Chapter 10

Bain

This was the woman. I couldn’t deny it, anymore. Whatever connection we’d forged in Hawaii hadn’t faded a damn bit, and now I had her in my arms, and she had my baby in her womb.

I kissed her, gently at first, then deepened it, tasting her again for the first time in months, tightening up all over. It wasn’t just my dick that throbbed. It was every cell in my fucking body.

I’m done trying to work this out.

I broke the kiss and looked at her. “I get it. We don’t know each other. I don’t know your favorite food or color, or what you look like when you wake up in the morning. And if it makes you feel better, you can pretend that what we did out there was nothing but physical. But deep down, you know that’s not true, Hazel.”

Her bottom lip trembled, so full, succulent, begging to be kissed all over again. I ran my thumb along it.

“This was meant to happen.” I cleared my throat. Fuck, am I really going to do this? Yeah, I had to. I wanted her to see that I was committed to the baby, and to showing her that I was responsible.

There had been too much confusion since we’d met. It was past time to clear the fucking air.

“My name is Bain Mitchell,” I said. “You know that much. But you don’t know what my life’s really been like. I was adopted, and my brother, well, he was my parents’ first biological kid. They favored him, and god knew, I loved the little fucker, but things were tough at home.” I rolled my neck. Fuck, I hated this emo crap. “My parents pretty much ignored me; it was that or cracking the whip.”

Her silvery eyes glinted with unshed tears. It wasn’t pity, but empathy. “I was in the foster system, too,” she whispered. “I – after my mom died. Car crash.”

My heart thudded.

Meant to be. God damn.

“Eventually, it got to me. I acted out. I started boosting cars, coming home late. They gave me final warnings, but I was an asshole. The night I was arrested, I stole a Mustang GT. Christ, it was a thing of beauty, that car, but it was my downfall. I ended up in juvie. It was a slap on the wrist, but it was enough for me. After that, I moved out. A friend I’d made got me a job working at one of these resorts and the rest is history.”

“Wow,” she said.

“Yeah,’ I replied. “You told me your sob story; now I’ve told you mine. And you know what else?”

“What?” Hazel asked, pure as snow.

“You can’t do this on your own.”

She stiffened and her blond eyebrows wrinkled toward each other. “Excuse me?”

“You can’t because I won’t let you.” I kissed her again, silencing a complaint. Our bodies melded together, her softness against my hard planes of muscle, and it took every ounce of my resolve not to rip her clothes off and take her on the sofa.

The next time will be special. It will be real.

Finally, we parted, and Hazel pressed her fingers to her lips, reddened and wet from the passion of that kiss.

“I’m not asking you to marry me or even be my girlfriend,” I said. “But I want us to get to know each other properly. I want us to go on a date. Fuck it, loads of dates. We don’t have to have sex until you’re ready. Until you’re sure that this isn’t just some island fling gone wrong.” Gone right, god damn it.

She swallowed, then reached up and pressed her palm to my cheek. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m positive,” I said.

“I thought you just wanted to know if it was your baby. I didn’t realize you felt the same way I do,” she whispered. “I’ve spent the last couple months thinking about you, Bain. And the stuff I did wrong. I shouldn’t have run, but I didn’t think it could ever work out. I was mortified.”

“I understand,” I said and brushed blond curls from her cheek, pink as it’d been that day on the beach. Fuck, don’t think of that. Do not think with your dick, right now. “And I don’t blame you for it. Don’t blame anyone but myself.” Fuck it, enough talk. “Let’s go out, now. We’ll get something to eat and talk about the future.”

“The future?” she asked, so sweet, in the voice that twanged my fucking heart strings like a country guitar.

“Yeah, the future. There’s a lot to discuss.”

“Such as?” Hazel rolled her shoulders ever so slightly.

“Such as, you can’t possibly stay in this apartment. You’ll have to move.”

“Move!”

“That’s right,” I said and glanced around the gloomy living room, with its single sofa and the window hidden behind a set of blinds that had seen better days. Fuck it, better years. “I’ll buy you a bigger place. Are you set on living in New York or would you prefer to move to Hawaii?”

“Hawaii,” she squeaked.

“Well, yeah. The school system there is great. And it’s a nice place to raise a kid. If we move into a –”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait.” She stepped out of my arms, and I let them drop, gave her whatever space she needed. “I’m not moving anywhere. I mean, we don’t even know – ”

“Okay, too fast,” I said and raised my palms. “I get it. We’ll talk about it later. Let’s go grab something to eat, just you and me. All those plans, they can wait for tomorrow.”

Or the next day, or the next.

I’d spend each of them with Hazel. Let this go? Not a chance.

This was the beginning of something bigger than me and her, and I couldn’t wait to find out what that was.