Page 128 of Filthy Little Games

Putting the dress box back on the shelf, I remove the banker’s box that’s so heavy, I have to place it on the floor. Kneeling next to it, I lift the lid to find two side-by-side stacks of magazines. There are advertisements on the backs that don’t tell me anything, so I pick up the top one to flip it over.

“Holy shit on a stick,” I gasp. Without having to flip the pages, I know it’s the July issue from six years ago, which I posed for at Emilio’s encouragement. I made that mistake not once, but three times while he and his friends in the industry assured me it would lead to more modeling jobs.

They were wrong.

But I’m not disappointed. I’d rather be on the other side of the camera, anyway, capturing little moments in life. Real life, not staged.

“Zara?”Creed calls out.

Shit. I took too long and ruined the surprise.

“In here!” I call out from the closet floor.

“What in the world are you doing?” Creed asks when he appears in the open doorway. I have to bite back my smile when I see he’s wearing a super cute accessory, one I assume he forgot to remove after Oriana’s bedtime story. “Uh-oh. It looks like you found my porn stash,” he remarks with a grin.

“How do you have so many of these?” I hold up the one in my hand.

“Nobody gets to see my wife naked but me.” He scowls. “Lorenzo helped me buy all the copies we could find.”

“You found all these in the city?” I ask in disbelief as I toss the copy back into the box and put the lid on it, ready to bury that chapter of my life for good.

“In the world,” Creed replies. “I bought every copy that was for sale on auction sites and any that could be traced to a purchaser.”

“Wow.” I get to my feet. “That’s quite a feat. And I hate to break it to you, baby, but you’re not the only one who gets to see me naked.”

“What do you mean?” he asks, his voice several octaves lower.

“I went to the…um, lady doctor today.”

“You did? Why? Is everything okay?” He comes into the closet and gathers me in his arms.

“Yeah, it was just a yearly thing,” I lie. “I’m officially off my birth control shots. Way off them.”

“Oh.”

“Oh?” I repeat, following his unenthusiastic response. “I thought you were serious about wanting to give Oriana a sister or brother. You mention it, like, every other time you’re finishing inside me.”

“I know. And I do want to make a baby with you. That’s all I fucking think about lately,” Creed says.

“But?” I ask, since I can hear it coming.

“But, if I get you pregnant now, not only will I miss the birth, I’ll miss the first several years of his or her life.”

I swallow around the sudden knot in my throat. “You mean because you’ll be serving your sentence for the gun charges soon?”

He nods. “The trial is less than four months away. Odds of a not guilty are so bad that my attorney thinks I should take a plea deal and get it over with, start doing my time.”

“Wow. I didn’t know that. About the plea deal, I mean. Wh-when are you going to enter the plea?”

“As soon as I give him the green light, Baxter’s going to schedule it with the DA. Dre, Tristan, and Lorenzo are going to try and stagger their pleas for as long as possible.”

“And you have to go in first?”

“The DA made it clear she isn’t giving me any breaks, so yeah, I’ll have to go first.”

“I’m sorry.” I reach and caress his face between my palms.

“No,micetta mia, I’m the one who is sorry. I hate leaving you.”

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