Page 77 of The Broken Beginning: Part One

Lily glanced around and then nodded to the space between the end of the sofa and the wall. “What if we move the end table and just put it here. That way I can see into both the living room and the kitchen easily if I’m working.”

“Okay, what about all this stuff?” I pointed to the tiny Christmas tree and all the wrapped gifts that had been piling up on the table since that first Christmas when we all let Lily down.

She shrugged her shoulders indifferently even as a flash of pain crossed her face. “Upstairs I guess, so it’s all out of the way.”

Out of sight. Out of mind. I got it, especially now that it didn’t look like our fathers would ever get the chance to open their gifts from her. Then again, she’d sort of given me a second chance, so they might still get one too.

Our lives were starting to resemble that of a real family. My closest club brother, Double-D and I had been working hard on making sure that our chapter of the club could mostly operate on the legit side of things. We have plans for expanding our strip clubs out and up the coast to Myrtle Beach and down into Georgia. It was just a matter of time and finances we had to contend with, but Double-D was a whiz with the finances, so we both felt our plans would come to fruition sooner rather than later.

The only reason I wasn’t home most days during regular business hours was that we had been setting one such club up on the north side of Charleston. When it came time to start auditioning talent instead of getting the bar setup, I took off and carried myself home - away from temptation and any possible rumors that might arise and get back to Lily. She didn’t need any more shit in her life, and all I needed was my family, so my plan to stay on the straight and narrow involved keeping out of places I shouldn’t be until we built trust between us again. Even then, I only wanted to deal with the business as much as I had to. Someone else could audition the women.

It was surprising, considering I hadn’t been home much over the past week, that whenever I did get back Lily was always hard at work on the computer that I brought down from the loft for her to use. She would always shut it down as quickly as possible the minute that I walked through the door, which made me a bit nervous. That led me to pull some stupid shit, but I was fucking glad I did, because once I realized what she had been up to, it changed everything.

~*~

“What do you mean you can’t come in today?” Double-D asked as I hopped off my bike. I’d driven two blocks down the road from our house and parked the bike, intending to sneak back in and surprise Lily so I could finally find out what she had been up to all day, every day on her computer. I told my brother exactly what I was doing, and the son of a bitch laughed at me.

“You think it’s wise to spy on her? If anyone should have trust issues in your relationship, it should definitely be her, not the other way around.”

“I fucking know that, but why is she so secretive about it if it isn’t anything bad?”

“Beats me, but what could she really be up to when she’s so pregnant she’s about to pop?”

“Fuck if I know.”

“Maybe she’s doing that at-home porn shit for assholes who have pregnant chick fetishes.”

“What the fuck are you even talking about?”

“Never mind, I gotta run. Let me know what you find out and how much trouble you’re in when you do. I’d say my couch is open, but I live at the fuckin’ clubhouse, so that won’t be helpful.”

“Yep!” I hung up on the bastard as one wild fantasy after another played out in my mind about Lily and her beautiful pregnant body. She better not be showing that off to anyone else. It’s mine, and even I barely ever got to see it.

I decided that the front door would make it too easy for her to shut things down before I was able to get a good look, so I hopped our fence into the backyard, and sneaked in through the back door, which was unlocked. Lily needed to remember to lock that shit up after she brought Declan in, but I’d talk to her about that after.

“I can’t believe you rolled around in the one mud puddle in the yard, Declan!”

My son’s answering giggles came from the bathroom, letting me know that she was probably bathing him after the mud puddle incident. Good boy! He just gave his daddy extra time to snoop.

I went straight to her computer and low and behold, it was open to whatever she had been working on. I started reading hot-as-fuck sex scene about a pirate and a mermaid?

“What the hell is this?” I whispered to myself before scrolling back to read some more.

“Who owns this ass?” Capt. Etienne asked again as he slapped the siren’s butt cheek, leaving another red mark to appear in the shape of his hand.

“You do!” She sang out in that lyrical voice that he couldn’t resist.

“That’s right! I own this ass,” he tormented her as his cock thrust forward hitting depths that both tingled her senses and sparked a quick flash of pain.

“Holy shit!” Double-D hadn’t been too far off when he guessed my wife was creating porn, thankfully, this wasn’t exactly what he’d pictured.

I scrolled all the way to the beginning of the word document and read something that turned the excitement in my veins to straight chills just as a notification for an incoming email popped up on the screen. The Sea Captain and the Nymph Return by Brinley Amber Madeline.

“No! Fuck no!”

I clicked on the email and read it. Sure enough, that name, along with her real one, was there to taunt me as some agent, publisher, or some shit talked about how much money she was getting for this book upfront and it was a lot. This was real, and from the looks of the rest of the email, it was far from her first book.

“Tell me she isn’t using the names of women I’ve fucked as her writer name!” I hadn’t even realized that the words were said out loud until someone cleared their throat behind me.

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