by S. J. Bishop
"Careful," I said, catching her before she fell and broke her neck. My arms wrapped around her waist, holding her tightly to me. There was no way I'd let her fall. She smelled like honey and lilacs. Every breath she blew against my skin made my body tingle.
"Why isn't there an elevator?" I asked.
"Who said there wasn't?" she asked, digging her fingers into my back and massaging me just above my ass.
"You did. Raina..."
"Caden..." Her eyes were laughing.
Fuck it.
I kissed her. Her mouth was alive with passion as I ran my hand up and down her back. I pushed her against the wall, pinning her hands over her head as she moaned loudly. I didn't give a fuck if we woke the whole building.
"Tell me how much you want me to fuck you right now," I said as I bit her bottom lip. She pressed her pelvis into my hips, and my cock stiffened.
"I can't wait for the bedroom," she whispered. "I'll never make it that far."
I didn't need another invitation. I pushed her dress up and her panties down. Her hands worked frantically to unzip my fly. It was late and no one was around, but there was nothing to hide us if someone came by. The thrill of getting caught made the whole thing that much more exciting.
Raina's skin sizzled under my touch. I could smell the heat coming off her and when I pressed my prick against her opening, it was like jumping into a lake. I slickened my shaft with her moisture and eased into her. Her knees buckled, and I hoisted her up, pressing her harder into the wall.
My mind raced. I couldn't stop wondering if this was the wrong thing to do, but her body had created a wildfire raging inside me. The only way to put it out was to be with her.
I rolled my hips against her, panting. She kissed me hard, licking my lips with her tongue. Her skirt was hiked all the way up to her hips. I held her steady with my hand as I thrust into her. She groaned loudly. The sound echoed off the stairwell we were standing in. Below us, a door opened and closed. We both laughed, imagining what the person who'd dared to enter must have thought.
I slid in and out of her until her hole tightened around my shaft. Her head fell back, and she gripped my ass, pulling me harder into her. She erupted, and I felt the sweet clench of her orgasm as it gripped my cock. I let myself go, filling her with every ounce of lust I had in me.
When her orgasm subsided, I carried her up the rest of the stairs. I'd sobered her up but tired her out.
"Stay with me," she whispered.
I hesitated. "I want to."
"Then do."
I lay her in her bed and cuddled up next to her. Her arm fell across my chest, and minutes later, she was out. I lay with her for a long time, wishing I could stay as she'd asked. But staying with Raina could be dangerous.
I slid out of her bed, made sure she was tucked in, and left her a note.
I've got a game tonight if you want to come. Eli and his fiancé, too. Let me know, and I'll leave tickets for you.
—Caden
I made sure her door was locked and walked to my car. I had the feeling I was being followed. I looked around, certain I'd see a set of eyes peering from the darkness. I should never have come back here with Raina. It had been a stupid thing to do. I shook my head and started the car.
If someone was out there watching, at least they'd follow me away from Raina's place. The next time I saw her, I had to tell her the truth. Even if it meant she never spoke to me again. She deserved to know.
19
Raina
I woke up with my head hammering. Caden's note was on the pillow next to mine, but it was difficult to read. My eyes were tired, and the letters looked blurry. The room was dark. The light coming in through the blinds was just enough for me to make out what he'd written if I squinted. I smiled at the invitation.
I texted him really fast, telling him I had to work tonight and couldn't make it to the game, but Eli might like to go. Then I texted Eli. He responded right away, wanting to know what had happened with Caden.
NOTHING, I typed. I thought about adding, "Except the best sex ever" but didn't think Eli would find that funny.
I rolled out of bed and opened the blinds. The second the sunlight hit my eyes, a wave of nausea washed over me. I ran to the bathroom and barely made it in time. A second later and I'd have had to clean up the floor.
When it was over, I sat on the tile and leaned against the wall. The tile was cool and chilled my skin, easing the nausea.
"What the hell is the matter with me?" I muttered. I decided I must be coming down with some type of flu.
I closed my eyes and let last night filter back through my brain. Dinner had been good until Caden had shown up. Then things had gotten weird. I knew I'd acted like a jealous bitch, but I hadn't been able to control myself. Every time Natalie had batted her lashes at Caden, I'd wanted to pound her face in.
I still couldn't believe I'd fucked him again. What had I been thinking? But I knew damned well what I'd been thinking. That I wanted Caden. His body, his mind... all of him. Starting with his body. I laughed and felt a fresh wave of nausea wash over me.
"Shit," I murmured and stuck my head back in the toilet bowl.
My phone rang, and I forced my stomach to keep it down long enough for me to answer.
"You're late," Mac said.
"Late?" I looked at the clock on my nightstand.
"Shit."
"Shit is right. The Captain's gonna crucify you if you're not down here in the next ten minutes."
"Stall for me, okay? I'm on my way."
Mac sighed. "I'll tell him you're sick or something. Better yet, I'll tell him you got your period." Mac laughed. "Even Captain Johnson won't question you on that one."
Something clicked in my brain.
"Thanks," I said. "I'll be there as soon as I can."
I stood up and started counting off the days on my hand.
Oh. My. God.
No way.
I called Mac back.
"Missed me so soon?" he joked.
"I'm gonna be a little later than I thought," I told him.
"What's up? Is your car down again? You need a ride? I'll come get you."
Shit. I'd almost forgotten about my car. I'd left it at the restaurant when Caden had driven me home.
"No, I'm just... I'm not feeling well."
Fuck.
I'd have to call Uber. No way was I gonna explain to Mac why my car was in an empty parking lot. And I certainly wasn't gonna ask him to drive me to the drugstore so I could get a bag full of pregnancy tests.
"Raina? Did you hear me?"
"Huh?"
"I said I'll just tell the Captain you were already here and went out to check on some leads."
"Yup, okay, sounds good. Thanks."
"You sure everything's alright?" he asked.
"Couldn't be better."
20
Caden
"Shit!" I yelled when I missed my fifth pass in a row. The crowd booed. Coach called me over to the sidelines.
"You're fucking up out there," he said. I grimaced. Coach was always so motivating.
"Yeah, I know. I'll do better."
He chewed on his lip a minute then nodded. I ran back out on the field and waved to everyone in the stands, putting on a happy face. I was glad now that neither Raina nor Eli had been able to make it tonight. The only thing worse than losing would have been losing in front of them.
The whistle blew, and the players started moving. I threw the ball to Frank, but it overshot him. He jumped for it and missed, getting creamed in the process by the other team. I took my helmet off and threw it on the ground. It was the beginning of the third quarter. I'd thought that after halftime, I'd be able to pull myself out of this slump, but I just couldn't do it.
I should never have checked my phone during halftime, that had only made things worse. But I'd thought maybe Raina had sent a text. Or rather, I'd hoped. In the back of my head, I was afraid she was gonna blow me off like last time we'd been together. There was no way I
was gonna let that happen.
The one text I'd had waiting for me had been from him. Mr. Asshole. I still didn't have a name for him, but I had to call him something. Mr. Asshole seemed appropriate enough, given the circumstances.
Coach called me back over to the sidelines. "Sit down," he said.
My stomach sank. "But Coach—"
"Don't argue with me, Scott; either sit down or go to the locker room. It's your choice."
I felt humiliated as I took a seat on the bench. Coach sent in Matt Conrad, the backup quarterback, who was more than happy to take over for me. Especially since his own contract was ending soon, and he had hopes of upping his new salary. If I kept fucking up, that meant the team wouldn't be able to afford to lose him.
I waited out the game on the benches, trying to act as though it didn't bother me. My team saw right through me, though. Most of the guys were pissed at me. Rumors were starting to circulate among them that I was drinking again. Part of me wished that was the case. At least then I would have known what to do.
We managed to squeak by with a win. The team celebrated, but I felt out of place. Coach called me into his office.
"You've got two choices for the next game," he said.
"Get better or you're gonna kick my ass?"
"No, I'm gonna kick your ass either way. Your choices are to fix whatever it is that's dragging you down, or I'm starting Conrad."
"Fuck, Coach, I'm busting my ass out there."
"I know you are. But you're not making the plays." He hesitated, which worried me. Coach wasn't a man who hesitated. "Tell me something, is it true what I've been hearing?"
"I don't know. What have you been hearing? If it's that I'm filthy rich and great, then guilty as charged."
Coach didn't even crack a smile. "Are you off the wagon?"
I checked my temper and reminded myself that no one had put me in this spot but me. Coach was just doing his job. "No." I gritted my teeth together and balled my hands up at my sides.
He nodded, accepting me at my word. "Then it's a girl."
My cheeks colored. "It's got nothing to do with a girl," I said, though less convincing.
"Yeah, right. And I'm the Queen of Egypt."
I kicked at the floor.
"No girl is worth losing your whole career over."
"It's not about a fucking girl," I said. What I didn't say was, At least not entirely.
I couldn't stop thinking about Raina. She was more than just a hot body to me, and I wanted her to know that. But that wasn't the big problem. Mr. Asshole was the big problem. Every time I was around Raina, I felt like I was infecting her with his bullshit.
"I promise, next game I'll be back on top."
"Fine. Show me your good in practice, and I'll let you start. But if you can't, it's Conrad."
He waved me out of the room. I waited until I'd changed and gotten outside before slamming my fist into whatever was nearby that wouldn't break. In this case, it was the hood of my car. I left a dent in it the size of a baseball.
My phone rang, and I looked at the number. "What?" I yelled.
"You got the money?" the voice rang back.
"Yeah. I told you I would." I popped my trunk and checked the duffel bag. It was all there. Fifty thousand fucking dollars. Once a month. Forever.
"Good. Here's the address."
He gave me a street number, and I punched it into my GPS.
"Leave it on the doorstep."
"The doorstep? What if someone takes it?"
"Then I'll kill them. I've killed before. It's not a problem."
A chill ran up my spine.
"Fine. I'll be there in an hour."
"You have twenty minutes."
"The game just ended. It's gonna take me that long just to get out of the parking lot."
"Twenty minutes," he repeated. "And remember, I know where you and your friends live."
My throat felt dry and scratchy. "My friends?"
"Raina Parker," he said nonchalantly, as if it was the most common name in the world. I froze. "Twenty minutes," he said again and hung up.
I turned the engine over and floored it.
21
Raina
Pregnant.
That word ran through my head hourly while I sat at my desk and stared, trying to focus on the crime scene photos. It was no use. My mind kept going back to the bathroom floor of my apartment where I'd spent yesterday morning sitting with my knees curled to my chest, waiting for the results.
Pregnant.
I was sure it had been a mistake at first. It had to be. I couldn't be pregnant.
I'd gone to the drugstore and gotten one of those double packs of tests that cost twenty dollars, taken both of them, and held my breath. They were both positive. After that, I'd run back out, bought another dozen, and cried while the little plus signs in the windows turned over. I'd had to drink a lot of water to get through all those tests, and I'd missed an entire day of work. I never missed work. Ever.
"It's already starting," I muttered to myself as my stomach clenched. Days and months of stomach sickness ran through my mind. Cramping. Bloating. More missed work. That was unacceptable. This whole fucking thing was unacceptable.
"Fuck," I muttered under my breath.
"What'd you say?" Mac asked.
I spun to see him standing behind me. "Nothing. Do you have to creep up on me like that?"
"I didn't creep," he said, his expression irritable.
Sorry," I sighed.
"Still not feeling well, huh?" he asked, softening.
I shook my head.
"You do look a little pale. Lucky for you, pale looks good on you. More like you're glowing than you're sick."
I smiled weakly at Mac's attempt at a compliment.
God, am I glowing already?
There were still so many unanswered questions. What was I going to do? Should I tell Caden? How would he react? Did I really want to bring a child into this world?
I took a deep breath and tried to brighten up. Mac was watching me.
"Need something?" I asked him.
"Yeah. I wondered if you'd heard anything back about that earring yet?"
"The earring?" I instinctively felt my ears. "I'm not wearing earrings."
He cocked his head to one side.
"I mean the one you found at the last crime scene. You know, while you were puking your guts out in the bushes."
"Oh! That earring! Right. No, haven't heard anything yet."
"You sure you're okay?" he asked. It was getting irritating as hell. Why did everyone keep asking me that? "You been to the doctor yet?"
"I'm fine," I said.
But that gave me a thought. I hadn't gone to the doctor. Maybe I should. I'd read about things like false positives in pregnancy tests. I wasn't so sure about a dozen or more false positives, but maybe there was some reason it could happen. An illness? A... well, hell, I didn't know, but for God's sake you could get a false positive on a drug test by eating too many poppy seed bagels; there must be some equivalent of that for pregnancy tests.
"Actually, you're right. I should go to the doctor. Cover for me, will ya?"
I jolted out of my chair and ran out the door before Mac could ask or say anything else. If I hurried, I might be able to get back to the station before Captain Johnson noticed I was gone. There was a clinic on the corner that we used for routine drug tests. I knew the nurse pretty well.
"Hey, Mabel," I said when I walked in.
"Hey, Raina." She smiled as she looked up from her computer at the reception desk. She was a somewhat pudgy woman with short, dark hair cut into a bob.
"I need a favor."
"Sure, got a perp you need to test?" She peered over my shoulder, but there was no one behind me.
"No. I need uh... er..." I was blushing furiously, which was only making things worse. "You do pregnancy tests here, right?"
Mabel's eyes widened. "Not for you?"
I looked around. The waiting area
was empty. "Kind of," I muttered. I knew there was no way she would tell anyone. Mabel wasn't the sort to gossip. Plus, who would she tell? It's not like she was gonna call up my captain and rat me out. I wondered what he'd say if he found out? Would they stick me in a desk job? I shuddered at the thought.
Mabel led me to a bathroom and gave me a cup. Twenty minutes later, she informed me that all the tests I'd taken were deadly accurate. I was pregnant.
I guess she could tell by my face that this wasn't exactly pleasant news.
"There are options, you know," she said and handed me a pamphlet. I glanced down at it.
"Abortion?" I cried. Not that the thought hadn't entered my mind until now, but seeing it handed to me in pamphlet form somehow made the idea more real.
"I can't," I told her, shoving the packet back into her hands. She pushed it back toward me.
"You don't need to make any decisions right now. If you're right and you're only a month or so along, which would be my guess as well, then you have some time. Can you talk to the father? See how he feels?"
I started chewing on my fingernails. "I guess so."
"That would be my advice. Not that you need it. You're a grown woman and can do as you want. But if it were me, I'd tell him. Right away. The longer you wait, the harder it gets. I've seen it too many times."
"Thanks," I said, and headed back to the station. I'd only been gone an hour. I could still get in a full day's work.
There was one thing I was positive about—no matter what happened, I couldn't let it interfere with my job. The work was too important to me. It wasn't just about catching burglars or killers. It was about keeping people safe.
I paused outside the station and dialed Caden's number. I had to talk to him. Now.
22
Caden
I answered on the third ring.
"Hey, pretty lady."
"Caden, it's Raina."
I frowned. "Yeah, I know. You think I always answer my phone that way?"
"What way?"