Irresistible (Neighbor from Hell Book 11)

by R. L. Mathewson

  “Aidan-” Melanie began even as she tried to decide between politely warning him that she was seconds away from making him a eunuch or begging him to stop so that she could catch her breath as they started down the stairs.

  “We’ll make a day of it. We’ll go to my office, run tests, take a sonogram, pee in a cup, grab lunch, and while we’re eating you can explain to me why you’ve kept the fact that I’m about to a be father a secret. It will be a great time, you’ll see,” Aidan murmured, giving her arm a gentle squeeze as he helped her down the stairs.

  “I don’t need any tests,” Melanie managed to get out before she was forced to grab onto the railing so that she could catch her breath.

  “Yes, you do,” Aidan said softly.

  “No, I-”

  “You left the office before the tests came back from the urine sample you left,” Aidan said, making her realize that she’d never asked how he’d found out about the baby.

  Swallowing, Melanie looked down at the railing that she was currently holding onto for support and closed her eyes as she prepared herself for the bad news that she already knew was coming.

  “You’re bleeding.”

  Chapter 4

  “What are you going to do?” his father asked as Aidan leaned back in his desk chair.

  “I have no idea,” Aidan said quietly as he stared down at the sonogram image in his hands.

  A boy.

  They were having a baby boy, he thought numbly, wondering when this was going to start feeling real. This morning the only thing that he had to worry about was missing lunch and now…

  Christ, he didn’t even know where to start.

  “Does she know yet?”

  “That her doctor’s a fucking idiot?” Aidan asked as he shook his head slowly, forcing his gaze away from the proof that things were about to change and placed the sonogram photo back on the desk next to the thick folder that her doctor sent over earlier. “Only what you told her,” he added, sighing heavily as he sat back in his chair so that he could see the disappointment in his father’s eyes.

  It wasn’t something that he was used to seeing. At least, not because of him. He’d seen that look on his father’s face more than enough times growing up thanks to all of his siblings fucking up, but never because of him. He’d always been the golden child, the one that didn’t fuck up and if he did, he immediately worked his ass off to make it right.

  Not this time.

  This time he’d seriously fucked up and he had absolutely no idea how he was going to fix this. He would take care of Melanie and their son, provide for them, make sure that they had everything that they needed, and of course, he would be there to help raise his son, but that wouldn’t fix everything.

  “I’m going to give you some time to figure this out and do right by that young lady, but you and I are going to sit down and have a talk real soon,” his father said, leveling a look on him that told him just how badly he’d fucked up as his father stood up and headed for the door only to pause.

  “By the way,” his father said, gesturing lazily towards Melanie’s patient file, “if I ever find out that you spoke to a woman like that again, I’ll knock your goddamn teeth out. Understood?”

  “Understood,” Aidan said, surprised that his father wasn’t doing it now, but then again, they both knew that he had something more important to do at the moment.

  “Fix this,” his father said, and with that, his father was shaking his head in disgust and walking out the door.

  Aidan stared at the file for another minute, thinking about just how much of an asshole he’d been that morning. He…

  His father should have knocked his fucking teeth out, Aidan decided as he shoved his chair back and headed for the door. He was never going to forgive himself for what he’d said to her. Because of him, she’d gone through this alone. He should have been there from the beginning, biting his fucking tongue and standing by her.

  God, what the fuck was wrong with him?

  As soon as she’d stormed out of that hotel room, he’d wanted to go after her and apologize, but he’d been too fucking hungover to think straight. His pride had kept him from hunting her down once he’d realized what a bastard he’d been to her. He’d found a thousand excuses not to call her over the next few months, but it never stopped him from thinking about her.

  He’d lost count of how many times he’d thought about her, how many times he’d found himself picking up the phone to call her only to change his mind, and how many times he’d found himself halfway to the Fire & Brimstone, hoping to catch a glimpse of her only to turn around with some bullshit excuse. He should have kept going the first time he’d found himself driving towards the Fire & Brimstone, knocked on her door, handed her a baseball bat, and let her go to town.

  Once she was done beating the shit out of him and he’d apologized, they could have sat down and talked this through. The outcome wouldn’t have changed, but at least Aidan would have been by her side from the start instead of being the one delivering more bad news to her.

  *-*-*-*

  “Melanie? Shit! Melanie, wait up!” the jerk that had scared the hell out of her before showing her to a small exam room with an air conditioner on steroids and handing her a paper-thin exam gown that didn’t actually fit her before mumbling something about calling her doctor and promptly pulling a disappearing act on her, which had lasted for five hours, thirty-two minutes and fifteen seconds, said.

  Not that he’d left her completely alone. He’d been kind enough to send a nurse in to take her medical history, two different medical assistants in to take her vitals, four to take her blood, three to ask her to sign more release forms, two more to help her prepare for an exam, which to her surprise had been performed by his father, and then another medical assistant to help her after the very thorough examination that had left her on the verge of dying of mortification, before sending in four nurses, two medical assistants, a secretary, and the office manager to tell her that it would only be a little bit longer.

  When one of the nurses popped her head back in a few minutes ago to ask her if she could put the paper-thin gown back on so that the doctor could double-check something, Melanie decided that she’d had enough for one day. After somehow managing to pull her shoes back on and tying them without falling over, she’d grabbed her bag, headed for the door, and decided that she’d rather walk the fifteen blocks to get home than ask the lying jerk for a ride.

  Okay, so she’d also decided to take the long way home so that she could stop by Dixon’s bakery and reassure herself with eighty-five dollars and fifty-five cents, the amount of money that was in her bag, worth of baked goods that everything was okay while she tried to get her doctor on the phone so that she could find out what was going on with her baby. What she hadn’t planned on was the jerk, who’d made her stupidly believe that he’d cared before he’d handed her over to his father, running after her.

  “Melanie, wait!” Aidan yelled, and because she was six months pregnant and stuck at an intersection, she did just that.

  “What is it?” Melanie asked, sighing heavily as she turned around to face the man that was clearly screwing with her.

  As she watched him jog towards her, she couldn’t help but note the similarities between him and Lucifer. They were both ruggedly handsome, kept their dark hair cut short, had killer green eyes and a flawless tan, they were tall and well-built, and she couldn’t help but wonder how two brothers could be so different.

  While everyone thought that Lucifer was an asshole, and okay, she’d admit that he had his moments, she didn’t really think that he’d earned the title. His brother, on the other hand…

  “I need you to come back to the office,” Aidan said when he finally reached her side.

  “So that you can stick me in another small room where I can catch pneumonia, have my blood drained, and maybe this time you can ask your mom to give me a pelvic exam?” Melanie asked brightly, wondering why he was wasting her time when they both k
new that he didn’t want anything to do with her or this baby.

  At least he had the decency to wince, Melanie noted as she turned around and decided that she’d more than earned a side of buttercream frosting to go along with her cupcakes. She didn’t get far before she found her path blocked by the man determined to…to…

  Well, she honestly wasn’t sure what his game was, but she was done playing it. Sighing, Melanie moved to walk around him, but since she couldn’t exactly waddle that fast, Aidan managed to step in her way and block her again.

  “Look, I’m sorry about that, but we need to talk.”

  “Is the baby okay?” Melanie asked, cutting to the chase because that’s all she really cared about.

  “Yes,” Aidan said and since that’s all that mattered, she stepped around him only to come to a complete stop with his next words. “But you might not be.”

  Chapter 5

  “So, this is it,” Aidan lamely said as he opened the door to the semi-empty apartment that he’d somehow persuaded Melanie to look at after he’d broken the news to her that she was now officially back on bed rest.

  “Yeah, umm, no,” Melanie said, barely glancing at the apartment before she turned around and headed for the front door.

  “We talked about this,” he reminded her as he reached past her to close the front door before she could walk out and make him spend another two hours arguing about this.

  “No, you talked and I listened,” Melanie explained, trying to move his hand away from the door.

  “We agreed that this was for the best,” Aidan reminded her as he quickly maneuvered around her and put his hands on her shoulders so that he could steer the stubborn woman back inside the apartment that was the perfect solution to their problem.

  Well, it would make things easier at least, he amended a split second later after deciding that nothing was going to fix this.

  “Just think of the possibilities,” Aidan said as he managed to get her inside, hoping that she ignored all his shit thrown everywhere and the damage to the walls that the last tenants left behind and focused on all the possibilities.

  “I already have an apartment,” Melanie pointed out, which they both knew was a bullshit excuse to get out of this.

  “And you can’t stay there,” he reminded her, already knowing that this was her best option.

  “Well, not since a certain doctor put me back on bed rest,” she added dryly with a long, drawn-out sigh as she stepped around a box that he wasn’t sure was his.

  “That and my brother is having the building renovated and you have to move out anyway,” Aidan said as he brought her into the kitchen and then immediately wished that he’d skipped this portion of the tour.

  “Umm, there’s no stove.”

  “I know.”

  “And the fridge?”

  “The door’s missing,” Aidan said, rubbing the bridge of his nose as he discreetly looked around the kitchen, noting all the damage to the walls and cabinets and started rethinking this plan only to wave it off because this could still work.

  “You can use my kitchen until this one is fixed,” he said, deciding that it would probably be for the best if he got her out of this room before she noticed that some of the outlets had been ripped out of the wall.

  “Why don’t we take a look at the bedroom?” Aidan suggested, steering her back towards the living room.

  “Does it look like this?” Melanie asked, gesturing towards all the boxes and bags he’d thrown in here when he’d bought the place.

  “It might,” Aidan hedged, wondering if he should have put this off until he had a chance to fix this apartment, but immediately decided against it since that would have only given her a chance to talk herself out of this.

  “Then I think I’m good,” Melanie said with a thoughtful nod as she turned around and waddled, and really there was no other way that he could describe it, towards the door.

  “Melanie,” Aidan said, shaking his head with a sigh as he followed her into the foyer and managed to steer her towards his apartment.

  “This isn’t going to work,” she grumbled pathetically as she allowed him to steer her towards the mess in the middle of his living room, pretty sure that there was a couch beneath all that crap somewhere.

  Mumbling an apology, Aidan made quick work of throwing all his shit aside and shot her a smile when it took a little longer than expected. Once the couch was free of dirty clothes, books, old medical journals, junk food wrappers, and an unopened Twinkie that was going to help make this really fucked up day better, Aidan gestured for her to sit down only to rethink the suggestion when he realized that she was going to have a hell of a time stepping over all the shit now covering the living room floor in order to get to the couch.

  New plan.

  “Why don’t we have a seat in the kitchen?” Aidan suggested with a smile as he kicked the shit out of his way, wrapped his arm around her and led her towards the kitchen before she could argue.

  Once he had her in the kitchen, he-

  “Shit!”

  -realized that the kitchen was worse than the living room.

  “Aidan-”

  “One second,” he said, releasing her so that he could shove everything off the kitchen table, knock the stack of medical magazines that he’d been re-reading off a chair before pulling it out for her. “Here we are,” Aidan said, smiling as he gestured for her to sit down.

  After a slight hesitation, Melanie sat down while she glanced around the kitchen that he was still in the process of unpacking and cleared her throat. “So, have you lived here long?” she asked, looking a little unsure where to begin as she glanced back at him and moved to place her hands on the table, but seemed to rethink it, and placed her hands on the large swell of her belly, reminding him that he couldn’t fuck this up, again.

  “Not long,” Aidan said, deciding that five and a half months wasn’t long enough to unpack all his shit.

  “It’s, um, nice,” Melanie said, rubbing the bridge of her nose as she looked around, taking in the half-empty boxes, discarded grocery bags, magazines scattered everywhere, empty water bottles and soda cans covering the counter and filling the sink along with-

  Well, it wasn’t important what was in his sinks. What was important was that they had a baby on the way, which was why he’d dragged her back here after announcing that she was back on bed rest. That, and he had absolutely no plans of letting her walk away this time.

  *-*-*-*

  “I really don’t think this is going to work,” Melanie said, although she was touched by his offer, she honestly couldn’t see how this was going to work.

  “Why?” Aidan asked when it should have been painfully obvious why this was a bad idea.

  “We don’t even know each other,” she said, shifting to get comfortable even as she couldn’t help but wonder if there were any Swiss Rolls left in that Little Debbie’s box on the counter.

  “I don’t think that matters, do you?” he said with a pointed look at the reason why she was here.

  He had a point.

  So, she moved on.

  “There are stairs,” Melanie said, deciding to use the top reason that he’d used against her earlier to convince her that she couldn’t stay above the Fire & Brimstone anymore.

  “Where?” he asked with a frown.

  “The front step,” she answered lamely, making his eyes narrow suspiciously.

  “There’s only one step,” Aidan said with a smug look that definitely reminded her of his brother.

  “Fine, how about the fact that it should probably be condemned?” Melanie pointed out, wondering if he’d thought this through.

  “Easily fixed,” Aidan said, still looking a little too smug for her liking.

  “Overnight?”

  “Probably not,” he admitted with a sigh before adding, “but definitely within a few days.”

  “And until then?” Melanie asked, wondering if he had an answer for everything.

  As it turned out
, he did.

  Chapter 6

  “This is it,” Aidan said with flourish as he opened his bedroom door only to have the damn thing get stuck on the disturbing towel that he’d used this morning.

  Throwing her another one of those reassuring smiles that was starting to make him feel like a jackass, Aidan discreetly shoved the door harder as he tried to kick the towel out of the way until the door finally flew open and-

  “Shit!”

  Slammed into the wall, breaking the doorstopper in half and allowing the doorknob to embed itself in the wall and officially making the very long list of things that he needed to do, which he couldn’t help but notice had tripled since this morning. Hoping that she hadn’t noticed, Aidan gestured for her to go inside.

  He wasn’t exactly surprised when Melanie leaned in, took a good look at his bedroom and shook her head before turning around and making her way back to the front door. Since letting her leave would only be counterproductive to his plans, he quickly caught up to her, wrapped his arm around her shoulders and turned her around.

  “I think you’re going to like this,” Aidan murmured as he kicked the towel out of the way and brought her inside the room that would be hers until he finished fixing the other apartment. For a moment, Aidan considered giving her this apartment and moving in upstairs with his brother, but quickly dismissed the idea since it would only make things more difficult than they needed to be.

  “And why would you think that?” Melanie asked, sounding genuinely curious as she took in his bedroom.

  “Because it’s spacious?” Aidan suggested, taking in the room filled with half-empty boxes, dirty laundry, discarded food wrappers, the messy bed, and wondered if she’d be willing to step into the hallway for a minute so that he could clean this up.

  But he knew that if he gave her even half a chance that she would leave and since that would only make things more difficult, Aidan led her to the bed. “Why don’t you have a seat?” he suggested, giving her an encouraging smile.