Undeniable (Undeniable, #1)(45)

Then one day my world stopped spinning, and I fell flat on my face.

It was a Thursday in late August. I was sitting on my bed at the club, and I was glaring at my cell phone. It kept ringing and ringing and ringing. I was supposed to have met Chase over an hour ago for lunch at his office, but I couldn’t stop staring at the pregnancy test in my hand. The freshly peed-on, undeniably positive pregnancy test.

My phone started ringing again. Knowing he wasn’t going to stop, I answered it.

“Where are you?” Chase demanded.

“The club.”

He didn’t say anything. He knew I didn’t go to the club anymore. I could practically hear the wheels in his head working overtime at this new development.

“Listen, Chase. I, uh, can’t—”

“You can’t what?” he ground out.

“I can’t meet you today,” I whispered. “I don’t, um, feel good.”

“What’s going on, Eva? You felt fine yesterday.”

No. I felt nauseated yesterday; I just didn’t tell him.

“I think I have the flu,” I continued in a whisper. “I just want to stay in bed, OK?”

“Eva, what the f*ck is really going on?”

I took a deep breath. “Nothing, Chase. I just don’t feel good. I’m not up to cage fighting with you today.”

He hung up.

I stared at the phone. I should tell him. If he was the father, he had a right to know. Only, I wasn’t sure if he was the father. Early June, I slept with Deuce. I closed my eyes, remembering rocking back and forth overtop his large, powerful body, watching every change in his hard face as my body worked his, and that beautiful moment at the end when he tensed, our eyes locked, and I felt him spill himself inside of me. It was greedy; I knew that even in my haze of need, but we both had been greedy. For that one moment, we were done pretending. I wanted it, he wanted to give it, and then I ran back to Frankie when it was over.

I choked back a sob. I was such an idiot. And I desperately needed Kami.

Grabbing my purse—my $400 Poppy Coach purse that Chase’s personal shopper had picked out for me last week because it was designer but edgy and not overly expensive, and Chase had decided it worked for me—I headed for Kami’s. I was going to tell her what was going on, and I would deal with whatever she threw at me.

The cab ride was uncomfortable, but the elevator ride up to her penthouse was downright awful. My nerves were jumping out of my skin, add that to my constant nausea, and I was headed for a full-blown panic attack. By the time the elevator doors opened, I broke out in a cold sweat and was gripping my stomach.

It didn’t help that it was Chase who was standing in front of the elevator and not Kami.

“Shit,” I muttered and backed farther into the elevator.

He slammed his palm against the sliding door, keeping it open. “What the f*ck?” he growled.

I stared at him. Seeing him here—in his home, Kami’s home—the realization of what I’d been doing and who I’d been doing it with was even more awful than I’d imagined it would be.

“I…um…”

“I knew you lied to me,” he bit out. “And you’ve got two f*cking seconds to explain why before I pick you up, take you straight to my room, and let Kami hear me f*cking the shit out of you.”

“Chase—”

“I mean it, Eva. Unless you want Kami to hear you screaming my name, you better start talking.”

I blew out a shaky breath. “I’m pregnant,” I blurted out. “I needed Kami.”

His eyes went wide. “What?”

“Pregnant, Chase!” I cried out softly. “Baby inside of me!”

He stared at me. No longer angry, no longer anything. Just a blank-faced stare.

Then the strangest thing happened. Chase’s eyes went soft. Chase didn’t have soft eyes; he had cold eyes, blank eyes, calculating eyes, I’m-going-to-f*ck-you-blind eyes, but never soft.

It changed his entire face. And so did the smile that followed. Not his shark smile, but an honest-to-God smile.

He looked…human.

I stared at him, not knowing what to say or do, wondering what the hell he was so happy about. Then I froze because I realized Chase was happy. Chase. Happy. And he was happy because I was pregnant. This revelation brought me up short, and my world resumed spinning.

“Eva,” he whispered, reaching for me. “I—”

“Evie!” Kami screamed, running up behind Chase. He immediately moved away from the elevator door, and I stepped into their foyer and caught a velour-sweatsuit-covered Kami as she barreled into me.

“Where have you been?” she squealed, squeezing me tight.

“Busy with Frankie,” I whispered, staring at Chase over her shoulder. Arms folded in front of his chest, he was leaning against an intricately carved pillar smack dab in the center of the foyer staring back at me. Smiling.

I closed my eyes and squeezed Kami back. “Missed you,” I choked out.

“God, Evie, me, too. Devin, too.”

She pulled away. “Devin!” she bellowed. “Aunt Evie is here!”

She turned back to me, grinning, and her mouth fell open. “Evie, what are you wearing?” she whispered.

I looked down. Crap. I had been dressed to meet Chase for lunch. I wasn’t wearing any of the elaborate crap he bought me, but I wasn’t wearing anything I would normally wear. Designer skinny jeans, artfully distressed, covered my legs; my tank top was a shimmery black silk that both clung and flowed. All of this was paired with Jimmy Choo strappy black sandals and my black rhinestone-covered Coach bag. I had blown my hair straight, and then feathered it. I had a shit ton of makeup on and more jewelry than I had ever worn in my life, all of it expensive and chic. It wasn’t me, whoever me was, and she knew it. We both had to wear uniforms to school, but I always found a way to make mine my own. And even though I wore a designer evening gown to prom, I paired it with my Chucks and didn’t do a damn thing to my hair. It was still wet from my shower when the limo picked up Frankie and me.