Page 15 of No One Else Can Have Her

“Tell me what you want this to be,” Nate said. He’d give her the world. All she had to do was ask.

“I … we’ve moved so fast.” She looked past his shoulder. “I … we’re going to have a baby, right?”

He nodded.

“And we’re best friends, and I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize that.”

“Carly, we’re not going to do anything that will ruin our friendship.” He wouldn’t let that happen. As far as he was concerned, they were moving in the right direction.

“Then, I … we’re going to have a baby together, and I don’t want this to get weird, and I’d like us to try this out.” She frowned.

“Try this out?”

Carly suddenly sat up and pulled the blanket around her body, hiding herself from him. “This is going to sound so silly, and I get it if you want to kick me out afterward.”

That would never happen.

Nate was curious as to what got her so nervous.

“I’d like us to try and be … boyfriend and girlfriend. You know, like an actual couple. We could do it in secret, you know. Not tell any of the others what’s happening. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you with a girlfriend before, and, well, I’ve been pretty clear that my dating experience is next to nothing. I have no idea what I am doing, or what to do in a relationship…”

And she kept talking, well, babbling, which he knew Carly did when she was nervous, and it was so cute and adorable to see.

Nate put her out of her misery by slamming his lips down on hers. He didn’t give a fuck if the others knew about them or not. He had a feeling they were all in on some kind of game, but he wasn’t going to call them out, at least not yet.

For now, he had gotten what he wanted. Carly was his, but he also did have a plan. He needed to get Carly knocked up and married to him, and he wanted to get it done sooner rather than later.

****

Staring across the bed at a sleeping Nate, Carly had a mad desire to reach out and touch him, to see if he was real, but that was stupid. She didn’t want to wake him, as he did look so peaceful in sleep, and Nate rarely looked at peace.

She knew he put on a good front, but he was a damn good boss and businessman. Lifting the blanket, she rose from the bed slowly and quietly. She didn’t have any change of clothes, but she grabbed the robe she had on last night and tiptoed out of the bedroom.

There were plenty of other bathrooms in Nate’s house for her to use, and she didn’t want to wake him.

Sneaking downstairs, she found the spare bathroom. Of course, there would be clean toothbrushes for her to use. She unpackaged one and brushed her teeth. She ran a comb through her hair, splashed cold water on her face, and she did all of this after using the toilet. With that done, she made her way into the kitchen.

Nate didn’t have many staff. Sometimes he hired a cleaning crew, but that was rare. Carly had spent many a day stopping by to clean his house. He had some serious paranoia, and she knew he’d made a lot of enemies. She wasn’t dumb or blind to what Nate was. He didn’t know what to title himself—crime lord, crime boss, or whatever. Either way, Carly didn’t care. He’d done a lot of bad things.

She knew there were a lot of bad people in the world. In her first years of life, she’d spent a lot of time with bad people. Pushing those memories to the back of her mind, she instead went into his kitchen and straight to the fridge.

There were no leftovers. The guys had snagged them last night and promised to bring the bowls back. She believed them, as they did this at every barbeque. They took what they wanted and then returned with clean dishes. She was just pleased they had decided to clean the stuff first. They never returned anything dirty.

She spotted the bacon and sausage and knew she’d cook Nate a breakfast and take it to him in bed. Reaching for the meat, she then stopped herself. Would that be crossing a line? Would that be like a stalkery girlfriend thing to do? She cooked for the guys all the time, even Nate.

This was stupid. She was seeing normal stuff she did all the time as stalking. This was being nice. They hadn’t changed who they were. She was still Carly, and he was still Nate. They were best friends, and now they had sex and were in the throes of making a baby. She put the packages on the counter and then pressed a hand to her stomach.

Was she already pregnant? She knew it only took one time.

This was crazy.

She couldn’t be pregnant yet. They had only just started.

“Focus, Carly. Just focus. It’s all okay. Totally okay.” She took a deep breath, and then expelled it slowly. Nothing had changed.

They were going to have a baby, which is what couples did all the time. She paused again as she held a frying pan. Couples. Were she and Nate a couple?

She closed her eyes and then decided she didn’t need to know quite yet. Breakfast. She was going to make them both breakfast and not overthink what they were doing. Everything was going to be okay.

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