The Dare Collection May 2019

by JC Harroway

  CHAPTER THREE

  Twelve weeks later

  “THAT ABOUT SUMS it up. The new account didn’t request anything fancy, but we’d be assholes if we left them exposed. Better to just go the extra mile.” Aaron slid the file across the table to his business partner, Cameron O’Clery. “You want to handle this one, or should I?” Their security business focused heavily on all things tech related, and this new account was no different. Once they got the initial cybersecurity laid down, they would maintain it for as long as their retainer was paid, but it took time to figure out exactly what the client needed—and often enough, it wasn’t what the client thought they needed.

  Cameron flipped through it. “You usually don’t ask me—you just dole out the clients.”

  Aaron tensed, but it was the truth. He tended to be the client-facing part of the company, and he picked and chose which ones he passed to Cameron because Cameron...wasn’t particularly patient with people he considered too stupid to live. Unfortunately for any prospective business-client relationships, Cameron found ninety percent of the world too stupid to live. Some clients could handle his attitude because he was the best cybersecurity expert in the city, and some couldn’t. Part of Aaron’s job was figuring that out. “We’re partners.”

  “Never said we weren’t.” Cameron sat back and laced his fingers behind his head. He was a big fucker, his white T-shirt stretched tight against his dark skin. He narrowed brown eyes at Aaron. “You’re off your game—have been for weeks. I didn’t ask, but if it’s going to affect the job, maybe it’s time to.”

  “It’s nothing.” Just a blue-haired woman he couldn’t seem to scrub from his mind. He hadn’t tracked Becka down after she’d left so abruptly because she couldn’t have been clearer in wanting nothing to do with him. If he was smart, he would have left what happened between them in that room behind as easily as she had.

  But she haunted his dreams.

  He kept waking up and reaching for her, only to find himself alone in bed. It didn’t make a damn bit of sense. It had been sex—outstanding, earth-shattering sex, but sex. A single fuck shouldn’t screw with his mind so effectively.

  “Doesn’t look like nothing to me.” Cameron held his hands up. “Not my business. Just handle your shit, Aaron. I can take this client.”

  He thought about the timid man who had signed the contract earlier that day and sat back. “Nah, I got it. This guy needs a softer touch.”

  “Shit. Take it.” Cameron slid the file back to him with a disgusted look on his face. “I’ve got to tie up a few loose ends with the last one. She came back wanting changes despite the job being done. Nothing I can’t handle, but it’s a pain in the ass.”

  “Always is.” Aaron grabbed the file and rose. “Let me know if you need an assist.”

  “I don’t.” Cameron frowned. “Though I think we might need to expand the team to include someone to handle paperwork and all that shit. It’s taking too much time from the jobs themselves, and you know how I feel about paperwork.”

  “The same way you feel about most things.” He hated it.

  Cameron nodded. “I’ll post a job opening. Figure they can man the phones and the main email account to field and file prospective clients. Frees you up to focus on the jobs and stop handling me.”

  Considering Aaron didn’t know who they would hire who was capable of handling Cameron, he just nodded. It was a problem for another day. First, he had to arrange a secondary meeting with the new client and bring them up to date with the prospective client list sitting in his inbox. Throwing a new person into the mix without them being caught up was a recipe for disaster.

  That said, it would be nice to delegate some of the more tedious tasks. “Sounds like a plan.”

  He headed out of the room. They owned the entire floor of this building, but they really only utilized their respective offices, a boardroom and a waiting room that was more neglected than anything else.

  Their cybersecurity company was small, but both he and Cameron preferred it that way. With the reputation they’d spent years building, they could handpick their clients and charge top dollar for their services. But the demand seemed to be increasing lately, which meant they’d have to hire that secretary—and potentially add a cybersecurity specialist or two to their team—sooner, rather than later.

  Aaron stopped in the hallway and tried to picture what the waiting room would look like with someone at the desk livening up the place. He preferred to take his meetings with clients off-site, and Cameron preferred not to take them at all. Aaron shook his head. If the secretary stayed on for more than a week, it’d be a fucking miracle.

  His phone started ringing as he strode into his office. He cursed and fished it out of his pocket. An unfamiliar number scrolled across the screen. Aaron took a breath and put his professional persona on. “Aaron Livingston.”

  “Hey, Aaron.”

  Three months later, he’d still recognize Becka’s voice anywhere. He walked back to his office, shut his door, and moved around his desk to sit down. “I didn’t expect to hear from you.” He realized how that must sound and grimaced. “But I’m glad you called.”

  “Yeah, well, I didn’t expect to call.” Her voice went thick as if she was...holding back tears? “Funny story. Remember when the condom broke? Well, apparently the pill isn’t one hundred percent foolproof because, surprise, I’m pregnant.”

  He waited for the words to rearrange themselves into an order that made sense. They stayed stubbornly in place. “What?”

  “Pregnant. With your kid.” She cleared her throat. “I, ah, I wasn’t going to keep it, but I chickened out at the last second, and it turns out I want this baby. I’m sorry. I swear to God I didn’t know this would happen, and I don’t expect anything from you. It’s not your problem—it’s mine. I just... I thought you should know.”

  A baby.

  His baby.

  With Becka.

  He closed his eyes and tried to focus. She thought he would wash his hands of this. Aaron had questions—a whole hell of a lot of questions—but he didn’t honestly believe that Becka had tricked him into getting her pregnant. She sounded upset and scared, and the fact she’d let that slip through what he surmised were impressive shields meant she was exponentially more freaked out. How long have you been sitting on this knowledge, scared and alone?

  He wasn’t about to let her shoulder it by herself. That child was half his, and if she was keeping it, he would be in the baby’s life. End of story.

  That decided, he opened his eyes, plan in place. “Where are you?”

  “What? I’m at home.”

  “Text me the address.”

  She hesitated, and he could almost see her arguing with herself about having him in her house. Well, too fucking bad. Whether she liked it or not, Aaron was in her life, and he wasn’t going anywhere. They had a future in common, one way or another. Finally, Becka sighed. “Okay.”

  “Good. I’ll see you soon.” He hung up and stared at his phone.

  His life had just taken a hard right turn. He had no fucking idea how he was going to keep it from going off the rails entirely. One step at a time. Talk to Becka in person. Be calm. Reassure her. Get her to see things your way.

  Shouldn’t be too difficult. Right?

  * * *

  Becka nearly paced a hole in her floor waiting for Aaron to show up. She should have realized he was going to demand to see her face-to-face when she called, but part of her had honestly thought he’d be relieved not to be asked to do anything. Isn’t that what most guys wanted in a shitty situation like this? To be absolved of all responsibility so they could go on with their lives unscathed while the woman was left to clean up the mess they’d created together?

  You were projecting and you damn well know it. She caught herself wringing her hands and cursed. “I can do better than this. It’s just
a baby.”

  A baby she hadn’t signed up for.

  She touched her stomach gingerly. There were none of the symptoms movies had told her to expect—aside from being extra exhausted all the time—but her doctor had confirmed there was, in fact, a baby growing inside her. A freaking baby.

  She didn’t know how to be a mom. Lucy was the nurturer. The planner. The one who took care of everyone around her and was universally loved as a result. Becka had too much of their mother in her. She was too selfish, too bitchy, just too much across the board. Up until she made the call to keep the baby, she’d been sure she didn’t want kids at all—better to let the sins of the past lie and not tempt fate. Lucy always told her there was no reason to think they’d end up like their parents, but Becka didn’t believe her any more now than she had as a kid.

  The buzzer sounded, and she jumped half out of her skin. “Shit.” Aaron was here. There was no time to think of a new, better plan. There was nothing left to do but buzz him up.

  Thirty seconds later, she opened the door and froze. How had she forgotten how magnetic he was? His broad shoulders took up the space of her narrow door frame, and he wore a suit that probably cost as much as a couple months of her rent. Becka belatedly realized she was blocking the entrance and stepped back, letting him into her apartment.

  He looked around, and she could almost see the thoughts rolling through his head. Shabby place. Secondhand furniture. A hole in the drywall from where she’d accidentally kicked it in when she fell out of a headstand a year ago. It was clean, but she was barely there long enough to sleep between teaching classes at Allie’s gym, Transcend, and her second job as a personal trainer at an upscale facility downtown. She’d never seen a reason to spiff up the place when that money could be spent in better places.

  Now, she kind of wished she’d told Aaron to meet her somewhere else so he wouldn’t have seen this.

  He turned as she shut the door and gave her an equally thorough examination. His gaze landed on her flat stomach and then rose to her face. “You’re not facing this alone.”

  It was tempting to throw herself at his feet and beg him to hold her until this whole thing went away. Fear ate at the edges of her mind, and there was no easy answer to combat it. Hell, there were no answers at all.

  But Becka had spent all her adult life fighting to stand on her own. She wasn’t about to compromise that now for a man who was essentially a stranger. She lifted her chin. “Easy for you to say. I’m the one incubating the kid, and I’m going to be the one solely responsible for its needs.”

  “In this...apartment.” The way he said the last word translated to hovel.

  She glared. “There’s nothing wrong with my apartment.”

  “You have a hole in your wall.” He stalked around her kitchen. “Water damage on the floor.” The living room. “The rugs are worn down to nothing.” Aaron almost sounded like he was talking to himself instead of her. “If you don’t have money to repair this place, you sure as fuck don’t have money to give our baby everything he or she needs.”

  She wanted to tell him she didn’t need him at all, that she’d find a way, but the hard reality was that Aaron had money and Becka didn’t. She made a comfortable living for herself, but she didn’t need much to get by in the grand scheme of things.

  A baby changed that.

  She turned away and wrapped her arms around herself. You can compromise. Try it—just this once. “I’m willing to negotiate some kind of...child support or something. If that’s something you’re comfortable with.” She wasn’t comfortable with it, but she’d suck up her pride and get over herself if it meant he could help her meet the baby’s needs.

  “No.”

  Becka turned back to find Aaron shaking his head and doing another circuit around her apartment. “What?”

  “I said, no.” He poked the threadbare pillow on the couch. “You can’t live like this while you’re pregnant. You shouldn’t be living like this right now.”

  “Excuse me?” Anger flared through her, and she welcomed it with open arms. Easier to be angry than to be scared, easier to fight than to admit she was in over her head and didn’t know what she was going to do. “There’s nothing wrong with my apartment.”

  “The list of everything wrong with this place is longer than we have time for. Pack your bags. We’re leaving.”

  Her jaw dropped. “You’re crazy.”

  “No, you’re crazy if you think I’m going to let the mother of my future child live in these conditions when I have a perfectly adequate apartment that will fit both of us and the baby without crowding.” He crossed his arms over his chest and frowned. “I have a spare room, if that’s what you’re worried about. I don’t expect you to be in my bed.”

  The top of her head damn near exploded. “No.”

  “Wrong answer.”

  She sputtered. “You can’t just decide to move me in with you. That’s not how any of this works.”

  Aaron stalked to the fridge and opened it. He barked out a laugh. “I suspected as much. There isn’t even fucking food in your fridge.” He turned and glared. “Let me lay it out for you—you have two options.”

  “I choose the option where you get the hell out of my life.”

  “That’s not on the list.” If anything, her anger only made him calmer, icier. He nodded at the door leading into her bedroom. “You can walk in there, pack your shit and come with me to my place. You’ll settle in. It will take some adjusting, but it’s doable.” He shrugged. “Or I can call your sister and brother-in-law—and Roman and Allie, since they have a vested interest in your well-being—and we can all have a sit-down about your current living conditions and how you’re rejecting a perfectly reasonable plan out of hand.”

  Checkmate.

  She could actually hear the cage click into place around her. Becka didn’t have a chance in hell of winning that argument with all the parties involved. Allie would be sympathetic to her plight, but Lucy would offer a secondary option of moving in with her. Both Gideon and Roman would go into protective older brother roles and, no matter which way they fell on the argument, Becka wouldn’t come out on top. She didn’t stand a chance.

  She snarled. “That’s blackmail.”

  “It’s called skillful negotiation. You should try it sometime.”

  I will not punch my baby daddy. I will not just chop him in his stupidly attractive throat.

  She counted to ten, but it did nothing to lower her blood pressure. There had to be a way out of this. Aaron was obviously only steamrolling her because he had an honorable streak that apparently demanded he borderline kidnap her. Okay, maybe not that honorable. She just needed to buy some time, to get a little distance to figure out what she wanted.

  It was the one thing Becka couldn’t pin down.

  She knew she wanted the baby. The rest was terrifyingly hazy.

  She gritted her teeth. “I’ll consider it.”

  He stared at her so long, she just knew he was weighing his options—including throwing her over his shoulder and hauling her ass back to his place. Finally, Aaron nodded. “You have until tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow?”

  “At that point, I’m coming back here. Whether I come back alone or with Roman and Gideon in tow is entirely up to you.” He strode to the door and paused to look over his shoulder at her. “Don’t let stubbornness get in the way of what’s best for the baby.” He was gone before she could give in to the impulse to throw something at his head.

  Becka stumbled over to her ugly green couch and sank onto it. She let her head fall to her hands and spit out every single curse she knew. It didn’t make her feel better. She wasn’t sure anything could make her feel better at this point.

  “I am so freaking screwed.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “OKAY, LET ME see if I have this straight—you’re pregnant.
”

  Becka didn’t lift her face from the pillow. Maybe if she concentrated, her couch would swallow her whole and she wouldn’t have to deal with this mess anymore. She’d called Allie in desperation, but confessing the truth had taken the last of her energy and now all she wanted was to curl up in a ball and wait for this to blow over. Fat chance of that happening.

  Allie’s footsteps echoed through the apartment. “You’re pregnant,” she repeated. “Okay, right. Pregnant.”

  “You said that already. Three times.”

  “Right. And it’s Aaron Livingston’s. And Aaron wants you to move in with him for, what, the duration of the pregnancy? Or are you supposed to live there forever?”

  She groaned and pressed her face harder into the pillow. “He didn’t specify.”

  “Because you kicked him out after yelling at him that you’d live with him over your dead body.”

  Becka frowned and lifted her head. Allie stood across the small living room, her hands on her hips. She looked like some kind of plus-size superhero on her day off, her blond hair windblown and her black leggings and fitted sweater comfortable and stylish. But it was the contemplative look on her face that sent alarm bells pealing through Becka’s head. “You don’t sound angry and self-righteous. Why don’t you sound angry and self-righteous? You should be angry and self-righteous.”

  “Unpopular opinion—but Aaron Livingston isn’t a total monster.”

  She rolled onto her back and flung her arm over her eyes. “That lack of monstrosity really commends him to be my baby daddy.”

  “Becka, I’m serious. He and Roman are good friends. I’ve hung out with him a few times.” She hesitated long enough that Becka lifted her arm and shot her a look. Allie seemed to be silently arguing with herself. Finally, she said, “I think you should do it.”

  “What?”

  “I know you, and if I offer for you to stay with me and Roman, you’re going to say—”

  “Hell, no.” She didn’t need her family and friends to swoop in and take care of her. Becka had gotten into this situation on her own—well, technically with Aaron, but whatever—and she wasn’t going to drag anyone else in alongside her. Allie and Lucy finally had things working out for them. They didn’t need Becka’s mistakes putting a damper on their happily-ever-afters.