Page 24 of The Billionaire Alpha's Surprise Baby

“There’s plenty more,” says Garrett, who has also polished off his serving. He’s sitting with one elbow propped on the table, head in his hand, staring at me with an amused expression.

He takes in my eager, hungry face and gets up from the table with a chuckle. He returns with a glass dish full of the stuff, which he sets informally between us.

“Now that I’ve proven I can be civilized, we can just dig in,” he jokes.

“Fine with me,” I say, stabbing a few noodles onto my fork.

Garrett pops a hearty bite into his mouth, and I catch him watching me again.

“This is wonderful,” I tell him earnestly, reaching across the table to place my hand over his. “Thank you.”

“I’m glad you enjoyed it,” he says, his eyes smoldering as he takes me in. “Thank you for giving me another chance.”

Guilt burns my insides, and I shift uncomfortably in my seat. “I should have given you a chance before.”

“Why would you?” he asks. “I took your virginity and knocked you up without ever taking you on a date.” He sucks in a sharp breath, looking suddenly troubled. “And if you looked into my family at all, you probably gathered that they’re not . . . welcoming to outsiders.”

I bite the inside of my cheek. “And . . . what would they say about me?”

“It doesn’t matter,” says Garrett, flipping his hand palm up to capture mine in his grip.

“Yes, it does.”

Garrett glances away, clearly frustrated, but doesn’t release my hand.

“Really, Garrett. What would they say if you told them about me? I assume you haven’t told them.”

He doesn’t answer me right away. He just lets out a long breath, looking as though he’s fighting some great internal battle.

Finally, he meets my gaze, and the pained look in his eyes steals my breath away. “They’d say you were just some trashy one-night stand. They’d try to pay you to get an abortion — to use their money and influence to make this whole thing go away. When that didn’t work, they’d resort to threats. They’d try to use you to manipulate me so that I could manipulate you.” He rolls his eyes. “And when that didn’t work, they’d threaten to disown me.”

I drag in a shaky breath, caught off guard by his honesty. “And would they? Disown you, I mean.”

Garrett shrugs. “Some days, I think my father has already disinherited me — that he only keeps me around for the sake of appearances.”

I raise my eyebrows. I’ve known lots of people with imperfect upbringings, but I’ve never heard anyone describe their own family in such stark unemotional terms.

“Do you . . . plan on telling them?” I ask, suddenly wishing the two of us could escape to some deserted island.

“No,” he says quietly. “But they’ll find out eventually — if they don’t already know.”

My panic and dismay must show on my face, because Garrett looks angry with himself. He leans forward and grabs the leg of my chair, pulling me around so that our knees are almost touching and taking both my hands in his. “It doesn’t matter what my family says, Ava. I want you, and I want our baby. There’s nothing they can do to change that.”

Even though there’s a little voice inside my head telling me this isn’t going to end well, the way he says “our baby” makes my eyes sting with tears.

Stupid pregnancy hormones. Lately, I’ve been tearing up at dog-food commercials, and Garrett’s willingness to lay it all on the line for us is almost more than I can handle.

“I am all in,” he whispers, squeezing my hands tightly in his. “I want to go to all the baby appointments and take the cheesy birth classes . . . I want to get one of those ugly front carrier things with all the straps like Vin Diesel wears in that movie about the kids . . .” He gestures around his chest, and I smile through my haze of tears.

Garrett means it. He actually means it. He wants to be a part of our lives, and I feel as though I could burst with happiness.

Without thinking about what I’m doing, I lean forward and brush my lips against his. His lips are just as soft and kissable as I remember, and as soon as I taste him again, that electric feeling I got in the club comes rushing back with a vengeance.

For a moment, Garrett just sits perfectly still as I explore his mouth. Then a pained noise escapes his throat, and he threads his fingers through my hair.

It’s been so long since any man has touched me this way. Garrett was the last. A new hunger awakens in my body, and a tiny moan slips out of me.

That little noise seems to rouse him, and he finally kisses me back.

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