“You sure you want to get in a wreck over this?”

“I’m not going to die.” Summer’s voice comes across tired over the speakerphone. She’s been kept awake for a month, agonizing over this. I’ve answered every single one of her calls regardless of the time. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t stop her from renting a car this morning.

“Maybe not from the snow.”

She ignores this comment. “I think we can both agree that the weather is not good.”

“The weather is terrible.”

Summer speaks in a fast and frantic voice. “What do you want me to do? Turn around? If you want me to turn around, I’ll turn around.”

I laugh. “You’re not a good liar.”

“I can turn around. If it’s that hazardous, then I should do the right thing and—”

“No. You’re almost there.”

There’s a pause, and my pulse skyrockets. I grip the phone tighter. “Summer?”

“I have to do this, Day. I couldn’t just—”

“I know.”

I shift my position from where I’m reclining on the bed in my third-floor walk-up. The whole place smells stale this morning. Summer’s roommate went out of town last night, so I stayed with her. Being back in this place, after that, makes my skin crawl.

“I can’t tell them in a phone call. It wouldn’t be right.”

A nervous energy prickles over my knuckles. I’m nervous for her. I know how they feel about me. I know how they’ve always felt about me.

“I get it.” Summer’s always been about doing the right thing. “But you don’t have to tell them the whole story.”

“What do you mean?” That day at her apartment flashes into my mind. The weight of her willing body in my hands. The drawn-out guttural sound she made, deep in her throat, when I took her. I don’t know why I tried to leave her again after that. I’m addicted to the slick, tight feeling of my dick buried inside her.

“Maybe you don’t have to tell them that I’m the father.” I’m addicted to her. That doesn’t mean it’s right for Summer. In fact, with Alexei back in the city and breathing down my fucking neck, it is all wrong for Summer.

“Are you kidding me?”

“No.”

“So you think I should walk in there and tell them I’m pregnant from a one-night stand and I don’t know who the father is?”

I lay back on the bed. The pillow is too thin, worn through, and this conversation is making my amputated foot hurt. The tension wraps through the arch like a cramp. I can’t get it to release.

“It would be better than telling them it was me.”

“You really think that?” She sounds wounded, even though I’m the one who’s the piece of shit.

“Yes.”

“Well, I don’t. And—” I can practically see her lifting her chin. “I’m not ashamed that we slept together.”

“We did way more than sleep together,” I joke, and she laughs.

“Stop. I’m trying to concentrate on the road.”

“I’m going for accuracy.”

“If you get any more accurate, I’m going to turn this car around.” The desire lacing her voice, even if it’s dampened by worry, sparks a matching desire at the base of my spine. I wish she’d turn around. I wish she’d leave her family out of this, but Summer’s never going to do that. And I’d never ask her to.

“Last night…”

“What about it?”

I want to draw her out, erase the dark circles from under her eyes, make her laugh again.

“I’ve never heard you make sounds like those.”

“Day,” she scolds, and I know she’s blushing, I know her cheeks are that deep red that makes me want to caress her face in my hands. She clears her throat. “I thought we were in this together.”

“We are.”

“Now you’re trying to get me to turn around.”

“I’m mostly kidding.”

“Do you really want me to keep you—to keep us—a secret?”

A bright blaze of hope seers through my chest at the sound of her voice. “No. What I want is for you to tell your family that we’re going to do this, we’re going to make it, and I want them to be happy for you.”

We’re both silent a long time.

“I don’t know if that’s going to happen,” she admits carefully.

“They love you,” I tell her. “They might not be thrilled at first, but they’re still going to love you.”

“How do you know?”

“Because they’re your family. They’ll love you no matter what.”

“You don’t have to pretend that everything will be okay just because I’m pregnant with your baby.”

Pregnant with your baby makes me hard as a rock. The thought of her belly getting round with my baby is so fucking sexy.

It’s sexy and terrible, because being with me is a risk for her on every level. She could lose her family over this. I take a breath and try to calm the fuck down.

“Fine. I won’t. It could blow up in your face.”

“I know,” she says softly.

“It won’t,” I tell her.

“I’m getting off the highway,” she says abruptly. “I’ll call you when I’m done.”