Page 101 of Roots of the Wicked

Chapter Forty-One

Jax

Chase was establishing himself as the rock in my life; the kind of support I had never allowed myself to have. He was the only man besides my father that I had let fully into my life. For the first time, I felt positive about the prospect of improving my life, not only for myself but especially for our baby.

However, Chase’s overprotective attitude where it concerned my pregnancy was a whole different matter. It was nice to know he cared enough to want to protect us, but I was starting to suffocate.

Two weeks was the amount of time it had taken for my smile to drop. If he asked me how I was feeling one more time, I was going to scream.

I’d grown attached to the little peanut in my belly, but Chase was taking things too far too fast. He was treating me like the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. Daenerys watch out.

I couldn’t walk to the bathroom without him or his house staff offering to guide my way. Did all men get this excited over their first child?

Thankfully, the little fellow in my belly was being kind. Although occasional nausea would hit, I managed to keep my food down and the morning sickness phase according to my doctor was nearly over.

If the father was as kind as his son was being, I may survive this thing with my whole mind intact. I needed alone time. Fresh air. I needed to stretch my legs. Maybe return to work. There was only so much I could do teleworking from home. Goodness, Chase was killing me softly.

There was no doubt Lulu could handle the workload at the office while I was hiding in my baby daddy’s mansion. However, I wanted to work, not hide from a madman I was beginning to think wasn’t real. If I had to guess, I would venture to say it was one of Chase’s exes or one of the hundreds of women stalking him on social media. Blake had always been at the top of my suspect list. Hell, it could have been one of my one-night flings. I didn’t know who, but they didn’t want us together.

Chase ordered that my apartment be rescanned for bugs along with his house. I volunteered to do the preliminary scans on his equipment, since I knew what to look for.

Did I have a stalker? Did Chase have a stalker? I didn’t know, but with all the money he had access to, and my ability to hack and cyber spy, you would think we would have found the answer to the questions by now.

Approaching footsteps brought me back to the here and now.

Oh God. Here comes my baby daddy.

As I forced my lips into a smile, not even I believed what was planted on my face as Chase made his approach. He carried two large bags, stuffed with clothes and toys for the baby. For the past few weeks, he worked half-days and always returned home with shopping bags in tow.

He hired a contractor to turn one of the bedrooms into a nursery, so the sound of construction buzzed, and thumped most of the day as I switched back and forth between teleworking and watching the soaps on television.

As Chase sat next to me showing off the outfits that wouldn’t fit the baby until he was two or three, thoughts of how I had gotten pregnant filled my head. Nothing made since anymore. My life had gone from full-time businesswoman who had the perfect formula for keeping people at arm’s length, to a woman thrust into a whirlpool of swirling passion and drama. Add to that a baby, and my life was as dramatic as the soaps I was becoming addicted to watching.

Chase was still talking about, something. I looked him up and down, lifted a brow like I was listening and continued with my thoughts.

At first, the idea of being pregnant, had me thinking crazy things like postponing it until I was ready. Now that the reality had set in and this little fellow had taken root, I found myself embracing the idea of becoming a mother, and of wanting to be a better mother than my mother. I believed I was already better than her. There was never any doubt that I wanted my baby from the moment I found out I was pregnant.

Chase and I expressed our happiness in different ways, his in voice and expensive baby purchases and mine with silence. It all became overwhelming at times, but I considered how he had grown up, and realized that spending five-thousand dollars on a baby rattle was his norm.

“So, what do you think?”

What had he asked? He wasn’t flashing clothes anymore, so I couldn’t get away with a “that’s nice,” answer.

“What do I think about what?”

“Us getting a bigger house. Something we want,” he stated, awaiting an answer.

I squeezed my eyes shut, meditating to stamp down my hormonal irritation.

“Chase, you live in a mansion, how much more room do we need?” I questioned, thinking of the eight bedrooms, seven bathrooms, game room, study, four-car garage, pool, pool house, movie room, and something I was probably forgetting, that I’d seen since my stay.

Oh! Fuck!

I’d messed up and said we. The grin on his face revealed as much.

“Chase, slow down. You can’t go out buying houses. Eventually, I’m going back home,” I reminded him.

His defiant expression suggested otherwise, as one side of his lip tilted up and his glare shot to my belly. He’d made it known without uttering a word, that I wasn’t going anywhere as long as his baby was inside me.

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