Page 7 of Bred By the Minotaur (DreamTogether Breeding Program #3)

Seven

Hank

I’ve never had a high like fucking Phoebe.

When I finally pull out of her, her lovely pussy is red and dripping with me. I rub the cheeks of her rounded butt and lean down to lick her. I want to taste all of her, especially while covered in me. Our scents mixed together is enough to drive me wild.

Then the speaker crackles. “Time is up.”

I have to go now. But I still have one last chance to convince her.

I lean down again. “No one has to know,” I say into her ear, keeping my voice very low. “Not DreamTogether. Not even Milo.” She stiffens under me as I nuzzle the back of her neck. “I won’t tell a soul.”

Then, her breath comes out in one whoosh .

“I can’t,” she murmurs, so quiet I almost can’t hear her. “I can’t. I can’t fall in love with you, Hank.”

What?

I’m utterly baffled by this response. I open my mouth to answer when the door behind me opens, and the attendant says, “Your session is over, if you don’t mind.”

I hurriedly clean us off, then put on my jeans, all while we’re watched. There’s nothing else I can say to her now.

I can’t fall in love with you, Hank .

I’m puzzling over this as I buckle my belt, then hustle out without saying goodbye.

I stand next to my car for far too long, one hand on the door.

What did she mean by that? Is she trying to say that she’s... in a relationship?

Of course, that’s what it was. Damn it, I feel like a fucking idiot.

She didn’t try to contact me before because she’s already seeing someone. Maybe she’s even married , and I just didn’t get the message. No, because I’m a jackass.

I should never have told her about Milo and put that on her. I should never have come back here, to DreamTogether, at all. In fact, if I weren’t such a monumental dipshit, I would have realized a long time ago that there was nothing between me and Rapunzel except the breeding bench.

I hope I haven’t disrupted her life too much already with my antics, with my misplaced hope that she would want something more from me. But she’s at DreamTogether for a reason, the same as I am. She’s a professional at this. She doesn’t want personal complications.

It’s like flirting with your masseuse. I’m disgusted with myself.

I bump the roof of my car with my fist and get in. I took the day off so I could pick up Milo from school and spend the afternoon with him. When I made those plans, I thought I would be in a much better mood after seeing Phoebe again today.

But my anger at myself fades when I park at the school and go into Milo’s classroom, where I find him happily scribbling on paper with a marker, surrounded by other kids playing and screeching as they get their backpacks to go home. He looks up when I walk in, and his face turns radiant.

“Dad!”

I pick him up and hug him, then I set him down and we walk out holding hands. We have a big day planned, and I’m going to put all of my heart into it.

Phoebe

I told him the truth. I can’t be what he’s looking for, and I’m not available in the way he’s hoping.

Back at home, I try to get some work done, but it’s impossible to keep my focus on my task.

My mind flits back to Hank, remembering how expertly he knew what to do with me, how to treat me, how to make me scream.

Eventually it’s time to head to my sister’s to make dinner and help her out around the house until I drag myself home and go to bed.

I’m a little sore between the legs when I get in my car. I took all of Hank today—and I feel absolutely euphoric. If I hadn’t had to tell him the truth at the end, I would have rather liked to fly away together.

But that’s not an option for me. For us . For so, so many reasons.

My sister gives me the side-eye when I arrive, but this time, she chooses not to ask me about my visit. She’s probably hoping I’ll spill it on my own, but I don’t want to admit that I shut Hank down. She’ll be disappointed, what with the way she’s imagining this playing out like some rom-com movie.

Dinner passes quietly, until suddenly, Sandra slaps the table.

“Come on,” she says. “Tell me something , Feebs. I’m dying. What did you say to him? I mean, you basically didn’t call back.”

“I shut him down.”

And we had the most unbelievable sex of my life. Again.

But sex does not a relationship make. Hank’s just confused by all the signals his brain is sending to him. I know because I’m feeling it, too.

“Wow, that’s rough,” Sandra says. “How’d he take it?”

“I don’t know. We were... interrupted.”

She arches a brow at me. “What about next time? Won’t that be awkward?”

“We don’t know if there will be a next time.” Just the thought of it, though, sends a shockwave of regret through me. I hope that’s not the last time I see Hank, but there’s a very real chance it will be.

I have to stop thinking like this. It would be for the best if it worked this time. Then I can move on with my life, get through the next eleven months, and then I won’t have to think about him ever again.

A few days later, I take my first pregnancy test. Negative.

Though I breathe a sigh of relief, maybe it would be better if I didn’t see Hank again, not after how I shut him down. I don’t know that I can face him, metaphorically speaking.

A few days after that, I take another one, and watch as the line changes color—a single, bright pink line. If it doesn’t come up positive in the first few weeks, the chance is very slim that we succeeded.

Then, as I watch, the second line forms. I stand in silence as it appears in the window and starts to turn bright pink, too.

Positive .

A big breath whooshes out of me. The disappointment is so big and sudden that I have to lean on the counter.

But it’s for the best. This is what he wanted—another child. I’m going to make sure he gets it, even if I can’t give him anything else.

All test results need to be verified in the lab, so I make a call to DreamTogether and they bring me in for an exam the next day. I can barely get through my work, tapping my stylus on my tablet until just the sound of it is driving me crazy.

If they verify this result, that’s it.

I drum my fingers on the steering wheel the whole drive to the clinic. First I pee in a cup, and then I’m brought into an exam room. The middle-aged woman who greets me has me strip down and dress in a gown so she can verify the result with an image.

“There we are,” she says, gesturing to the screen. I don’t see anything. “We’ve got a stem growing. We’ll bring you in for a follow-up appointment in a few weeks just to make sure the early pregnancy is proceeding as expected.”

I nod numbly as she departs the room, letting me get dressed again. I walk through it robotically, now that everything is all wrapped up in a neat little package.

I’m pregnant. Again. With Hank’s child. His sperm found its way inside me and merged with my egg, and now it’s taken root. We did what we set out to do.

So why does it feel like the world is ending?

It’s late in the afternoon, so I go by Sandra’s house first to cook her an early dinner. I need to go home and be alone for a while tonight, maybe work on my latest personal project.

I told my sister I went to the clinic this afternoon, and my face must give away what happened there.

“So you’re pregnant again, huh?” she asks as I start cooking the macaroni. “Baby number three.”

There’s a five-pregnancy limit, and I don’t know what I’ll do after that.

“Yup.” That’s all I say. “No more Hank Pittsfield.”

“No more Hank Pittsfield,” she echoes.

We’re both quiet all through dinner, Sandra occasionally trying to make conversation, but my mind is too far away.

Finally, I drive back home, and my head feels like it’s full of water. Things will go back to the way they were before now. I don’t need to think about Hank, or about Milo, and all the complicated things that come with them. I can return to my regularly scheduled life.

When I get home, I dump my purse and head to my tablet where I usually sit and work late at night. After my day job, I switch over to my work. Right now, I’m painting koi fish in a pond, trying to get the reflections on the water just right.

But I feel nothing looking at it. I have no urge to paint, so instead, I shed my clothes and head for the bathroom. I light the candles around the tub as it fills, then drop in a bath bomb for good measure. Once the bath is filled, I slide into the warm water and let out an immense sigh.

He likes broccoli.

My son, who’s out there in the world somewhere, likes broccoli. He’s rambunctious and has a kitten backpack. I wonder what he looks like—how much of me he has in him.

Hank said he wouldn’t tell anyone if I contacted him. If we met in the real world, he promised it didn’t need to be complicated, and we wouldn’t get discovered by DreamTogether. But it would inevitably become complicated, given the fact we already have one kid and there’s another on the way.

Complication is the last thing I need in my life. I don’t want a boyfriend, a family, when my plate is already full. And someone like Hank... He can’t break my heart again if I don’t let him inside it.

I lie back in the tub, drifting lower and lower as the warm water seeps into my skin, heating me from the inside out.

I’m never going to see him again. I’m never going to touch him with my own pair of hands. It’s over now, and we have no more reason to interact.

I don’t realize I’m crying until a tear slips over my lips, tasting salty.

I simply close my eyes and let them fall, sliding down in the water until just my face is above the surface.

I can’t help but wonder what it would be like if I did reach out to him, if I did send him that message, if we did meet face-to-face.

Would we have sex again? How would it feel to look in his eyes as he took me?

Slowly, everything fades into darkness. Except for that photo of Hank in the orange pants, the sound of his low voice in my ear, his warm hand skimming up and down my back. His marvelous cock, slowly rocking inside me, bringing me higher and higher until I’m a hot-air balloon ready to pop.

I’m carrying his child again. What will he say when he finds out?

I’ll never know. My mind breaks free of my body, floating up above it, letting me drift away to a place where I can forget about all of this.

REE! REE! REE!

I snap awake at the shrill shriek of an alarm. And when I open my eyes...

Everything is on fire.