Savoring Mila (Angels Halo MC Next Gen & Rockers' Legacy Book 3)(15)

As I walked in, I heard a robotic voice announcing the front door was open.

“Just a sec.”

I stopped in my tracks when I heard his voice, a shiver going through me and making my traitorous body respond instantly. It only pissed me off more. Nope. Not going there. Ever again.

I didn’t know why Lyric Thornton was in Creswell Springs, but he had to go. Now.

Too impatient to wait on him to come out from doing whatever, I marched toward the sound of his voice, telling myself if he was with a girl like the last time I saw him, I was going to commit murder right there in that nice, clean shop.

“Mila.”

My name sounded reverent, and I turned to find him standing in a doorway to what looked like an office. His hypnotic eyes swirled with a mixture of browns, but I refused to look at them close enough to determine what shades they currently were.

Hearing his voice had caused my body to respond, but seeing him in the flesh, standing only feet away, made my heart skip a beat. Part of me had hoped Aunt Raven got the name wrong, while another part that I refused to analyze hoped he was there for me. Which was moronic. I was nothing to him. Less than nothing. All I’d been was a night of fun, and he’d forgotten about me the next morning.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” I demanded, crossing my arms over my chest.

“Just hush for a minute, okay?” He stepped forward, grabbed me by the hips so quickly I didn’t have time to react, and jerked me against him. As he lowered his head, his breath caressed over my lips. “Fuck, I need this.”

My mouth was open, ready to verbally tear him apart and tell him to let me go. He took advantage and devoured my lips, thrusting his tongue inside hungrily, as if he were dying for my taste.

I slapped at his chest, struggling against him…for only a moment. And then his taste hit my tongue, and I was kissing him back, clinging to him instead of trying to push him away.

When he finally lifted his head, we were both gasping for air, and my mouth felt raw and swollen. Sucking in deep breaths, he pressed his forehead to mine. “Missed you so damn much, my Mila.”

“Missed…me?” My brain started working again, and I shoved at his shoulders. “You missed me?”

Surprised, he frowned down at me. “Why are you mad at me?”

“Because!” I exploded and mentally groaned at how childish that answer sounded. Shit, my brain was not my friend lately, and I really needed the fog to clear so I could at least sound like an adult for a few minutes. “I haven’t seen you in months, and then you show up here out of the blue, kiss the breath out of me, and tell me you miss me? What kind of bullshit is that, Lyric?”

“It’s not bullshit. I tried to get to you as soon as I could, but I had to work out my contract with Branch. If I’d known I was going to meet you that night, I never would have signed the damn thing, and I could have been here the next day.” He took a step forward, his hands reaching for me, but I stepped back, knowing if he touched me, I’d melt for him all over again. Pain flashed over his face, filling his eyes with a hazel kind of brown this time. “Mila, I swear to you, I’ve spent the entire summer figuring out how to get here as fast as I could.”

“Why?” I yelled the question. “Why would you even want to? We were a single-night-only thing, so why would you want to follow me to some small town in Northern California?”

“Don’t say shit like that.” His jaw clenched, and he reached for me again.

I backed up until I felt the wall behind me and then moved to the side. Hearing him mutter a curse, I kept going until I was standing in the middle of the front of the shop before finally turning to face him again. “You can’t be here,” I announced. “I don’t understand why you’re here, but you have to go.”

“Why do people keep saying that to me today?” he demanded. Frustrated, he scrubbed his hands over his stubbled jaw. “Mila, I’m not going anywhere. Not unless you’re going with me. And as pissed as you seem to be at me right now, I doubt that is likely to happen anytime soon. So, get used to me being here, baby. Because I came here for you, and I’m not leaving without you.”

My heart started to melt at his declaration, but I quickly squashed the feeling by reminding myself all over again of the last time I’d seen him. In New York City. With the blonde half in his lap. Telling her how much he’d missed her.

“Fine,” I snapped, pushing down the pain of that memory. “It’s your funeral. By the way, my dad is at his most dangerous when he’s talking calmly. He likes to give you a false sense of peace before he slits your throat.”

With that, I turned and headed for the door, but two steps were all it took before a wave of dizziness hit me and I was reaching out for something to hold on to. Which was nothing at all. Crying out in panic, I started to fall.

Lyric wrapped his arms around me, anchoring me against his body. “Baby? What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

The dizziness began to fade, and I blinked up at his worried face, his eyes swirling so quickly I couldn’t keep up with the color change. He touched unsteady fingers to my forehead. “You’re sweating. Are you sick?”

“I’m pregnant,” I whispered.





Chapter 13



Lyric





As pissed as she was at me only moments ago, I was certain she’d only blurted out that announcement to freak me out. See how far she could push me.

But I’d been half holding my breath waiting for her to tell me if she was or not ever since I’d woken up the morning after our amazing night together and found that unopened condom on the sitting area floor of my hotel room. Part of me had been hoping she was, that even if for some reason she didn’t want to be with me, we’d still be eternally connected through the baby we made that night.

Another part had been silently freaking out, I could admit that, but it was a hell of a lot smaller than my hope. Having spent all summer thinking about the moment she would confirm or deny we were going to be parents, the freak-out had only lasted a few weeks before the hope gave me ideas and I’d started making plans for if she was pregnant.

Finding her this sick, however, wasn’t something I planned or even imagined. She was so weak, I was the only thing holding her up. Her brow and upper lip were dotted with sweat, and her body trembled slightly from the effort of keeping her eyes open. She looked sick and miserable, and that scared the absolute hell out of me.

I’d been calm and cool all day in the face of her father and his MC. I’d almost won over the sheriff’s wife and dealt with a woman I didn’t even know was part of my childhood, who wanted me gone just as badly as everyone else. None of them had scared me, even though they’d tried to do just that.

But faced with the realization that something was wrong with my Mila?

It made me shake with terror.

I swept her up into my arms and headed for the back exit where I’d parked my SUV after lunch. I didn’t know where the hospital was, but in this small-ass town, it couldn’t be too hard to find.

“Wait,” Mila complained when she realized I was headed for my vehicle. “What are you doing?”

“Taking you to the emergency room. You’re obviously ill. Fuck, woman, you nearly passed out back there.”

I opened the front passenger door and placed her carefully in the seat before fastening her belt. I wasn’t sure if it was because she was so sick or if she was in shock, but she stared at me in bewilderment for a moment before finally snapping out of it enough to protest.

“I don’t need to go to the hospital. I just got dizzy. My blood pressure has been weird lately.” She blew a few strands of hair out of her face, but they fell right back, and I carefully tucked them behind her ear before it could frustrate her further. “My mom had the same issues when she was pregnant with my brother, sister, and me.”

“Don’t care. You scared the hell out of me just now, and I’m not going to calm down until we get you checked out.” I started to step back to close the door, but she grasped my arm with surprising strength.

“We can’t go to the hospital.” Her gray eyes had a wildness to them, and she glanced around quickly as if making sure no one could see us. “Doc will be there, and if he finds out why I’m there, he’s going to tell my dad. I haven’t told him yet.”

“You’ve been this sick, and your parents don’t know you’re pregnant?” I demanded loudly.

“Shh,” she hissed, glancing around frantically again. “Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

“Your parents don’t know?” I repeated.

She released a tired exhale. “I haven’t told them. I haven’t been brave enough yet. But I know Mom’s guessed and is just waiting for me to confide in her.” She touched her free hand to her forehead, pressing the palm into the center and groaning. “These damn headaches are the worst. I’ve been so foggy lately. And clumsy. I can’t hold on to anything, it seems, and I’ve nearly fallen I don’t know how many times.” She dropped her hand and met my gaze, her eyes welling up with sudden tears. “I dropped my phone earlier and broke the screen, and then I sliced my thumb open on a shard I didn’t see sticking up.”