Page 35

THIRTY

DAYNA

I quit my second job. It makes me nervous to do it, but I think about what Ivy said and I stop waiting for things to go wrong.

And things couldn’t be more right. The man I love has my back against the wall, my leg over his shoulder, and his tongue swirling around my clit.

I’m pretty sure I’ve ascended to another plane of existence while he’s been down there.

My body feels so different since I got pregnant. Everything is sensitive, especially my boobs. He only has to touch them and I’m either crying or coming.

His grip bruises my hips as I balance on one leg, a scream choking my throat.

I thread my fingers through his hair to keep him in place, in case he gets any stupid ideas about leaving me high and dry.

My thighs shake and I see stars as I come so hard I growl his name like I’m possessed.

Holy fucking hell.

He lowers my leg, and unbuckles his belt. I don’t know why it makes me so hot when he doesn’t undress but just shoves his jeans down enough to take me. I think it's the feral need to take me right there. I’m completely naked in front of him, as if he can’t stand any part of me hiding from his eyes.

I tip my neck as he leaves soft trails along my pulse and cups my breast. I’m panting. Completely undone by him.

“You’re so fucking beautiful,” he hums against my skin while his fingers slide through the wetness between my legs. “My needy girl.”

I don’t even deny it, because when it comes to him, I am needy. No one could resist this. I’ve never had sex so good in my life.

“Are you going to fuck me or talk me to death?”

“I’m going to ruin you,” he says in my ear and my thighs clench.

He lifts my leg again, and I feel his tip at my entrance. Before I can prepare, he shoves into me ruthlessly.

My breath catches in my throat, my nails digging into his shoulders as my body stretches around his thick length.

His nose nuzzles my neck. “You take me so good, like you were made for me, Dayna. Every inch of you is mine.”

I love when he talks like that. It’s so filthy. And when he drags along my walls before slamming back into me, all I can do is cling to him.

My day doesn’t continue to be that good. By lunchtime I’m a clammy, sweaty mess. I’ve already snuck off to the bathroom three times to puke and I swear if I brush my teeth anymore, I’m going to take the enamel off.

My boss keeps glaring at me like she’s trying to figure out how she can fire me, and the only thing that keeps me going are Dash’s messages checking in.

By the time my lunch break rolls around, I’m so tired that all I want to do is go back Dash’s apartment, crawl into our bed and sleep until morning.

That’s the only reason I don’t see her as I get off the lift.

My head is full of Dash and whether I should risk eating a sandwich or wait until I get home.

“Dayna!”

My body tenses, the sound of her voice triggering all my nerves.

I turn just as my mother scurries across the foyer, past building security, towards me.

Oh, not today, Satan.

I already feel nauseated. Janet is ready to light a match and toss it on my desk. I can’t deal with Evelyn too.

But I don’t have a choice. She’s coming straight for me, and there’s nowhere to hide.

Her heels click on the tiled floor, her chin high, hair perfect, and the tan coat she’s wearing is definitely something she can’t afford.

Is it ethical to fake a medical emergency?

Her eyes scan my face before stopping on my belly. I fold my arms over my barely-there bump as she drags her gaze back to mine.

Her smile is forced, too wide, too unnatural to be sincere. Like a shark before it takes a bite.

“What are you doing here?” I demand.

“I’ve been to your apartment three times this week, darling, and there was no sign of you there, so I had no choice but to come to your work. Especially since you’re not answering my calls.”

Of course, I’m not. “You told me to abort my child. I didn’t really feel like talking to you.”

Her gaze darts around, as if she’s terrified someone might hear the scandal against the great Harrington name. “You’re still pregnant then?”

She spits it like my child is disgusting, and that pisses me off.

“Yes, Mother, I’m still pregnant with a baby I very much want with a man I very much love.”

Saying that doesn’t scare me as much as it used to, and it doesn’t make my chest tightened in the way it used to either.

She sniffs the air, her face wrinkling. “I really wish you wouldn’t make decisions based on getting back at me, Dayna. Your stubbornness will ruin your life, not mine.”

“You already ruined my life.”

Her lips pull into a line, before shifting into a sneer and then back into a line, as if she can’t decide whether she wants to erupt into anger or retreat into disappointment.

“I really don’t understand where all this hate comes from, Dayna.

I’m not the one who ruined anything. Your father did, and yet he gets a free pass?—”

I roll my eyes. I have zero love for my father either, and she knows that. “I am not doing this with you right now. I don’t have time for the therapy I’ll need after this conversation and I only have an hour before I have to be back at my desk.”

I make it through the doors and into the fresh air before my mother wraps her fingers around my bicep.

I stumble, regaining my balance at the last second before I whirl around to face her.

“What did I say about you putting hands on me?” I snarl in her face, making her recoil like I’m some kind of rabid dog.

Maybe I should snap my teeth at her.

Piss in her fucking expensive shoes.

I get in her face. “You don’t get to drag me around so that I’ll listen to whatever rotten shit comes out your mouth.”

“I only came to give you this.” She lets go of me and pulls a card out of her purse. It’s the business details for a doctor in London. “She’s very discreet,” Evelyn says. “It won’t even go on your records that you’ve had an abort?—”

The card is plucked out of my hand, and I snap my head around to see Dash standing behind me. His hand gently slides onto my hip, just a reminder that he’s got me.

But the look on his face is a storm rolling in. My mother’s wise enough to straighten and back away.

“You came here to convince my woman to terminate our kid?”

No, not a storm.

A fucking hurricane.

Evelyn lifts her chin, as if she is looking down on scum, and that pisses me off. Dash has loved me harder in the short time I’ve known him than she has in my entire fucking life.

“She’s young. You’ve taken advantage of that fact and corrupted my daughter. You’ve impregnated her and taken away the choices that she should have had, the paths that were open to her as a Harrington.”

His jaw flexes with every word. Mine too. She has no right to talk to him like that.

“Do you hear yourself?” I snap. “I’m not a child, and I’m not your pawn.”

“You’re nineteen years old. You might as well be.”

People are looking, and I hate that. I don’t want to be a spectacle under a microscope of judgment.

Dash’s hand squeezes my side gently, once again letting me know he’s in my corner without saying it.

So, I take the card off Dash, handing it back to her.

“I’m not getting rid of my baby.” I place a hand on my stomach, even though there’s nothing beneath it, no obvious sign of my condition. “And you’ll never be a part of this child’s life. I won’t have your poison infect them the same way it infected me.”

Her mask slips, and it’s ugly.

“You’ve always been an ungrateful child.

The things I sacrificed for you. And you couldn’t do even the simplest of things for me when I needed you most?

I’m not surprised you got knocked-up by some low-life degenerate with no prospects.

When you spread your legs like a whore, no one is ever going to make you a respectable wife?—”

“That’s enough.” Dash’s voice cracks like thunder.

“You can say whatever the fuck you want about me. I don’t care.

I’ll take that shit all day long, but you don’t get to stand there and call your daughter such foul fucking things.

” He takes my hand in his, as if he didn’t just shield me again from bullets, only these ones were not physical.

“You’ll never see Dayna again. You’ll never meet our kid. That’s your fucking legacy, Evelyn.”

He guides me away from her, past some idiots with their phone out, no doubt already uploading it to social media.

I want to cry. I want to scream.

I do neither.

He leads me over to a low wall and tells me to sit. The stone is cold against my legs, scratching my skin, but it’s a relief to stop moving.

All I wanted was a fucking sandwich.

He crouches in front of me, his hands on my knees, his thumbs rubbing circles like his touch can undo the pain my mother leaves in my bones. “You okay?”

I shake my head. “Why does she have to push into my life like this? I was already scraping by today without having to deal with her too.”

“She doesn’t get to take up space in your head anymore, Dayna.”

I sag forward, resting my forehead on his shoulder. “I’m so sorry you had to hear any of that. You shouldn’t have to.”

He strokes my hair before pressing a kiss to my crown. “I’ve heard worse over the years. Comes with wearing the patch. And I don’t care what she thinks, Dayna. Because I know who I am and what I stand for.”

“I tell myself that I don’t care what she thinks too, so why does it hurt?” My voice sounds weak, thready, scraped over gravel.

He brushes away my tears, his face a mask of pain at my suffering. “Because she’s your mother.”

I shake my head. “No, she’s not. No mother could ever treat their child the way she treats me. I won’t have her in my life if she’s going to talk about you the way she does. I won’t have any of that touch our baby.”

Something flickers in his eyes, sharp and dangerous. “It won’t. And if you don’t want her in your life, babe, I’ll never let her get near either of you.”

“I tried so hard with her. She’s the only family I have left.”

“Not anymore. You’re building your own now with me.” His hand splays over my stomach. “And our kid.”

I rest my hand over his, closing my eyes. “Then I’m the luckiest person on the planet.”

He kisses me like he can make my pain go away with his mouth, and he can. He does.

I already feel lighter.

“Not that I’m not extremely glad to see you, but what are you doing here?”

“I dropped by to take you to lunch. It sounded like you were having a rough day. I wanted to surprise you.”

He got all that from my messages? I’d been kind of vague in them so I didn’t worry him.

“Instead, you got surprised by the mother-in-law from hell. I’m so sorry. You signed up for my brand of chaos, but you definitely did not sign up for her.”

“I signed up for whatever involves you. Come on, let’s get you two fed.” He stands, pulling me up from the wall.

“Can we have a sandwich from that shop around the corner? I can’t remember the name of it, but they put pickles on everything, and I really want pickles right now.”

His arm wraps around my shoulder. “Then I’ll buy a whole fucking cupboard full of pickles.”

“I don’t know what I did to deserve you.”

He kisses my temple as he pulls me against his side. “You existed.”