Page 1

ONE

DASH

PAST…

The test is sitting at the top of the bag like a live bomb. Shoved among the trash and junk mail, two fucking lines stare up at me.

Hope fucking punches through my chest.

She’s pregnant.

And that ache that gnaws on my ribs every damn day? It loosens.

My girl’s having my kid.

Fuck.

I scrub a hand over my jaw. My thoughts are spinning like a carousel in my skull. I’m making plans and building nurseries before I’ve closed the lid.

We’ll need a bigger place, so she can move in with me. I need her close to take care of her—take care of them . Her place is bigger, but she shares with her friend, Maya, and we’re building a family.

A life.

I let out a shaky breath. I’ve only been fully patched in for a month, but the club takes care of its own, so the money’s good. Six months maybe to save for an apartment with an extra bedroom. Bought, not rented. We need security. Enough to pay for baby stuff and?—

“Rhys?”

Her soft voice has me turning and fuck , I can’t help it. My eyes drop to her stomach.

There’s no hint of a bump there, and her sleep shorts are fitted enough that I’d see it. I want to see it, that little swell of her stomach, our kid nestled safe between her hips.

She’s never looked more fucking beautiful than she does right now.

“Are you okay?” She dips her brows as I cross the room. I need to touch her, to feel her.

My hands span her waist, my forehead pressing to hers. “Fucking perfect.”

I wait for her to tell me, to give me those two little words, but she kisses me, her lips soft, her mouth claiming before she slips free of my hold.

Then she moves to the kettle like nothing has changed. Like she’s not carrying our whole life in her body.

“I have class in an hour, so if you want a shower before I leave, you’ll need to get in now.”

I watch every step, every move she makes and the first slither of doubt creeps in behind the elation. She’s not acting like anything is different, like she’s different.

Maybe it’s Maya’s test. Maybe Kendall isn’t pregnant at all.

Hope and fear tangle in my chest, but I cling onto the possibility it’s ours. We’re young, but we’ll manage. I’ll make sure of it.

I frown at her as she makes coffee.

“You okay?” I can’t stop from checking.

Is she sick? Is she having cravings? Fuck, I don’t know shit about pregnancy.

Kendall glances over her shoulder, her blonde hair falling in soft waves down her back. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

I want to push her, but I don’t. She deserves to tell me this shit in her way, and I won’t take that from her.

I step up behind her and wrap my arms around her. My hands rest just above her stomach, like I’m holding everything beneath my fingers.

I kiss her neck, needing, wanting to taste every inch of her. She makes a satisfied moan.

“We don’t have time to fuck.”

I grin. “There’s always time to fuck, baby.”

My hand slips into her shorts and she gasps as my fingers stroke through her slick heat. “Rhys.”

Fuck, I love when she says my name like that. That breathy little moan makes my cock hard as steel.

She rides my fingers like a goddess. Her skin stretches over her knuckles as she clings to the counter. I know exactly how to unravel her, and she comes whimpering my name. I hold her up, her legs like noodles as she breathes through her climax and I want to crawl into her skin.

All I can do is bury my nose in her neck. The smell of her arousal and the light sheen of sweat on her skin is intoxicating. My lips press to skin where her camisole strap hangs off one shoulder.

“That was nice,” she murmurs, and I kiss her shoulder.

I arch a brow, my ego a little bruised. “Nice?”

“Good,” she laughs. “Fantastic. Do you want me to rate you out of ten?”

I snort and pull my hand out of her shorts. Her eyes are dazed when she turns to face me. Her skin is flushed, her chest heaving.

Fuck, what if that hurt the kid?

And all thought of giving her space evaporates.

“Shit, I didn’t even think. Is the baby okay… with what we did?”

The change isn’t subtle. Her spine straightens. The shutters come down. No smiles, not even the one she gives me when I say something stupid.

“Baby?” she scoffs. “What makes you think there’s a baby?” There’s an edge to her voice now. Sharp like the edge of a blade. My shoulders tense in response.

“I found the test.”

She steps back to grab the mug off the counter. She may as well have thrown a wall between us.

What the fuck is happening?

Cold spreads through my veins as she gives me her back and the buzz dies.

“You weren’t supposed to see that,” she says finally.

“So, it is yours? We’re having a baby?” I clutch that hope like a lifeline.

Kendall laughs. It’s an ugly sound, and one I’ve never heard from her. “No, Rhys. We’re not.”

There’s a sinking sensation in my stomach at the finality of her words, at the tone that dismisses everything. “What the hell does that mean?”

She turns to face me, and I don’t know who this woman is in front of me. It’s not my Kendall. There’s ice in her eyes and scorn on the lips I’ve kissed more times than I can count.

“What exactly do you think this is between us?” Her lips tug into a cruel smile before I can answer. “Oh, please don’t tell me you’ve caught feelings.”

The ground is unsteady beneath me. My legs are unstable when the pressure in my head becomes crushing. Her words don’t make sense, but they land like bullets anyway.

“You’re in my bed, on the back of my bike?—”

Kendall cuts me off with another one of those cruel laughs. “ Please . I don’t care about your little biker rules. But I thought we were on the same page. This was just fucking. Nothing more.”

My chest cracks open, but I don’t react. I can’t. I thought we were building something, creating a life together. I was all in this. She’s the thing my life orbits around and she thinks we’re just fucking?

“Are you fucking pregnant with my kid or not, Kendall?”

“I’m not,” she says, then adds, “not anymore.”

The air is static, charged with oppressive silence. She stares at me, challenging me to come back at her, but all I can hear is ringing my ears.

“Come on, Rhys.” She steps close. “Don’t look at me like that. Nothing has to change.” Her hands rest on my chest, but her touch is no longer my anchor. It burns. It crawls over my skin like dirt.

I snatch her wrist, tearing her off me. “What do you mean ‘not anymore’?”

Her eyes roll like she’s not talking about the most important fucking thing in the universe. “I mean, there’s no baby. I had a termination.”

My stomach drops into a pit of darkness. I can’t stop staring at her. She’s Kendall. My Kendall—the woman I was gonna marry and spend my life with—and yet I don’t recognise her. She made this whole decision without letting me be a part of it.

“You didn’t even tell me. You just made that call to end the pregnancy without me.” The words are flat. Laced with barbs.

“Oh please. Don’t get sentimental on me. It wasn’t a baby and even if it was, we couldn’t keep it, Rhys. You’re a fucking biker. And I can’t become a barrister with a screaming brat on my hip.” She moves to the counter, opening drawers, slamming around like I’m the reason she’s pissed.

The life I built for us—imagined for us—is fading. She never wanted this. She never wanted me.

That rejection claws out of my bones.

“I told Maya to empty that fucking bin yesterday,” she mutters. “What were you even doing going through the trash? That’s psychotic.”

I don’t answer. I can’t. My entire life just dropped out from under me and she’s acting like I’m in the wrong, like asking questions about our child, our relationship is an inconvenience.

“Was any of this real?”

Her eyes soften just a fraction. Not enough to stop me from bleeding. “I thought you knew what this was. We were never going to work long term. My life is galas and dresses and shoes that cost more than most people’s cars. And you’re…” She breaks off before she can deliver that blow.

I do it myself. “A biker? A nobody? Fuck me.” There’s a headache building behind my eyes and my heart is pounding against my ribs. “I would have given you everything, Kendall.”

“That’s the point, Rhys. You can’t give me anything .”

She might as well have shoved a knife into my soul. I straighten my kutte. My jaw aches as I grab my keys off the counter.

“We can still keep sleeping together,” she says. “This doesn’t have to be the end.”

I turn, and she withers at whatever she sees in my face.

“I wouldn’t fuck you now if I was paid to.”

Anger flashes in her eyes. “You don’t get to decide what I do with my body.”

“I don’t,” I agree, but it doesn’t stop this pain from eating me alive. I thought we were a team. I thought I was her safe place. I would have been there with her.

“You’re looking at me like I killed your kid.”

“I’m gutted you had a termination, Kendall. I’m not even going to pretend I’m not, but what I’m more pissed about is that you didn’t include me in your plans because you’ve always been waiting to leave.”

I don’t look at her or her stomach where our kid should be growing. I head for the door, the world unsteady under my feet.

“You’re acting like a fucking little bitch,” she yells after me.

I ignore her, grabbing the latch and tearing open the door. Maya is leaning against the wall outside her room, her perfect sculpted brow arched.

“Guys like you don’t end up with girls like her,” she delivers that parting shot.

“Bitches like you choke on all the gilded cock you swallow until you’re replaced by younger models.”

“Prick!”

I step through the door, slamming it behind me. Rage and something ugly coils inside me as I climb onto my bike. Then I ride off without looking back, leaving the fractured parts of my soul in that fucking kitchen.