Chapter Forty-One
S he slept like the dead .
I’d woken up a few hours later, and she’d still been out. I’d extracted myself, thrown my clothes back on, and run out in the pouring rain for fast food. Now I was back, and she was still sleeping. I wanted to crawl in bed with her, but the milkshakes were getting warm.
I sat on the edge of the small-as-fuck bed and fingered a strand of her soft hair. “Audrina.” She was fucking gorgeous, always, but asleep like this, she was stunning.
Inhaling, she stirred, but she didn’t open her eyes. “I smell french fries.”
Grabbing the bag off the table and snatching a fry, I held it to her lips. “Open.”
She opened her clear blue eyes, but not her mouth.
“Eat,” I commanded.
She studied me as if looking at me for the first time. “You like to tell me what to do.”
I didn’t deny it. “You like to challenge me.”
“Not all the time.” She ate the french fry. “Shit, that’s good.”
I grabbed the carrier with the drinks and leaned back against the headboard. “Chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry?”
She looked at the drinks on my lap. “What’s the fourth one?”
“Diet Coke.”
She smiled. “Kinda ridiculous, don’t you think?”
I didn’t drink sugared shit. “Pick a fucking milkshake, woman. ”
She snatched the chocolate one. “Did you really get all three flavors for me to choose?”
“Yeah.” But next time I’d get the fucking chocolate. I pulled the two large fries out and handed her one. “You still not eating meat?”
She did the cute little snort thing. “I was forced to eat chicken a few times or starve.” She took the lid off her shake and dipped a fry in it.
“How’d your stomach handle it?” Maybe that was why she’d hurled.
“By the third time, it wasn’t too bad.” She ate the nasty shake-drenched fry.
I took the chicken sandwich out of the bag and held it out to her. “I also got a burger with the works, minus the burger.” I pulled it out too.
She took the burger-less burger. “Thank you, but I think I’ll confine my culinary adventure to dairy overload today.”
I nodded and took my double burger out. We ate in silence and shared the diet soda. For the first time in ten days, I felt like I could fucking breathe. But as I sat there and ate food in a comfortable silence with this woman, I realized I hadn’t felt this kind of peace since before I’d enlisted. Hell, since before my mom died.
I never thought about finding a woman I fit with. But this blonde-haired strong-willed woman? She fucking fit. Lock and key, she more than fit.
And I liked it. A whole damn lot.
I watched with satisfaction as she polished off half the fries, some of the sandwich and most of the shake. Then she lay back down and put her head on my lap.
“Okay, that was more junk food than I’ve eaten in five years.” She rubbed her stomach and looked up at me. “What did you want to talk about?”
I set the soda on the nightstand and cut right to the chase. “I want you to take a pregnancy test.”
Her hand rubbing her stomach froze and her muscles tensed. “Why? Just because I vomited? ”
“Yes.” And because I’d come inside her, and I couldn’t fucking stop thinking about it.
She laughed uncomfortably. “I’m not pregnant, Falcon.”
I brushed her hair off her face. “Then take the test.”
She sat up and pulled her knees to her chest. “What are you doing?”
I hesitated, trying to gauge the look of alarm on her face. “Do you want kids?”
Her hand went up and she scrambled back. “No. No, no, no. We are not having this conversation.” She got off the bed. “Don’t sit there and pretend like this is anything except you clearing your conscience by getting me to take a stupid test.” Her voice and her attitude ramped up, and she snatched the food wrappers off the bed and crushed them into a ball. “Well guess what? Mission accomplished. You found me, you fed me, you’re free of obligation, on every level. You can go now. No strings. Have a nice life.” She tossed the trash and walked into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.
I was off the bed before she had a chance to lock the door. I threw it open and was ready to let loose about her attitude and bullshit defenses, when I found her sitting on the edge of the tub, crying.
Goddamn it .
I picked her up.
“ Hey ,” she screeched. “Put me down!”
“No.” I strode back into the dump of a motel room and sat on the bed.
The second my ass hit the mattress, she was fighting to get off me. “Let me GO.”
I held her tighter. “No.”
Her fist hit my chest, and more tears fell. “I said, let me go .”
“Stop crying.”
She looked at me like I was fucking insane. “That’s the best you’ve got? Stop crying? Don’t ever tell a woman to stop crying! That’s not how you calm someone down. Don’t you know anything ? ”
There was something wrong with me, because I fought a smile. “I know you’re scared.”
She looked away, but she stilled. “Let me go, Falcon. I’m begging you.”
I put my lips to her ear and gave her the single thought I’d been fixated on since I sank inside her. “What if I don’t want to?”
A silent sob shook her shoulders. “Don’t do this to me.”
I grasped her chin and brought her face back to mine. “Would it be so bad if you were knocked up?” Everything about this was fucked. We didn’t know each other. She drove me fucking insane. But God help me, I wanted every inch of this challenging woman.
Her voice pitched high. “Are you crazy?”
Certifiable. “I’ll take care of you,” I promised.
“And a kid?” she asked, incredulous.
I didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
She stared at me for a long moment. “You’re serious.”
“Every word.” But I’d only said half of what I needed to say. “I want you to take that test, so we know what we’re dealing with, but I want something else first.”
“What?” She bit her bottom lip.
I fucking jumped. “I want you to come back to Miami with me, no matter what the results are.”
She frowned. “Why?”
Inhaling, I said to her what I’d never said to another woman. “Because I want you to move in with me.”
Perfectly still, her eyes so clear, the blue was translucent, her blonde hair falling down her back and over her shoulders in a just-slept mess, she was so damn gorgeous and innocent, she made my chest hurt. But she was also strong-willed, sexy and infuriating, and the thought of letting her go made me want to crush shit with my bare hands.
So when she didn’t say shit in response, my jaw ticked and my nostrils flared. “If you’re not interested, tell me now.”