Reese (17 page)

             
Kieran.

             
It had been two weeks since
his big
fight. Two weeks since I had last seen
or spoken
him.
I couldn’t handle dealing with him. My emotions were raw from finding out about my grandfather’s wild plan, Kevin Stone’s manhandling, and Kieran’s confession that he had known about it all alone.
But now the anger was starting to fade, replaced by a deep loneliness like nothing I had felt before. I still loved Kieran.
Missed him terribly…But I hadn’t been ready to handle his brother’s confession on top of his own deceit.

             
I had gone to work, gone on with my normal schedule
; only the bouncer at the door to Safe Haven kept Kieran out
. But the walls I had let
him
tear down so easily were now back up with support beams keeping them in place. I didn’t smile anymore; rarely talked to anyone—even Mel, unless spoken to. In the month since I had met the beast of an MMA fighter my world had gone from okay, to perfect, and now it was destroyed
; laying crumbled at my feet
.

             
When the rolling in my stomach eased enough for me to attempt to stand and clean my mouth, I reached for the kit that I had picked up at the twenty-four hour drug store on my way home from work. I was more than a week late, which just didn’t happen to me. I was as regular as a clock. But the first few times that Kieran and I had made love we hadn’t even attempted to be careful. My fingers shook as I opened the box and went about taking the pregnancy test.

             
It didn’t even take a full minute for the digital scre
en
to blink the words that I already knew to be true.

             
PREGNANT

             
I sighed and tossed the box in the waste basket, then went back to cradling the little stick that was coated in my own urine.
Emotions swamped me.
Fear
.
Anxiety.
Anger. Excitement. Love.

             
No matter what happened now, I had someone other than myself to think about. Someone that
already
depended on me to take care of it, protect it,
and
love it above all else. And since the very second that I had suspect
ed
life was growing in my belly I ha
ve
loved my baby.

             
My cell buzzed again. I reached for it
.

             
Please talk to me. I miss you. I love you.

             
That had basically
been
every other text that he had sent me over the last two weeks. Seven hundred and twenty seven of the same messages. My fingers hovered over the keys. A father deserved to know t
hat he
had helped create life. But did I want to share this baby with Kieran? Would I be able to handle eighteen plus years of dealing with my baby’s father?

             
I’m pregnant
..
.

             
I pressed send before I could second, third and fourth guess myself. When I could do nothing about the sent message, I leaned back against the toilet seat and closed my eyes. My mind was made up…

             
The pounding on my apartment door forced my eyes to snap open. Tossing the cellphone on the sink once more
,
I left the bathroom with the pregnancy test stick still clenched in my hand. My heart began to pound as I walked the short distance through my apartment. I paused in front of the door and took a few deep breaths to
calm myself. I felt shaky, still nauseas, but ready to face the beast standing on the other side of the door.

             
The pounding came again
, causing the door to shudder under the force,
and I reached for the lock. As soon as they clicked the door was pushed open and then I was wrapped in Kieran’s arms. “Reese.” He breathed my name against my ear,
his voice choked with emotion. His big body trembled.

             
After only a small hesitation, whe
n
all m
y hurt and anger seemed to over
whelm me, then completely dissolve I snuggled into his chest. It was like I had been missing a
part of myself over the last two weeks, and now with Kieran holding me like I was everything in the world to him, I finally felt whole again. Tears clogged my throat and burnt my nose.

             
A sob pierced the quietness of the apartment and I raised my head to find tears pouring down Kieran’s handsome face. “I’m sorry.” His arms tightened around me ever so slightly. “So, so sorry. I should have told you from the beginning. I never should have…”

             
I covered his mouth with my hand. “I’m sorry
,
too. I shouldn’t have walked away from you like that. I wasn’t thinking clearly. My emotions were all over the place that night and I was more sensitive than I normally would have
been. With your fight, seeing
my grandfather again, your brother...” I grimaced. “We won’t have to see him that often will we?”

             
“He
wants to apologize to you about how he treated you…But no, we won’t have to see him often. Just Christmas and when I have fights in New York.” He stepped back just enough to look down at my stomach. “So…”
There was a new emotion in his eyes, his voice deepened in a way I had never heard before.

             
“We weren’t careful.” I reminded him. “I know it’s too soon, but-“

             
“Do you regret it?” He demanded in a small whisper, as if he w
as
scared of my answer.

             
“No, I would never regret this. I love her already.”

             
His steel gray eyes turned to liquid and he pulled me close, cradling
me
against him. “Me too.” He breathed against my ear. “You both are my whole world.”

             
()

             
“Are you sure about this?”

             
I turned to face Kieran in the back of the limo. We were in New York, outside my grandfather’s
disgustingly humongous mansion
. I had called him two days ago and told him that I needed to see him, to talk about everything. There was just one thing I needed for him to do for me…

             
Inside the mansion somewhere was my mother and The Pervert. It was time to finally face my past. I was ready to deal with it, put it to rest so that I could be
complete
for Kieran, but more especially for the new life growing inside of me. So I gave the man holding me close a reassuring kiss and reached for the handle of the door. “I’m sure.”
             

             
Of course he knew that underneath my calm façade my heart was racing and nerves were making my already queasy from morning sickness stomach roll.
We have only been together for two months now, but we seemed to know each other inside and out already.
H
e got out right behind me and pulled me close to his side as we rang the doorbell and waited for someone to let us in.
I clung to his hand as the butler, someone who I didn’t recognize, led us into the library.
I had rarely been to this house, had hated it even as a child. It felt cold, empty. This was not a home.

             
The first person I saw as we entered the oversized room was Greg Daventry. He was standing by the fireplace. He looked like he was made of stone as he kept his eyes locked on the couple seated on one of the three stylish sofas.
Greg had aged slightly in the last few weeks since I had last seen him. There were a few more wrinkles on his forehead from frowning; his hair was a little grayer
. He had been very sorry for trying to set me up with Kevin Stone, but he had just wanted to make sure that I was taken care of before something happened to him. I hadn’t completely forgiven him, still thought that perhaps he was more worried about his business than me.

             
My gaze moved to the couple.
From where I was standing I could see that my mother had changed very little over the years. Her hair was still expertly colored, her face still ageless from the use of a good dermatologist
and plastic surgeon,
and her figure overly thin from drug use. There was nothing about her to suggest that I was her daughter. We looked nothing alike, were as different in personality as night and day.

             
Next
to
her sat a man in his early fifties. There was a little gray streaking his brown hair. His teal colored eyes
and long lashes
would have been beautiful on a girl, but on him they appeared doctored. He had a strong profile, was leanly built, and wore an overly expensive suit. The man was metrosexual, cared more about his appearance than my mother probably did. He might have been handsome if I didn’t know how ugly he was underneath the pretty
exteriors
.

             
Beside of me Kieran tensed up. I knew that this was going to be hard for him. He knew what The Pervert had done to me, down to the very last detail.
One night as I lay in his arms I had told him everything about my time as Stephen Thorne’s stepdaughter. Now as he stared at the man his
first instinct was to demolish the man who had hurt me. To make him wish that he had never been born.
But he had promised not to cause bodily harm to the man
…
Not today at least.

             
Greg spotted us in the doorway where the butler had left us without announcing us as I had I requested. “Reese.” He came forward and I forced myself to look away from the couple. “It’s so good to see you…I thought after what had happened in Phoenix that I would never see you again.”
He muttered in an emotionally choked voice.

             
He embraced me and I hugged him back. We had spoken on the phone twice over the last month. I knew that he had only been trying to make sure I was well looked after and had thought that Kevin Stone would have made me a good husband. But I had explained to him that there was no way I would ever marry that particular Stone…Maybe his brother…One day.

             
Until then Greg had to understand that I didn’t need a husband to take care of me.

             
Behind him Stephen Thorne had stood. He had recognized Kieran who was just a few inches away from me
, still holding my hand
. “When you said that you had some company that you wanted to introduce us to I
had no idea it would be such an interesting guest.
But I guess that I should have remembered how much you enjoy the sports world, Greg.
”

             
The sound of his voice made my skin crawl. I unconsciously leaned into Kieran who wrapped an arm around my waist. Greg turned to face the man who had married his late son’s wife and gave him a cold glare. “Actually I have no intention of introducing you to Kieran. Have a seat, Thorne.”

             
Stephen frowned at the older man. “What…” He broke off when he finally took a better look at me.

             
I met his gaze without flinching and watched him blanch. “Hello, Stephen.” I murmured.

             
Sharon stood and put a hand on her husband’s arm. “Greg, if you are going to be rude I think that we will just go. I’m not in the mood for your petulance tonight…” She had yet to look at me. But that didn’t bother me in the least. This woman, she was just the person who had given birth to me. I had stopped thinking about her as a motherly figure long before I had ran away. Mel was my mom in all ways that counted. Mel loved me. Sharon Thorne had never felt any such emotion.

             
“You can take a seat as well, Sharon.” Greg informed his ex-daughter-in-law. “The night is young. And Reese wants her five minutes.”

             
“Reese..?” She finally raised her eyes toward me and frowned. “Who…Rebecca?” She took a step back as if frightened that she had seen a ghost. “My God, I thought you were dead!”

             
I raised a brow at her. “Really? Maybe you just hoped.
” I took a step in her direction and she shrank back. “I’m worth so much more to you dead after all.”
Perhaps she had thought that she would inherit all of the Daventry money and other assets if I were dead
…

“How dare you talk to me like that, Rebecca Daventry! I am your
mother;
you will speak to me with respect.” But she took several steps back as I continued to walk toward her.