chapter 4
1057 Words
TANISHA.
I freaked out the second I woke up.
The bed beneath me was too soft. The floor-to-ceiling windows were too tall and unfamiliar. And the slow, even breathing beside me? Too close.
I slowly looked over my shoulder and saw him there, sleeping soundly beside me. Grey Eyed Asshole. It was what I’d taken to call him since we decided on no personal information.
It all slammed into me at once. His lips, his hands, his voice, the filthy words he whispered when hammering away into me like a demon possessed. My face flamed with heat. God, the man was a beast. His arrogance was way more understandable now. The size of his…and his stamina…
I shoved the thought away.
My thighs were sore with a dull, satisfied ache and I hated how much I did not hate it. It was a good sore, one that still lingered with the memory of last night.
No, I didn't do this. I didn't do one-night stands. I didn't wake up in strangers' beds. And I definitely didn't wake up with my heart racing like this. I turned away, panic taking over again. I had to get out before he woke up. Before he saw me and this weird…whatever turned into something else.
I slid out of the bed as quietly as possible and held my breath when he stirred, but he didn't wake. Just sighed and rolled over. Thank God.
I snuck into the bathroom, splashed cold water on my face, and scowled at my reflection in the mirror. Mascara smeared beneath my eyes, lips swollen, hair a mess, and yet… I looked so…alive. Like I hadn’t in a long time.
Not that it mattered. I had to leave
When I came back, I looked around the room for my dress only to find it crumpled in the corner like a shredded napkin. I blushed. The man had literally torn it off me. Beastie.
I grabbed his white button-down shirt off the floor. It smelled like him, manly and woodsy cologne. Then I put on a trench coat I saw lying around and my heels and, quietly, slipped out of the suite and headed to the elevator without a backward glance.
"This was a mistake," I said to myself as I headed to the lobby. "One I won't repeat."
New York was a crazy populated city. I'd never see him again. I had nothing to worry about.
---
The headlines the following day were exactly as I expected it to be.
‘Troubled Basketballer Takes a Genuine Turn!’
‘Jude Lennox On The Path to Redemption!’
‘Rising Basketballer Has Decided To Make Positibe Changes: The End of The Troubled Era?’
As expected, Naya called me into her office, her eyes aglow with admiration. "I still don't know how you pulled that off in one night," she said with a proud smile. "You're a genius, Tanisha."
I smiled woodenly. "Just doing my job."
Naya leaned forward, hesitant. "There's another case. Sensitive. A young heiress. I think you'd work wonders with her, if you're willing." Her voice was soft, tentative.
I turned away. "I'll have to pass." Was all I said.
Her smile faltered, but she nodded. "Alright."
I returned to my cubicle and shut the door behind me. I couldn't handle another case just yet. I needed silence. Control. I needed things to get back to normal.
Except… normal wasn't satisfying anymore.
My routine began to chafe like skin that was too tight. What had been comfortable before now felt dull. I tried to work through it, to drown myself in paper and coffee. But it didn't help.
And then the changes began.
I was sleeping too much or not at all. I couldn't keep a good meal down, and the smell of freshly brewed coffee, my lifeline,made me queasy. My stomach flipped and I threw up regularly.
It didn't escape Naya’s notice and she cornered me one morning near the file cabinets. "You okay?" she asked gently.
"I'm fine," I replied too quickly.
She narrowed her eyes. "You're pale. You're sweating through your blouse. And you turned green at the smell of donuts."
"I said I'm fine," I snapped, then immediately grimaced. "Sorry."
She crossed her arms. "Go to a hospital."
"I don't need to…"
"Tanisha."
Her voice was firm. A warning.
"I'm giving you a day off. Non-negotiable. If I see you back here without a doctor's note, I'm reporting you to HR."
I opened my mouth to object but closed it again. She'd never pulled the HR card on me before. So, reluctantly, I agreed.
—
The waiting room was sterile and had a faint scent of bleach and lemon air freshener. I stared at the shiny parenting and cancer awareness magazines on the table, feeling disconnected from everything around me.
At last, a nurse called my name and led me into a small examination room. I perched rigidly on the bed's edge while a young doctor, dressed in baby-pink scrubs, entered with a friendly smile.
"So, Miss Breckett," she said, reading from her tablet. "You've been experiencing nausea, fatigue, and mood swings?"
I nodded.
“Have you eaten any particular food that you’re allergic to? Perhaps food poisoning?” And I shook my head. She hummed and directed me to lay down and lift my shirt slightly. As she moved a wand thing over my lower abdomen, silence stretched between us.
Then she turned the monitor toward me.
A bright smile broke across her face.
“Congratulations, Miss Breckett. You’re about a month pregnant.”
My heart stopped.
“I’m… what?”
"Pregnant," she said again, waving at the screen. "There's the gestational sac. Your little boy looks healthy."
I stared at the tiny blinking dot on the screen. A little bean. Alive. Growing. Inside me.
I sat up too fast and clenched my fingers around the bed . "You're sure? I mean… a hundred percent?"
She nodded. "Blood test will confirm, but yes. You're pregnant."
My mouth opened, but nothing came out.
Because the only thing that was running through my head was a pair of storm-grey eyes and a smug smile that made me want to slap and kiss him at the same time.
I didn't even know his damn name.
And now, I was pregnant for Grey-Eyed Asshole.
Fuck. My. Life.
- Writer
