Oh my God. No.
Her vision blurred and then cleared again. It wasn’t going away. It was still there. The horrible monstrosity.
Celia was…pregnant.
“What the fuck is that?”
“We’re so happy to tell you, Bryna,” Celia said, walking toward them.
“You’re going to have a new sister or brother,” Lawrence said.
Bryna might be sick. She wrenched her arm out of Pace’s and covered her mouth.
“What?” she nearly shrieked. This could not be happening.
“We’re pregnant,” Celia said.
“You’re pregnant,” Bryna corrected. “How the hell could this have happened? How the hell could you have let this happen?”
“Bryna,” her father said warningly.
“I mean, how old are you?” she spat at Celia.
“Bryna!” he cried.
“It’s okay. That’s a perfectly normal reaction. Neither of us expected this to happen. It’s okay that Bryna didn’t expect this either. I know I’m older. It’s unusual but not unheard of.”
“Haven’t you heard of birth control? Condoms? Getting your tubes tied? This is disgusting.” Bryna whirled on her father. “You force these people into my life and then do this?” She shook her head. “I just can’t.”
Bryna slowly backed up, away from them. She knew they were trying to get through to her, but she couldn’t hear anything. All she could see was that horrible belly.
She fled. She couldn’t stand there for another minute.
Her hands were shaking, and her breath was coming out in short bursts when she made it into her cluttered living room. This shouldn’t even have been possible. It was absurd.
“Hey,” Pace said, following her into the room.
“Fuck off.” She closed her eyes and tried to picture her life without this bullshit.
“I told them that I’d check on you.”
“Mission accomplished. You can leave now.”
“I don’t want them to have a kid either, you know.”
“Good for you,” she spat.
“It’s revolting. She shouldn’t be pregnant at her age. And now, we have to share a sibling.” He shuddered.
“Stop talking about it!” she screamed. God, it was getting worse and worse, the more she thought about it.
“I’m saying I agree with you. No agenda here.” He held his hands up in surrender.
“You always have an agenda, even when you claim not to,” she said.
“Not this time.” He shrugged. “I knew you would respond like this. But I guess there’s nothing we can do about it. Anyway, they seem happy, I guess. Maybe we should remember that.”
“Or not. I’d rather them be miserable than have a baby.”
“Do you really mean that?” he asked.
“Yes. Don’t act surprised.”
He shook his head. “Is this temper tantrum really because you don’t want them to be happy? Or are you pissy because you aren’t going to be his only baby anymore?”
Bryna clamped her mouth shut and glared at him. They shouldn’t even be having this conversation. “Fuck off, Pace. I’m leaving.”
“Where the hell are you going?”
“Away from you and this fucked-up family.”
“What am I supposed to tell them?” he asked.
“Whatever you want. I don’t give a shit.”
With that, she left her condo. She needed time to think about and process what had happened. She had been ambushed, and she wasn’t going to stand for it.
She definitely was going to need some retail therapy and then booze. Yes, liquor fixed everything.
Bryna pulled out her phone and jotted out a text to Trihn and Stacia.
SOS, bitches.
The rest of the week was hell. She spent as much time with the girls as possible and stayed far away from Pace. The last thing she wanted to think about was Celia’s pregnancy or her stepbrother.
Thankfully, Hugh had arrived in town, and she could forget all about those pesky things.
She had called him after her blowup with Pace to confirm he was still coming into town. They had agreed to meet up at one of his resorts. She had never been there before, and she was excited that he was introducing her to more of his life. Ever since they had gone to Tahoe, she hadn’t been as nervous about the whole thing. Everything was progressing smoothly. This was the relationship she’d wanted. No feelings. No emotions. No love. Just sex and money.
A woman greeted her at the entrance and took her straight up the elevator to the penthouse suite. The room was gorgeous, all marble-tiled floors, expensive white furnishings, and an unbelievable view of the Vegas Strip.
Hugh was seated at a large black desk in the office.
“So, this is where you work when you’re in town?” Bryna asked. She leaned against the open doorway in her short black dress.
His smile was so easy and natural. He was clearly happy to see her. “Sometimes. I have an office, but people bother me there.”
“Am I bothering you? Should I go?” she joked. She took a step back out the door.
“Absolutely not. You should come inside and sit your ass down on my desk.”
She sauntered inside. “That might distract you.”
“Distract away.”
Bryna scooted past him until she was sitting on the edge of the desk in front of him. She reached back and shut his laptop. “Oops,” she murmured.
He laughed.
“Is this distracting?”
His hands ran up her bare thighs. “Very.”
She moved the laptop off to the side and then lay backward, taking up as much space as she could. She arched her back and let her blonde hair splay out all around her.
“Now, this is extremely distracting.”
He pushed her legs apart and moved his hand up her body. She groaned and writhed on his desk. He had his pants around his ankles in a matter of minutes. Her panties followed, and then he was claiming her body.
It was pure pleasure.
No thinking. No confusion.
Just a man and a woman taking what they wanted.
She finished before him, and her orgasm brought on one of his own.
After cleaning up, she returned to the study to find him completely put together with two small boxes in front of him.
She arched an eyebrow. “What’s that?”
“Your Christmas present,” he said.
She sat back down and tried to hide her smile.
“And a little something else. Which would you like first?”
“Which would you like to give me first?” she asked.
He considered the question. “Your pick.”
She licked her lips and stared down at her choices. “This one.”
“Good choice.” He handed the box to her.
She tore into the paper and popped the top. Inside was a plastic card with WC Resorts etched into one side. Her heart jumped. Is he giving me a credit card? Were we there already?
“What’s this?” she asked.
He grabbed the other box and came around to the other side of the desk. “That,” he said, “is a key to this suite.”
“Oh?”
“I want to see you more, Bri. I don’t know where this is leading, but I know I enjoy my time with you. I feel alive when I’m with you. I don’t want to lose that feeling. So, I decided I wanted to make a plan to be here every other weekend to be with you, if you’d like, and you can have access to the penthouse and everything else your heart desires in my resort while you’re here.”
She couldn’t rein in her shock fast enough. He was giving her an all-access card to WC Resorts—penthouse, spas, gambling, dinner, pool. Everything.
“This is so much,” she breathed.
“It’s not. I want you to be nearby when I’m in town. I’ll have to work, so I won’t always get to spend all my time with you, but I want you to have every luxury when I’m here.”