Page 144 of The Renegade Billionaire
“You don’t, Madison, or we wouldn’t be here in your best friend’s guest room.”
My pulse races, and blood whooshes in my ears. I suck in a deep breath, then another, but I don’t feel like I’m getting any oxygen.
The light on the nightstand flickers to life.
“Breathe. Deep breaths, in and out slowly.” Braxton cradles my cheeks in his large, callused hands. He blocks out everything so all I can focus on is his face—his breathing—his voice.
In this moment, we share air as if we’re one, because that’s how he makes me feel. I feel whole when I’m with him, and I feel loved.
“Why didn’t you take the pill?” He doesn’t release my face, and I know why. He wants honesty. He deserves honesty.
“I—I don’t know. I just couldn’t do it. If we made a baby, I?—”
“Will you keep it?” His voice cracks, and he clears his throat. “If you’re pregnant, will you keep it?”
What kind of question is that? “Of course I’ll keep it.”
He releases the tension that was crinkling the corner of his eyes, even as his gaze darts back and forth, reading between the lines I’ve drawn.
“I didn’t know.”
I slow blink. Didn’t know what?
“About my father. I didn’t know. I mean, I did know?—”
I try to pull away, my stomach churning with bile.
“No, listen. I knew after the fact what he had done, but not that it was you specifically. You and those other girls are the reason Grey and I left school to work at Omni-Reyes our senior year. We knew we had to stop him and that Ace wouldn’t be around forever. We learned as much as we could in a short amount of time so he could retire and handle his bad days in private. But the number one motivator for me was to be in a position to stop Montgomery Media from ever harassing people that way again.”
Tears fall down my face and over his hands that still hold me tight.
“What he did to you and the others, that wasn’t okay. Ace didn’t know it was happening until it was too late.”
“That’s why he sent you here? To make it right?”
His expression darkens, and I feel as though I’ve lost him somehow.
“I don’t know why he sent me here, but I know why I’m here, in this room with you. I know why I chose to sit outside this house for the last three days, driving myself mad worrying I’d never get a chance to fight for you. I’m here, with you, because it’s where I want to be.”
“For how long though?”
This is what it all boils down to—my fear that he’ll leave me at the end of this.
“Sweetheart.” His voice cracks again, and you can’t fake the pain clouding his face. “I’m here for as long as you’ll have me. Where we’ll live, and how we’ll do it? Those are all details we’ll figure out as we go. I just want you.”
A new fear bubbles in my chest. “And, what if…what if I’m pregnant?”
“If you’re pregnant, I’ll learn how to build the best damn crib I can find.”
My stomach plummets even as a small bubble of hope builds in the back of my mind. “You’re not scared?” How can he not be scared?
“Oh, baby, I’m fucking terrified. I’d never thought about having kids of my own until that condom broke. But I also know that I love you, and if we’re meant to have a baby, I’ll love him or her because they’re a piece of us.”
Relief hits me hard, and exhaustion makes me weepy.
“I was so afraid you’d be mad. I—I don’t know if I want to be a mom, and I didn’t know if this was real. It was all just so much?—”
“So much that you felt as though you had to hide,” he finishes for me.
