Chapter 10
Jessa wiped the fog off the washroom mirror and looked at her naked body. Her breasts were noticeably bigger, their peaks darker and seemingly larger as well. She ran her hands around them, checking their firmness and weight. Could Jax see the differences that were so obvious to her eyes?
Her hands moved lower, caressing the skin over her lower abdomen that had begun to stretch over her growing belly. She was nearing the end of her first trimester, and naked like this, she was surely beginning to show.
It’s nothing my clothes won’t hide.
As long as Jax didn’t see her naked, she had nothing to worry about, and there was no chance in hell of that happening.
She pulled her panties up over her legs and settled them in place.
She was so aware of herself as a woman while he was here, and she didn’t like the feeling one bit.
She’d been happy at the beach, at least until the first break-in.
Content to live quietly in the cute little house and let her baby grow, but Jax’s arrival had changed all that.
She slipped her thin nightgown over her head and walked into the bedroom then climbed into bed and pulled up her covers. He had no right to be here. He shouldn’t have been able to find her at all, yet here he was, refusing to leave and insisting on protecting her.
Her eyes closed as she settled into the mattress. The slightest noise at the window had her sitting upright, her heart racing. It was nothing, she was sure.
Okay, if she was being completely honest, she felt far better with him being here than she had without, especially given today’s break-in.
Jax had determined the burglar had entered through the bedroom window right at the foot of the bed, and though the window was locked now and the curtains pulled, she knew full well she’d never get to sleep without him in the house tonight.
What about after tonight?
God, she couldn’t stomach the idea of moving again.
She’d been so tired lately, to boot, and moving one more time seemed like more than she could handle.
But what other choice did she have? Stay here, where someone was determined to break into her cottage every chance they got, or let Jax stay on as her live-in bodyguard?
Over my dead body.
A knock at her bedroom door had her heart pounding. “Yes?”
He poked his head in the door. “I’m going outside to look around.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah. Get some sleep.”
She was certainly tired, but she wondered if she would in fact be able to rest, partly because of whoever tried to break in and partly because of her bodyguard.
He disrupted her entire world with his presence, not only because of the threat he posed to her child but because of the threat he posed to her inflamed emotions.
Everything made her cry these days. She was cranky and needy and desperate for company.
She was a nurse, but Maria Elena held no such certification, so even her passion for her work had to be sacrificed in this game.
She’d been working at the local library, a job that didn’t lend itself to conversation.
Now that Jax had found her, she could go back to being herself, back to caring for people as she loved to do. That was some consolation, at least.
It will be great. You can work on the weekends when Jax has custody of the baby.
The urge to cry came quickly and wouldn’t be denied.
Curling onto her side, she let the tears come.
She’d worked so hard to escape him, gone to such lengths and extremes, yet here he was.
If she couldn’t convince him to leave her alone, she had only to wait for the day he discovered the truth and laid claim to the baby he’d unknowingly created.
And when that day came, only one thing was certain. Jax was going to hate her, and would become an inescapable part of her life from that moment forward.