Chapter 8
James
“Ineed to…I need to talk to you. Can you meet me at my office, please?”
Yara’s words bounced around James’s mind for the thousandth time. He had wanted to yell, to scream at her when she called. But then she spoke. Her previously confident and sarcastic tone was replaced with unease. He had held his tongue.
And even though he buried the thought as deep as he could, it still pulsated: he didn’t want her to disappear on him again. He didn’t want to admit he had gone by her office, online, around town searching for her. But he had never run into her, couldn’t find a trace of what she was up to.
She had essentially vanished after their encounter, and he couldn’t determine what had gone wrong. It had felt perfect.
Even with his daughter’s mother, he always knew there was something off, but he had pushed it aside, too busy working and keeping a roof over their head.
But Yara disappearing had triggered him. Completely and irrevocably so.
Reminded him of his daughter being taken from him in the dead of night.
He rode the elevator up to her office. To where he would be meeting her. His arms folded across his chest, his foot tapping in anxiety.
When the doors opened, he walked the short stretch down a hallway to a desk.
The secretary looked up, offering him a demure smile, fluttering her eyelashes at him.
“And how may I help?” she asked, her tone grating against his ears.
“I’m here to meet with Yara.”
The secretary frowned. “There isn’t anything on the schedule, and Yara is currently out, but perhaps I can help you?”
James wasn’t an idiot. He recognized flirting, but he had zero interest in the woman before him.
“I’ve got him.” A deep voice came from further down the hallway past this woman’s desk.
James whipped his attention to the man marching towards him.
Correction—the large brute.
“Who are you?” James asked, his hands tightening into fists.
He looks like a criminal. What is he doing here? Has he hurt Yara?
The man didn’t respond, stopping right in front of James with a critical gaze.
“Mateo,” the secretary acknowledged, lowering her head. “I didn’t know she was back.”
Mateo gave her a curt nod, lifting his hand.
James unwillingly took hold of Mateo’s outstretched hand. And a moment later, he felt as the man attempted to crush his bones. James offered back the same energy, leveling him with a glare. “What is this?”
Again, Mateo didn’t answer his question, releasing James’s hand. “Yara is waiting.” He spun away, stomping back down the hallway, before swinging a door open and holding it, gesturing for James to go inside.
At this point, James wasn’t sure he wanted whatever this was, but if there was a chance Yara was on the other side, he wasn’t going to pass it up.
Filing inside, he glanced around. The space was large and clean, a large window replacing the far wall and showing off the city views. A metal conference desk taking up most of the space with one chair on his side and two on the other. And in one of those chairs…Yara.
His hands were suddenly clammy. His throat, too dry, as he swallowed a few times, attempting to not choke. She wore a long sleeve and pants, but he could picture what lay beneath. Imagine himself inside of her. Again.
“Sit, please.” She wouldn’t meet his gaze.
He wanted more than anything for her to look him in the eyes. To explain how she could do this to him. How just after he told her how his deepest pain was being abandoned, she did exactly that. How she broke her promise.
He settled in the chair across from her. Staring her down, waiting for her to speak.
The brute from before—Mateo—walked around the table, falling into the chair next to her, and she leaned into him.
James stiffened, jealousy twisting a knife in his stomach. “Is that why you left? You are with him?” The words spilled from his mouth before he could stop them.
“You will listen,” Mateo barked, slamming a fist onto the table.
James narrowed his eyes in anger but held his tongue.
“Look, both of you, this isn’t a pissing match. I asked you up here for a reason.” Yara finally met James’s eyes. “Mateo, can you please leave us?”
“Yes, but I will not go far.” The man next to her grumbled, offering James a glare before exiting the room and shutting the door behind him.
Leaving James and Yara alone.
James’s annoyance dissipated, his anxiety unravelling, a soothing calm replacing it. “Why did you leave?” he asked as gently as he could.
Yara breathed in and out a few times. “There are a few pieces to that. The first, I am determined to show you in person, but I promise it will make sense once I do.”
James combed a hand through his hair, clenching his jaw. “If you didn’t plan on telling me anything, why am I here?”
“Like I said, there are a few pieces to that. One of which is why you are here.” Yara stood from her seat abruptly, turning towards the window. “I want to preface there are three possibilities.”
“Three possibilities?” Confusion sunk down into him. He couldn’t understand what that meant.
“I’m pregnant.” Yara tossed the words out into the room.
They rolled and swung and spun before finally, eventually, landing on James.
James’s brain short-circuited.
“A condom, the pill, and a vasectomy. One of those failed and now I’m pregnant. I haven’t gone to the doctor yet, but I took about twenty tests between yesterday and today.”
It took James more time to decipher, to understand.
“Pregnant?” He jumped to his feet, his attention on Yara.
On the way she refused to turn around, on her disheveled hair, on the long sleeves and pants that covered nearly all of her skin.
“Three possibilities?” He flicked his attention to the door Mateo had exited through.
He couldn’t see the man but would bet he was listening just on the other side.
Again, jealousy slithered down his spine, coating his skin, seeping into his blood. He pushed it aside, but it took home inside of him.
Yara took a few more breaths before twisting back around. She leaned back against the glass window, shutting her eyes. James’s attention zeroed in on her stomach, but there wasn’t any evidence of her pregnancy.
James took her distraction to walk towards her, a magnet pulling him closer and closer.
She abruptly turned to face him, wrenching her head up to him, offering a hand. In a trance, James took it. Her cool skin at odds with his hot palm. His qualms and jealousy suffusing into the air.
“Look James. I care about you, we had an unforgettable night. My feelings were—are—real. I want more from you, but there is a complication. And more than that—” Yara rolled her bottom lip between her teeth, glancing towards the door Mateo had left through.
“I have two other men who are going to be a part of my life, and I can’t ask you to walk into that kind of relationship.
I don’t have much to offer you. But I am pregnant, and I want to get tested for paternity.
If the child isn’t yours, you can just cut ties with me, and if they are yours, I will do everything to coparent with you. ”
James stared down at Yara. “Two other men?” he asked.
“Mateo and Kazi.”
James screwed his eyes shut. He flicked through his memories, of everything he had done in the last decade.
Since his daughter had disappeared. Of the points that were bright.
The darkest hours. The nights he nearly sunk into oblivion.
The depression that bit away at pieces of himself.
The numb that he forced himself into if only to survive.
Throughout all of that there was one singular day that shrouded the rest. One singular night that reminded him what it was to be alive. One singular encounter that made him realize he hadn’t been alive in years. Yara.
Mateo’s face came to mind next, the type of person he appeared to be. His mind flipped through everything he found out about Kazi. He didn’t know how this would go, what all it would entail.
He acknowledged his own possessive nature.
I don’t want to share.
But for a chance to be with Yara? To grow his family? Isobella would always be his daughter, but perhaps he could be a father again?
James brought Yara’s hand to his lips, pressing a peck there. “Okay. I want to try this. To figure it out.” He willed the desire churning in his gut away but then Yara was launching herself at him, and he was forced to catch her.
It wasn’t until that very moment he realized how empty he had been without her.
He would do what he could to work this out, even if it meant competing with two other men.
His lips crashed against her, a fervor of need and rage. Of agony and lust.
She had run from him, she had left him when he needed her most, she had hurt him. He tightened his hold on her, one hand around her waist, the other cupping her ass as she straddled him. His fingers dug into the linen of her pants, reaching for her ass.
“James,” she murmured softly. “Fuck.” Her hands tangled around his neck as she rocked against his hardening length, her lips brushing against his.
It was his signal, his sign, his beacon to take it further to unleash onto her the emotions she had poured into him.
He readjusted, tugging her gently off, and he caught the way her eyebrows drew together, but he didn’t leave her to worry long. He set Yara on her feet, dropping to his knees before her, reaching for the hem of her pants. Staring up at her, he waited for permission to continue on with his plans.
His mind was clouded, he was desperate to connect with her again. To stamp out Kazi and Mateo. To remind her that he was right here, of how amazing they had been together.
She’s pregnant. And it might be with my child.
The thought circulated, fueling his hedonistic need—the flame of rage that wanted more than anything to take Yara from this office and run off with her to the sunset.
“We shouldn’t,” she said, but her actions were at odds with her words, as she unbuttoned her pants.
James smirked, helping to tug her pants and underwear down in one go.
“Why is it like this between us? I am aching for you. Is it the pregnancy hormones?”
“No,” James replied gruffly, taking in her cunt.
He reached out his hands, one cupping the soft skin just above her cunt, the other finding the heat between her thighs. His fingers trailing gently, leaving goosebumps in their wake. He watched her intently as he did so. Her lips parting, her eyes turning glassy, as she slowly leaned into him.
He explored inside of her, dipping in one finger, leaning forward, and capturing her clit in his mouth. His teeth grazed it as his mind focused solely on her.
On feeding her as much pleasure as he could.
She placed her hands on his shoulders as her breathing turned erratic. “James.” Her moan was cut off as he added a finger inside of her.
Stretching her. Readying her.
When they had started, he had meant to leave her hanging, to take her to an edge he had no intention of pushing her off. But now he couldn’t stop. Her mewls were addictive, her scent heady. Yara was a sweet and sticky honey that he had no hope or want of escaping.
His rational thought dissolved as he continued to work her over, nibbling, licking, sucking. His fingers kept a steady beat as his other hand held her in place. When she tightened around his fingers, he couldn’t stand it any longer.
“I’m going to fuck you. I know your safeword. Use it if you don’t want this. If you need this to stop.”
Her only response was another moan as he curled inside of her.
“Good girl,” he growled, withdrawing from her carefully and getting to his feet. He quickly kicked off his own pants and boxers before surging forward to her again. Capturing her lips in his as he lifted her, lining her up.
He dropped her onto his cock, capturing her scream in his throat as he continued to consume her. Just as he hoped, he had worked her over to the perfect point. She clenched around him as her orgasm rolled through her.
Except he wasn’t letting her off that easy. He spun them until her back was to the window and then began to pound up into her.
It didn’t take long until he was tipping over the edge himself. His balls tightening as his pleasure clouded his vision. He released Yara’s lips to burrow his head into her neck, sucking on the skin there, as he squeezed her to him tightly.
He emptied himself inside of her, filling her with his cum. Holding her to him like that, letting himself soak her. He wanted more than anything to remain like this for the foreseeable future.
But then a gruff male voice broke through Jame’s euphoria. “Get away from there, it isn’t safe. Yara, I told you to cover these windows.”
“What is someone going to do, shoot me?” Yara laughed nervously while James listened and clarity sunk in.
He was dick deep in Yara with her other man watching.