Page 12 of Hers to Control

That isn’t the calming answer I had hoped for. “Then why are you here?”

“Because I want to know what that pregnancy test said.”

How the fuck does he know about that? I was alone when I took that test. Did the Italians run video surveillance in the safe house?

I should have paid better attention. Should have been more careful.

The way Eric is looking at me tells me he has absolutely no intention of letting it go. Time to double down.

“I already told you, I’m not pregnant.” I look him straight in the eyes, willing him to believe me, all the while fighting down the nausea that is threatening to make me puke the evidence of our ill-timed escapade into his face.

“Then you won’t mind taking this.” He pulls a pregnancy test out of his back pocket. It’s still in its packaging. One of the fancy ones with a digital display.

Fuck.

He can’t force me to piss in a cup, and while I’d like to come up with something that will convince him I’m not pregnant, I can’t think of anything. In the end, all I say is, “No.”

Turns out, he doesn’t like that.

His long legs kill the distance between us. I half expect him to grab me, but he grabs the glass from my hand instead. When I don’t let go easily, he yanks it away from me. For a second, I wonder if he’s about to smash it against the counter to hold a shard of glass to my throat and demand I tell him the truth, but he just turns on the faucet and fills the glass to the very top.

“Drink.”

“No.”

“Drink.”

Hell. I could try to run. I’m a fast runner and I’m in shape, but he doesn’t look like he spends his free time munching pizzaand drinking wine, either. I should call Gianna and tell her to kick him out ofla familiafor being a piss-poor Italian. In weak moments, I still recall the way his hard muscles felt under my palms when I ran them all over his body.

Some of the water splashes over the side as he raises the glass high enough that it’s right in front of my face.

If I kick his shin and then run, I might manage to open the door and get through before he catches up with me, but I doubt it.

Eric just stares at me, pissed, but otherwise unmoving.

I take the glass and gulp down a sip. I’d be deluding myself if I thought I’d get through the apartment door and the building door downstairs without him catching up to me. Not with nausea still churning in my gut. So for now, I’ll play along and wait for a better opportunity.

Unfortunately, Eric isn’t as dumb as I’d like him to be. He backs up to the apartment door and leans against it, pulling a knife from his belt and playing with it as he keeps his eyes on me.

“Finish that. When you’re ready to pee, we’ll take that test.”

“We? You do know that men can’t get pregnant, don’t you?” Probably not a great idea to needle the psychopathic criminal, but I’m running out of ideas.

Then again, he might just be here to reassure himself that I amnotpregnant. Isn’t that what men like him prefer? No family, and especially no children, to complicate things.

Can I use that?

Casually, I walk over to the couch that should have ended up on a garbage dump about three years ago, trying to position myself correctly to sit down somewhere between the springs. “Why are you even bothering? Either I’m not pregnant, and all is well, or I am pregnant, and then what? It’s not like I’d go to court to get child support. Either way, you’re free and clear. So whydon’t you just go back to whatever you do for Gianna and leave me be?”

It’s not an admission, but for a second, it almost looks as if Eric is about to drop the knife that has been circling through his fingers smoothly until now. For a moment, I think he sees right through me, but then I notice the way his jaw muscles twitch.

I pissed him off.

Well,fuck me. Or rather, don’t ever fuck me ever again, because it doesn’t look like the ‘you’re free and clear’ speech had the desired effect. Instead of walking out of the goddamned door he is blocking, he hasn’t moved one bit.

He’s here to stay. And that is the last thing I want.

We stay like this for ten minutes until my bladder lets me know a bathroom trip is in my near future. No getting around it.

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