Chapter Thirteen
Tak
Cake was my one true weakness, aside from Chris. Someone should make me a shirt that says, I like all the C’s. Chris, Cake, and yeah, the other C can’t really be put on a shirt and worn in public.
I sat down to the table capped with a white linen tablecloth along with fancy tiny forks and plates with perfectly square cuts of cake. Chris sat next to me. I bet he didn’t know that this whole table brought back my inner chub. It took me back to the days when cake was my antidepressant of choice. When I thought less of myself than even the forks on the table.
Usually I’d go for cake like a starving man, but this time, it all looked...vile.
My stomach revolted against the half burger I’d eaten before. It was probably just nervousness. I thought for sure Chris would be beyond upset about his motorcycle.
I’d scratched it up pretty good.
“These all look amazing. Is this from a local baker?” Chris’s voice lilted while he spoke. He was excited about all the options on the table.
He and Will spoke about the local baker and how there was another famous chef in Mapleville. Chris reached across the table and took my hand in his and mentioned something about taking me there.
Will’s eyes bugged out, and he shifted his gaze between me and Chris and then back again with his mouth hanging wide open. “Wait, are you two...I mean, you just got in yesterday.”
Chris laughed and looked at me, while I was still in my stupor. “I’ve made him wait long enough. He’s given me a couple of days to prove to him that I’m his alpha. But yes, for this moment, we are together.”
He didn’t have to tell the world our agreement. It made me sound like an ass.
“Could I get a glass of water?” I blurted, interrupting what Will was about to say.
“Yeah, of course.” He got up and left the area.
Chris leaned over and looked into my eyes. “Are you okay?” He pressed the back of his hand against my forehead and cheeks. “Tak, you’re a little clammy. Did the ride get to you?”
I shook my head no, because out of nowhere, I knew that if I opened my mouth, words wouldn’t come out—but something else would. Instead, I rubbed my stomach, trying to make him know that my food wasn’t settling well.
“Your stomach is sick?”
Will came back with the water, and Chris asked him to give us a few moments. Chris stuck his arm out and reached under my chair. In one tug, he had pulled my chair right next to his. He stuck his hand under my T-shirt and rubbed circles along my back.
“Tak, I know we’ve only had sex once, but I knotted you. And now you’re feeling sick and your scent has changed, even in the last hour.”
His words flowed into my ears gently. He’d made his voice carry like a lullaby. Another one of his talents.
“Tak, love, I think…”
Wait, was he saying what I thought he was saying?
“I didn’t mean to,” I said, immediately regretting my words, but at the same time hoping I’d said them louder. This wasn’t the way I had it all planned in my head. Now Chris would feel obligated to stay here as my alpha because I was pregnant instead of because he loved me.
Now he didn’t have a choice. He would have to put up with me, love or not.
“Tak, listen to me and listen to me well. I know this is soon, but at the same time it isn’t. You’ve loved me for a while. A long while and I think I loved you all that time, but I didn’t know, or I was denying it or something equally stupid.”
I looked down at my hands now wringing in my lap. “And now you don’t have a choice. You have to stay with me for this babe that I’m apparently carrying in my belly.”
“Tak, can I tell you something?” I nodded, denying the tears that stung the corners of my eyes an exit. “I’ve never...I mean I’ve had sex, but I’ve never knotted anyone before. Do you know why that is?”
I shook my head no, a million thoughts and presumptions pinging in there.
“It’s because I didn’t love those omegas. I love you. We knotted there under the pier in your pond because it wasn’t just sex. That was making love. You and I made something in that moment, and now it’s growing inside you. But that has nothing to do with why I knocked on your door this morning.”
“But we had a deal.” I halfheartedly laughed.
“The deal is still on, love. Yes, you’re having my child, but if after tomorrow night you still don’t think we belong together, then that’s your choice. I’ll support you and the babe all I can without being your alpha.”
Nothing in the world could sound more miserable.
I couldn’t answer him in that moment. There was too much at stake, and my mouth couldn’t begin to make sense of everything happening.
“I need cake,” I said. “Everything is better with cake.”
He winked at me, and I almost melted right there in the chair. “You always did like cake. You used to keep honey buns in your locker.”
I laughed. “I can’t believe you remember that.”
“I remember more than you think.” He took one of the forks and slivered off a corner of the red velvet, not my favorite. “Open up, love.” He poised the fork in front of my mouth and waited for me to take a bite.
Chris feeding me might be the sexiest thing I’ve ever experienced. He took his time in cutting off a perfect bite and then waited for me to open my mouth and take a bite.
“One time you were in the shower, the one next to your bedroom, and I went in and...watched you in the shower.”
Choking. All the choking. Cake in my throat. Can’t breathe.
He patted me on the back until I could take a breath and chew again.
“You watched me in the shower? I was...I was fat.”
My embarrassment about him watching me in the shower centered around my chub and whether or not he saw it.
“You were a little chunky. Who cares. I watched you…”
I jumped on the tail of his sentence. “You watched me what?”
“I watched you touch yourself…”
I would bet half a million dollars that my cheeks were as red as the cake in front of me. “Why?”
He shrugged. “Creepy, right? I felt bad about it, but at the same time I didn’t. If only I hadn’t been such an idiot back then I would’ve joined you.”
“A little creepy. But also a little sexy. I guess it just wasn’t the right time for us.”
He leaned over and took my lips with a fierceness I didn’t know a kiss could contain. He plunged his tongue into my mouth and sucked on my bottom lip. Heat pooled in my groin once again. It seemed to be a never-ending thing with Chris around.
“I’m not so fond of the red velvet. Want to try another?” He winked again and rubbed my stomach. “Gotta feed our babe.”
“I might not hate red velvet anymore.”
He chuckled and grazed his hand over my throbbing dick under the table. “I know. Let’s just get through the cake, and I’ll take care of everything you need.”
Three bites later, I’d decided on the carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.
It was my favorite. I knew that before the tasting, but, thank the gods I’d decided to go through them all.