new, except now I'd given her a viable reason to.



Jack's reappearance in my life was beginning to take its toll on my  career. I had to nip it in the butt before things got even more out of  control than they already had. I had the Greenwell fundraiser coming up  in a few days, along with about a dozen other events, and I couldn't  afford any more breaks in sanity. Jack had a fiancée, a pregnant fiancée  at that. Regardless of the circumstances, I wasn't about to do to  another woman what had been done to me so many times in previous  relationships.



After doing a little housekeeping and putting on a pot of coffee, I sat  down at my desk to go over a few notes from last week before navigating  to my cloud account to see if any event requests had come in over the  weekend. Much to my relief, my inbox was empty aside from some spam and  the occasional invoice. It wasn't until I scrolled down a bit further  that an email from Peter popped out at me in the midst of it.



I wasn't an idiot. I already had a pretty good idea as to what this was  about thanks to the inquisition Malika had hit me with, and my  suspicions where confirmed as soon as I opened up the email. Peter was  pissed at me for taking a half day while he was away, and he made a  point of stressing how we'd be having a sit down to ‘discuss my  increasingly erratic behavior' as soon as he got back into town.



Whatever.



I was getting really sick of him acting like I wasn't every bit as  important to this company as he was. Yeah, he might have been appointed  CEO thanks to his father's untimely passing, but I was what kept us  afloat while he jetted off on one lavish ‘business trip' after the next.  God forbid I take a half-day once in a blue moon as consolation.



What a crime!



I dragged the email to my trash and pushed it out of my mind, continuing  with my chores and ignoring the stink eye Malika was giving me from her  desk. Screw Peter for giving her the impression that she had any type  of pull around here. He had another thing coming if he thought I was  about to bow down to the authority of his latest flavor.                       
       
           



       



Malika didn't know it yet, but her clock was ticking. Peter's tastes  changed with the seasons, and engagement ring or not, it was only a  matter of time before he traded her in for a newer model. I was giving  it six months, tops, but Jada had her money on a year strictly because  of Malika's recent enhancement surgeries. Regardless, it was only a  matter of time before her reign around here ended. Then she'd be right  back to fetching my coffee and kissing everyone's ass.



I rushed to answer my phone when it rang, welcoming the distraction.  "D.C. Event Specialists," I greeted, putting on my best professional  voice despite the fact that I was exhausted.



"Chantel, it's me," Jack spoke up. I started to hang up, but he read my mind and pleaded for me not to.



The man really couldn't take a hint to save his life. You'd think he'd  have realized that I didn't want to talk to him after I'd spent the  entire weekend dodging his calls and texts, but apparently that wasn't  the case. I was trying to think of a way to let him down easy when  Malika poked her head inside my office to inform me that Caleb was on  line two for me. Excellent. As if I didn't already have enough on my  plate as it was.



"Should I take a message?" Malika inquired, taking notice of the fact that I was preoccupied.



I nodded and shooed her away, closing the door behind her before  returning on the line. "Look, Jack, we can't keep doing this," I said,  opting on the straightforward approach instead of beating around the  bush. "Regardless of whatever weird arrangement you and Lauren might  have, you're still getting married and expecting a child together. This  can't keep happening. There's too much at stake."



"Fine," Jack said. "But I think there's one important thing you haven't considered here."



I sighed and rubbed my temples. "Which is?"



"The fact that I'm in love with you."



There was a moment of silent passed between us while I considered his words.



"That doesn't change anything," I spoke up after awhile, keeping my  voice low on the off chance that Malika was posted outside my door  eavesdropping. "If you really love me, you'll marry Lauren, and you'll  be a good father to your son or daughter. You won't ask me to be the  other woman."



"I'm not asking that of you," Jack insisted. "I want you to be the only woman."



"Jack … "



"No, you were right," he continued, his tone frantic, his breathing  irregular. "Lauren being pregnant doesn't mean we have to get married.  We can co-parent without some stupid piece of paper binding us together.  I'm not about to let her father bully me into the biggest mistake of my  life. If I lose him as a sponsor, well then fuck it, I'll find a new  one. I don't care. Not if it means losing you."