Page 50 of Forced Knocked-Up Mate

I hear Lucy get up, tracking her footsteps through the house. My heart is twisting and flipping in my chest. I have no idea what to say to her when she finally walks in.

Calm down. It’s just a conversation, not a knife fight.

I think I’d prefer the knife fight.

“Good morning,” Lucy says, coming into the kitchen.

My hands tighten on my cup so hard, I’m surprised it doesn’t break. I look up at her, and her gentle, happy expression almost breaks my heart.

If I had a heart.

“Good morning,” I mutter.

She pours herself some coffee and sits down in front of me on the other side of the table. “Ready to go to the shop today? You got up right on the alarm.”

“Yeah. Just restless, I guess.”

She smiles at me, and her expression is so full of quiet joy I feel like ten times more of an asshole than I did before.

How could you sleep with her again when you have no intention of staying?

“Did you sleep well?” she asks.

“Yeah,” I answer. “I did.”

“We didn’t sleep much, though,” she says, winking.

I can’t help smiling at that, and my body relaxes a little. “Just enough, I’d say.”

“I don’t know,” she teases. “Maybe we could push it a bit further. I could handle a bit less sleep if you really want to fit in… other activities.”

I chuckle. “I won’t argue with that.”

She giggles, and a moment of pure connection strikes right into my bones. Looking into her eyes while we laugh gives me a kind of pleasure no physical interaction ever could.

Maybe this will be okay, though. If it’s just physical, then after the spell is broken, we will be able to go our separate ways without any difficulty.

“Seriously, though, are you okay?” Lucy asks, concerned. I’m reminded of her anguish last night when she thought I might be injured and how badly it scared her.

“I’m fine,” I say.

“We should get going. I really have to go to the shop today, and I’m sorry you’re going to get dragged along with me.”

“It’s okay. I can help.”

“You really don’t have to.” She sighs. “I’m sorry for the way I exploded before. You really couldn’t have known the right way of doing things, and I shouldn’t have been so hard on you.”

Even though I wanted an apology from her, I feel worse now that I’ve gotten one. I did make an unnecessary mess at the shop, and here at her house. It wasn’t until I had to help clean the kitchen at the bakery that I realized how much cleaning up there was to do.

“I didn’t mind making bread and stuff,” I say. “Like, it was kind of fun, I guess. And I’ll try not to make so much of a mess this time.”

“Thank you, Peter,” she says. “That means a lot.”

I take a sip of coffee so I don’t have to answer. In a way, I can’t wait to get to the shop because then I’ll have something to do and won’t have to think so much.

Lucy gets up to take her cup to the sink and gives me a warm smile as she leaves the kitchen. While she’s gone, I finish my coffee and try not to think.

So, what are the rules now? Are we sleeping in her bed together every night? What does she expect from me?

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