Carter: Denver Royalty (Book 2)

by Sheridan Anne

  “She’s fine,” I tell him.

  “I can speak for myself,” she seethes as she continues shooting her glare at me. How is it this woman still manages to get such a reaction out of me? I’ve been missing her like crazy that I don’t even give a shit that she’s furious at me.

  “Sir,” the old man says in disapproval. “I was talking to the lady.”

  “I’m fine,” Bri says through her teeth with those eyes still glaring into me. Fuck, I love those eyes.

  “Good, I’m glad we got that sorted,” I tell her. “Now get in my fucking truck.”

  Her whole face looks as though it could explode. “I’m not going anywhere with you,” she demands.

  God, she is beautiful, even when she’s about to tear my ballsack right off my body. Hmm, at least that way she’d be close to them again. It might just be worth it.

  “That is hardly a way to speak to a woman, young man,” the intruder reprimands.

  With anger shooting through me, I just can’t help myself but yell at the old guy. “I’ll speak to her however I want, she’s my fucking girlfr…”

  Shit. This day just keeps getting worse.

  Her eyes go wide. “I dare you to finish that sentence,” she seethes as I notice a shit load of people standing around, looking on in amusement.

  “Calm down, it was a slip of the tongue.”

  Her eyes grow watery and this time I know it’s out of pure rage rather than confused feelings. She must hate me. I’ve never seen her get quite this angry before, though, I guess it’s fair, I nearly killed her.

  “Bullshit,” she accuses. “You just want to keep fucking me around and messing with my emotions. Well, guess what? You’ve well and truly fucked me up,” she says. “You can’t just keep showing up in my life and making things harder for me.”

  “What?” I sputter. “You think I planned this? That I woke up this morning and decided that today was the day that I was going to go and run over Brianna.”

  “Sir,” the old man cuts in, making me realize he’s still standing right beside me. “You can’t talk to a pregnant woman this way, it’s not good for the baby.”

  Brianna’s eyes go wide, but I’m too busy turning to the old man to figure out why. “What the fuck are you talking about?” I scoff, looking at him like he’s fucking crazy before turning back to Bri. “She’s not…”

  The horrified look on her face has my eyes traveling down to her stomach and I’m shocked to see a protruding baby bump. Holy shit, how could I have missed that?

  My stomach drops. No wonder she’s been so distant lately. She got herself knocked up.

  Anger flares through me. Did she do this on purpose to make sure there would never be a future between us or is it just out of spite? There are other ways she could have gone about hurting me that would have been better than this. “You got yourself knocked up?” I question with a scoff. “Who’s the lucky guy?”

  I thought she would have waited to find someone special. Got married first before having a shit load of kids. She didn’t have to go and jump straight in bed with some random guy. I look at her more closely and realize that from the size of her bump, it must have been before the funeral. Maybe it was the guy I kicked out of her apartment.

  Just fucking great. I fucked her when she was already knocked up by someone else. That moment was special to me and now it’s fucking tainted.

  Tears fall from her eyes and for the first time, I’m far too broken for them to have an effect on me. How could she do this? Doesn’t she realize that I’m still in love with her? I would have tried to make it work if I thought there was even a slight chance. But not now, not after this.

  She steps forward, pushing the guy out of her way and slams the piece of paper against my chest. “You’re the lucky guy, dickhead,” she says before stepping away. “Congratulations, it’s twins.”

  My whole world comes crashing down as I stand in the middle of the street holding a piece of paper to my chest.

  She walks away with tears streaming down her face as the cars stopped behind my truck start honking at me to move out of the way. I ignore everything and everyone as I try to process what the fuck she just said.

  I distantly notice her getting into her car and crumbling over the steering wheel as sobs rip through her. I want to go to her, but I can’t move.

  She’s pregnant with my child? Children? It’s not possible.

  I told her I didn’t want kids. We broke up so this particular scenario couldn’t play out, yet here it is. Unfolding before me like a damn nightmare.

  When did this happen?

  Stupid fucking question. I know exactly when this happened.

  Betrayal rips through me. She gets pregnant and didn’t tell me. She decided to keep it without consulting me. She waits three fucking months before letting me know and quite frankly, I got the feeling she would never have told me. She would have avoided me for the rest of her life, hoping I never found out.

  Fucking Cassandra. She’s my baby sister and she didn’t even tell me. Where’s her fucking loyalty?

  Why am I being betrayed by everyone I love?

  I get it. I hurt Bri and she wanted to hurt me back, but this is taking it way too far. You don’t bring children into this shit. If she wanted to hurt me she could have trashed my truck or publicly made a fool out of me. Instead, she goes and does this.

  My hands ball into fists when I recall the piece of paper she slammed into my chest. I open my hand and find it crumpled up. I smooth it out and flip it over which is when I notice an ultrasound picture with two very tiny looking humans.

  Holy shit. These are my children.

  I stand in the middle of the street, staring at that piece of paper until someone physically pushes me off the road.

  These are my children and they’re growing inside the woman I love.

  An overwhelming feeling of unconditional love comes over me, one I can’t understand but all I know is that I would do anything in the world the protect these little humans and the woman they’re going to come out of.

  I’ve made the biggest fucking mistake of my life. Despite how furious I am with Bri, she’s carrying my children. It’s a strange feeling. I always thought the day a woman told me she was pregnant with my child, I’d flip out, yet I feel excitement.

  I can’t tear my eyes away from the picture. The second I saw it, time froze and my world changed.

  My children.

  Twins.

  I’m going to have twins.

  I realize my life will never be the same from this moment on and to be honest, I’m fucking terrified. I never thought I would want this, but I was wrong, so fucking wrong. I want it all and I’m going to do everything in my power to make that happen.

  I look over to where Bri’s car was parked and frown when I realize she’s gone. Shit, of course, she’s gone. I shouldn’t have expected anything different.

  I think about going after her but realize I should probably give her some time to calm down. She probably isn’t in the best mind frame right now. Maybe I could text. I pull out my phone and see a shit load of missed calls from Mr. Wilder.

  Fuck them. I delete the notifications and pull up Bri’s number.

  Shit. No. I don’t want to do this over the phone. I’ll give her the rest of the day and bombard her with it all tomorrow.

  For now, I need to find my sister.

  Chapter 17

  Brianna

  Week 12

  I know I’ve already written this week but uh… your daddy knows.

  I don’t think it’s going to go down well.

  Brace yourselves… shit’s about to get real.

  Chapter 18

  Brianna

  “Brianna Fucking Lucas,” my name is cursed as my door is flung open by my best friend storming in.

  Fuck.

  I gasp at her sudden appearance, but from the look on her usually happy face, it’s clear she’s spoken with her brother.

  I give her a tight sm
ile from the kitchen, but her eyes don’t meet mine, they go straight to my stomach which is well and truly on display as I’ve been walking around my apartment in my underwear the whole day.

  After sitting in my car and crying over the top of my steering wheel, I had to get out of there. It was so awful. I never wanted him to find out like that and now I’m positive he hates me.

  If there was a way to go back and change the way he found out, I would do it in a heartbeat.

  I was just so angry at him. I could see the wheels turning in his mind and I’m certain he was thinking the worst. I couldn’t leave him without telling him the truth. I just happened to do it like a fucking psycho.

  I’m almost positive he’s sitting in some dive of a bar, drinking bottle after bottle of whiskey. Logan will probably have to go and scrape him off the sidewalk tonight or go searching through the hospitals to see if he’s there.

  The look on his face when he found out was awful. He looked as though I’d betrayed him in the worst possible way and he would be right. I have.

  He’ll never forgive me for this and even though it takes two to tango, I could have been honest with him and given him the chance to have a say. I stole that from him knowing what he would have wanted.

  He never would have asked me to have an abortion, but he would have pushed for adoption. I would never be able to deal with the fact that I had children somewhere in the world that weren’t right by my side.

  I was born to be someone’s mummy.

  I’m thrilled that I finally have the chance to do it, but this isn’t how I wanted it to happen.

  “So, it’s true,” Cass grunts as she looks at me with betrayal written all over her.

  The tears start in both our eyes as I give her a sad look. “Yeah,” I say softly, confirming what she already knows.

  “How long have you known?” she asks with a break in her voice.

  I let out a breath and walk over to the couch. I take a seat and pat the spot beside me. She reluctantly takes a seat, but it doesn’t go unnoticed how far away she sits. “I found out at four weeks.”

  “But,” she says with her eyes flicking back down to the bump. “How far along are you?”

  “Three months.”

  A tear escapes her eye and it kills me that I put it there. “I get that you’re in a bad situation with Carter, but how could you not tell me?”

  “I’m sorry,” I say as my own tears start to shed. “I couldn’t. You’re loyal to your brothers. You love them so much. I couldn’t put you in the position of not telling him.”

  “I just… I really want to hate you,” she cries.

  “I know. You should.” I tell her. “I’ve been agonizing over not telling you but I just couldn’t. At the start, I was in denial, I couldn’t even bring myself to take the test. I didn’t want to believe it was true and I was so scared how he would react and now it’s worse than ever.”

  She nods as she looks down at her lap and plays with her rings. She’s silent for a while and I just want to scream at her to hurry up and say something. “So, there’s two of them?” she finally asks.

  “Yeah,” I tell her as I slowly reach across the couch and grab her hand.

  Surprisingly, she latches onto my hand and laces her fingers with mine. “I’m really hurt, Bri and I want nothing more than to hate you,” she says. “But they’re my nieces or nephews in there and you’re my best friend. I understand why you didn’t say anything, but it hurts that you didn’t.”

  “I know,” I say. “If I could change that I would, but what’s important is that there’s these two beautiful babies growing inside me who are going to need an aunty who loves them just as much as their mummy does.”

  She gives me a sad smile and pulls me across the couch before throwing her arms around me. “I’m going to love them so much, they’ll hate me.”

  “Not possible,” I smile as I wipe away a tear.

  “I feel like a fool for not noticing earlier,” she tells me.

  “Don’t,” I demand. “I went out of my way to make sure nobody would find out.”

  “That plan didn’t go down so well,” she grunts.

  “No, it really didn’t,” I say.

  “I heard he nearly ran over you,” she questions.

  “Yeah,” I grunt. “You were pretty damn close to visiting me in the morgue.”

  Her eyes widen in shock. “Really?” she questions. “It was that close?”

  “Uh-huh. There’s skid marks on the road to prove it.”

  “Shit. He never would have forgiven himself if he had hurt you.”

  “Yeah, I know,” I agree. “But it wasn’t his fault. I wasn’t looking and just stepped out onto the road. My head is so consumed with these babies that I’m not thinking about the little things, and it’s getting me into trouble.”

  She gives me a tight smile that’s followed up with a shit load of sympathy. “I bet,” she says. “I think I’m actually a little jealous. After Georgia was born, I’ve been thinking about having one of my own.”

  “No, don’t do that,” I tell her. “I’m having two. We can share.”

  “I don’t think it works like that,” she laughs.

  The room falls to silence as I take a deep breath. I look up at her and I can’t wait any longer. I have to ask her about him. “How’s he doing?” I question.

  “Honestly, I don’t know,” she says. “I think he’s in shock. He only talked to me because he assumed I already knew and didn’t tell him, but the second he found out I had no idea, he completely shut off and didn’t say another word. Which is why I had to come here for myself. I needed answers.”

  Shit. This isn’t good.

  “Sorry,” I tell her again.

  “It’s ok,” she says.

  “No, it’s not.”

  “You’re right, it’s not, but there’s nothing we can do about it now. We just have to move forward and let you grow some babies.”

  I give her a smile which is when she finally relaxes into the couch and hits me with all the pregnancy questions. We settle into our usual friendship and while it’s still a little strained, I know we’ll be fine. After all, I’m growing her newest family inside me.

  I’m in the middle of showing her the birthing video I had watched a few weeks ago when a banging sounds at the door. We look at each other in confusion, but it doesn’t take us long to figure out who could be trying to bust down my door.

  “Brianna, open this damn door,” Carter calls from the other side.

  “Shit,” Cassie groans. “I think I better go.”

  “No, don’t leave me with him,” I beg. “He’s probably drunk a whole bar empty by now and is on the rampage looking for more.”

  “Sorry, sister,” he grins. “You got yourself into this mess.”

  “Cass,” I whine, in my most childish voice.

  “Brianna,” Carter warns through the door.

  Cassie gives me a smile. “You two need to sort this shit out and it’s got nothing to do with me.”

  “Please.”

  “Nope,” she says getting up and grabbing her bag. Carter bangs his fist into the wooden door again and Cass finally opens it for him. He steps forward and invades her personal space before he realizes it’s not me. He steps back out of her way and points down the hallway. “Out,” he demands.

  “Already on it, brother,” she says reaching up onto her tippy toes and placing a kiss on his cheek. “Try not to be too hard on her. She’s still my best friend.”

  She ducks under his arm and disappears down the hallway as his eyes pierce into mine.

  He takes two silent steps forward, looking as intimidating as hell, slams the door behind him and continues his way to me. Neither of us say a word and the silence is agonizing.

  His eyes flick down my body which is when I realize I’m still in my underwear. I feel awfully exposed but it’s probably best that he can clearly see the bump. His eyes come back to mine.

  He’s only three steps awa
y now and I bunch my hands into fists to stop from reaching out and grabbing him.

  Two steps.

  One.

  The second his foot lands in the spot before me, he reaches out, pulls me to him and slams his lips down on mine.

  I melt.

  Need rushes through me like a horny teenager. Fuck, I’ve missed this. My hands fall to his chest, feeling the hard muscles beneath my fingers. His scent wraps around me and I drown in him.

  Wait. What am I doing?

  I push hard against his chest, forcing him back. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “Geez, this whole pregnancy thing is making you all fired up.”

  Anger flares up in me. He might be right. My emotions are all over the place and I have nothing to blame but my stupid pregnancy hormones but that doesn’t give him the right to point it out.

  “Get out,” I demand.

  “No way,” he says.

  “Then what the hell are you doing here?” I repeat, crossing my arms over my chest.

  “I needed to see you. I need to know why you thought it was ok not to tell me about this,” he says, indicating to my bump.

  “What does it matter?” I question. “You don’t want this. You said it yourself and you broke up with me because of it.”

  “Maybe I do want it,” he says.

  “Don’t bullshit me, Carter Waters,” I scoff. “You’ve already fucked me over and I won’t let you do it again. I’m doing this on my own.”

  “You can’t,” he says as if the idea is completely crazy.

  “I can. Women all over the world do it every day.”

  “Let me help you. I want to do this with you.”

  “I don’t believe you and I don’t want your help. You left me. You ruined a perfectly good thing because of this very reason and I’m supposed to just believe that you want to be a part of it?”

  “Yes,” he says. “I fucked up. Big time.”

  “Can you please leave?” I ask, not ready to be hearing this. The words are so perfect, it’s what I dream about every night, but how the hell am I supposed to believe this? He’s just overwhelmed by emotion and wanting to do the right thing.