I stayed silent because I didn’t have an answer for him. He was right. I had handled it all so poorly. If I were in his shoes I wouldn’t forgive me either.
“It’s not the first time it’s happened either, Maggie. When I was first protecting you, I told you what I needed you to do and you ignored me almost every time. I get that you’re strong willed and you want to do things your way, but it was almost as if you didn’t care what I thought. That’s kind of how it always is with us. I need to know that what I need isn’t just an afterthought to you.”
I nodded. “Okay. Is there anything else?”
“As long as we’re going down this road, was there anything I did that made you keep running from me?”
“Besides your jealousy?”
He smirked and shook his head. “Besides my insane jealousy, yes.”
“I guess I always felt like this was your home and I was just a guest. We never talked about the future and I get that you didn’t feel like I was committed, but maybe I didn’t try very hard because we never talked about it. If we are going to try to be parents together, we need to be honest with each other about what we want from the future. If I’m not it, then I need you to just tell me. I think we just need to be utterly honest with one another.”
“I can do that.”
✯✯✯✯✯
I walked into Reed Security for my first day back and I was already three hours late. I couldn’t stop throwing up this morning and I wasn’t sure if it was nerves or morning sickness. Either way, it was not a good way to start my first day back.
I had taken last week to pack up what I wanted to bring with me from my house, but a lot was still at Sebastian’s house. I had never fully moved out. He had thought that I moved stuff to storage when I “sold” my house, but I really just left everything there. I sorted through everything that was left and decided what I was going to keep and what I would put in storage. Then, I contacted a realtor and had her list my house. It was sad to say goodbye to my house that I had bought when I finally saved up enough money working for The Pittsburgh Press, but I knew I was making the right decision.
Aggie and Harry were also hard to say goodbye to, but as much as I would miss them, I wouldn’t miss hearing about their favorite sexual positions. There are just some things you don’t need to know about your neighbors.
It had been a little awkward staying with Sebastian but not sleeping in the same bed. I wanted to be with him more than ever, but I knew he wasn’t ready to go there with me yet. Besides, jumping back into bed with him, even if we were just sleeping, wouldn’t make things any easier for us. I could see him watching me as I walked around his house and I could feel the heat of his gaze. It was hard to not suggest that since we were already having a baby, we might as well enjoy each other.
The worst was when he walked around the house in just his pants. His abs flexed as he moved and his pants hung low around his hips, showing off that sexy V with the thin trail of hair that led down to his huge cock. My mouth watered just picturing it even when I felt like I could throw up at any moment, but I was super horny now and all I wanted was to run up to him and lick his muscles. I doubted that me being pregnant was a good excuse for confusing things between us.
I made it to the door to the conference room when Sebastian stopped me.
“Hey, you don’t look so good this morning.” He had been hounding me since we moved my stuff down over the weekend.
“It wasn’t my best morning.”
My heart did a little pitter pat as he looked at me with concern. God, I loved this man. I was such an idiot sometimes.
“Any dizziness?”
He had been feeding me anything rich in iron since we got the results back from the doctor. He had put me on a supplement when the results came back that I was in fact anemic. That had been helping with the dizziness, but Sebastian still hounded me constantly.
“No dizziness, just morning sickness.”
He nodded. “Come with me.” He dragged me down the hall to the break room. The smell instantly hit me and almost had me running for the bathroom. “I’ve stocked every kind of food I could that you should be eating and I’ve made it clear that no one is to touch your food.”
“Sebastian, half of this stuff will make me throw up if I try to eat it and the other half is about to make me throw up now from the smell.”
“Well, you have to eat so that you’ll feel better. The doctor said that if you keep eating and drinking water, the nausea will go away.”
“And if I keep eating when I already feel nauseous, it’s going to end up in the toilet.”
He opened the fridge and started pulling out green stuff. “What is that?” I pointed to the leafy greens.
“Kale. I figured I’d make you a smoothie.”
“Made out of grass.”
“It’s not grass and it’ll help.”
“You think me drinking something the color of puke will make me feel better?”
“So don’t look at it.”
“Sebastian, maybe all of you walking around with overgrown testosterone think kale is the best thing to put in a smoothie, but it’s not. Smoothies are supposed to be made with fun things like fruit and milk and alcohol.” He gave me a pointed look. “Well, mine used to be made like that,” I grumbled.
“Not anymore. Only healthy stuff now.”
“Right, well, if I have to eat healthy then so do you.”
“Fine,” he said as he went back to the fridge and pulled out more stuff.
“That means no more pizza for you.”
He shrugged as he started to separate the vegetables and clean them. “I can do that.”
“And no more chocolate.”
“I don’t really eat chocolate.”
My face contorted into something like complete bewilderment. “What kind of person doesn’t eat chocolate?”
“I’m more of a sweets guy, but I’d give it up for you.”
I was baffled. How had I not figured out in the past two years that he didn’t like chocolate? Surely there was something I could say that would sway him. And then it hit me. “No more drinking.”
He just gave me a look that said that was the stupidest thing he’d ever heard. “You know I don’t drink.”
“Not hard alcohol, but you do like beer.” I smiled in satisfaction when he stopped chopping and glared at me. “If I can’t have it, then neither can you.”
“Fine,” he said through clenched teeth. He started chopping again, all leafy vegetables and no fun.
“What else is there?” I asked in disgust.
“Spinach, collard greens, and swiss chard.”
“Swiss chard? What the hell is that? It doesn’t even sound good.”
“It’s a vegetable. The leaves are very nutritious.”
“You realize that even this stuff should be eaten in moderation, right? You’re going to send me into an..antianemic coma!”
“Antianemic coma?”
“Whatever.”
“I’m making liver for dinner tonight.”
“You expect me to eat liver? No, that’s not going to happen.”
“Well, the other options are heart, kidney, or beef tongue. I figured you would be most likely to eat liver.”
“I’ve done my research too and chicken and steak are just as nutritious.”
“But they make you throw up.”
“And you don’t think eating liver will make me throw up? It’s like I’m in The Temple Of Doom. What’s next? Are snakes going to slither out of monkey brains?”
He hit the button on the blender and mixed the vegetables that now resembled green sludge. Then, he poured the thick combination into a glass and shoved it at me. “Here, drink.”
I poured him a glass also and pushed it toward him. “After you.”
He picked it up and downed the glass, but I saw how his throat had to work to swallow it and how his whole body convulsed when it slid down his throat. When he finished, he wiped his mouth and let out
a breath, looking away from me to hide the disgust on his face.
“Your turn.”
“No thanks. I’ve already thrown up three times today.”
“You said, after you.”
“Hmm. I did imply that I would drink it, didn’t I?”
“And you’re going to,” he said forcefully.
I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him. “If I drink that, I’m going to be throwing up the rest of the day.”
“You’ll be fine. It’ll make you feel better.”
Twenty minutes later, after throwing up for the fourth time, Sebastian drove me home, apologizing the whole way. I groaned and stared out the window, vowing to find some way to get him back for what he just put me through.
✯✯✯✯✯
About a week later, I was finally feeling better most mornings and could actually get into work at a reasonable time. Becky and I had been working like crazy to get all the systems back online and restore the data that had been erased. Sebastian had ordered a bunch of new security measures to be taken, so Becky worked on that and had me working on smaller jobs that she could easily show me how to do. I was sure that she could get it all done faster than me, but she insisted with Rob being gone that I was helping.
I was working on organizing some files when I came across one that was particularly interesting. It was labeled with my name, but when I clicked on it, the file was locked. You could only enter the password once or the file would self destruct. Since I didn’t know the password, I went to Becky for answers.
“Becky?” She was working on several computers, her fingers typing away faster than I could ever hope to type.
“What’s up? Did you already finish?”
“I was wondering why there’s a file with my name on it that’s locked.”
She stopped and looked up at me. “Oh my gosh. I completely forgot with everything going on.” She pulled up another screen and then accessed the document from her computer. “Here, remember you asked me to get everything I could on your parents’ deaths? Here it is.” She entered the password and there it all was. Everything that I could ever hope to know about the investigation and the people that conducted it.
“I forgot that I asked you to do that for me.”
“Well, we’ve been preoccupied.”
I started scrolling through the information, completely wrapped up in everything in front of me. “I wouldn’t look at it now. If boss man walks in, he’s going to want to see it.”
“You’re right.” I closed out of it and stared at the screen that was teasing me with the information I had been after for years.
“Here, I’ll put it on this drive for you. You can access it from your computer with a password.”
“Thank you so much, Becky. I don’t know how to thank you.”
“No problem. I already looked at it,” she said as she got back to work.
“And?”
She stopped working and shook her head. “I didn’t see anything that would help, but maybe you’ll have more luck.”
My heart sank. If Becky, the super hacker, didn’t have any luck, what were my chances. I smiled and thanked her, then got back to my work. I was distracted the whole day, wanting to get home and open the file again and really dig in.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Sebastian
“HOW’S KNIGHT DOING?” I asked Hunter. I had called him into the office to discuss how we were going to handle helping Knight. Now that he had turned on a client, word would get out. His reputation was basically shot. He couldn’t continue under the name he had and he was also out of a job.
“He’s coming along. Kate stayed with him at the house for a few days to make sure he was okay.”
“Has he said what he plans to do now?”
“I don’t know. He hasn’t exactly had a heart to heart with me about what he’s going to do. We never thought we would see each other again. That was the deal.”
“Well, he can’t resume work under his current name and everyone knows his style and he has that tattoo that everyone knows about.”
Hunter looked at me curiously. “You want him to come work here?”
“Are you fucking kidding me? He held Maggie with a knife to her throat and blew up half of Reed Security.”
“Well, yeah, there are those few minor details, but he did help us take out Reiner.”
“I took a bullet for him,” I countered.
“In the vest.”
“Did I mention he held my pregnant..Maggie hostage with a knife?”
He shrugged. “You had him.”
“What exactly would you suggest he do here?” I asked, leaning back in my chair and trying to decide if I could handle having Knight walking around my building.
“Don’t know exactly, but you know he would be an asset.”
“He hasn’t answered to anyone in years. What makes you think he would even want to be a part of the team?”
“He loves a good cause.”
“We deal with bratty socialites half the time. I highly doubt that would grab his interest.”
“You could put him in charge of training. With Cazzo out for the foreseeable future, we could use the help.”
“Why do you want him to work here so badly?”
Hunter sat across from me quietly for a minute, thinking through his answer. “He’s a good guy and my friend. It feels like we’ve come too close to losing friends lately. I just don’t want to lose another.”
I understood exactly what he was saying. Between Cal, Sinner, and Cazzo, it felt like our teams were falling apart at the seams. Hell, even Hunter, Lola, and Derek had taken on the reaper. “I’ll talk with Derek and Cazzo, whenever he checks in, but I’m not making any guarantees. If they’re not on board, it’s a no go.”
“I appreciate it, Cap.” He stood and walked out to the door and I got back to work. “Hey, by the way, congratulations on the baby.”
That was the first time someone had said that to me. Things had been so up in the air with Maggie that I think no one had wanted to say anything in case she changed her mind. It felt great to let myself enjoy the moment.
“Thanks,” I grinned.
“Are you hoping for a boy or girl?”
“A little girl would be nice, I guess.”
Hunter threw his head back in laughter. “We’re going to have to hide all the guns.”
“Why?” I asked in confusion.
“Can you imagine a little girl that looked just like Maggie? None of the teenage boys will be safe with you around.”
Crap. I hadn’t even thought about that. “A boy it is then.”
✯✯✯✯✯
“Sebastian, can I talk to you for a minute?”
Maggie was standing in the doorway to my room in a pair of shorts and an old t-shirt that I gave her when she first moved in here. She looked stunning, even in sleepwear. Her hair was pulled up in a messy bun and the curly tendrils fell around her face. She looked a lot better now that the morning sickness had passed. As far as I knew, she hadn’t been having any more issues with dizziness since she’d been taking the supplements.
I felt myself harden when she placed the ball of her foot on top of the other, making her knee bend and showcasing her calves. I don’t know why, but something about seeing her perfect calves had me hardening as she stood there, obviously unsure of herself.
“Sure, what do you need?” I asked as I closed my laptop and set it on the bed next to me. I bent one leg and draped my elbow across it to hopefully hide my erection from her. She came in and sat on the foot of my bed, looking a little agitated. “Is something wrong?”
“No. I have to tell you something and I’m really hoping you won’t be mad at me.”
“Okay.” It was never good when someone said something like that.
“I asked Becky to get me some information a while back and with everything that happened, she just got it to me a few weeks ago.”
“What kind of information?”
&nbs
p; “I wanted her to get me all the information she could on my parents’ deaths.”
I shrugged, not seeing what the big deal was. “You could have asked me for it. I would have gotten it for you.”
“I also had her dig into the records of everyone that was investigating the accident.”
“I’m assuming that since you didn’t look for that information yourself, you needed a hacker to get it.”
She nodded. “I didn’t want to ask you because I knew you would try to help me.”
I grunted in frustration. “You know, Maggie, this is why we have problems-”
“Hold on. Please let me finish.” I waved for her to continue. “When I asked her for this information, we had just broken up. I thought that maybe if I could figure out what really happened that night, I could move on. I looked through all the records and I haven’t found anything yet.” She gnawed on her lip and rolled her eyes, something she did a lot with me. “I want to go back to Kansas and look into it there. I need to be sure that there’s nothing to find. I was hoping that you would go with me.”
She sounded so exasperated that I couldn’t help but laugh. When she narrowed her eyes at me, I laughed harder. Maggie asking for help was a sight to behold.
“Stop laughing. It’s not funny.”
I laughed harder.
“You’re such an ass.” She stood and stomped to the door. “I’ll go myself!”
I got up and ran after her, pinning her against the door frame. “Was that really so hard to do?” I asked her. I hadn’t been this close to her in weeks and it was killing me. I was already hard just from her standing in my doorway in my t-shirt. I missed seeing those beautiful legs every morning and I missed the feel of her soft skin against mine.
“I’m not used to asking for help,” she said sullenly.
I leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips. “Thank you,” I whispered against them. I felt the warmth of her hands pressed against my chest and then they slid up and around my neck, her fingertips skimming through my hair. Then the taste of her was on my tongue as she pushed hers inside my mouth. Fireworks exploded in my chest as I pulled her closer, feeling her warmth all around my body. Then she pulled back, panting and trying to regain her breath.
Cap_A Reed Security Romance Page 20