Infini (Aerial Ethereal #2)(80)

I wait, at first thinking she needs to catch her breath, but gradually, she slides her arms beneath mine, hugging me. Her cheek to my chest.

Bay. I drop her leg so I can wrap my arms around her again. I watch her eyes close, and she relaxes before grinding up against me. I can’t explain what that was. It’s happened a million times before. When I was young, I used to think every girl needed this skintight affection.

(They don’t. Everyone is different.) “Ready?” I whisper in her ear.

She nods.

Easily, I lift Bay, clutching her hips, and our eyes lock while I lower her onto my erection. Warmth cocoons my cock like a closed fist—my eyes nearly roll back. Yes… She inhales a sharp breath and cries out, not too loudly.

I use my arms to raise her up and down my shaft. Slow at first. Baylee’s fingers dig into my shoulder as she pants for deeper breaths. Our gazes don’t detach, and I speed up in an instant—unknowing how much time we have before people fill the locker room.

Fuck…fuck. I ram so hard and quick into Bay that I brace her shoulders to the wall and rest my forearm beside her head. My muscles constricting. Scalding. Flexing. All to drive my cock deeper, farther, harder into Baylee.

On another plane of existence, fuck. A guttural sound scratches my throat, but I force it down and cover her mouth as she cries out again. I seize her gaze, desire blanketing my entire being. She trembles, thighs vibrating against me.

Fuckfuckfuck. I lift my hand off her mouth, kissing her passionately, and then she has to turn her head, about to come.

“Luka,” she says into the softest, most vulnerable cry.

Lit on fire, I hold her cheek and caress her skin with my thumb. “You’re coming,” I whisper against her lips, only speeding up the friction.

I’m so far inside this girl.

My eyes roll and I shut them and hit a peak with Bay. My body rocking forward. She clenches around my cock, fingernails dug in my back, and eyes tightened closed.

With a heavy breath, I milk the climax, pumping in and out on a slow descent. Coming down, Baylee hugs onto my neck, and I carefully pull out but keep her hoisted around my waist.

That’s when a door creaks, proceeded by the slam as it shuts.

We both tense and don’t dare make a move.

Someone’s here.

I strain my ears and catch two audible voices. A girl. And a guy.

Baylee stares wide-eyed at our closed shower curtain. Footsteps near. The voices escalate, growing close. I feel her pulse race.

I strengthen my grip, one hand beneath her thigh, my other arm around her back—pressing her body firmly to my chest, and her breathing steadies.

I listen intently, my gaze fixed on the motionless curtain.

“AE’s doctors did their own tests, and this…is happening.”

I know that voice.

It’s Thora James.

“Myshka—” Nikolai starts to say little mouse in Russian, his husky voice tender for his girlfriend.

Thora interjects, “You said that you’d leave the choice up to me, and you’d support me no matter what—but you already know what I’m going to say, don’t you? You knew what I’d choose.”

“Yes.”

I frown, hearing the emotion in my brother’s voice.

Thora takes an audible breath. “You think I’m idealistic?”

“Brave,” he says deeply.

In a short pause, I picture her wiping tears and my brother hugging his girlfriend. As they speak more hushed, I turn my head slightly towards the curtain. Trying to hear every word.

“I decided,” Thora breathes, “that life has always been unpredictable. I came here for the slim chance to be in the circus, and what I got was the most unbelievable dream job—and you. How we react to life’s curveballs is what defines us. I can put my job on hold while I’m…” Her voice breaks, but in Thora James’ fashion, her optimism blooms in place of fear. “I might be ordinary and average, but I’m capable of anything if I just believe in myself. And I do. I can do this, Nik.”

“We,” Nik says. “The responsibility of a baby is not all on you, myshka. This is ours.”

My jaw unhinges.

Thora is pregnant.

I exchange a stunned look with Bay. Being pregnant in this profession—it’s like sustaining an injury with a year-long recovery. It means being benched for a whole season with no guarantee that you’ll land a contract for the next.

“The other thing I have to say,” Thora tells him so quietly I almost miss it, “you’re not going to like.”

I can almost feel my brother tense up.

“The higher-ups in AE, I don’t even know their names, already created a timeline and schedule for me. I didn’t meet them, but their assistants relayed the info. They said that while I’m unable to perform, aerial silk will be shelved—”

“I don’t care,” Nik says. He performs aerial silk, so he’ll be relegated to group acts only. “I wouldn’t care about that.”

“That’s not it,” Thora says. “They want me—us, to finish out March.”

My stomach drops.

Baylee looks incensed and confused, and she mouths to me, they can’t do that.

It sounds like Corporate just did.

“You’re pregnant,” Nik growls under his breath, his voice rattling in rage. “You can’t perform. It’s too dangerous.”