Page 34 of Be My Traitor

“How was it?”

“The best sex of my life.” I slumped back in my chair, sighing. “Lucas and I have such chemistry. He does things to me no one else ever could. If it was crap, I could probably cope. I’d feel like I’d scratched an itch and I could move on. But it was so good, I want more. The only problem is, I don’t think Lucas feels the same way.”

“What makes you say that?”

I glared at her. “Am I with Lucas and my daughter having a nice family day out?”

“Ah.”

“You’d think I’d learn, wouldn’t you?” I said. “I mean, after last time, I promised myself that I’d play hard to get, but that went out the window the second he showed me any kind of affection. I’m pathetic.”

I buried my face in my hands. I could feel Ivy moving to crouch next to me, lightly rubbing my back to comfort me.

“You’re not pathetic, Mills. Don’t be so hard on yourself. You deserve a bit of happiness after everything you’ve been through. It’s Lucas who’s being pathetic. If he can’t see how amazing you are that’s his loss, not yours.” She paused. “But please tell me you used protection.”

I raised my face to look straight at her. “Credit me withsomesense.”

“Okay, okay.” Ivy put her hands up in a gesture of direction and moved away to sit back down. “Just checking. I know how easy it is to get carried away.” She blushed and I narrowed my eyes.

“Ivy, you’re not..?”

“It’s too early to say for sure, but I think I might be pregnant.” She blushed shyly. “I haven’t told the boys yet. We weren’t meant to be trying for another baby until Louis was a little older, but sometimes you just have to go with the flow.”

“That’s wonderful news!” It was my turn to hug her. “I’m so happy for you.”

“Don’t tell anyone, will you? Especially not the boys. I want to be completely sure before I break the news to them.”

“They’re going to be so excited. They’re all amazing dads. It’s all I ever wanted for Amber, a proper dad who’d take her out, come to her dance recitals, be as excited as I am about everything she does. Instead, I’m stuck with Lucas Donatello.”

“Lucas seems like he wants to make up for lost time with Amber, though, doesn’t he?”

“For now.” I glowered. “But it’s Lucas. How can say how long he’ll stick around before he gets bored? Heck, he was doing a pretty good job this morning of acting like someone who’d fed up with me already. It felt like he couldn’t get me out of there fast enough.”

“What exactly happened, Mills?”

I took a deep breath, bracing myself to share my sorry story. “Lucas invited me to spend the afternoon with him and Amber at his house yesterday.”

“That’s a good sign, isn’t it?” Ivy said. “He could have just taken Amber and left you out. He probably wanted to reassure you that Amber was safe with him.”

“Maybe. Or maybe he just wanted to show off the pony he bought Amber, try and make me look bad in front of her.”

“He bought her apony?” The usually unflappable Ivy raised her eyebrows, her voice squeaking.

“Yeah.”

“Talk about buying his way into her affections.” Ivy snorted. “Still, that’s likely to bite him in the bum when Amber gets bored of the responsibility.”

“That’s exactly what I said. He reckons he’s found a stable where they’ll look after it for him.”

“All right, so he made a big show of flashing his cash about. Then what happened?”

“We had a pretty good afternoon,” I admitted. “It felt right for us to be together, like we were a real family. So, when Lucas invited me to stay the night, I didn’t really think about it. I was just going with the flow. And it wassogood, Ivy. But then I woke up.”

“Sounds about right where Lucas is concerned.” Ivy nodded, knowing all too well what Lucas was like.

“He stuffed Amber full of sugary cereal then told me he wanted to take her to King Castle by himself. Okay, he did say I could come along if I wanted, but it was pretty obvious he didn’t want me there.”

“How was it obvious?”

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