Night Edge (17 page)
Authors: Jessica Hawkins
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“No,” she said softly, shaking her head. “It’s not all.”
She readjusted her grip on his wrist—her palm was sweating. He glanced down. His hand wasn’t actually flattened on her waist but her lower abdomen.
“When you said—” She paused, and he looked back at her face. Her expression had changed, her lips rolled inward with a frown. Her furrowed eyebrows lined her forehead with wrinkles. “Sometimes things don’t really happen the way you plan—” She blew out a sigh and laughed in a strange, jittery way. “Obviously.”
Beau lengthened his spine. Her demeanor had suddenly flipped, and he didn’t need that. He didn’t need to have the rug pulled out from under him again. Just a minute ago, she’d shoved her hand in his chest, taken hold of his heart, forced him to say
mercy
. Now, she could barely look him in the eye.
“What’s wrong?” Beau asked. “Whatever it is, you can tell me. Nothing’s going to change my—”
“I’m pregnant.”
Beau jerked his head forward, his mouth and eyes wide open. They were both shaking—her body, his head side to side. They’d fucked a lot during the two nights of their arrangement, over and over. Him coming inside her, needing to own her in the quickest, most irrefutable way possible. He gulped some air, closed his mouth. “You’re what? With—with me?”
She bit her bottom lip. “Yes.
We
are pregnant. I know it’s not—what happened was, when my purse was stolen, my birth control was in there. When I moved in, we had those rules—I didn’t think we’d—”
Beau squeezed his eyes shut for a brief second. He could barely hear her over the ringing in his ears. He was grateful he’d stepped away from the cliff. It came back to him all at once, his moment of weakness, taking her from behind against the bathroom counter. It’d nearly driven her away. He hadn’t understood why then. It’d never occurred to him to ask about birth control.
That little girl in his dream, clutching Lola’s leg, both of them otherworldly, divine. That was going to be his
reality
? After all the wrong he’d done, he was going to have that pureness in his life, that picture of perfection?
She was still talking. “And I know I signed that agreement—”
It was awkward handling her that way. He pulled his hand off her stomach and held it up. “Stop.”
She blinked, her blue eyes sparkling more than usual, red and shiny with tears. By her quivering chin, she was trying not to cry. “You’re not saying anything.”
Already, he felt out of control. That’s what children were—just a clusterfuck of disarray and irrational behavior. They couldn’t be reasoned with.
Not his little girl, though. She’d be an angel.
Beau breathed hard through his nose, his insides running amuck. No, not his little girl, who was going to be as loved and revered as her mother.
He looked down at Lola, whose expression had morphed from anxious to horrified.
“What?” he asked. “Are you afraid of my reaction?”
Her face tightened up along with her jaw, her shoulders. “No.” The wetness in her eyes evaporated. “You want this baby, Beau Olivier. Whether you know it or not.”
He couldn’t help his chuckle, even if it did sound a bit stiff. “I know it.”
She opened her mouth.
Beau didn’t let her speak. He dropped to his knees and slid up her top to expose her stomach. He cocked his head, examining the flawless, porcelain skin, the utter flatness of her abs. He glanced up at her. “You’re sure?”
She nodded, slow but exaggerated. “Since before I even took the test.”
Beau blinked lazily, feeling like he’d downed an entire bottle of his finest Scotch. “It’s a girl.”
Lola reared back a little, but he didn’t let go of her. Her loud and sudden scoff skittered into a disbelieving laugh. “
Excuse
me?”
He got up again, brushing off his knees. “It’s a girl. I’ve seen her.”
She wrinkled her nose, pulling her head back. “Okay. You’ve finally…snapped.”
He held her gaze, trying to stay serious, but he gave in and grinned. “That’s possible. But if this is insanity, I like it here. Fuck, do I like it.”
Her smile became hopeful, her face upturned to him like he was her sun. He knew without a doubt—he would never forget the beauty of this moment.
“You do?” she asked.
He took her face in his hands, felt her cheeks, her hair, ran the pad of his thumb over her bottom lip. “Is this too good to be real? Did I die in a plane crash on the way back from New Orleans?”
She took one of his hands and kissed his palm. “I’m so sorry I hurt you. Let me make it better. This is real. This is how it’s supposed to be.” She laced her fingers with his, watching them with a look of fascination. “Except you have one detail wrong. It’s minor, really.”
“What’s that?”
“We’re having a boy.”
He arched an eyebrow, glancing down between them and back at her. “It’s too early for you to know that.”
“Call it a mother’s instinct.”
“Oh, mother’s instinct. Right.” He couldn’t wait another second—he leaned down and kissed her on the lips once, a second time. She tasted a certain way—a certain way he’d missed. “What should we name her?”
“Him.”
“Her.”
“I’m positive,” she said.
“I’ve never been more sure of anything,” he said.
“I guess we’ll see then, won’t we?”
How could she even doubt him? Did she have any idea who she was dealing with? Once he described the details of his dream—the soft black curls of his daughter’s hair, her giggle-drunk smile—Lola would see. Beau never ignored his instinct. After all, that was how they’d gotten there, on a cliff, on the brink of their lives, as night fell over the Grand Canyon. He’d seen a girl on a stage under a spotlight, and he’d known.
That one. I won’t stop until I have
her.
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Strictly Off Limits: A Forbidden Romance Novella
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The Cityscape Series
tells a compelling story of devotion, deception, and forbidden love.
Come Undone
is book one of three.
Olivia Germaine has already found love. Devoted wife, loyal friend, determined career woman—she’s created the life she always envisioned. But when Olivia locks eyes with a handsome stranger across a crowded room, he peers a little too closely and sees emotions she thought she’d buried long ago.
David Dylan, alleged playboy and eternal bachelor, challenges Olivia to confront the life she’s built and to make decisions that could either lead to happiness…or regret.
Will Olivia be able to draw the line between lust and love? And can David respect that line?
Start the completed, forbidden-romance trilogy today with book one,
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jessica Hawkins grew up between the purple mountains and under the endless sun of Palm Springs, California. She studied international business at Arizona State University and has also lived in Costa Rica and New York City. To her, the most intriguing fiction is forbidden, and that’s what you’ll find in her stories. Currently, she resides wherever her head lands, which is often the unexpected (but warm) keyboard of her trusty MacBook.
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COPYRIGHT
Cover Photos ©
CoffeeAndMilk
&
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Night Edge (Night Fever Serial 4)
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system without the prior written permission of the author.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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