CHAPTER FIFTEEN
I still had difficulty believing this was my life. It didn’t matter how right it all felt, how perfect the nursery looked, or how much I felt at peace here, I would always feel like I’d stolen someone else’s life.
Kai was perfect. He took care of me, but he didn’t control me. I made my own choices. I went out with the girls when I wanted, and I slept all day if I wanted. If I had slept through making Trent’s breakfast… I shuddered, I didn’t even want to think about Trent. But he kept creeping into my thoughts.
His words would echo in my head whenever I was alone. “You’re nothing.” “I own you.” “When will you learn, Mia, nobody else will ever want you.” “You’re right where you belong.” You’re lucky you have me.” “You’d be nothing without me.”
Tears filled my eyes. There was a constant battle going on inside my head. One part of me was trying to convince myself I was worthy of Kai’s love. And the other was laughing in my face, reminding me of everything Trent had told me.
When he’d first started getting mean, I’d gone to my mother thinking she would surely tell me he was wrong about me. But I should have known better. Why would a woman who never wanted me, help me? Eventually, I started to believe him. My own mother didn’t love me, so that proved he was right. If she couldn’t love me, who could. I was lucky I found him.
I wanted more than anything to deserve this new life I was making with Kai, so I worked hard to show him I was worth it. I worked four days a week for Gabe, and I made sure our unit was spotless on my day off.
But now that I was the size of a small elephant, I was struggling to keep up. I was thirty-one weeks, and not only was my belly huge but my ankle’s had merged with my calves, and my boobs sat up near my collarbone.
I sat in the rocking chair Stella and Bray had bought for Nugget’s nursery and put my feet up on the matching footrest. They were puffy and jiggled when I walked. Pregnancy was not at all glamorous.
The cot we’d picked out was set up against the far wall with the change table up against the end of it. Kai had installed blackout blinds over the double window that looked out into our little courtyard. And my rocking chair sat in the corner by the window.
Ivy had given me three sets of sheets and a gorgeous quilt with butterfly’s flitting all over it. I’d frowned when she handed it to me and said, “But I think Nugget is a boy.”
Ivy had smiled and pulled another quilt out of the bag she had brought with her. “I got this one, too, in case you’re right. But my money is on a girl,” she said with a sweet smile and a wink. The second quilt had jungle animals scattered across it. The sheets were unisex, but since Ivy had given me the butterfly quilt first, that’s the one I used to make up the cot.
Dex said Sloan had gone a little nuts in the baby clothes section at Target, and I believed him when Sloan dropped two bags full of clothes at my feet. “They were all cute. Nobody told me it would be so hard to pick just a couple of little outfits. So I got all the ones I liked. You are having a girl, aren’t you?” she’d said as she started pulling clothes out of the bags to show me.
It appeared everyone thought Nugget was a girl, except me.
“I think it’s time you cut back, Mia,” Gabe said as I waddled around the office fanning myself with a little electric fan.
I furrowed my brows. “Why?” I asked. “Am I not working fast enough? I’m trying, I really am, but it’s hard with fat feet. I’ll waddle faster. Promise.” I hated the thought of not doing my job right. I loved working here.
A devastatingly gorgeous smile lit up his face. “No, Mia, that’s not it. You just look like it’s time, you know? You should take the next couple of weeks to relax before the baby comes and you never have a chance to relax ever again,” he said with a smirk.
“Stop teasing me. It’s not nice.” I frowned at him. He was too good looking for his own good, or maybe it was that he was too good looking for my good. It was hard to be cranky with him.
Being surrounded by good-looking people when you look and feel like a hippopotamus was not a good feeling. I waddled back over to my desk chair, plopped down in it, and put my feet up on Ivy’s chair. She was on her day off, so I didn’t have to worry about putting my feet back on the floor again until I had to get up. I’d ditched my shoes an hour ago.
“I’m serious, Mia. Maybe not about never being able to relax again, but it will be a while before you get any time to yourself again. I talked to Kai about it, and we agreed. You are going on maternity leave starting tomorrow afternoon.”
My face crumpled. “But I don’t want to,” I whined.
Gabe laughed and closed the space between us in three large strides. “You’ll thank me for it later,” He said and bent down to kiss the top of my head.
“Fine,” I grumbled. I wasn’t planning to stop working until the week before Nugget was due. I’d been saving all my money since Kai wouldn’t take any of it when I tried to pay him for my half of the living expenses. Okay, I’d been saving most of it. Except for the money I spent when I’d go out with Ivy shopping or for spa days. I refused to let Kai pay for that.
The next afternoon, when I finished work for the day, I collected all my things. My things being my portable fan on my desk, the little fan I carried around everywhere with me, and my box of snacks I’d stashed under my desk. “Are you sure you don’t need me? I’ve got nine weeks before Nugget comes,” I said to Gabe.
He shook his head. “I’m no expert but you’ve dropped. I don’t think you have nine weeks left, Mia.”
Panic filled my system. “I’ve what? No, I haven’t. Have I? That’s not supposed to happen yet, is it? Oh crap. Oh crap. Oh crap.”
Gabe laughed just as Kai walked into the office looking all hot and sexy. My panic dissipated at the mere sight of him. I totally swooned.
Mia had been at home all week chilling out and was apparently bored out of her brain. So I stopped off at Target on the way home and picked up an iPad mini for her. We had Wi-Fi at the unit, and we never used all our data. I figured she could use it to read books or something.
“Mia, baby? Where are you?” I called out as I came in through the door that joined the carport to the unit. She wasn’t on the lounge where she’d been every day this week when I’d gotten home.
“In the bedroom,” she called out, and I followed her voice.
The bedroom door was closed, and when I opened it, I found her lying on top of the covers in nothing but her underwear, and she had the air con cranked. I smiled at her, and she gave me a pathetic little wave. “I was hot. It’s cooler in here,” she explained.
I nodded. The heat seemed to be really taking it out of her. “I see. And did you just happen to be wearing that bra and those panties when you decided to remove your clothing?” I asked as I took in the black lace bra and matching panties.
She licked her lips. “I may have changed. The other ones were sweaty.”
“Uh-huh,” I murmured as I stalked towards her. All thought of giving her the iPad now pushed to the back of my mind. I loved her new curves. She was all woman, and it did things to me I couldn’t explain.
When I reached her, I dropped the Target bag to the side of the bed and ripped my shirt over my head. I loved the way her eyes followed my every movement. I threw the T towards the bathroom and then dropped my hands to release my belt. Mia licked her lips again, and I watched her hands move to squeeze her full breasts. She knew I liked to watch her touch herself. What man wouldn’t?
Instead of pulling my belt out of the loops, I went straight for the buttons of my fly, dropped my jeans to the floor, and kicked them away. “Now we’re even,” I said as I climbed onto the bed with her. She opened her legs for me to move in between them. I took her hint and lowered my head, leaving a trail of kisses along her inner thigh on my way to her sweet pussy.
I licked her through the lace of her panties. She was wet already, and I could taste her. It drove me wild, and I pressed my mouth to her lower lips and bit down. She screamed, “Kai, oh god, please.”
I yanked her underwear down her legs and dropped my face again. She was so sweet, and I loved her taste. I ate her until she screamed my name and came hard on my tongue. Then I lifted her hips and flipped her over. She knew the drill and positioned herself up on her elbows while swaying her arse in the air in front of my face. I bit down on one cheek before I slid inside her.
It was Saturday morning when I finally remembered the iPad. It was still in the bag by Mia’s side of the bed, so I leaned over her and reached down to get it. “I got you something,” I told her as I passed her the bag.
Her big, brown eyes lit up with excitement. “What is it?”
I laughed softly. She was adorable. “Open it and see.” She did as I said and looked at the box it came in with confusion. “What’s wrong? You don’t like it?”
Mia’s gaze flicked between the box in her hands and me. “What will I do with it? I don’t know how to work one of these,” she said.
I furrowed my brows. “You read, play games, and search the net. Hell, you can even shop on it if you want.”
Her eyes widened. “I can? How? Will you show me how to use it?” Before she’d finished speaking, she was ripping the plastic seal from around the box.
“Sure but it’ll cost you,” I teased.
She simply shrugged. “Okay, we can have more sex later, after you show me how to go shopping from bed!” Her eyes lit up at the idea.
I laughed nervously when I realised I had probably just created a monster.