Page 88 of Conviction
This man that could choose any woman that’s walked this planet.
He wants me.
He wants me and everything that’s a part of me.
We make love.
Slowly.
Tenderly.
Reverently.
We make love in the bed, then we make love in the shower.
We lay talking long into the night, planning our future. A future that we will spend together, raising the child that’s now growing inside of me, and the many more we hope to create in the future.
We make love again in the morning, before packing up the few belongings we brought with us and head back to Surrey.
Thankfully there are nopressat the gate when we arrive home. The interest in us has gradually died down once we agreed to both appear on a prime-time chat show and tell all about our relationship. The interview will be recorded on Friday and aired Sunday night and will be carried out by one of the best in the business. They’re flying in from the US on Wednesday and spending the following few days living with and getting to know about our lives.
I’m nervous as shit, but I want to do this for Conner. I want the world to see him for who he really is and not just the serial shagging rock star they think they all know.
I’m meeting Sophie at the wine bar later for belated birthday drinks. It was her birthday last weekend, and I missed it, so we’re catching up tonight instead. Conner’s not happy and insisting that Matty drives me, which I have no problem with whatsoever. Shame that now I can’t drink, I get my very own driver.
I spot Sophie straight away when I arrive at Plonk, the wine bar across the road from our salon. I wave at the bar staff as I walk in and immediately notice the tall, skinny blonde woman that my brother and Marcus were talking to on the one and only occasion I’ve seen them in here.
I actually do a double take when I realise that she’s with Tierney, my bitch of a sister in law. We’ve never really hit it off. She’s the kind of woman my mother so desperately wishes for me to be. She doesn’t work. She spends her days lunching, beautifying, playing tennis and riding her horses. She looks down her nose at everyone, including my parents if only they could see it. She’s as dull as fuck. Her expression doesn’t change when she spots me. Well actually, it can’t. She has so much Botox and filler pumped into her face that it’s probably caused a shortage in Hollywood more than once. I nod my head in her direction but carry on walking. I don’t like her, and I most certainly don’t want to have a conversation with her.
“I was just texting to warn you the ugly sisters were here. How are you, baby chick?” Sophie asks as she stands and gives me a cuddle.
I make sure that my back is turned on the audience that I have at the bar when I sit down and tell Soph, “Pregnant, that’s how I am. Pregnant and there’s every possibility that the baby belongs to Marcus,” I watch Sophie’s shoulders physically slump as I tell her.
She nods her head but remains silent for a few seconds. She goes to pour me a wine from the bottle in the cooler which is sitting on the table, but stops before I get a chance to protest and pours water from the jug sat next to it instead.
There’s an antipasto platter staring up at me, and I help myself to an olive. I’ve no idea how pregnant I am, but today, I’ve constantly been starving. We had a full English breakfast in a little café before leaving Cornwall this morning. Then we stopped and grabbed fish and chips halfway home, sitting and eating them out of the paper in the car. Then Sandra made us a steak, bacon and cheese, with rocket and caramelised onion baguette before I came out tonight. That’s how obsessed I’ve suddenly become with food in the space of one day. I actually remember where, when and what I’ve eaten over the last twenty-four hours and every memory makes my mouth water.
“Does Reed know?” I nod as I dunk a cracker into a beetroot and parmesan dip. “Everything?” I nod again my mouth full of cracker, dip and a chilli stuffed olive.
“What makes you think this baby isn’t his? I didn’t think that you and… Oh no, Neen.” Her hand covers her mouth, her eyes wide as she looks at me.
“Not that night?”
I gulp down some water and nod. “I must’ve been an evil person in a past life for the way I’ve been fucked over in this one.”
She ignores that comment, something that she does whenever I’m down on myself.
“Have you always been careful with Reed?” she asks.
“EeeUms,” I tell her through a mouthful of sourdough bread, dipped in warm olive oil and dukkha.
“What?” She screws up her face in disgust as she looks at me. “Will you stop fucking troughing and talk to me. This is life-altering news that’s going on here. These are important facts that we need to clarify before we jump to any conclusions.”
“Three times and food’s important too.”
She sips at her wine, still giving me a look of disgust.
“So, you shagged Reed bareback, three times?”
