Yours: A Forever After Novella (12 page)

This is a circular argument Sophie and I have been having since the day she stormed into the bathroom while I was in the shower and threw a pregnancy test at me. Pointing to the toilet, she told me she wasn’t leaving until I peed on the stick and confirmed what we both already knew.

For the most part, I understand where Sophie is coming from. Jake does have the right to know. After all, he is going to be a father in a little over five months. Where Sophie says I should just tell him to get it over and done with, that I’ll feel better after coming clean, I couldn’t disagree more.

I was able to hide the pregnancy from Simon for weeks before he noticed something was wrong with me. That’s what I get for being so close to him considering Simon can read me like a book.

Our parents died in a plane crash when I was twelve, but truthfully, they hadn’t been around much for years before they died. My mom and dad weren’t what you would call hands on. They left me and Simon in the care of nannies while they traveled the world and spent millions of the hard earned inheritance my Grandma left my Dad in her will.

After their death, Simon and I went to live with our Grandpa, which is when we met, Jake. Grandpa lived in a three-bedroom cookie cutter house, one of many on his quiet suburban street on the outskirts of Denver. It was a far cry from where we grew up – in a sprawling, gated, multi-million-dollar estate – but I loved it, and I love my Grandpa. But most of all, I fell in love with the boy next door.

At five years older than me, seventeen-year-old Simon took it upon himself to become my protector. He said it was because he didn’t want boys taking advantage of me and that I was too young to take care of myself, but I knew there was more to it. And that only made me adore him even more.

We have always been close, Simon and I. However, grief and loss affects everyone differently, and in our case, it only made our bond stronger. It wasn’t so much that we grieved for our parent or were particularly sad that they were gone – that’s a horrible thing to say, I know, but it’s the truth. It was simply that Simon and I recognized that we were all each other had left.

Don’t get me wrong, Grandpa was great. He was kind, patient, and always quick to tell a joke or make us laugh after we had a bad day, but he wouldn’t be around forever. One day, he too would be gone, and Simon would be the only family I had left. Which is why I haven’t told him or Jake who the father of my baby is yet.

I’m not entirely stupid; I know the time is coming when I won’t have a choice. But knowing Simon, his reaction will be to act first and ask questions later. In short, he will beat the crap out of Jake, and then refuse to talk to me for weeks on end before simmering down enough to forgive me. Jake, on the other hand, he would never forgive.

CHAPTER TWO

~ Jake ~

“Long time no see, brother,” Simon grins, clapping his hand on my shoulder.

Returning his grin with one of my own, I nod,

“Yeah, it’s been a while.”

“You back for good now?” He asks, pulling up the free barstool beside me, ordering himself a beer.

That’s the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question now, isn’t it? And one I’m yet to have an answer to. I can hardly tell my best friend of fifteen years it all depends on his sister, can I? If Farrah can’t bear to look at me, if me being back makes her uncomfortable in any way, or if I see tears in her beautiful hazel eyes even once, I won’t stay. I can’t.

Everything in me has been screaming at me for months to call Farrah. To find a way to make what I did right. Not only is Farrah is my best friend’s little sister, but she’s also the woman who stole my heart when she looked up at me with big green-brown eyes filled with sadness and pain fifteen years ago.

“So I want to run something past you. Back before you left, did you see Farrah hanging out with any guys, or tell you she was dating anyone?” Simon asks gruffly.

The thought of any man touching my girl, putting his hands or lips on any part of her sets my blood boiling. All-consuming anger clouds my vision for a moment as the red haze of rage dims everything but my well-honed killer instincts.

“Hey, you all right?” My best friend hedges, narrowing his eyes at me in concern.

“Yeah, sorry,” I reply, shaking off the urge to hunt Farrah down and demand she tell me who the motherfucker she allowed to touch her perfect body is.

“So, did you see her with anyone?”

“No,” I clip out. “Why are you asking? She okay?” I question, feeling my heart accelerate dangerously at the mere thought that Farrah might have been hurt while I was away.

Simon lifts his beer to his mouth and downs half the contents of the glass in one long gulp.

“Depends on how you look at it?” He answers cryptically. “If you ask her, she’s great. But if you’re asking me, then no, she’s not.”

A little too quickly, I spit,

“What’s happened? Did someone hurt her? Who was it?”

Chuckling at what he thinks is an overreaction on my part, Simon snorts.

“She’s not hurt, man, so calm the fuck down. You know I appreciate you helping me keep an eye on her when she was a kid, but I’ve got her now. You’ve got other shit to deal with anyway.”

Little does Simon know; I’ve been keeping tabs on Farrah for years. Long after he told me not to worry about her anymore, I kept watching out for Farrah. But over time, the brief glimpses of her coming or going from work, and the occasional dinners the three of us had together weren’t enough. I needed more.

My partner, Eli, is the only person who knows the full extent of my stalker tendencies when it comes to Farrah, and that’s only because he caught me checking the feeds to her apartment one day. That was about three months ago, just before we went out on Darkness Rising’s latest tour, and he hasn’t stopped giving me shit about it since.

Yeah, you heard me. I installed cameras in Farrah’s apartment. In her car and at her office, as well. And I may or may not have put a GPS tracker in her cell phone, and tapped her landline too.

In my defense, Farrah is so fucking beautiful that she attracts a lot of attention. Sometimes the wrong kind. I didn’t want to be on the road with the band and not be able to check on her if I got the feeling she was in danger. For my own peace of mind, I needed to have all access to Farrah all of the time. That or I couldn’t do my job.

As it is, I barely sleep or eat, knowing that she may hate me for what I did. The vulnerability I saw in her eyes when she realized who it was fucking her up against that wall almost gutted me on the spot. Her tears, though, those did break me.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that there’s something is very fucking wrong when the woman you’re in love with tells you to forget her and then hightails it in the opposite direction. I was about to beg her to wait for me – to tell her that I had to fulfill this one last contract with Darkness Rising, but that I’d be coming home to her. If she’d have me, that is. However, Farrah doesn’t hang around to hear me out, and me, in my infinite wisdom, didn’t chase after her to make her.

Finishing off my beer, I order another.

“It might not be my place to look out for your sister anymore, but I care about her, so why don’t you tell me what’s going on?”

The words taste like acid as I say them because nothing could be further from the truth. Farrah is absolutely my responsibility to love, care, and protect, she and Simon just don’t know that yet.

Simon sighs, tilting his head to signal he’ll talk. But just when I thought we were getting somewhere, he goes and blows my motherfucking world apart with two life-altering words.

“Farrah’s pregnant.”

Forever After series

~ Please Note ~

This series is of novellas, not the full-length books you have been used to. They are short, sexy reads filled with insta-love, lust, steamy sex scenes, and plenty of alpha males that will make your panties melt. You have already met the leading males’ in each of these novellas, some of you have even requested I write their stories. So… welcome to the world of Forever After where happily or not is still yet to be decided.

Mine – August 18
th
, 2016

Yours – September 23
rd
, 2016

Claimed

Owned

Seduced

Desired

Taken

Dark Knights Series

Tarnished – October 29
th
, 2016

Nate

Tainted – December 29
th
, 2016

Locke