“Reed, I’m fine.”
That drew Nicholas’s attention. “What is it?”
It was embarrassing. It was natural. It was everything that would continue to happen to me for the next six months. Why was it so hard to admit?
“Bumper gave me a…bump.”
They didn’t get it. All three lurched to their feet, each scattering in three different directions to gather my things. Reed seized my purse. Max my shoes.
They thought I had to go to the hospital.
Only Nicholas waited for the explanation.
The confession.
“I’m showing.”
Reed and Max stilled. I squirmed as their collective gazes centered low on my belly, like they expected it to suddenly balloon up. I lifted my shirt. They didn’t react until I turned to the side. Their heads angled. Reed snorted.
“That’s it?” he laughed. “Christ, I look like that after I eat a pizza.”
I bit my lip as Nicholas approached. He made no such joke, didn’t shake his head like Max. His eyes narrowed in concentration, brightened with excitement, and studied the tiniest swelling with rapt attention. I stilled as his hand brushed my exposed skin. His palm covered the bump and hid the secret once more for us and us alone.
“Beautiful,” he whispered.
And he meant it.
The raw amazement in his words banished my embarrassment. It fueled me with the same heated intensity that simmered the caramel smoothness of his voice.
One word and he’d burn me. One promise and he’d trap me.
One command and he’d seal me forever within the warmth of his palm.
I swallowed, cascading from anxious to shamed to empowered in a single graze of his fingers. It didn’t take much for my heart to flutter and core to clench, but Nicholas’s touch tickled from the barest, faintest of promises. Suddenly, my thoughts twisted into something dark and utterly sensual.
I hadn’t spoken of our night together. Neither had he—either out of respect for my decision or because he recognized the truth.
I loved him more than I hated Darius Bennett. And that made the decision to leave impossible and the choice to stay so very complicated.
I shifted from his hand, shuddering as the electric heat sizzled from his fingertips through my core. He released me. My body hadn’t realized. Dozens of shivers raced over my skin, and the flush returned to my cheeks, more prominent than before. I tugged my shirt, but the brush of the material over my sensitive breasts and tightening nipples only made the heat worse.
I knew better than to go without a bra now.
My insides twisted. I knew exactly what I was thinking, and I didn’t trust it.
With my confidence restored, and the fear soothed under Nicholas’s careful, deliberate touch, I was almost healed. Nothing prevented me from feeling all the perfect shudders and warmths of my body, or enjoying the tingles and slick wantings.
I woke every night in his bed, surrounded by his scent, tucked within his silken sheets, but I hadn’t the courage to surrender to any desire.
And not just for Nicholas.
I swallowed. It did nothing. The goosebumps prickled under the attention of my step-brothers. I wished it hadn’t felt so good.
I retreated, earning a knowing stare from those golden eyes. I could hide nothing from him, but I’d sure as hell try. I edged to the sofa and sat, sighing once I was free of their gazes.
Reed immediately plopped down next to me.
“Can I touch Bumper?” His grin popped with just one dimple, playful and excited. “I’m curious.”
“Thought it was less impressive than your bloated pizza belly.”
“I’ll order some right now. We’ll see who gets bigger.”
“If you can promise to be the same size as me six months from now, we might have a deal.”
“That’s a lot of pizza.”
“It’s a lot of baby.”
“Well, Bumper should know Uncle Reed will do anything for the little guy. And if that means gorging on pizza, I’ll make the sacrifice.”
My heart fluttered. Uncle Reed. It was too sweet. But I hadn’t allowed myself to think of such things. Uncles and swelling bellies made it feel too real. Except it was. And it was getting harder to hide.
Reed waited for permission. What could it hurt?
I lifted my shirt and tried to position myself to enhance what little bump there was. Reed’s hand covered me, far gentler than Nicholas, almost as if the multitude of baby books he had read neglected to mention that I wouldn’t fall apart from a touch. I hadn’t before, and I wouldn’t now.
Especially as Reed’s proud grin matched the warmth of his hands. A good warmth. Just as protective, just as loving as Nicholas’s touch.
Just as consuming.
“Neat.” His fingers pressed against me. I hid the shiver and ignored the quickening flutter in my chest. “Max, wanna feel?”
“Pass.” Max looked away. “Not so good with delicate things.”
“You can’t feel anything,” I said. “It’s just…pudgy.”
“It’s beautiful.” Nicholas hovered close.
“Definitely,” Reed said. He pulled his hand away as he said it, clearing his throat. “You know. If you’re into that sort of thing.”
“It’ll get bigger,” I warned.
Nicholas answered without hesitation. “And you’ll be beautiful then too.”
“Good.” I swallowed. “Glad you’ve considered the consequences of all this.”
“Every day.”
His voice soothed me. I rested against the couch, drawing my legs up. The cool leather eased some of the ache. Not all of it. Not nearly enough. Both Reed and Nicholas touched me, and the memory of their previous embraces tingled through me. Heat pulsed between my legs. Insistent. Demanding.
Utterly inappropriate. I gnawed on my lip.
“You okay?” Reed asked. “You’re a little flushed.”
Nothing got past him. “Fine.”
“You sure? Need anything?”
He edged closer, and the sea-salt tease of his scent mingled with the memory of Nicholas’s sharpness. Nicholas watched me, the tug of a smile pulling on his lips.
He knew.
“I’m fine.”
“You can tell me. Whatever you want. Ice cream, weird cravings, whatever.”
“Reed, it’s not…” I twisted in the sofa. “I’m not hungry.”
“Tired?”
Now I was. “No.”
“Then what—”
Max snorted. “Christ, you’re the one reading all the damn baby books. She’s second trimester. Sarah’s fucking horny.”
And the embarrassments never ended. I ground my jaw.
“Thanks, Max.”
“Happy to help, baby.”
Yeah, only one thing would help, and I wasn’t sure they were ready for that conversation.
But it had to be done. It should have already been done.
Darius wasn’t the only man who left me with tarnished, terrible memories. My last intimate moments with both Reed and Max were ruined by the barrel of a gun slammed against my head. I sacrificed my body to the brutal demands of their father. I tried to forgive their body’s natural instincts.
It took the violence of another to forget the horrors caused by the men I loved.
So much had changed since then. Since we left the estate. Since we bound together to fight and run and forged an alliance against Darius.
I had confronted my demons and banished my nightmares with Nicholas. Didn’t Max and Reed deserve the same closure?
We all needed whatever comfort, whatever forgiveness, we could offer each other.
Because who knew when it would be our last chance.
“Oh.” Reed glanced at Nicholas. “Uh. We can…leave, if you two need to—”
Now I did flush. “Look, I’m okay. It’s just hormones.”
It was more than that. So much more. Confusion and doubt, conflicted loyalty and anxiety. I planned to kill a man who might have swelled me with his child. I left my mother in the cruel embrace of a monster who would sooner murder her if it meant crippling me for his taking.
I loved the man who endangered me the most.
And I missed the gentle and ravenous touches of his brothers, even when they originally intended to capture, degrade, and humiliate me. Neither Max nor Reed ever really hurt me, not when it wasn’t Darius’s bidding. They loved me like a friend, like a sister, like a lover. It wasn’t a conventional relationship, but it had meant so much to me.