Jasper

Marin hadn’t been picking up her phone all day, but that didn’t stop me from calling and texting her. She’d always been responsive to my calls, so her radio silence felt out of character. Especially since I’d just offered her the charity consultant position – basically her dream job. She should have been falling over herself to thank me; instead, she was being ungrateful.

The front door opened, and for a split second, I thought perhaps it was Marin, but it was only Tats and Bear. I’d asked them over to check on the security measures around the property. Angel shouldn’t have been able to get up to the front door without me being alerted.

“Everything looks good, boss,” Tats said, shrugging his shoulders. “We checked every camera and sensor, and they are all in full order.”

Bear nodded in the background.

“Thanks for looking into it,” I said. “I’m not worried about Angel or the Jackals, but I would like to know how he bypassed my system.”

It’s not like I was living in a fortress or anything. There were definitely holes in my security, but none obvious enough that someone like Angel should be able to figure them out. Even still, I wasn’t afraid. I slept with a gun strapped to the back of my headboard for a reason. If Angel came at me, I’d be ready.

Tats was in the middle of a tirade, going on about sticking it to the Jackals, attacking them on their turf, but I was saved the task of responding by my phone vibrating loudly on the desk. Marin’s name popped up on the screen, and as I answered, I was aware of how quickly I’d jumped to answer it, and how it must have looked to Tats and Bear.

“Hello?” I tried to cover my eagerness with a layer of aloofness. It worked, and Tats and Bear lumbered out of the room to give me my privacy.

“We need to talk.” She sounded somber, and suddenly I was nervous. Was she breaking up with me? No, of course not. We weren’t really dating. Plus, as far as she knew, ending things with me would also be the end of her life. She wouldn’t be so foolish.

“About what?”

“Please come over.” She hung up.

Was I mistaken, or did it sound as though she’d been crying? Her voice had the recognizable thickness of someone swallowing back tears.

I immediately grabbed my motorcycle key from the hook next to the fridge, threw on my leather jacket, and tore out of the driveway. The wind was cool on my skin, and I drank it in. A ride always helped clear my head, and lately, I’d had more on my mind than usual. Marin had been filling my thoughts, though I’d tried hard to ignore it. She was supposed to be a cover, a pretty face for the local tabloids. It was never supposed to be serious.

But there I was, flying down the interstate towards her apartment, trying to think of anything I could have done to upset her, any reason she would have to be angry with me, dissecting our phone call to try and discern whether her tone was frustrated or concerned. I was annoyed with how much I cared and with how little I was getting from her in return. I sat around thinking about her all day while she ignored my calls and hung up on me? It was absurd.

When I knocked on her door, I’d convinced myself that my feelings for Marin were nothing more than an infatuation. She was unlike the other girls I’d dated in the past, and for this reason alone, she had seemed interesting to me. I was like a cat with a shiny toy. Soon enough, I’d grow tired of her and order would be restored to my world. I’d do well to remember that.

She answered the door before I could even lower my hand, as though she’d been standing next to the door waiting for me to arrive. She threw it open and ushered me inside without a word.

“Hello,” I said, sounding formal and distant even to my own ears.

She didn’t respond as she closed the door behind us. Dark circles like bruises colored the skin under her eyes, and her fingers played nervously in the frayed hem of her oversized sweater. It looked as though she’d been awake all night.

“What is it?” I asked. The words were clipped, and she flinched as I spoke.

“Do you want anything to eat or drink?” she asked, stepping into the kitchen and opening the door to the pantry.

“No, I’m fine. Why did you ask me to come over?”

She stood there for a moment. Her chest rose and fell rhythmically, but otherwise, she looked frozen, rooted to the spot on the kitchen floor. Anxiety began to build in my chest, and I lashed out.

“You’re wasting my time,” I said, turning to leave. “I can’t just drop everything and run over here whenever you want. I have a life, too.”

I was almost to the front door when I heard her soft cries coming from the kitchen. I wanted to leave, to march down the hallway and wait for her to come crawling after me, but I couldn’t. I tried to tell my feet to move, my hand to twist the doorknob, but my body betrayed me. Before I knew what was happening, I was back in the kitchen, watching as Marin melted into the linoleum floor. She crumpled to her knees.

“I’m pregnant.”

The words hit me like a lead pipe to the knees. It took every ounce of energy I had not to fall to the floor next to her. Pregnant? With my baby? Obviously, it was mine. Otherwise, she would have told me. Right?

“Is it mine?” I asked, just to be certain. This was not the time to jump to conclusions.

She nodded. “Yes.”

“Is that why you’re crying?”

“Sort of.” She shrugged.

“What else do you have to cry about?” I asked, suddenly nervous. Being pregnant with your fake boyfriend’s baby seemed like it would be more than enough reason to be upset.

She took a deep breath, and then the story poured from her like a dam opening. With each word, she grew lighter. She lifted herself off of the floor and moved to the kitchen table, all the while recounting he conversation she’d had with Angel, what he’d asked her to do, what he’d done to her.

I tried to take in the information, but rage consumed me. By the time she finished, my hands were shaking.

“Why didn’t you call me immediately?” I shouted. “Do you have any idea what Angel could have done to you in the last twenty-four hours? You were a sitting duck in this apartment.”

“I kept the door locked,” she said weakly.

“And how long have you known you were pregnant? You could have picked up the damn phone and given me that little piece of information.” I knew I should try and control myself, but I couldn’t. Too much was happening inside my brain to focus on lowering my voice.

“I only found out last night.”

“And what the hell were you doing answering the door in the middle of the night?” The thought of Angel’s hands on Marin’s body made me crazy. I wanted to rip him apart. I imagined pulling his spine out of his body through his mouth. I continued shouting, though I forgot what I was saying the moment it was out of my mouth. I was blind with rage.

When I finally stopped yelling to catch my breath, I looked at Marin and saw her cowering on a chair, her hand clutching her stomach. Fear filled her eyes. The woman carrying my child was afraid of me. My child was growing inside of her, and she was petrified of me. Instantly, the rage inside of me moved to the background – still present, but controllable, for the moment – and I dropped into the kitchen chair opposite her, the cheap wood creaking under my weight.

“I’m sorry,” I said, my voice hoarse from yelling.

Marin relaxed, though she still kept a safe distance from me, leaning back in her chair. “It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not. This is just a lot of information, and I’m trying to process it.”

She nodded. “That’s what I’ve been doing the last twenty-four hours. Sorry I didn’t call you back.”

“Tell me everything again.”

“Are you sure?”

I knew what she was thinking. It hadn’t exactly gone well the first time, but I needed to hear everything with a clear head. I needed to fully understand what had happened so I could make a decision. “Positive.”

I gritted my teeth, biting back anger while she explained everything Angel said to her, everything he did to her. She recounted his hands on her body, and I heard the unshed tears in the back of her throat, fighting to be released, but she stayed strong. She sheepishly admitted that she’d explained everything to Kayla.

“Everything?” I asked.

“Sorry. The whole Angel thing wouldn’t really make sense without context. But Kayla won’t say anything.”

Suddenly, Kayla popped her dark head around the kitchen and ran her fingers over her lips as though she were shutting a zipper. “My lips are sealed.”

“Go to your room,” Marin shouted at her, the vaguest hint of a smile playing on her lips.

“I wanted to make sure you were okay,” Kayla said, eyeing me suspiciously. I couldn’t blame her for being nervous. My life was far from conventional.

“I’m fine, Kayla.”

Kayla narrowed her eyes at me one more time, which I understood to be a warning – Hurt my friend, and I will hurt you. It was almost funny to see such a petite woman try to intimidate me, but I raised and lowered my head once in understanding, and Kayla disappeared back into the living room.

As soon as Kayla was gone, Marin launched into getting sick and taking the pregnancy tests. She pulled one out of her pocket and laid it on the table. The small window in the center of the plastic stick showed two parallel pink lines.

I’d dated a woman a few years earlier – a crazy club girl who wanted nothing more than access to my world – who claimed to be pregnant. She told me the baby was mine, and then laid out a future in which we could be a happy family. It sounded like a nightmare to me, and I’d panicked. It had all been lies, of course. As soon as I’d pushed her to take a pregnancy test or go to the doctor for confirmation, she showed up crying, claiming she’d had a miscarriage the night before.

Marin didn’t strike me as a crazy club girl though. She’d taken the test herself, and spent the better part of a day thinking through how to tell me. This was real.

Surprisingly, I felt calm. The panic I’d expected to rise up in my chest any moment, to twist my thoughts into spirals of uncertainty and fear, never came. Aside from the rage I felt towards Angel, my head was clear. Marin would have my baby. My baby. And I’d take care of the baby. And her. In whatever way I needed to.

“I know this news is probably pretty unwelcome, so I want you to know I don’t expect anything from you.” What had she just said? I’d been so deep in my own thoughts that I’d barely heard her. She continued, “And I know you’d rather me get rid of the baby and pretend this never happened, but I can’t. That isn’t an option for me. I’m keeping this baby, and I need you to understand that I truly mean it when I say you don’t have to be involved.”

Her chin jutted out, jaw clenched and strong. She thought I didn’t want the baby. For a second, I was surprised, but then I realized I’d never given her reason to expect anything different. I was the guy who needed a fake girlfriend to improve his reputation. Not exactly the behavior of a great father figure.

I reached across the table and grabbed Marin’s hands. She flinched, but then looked into my eyes and stilled, her head tilting to the side. “We are going to call around today and find you the best doctor in the city. You are going to move in with me so I can protect you, and I will have a Hellion watching your apartment twenty-four hours a day to make sure Kayla is safe. You aren’t going to worry about a thing for the next nine months, and if I have a say, for the rest of your life afterward. I’m going to take care of you and my baby.”

Marin’s eyes went glassy, and she bit her lower lip. “Okay.”

I reached out to wipe a tear from her cheek. “You didn’t have the option to say no. We are going to teach you how to shoot a gun, so you can protect yourself if I’m not there.”

“I already have pepper spray and a rape whistle.”

I shook my head. “I’m not going to let a rape whistle determine the safety of my future child. If Angel ever comes near you again, if he ever touches you again, the only way it ends is with a bullet in his head. Do you hear me?”

Marin looked down at the floor, her eyes unsure. She didn’t know if she could trust my sudden softness towards her, and I couldn’t blame her.

I reached out and grabbed her chin in my hand, pulling her face towards mine. “Do you hear me?” I repeated.

Her brown eyes looked into mine, searching, and she may have responded, but I didn’t hear it. My heartbeat thudded in my ears, and the only thing I could focus on was her soft, pouty lips. Her tongue swiped across her lower lip, and that was it. I unraveled. I closed the space between us in an instant.

Her lips were hesitant for only a second before they softened, and her mouth opened to me. I pushed her lips apart with my tongue and explored the inside of her mouth. She tasted like chocolate and cinnamon. My chair tipped backward and clattered to the floor as I closed the space between our bodies, pulling her out of her chair and holding her into me. I was already hard, straining against the stiff material of my jeans.

Marin pulled away, and immediately my lips missed her. She peeked around the kitchen door, no doubt checking for Kayla, and then looked up at me, eyes large and doe-like. “Let’s go to my room.”

That was all the invitation I needed.

I scooped her up and pressed kisses into the soft skin of her neck. She wrapped her legs around me, her body bouncing up and down on my erection as I carried her across the apartment and into her bedroom. As soon as the door closed behind me, Marin untangled herself from me and dropped down to her knees.

She stared up at me while she undid the button on my jeans and pushed the zipper down. Her smooth hands slid the waistband off of my hips and around my thighs. My body was ready, and I popped out of my boxers at full attention. Marin wasted no time. Her thumb and pointer finger hooked around my base while her lips formed a warm ‘O’ and kissed my tip.

I groaned, feeling as if I could explode at any moment. She slid me into her mouth, and shivers of pleasure moved from the base of my spine up to my neck. My tip pressed against the rough skin of her throat, and still, Marin took me in until I was all the way inside of her, her nose pressed into my abdomen. I reached out and grabbed the back of her head, holding her onto me for a moment, thrusting softly into her throat.

She slid to my tip and did the entire thing again, pushing me closer and closer to the edge. Her mouth was incredible. She opened herself to me, and I fucked her face gently, pushing myself into her for only a second before pulling out, her lips forming a suction. We did this until my legs were shaking, moans escaping me with each thrust, and I was seconds away from coming down her throat. I pulled out and leaned against her bedroom door, breathing deeply.

Marin stood up and pulled her sweater over her head. She didn’t have a bra on, and her breasts bounced freely, her nipples hard and pointy. I moved towards her like a moth to a flame and rolled my thumbs over her nipples. She closed her eyes and tilted her head back, her lips parting slightly.

My hands followed the supple curves of her body down to her hips, and my thumbs hooked into the waistband of her shorts. They fell to the floor with the slightest urging, and she was standing in front of me in nothing but a dark blue thong. My hands wrapped around her hips, grabbing the soft flesh and squeezing, pulling her body close to mine, savoring the warmth of her skin.

She pushed my leather jacket off my shoulders and onto the floor, and then grabbed the hem of my gray T-shirt and pulled it over my head. I stepped the rest of the way out of my jeans. I picked Marin up and laid her back on her bed, trailing kisses from her collarbone down to her hips, pressing my lips to the hollows there, imagining how they would fill out as her pregnancy progressed.

When I kissed the center of her panties, she shivered, her legs clenching. I ran my palms down her legs, soothing them, and then pushed them apart, licking the inside of her thighs. Finally, I slid her panties to the side and kissed her warm lips, slipping my tongue into her. She groaned, arching her back, and it encouraged me.

I fucked her with my tongue, pushing in and out of her while rubbing my thumb in small circles over her sensitive nub. She ran her fingers through my hair, holding me to her, as I penetrated her more and more quickly. When I pulled my mouth away from her, she whimpered, but I quickly replaced my tongue with two fingers.

I pushed inside of her gentle, easing into her warmth, and she lifted her hips to slide onto me faster. I began thrusting my fingers in and out of her, still rubbing her clitoris, and she unraveled. I felt her pulsing around me, her body clenching onto my hand as I moved in and out of her. She threw her arm over her mouth, biting down into her skin to stifle her groans of pleasure.

Watching her react to me was almost too much to handle. I needed her. Before she was even finished, I pulled her panties off and climbed on top of her, my hands pressing into the mattress on either side of her head. Her blonde hair was spread out around her face, and her eyes were still squeezed shut in ecstasy.

I lowered myself onto her, and in one easy movement, thrust myself inside of her. Her eyes popped wide for a second before fluttering closed. She wrapped her arms around my back, pulling me onto her chest, and then wrapped her legs around my waist, deepening our connection. I pulled out of her entirely before sinking all the way back in. She moaned into my neck. I felt warmth building in my abdomen as our bodies slapped together faster and faster, our movements growing more urgent.

Suddenly, she pressed both palms into my chest. “Wait.”

I lifted myself up and looked down at her, my eyebrows pulled together. She pressed on me until I was standing next to the bed. She grabbed my arm and directed me back towards the mattress, forcing me onto my back. I could have overpowered her at any moment, but I liked that Marin was taking charge.

Then, she climbed on top of me. In all of the encounters we’d had together, Marin had never been on top. Now, though, she was straddling my hips, her weight pressing down on me. When she finally pressed me against her opening and lowered herself on to me, I couldn’t imagine why I’d never let her lead before. Her newfound confidence was unbelievably sexy.

The daylight filtering through the curtain on the opposite side of the room cast Marin in silhouette, and I felt her edges, running my fingers from her breasts to her hips as she took all of me inside of her and arched her back, her hands on my chest. She circled her hips on top of me, and my fingers pressed into the soft flesh of her sides, clinging to her to try and ground myself in reality.

I wanted to let her lead, but I couldn’t help myself. I lifted my hips to thrust into her while she ground down into me. She moaned loudly, and I was conscious of Kayla in the other room, so I pressed one hand into her mouth while I pushed into her faster. She took my fingers in her mouth and sucked on them while I hammered into her from underneath.

Marin was bouncing on top of me from my thrusting, gravity bringing her down again, so it felt as if we were slamming together impossibly fast. Her moans escaped around my fingers, and soon moans of my own were joining hers. My entire body tensed as pleasure bloomed in my lower half. I was trying to control myself, not wanting the moment to end, but when I felt Marin clenching around my length, I lost it.

Pleasure shot out of me in long bursts, sending warmth and shivers to all my extremities. There was nothing between us. Marin was already pregnant, despite us having used protection before, so we’d foregone it this time. Her body clenched several more times, and then she collapsed onto my chest. I thrusted softly into her with the last of my energy, enjoying the warmth and softness of her body until I slipped out of her.

I pulled her into my chest and whispered in her ear, promising to keep her safe, to take care of her. She pressed her naked body into the curve of me, allowing me to wrap my arms around her, and we fell asleep.

When I woke up, it was dark, and Marin’s mouth was wrapped around me, sucking me awake. I pulled her up next to me, both of us lying on our sides, and entered her gently, pressing into her until we orgasmed at the same time.

Kayla knocked on the door before leaving for work and told Marin she had to leave the room and eat something so the baby wouldn’t starve, so Marin grabbed a granola bar from the kitchen and ate it on her hands and knees while I entered her from behind. We alternated napping and having sex until we both collapsed with exhaustion.

I woke up again much later, with the sun, and stared at Marin’s light features. Her blonde hair was tangled and wild from my hands running through it, and her lips were still swollen from our kisses. She looked completely at peace, and I knew she trusted me. I’d let her see my affection for her, and I could only hope it wouldn’t backfire on me.