Page 75 of The Last Man on Earth
“Ouch! Not too hard,” she says, pushing at my head. “You’re making them sore.”
I pull back. “I wasn’t sucking hard.”
She closes her eyes and puts her fingers back in my hair. I stare down at her, my eyes drifting over her chest. That’s when I see something that catches me off guard.
The veins in her chest are extra prominent. They’re running deep blue underneath her tanned brown skin, and her breasts themselves are fuller and heavier, even though her body is thinner.
And it hits me like a train.
Shemari looked like this once. Way back when she was first pregnant with JR.
My heart hammers at the realization. I stare at Ari, really stare, the thought forming before I can make sense of it.
She’s pregnant.
Ari ispregnant.
I done fucked around and put a baby in this woman.
My mouth goes dry. She’s still playing in my hair, not realizing what’s whirling around in my mind or the trouble she’s in.
I swallow hard.
We fucked up.
Ifucked up.
And there ain’t no way to fix this.
Chapter 36
Ari
I can’t believe Iwashed our laundry by hand.
I feel like a frontier woman, or one of those poor doomed souls on the Oregon trail. Vincent survived dysentery, but we have no covered wagon, and I’d kill for a bonnet right now.
I hang our wet clothes on the makeshift line. It sags a bit in the middle, but it’s sturdy. It’s bamboo.
Vincent comes up behind me, his breath brushing against the back of my neck. His lips follow, making me smile.
“How you feelin’?” he murmurs.
“Fine. Why?”
He steps back, reaching up to adjust one of shirts. “Just checking. You get enough to eat earlier?”
I turn my head to look at him. “You trying to thicken me back up or something?”
He laughs, that deep, easy sound that always makes me smile, even when I don’t want to.
“Nah,” he says with a grin. “Just making sure you’re good. You been lookin’ kinda tired lately.”
“Yeah. I have been. Maybe the weather’s changing or something.”
He stares blankly, studying my face. I give him awhat are you looking at?look, and he just smiles, shakes his head, and walks away.
My eyes follow him as he grabs his duffel bag and digs around, pulling out a small bottle.
