Craving HIM (Serving HIM Vol. 7) (25 page)

I sucked in a breath. She couldn't mean...

Aleena’s head swung around and she saw me. Her eyes widened and I saw the truth in them.

So did Koren.

She let out an animalistic scream and lunged for Aleena. I started to move, but Aleena didn't wait for me. I watched, dumbfounded, as she made a fist and drove it into Koren's jaw.

Koren swayed, stumbled…and then fell.

Aleena looked back at me, subdued.

“Are you…” I swallowed, barely able to breathe. “Aleena. Are you pregnant?”

Chapter 22

Aleena

Are you pregnant?

Dominic's words echoed in my head and my heart started to pound. It thudded against my ribs so hard, it was a wonder it didn’t leap out of my chest. I hadn't meant for him to find out that way.

“Dominic, I…”

I snapped my jaw shut and braced myself as Koren shoved upright, staring at me with a mix of hate and caution. A bruise was blooming over her jaw and I was half-surprised at the sight of it. A red handprint stood-out, livid, against her pale skin. My knuckles hurt, but it was a sweet sort of pain, almost as sweet as the kind of pain Dominic brought me in bed. Not the same, but it had sure as hell felt good hitting her.

Instinctively, I took a step back, my hand on my belly. Jutting up my chin, I gave her a glare of my own. If she wanted to try me again, I'd put her on her ass.

Again.

Koren’s gaze fell away from me and she reached out toward Dominic.

He didn’t even notice. He was staring at me, his face white, an unreadable expression on his face.

Her face fell and she turned away, pausing only to shoot me a look of pure hatred. I thought about how she’d broken into my house, come after my lover, tried to attack me.

“Try it and see what happens.”

She shot me one last glare and stumbled from the house.

I couldn’t avoid it any longer.

Slowly, I turned my head to meet Dominic’s gaze.

He hadn’t looked away from me even once, I didn’t think.

He stared at me with shock stamped across his features. Shock…and hurt.

“Answer me,” he demanded, striding toward me.

As his hands closed around my upper arms, I tried to brace myself for the anger, but when I met his eyes, there wasn’t any. Just that shock…and the hurt.

“I’m pregnant.”

His hands fell away from my arms and he stumbled backward, reaching up to rub at his eyes. When he looked back at me, it was with a dazed expression. “I need to turn off the alarm.”

I hadn't even realized it was still going.

I followed him into the dining room, stopping when I saw the glass on the carpet. Glass and blood. I stared at it until the blaring stopped and I heard Dominic's voice again.

“Were you even going to tell me?”

“Of course!” It wasn’t a lie. I had planned to tell him, but I just hadn’t figured out how to do it. How he would handle it. “I just...I just found out. I was feeling so awful and I…” I struggled to find words. “I don’t know how it happened. I never missed one of my birth control pills and when I started feeling bad, I thought it was just the stress or maybe the ear infection had gone into a sinus infection or something.”

Dominic’s gaze sharpened. “What did the doctor give you for your ear infection?”

“Antibiotics,” I answered automatically.

Shit.

I could see it now in my head. Scrawled across the bottom of the bag the pharmacy had put my antibiotics in.
May cause BC to be less effective
.

Shit.

I knew better.

His gaze slid to my belly, still flat. “You’re pregnant.” The words came out flat.

I nodded. “Dominic…” What did I need to say? Did I need to apologize? Maybe. For one thing, at least. “I’m sorry you found out that way.”

His face twisted in a savage snarl. “You’re sorry?”

“Yes.” The knot in my chest was getting larger, making it harder to breathe. It wasn't supposed to happen this way. “Look, I didn’t plan this. I didn’t plan to get pregnant and I didn’t plan for you to find out that way…I just…”

“You just what?”

He stared at me, his face skeptical and hard. Cold, even. “You planned on telling me when?”

“When I knew how to!” I refused to flinch or back down. I’d messed up, there was no denying that, but it wasn’t like I’d set out to hide this from him. I'd just found out and I was trying to figure out how to tell him and how he was going to handle it.

Judging by the rage in his eyes, I was starting to realize the dread I’d felt over the past few days had been justified.

“I just found out,” I said slowly, forcing myself to be calm. “Yesterday. I didn’t even realize it might be a possibility until a few days before that when I started feeling so tired and run down.”

He opened his mouth to say something.

I jutted up my chin. “Are you going to let me talk or just yell at me?”

I hated the way my voice cracked. I didn’t consider myself to be a crier, but I couldn’t stop the burn of tears any more than I could have stopped the knot in my throat. Damn hormones.

Dominic closed his eyes, some of the anger draining out of him.

“I found out yesterday,” I said again. “I’m still wrapping my head around it. I know you never wanted anything like this and I was trying to figure out how to tell you because I didn't want to lose you.”

Slowly, his eyes lifted and he stared at me. But he said nothing.

My heart twisted. I supposed that was my answer. I turned my back and started to walk away.

“Are you ever going to start trusting me, Aleena?” he asked softly.

I didn’t look back at him. I couldn't.

“It always comes down to trust, doesn’t it?” I said softly. “I trust you with a lot of things, Dominic. I've had to for this to have worked at all. But look at this. Look at how you reacted. You exploded and accused me of hiding it from you. You didn't ask how I was. How I felt about it. You didn't even let me explain why I hadn't told you before jumping down my throat. You're right, Dominic. We do have a trust issue.”

I glanced at him over my shoulder and saw that he was clenching his jaw.

“This is how you reacted and you wonder why I was nervous about telling you? I guess a part of me expected something like this.” I shook my head and walked over to the window, staring out the broken pane of window glass. It dawned on me, then, there were sirens off in the distance. Wailing softly but getting louder.

“The security company must have contacted the police,” I said dully.

For some odd reason, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the shattered, jagged shards of glass jutting out from the mostly empty pane.

Shattered, jagged…empty.

Kind of how I felt in that moment.

***

I didn't know how long it took him to get rid of the police. I didn't stay. Before they got there, I went upstairs and locked myself in the bathroom so I wouldn’t have to talk to them. I wasn’t surprised that Dominic managed to get rid of them without me having to talk to them right away.

Money talks and a lot of it talks louder than you could imagine.

By the time the door to the hallway opened, spilling in a wedge of light, I was in bed, facing away from the door with my face in the pillow and pretending the world didn’t exist. I'd taken a shower and pulled on a pair of sweatpants and a baggy t-shirt, needing the comfort of something decidedly unsexy.

The bed gave way beneath me a few moments later and Dominic smoothed a hand up my spine, then down it.

When his palm came back up and curved over the back of my neck to rest there, I closed my eyes, tears burning again. He stretched out next to me and ran his fingers through my wet, tangled hair.

I couldn’t stop the shaky sigh that escaped me any more than I could have stopped breathing and it let him know I was awake. He gently pulled on my shoulder until I rolled onto my back. I let him, but closed my eyes again, keeping my head turned away. I couldn't look at him. Not yet.

His fingers slid down my belly, then lower to dip between my thighs. When he cupped me in the palm of his hand, I bit my lip to keep from whimpering. I was still hurt, still confused and angry, but I wanted him. I always wanted him.

When his hand moved below the waistband of my sweatpants, I fought to keep from squirming. He slid his fingers down through the curls, easily finding my clit. He rubbed it in slow circles as he used his free hand to pull off my sweats. Then he pushed two of his fingers inside me, and I rolled my hips against his hand involuntarily.

He bit my neck and my eyes flew open.

“You’re mine, Aleena,” he growled against my flesh.

I had to squeeze my eyes closed again at the pain that went through me. His? Was I really? And was I his in the way I needed to be his? The way that meant I was his family, not just his Sub. Because we were going to have a family.

He caught my leg and lifted it, opening me just enough and then he thrust inside me, hard and deep. Everything else flew out of my head as I arched my back, crying out, fighting to accommodate him. He kept driving into me, filling me until I was writhing, squirming on the hot, pulsing ridge of his dick. Then he started to stroke me with his fingers as well, circling the knot of my clitoris with firm, knowledgeable pressure.

“Tell me that you’re mine.”

Defeated, I turned my face away. “I’m yours.”

And I was. Heart, body and soul.

He fucked me, hard, fast possessiveness in every rough move, every driving thrust. He played my body the same way he played my heart, taking me to the edge with a single-minded ruthlessness. Then, just when I thought I was going to come, he pulled out and rolled me onto my hands and knees before he drove inside me again, his hips slapping against me. I yelped as he brought the flat of his hand down on my ass, spanking me hard enough to bring tears to my eyes.

I didn't say a word even though my body was screaming for me to beg for release. I wanted to come, but I pressed my lips together, refusing to ask for it. I wanted him so badly, but I was done asking. I knew he thought I was just being a good Sub and I let him. He would let me come if I was good.

Finally, he let me climax and relief swept through me as well, but he wasn't done. I was boneless with exhaustion and the muscle soreness that came from having my body thoroughly used when he finally collapsed on top of me. I was still wet from him, sweat dampening my body, as he rolled off of me.

“How far along?” he asked, his voice gruff as he broke the silence between us.

“I don't know. Not far. It had to have happened when I was on those antibiotics.”

My eyes were heavy, my body lax. I didn't want to talk to him now, not about this. Not when he was still acting like I'd done something wrong. I just wanted to sleep and deal with it in the morning.

“We should get married.” His tone was matter-of-fact as he climbed out of the bed and headed into the bathroom.

I was turned away when he came back. Feigning sleep was the hardest thing I’d ever done. Well, next to not crying. Those were words I would have given anything to hear…if he’d truly meant them.

Chapter 23

Aleena

More often than not, Dominic was the first one to get up. Especially lately. But it was easy to be up first when you hadn't slept at all. I spent the night lying awake in the dark as I tried to figure out what to do.

Actually, there was no what.

I knew what I needed to do. There was only one choice, really. He'd made that clear.

Finally, I climbed out of bed and moved to the window. The glass was treated, designed to let in very little light. Not that there was much to shine in. The sun wasn't up and we weren't in the city. There were security lights, of course, but nothing compared to home.

Home.

This wasn’t just “the house in the Hamptons.” And the penthouse wasn't just some place we lived in the city.

It was home. Both of them were home, because
he
was here.

But I couldn’t stay.

Tears burned my eyes and I lifted my face to the ceiling, hoping to stem the tide. His words danced in the back of my head, a mocking echo.

We should get married.

He took his responsibilities so seriously, worked so hard to protect me. But he couldn’t protect me from life. I was pregnant. There was a baby growing inside me and that was nothing I needed protection from. What I needed more than anything was a man who wanted to have a family with me. Not someone who hadn't even thought to ask how I felt about it. Not someone who'd turned to sex instead of talking to me. Who'd fucked me the same way last night as he had before, like nothing had changed between us. Not someone who come and then announced that we should get married before walking off to the bathroom to clean up.

I remembered what he’d said about my parents. Two people who’d loved me, who’d wanted me. It had made all the difference in the world growing up and I wouldn't have it any other way for my child. He or she would always know that they hadn't been an obligation, a mistake to be 'handled.'