Page 35 of King of Hearts

“Um…not yet.” My fingers wrapped around the box he’d given me. It was solid white without any packaging indicating what it was. Scrunching my brows, I began tearing at the sides to get inside.

Juan picked up a pack of newborn diapers, tilting it in his hands. “Holden won’t go?”

I hadn’t asked him. After I hadn’t shown up that night at his dorm, he’d ghosted me again, and when I saw him on campus, he pulled whatever girl was near him under his arm and walked away.

“No.” The box opened, and out slid a small machine about the size of my palm. With it was a headset wrapped in plastic and a few cords.

“Fetal doppler…” My eyes jumped to his.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “So you can hear her…or his heartbeat whenever you want to. There’s a speaker, but I think you can plug in those headphones. You can record it on your phone too, so you don’t have to apply that stuff to your stomach each time if you don’t want to.”

I had tried so hard not to cry in front of Juan. So many times I had wanted to…but I held back. I was terrified on a regular basis, and the longer I was pregnant, the more I felt like I was just on a runaway train, headed for a cliff. But he made me feel safe, like not everything was about to go up in flames.

“Thank you,” I whispered, resisting the burning behind my eyes and the urge to jump into his arms.

“It’s not a big deal.” He turned away about to leave, but suddenly I wanted him to stay. I couldn’t ask for that, though.

He had been creating space between us, setting up a new habit so that we knew where the other stood regarding this thing that had been flickering between us. It was like a fire that just wouldn’t take. We’d burn to ash, and that would be the end. I turned and started putting things away in the closet. There was nothing set up in there, just empty space, so I’d been setting everything on the floor.

“Set up the appointment. I’ll go with you.”

My head snapped up, now in the closet, and he was still by my bed. I ambled out, tripping over a bag but not falling. “No…you’ve done enough for me…us. You don’t need to—”

“I offered. You didn’t ask,” he said curtly, then he was clenching his molars together, acting as if he wanted to say something else, but he exited my room instead, leaving me with a kernel of hope in my chest that I didn’t want to take root. I couldn’t bear to face that appointment alone, and here he was offering to help me again. It made me feel warm and grateful. That feeling paired with the attraction I had to him, and it was an impossibility that I wouldn’t allow myself to imagine.

* * *

I tuggedthe sweater around my belly, thankful I’d grabbed a ton of cozy maternity things for the upcoming winter. We didn’t always get winter in North Carolina in the same way other places did, but it was still unpredictable, and the temps still dipped, or it rained. Today it was raining, a miserable freezing sort of drizzle.

I’d been attending classes for over a month; October had crept in and suddenly there were pumpkins and harvest decorations all over the town. Fall was my favorite season, so I was giddy with excitement as I tugged on tall boots and wrapped myself in cozy sweaters. I was especially excited today because I’d received a call that the imaging center was able to schedule my ultrasound appointment.

I had done what Juan had suggested and set it up, ignoring all the flutters in my stomach about what could happen if I saw my bean up on the screen and fell in love with it…only to have it taken from me. I couldn’t dwell on it.

Walking around campus was starting to get difficult with my book bag and purse, so I decided at the last second to cut through the building instead of skirting around it. Overheated and a little annoyed, I tracked through the entire building and exited the opposite side, and then I halted. There across the quad, leaning against a lamp post, stood one of my father’s men. I knew it was him with his dark wool coat, the collar popped, and with the way his cold eyes moved, measuring each student that passed as a possible target.

I also knew if he was standing there, he already had me boxed in, and if I tried to run, they’d give chase. It was how my father’s wolves operated, and how they never lost an asset or a target. Swallowing the lump in my throat, I walked toward him, never more grateful for buying an oversized maternity sweater than I was in that moment. Seeing me straight on, especially covered in a charcoal sweater, it was hard to tell I was pregnant; it was the side profile I had to be wary of.

“Hercegno,” the man muttered in Hungarian, chewing on a toothpick. Icy blue eyes assessed me while he relaxed against the post. He had at least a week’s worth of scruff along his neck and jaw.

“I’m no princess,” I bit back in a tone as cold as his gaze. “What does he want?”

“Your father wants to make sure you’re local,” he drawled, blue eyes flicking down my frame, “close by, and ready for Markos.” He adjusted the toothpick in his mouth. I wondered how many more pairs of eyes were watching us.

“I have until December.”

“You have until he says you do. Don’t forget who your father is, little bird.” The man chucked under my chin then turned and walked away.

I was fuming, my face heating and my chest burning. I knew he’d come; I’d known it for years and even more so as the time dripped slowly by, moving closer to my birthday. I knew and yet this man’s presence was like being shoved under water.

“Taylor.” Someone called my name, and I realized too late it was Juan, his hand wrapping around my elbow and tugging. “Who was that?” His dark brows caved in, those whiskey eyes flicking over my shoulder to where the man had disappeared.

“No one…just an old hookup.” I shrugged out of his hold and walked toward my car. I could feel my fortress of ice start to freeze in place once more, to protect more than just me. Juan could get hurt if I wasn’t careful.

“He’s a little old…why is he here?” Juan trailed after me.

He never used to ask me questions. I hated how far he’d unraveled within the span of just a few months.

“A professor.” It was a lie, but I couldn't bring myself to care.

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