Page 54 of His Captor

“And you don’t want me or the baby to get hurt,” I finished for him, trying not to be annoyed.

I was annoyed, though. I couldn’t help it. Against all odds, I’d been reunited with the most amazing alpha I’d ever known, who was also my baby’s sire. He wanted to take care of me. He cared about me more than anyone who wasn’t family had ever cared. I should have been over the moon and looking forward to our life together.

I was annoyed.

“I think you’re doing it wrong,” I told him, waving vaguely at the table, even though I knew he was putting it together perfectly.

Mace lowered his hand and just stared at me over the edge of the table.

I stared right back at him with exaggerated intensity.

Mace sighed and reached for another screw. “I know it’s not an ideal situation,” he said. “I know you want to let everyone at the office, everyone in the world, know that we’re together and you’re carrying my child.”

My brow shot up. “Are we together?” I asked, my heart picking up speed.

Mace had just positioned the next screw, but he lowered his arms. An alluring flush painted his cheeks that made me want to forget every objection I had and to jump him and ride him into next Tuesday. Not that I was capable of jumping or hopping or even rolling much of anywhere in my condition.

“We are together, if you’d like to be,” Mace said, returning to his work.

I grinned, enjoying how awkward the conversation had suddenly become. “Do you mean it?” I asked, shifting my leg so that I could poke Mace’s thigh with my sock-covered toe. “Are we an item? A couple?”

Mace swatted at my foot with pretend disinterest, but his smile grew. “You’re having my baby,” he said. “We’ve been living together for almost a week.”

“You knocked me up by accident during a kinky fetish play scene,” I corrected him, grinning wider. “And I have very generously allowed you to stay in my humble abode after yours was trashed.”

“It’s back to normal now,” Mace said, finishing with his screw and rocking to his knees, then standing. He righted the table as well and tested its stability. “I could move back whenever I wanted.”

I lost my smile as a twist of dread curled through me. I didn’t want Mace to leave. I’d felt safer and more secure in the last week, with him there to keep me from turning into a hotter mess than I already was, and with him in my bed at night, than I’d felt since leaving my parents’ house.

No, since leaving Mace in his play apartment when my heat ended and I stupidly flew back to Barrington. I never should have left him that first time, although I couldn’t have known that back then. I didn’t want him to leave me now, even if it was only to go upstairs.

I avoided my feelings by asking, “Hey, what happened to that kinky apartment of yours anyhow?” I asked, using the couch to push myself up to standing. I only made it as far as moving from sitting on the floor to sitting on the couch. “You owned the whole building, right?”

“Still do,” Mace said, lifting the entire table and carrying it to the space I’d cleared out against one wall. “I had all the apartments renovated, and I hired a building manager. All of theunits are rented out right now. I kept the rent low and put out feelers for young families who needed a hand up in the world. I even got a license to operate a daycare in one of the units so the single parents who are renting from me can work.”

“Fuck,” I said breathlessly, rubbing my belly as Junior squirmed and moved around inside. “You’re one of the most noble people I’ve ever met.”

“Yeah,” Mace said morosely. “So noble that I won’t let on to anyone that I’m together with the omega carrying my child.”

“But it’s because you don’t want me to get hurt,” I said, fully aware that in the last five minutes, we’d switched positions emotionally on the awkward state of our relationship.

Mace noticed. He sent me a lopsided grin and came over to flop onto the couch with me.

“I know you want to be open about everything,” he said, shifting so he could slide an arm around me. “I also know you want to crow about bagging the boss to everyone you work with.”

“I do not,” I snorted, elbowing his side.

I kind of did. Canton Enterprises was a fantastic office community. Rachel had done an amazing job of hiring good people who got along with each other. Everyone was so concerned about me being single and pregnant that it was almost cute. A couple of them had tried to set me up with their alpha relatives just so I wouldn’t be alone. It would be nice to let them know I was taken care of.

“As soon as the Colin situation is sorted, I promise you, we’ll let everyone know,” Mace said, leaning closer to me and looking me in the eyes. “I promise.”

“You’d damn well better,” I said, smiling and leaning into him.

I liked being close to Mace. It was probably the bond, but being around him gave me a sense of ease, despite everything happening with Colin and Victory Holdings. Touching himdeepened that feeling, adding the spice of desire to the ease. And kissing him….

My gaze focused in on his mouth, and my smile widened. We’d been trying so hard, being so good, and denying what we really wanted from each other for the last two days, but it was getting harder and harder for me to resist. Pregnancy hormones had me horny, or maybe that was just Mace.

I drew in a breath, enjoying his scent as I did, then leaned closer, lips parted gently.

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