“All right,” I said as I set my plate aside. “Your turn. What was your worst New Year’s resolution?”

“That’s not fair,” Jalen protested. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“I did,” I countered. “I can’t help it if you didn’t like my answer.”

“You can’t really expect me to believe that you’ve never broken a New Year’s resolution.”

I grinned at him. “It’s not hard when you don’t make them in the first place.”

His eyes narrowed, and he rolled over me, bracing himself on his elbows so that his body was a comfortable weight on mine rather than suffocating.

“I make you breakfast in bed, and you take advantage of my trusting nature?” He kissed my chin. “I think I’m going to need to punish you for that.”

I reached up and linked my fingers together behind his neck. “Did you have something particular in mind?”

The hot length of him hardened against my leg, and I shifted, eager to have him inside me again despite the twinges and aches from our previous activities. We’d made love until we’d both passed out from exhaustion and our skins bore the evidence of our passion in teeth and nail marks. I’d also spotted a few bruises on my hips and on Jalen’s arms from where we’d gripped each other too hard.

“I have a lot of things in mind,” he said, his knee pressing between my legs. “But for right now, I just want to be buried in that hot, wet cunt of yours.”

The doorbell rang, ruining the mood.

“Dammit,” Jalen growled. “Maybe if we ignore them, they’ll go away.”

The bell rang three more times in quick succession.

“I’m thinking not,” I said with a sigh.

Two more rings.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” Jalen rolled off me and onto his feet in one smooth motion. I had a moment to appreciate his firm ass before he yanked on a pair of jeans. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

I reached over to the bedside table and snatched the last bite of his chocolate chip muffin. Desertion resulted in the forfeiture of all delicious breakfast rights, I decided. Besides, he was already going to torture me. I might as well have made it worthwhile.

I was still deciding whether I wanted to play contrite or rebellious when raised voices came from downstairs.

“Get out of my way, Jalen!”

Shit. Elise.

I grabbed one of Jalen’s shirts and a pair of his boxers, pulling them on as quickly as possible.

“Not today, Elise,” Jalen said. His voice was even, but I knew he was pissed. “We’re going to talk, but not today.”

“Is she here? Is that why you want me to leave? That home-wrecking slut is here.”

I stepped into the front room just as she finished. “Present.”

“You don’t need to be down here for this,” Jalen said. “Elise was just leaving.”

“Like hell I am,” she snapped. “This is my house!”

“No, Elise,” he shot back. “This is my home. You may have lived here on and off when we were together, but we both know you didn’t contribute a single penny to it.”

“Because I had to keep places in New York and LA since you wouldn’t move to either city!”

She took a step toward him, and I took a good look at her for the first time. Her hair barely looked brushed, and her clothes were wrinkled. Her cheeks were flushed, and her mascara smudged.

“You’re trespassing,” Jalen said, folding his arms over his chest. “Don’t make me call the police. You know it’ll end up in the tabloids, and neither of us want that.”

“You won’t do it. You won’t have the mother of your child arrested simply for wanting to talk to you.”

I made a derisive sound that drew her glare to me. “We know he’s not the father of your baby. If you’re even pregnant at all.”

“I am pregnant, you bitch! How dare you accuse me of lying!”

I lifted a shoulder. “Well, you’re a liar, so there’s that,” I said mildly.

“A woman named Adeline Fowler came to see me yesterday,” Jalen said, his voice surprisingly calm and low. “She claims that you told her brother that he was the father.”

Elise jutted out her chin like some mutinous child. “She’s lying.”

“So you do know her?” I asked.

Elise flushed an even deeper shade of red. “I’ve seen her at various events. She’s always been jealous of me.”

“I’m supposed to believe that it’s a coincidence that the day after I’m told you’re telling multiple men that you’re pregnant with their kid, you show up here, demanding we talk?”

“I want us to be a family.” Tears glittered in her eyes.

Crocodile tears.

“Maybe you can explain something to me, then,” he said. “I dropped my phone in the living room on Monday, and it bounced under the couch. Imagine my surprise when I found it and a pack of condoms beneath it. One was missing.”

Elise shrugged but didn’t meet Jalen’s eyes. “How am I supposed to know where you fuck her?”

A muscle in his jaw twitched. “The receipt was down there too. It was from that night. We used a condom.”

“You don’t know that,” she countered. “It doesn’t mean anything. And they don’t always work. It says so right on the package.”

“If you’re that sure, go to the doctor tomorrow and get a paternity test,” I suggested. “Then we’ll all know for sure.”

“I know for sure,” she snapped. “And you stay out of this. I told you that I don’t want you anywhere near my baby or my husband.”

“Give it a rest, Elise.” Jalen shook his head.

The doorbell rang again.

“What the hell?” I muttered as I moved to get it. “What’s the point of having state-of-the-art security if people can get to the damn door?”

I opened the door and thought of a better question.

What was the point of having a camera to show who was outside the door if no one used it?

“Happy New Year, little girl,” my father said. “It’s time for me to finish the job.”