Page 3 of His Everything

“Mama, go. Liam hun-gee,” he says, and Lucy leaned forward, beneath the canopy hiding them from view.

“Alright, let’s get you fed,” Lucy replies as she stands, grabbing hold of the handle and when the stroller began to move forward, my feet went right along with them. “Jayden…”

“You ran from me once, I’m not letting it happen again, Luce.”

“Now is not a good time, I need to get my son his lunch,” she counters, and I nod, not about to stop her from doing that, but I’m not letting her put anything between us.

“I can sit on your couch and wait until you’re done, or help you make lunch,” I add making her brow lift and I can’t stop the soft laugh that hits. “Come on, you know Mom never let us shirk kitchen duties. She didn’t want Joel or me to be as ignorant in the kitchen as our dad was.”

“Right now really isn’t a good time,” she tries to argue as the elevator door opens. She pushes the stroller onto it, trying to block me, but I’ve grown in a lot of ways since she left, includingin height and put on muscles, making it easy to simply lift her, moving her back next to the stroller to slip onto it with them.

“What floor, baby?” I ask, feeling a little smug when it puts a hint of color in her cheeks. “Luce?” I prompt when she just stares at me, letting my eyes slide over her body, making that flush deepen.

“Twenty,” she finally states, and I nod, hitting the button and once the doors close behind us, something delicious fills the space. It’s not her scent, which is something I’ll never forget, and it makes my stomach rumble with hunger.

“Is that takeout?” I ask when she won’t lift her face to look at me, her eyes on the stroller still.

“I didn’t want to cook,” she admits with a little shrug and my brow rises a hint more.

“So you got takeout, from the restaurant where you work?” I guess, and the color on her cheeks says I’m right. “So if I’d been a little earlier, I’d have seen you there instead of here.”

“What do you want, Jayden?” Lucy asks, her face lifting, meeting my gaze and I can’t stop the hunger that rushes through me seeing her beauty this close.

“What I’ve always wanted. You, baby,” I answer with no pretext. I’m not playing games, especially not if there’s another man anywhere in the vicinity that might think he has a claim on her because of the baby. She was mine first. I’m not letting anyone take her from me now that I know where she is, have her in front of me again. “I’ve always wanted you Luce. Other girls don’t do a thing for me. They flirt and tease and offer themselves to me and all I want is for them to go away and leave me alone. One look at you and I turn into a stuttering fifteen-year-old boy all over again.”

“No, you don’t,” she says softly as I step up into her space, lifting her chin so her eyes meet mine.

“I do,” I counter, lifting her hand up to my chest, letting her feel the way my heart’s racing wildly for her. “It’s always been like this when I’m near you. I may not literally be stuttering anymore, but it’s the same feeling. Jessa used to torment me on the fact that I had the world’s biggest crush on her best friend. You can’t tell me you didn’t know,” I add when her eyes widen in shock.

She shakes her head no, biting her bottom lip and it makes me hungry for a taste of it. My thumb pulls it from beneath her teeth and a little rush of breath falls from her, a shiver running through her body, and I can’t help but smile at her response. My body’s reacting the same way and I brush against her, letting her see she’s not alone in this heady response.

“Jayden…” she whispers, her tone the same as that night in her house when I kissed her, and I can’t stop. My head lowers, catching her lips with mine, tasting every bit of her as she gasps, giving me the opening to invade her sweet mouth with my tongue.

A moan slips from her lips and my cock responds in kind, wanting, needing to hear her moan like that while I’m deep inside her. Three years…three fucking years since I’ve gotten this hard unless I was dreaming of Lucy, of our nights together, or in the shower with her picture my head while getting myself off. I haven’t touched another girl sexually. Hell, I haven’t even kissed another girl and while it hurts that she slept with another guy, I don’t care. It’s not going to keep me away from her.

I lift her up against my body, feeling her all along me then let out a silent curse when something hits the back of my leg. I let out a groan sitting Lucy back down, then turn to see the culprit. There’s a block on the floor by my feet and I fight against a grin. Apparently Lucy’s little guy doesn’t like men kissing his mother…or maybe he just doesn’t like anyone but hisfather doing it, I muse trying to fight to stop the dark scowl that thought creates from showing on my face.

I lean down to pick up the block, moving to hand it to the little man, hoping it’ll get me some points with him. My entire body freezes when his face turns to me, a smile on his lips revealing a single dimple in his left cheek just like mine, while his green eyes twinkle with a hint of mischief, just like mine. He’s not nearly as little as I expected, which shouldn’t be a surprise since I know he’s mine, and the looks on Lucy’s face, her disappearance and cutting all contact with us begins to make a hell of a lot more sense. She clearly never wanted me to find out she had a baby—mybaby.

“Jayden,” Lucy starts as I turn my face back towards her, not masking the pain that’s rushing through me. I can’t because god dammit, she had my baby and never said a single word about it.

“Not in front of him,” I suggest as the elevator door opens, and before she can, I grab the stroller handle and back out of the elevator, following her to a door, my hunger for food vanishing. Fucking hell, I wish my hunger for her could as well. She lied to me…okay, maybe not lied but she hid this from me, kept me from knowing I had a son, and that pisses me off. How could she do this to me…to my son?

Chapter 3

Lucy

The look on Jayden’s face makes my stomach churn. Any thought of eating simply to have the sustenance completely vanishes and I lift Liam from the stroller when we’re inside the apartment. I don’t want him upset, don’t want him to ever think he’s not loved, wanted.

I settle him into his high chair then grab the takeout from the stroller’s basket and move to the counter to make him a plate. He’s an amazing eater, not really picky about things, other than breading on meat like me, so I usually order several sides to add to the grilled chicken tenders he loves.

I can feel the anger coming off Jayden as I fill Liam’s plate with the sweet potato fries, green beans, broccoli, carrots, zucchini, and chicken. Then give him the fruit cup on the side with his little fork and spoon. A tiny bit of my worry fades seeing the look on Jayden’s face as he watches Liam pick up a fry, eating it with a smile on his lips. The light in his eyes as he looks at Liam settles the worst of my fear that he’ll resent his presence, because I know that look. It’s the one in my eyes every photograph I’ve ever had taken of me and Liam.

After I fill Liam’s cup with water, I have nothing to keep me from joining them, and my heart races as Jayden’s head lifts, meeting my gaze.

“Were you ever going to tell me about him?” he asks me quietly, his tone even, which I’m thankful for because the last thing I want is Liam to deal with angry, resentful, loud voices.

“Not anytime soon,” I admit, wrapping an arm around my middle knowing there’s no point in trying to deny that he’s Liam’s father. The resemblance is far too striking to try and talk around it.

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