Page 29 of Betrayed Pregnant Mate

I pause for a moment, stilling my hands, a thrum of awareness moving through meat the sound of his voice. This is insane.

“Yeah?” I finally say, hearing how awkward my own voice is. Percy and I almost had sex last night, except that would be a bad idea, because, apparently, his cock is dangerous enough that he could kill me with it. I giggle a little at the thought as I set the tote bag on the counter and start to unload my haul.

“I, uh,” he says, laughing a bit to himself. “I really need to pee.”

“Oh my god,” I say, putting my hands to my cheeks and whipping around, hurrying down the hallway toward his room. “I’m sorry, I completely forgot—”

I completely forgot that I needed to lock you away, so—what? Was the lock just a way to make me feel safe? It hadn’t felt that way last night when he commanded me to lock it. It’d felt like the only way he wasn’t going to come to the living room and have his way with me.

A shiver runs down my back at the thought, and I unlock the door, stepping away as the door opens. I don’t move fast enough, because Percy makes to hurry out, and our chests brush when I step back against the wall.

He stops, closing his eyes, and I watch him for just a second before turning and hurrying back into the kitchen. A moment later, I hear the bathroom door shut and relax infinitesimally.

If this is how paranormals feel about sex, how the hell do they get anything done? I can barely think when I’m around him, barely breathe.

Busying myself in the kitchen, I start making breakfast, focusing on what I’m doing so intensely that I don’t hear Percy step up to the breakfast bar.

“Deja vu,” he says, which makes me jump. He sits down at the breakfast bar. After his shower, he looks a bit better than he did yesterday, but he has heavy bags under his eyes and seems generally bedraggled.

“Oh, right,” I laugh, glancing down at the pancakes. “I hope you like pumpkin.”

Percy and I only spent a summer together, and nothing more. I don’t know what he does on Christmas morning, or how he feels about the first snow, or if he would do something atrocious, like making hot chocolate with water. The only thing I know about him is that he loves strawberries, and he was more than happy to lick the whipped cream from my—

“I like everything you cook,” he murmurs, drawing me out of my thoughts abruptly. I blink and clear my throat, turning and sliding his plate in front of him. It’s piled high with pumpkin spice pancakes, topped with a drizzle of cream cheese frosting and a handful of candied pecans.

“It might be too sweet,” I say as he takes a massive first bite. When he meets my eyes, he covers his mouth with his hand, nodding.

“No,” he says after swallowing it. I watch the action with rapt attention, my entire body fixated on what he’s doing. It feels like we’re both circling, circling, circling the elephant in the room, refusing to acknowledge it. “It’s perfect. There’s no such thing as too sweet.”

“Deja vu,” I whisper, remembering that’s what he’d said about the strawberry ones, too. He stands abruptly, swallowing and backing away.

“I should go,’ he says, “Aris wants me to meet him at the pack center.”

“Okay,” I say, clearing my throat and nodding. “Have a good day.”

Percy yells something back, but he’s already at the door to the apartment, so I can’t make it out.

After cleaning up from breakfast, I decided I don’t want to sit in the apartment by myself all day, so I headed toward the town center, where Linnea is still preparing for the kick-off party later tonight. It looks like they’re building some sort of stage, but it’s in the beginning steps.

“Watch out!” I say, hurrying forward and holding my hand out, just catching a wooden beam before it lands on Linnea’s head. She turns and stares at me, her mouth open, her eyebrows rising.

“Gods!” she cries, as two men hurry over to take it from me. “Wasn’t the heavy?”

I stare at the beam, then at her.

“Oh,” I say, after a moment, flexing my hand and arm and noticing how they’re not even sore. I look back at the beam, see how they’re pushing it back into place with effort, and realize that it must be a lot heavier than I thought. “Must have been adrenaline.”

“Well,” she says, hand to her heart, “thank you.”

“Yeah, of course,” I say, and then, “I’m actually looking for something to do.”

“Oh, you’re here to help?” she asks, with so much genuine excitement on her face that I instantly feel terrible for not coming to help sooner.

“Yes,” I say, and for a few, blissful hours, I’m thrown into the preparations, carrying heavy bags, moving carts, and painting a set. It feels good, and the exertion takes my mind off of everything. Occasionally, I catch someone giving me a strange look, but I don’t have time to dwell on it. The second I stop working, I start thinking, and the last thing I want is to play the kiss between Percy on loop for the rest of my life.

Chapter 14 - Percy

My heart is pounding the entire way into the pack center.

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