MasukThe days that follow spill into each other. Lucien rarely lets me go. If heās not kissing me, heās holding me. And when heās not holding me, heās most likely at work.Iām almost at ease with it. Save for the occasional flicker of guilt each time Celeste calls. Or when I just see her face.No. Iām lying. Iām not at ease.One morning, Caskey brings a novel from the library. Itās a bad book. We sit side by side on the living room sofa while he reads me the horrible lines in a very serious voice.I laugh until my stomach aches."God, I hate this book," I wheeze. "No one in real life ever says that to anyone.""The author clearly does not know that. She might be an alien," Caskey says, and I laugh even harder.Just then, the door opens.I know who it is before I even look. His scent greets me first, and before I can think, Lucien fills the doorway. Heās wearing a dark shirt with the sleeves pushed to his elbows, and he looks good.But he doesnāt look happy. As my eyes trail up from his clo
I find him outside my door the next morning, and for a second I think about going back in and locking it.Caskey has his hands behind his back and the look of someone a little guilty. He straightens when he sees me.āHey, Evelyn. Can I talk to you? Just a minute.āI hesitate a moment, then exhale. āOkay.āāIām sorry about yesterday.ā He rubs the back of his neck, and I realize itās something he does when heās nervous. āI was too forward. Youāre living in somebody elseās house, youāre pregnant, and I came at you that bluntly, like we were in a bar. I felt awful about it all night. I hope I didnāt make you uncomfortable.āHe means it. Itās all over his face, and I find I canāt be annoyed.āYou didnāt,ā I say, and then, because itās half true and he deserves the full truth, I add, āBut Iād rather we didnāt talk about that kind of thing again.āHe nods at once. āUnderstood. It wonāt come up again.āāThank you.āāCan I make it up to you? Maw is making apple pie, and Iāve been told youāre n
I find him outside my door the next morning, and for a second I think about going back in and locking it.Caskey has his hands behind his back and the look of someone a little guilty. He straightens when he sees me.āHey, Evelyn. Can I talk to you? Just a minute.āI hesitate a moment, then exhale. āOkay.āāIām sorry about yesterday.ā He rubs the back of his neck, and I realize itās something he does when heās nervous. āI was too forward. Youāre living in somebody elseās house, youāre pregnant, and I came at you that bluntly, like we were in a bar. I felt awful about it all night. I hope I didnāt make you uncomfortable.āHe means it. Itās all over his face, and I find I canāt be annoyed.āYou didnāt,ā I say, and then, because itās half true and he deserves the full truth, I add, āBut Iād rather we didnāt talk about that kind of thing again.āHe nods at once. āUnderstood. It wonāt come up again.āāThank you.āāCan I make it up to you? Maw is making apple pie, and Iāve been told youāre n
Lucien hasnāt called since that night. I check my phone every few minutes, and each time, the screen shows the same three things: the time, the weather, and nothing from him.Just four days ago, he was whispering down the line that I was his, in a voice that made my whole body listen. Today thereās only silence.I tell myself itās probably just his rut. I tell myself heās too weak to pick up the phone.But it doesnāt help.I miss him already, and I hate that I do.By the fourth afternoon, I canāt stand my bedroom walls anymore. I go downstairs with one hand on the banister and the other cradling my stomach, and sense a new presence.The house feels smaller than before, the way a house does when someone new is in it. My heart jumps thinking itās him.So I hurry the rest of the way down and find them at the threshold.Mrs Greene opens her arms and a young man walks into them and lifts her clean off the floor. He is tall and broad, with hair the colour of wheat and his eyes are so blue t
She turns up at nine the next morning, unannounced, in sunglasses and a trench coat, looking like a woman about to deliver an accusation and open an investigation.Mrs Greene lets her in without a word and looks between us suspiciously. Viv waits until she takes the hint and retreats to the kitchen. I stand with my shoulders curled, looking every bit the guilty woman I am. Vivienne pulls off her sunglasses and points at the bed."Sit.""Viv, I can explain.""I certainly hope so, because I woke up to a picture of your vagina.""Please keep your voice down." I cover my face with my hands, embarrassed. "It was an accident. I was in a hurry, and I... didn't look.""I know it was an accident, Evelyn. We're close, but not 'I need to see your vagina' close." She sits across from me, crosses her legs, and examines me with the narrowed eyes of someone who likes puzzles. "What I want to know is who it was meant for."My stomach flips. "Nobody.""Nobody." She sniffs the air. Her nose wrinkles, t
My phone buzzes against me ten minutes after he hangs up, and I'm so wound up that I almost drop it on my face when I pick it up.It's from the same number I forgot to save. Only one line is written.Lucien: Send me a picture. Show me what you're wearing.My heart skips, then gallops. My thumbs hover over the screen while a very sensible voice in my head tells me every reason why this is a bad idea.I choose to ignore it and text back.Me: Do you really want one?Lucien: I'm begging.A laugh slips out of me, a little choked and breathless. I'm twenty-six, pregnant, and lying in his shirt under my blanket, and I'm about to sext the Alpha I swore I hated.I've never done this before. Well, not since my teenage years. With Thomas, I could never bring myself to.It always felt like handing him a leash to whip me with. He never made me feel good about my body, so why would he have appreciated any of my pictures?With Lucien, it feels nothing like that. This feels like someone asking to be







