Bucked: The Mountain Man's Babies(16)

Her round belly gets my cock hard, instantly, and I lean against the counter to hide how fucking turned on I am.

“Coffee? Tea?”

“Coffee,” she says. “With cream.”

“And sugar,” I finish, remembering our meal at the diner. Not ashamed one fucking bit for the fact that I memorized our encounter and have been replaying it in my mind for months. Rosie is mine. Rosie is back.

I hand her a cup, and pour one for myself too. We sit opposite one another, and I watch her wrestle with something in her mind.

Finally she speaks, and I mentally vow to keep my mouth shut until she is through.

“Those men, Victor and his partner, they work for my uncle. I’d run away a few days earlier, stopped in this town and was broke. Your mom offered me a job, and I took it, not thinking I’d be found. But I was as you so clearly witnessed.”

“Why did you run in the first place?”

Her face is twisted, and it’s clear the memory pains her, but I’ve got to understand.

“He wanted to sell me.”

I nearly choke on my coffee. “Sell you?”

She takes a deep breath, and raises her chin so her eyes meet mine. “I wasn’t honest with you, Buck, when we met.”#p#分页标题#e#

My hands grip the mug tight. “How so?” I manage to ask.

“In the bathroom, remember, I told you I wasn’t a virgin?”

In a flash I’m back there with her, her legs wrapped around my waist, her back against the door, her tits in my mouth. Damn, this woman makes my skin hot and my cock pulse.

“Well I lied,” she says. “I was a virgin. That’s why my uncle thought he could get a good price if he sold me as a bride to a man in Russia. I couldn’t do that. So I ran away. And I thought – foolishly – that if I was used then my uncle would let me go, let me be free.” She covers her face.

I stand, anger coursing through me. Who is this motherfucker who thinks Rosie’s life has a price?

She is priceless. I knew that the moment I met her.

I pull her in my arms, and she sobs against me, her belly between us. Still, I can hold her close.

“But you left with your uncle’s men?” I ask, holding her against my chest.

“I had to, Buck. They are relentless.” She looks up at me. “They knew where I was, and they weren’t going to go home without me. The fight was over. They’d won. The last thing I wanted was to pull you and your wonderful parents into my mess.”

“Rosie, they are criminals. You’ve been with them this whole time?”

“That’s the thing, Buck. The moment I got back I knew the idea of telling my uncle that you’d made love to me was a mistake. This whole idea I hatched in a moment, was a bad one. If I told him I was no longer a virgin, he would have hunted you down.”

I shake my head. “But Rosie, clearly you’re not a virgin anymore,” I say looking at her stomach.

“Once I couldn’t hide it any longer, he took me to a doctor, who confirmed my pregnancy. I thought maybe it was an answer to prayer, the thing that would set me free.”

“It wasn’t?”

She wipes her eyes. “No, Buck. It wasn’t. I was pregnant but it didn’t solve my problems.”

My stomach drops, and I hope like hell what she tells me next is that I’m the father.

It’s all I’ve ever wanted. A wife and a child. And standing before me is everything on earth I desire.

I want this dream come true to be mine.

“My uncle told me that this pregnancy was better than a virgin bride. That he could get more money for a fetus than he could for my body. That’s the word he used, fetus. Like a child isn’t a living, breathing thing. So he didn’t toss me out on the street like I’d hoped. Suddenly I was more valuable than I’d ever been.”

My heart races. A baby. Rosie a mother.

Still, I wait for her to tell me the thing I need to know.

“I was biding my time, wanting to wait to leave until I was really close to delivery, thinking if I had the babies away from him, then we’d be safe. A doctor would never let me leave the hospital – with empty arms – against my wishes, and I could tell a social worker my story. That’s why I came here, now.”

Rosie has been through so much, and I hate that I have to ask, but I need to know.

“Rosie,” I start. “The baby, though. Who–”

She presses her hands to my mouth. “Don’t ask me that, Buck. The question breaks my heart, the idea that you’d think I had been with anyone else.” She shakes her head. “You’re the father, Buck. You. It’s only been you.”