darkly, and he grunted. “Probably.”
“Probably? Son, I know you’re not dumb enough to fuck some
bitch without a rubber.”
“Used one. It broke. Said she had that implant thing. Haven’t
seen her in four months.” He bit out his explanation in short, detail free
sentences, and heard Top clear his throat uncomfortably. “We’ll talk tomorrow.”
He said ominously.
He didn’t bother to say goodbye. He hung up, got out of the
truck and slammed the door so hard the window glass cracked. Stomped up the
stairs and whipped her front door open, only to be accosted by a big golden
retriever, intent on licking his face off, “Squatch! NO! Outside!” The dog
dropped back down to the floor, having left two dust paw prints on his cut,
looked at him adoringly and obeyed his mistress by tearing off towards the back
of the small cottage. “You named your dog, Squatch?” He snarled, and heard her
snort from somewhere deeper into the house, “I had him before I met you. You
have the same color hair, sue me.”
He followed the sound of her sensual voice and found her in
the sunny kitchen, mixing something up in one of those stone grinder things, a
kettle on her gas stove just starting to whistle. He watched her, bracing his
hands on the countertop, squeezing so hard his fucking bones threatened to
snap, “Is it mine?” He finally managed, watching her calmly pour herself a mug
of that hot water and use some fucked up gadget to scoop up some stuff and
plonked it in the water. “Yes.”
“ Why in the fuck didn’t you tell me ?”
Most everyone he’d ever used that vicious roar on, pissed
themselves in terror. Everly? She just turned around and looked at him like he
was annoying her, stirring her gadget around in her mug, added an ice cube,
blew on the surface of the steaming water, sipped and then tilted her head with
that genuinely curious expression on her face. Like she was trying to figure
him out. “Honestly? I didn’t think you’d care.” He made a noise that even to
him sounded inhuman, strangled. He couldn’t keep himself from rounding the countertop,
slapping the mug out of her hands, uncaring that the hot liquid splashed all
over his boots and grabbed her by the shoulders to give her a shake, “Not care
that I knocked a bitch up with my kid? Are you serious?”
Her head shot back with the volume of his roar, and she
closed her eyes for a minute, her cheeks washing bright red with what he
thought was embarrassment. But when she opened her eyes, her fury matched his
own. “Do you want me to explain, or are you going to shake the shit out of me while
you scream in my face?” She bit out with the most adorable look of feminine
rage on her features. If he hadn’t been so fucking mad, he’d have kissed the
shit out of her. He forced himself, finger by finger to let her go and took a
deep breath to try and find some sanity, but the emotions rocking around inside
him were intense. Almost more than he could deal with, on the edge of
fracturing something inside him he hadn’t realized was so fragile. “Explain.”
He ordered, and she fucking rolled her eyes at him, moving around him to grab a
dish towel to throw on the tea all over the floor, “I’d had the flu, serious
plague three weeks before we met. Took a massive dose of antibiotics for seven
days, which gave me fourteen more for the hormones in the birth control to
reactivate. I met you, on day sixteen. I fully expected the implant to be
functional, so believe me, it was a fuck of a surprise when I went back to the
doctor, thinking I was having a flu relapse, and popped up pregnant.”
“Which is the day you didn’t call me, why?” He growled, back
to gripping the counter top white knuckled to keep his hands off of her.
She sighed like she was tired, shoved her hair out of her
face after dumping the shards of her coffee mug into the trash and turned
around to face him again, hugging herself, rubbing her biceps like she