Page 42 of His Captor

I waved to him as the elevator doors closed, then ran down the hall to my apartment.

Correction, I waddled down the hall keeping my legs as close together as I could so I wouldn’t need to change trousers and take a shower before meeting Mace downstairs.

I hurried through everything I needed to do to get ready for a day of sightseeing, eager to get to the lobby and spend the day with Mace. Even though I was a bundle of mixed and scattered emotions, underneath all that, hope throbbed within me.

What if Mace and I could reconnect? What if we actually were suited for each other? What if we became friends, more than friends? What if I didn’t have to do this whole baby thing alone?

Suddenly, an entire picture of the life I might have in front of me unfurled. I wouldn’t be a single papa after all. I would have a partner, an alpha. Not just any alpha either. I’d have the biological father of my son, the man who had given me a breeding orgasm that had turned my body inside out. Mace already shared my darker kinks, so I wouldn’t have to have thatpotentially awkward conversation. Like Ari and Samson, Mace and I could play out the things that got us off within the context of a committed relationship.

I was so hyped up on the potential for a beautiful life that when Mace finally stepped out of the elevator and strode across the lobby to meet me, I blurted out, “Do you wanna go to the zoo and see if we can catch any of the animals fucking?”

Mace nearly missed a step. Mrs. Peabody from Six-D, who was on her way to the elevator, turned and gave me a wide-eyed look of disgust.

Mace laughed as he started walking again. “If that’s what you want to do.”

“We don’t have to,” I blundered on. “I don’t know why I said that. I’m just nervous for some reason. I don’t know what I’m doing. Pregnancy fucks with your mind like that. Oh, God, I think I’m gonna cry.”

I really thought I would. I could feel it all welling up inside me.

But Mace came over and rested a hand on my shoulder. “Hayden, it’s alright,” he said in a confident, soothing voice. “This is all uncharted territory for me, too.”

His hand on my body felt so good. It felt like more than a touch. Just his presence was soothing to me.

Maybe there was a potential bond brewing there.

I drew in a breath and let it out noisily, one hand resting on my belly. “Okay, I can handle this.” I paused and tilted my head. “Maybe not the zoo, though. I don’t want to get all worked up in public if the baboons really are getting their kink on.”

Mace laughed again. “Alright, what else do you suggest?”

Everything was going to be okay. I could feel it. Mace wasn’t disgusted or angry or upset by me and Junior. He was taking it all in stride, and he really did seem to want to help.

“We should start with the trolley ride,” I said as we headed for the door. “It’s for tourists, but it’s a Barrington institution. And it stops at all the major sites, so you can decide what you want to do or skip.

“Sounds perfect.”

The trolley turned out to be the perfect start to a day of sightseeing. Mostly because it enabled me to sit down for an hour as we tootled around Barrington in a hundred-year-old trolley car.

Mace seemed interested in everything I pointed out to him. There was an official, recorded tour that played through a tinny loudspeaker as we passed monuments, museums, and parks, but I had my own narration for the sights of my home city.

“See that obelisk over there?” I pointed across Mace at one of the city’s older monuments.

“Yeah?”

“I nearly lost my virginity there when I was sixteen.”

Mace dragged his eyes away from the obelisk to stare at me. “Sixteen?”

“I said nearly,” I told him seriously. “Some friends and I snuck out at night and got a wee bit tipsy on wine coolers.”

“Do they still make those?” Mace asked, the corners of his mouth twitching.

“I wouldn’t know,” I lied. “Pregnant.”

Mace laughed.

“Anyhow, me and this alpha I liked were making out, and we decided to do it. We were in the shadows, up against the obelisk, he spun me around, we both started undoing our pants…and the cops caught us.” I laughed at the memory.

“You must have gotten in so much trouble,” Mace chuckled, leaning closer to me.

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