Slide(Boosted Hearts Book 3)(69)

“No.” She couldn’t hold his gaze.

What the hell was going on? “I’m not letting you leave this bed until you tell me the truth, and right now you’re lying through your teeth.”

She paled before his eyes, her distress obvious. He didn’t want to cause her pain, at least any more pain, but he wouldn’t back down either. Whatever that asshole wanted from her was enough for him to call and text her twenty fucking times a day. That was the actions of a man either obsessed, desperate, or both. The idea of someone in that frame of mind having Lucy in his sights did not sit well with him. In fact, it scared the shit out of him.

He cupped her jaw and made her look at him. “I’m not backing down, not until you tell me what this is really about.”

She must have seen the determination in his eyes because he felt her body deflate beneath his. She looked away and when she looked back a tear streaked down her cheek.

Fear sliced though him. “Jesus, Lucy. What’s going on?”

Her gaze shifted, focusing on something over his shoulder. “The reason he keeps calling is he…he thinks I’m lying to him.” She swallowed hard, more tears rolling down her face.

“You’re scaring me here, Luce. Please, baby, please talk to me.” Watching her like this was destroying him.

She blew out a shaky breath. “Not long before I learned he was married, I…I found out I was pregnant.”

Everything inside him seized to a halt. It felt like his fucking heart stopped. Taking a breath felt impossible. She was pregnant…with another man’s baby. His Lucy. His fucking woman was going to grow round and soft with some other man’s child. Something tore wide open inside him. God, it was selfish, and he hated that his first reaction was to think about himself, but he was jealous, so fucking jealous it felt like someone had sliced him from throat to gut and everything spilled to his feet.

Lucy had her hands over her face and she wasn’t just crying now, she was fucking sobbing. Every protective instinct inside him roared to the surface. He realized in that second that he wanted to be the one to take care of her. To be there for her. Shit, he wanted to be the father to her babies.

Those thoughts, feelings, set like cement. In minutes, everything had changed for him.

Moving to the side, he sat against the headboard and dragged her into his lap, gently pulling her hands away from her face. “I’ll take care of you, Lucy, you and the baby. I promise you that.”

She blinked up at him. “What?”

“I’ll talk to your brothers. You can move in with me. We can say the baby’s mine if you want. Whatever you want, sweetheart.”

She sat up a little straighter and her face softened. Her hand lifted to his cheek. “You don’t need to do that.”

“I’m not arguing with you about this. I’m going to take care of you and the baby.”

She slid her thumb over his lips, silencing him. “I lost the baby. I was nearly three months along…that’s how I found out Daniel was married. When I told him I was pregnant, he freaked out and confessed. He said he’d leave her for me, but I didn’t want that. He’d lied to me. He already had a family. And I…I wasn’t in love with him.”

Her eyes lifted and locked with Adam’s, and his heart nearly banged out of his chest. There she was, the shutters were up and he couldn’t mistake what he saw. She loved him. Fucking hell, she loved him, as much as he loved her.

“What happened?” he rasped past his suddenly tight throat.

“I told him he was off the hook, that I’d lost the baby, that there was no reason for him to leave his family.” Her thumb brushed his lower lip again. “He didn’t believe me. Still doesn’t believe me. I tried to carry on with my classes, but he wouldn’t leave me alone. Then he told his wife he was leaving her for me, that we were having a baby, and everything…fell apart. She started calling, sending those awful texts. I told her I wasn’t pregnant and she accused me of lying to take her husband away. It all got out of hand and I had no choice but to leave.”

Adam felt like he’d been put through a fucking emotional mincer. Jealous that some other man got her pregnant, resigned, relieved…fucking ecstatic that he had an excuse to keep her for himself. Now he didn’t know what he was. She wasn’t pregnant anymore, but he didn’t think he could give up on the idea of making her his, of telling Hugh and Joe that he loved their sister and they’d just have to get over it.

But how could he do that to her, promise her a life with him, when he would end up hurting her in the end? The apple didn’t fall far from the tree—he’d proved that already. He was good at leaving people, at being a selfish asshole, exactly like his old man. But the thought of leaving Lucy was unimaginable. Maybe, just maybe, he could be what she needed.