UNDYING: A Bad Boy MMA Romance (Midwest Alphas) (Book 3) (35 page)

His face turns red.

I glance over his shoulder to see a doctor exiting her room. I step around Shawn and stop in front of him. “Excuse me, doctor—”

He looks up from his chart. “Hello,” he answers, his voice thick with accent.

“Oh, good. You speak English…”

He nods. “One of the only physicians here today that does.” He pulls a pen from his coat and scribbles a few notes onto the chart.

I point to the doorway. “I’m with her — Piper Lynch.”

“Are you family?” he asks.

“Yes, she’s my sister. What happened? Is she okay?”

“Stress and exhaustion, mostly,” he explains. “Little bump on the head from when she fell, but she’s fine.”

I peak around him, but I can’t bring myself to look into the room. “Is the…” I hesitate. “She was…”

“Pregnant?” he asks.

I nod. “Yeah…” I understand now why the P-word made Piper feel so uncomfortable. It’s surreal to hear it so bluntly, especially from a total stranger.

“Fortunately, mother and baby are both fine,” he says, “but she should take it easy for a while.”

I breathe a sigh of relief. “Okay.”

Mother and baby.

“Is he the father?” he asks, gesturing behind me at Shawn.

“No, I am.” He raises an eyebrow at me and I stumble over my tongue. “She’s my
step
sister,” I explain.

The doctor nods with an awkward smile. “All right, then.”

“Come on, dude,” I say. “You’re
French.
”

He stuffs his pen back inside his coat, his lips curling to the side. “You can go on in. She just signed her discharge form, so you can take her home whenever she’s ready.”

“Thanks, doc.” He walks away and I turn back around to the others. Shawn stands with his arm wrapped around Mandy’s shoulders and she clings to him with a nervous face. “He says she’s fine,” I say to them.

Mandy sighs. “
Completely
fine?” she hints.

“Completely fine. She can go home.”

“If she even wants to,” Shawn says. “I’m just saying, she wasn’t too happy.”

I run my fingers through my hair as a nervous dread plagues my guts.

“Do you want me to talk to her?” Mandy asks.

I shake my head. “No, I’ll go first.” My eyes fall back to the open doorway. “I just need a minute…”

No, I am,
I told the doctor.

I’m the father.

I said it without a second thought. It felt like that same instinctual urge I felt before. Suddenly, my own shoes feel strange, like I just took them out of the box and haven’t worn them in yet. Or maybe I have it backwards. Maybe the shoes are the same, but it’s me that’s changed.

I step towards the doorway and look inside. Piper lies on the bed in a hospital gown, thin and white as her own skin. Her black hair sits bunched up on her right side, falling down along her shoulder while a small bandage rests on the left side of her forehead. She stares at her hands in her lap, oblivious to the world around her. For a blissful second, I’m happy she doesn’t see me watching her. I could stand in this moment forever if I could.

I reach out and knock on the open door.

Chapter 13

Piper

The old mattress quakes beneath us, squeaking with each thrust Kai gives me. The moonlight floods through the window and I fill my lungs with the sweet scent of the Spanish countryside. His rhythm is slow and smooth, unlike anything we’ve done before. It’s intense and wild. The bewitching pleasure radiates throughout my body, rolling me ever so close to that perfect edge. I look into his eyes, dark and brown, and he smiles before giving me a soft kiss.

Kai Casablancas isn’t fucking me right now.

He’s making love to me.

It’s a sudden thought, molded together by cosmic dust and maybe a little bit of dark matter. I embrace it at first, clinging to the eternal comfort of it all, but I can’t keep hold of it for very long.

I never should have let him follow me to London.

A cold shiver travels throughout my body until it finally settles in my brain. This isn’t right. This shouldn’t be happening right now. This wasn’t supposed to happen. I was supposed to be alone, enjoying my freedom for the first time in my life. I was supposed to be hooking up with random strangers, having the time of my life, not caring about anything that I was forced to care about back home.

Instead, it’s Kai Casablancas in my bed.

What the fuck am I doing?

“Piper?”

I snap out of the trance. “Kai?”

“What’s wrong?” His lips curl into a delicious smile.

I want so much to ignore my thoughts and kiss his sweet lips, but I can’t do that anymore.

Kai, I’m so sorry.

***

My breath catches in my throat. “Hey…” I look up at Kai’s eyes across the small room. They’re so full of concern and worry, it throws me off guard a little. “You got here fast…” I chuckle.

He steps forward. “Of course I did,” he says. He grabs a chair and pulls it closer to the bed.

I run a few fingers through my hair, suddenly very nervous about my appearance. I’ve never felt quite as self-conscious before in my life. It’s embarrassing to wake up in the hospital and make everyone rush to your side. I can’t stop thinking about how ugly I must look.

“You feeling okay?” he asks as he sits down. He begins to reach out to me, but he quickly changes his mind and forces his hands into his lap.

“Yeah,” I nod. “Little nauseous though.”

“I guess it wasn’t the best idea to bring you here immediately after finals week,” he jokes. “Probably should have waited a little while…”

“Maybe,” I shrug. Silence falls between us, but his eyes speak volumes. He stares at me like a frail porcelain doll, as if I’m about to topple over at any moment and shatter the rest of my face.

“How’s your head?” he asks, pointing to his own left temple.

“Oh—” I reach for the bandage and touch the forgotten bruise a little too hard. I wince in fresh pain. “Ouch…” I say.

“Careful,” he says with a short smile.

“It’s fine — just stings a little.”

It’s frustrating to feel so weak. I’m Piper
fucking
Lynch, for god’s sake. I take care of myself. I lay down to no one. I’ve been called many things, but
weak
isn’t one of them. And yet, here I am, lying in a hospital bed after passing out on the street like a damned damsel in distress. Exhaustion? Stress? They’ve never given me any issue before, but all of a sudden—

“Piper,” he finally whispers. “I am so sorry.”

I look at my pale hands, my eyes locked on my chipped thumb nail. “Kai, you don’t have to do this right now—”

“I want to.” He leans forward in the chair. “If I don’t, it’ll eat me up inside.”

I nod. “Okay.”

“I’m an asshole,” he says. “I said some pretty shitty things to you.”

“You meant every word of it, Kai,” I say. “You were just being honest—”

“I did. I’ll admit, there was a whole lot of truth to it,” he says, “but that doesn’t give me the right to say it out loud. Especially when you’ve done nothing to deserve it.”

“But you weren’t wrong…” I say. “I should have come to you first, but… I was so worried about your reaction that I just didn’t think.”

“You were right to worry.” He pauses and sits back. “It was pretty obvious how I’d react.”

“I wasn’t reacting to it very well either,” I say. “I guess I’ve been in denial about it. I didn’t want it to be true.”

He nods. “I’m really sorry, Piper.”

“So am I,” I say. I look into his big brown eyes. I wish the old Kai would look back at me. I want that laid back, carefree kid that made me fall in love with him all those years ago, but I know he’s outgrown it. “But I think,” I continue, “maybe we really shouldn’t be together anymore.”

“Is that what you want?” he asks.

“No.” I shake my head. “I don’t think it’s what either of us want, but what we
want
and what we
need
have rarely ever been the same.”

“Yeah…” he breathes a short laugh. “I guess that’s true.” He glances down. “So, what do we do?”

I shrug. “We wait. Cool off. Give each other a few days to think it over, then go from there.”

“No, I mean…” He looks down again, his eyes lingering on my belly. “What do we do about…”

Our baby.

I honestly can’t even bring myself to say it either.

What do we do about our baby?

“I guess that depends on where we are in a few days,” I answer. “Either way though…” My voice breaks and tears attack my eyes. I swallow them down, willing my eyelashes to stay dry. “We probably shouldn’t keep it.” I force myself to look at him, to take in his reaction as it happens.

He closes his eyes, shielding the emotion from me. “Are you sure?” he asks.

“Yes,” I whisper. “Unless you have strong feelings about it…”

“I…” He shakes his head once, his open eyes bouncing around the room. “I don’t.”

“Okay,” I say. “But, you know… we’ll talk about it again. In a few days.”

Kai clears his throat and sits back again. “If you want.”

A knock strikes the door and I look up to see Shawn and Mandy lingering in the hall. “Hey,” I say, forcing a quick smile. “Come on in.” I wave them inside and the two of them quickly de-lock their fingers.

“Are you all right?” Mandy asks. She moves to the other side of the bed and stands over me. “Does it hurt?” She reaches out and taps the bandage with her fingertips.

“It’s not too bad…” I say.

“It looked pretty nasty when it happened,” Shawn says. He places the back of his hand against his head and does a quick spurting motion with his fingers. “Little children screaming. Blood gushing out all over the sidewalk—”

“No, that never happened,” I chuckle.

“I know,” he laughs, “but it’s worth it for the horrified look on Kai’s face right now.”

I look at Kai and notice his eyes change from full-on panic to annoyance. “Not cool, Shawn,” he mutters.

I can’t help but laugh with Shawn. Even Mandy cracks a smile, her eyes locked on his face. “Thanks for getting me here,” I tell Shawn.

He shrugs. “You’d do the same for me.”

I nod. “And as
wonderful
as the experience has been, I’d kind of like to go home now.”

Kai stands up from his chair. “I’ll go run a search,” he says. “See if I can find us the next flight back.”

I nod. “Sounds good.” I sit up taller on the bed and pivot to lay my feet over the side. “Now, does anyone see my clothes…?”

“Over here,” Mandy says. She grabs them off the counter behind her. “Men-folk, get out.”

Shawn and Kai step towards the door and she quickly closes it behind them. I let my feet hang down off the side, my bare toes dangling inches away from the cold, hard linoleum floor. Emotion charges through me, paralyzing my entire body. My hands lock against the bed near my knees and I dig my nails into the thick mattress. The tears I held back in front of Kai come in full force to tumble down my cheeks one-by-one.

“Whoa…” Mandy throws the clothes onto the bed and drops to her knees in front of me. “Piper, what’s wrong?” she asks.

I open my mouth to speak, but a sob comes out instead. She pushes herself up to sit next to me and holds me against her. “He didn’t fight it…” I say, my voice wrecked with sadness.

“Didn’t fight what?” she asks.

I don’t answer her. I can’t answer her.

I bury my face in her shoulder and let the tears fall down.

Chapter 14

Kai

“Ask Piper to dance with you.”

I look up at my mother and flash a quick smile as the photographer behind her brings his camera up to his eye to snap yet another darling candid of the two of us dancing together. “Please don’t make me do that, Mom,” I beg.

She slaps my shoulder. “Oh, come on, Kai…” she says with her own smile, only hers isn’t forced. She’s had a permanent grin on her face since she slipped into her wedding dress this morning. “She’s family now.”

I turn my head around to look at our table across the room. Little Piper Lynch sits in her chair, doing her very best not to look bored as fuck. It’s how she looks all day, every day, to be honest. Unless someone is singing her praises. Then, she’s all smiles and annoying narcissism. “I’d really rather not…” I say. “Can’t you get Garrett to dance with her?”

My mother sighs. “I don’t want photos of my nephew dancing with my new stepdaughter. I want photos of
my son
dancing with my new stepdaughter.”

“When exactly does the
‘I’m the bride, so you have to do as I say’
card expire?” I ask.

“About the same time the
‘I’m your mother, so you have to do as I say’
card renews.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought…” I look over my shoulder at Piper again. Even from all the way over here, I can see her blue eyes shining in the bright lights above her. “Okay, fine. I’ll ask Piper to dance.”

Mom smiles and plants a kiss on my cheek. She lingers far longer than necessary to make sure the photographer has enough time to capture the moment. “Go,” she says. She lowers her arms and releases me from our dance.

I step off the hard floor and walk across the room, taking my sweet time drifting between the tables. Piper sees me coming long before I get there. A painful look of dread washes over her features as I sit down beside her.

“Hey,” I say to her.

She looks up at me and nods instead of responding. Her eyes immediately fall from my face and she turns her head to make her long, black hair create a wall between us. She grabs her water glass and takes a sip, no doubt in a silly attempt at looking busy.

“Would you like to dance with me?” I ask.