Page 34 of Caught By the Chief of Staff

“I can’t.” I barely push out the words before I choke on a sob that rises up from my chest before I can even try to stop it.

“I should have known you’d say that,” he bites out as he stands and shoves his legs in his jeans. He buttons them and buckles his belt faster and angrier than I thought possible of anyone. He stabs his arms through his T-shirt after scooping it up off the floor, yanking it down over his head. “This is far from over.”

“We have to stop this, Rick,” I plead. “It hurts too much.”

“I just fucked you bare, Cara,” he says, and I feel shock give way to horror as the emotions shift like old vacation slides across my face. He was so meticulously careful and it had felt like a punishment of sorts every time he slid a condom on, like I couldn’t trusted not to run off into the night with another one of his children and now he throws caution to the wind. The night had gotten away from us, I was there, I know. And Rick wouldn’t try and trap me like that. But he damn well could have anyways. “I see you get it now. If you think I’m going to let you go again. With a baby in your belly. Again. You’ve got another think coming.”

“We don’t know that anything happened.” I try to get the train on the tracks as he stalks toward the front door.

“Wrong fucking answer, Cara,” he bites out. His own hurt and anger are riding him hard. “We’re in this now, and there’s no way out until we see this through. I can promise you that.”

“No,” I whisper as the ramifications of Rick’s resolutions play through my mind one after another, but he doesn’t give me time to explain.

“I guess we’ll see about that.”

And then he’s gone, the front door slamming behind him, and I’m left trying to rationalize how I can feel both elated and terrified all at the same time. And to what end? Who will pay the price for my dance with the devil? Because if it’s Rachel or even Rick, I know I won’t survive it.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how one looks at it, I wouldn’t have to wait long for the other shoe to drop.