“If you’re sick of me, then leave!” I say. My words come out not as the angry shout I’d like, but as a defeated plea. I shouldn’t let that stupid bitch get to me this bad. This day is just screwing my world up.
“I’m not going to prove you right that I’m just fucking around. Newsflash, Nicole—you’re whacked in the fucking head, and you’re a crazy ass bitch. I don’t just fuck around with this level of crazy, babe. It’s too much goddamn work. So start tellin’ me what’s got you acting so fucked up today.”
“You’re my man,” I whisper, trying to work up the nerve to tell him what’s sent me over the deep end. “I’m your woman.”
His mouth descends on mine. When our lips touch, it’s like a thousand lit candles have tipped over and onto my skin. Jolts of desperation and desire pour through me. In a flash, I’ve reached up and I’m clawing at his shoulders. His hands reposition themselves and hoist me up onto the table.
A loud knock sounds on the door as it flies open. Wyatt stands in the doorway and smirks, telling Duke they’ve got Church. Setting me back down on my feet, Duke strides out without even looking back.
Chapter 22
When Church is over, Duke comes to his room and collects me. I hem and haw about telling him about the test on the way out, and he gets frustrated, not understanding why I’m stalling. I say, “We still need to talk.” But he isn’t up for hearing it. Something’s got him charged up, and he’s like a snake all coiled and ready to strike. So instead of blurting it out or demanding that he listen, I climb onto the back of his bike and don’t say another word until we’re back at the house.
As we move toward the front door, Duke’s cell rings. He stops in place and gives my ass a pat, saying, “Go on in, baby. I gotta take this. It’s Grady.”
My nerves are so shot, and I’m so on edge that I just nod and go on inside. The lights in the house are already on, telling me that Jeremy is home. I haven’t seen too much of him lately, but the times I have, it’s been better. He’s picked up after himself more, and he’s not been as mouthy. We still have our moments, but Duke’s presence in his life seems to be creating a turn-around for my brother.
“Hey,” Jeremy calls over the television. It sounds like he’s playing one of his video games that has him as a mercenary fighting evil in a foreign land. He got me to play once and spent the entire time explaining the game to me to a point that it sucked the fun right out of the experience. The sound from the TV stops, and he strides up to me. There’s an awkward look on his face, like he’s trying to work something out in his brain. Finally, he just asks, “You pregnant?”
The wind practically gets knocked right out of me. My face flushes, and I’m having trouble making sense of the question. Not because I don’t know what he’s talking about—obviously I do—but because he knows. The test. I left the test in the hall bathroom without even thinking about it. Duke was in such a rush, and I couldn’t sit in there all day, and the window is way too high up for me to have crawled through in order to run away
“He know?” Jeremy asks. I shake my head.
“Don’t say a word to him,” I warn. “I need to tell him in my own time.” Jeremy nods.
“Whatever. Love you, Sis. But you don’t want him knowing, you shouldn’t have left it in the bathroom.”
“‘Don’t want him knowing’ what?” Duke says from the open doorway. His deep voice slams into my heart in a way that makes it near impossible to keep upright. This is bad. This is so very bad. Not even my mouthy-ass brother says a thing. I turn around and face Duke. My eyes are wide and I shake my head. I keep trying to get the word “nothing” to come out of my mouth, but it won’t. This isn’t nothing. This is everything.
“What did you leave in the bathroom, Nicole?” he asks. His eyes survey mine for an answer. “I’m giving you the benefit of explaining before I find out for myself.”
“Just, nothing. Stop, okay?” I say as quickly as I can. I throw my hands up in the air and move to block his way down the hall. His muscles tense as he shoves me out of the way and stomps down the hall to the bathroom. I can hear his feet pacing the room for a minute before he stops. The metal wastebasket scrapes against the tile floor, and still he’s silent. I cast a glance at Jeremy, who’s stone faced and unmoving. His large frame folds in on itself and for a moment, he’s just a kid again. He’s my little brother who’s in trouble because he broke one of mom’s stupid QVC dolls.
Duke’s heavy footfalls sound in the bathroom, and he appears in the hall. In his right hand is the offending pregnancy test. The expression on his face is almost unreadable in its anger. I back up into the wall that separates the living room and kitchen.