Chapter 38
Kason
I sat there for what seemed like hours before I finally came to my senses. Hanna was fucking leaving. I had just let my best friend’s pregnant sister walk out of here without me doing anything about it. She was taking a cab to my house to pack her shit and going home with my child.
Panic rose in my throat when I finally came to my senses. I had avoided her because I didn’t know how to sort out the thoughts in my head, and I had neglected her in the process. I’d pulled away just like the rest of her family had and created an atmosphere just like her family had created. I had dumped her in a foreign home in a massive city that could easily swallow her whole, and all I did was keep my distance because I couldn’t fucking deal.
I didn’t want her to leave. She just had to give me time to shift gears.
I grabbed my coat and raced out to my car. The elevator couldn’t go fast enough, and when I barreled out into the parking garage, I slammed myself into my car. I raced home and sped through every yellow light I hit, and when I pulled up into the driveway, there was a bright yellow taxi cab sitting there.
And Hanna had her phone to her ear while she loaded her suitcase in the trunk.
I squealed my car to a stop and stumbled out. Hanna whipped her head over and hung up the phone. When I got to her, I reached in and grabbed her bags. I tossed them onto the pavement while she looked at me with wild eyes. Then I dug for my wallet while my gaze held hers.
“Here’s 50 dollars for your troubles,” I said to the cab driver. “Your services are no longer needed.”
“I wasn’t even going to charge her, dude. She came out crying and—”
“Just take it and go,” I said hotly.
I watched him drive away, and that was when I realized Hanna’s tear trails blazed down her neck. I didn’t know what I needed right this second, but I knew it wasn’t this, so I gathered her into my arms and brought my lips down on hers. I pulled her in and begged her body to caress every inch of my skin, and when her tongue grazed my lips, I parted them just for her. Hanna Rendon shook me to my very core, and instead of talking to her about how confusing and fast this all was, I’d done what I always did.
I had locked her out, hoping she would simply leave.
The issue was, I didn’t want her to leave. I wanted her to stay with me. I wanted to eat breakfast with her before we rode into work together. I wanted to look up and see her across the hall from me every day. I wanted to make love to her on the couch in my office before pinning her against the windows and fucking her senseless. I wanted to take baths with her and feed her dinner and take her to movies and go dancing. I wanted to explore the city with her and watch her grow rotund with my child. I wanted to kiss and lick every stretch mark she’d chide herself for and press my fingers into every dip of cellulite that bloomed on her ass and thighs.
I wanted to memorize how her body would change, and then change it again and again with more children.
I wanted her to stay, and I wanted her to stay for good.
She moaned lightly into me and grasped the collar of my jacket. She stood on her tiptoes and I slid my hands down to her ass. She hopped up and wrapped her legs around me, and when her head was soaring above mine, she cupped my cheeks in her hands and didn’t let go.
“I love you,” I said into her lips.
“What?” she asked. She pulled back and looked into my eyes, and the words tumbled out of my lips again just as easily as they had the first time.
“I love you, Hanna Rendon.”
“Are you…are you serious?” she asked.
“I’ve been so distant because I didn’t understand what I was feeling, but that was it. Everything has happened so fast, but it feels so right. And I…I love you, Hanna. I’ve never felt this way about anyone else, and I don’t really know where to go from here, but—”
“I’ll help you,” she said with a smile.
“Oh, you will, will you?”
“You’ve helped and given me so much. You’ve given me a place to live, you’ve given me a way to continue my classes, and you’ve given me a way to support this child we’ve created. Yes, I will help you,” she said. “Let me do this for you, Kason. Let me in. Talk to me. That’s all I ask.”
I set her back down on her feet and drew her into my chest. The way she sighed contentedly before giving her body over to me was something I wanted to experience for the rest of my life. I wanted to be with her—all of her—for the rest of my life, and while that scared the shit out of me, I also knew I was ready.
And I was doing it with the perfect woman.
I’d always seen her as my best friend’s sister, and in a way, she’d been sort of like my own sister. But now she had grown and become educated and blossomed into a beautiful young woman, and that young woman was carrying my child. She was willingly trusting me with her care all the while giving me the best present anyone could’ve ever sprung on me.
And I’d spend a lifetime making sure she felt just as cherished as she was in my life.
“You are such a mature, intelligent, and incredible woman, Hanna. I want to be here for you. I want to help you raise this child. I want to love you. I don’t want you to leave. However you were getting home, whoever purchased you anything, I’ll pay them back. Just…don’t go.”
I felt her shoulders shaking, and it was then that I realized she was crying. I pulled her away from me, panicking because I thought I’d done something wrong, but the smile on her face while she brushed away her tears told me differently.
“I love you, too, Kason,” she said breathily. “I’ve loved you since the moment I first met you.”
“You have?” I asked.
“Man, you were my middle and high school crush, and you just ruined me every time you came home to visit Marcus. I thought with you pulling away that you were second-guessing having a relationship and raising this child with me. I thought you didn’t—”
“I’m so sorry,” I said. I cupped her cheeks and brought her gaze back to mine, and I felt her ragged breath pulsing against my lips.
“Please forgive me. Just give me some time. I’m not good at this now, but I—”
She crashed her lips against mine before I could finish, and I knew then and there that she’d forgiven me. I made a mental note to ask her who had bought her a ticket home so I could pay them back, and then I took her in my arms and picked her up off her feet. She smiled into my lips, and I slipped my tongue between them. The moment I did, she melted into my arms.
“I love you, I love you, I love you,” I said, and her giggle was music to my ears.
“Let’s get my stuff back inside,” she whispered.
“Sounds like a good idea.”
I set her down once again and she went to grab her suitcase. But I wouldn’t let her. It was heavy and shoved full of shit, and no woman of mine who was carrying my child would be hauling this by herself.
“Why don’t we dump this in a corner and go take a bath?” I asked.
The smile that lit up her face fluttered my heart.