Page 81 of Set Me On Fire

“Well, when a woman and three men like each other very much, sometimes they have naked fun, forget to use condoms.” I didn’t forget. The velvet suck of her cunt was too damn good for me to even think about it. “And the woman realises too damn late that the antibiotics she was taking interfere with her birth control pill.”

“Fuck…” My hands couldn’t stop moving, tracing the shapes of her thighs. “When did you find out?”

Yet somehow I knew. This was a gift I’d never expected to get, and so when she smiled and said, “Christmas Day,” that made sense. I shook my head, counting down the days, and that had her wincing.

“You’ve been going through this all by yourself? Babe…”

She said she was pregnant, not that she wanted anything else from me, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself. My hand traced the curve of her cheek, up until my fingers plunged into her hair. I thought I’d imagined how soft it felt, but nope, this waseven better. I was edging closer, aware that I shouldn’t, but I couldn’t seem to stop. My mouth and hers, they seemed to be magnetised, destined to lock together. Her breath was coming in faster and faster, in time with mine, but when I leaned forward, my phone started to ring.

“Shit…”

“For the love of god, tell me it's not your girlfriend,” Millie hissed.

“Girlfriend?” I tapped on the screen. “What do you want, Knox?”

Her eyes widened, her expression morphing from turned on to scared in seconds, and I quickly realised why. I was having a little moment imagining myself as the daddy, but there were actually three contenders for that title. That’s when her invitation started to make sense. Get us all together in a public place and break the news to us, relying on that to stop us from exploding. She had to have been forced to do something like that in the past. Not now, I swore, I’d take the boys aside and?—

“Where the fuck are you?”

“Good afternoon to you, Fort Knox,” I replied, winking at her.

I had this handled. If the grumpy prick was going to be difficult about this, I’d give him a little… attitude adjustment before he even got within ten feet of Millie. Stress was bad for a baby, and at that my hand moved. Her eyelids fluttered as I placed my palm on her stomach, knowing that there was nothing to feel right now, but… I wanted the little guy or girl to know Daddy was here. All the way, for the entire process, I was in. Her brows creased then smoothed, hope rose, died, and was reborn in her eyes, and I watched her every response.

“What’re you doing?” Knox snapped. “Training session started ten minutes ago.”

“I’m with Millie.”

His irritation couldn’t touch me, not when I felt her skin against mine. She was like this sweet bubble that protected me from everything.

“Right.” The way the heat went out of his voice was almost comical. “Well, I’ll cover you until you get back, but…” I could almost hear something cracking inside him with the effort of having to unbend. “Let me know what’s going on when you get back in here.”

I had every intention of doing just that.

Millie might’ve wanted to break things to us as a group, but right now, I had other plans. Those fuckers needed to get on the daddy train or leave her the hell alone. That same need to protect, to beat her enemies into the ground, that ruled me in the hallway rose in the face of imagined threats. I’d clear the way for her so that by the time the cafe date came along, only those men worthy of being part of this process attended.

“I gotta go.” People told me I was reckless all the time, but I could never find the requisite level of guilt, especially when it felt so good. I leaned in and stole that kiss, her lips so damn soft I wanted to lose myself in them, but I couldn’t. Being a parent meant being responsible, planning ahead, and I knew what I needed to do. “But I’ll see you tonight at the cafe.”

I pressed my truck keys into her hands and then turned before she could say anything. I trusted her with my car, with my everything.

Dave lookedup when I walked in the door of the training room, but when he tried to sneer my way, I just wiggled my fingers in greeting. I slid into the seat at my team’s table as Noah and Knox leant forward.

“I’ve gotta take a shit,” Henry said, knowing something was going down and not wanting to get involved, leaving the table to just us.

“Alright, if I can get everyone to start the group activity,” the trainer announced.

I had another idea in mind.

“What’s going on?” Noah hissed. “Knox said you were with Millie, and Dave walked in here with a black eye.”

“Walked into a door.” I dismissed that with a wave of my hand. “I know what’s going on now, why she took this job, why she was avoiding us.” Knox stiffened, leaning back as Noah drew closer. I smiled at each one of them, pretty sure I knew how this would go. “Millie’s pregnant, and one of us is the father.”

Chapter 39

Millie

“You told them!” I yanked the phone away from my ear at the sound of Jamie’s voice. “Before or after the fight with this Dave dick?”

“After, and correction, I told Charlie.”

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