“I’m pregnant with his kid.”
The words hit like a slap to the face.
Quite suddenly, I have nothing to say.
Tina smirks and gets back in the car as I stand there like a complete ass just staring at her car as it pulls down the long winding driveway and speeds away.
I whirl towards the house, dropping the shopping bags right there in the driveway.
18
Natalie
He’s shirtless in the living room, wearing just a pair of jogging pants as he lounges on the couch with a beer in his hand. I can feel the rage spike a little higher at the thought of her, sitting there on the couch with her hands all over him, or her mouth, or-
“Have a little fucking class, Austin.”
He jerks his head up. “Excuse me?”
I glare at him, shaking my head. “You know what I’m talking about.”
He frowns. “You…want me to put a shirt on or someth-”
“I just met Tina outside.”
Austin rolls his eyes as he chuckles. “Oh, that.”
“Yeah, that.” I narrow my eyes at him as he grins at me. “I mean, a little respect would be great, you know! I didn’t sign up to be humiliated with your fucking affairs, and I did not sign up to be a part of whatever trashy Kardashian tabloid story you’ve got going on with Tina.”
Austin shuts the TV off and stands as he shakes his head. “Relax, it’s not what you think it-”
“She’s having your baby?” I hurl at him, hating how emotional it sounds.
“Well, that would be a fucking miracle, because I never touched her, and I certainly didn’t fuck her.”
I wrinkle my nose. “I do not need to know about-”
“Nat, nothing is happening, or has ever happened, with Tina.”
“And why would I possibly think there is, Austin? Her leaving just as I come home, you practically naked lounging around the couch?”
His face suddenly splits in that wide, white, cowboy grin.
“What,” I mutter.
He laughs.
“Oh fuck off.”
“You know, I think I like you angry.”
“Why, so you can feel vindicated about screwing around with-”
“Because you look hot as hell when you’re jealous.”
His voice cuts across the room, silencing me as my lips snaps shut. Heat blooms in my face as I feel his eyes burning right into me, his chiseled chest rising and falling as he inhales deeply.
Austin steps closer to me, my pulse pounding in my ears. “I’m not jealous.”
“No, I like this ‘jealous wife’ version of you,” he says darkly, moving even closer to me with his eyes locked right on mine.
I swallow thickly. “I’m not your wife,” I say quietly.
He stops right in front of me, so close that I can feel the heat from his bare skin, the scent of him filling my senses. His hazel eyes pierce down into mine, and I shiver as his hand suddenly comes up to cup my jaw.
“Yes you are.”
And suddenly, he’s kissing me - hard - and I’m melting right into him.
I’m throwing my arms around his neck and kissing him back before I can even second-guess any of this. I’m moaning into his mouth as he pulls me into him, cupping my jaw with one hand as the other slides down my back to palm my ass and grind me against him.
His kisses are hungry and demanding - insistent and needing.
Needing me, and I know right then that whatever the hell this is, I need him back.
I kiss him hungrily, my hands sliding up and into his hair as our tongues swirl.
And that is when reality hits me like a big slap in the face - I’m making out with a man who in all effects is paying me to do so.
I gasp as I pull away, bringing a hand up to touch my bruised lips as I step away from Austin.
“No,” I say quietly, shaking my head, my fingers still tracing my lips and my eyes locked on his.
This can’t happen. Because me kissing Austin is quite suddenly Vince’s secretary kissing him. Because at some point, that’s how that whole thing started - a woman kissing a man who signs her paychecks.
I will not be that girl.
“Nat-”
“No,” I say firmer this time. I take another step back before I shake my head, turn away, and run out of the room.
19
Austin
“Wait, what?”
Natalie scowls at me through the half-open bedroom door. I’m almost impressed she’s even opened it after our, well, thing downstairs earlier. Of course, she’s more scowling past me, since she’s also not meeting my eyes in the slightest bit.
I clear my throat and repeat myself. “My mom’s house.”
Nat’s brow shoots up. “Your mother lives here, in LA?”
I moved my mom into a house down in the valley when I got recruited. Home might’ve been fucking terrible growing up with her always going back to my shithead of a dad no matter how many times he walked out on us or slapped us around.