Page 35 of Forbidden Pregnant Mate

I pulled out the packet of mini marshmallows and handed them over, our hands brushing for a brief moment.

I watched her as she completed her bizarre snack by sticking the mini marshmallows into the peanut butter. She took a bite of one and made anmmmsound as she closed her eyes in what was unmistakably pure ecstasy. When she opened her eyes, she caught me staring at her.

“Make as much fun as you like,” she said. “But these are delicious, and you can’t convince me otherwise. Here, have one.”

She held one out toward me. She was gorgeous, beaming at me brightly as she looked at me. In that moment, I almost told her how I really felt about her. Because there was no denying my feelings. Not anymore.

But just as I opened my mouth, unbidden thoughts about her dad pushed to the front of my mind. Overwhelming guilt slammed into me. I wanted to tell Jenn, but that guilt made the words stick in my throat. I’d already betrayed his trust enough for one day, and I still needed to figure out how to tell him about the cub. I needed more time to think.

So I smiled, took the jalapeño half filled with peanut butter and dotted with marshmallows, and took a bite. I coughed as it went down.

“See?” she said.

“Jenn, peanut butter and jalapeños pair decently with one another,” I acknowledged. “Peanut butter and marshmallows work, too. But there are some things that just shouldn’t be combined, and this is one of them.”

“Well, it was either this or quail eggs with bacon and syrup.”

“Have you ever even had quail eggs?”

“No, but that doesn’t mean I can’t crave them.”

I sighed and shook my head. There was no way I was going to win this argument. She was too stubborn to back down.

Which, admittedly, was part of the reason I liked her.

Chapter 16 - Jenn

The banging on the door was so loud and urgent-sounding that I didn’t think twice about opening it. If I had, I probably would have realized it might be Dad or someone else who didn’t know I was pregnant. But instead, my brain automatically assumed it would be Jameson, telling us they’d caught Isaac and the threat was over. Then I’d be able to worry about all the other problems that had piled up while waiting for that conflict to resolve.

But it wasn’t Jameson. My stomach clenched and my breath caught in my throat as I came face to face with Alek.

We stared at one another for a long moment.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Where’s Klyte?” Alek asked, then his nostrils flared. He sniffed the air, then his eyes flew wide. “Holy shit,” he said. “You’re—”

“Perfectly normal as far as you’re concerned,” I said, narrowing my eyes. My heart was thundering. Jameson was one thing. I trusted him to keep a secret. But all I knew about Alek was that he and Klyte were friends, and Klyte had joked on more than one occasion that Alek couldn’t keep a secret to save his life. I saw my entire world unraveling because I had opened the door like an idiot instead of letting Klyte handle it.

“But…” Alek swallowed. “Please tell me you were, uh, perfectly normal as far as I’m concernedbeforeall of this started.”

I opened my mouth to lie but sighed. He was Klyte’s best friend. I couldn’t do that to him. And he would find out eventually, anyway.

“No,” I admitted.

Alek swallowed. “Then that means…” He glanced behind me at something I couldn’t see, but it didn’t take a genius for me to figure out what he was staring at.

“Yeah.” Klyte came to stand next to me. His hand went to my back as if he was trying to comfort me. “Surprise.”

“That…wasn’t exactly what I was expecting,” Alek said. “I was pretty positive you were going to murder him.”

“It’s not like we planned it,” I said.

“No shit,” Alek said. He looked like someone had hit him over the head with a hammer. I could imagine exactly what was going through his head, mostly because I’d gone through the same gambit of emotions when I found out about the pregnancy in the first place. “Who else knows?”

“Freya, obviously,” Klyte said. “And Jameson. I know it’s a lot to ask, but I need you to keep this a secret for a bit. At least until this is settled.”

“But…” Alek trailed off, then shook his head as if to clear it. He glowered at Klyte. “You know how shitty I am at keeping secrets. Jameson will know in about five seconds flat that something is up.”

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