Addicted After All (Addicted #3)(14)

“Do what?” I frown. She can’t be that scared to have a boy.

“See the gender,” Ryke clarifies. “Connor is telling her that she needs to stop acting like it’s not happening.”

Lily’s mouth falls and her head whips between her sister and Ryke. “And?” she prods. Having a translator is nice, which begs the question…

“Why haven’t you done this before?” I snap.

His hand rises on Daisy’s thigh, who swings her legs that dangle off the counter. “Because it hasn’t been f*cking important before now. You don’t want to hear the things they say to each other on a daily basis. Fucking trust me.”

Yeah, I do.

Lily rocks forward on her feet. “What did Rose say?”

Ryke listens for a second. “That it doesn’t matter if they find out the gender now or when the baby is born.”

Connor breathes heavily, more emotions coursing through his features: anger, concern, determination—things that he usually conceals. He speaks again. In French. They’re in their own world. Kind of like the one Lily and I were just in. Blocking out our surroundings for one serious moment.

Ryke continues to translate, “He says, don’t you want to prepare in any way that you can?”

Rose jerks in his grasp and snaps back.

“She says, I can’t prepare for a baby, no matter how much I read and study. I’ll never be ready.” A weight drops in the room with that truth. It’s a fear I think we all share, but Rose has never liked kids, so it’s different for her, maybe. I don’t know. I shake my head. It goes beyond having a boy, having a girl—it’s just having a child at all.

Ryke sighs like this translating thing is frustrating him. “I can’t hear Connor.” Because he’s whispering in Rose’s ear.

And then Rose tries to untangle out of her husband’s strong grasp again. “Let me go, Richard,” she says, finally switching to English.

“Rose,” he forces her name, his voice so cold that the hairs on my arms rise.

“Connor,” she says just as icily. “Stop.” Her yellow-green eyes assault him.

He releases her arms, and I notice the white envelope clenched in her fist.

“We’re having a girl,” she states like it’s a fact. It’s definitely not one. And then she starts opening and closing kitchen drawers, searching for something.

“Rose,” Connor says again, his tone more even and temperate. “It’s okay. Just stop and breathe for a second.” She’s tuning him out. “Rose.”

I shake my head as I watch Rose slam the fourth drawer shut. “She’s lost it.”

“Shut up, Loren!” Rose shouts.

I flinch. I honestly didn’t think she was listening to me either. And then in the fifth drawer, she finds a packet of matches.

“Rose!” Daisy and Lily scream in unison, but Connor is beside his wife before her sisters can swarm her. She’s already lit a match and holds it to the paper.

The flame eats the document quickly, and Connor steals it out of her hand and tosses it in the sink. He holds her from behind, his arms wrapped tightly around her waist, and as he murmurs in her ear, her rigid body starts to uncoil, like he’s expelling every volatile, toxic emotion and leaving her bare.

My face is stuck in a permanent cringe again. Her breakdowns happen more often since her pregnancy.

Connor spins her around and then presses her head into his shoulder. His eyes flit up to mine and I read them well enough. He needs privacy.

Daisy hops off the counter, and she leaves to the living room with Ryke. Lily and I follow close behind, my hand in hers. There’s no way anyone is finding out the sex of Rose’s baby. We’re not going to know until the day he or she is born.

When we’re out of earshot from the kitchen, Daisy walks backwards and she says, “Maximoff Hale. He’s going to have the coolest parents alive.” She holds her fist out to Lily, who actually smiles brightly now. It falters only a little when she glances at me—to make sure it’s okay.

I hate that she worries about upsetting me. For smiling. I nod to her and try to relax.

Lily fist-bumps her sister.

Then Daisy raises her fist to me with a sunny expression that makes my life seem better than it is. I look up at my brother who meets my eyes. I get it. Why he loves her.

She’s a light in a dark place. Even when she’s going through deep shit too. Daisy and Ryke are the definition of selfless. In comparison, I’m the monster, the *, the villain. But in Lily Calloway’s eyes I’m the hero.

That has to count for something.





{ 6 }

LOREN HALE



My best friend, my girlfriend, my someday wife is insatiable.

I’m drenched in sweat, my hair slick while I push inside of Lily, my hands gripping her wrists above her head on our mattress. I kiss her deeply and rock my pelvis harder. She tears away from my lips to cry out, her mouth permanently open, gasping. I watch her eyes shut, her limbs trembling for release, and my body lights on fire. My cock screams to come.

Right now.

I ignore its demand. With shallow breaths and a groan aching my throat, I thrust rhythmically against Lil and try to make this good enough for her. I let go of her wrist to reach down between our bodies, my fingers brushing her swollen clit.