Bastard (50 page)

“You annoyed the crap out of me until I fell in love with you.”

“I did not,” I screech, pinching his arm.

“Ouch,” he says laughing, rubbing his bicep. “Your fingers are lethal.”

“I’m sorry,” I reply, planting a soft kiss where I’d pinched him.

“My dick hurts too, will you kiss that better?” I narrow my eyes at him when he grabs hold of his crotch, and we both laugh.

“Nice try.”

“Well you’ve gotta give me ten points for trying,” he says putting his hand on the small of my back and leading me inside. I’ll gladly kiss his dick after the tour, but I’m not telling him that.

You can smell the fresh paint when we enter. The walls are painted in a soft lemon. The floor tiles are white. There’s a long white reception counter on one side, and a row of white chairs along the floor to ceiling window at the front of the reception area. A green indoor palm tree sits in one corner in a tall white ceramic pot. It looks so clean, so fresh. I love it.

My eyes dart everywhere while Carter moves to disable the alarm. “The code is two thousand and ten,” he says coming to stand beside me again. “Just like my shop. It was a very important year.”

“It was?” My mind starts to race. What was so important in two thousand and ten?

“It was the year my life changed for the better. It was the year I met you,” he says leaning down to kiss the top of my head.
Awww.
He says the sweetest things sometimes.

Grabbing hold of my trembling hand, he leads me through to the back. There are two large examination rooms. They’re both identical. It makes me think of the pissy little room I had when I worked for Mark. This place shits all over his. Both rooms are complete with stainless steel examination tables in the centre of the room, and white custom-made benchtops running the whole length of the far wall. It has drawers and cupboards for storing supplies and equipment in.

“I know the walls are bare, but I wanted you to be able to add your own touch. I’ve just set you up with the basics.”

“It’s perfect,” I say squeezing his hand. I’m still in shock that he has done this for me, but I’m beaming as he shows me around. We move further down the corridor until we come to a larger room. It’s completely decked out for surgery, with two large stainless steel operating tables in the centre of the room. I’m flabbergasted. Lost for words. This would’ve cost him a fortune to set up. How he managed to do this in a little over a week amazes me. “I love you,” I tell him, sliding my hand around his waist and resting my head on his arm.

Eventually leaving his side I walk around the room, skimming my hands over everything. I can’t wait to get this place up and running. Adjacent to the room is a door that leads to the recovery area. There are cages stacked three high, lining both walls. This will be not only for the animals that have to stay after surgery, but any sick animals that need to be here for observation or treatment overnight. Living upstairs is going to make keeping an eye on them so much easier.

“Oh, Carter,” I say, throwing my arms around him when the tour is complete. “I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything, babe. I’m glad I could do this for you. I probably should confess. I did have an ulterior motive.”

“You did?” I ask.

“Yes. This was my way of guaranteeing you’d stay up here with me,” he says smiling sheepishly.

“Well I hate to tell you, but you wasted your money because I would’ve stayed regardless. You’re stuck with me Mr. Reynolds.”

“Damn,” he says, and we both laugh. “I’ve organised a rep to come meet with you on Wednesday so you can stock up on the supplies you’re gonna need before you open.”

“You’re amazing,” I reply placing my lips on his.

“I know.”

“And extremely modest,” I add, kissing him again.

“That too,” he chuckles.

“And all mine.”

“You better believe it, baby,” he says.

Next we head upstairs so I can see the renovations he’s made to the apartment. “Wow,” is all I say when we first enter. I can’t believe how much bigger it looks. They’ve knocked down the majority of the wall that divided both buildings, opening the space right up.

“We have three bedrooms now. Our room has moved. I’ve even added an en-suite so our guest can use the main bathroom. Come, let me show you.” I can hear the excitement in his voice as he pulls me along. It’s infectious. I’m still on a high from downstairs. Of course he leads us straight to our new room.

“Wow,” I say when we walk in. The bedroom is now in what was the building next door. Carter has installed floor to ceiling windows in this part as well. Our new bedroom now has the same view of the ocean, like the lounge room does. It’s breathtaking. I’m not sure what is going to be better, waking up to Carter’s handsome face everyday, or the ocean.

As pretty as the ocean view is, I think Carter would have to win that one.

“As you can see I bought us a new bedroom suite. I put the old one in the spare room. Your drawers are over there,” he says pointing to the ones on the left. “Come look at the walk-in-robe I had built for you.” I’m smiling as he drags me across the room. I look back over my shoulder at my new room, trying to take it all in.

The suite he bought is so nice. There are two large, matching timber chest of drawers that are painted white, but the drawer fronts are finished in a dark timber stain with white handles to tie it all together. The bedside tables are the same. The bed is ginormous, so much bigger than the last one. The room is painted in a deep, musky, sky blue colour, still keeping its masculinity, but the large white mirror hanging on the far wall, the sheer white curtains, and white covers on the bed, soften the room. There is a large oval blue and white rug on the floor, and a few blue cushions on the bed that blend in with the wall colour. Honestly, I love it. He must’ve had some help decorating this room. Although masculine, it definitely has a feminine touch.

“Holy crap,” I screech when we round the corner to the walk-in-robe. “I think I’ve died and gone to heaven.” He chuckles at my comment.

“I knew you’d like this. Look, it even has little shelves for the ridiculous amount of shoes you own.”

“It’s not ridiculous,” I say, playfully elbowing him. “I’m a girl. Girls need a lot of shoes. It’s in our genetic makeup.” He rolls his eyes, but doesn’t respond. My eyes dart everywhere. This is one mother of a walk-in-robe. Carter already has some of his clothes hanging. “This is absolutely breathtaking.” I open my arms wide and twirl around in a circle. “I could seriously live in this space.” He laughs at my craziness.

“As long as you’re in bed with me every night, I don’t care how long you spend in here.” When I finish my little twirl I saunter over to him, reaching for the button of his jeans. “What are you doing?” he asks, raising his eyebrows.

“Kissing your dick better. You said when we were downstairs it was hurting.” He growls when I say that.

“It only hurts because it’s been missing you.”

“Well maybe we need to get reacquainted,” I say, falling to my knees.

“Fuck, yes,” he hisses out through a clenched jaw as soon as I set his dick free. “First you need to reacquaint me with your mouth, then your pussy. I’ve missed your fucking pussy, babe.”

He groans when I slide his shaft between my lips. His fingers thread through my hair as he tilts his head back making a feral sound. I only get to work on him for a minute or so before he puts his hands under my arms and lifts me to my feet. “I need to be inside you now.” We don’t even make it back into the room. He has me stripped of my clothes in seconds before pinning me up against the wall. “Wrap your legs around me,” he commands, lifting me. In one swift move he impales me.

“Yes,” I moan when he pushes all the way in. I love the way he makes me feel when we’re connected like this. It’s like we become one. “I’ve missed you so much.”

“I’ve missed you too, baby,” he says before his mouth covers mine.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Three months later …

Carter

Our first Christmas is almost upon us. I’ve never cared about celebrating that day, but this year is going to be different. This year I have Indiana. She’s my new beginning. Having her living here has been incredible. I never knew life could be this good. The person I was before meeting her has gone. I actually love waking up every day now. I look forward to it because I get to be with her.

Last week we even went shopping and bought a Christmas tree for the apartment. We decorated it together. It was nice. Yesterday I put the first present underneath it. I busted her shaking it this morning, trying to guess what’s inside. She’ll never guess. I knew she’d snoop, so I put the smaller box inside a larger one.

It’s something special. Something I’ve wanted to give her since she moved in with me. I actually bought it a few months ago, but I’ve been waiting for the right time. Christmas is the perfect opportunity.

I love having her working next door to me. Her clinic is going great guns. She’s even hired another veterinarian because she was run off her feet. Her name is Sarah-Jane. Indi’s really happy with her.

Megan is working for her as well. She’s Indi’s receptionist. Drew ended up getting a new IT job up this way, so they bought a house not far from us. Indiana was so excited when she found out Megan was going to be living in Newcastle. Drew and I have become good friends. He’s a nice guy. The four of us do a lot together.

Indiana had her three-month check-up two weeks ago. We drove down to Sydney Friday morning for her appointment and spent the weekend with our parents. The oncologist called her later that day to say her test results came back negative. She’s still cancer free. It was a huge relief. Even though she seems fine, it’s still lingering in the back of my mind. I still worry that it may come back. He wants to see her again in three months’ time. If all goes well then her appointments will change to six monthly.

••••

A week before Christmas, we’re both flat out. We’re going to close for a week over the holidays, so we can spend some quality time together. Indi hasn’t been getting much sleep the last few nights. She has a sick dog staying at the clinic. He was brought in with paralysis, caused by a tick. She medicated him and has him on a drip, but it’s still touch and go. She’s been getting up during the night to go check on him. She’s going to be devastated if he doesn’t make it, I know it.

I love how much she cares, but in her line of business she has to have a certain amount of detachment or she’ll never survive it. She’s even gotten involved with a local animal shelter. She does all the immunisations and procedures on the strays, for free. She has a board set up in the waiting room of her clinic, with pictures and stories of all the animals on death row. She has helped find the majority of them new homes. She amazes me. I’m sure if our yard wasn’t so small, she’d adopt the ones she can’t help place. It’s sad, but a part of life I’m afraid.

Last night I offered to go and check on the dog, but she wouldn’t hear of it. I’d noticed the dark circles under her eyes during the day, and it worried me. I knew it was from lack of sleep. Well, that’s what I thought until I found her with her head in the toilet bowl, vomiting, this morning. It brought all my worries to the forefront, so even though she protested, I hauled her arse straight to the doctors.

He took some blood and a urine sample, and we sat there waiting for two hours for the results to come back. I wasn’t leaving until we had answers. She kept telling me she was fine, but until I knew for sure, we weren’t going anywhere.

“Stubborn arse,” she sneers after I refuse her demands to go home. It brings a smile to my face. I’ll never get sick of her sass. I fucking love it too much.

“Takes one to know one,” I retort like a child. She folds her arms over her chest and narrow’s her eyes at me. Our little standoff is interrupted when the nurse calls out her name.

“The doctor will see you now, Ms. Montgomery.” I stand and reach for her hand. She gives me a brief smile when I lace our fingers together. She can’t stay mad at me for long. I’m too damn irresistible.

“Take a seat,” the doctor says when we enter his room. Fuck I hate that we’re here. It brings back too many bad memories. I hope he has good news for us. “So, I have your results back Indiana. I’m not sure if this is planned, but congratulations. You’re pregnant.”
What the fuck!
I feel all the air leave my body. Did I just hear him right? She can’t be pregnant. We’re not married. I refuse to put my child through what I went through. There must be some mistake.

“Are you sure?” I ask. I can hear the shock and disbelief in my voice when I speak.

“Yes. Both the blood and urine tests confirm it.” His words are like a sucker punch to my gut.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Indiana

The devastation I see on Carter’s face hurts. A lot. Sure this wasn’t planned. To be honest I’m not sure how I feel about it, but the look on his face pisses me off. I’m not sure if I want to cry or punch him. He hasn’t said a word to me all the way home.

“Carter. I’m sorry,” is all I say reaching for his hand. This wasn’t planned he’s got to know that.

“We have to get married,” he replies, taking his eyes off the road to glance at me. Umm, no.

“I’m not marrying you just because I’m pregnant, Carter,” I snap. That’s ridiculous. He pulls the car immediately over to the curb, screeching to a stop.

“You don’t want to marry me?” he asks in a whisper as the colour drains from his face.

“Eventually maybe, but not now.”

“What? Why?” I can see the hurt etched into his features and it makes me feel bad. Of course I’d hoped one day we would get married, but I’m not going to force him into marrying me just because we’re going to have a baby.

“Because it’s ludicrous to get married just because of this,” I state.

“Bullshit,” he snaps. I take a deep breath and try to calm myself. Turning my body in my seat, I face him and reach for his hand again.