Page 94 of Selfless

I come to a stop and look over at her. Tears still stream down her face as she stares at me wide in fear matching her voice.

It breaks my heart to see her like this. Going over to her, I fall to my knees at her feet and grab her hips, pulling her ass to the edge of the couch. Then I rest my head on her lap and say the one thing I want her to know. “I don’t care that it’s his. I’ll take care of you both.” That’s all there is to it. I love this woman, and I will love her child as if it’s mine!

A sob wracks her body, and I look up to see her placing her hands over her mouth. She looks down at me and shakes her head quickly. “It’s yours.”

“What?” I ask, pulling away from her.

“The baby is yours.” She manages to get out through another sob.

“But I thought …?”

“I’m only eight weeks.” She reaches up and wipes the tears from her face. “The doctor checked me in the hospital, and I’m eight weeks. I had been sleeping with Bradley before I met you, yes, but it had been three weeks prior to meeting you in Panama.”

My heart rate picks up with excitement. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying I got pregnant with your baby while on your balcony in the pouring rain. On your birthday.”

I watch her speechless. It’s my baby! We’re having a baby!

“I’m so sorry …” she cries.

The door to my office decides to open at that time, but I don’t even look to see who it is. “Get out!”

“But, sir …” comes Kelly’s voice.

“I said get out!” I snap. The door closes instantly.

I stand and sit down next to her. I take her face in my hands and turn her head to face me. “Don’t be sorry. I’m not sorry, Ashlyn.”

She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. “I don’t know what to do.”

I place my hand on her belly, and I can’t help but smile. She looks at me as if I’ve lost my mind, and maybe I have. This isn’t how I planned on starting a family, but as long as it’s with Ashlyn, I don’t care. “We have a baby,” I say simply.

She lets out a noise that sounds like a growl and stands. She turns to face me, her red eyes now narrowed at me. “How can you be so calm about this?” she demands. “How can you agree with what he did?”

I stand. “I don’t condone what he did for one second. But I do know that it doesn’t matter how it happened; we are going to have a baby.”

She runs a hand through her hair, and I can see the emotion change all over her body. Her shoulders pull back, and her nostrils flare. “How could he do this to me?”

“I’m not taking his side, but Vicki is a manipulator. You can’t trust everything she says.” Her eyes shoot daggers at me. “And how would she find that out? She doesn’t even know Bradley.”

She places her arms over her chest and starts to pace like I was doing only moments ago. “She had this look of satisfaction on her face when she told me that you would leave me when you found out I was pregnant.”

“I wouldn’t—”

“And then I said Ryder’s not that type of guy,” she interrupts me, and I smile at how much this woman believes in us. “Then she said why would he raise another man’s baby? I told her the baby was yours. And she got pissed.” She shakes her head at herself as if she’s replaying the moment in her head. “She just started vomiting at the mouth. Telling me how she was standing inside the lobby of Q’s when I chased you out.”

I frown. “I never saw her.”

“She said she overheard the entire thing and guessed there must be another man. She said she had a choice to follow you and make her move or wait. She chose to wait. That it wasn’t hard to pick out the man who was pissed off, and she stopped him in the lobby. They went and had some drinks, and he confessed to her how much he loved me and how he had been switching my pills for months. Fucking. Months,” she shouts. “And that they both saw that as their way to get what they wanted. Vicki gets you, and Bradley gets me …”

I step in front of her and place my hands on her shoulders, bringing her pacing to a stop. “Calm down. Take a breath.”

She doesn’t. “Ryder, I—”

“Need to rest,” I interrupt her again. I gently guide her backwards and when her knees hit the couch she falls onto it. I kneel in front of her again.

She shakes her head. “It all makes sense now. The fact he won’t go away. The fact he just won’t accept I love you.” Her eyes meet mine. “I told him I loved you. That I wanted you.” I smile. “But he just kept lingering around.” She swallows. “Vicki told me she suspected I was pregnant. So he must have been hanging around thinking I was but thought it was his.”

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