No. No. No!

CHAPTER FOUR  

RILEY’S POV

The days after the storage room incident felt like walking a tightrope made of fire.  

Every second I wasn’t with Jax, I was thinking about him. And every second I was near him, I had to pretend I wasn’t dying to touch him again.  

My obsession was growing worse.

Maya noticed something was different during our Tuesday afternoon coffee run. She kept staring at me over her iced latte, narrowing her eyes at me like she was trying to solve a puzzle.

“Okay, spill it,” she said, pointing her straw at me. “You’ve been glowing and spacing out like a girl who just got properly cracked. Who is he?”

I nearly choked on my drink. “What? Nobody.”

“Bullshit. You’ve got that freshly eaten look. And don’t think I didn’t see you sneaking around the rink again after practice yesterday.” She leaned in, smirking. “It’s someone on the team, isn’t it?”

My heart hammered. “You’re imagining things.”

“Mhm. Sure.” She didn’t look convinced, but thankfully she dropped it…for now.

Later that evening, after practice, I finally got what I’d been craving.

Jax texted me a single sentence: The parking lot, now.

I slipped out of the arena and found his black SUV parked in the far back corner, away from the bright lights. The second I opened the passenger door, his big hand grabbed my wrist and pulled me inside.

The door barely shut before his mouth was on mine.

“Fuck, I missed this,” he growled against my lips, kissing me hard and deep. His tongue slid into my mouth like he owned it. One of his hands gripped the back of my neck, the other sliding down to squeeze my ass as he dragged me closer across the console.

The kiss was messy, desperate, and addictive. I moaned into his mouth as his hand slipped under my hoodie, palming my breast roughly.

“Jax…” I whimpered when he pinched my nipple.

“You’re driving me fucking crazy, Riley,” he rasped, biting my bottom lip. “I can’t stop thinking about how tight you felt. How pretty you sounded when you came on my cock.”

His words made me soak my panties instantly. I climbed over the console and straddled his lap, grinding down on the hard bulge in his sweats. The windows were already fogging up which was perfect for me.

His hands gripped my hips possessively, guiding my movements as I rocked against him.

“This pussy is mine,” he said darkly, locking his eyes on mine. “You understand that? Nobody else touches what’s mine.”

I nodded frantically, kissing him again. “Only you.”

We stayed like that for almost twenty minutes—kissing, touching, grinding like teenagers who couldn’t get enough of each other. He didn’t fuck me that night, but the way he touched me felt even more intimate. It felt like there a newly found change between us.

After that night, things actually started changing.

We didn’t just sneak around for sex anymore. Sometimes we just… talked.

He took me to his private apartment two nights later. No sex. Just pizza and a movie. I learned that Jax loved old rock music and hated pineapple on pizza. He told me about how he became captain and the pressure that came with it. 

For the first time, I saw cracks in the ruthless captain everyone feared. He was carrying serious guilt about something, but he wouldn’t tell me what. Regardless I entered everything I was learning into my journal, I’ve had one specfifcally for him for years now.

Every new thing I learned about him made me fall harder. This wasn’t just obsession anymore. It was becoming something deeper for me.

But we weren’t as careful as we thought.

Logan had started watching me more closely. I’d catch him staring at me during dinner with this strange, intense look in his eyes. When Jax was around the house, Logan’s jaw would tighten every time I glanced in his direction. The tension between them was growing, and I knew it was only a matter of time before something happened.

Then the sickness started.

At first, I thought it was just stress. I felt unusually tired all the time, and random waves of nausea would hit me out of nowhere. I brushed it off, telling myself it would pass.

It didn’t.

One afternoon I was hanging out with Maya at the food court near campus. She insisted on buying me a corndog because I loved to snack on them.

The second she handed it to me, the smell hit me like a cyber truck.

My stomach rolled violently.

“Riley? You okay?” Maya asked, frowning slighty.

I barely made it to the nearest trash can before I threw up everything in my stomach. Maya was right there, holding my hair back and rubbing my back gently.

When I finally stopped heaving, she looked at me with wide eyes. “Girl…are you pregnant or something?”

The words hit me like ice water.

No. No, no, no, no.

Everything clicked into place at once—the tiredness, the nausea, the way my breasts had been sore, the missed period I had tried to ignore.

I straightened up quickly, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.

“I… I have to go,” I muttered, already turning away.

“Riley, wait—”

But I was already rushing toward my car, my heart was pounding so hard I felt dizzy.

I stopped at the drugstore on the way home and bought three different pregnancy tests, my hands were literally shaking as I paid. The cashier gave me a knowing look, but I ignored her.

The second I got home, I ran upstairs and locked myself in the bathroom.

My hands trembled as I unwrapped the test and followed the instructions. I set it on the counter and stared at the timer on my phone, pacing the small space like a caged animal.

Three minutes felt like forever.

When the time was up, I picked up the test with my heart in my throat.

Two pink lines stared back at me.

Positive.

I was pregnant.

I stood there frozen, staring at the test in complete shock as the reality crashed over me like a tidal wave.

From downstairs, I heard Logan’s voice calling up.

“Riley! Dinner’s ready. Come eat!”

I didn’t move. No…I couldn’t move.

The test shook in my hand as Logan called my name again, louder this time.

“Riley?”