Page 1 of Katie 3 (Desires #6)

Chapter one

Katie

M y fingers brush over my stomach as I lie in bed.

I can’t think about anything but the fact that I’m pregnant at the worst possible time.

Obviously, it’s not an entirely welcome surprise either.

I thought Brad would be the one who hated it.

I thought he’d be furious or tell me it’s not what he wants. I was wrong.

I ran from the room like five minutes ago and Brad and Henry are only getting louder.

“You should have been more careful!” Henry’s voice booms through the apartment.

“Oh, like you were when you were fucking her—”

I roll to my side when Brad’s answer is cut off and my eyes find Carter.

He’s standing against the doorframe, arms crossed.

His eyes are filled with too many emotions.

Confusion, surprise, hurt, something soft that I’m less familiar with.

I can’t put the pieces together and he doesn’t seem very inclined to speak.

My eyes prickle and I blink the sting away. A stray tear rolls over my cheek and he moves.

“Katie,” he soothes and sits beside me before pulling me close. He rubs my side and presses his lips to the top of my head.

Brad yells louder, then it sounds like something breaks. I flinch and Carter snorts. “Him and that temper.”

I don’t answer. No words seem right. I can’t do anything right.

Logically, I know it takes two people to make a baby, and considering I’m handling three men, it was bound to happen.

I don’t know why it never crossed my mind to get an IUD as I kept messing up my birth control pills.

Everything’s just happened so fast. I couldn’t keep Brad from going after Dan. I couldn’t hold my family together.

Carter gently turns my chin to face him. “Where’s your head at?”

“Everywhere,” I answer, voice sticky as my eyes heat. I don’t want to cry. “All the things I’ve done wrong.”

He shrugs. “You’re twenty-one. No one has life figured out that early.”

“Yeah, well most of them don’t fuck their entire stepfamily, get pregnant, see what one of their stepbrothers did to a guy who temporarily forgot what ‘not interested’ means, and cause a divorce all in a year,” I snort.

“Makes you sound powerful, doll,” Carter murmurs and a soft smile tugs on his lips.

“I don’t feel powerful,” I whisper.

He grazes his fingers over my cheek. “You didn’t hurt Dan, that was Brad.

You didn’t do anything wrong at school. All three of us initiated with you while we were your stepbrothers and stepdad, so that’s not fully on you either.

And I doubt you impregnated yourself,” he says, his voice dropping to a soft whisper in the last sentence.

Carter isn’t always open with his feelings. He tends to be more open than Brad is since Brad would rather be angry, but that’s like saying that wood is softer than brick. It doesn’t change that it will still hurt if you’re flung against it.

“What’s on your mind?” I ask while fidgeting with my fingers.

“You’re pregnant,” he answers. His voice is slow and controlled, which means he’s feeling a whole lot that he doesn’t want to put on my shoulders. I tilt into him and nuzzle his neck. “I am and I know it changes things.”

“Yeah.”

My throat tightens around whatever words I had to say. But I don’t have any idea what would come out of my mouth. Carter strokes my cheek, his thumb sweeping just under my eye. He studies my face like he can figure out what question he should ask or how I’ll react without saying a word.

“Why didn’t you come to me?” he finally asks, voice scratchy. “Why did you tell him first?”

Something else I did wrong. I fucked up. Carter’s the most put together. He’s the strongest, the most consistent. I always know what I’m going to get with him, and he only unleashes all of his wildness when we’re playing around.

“I… I didn’t mean to tell Brad. It slipped out while we were being… intense. He asked what I was, and I know he wanted me to say his, but it just pushed its way out,” I say honestly.

Carter doesn’t let me go. He keeps watching me like that’s not the answer. He shakes his head. “If you knew for so long, why didn’t you tell me , Katie?”

My eyes water, but I push the tears back. I take a slow breath and lean into his hand. “You have life so figured out. You keep things so focused and controlled.”

“Yes,” he agrees.

“I feel like getting pregnant makes things messy. I messed up and… and…” I close my eyes. “I didn’t want to disappoint you.”

He scoffs and shakes his head. “Disappoint me?”

“We never talked about this stuff. I didn’t talk about it with you or Brad or…” More yelling echoes downstairs and I shiver. “Henry.”

“I just…” Carter draws back from me and rubs his jaw. “I thought we were closer than keeping secrets like this.”

And there’s the disappointment. I knew it would come. I knew he’d embrace it and I feel a wall building between us. I can either let it happen, or I can do something about it. So I take his hand and put it on my stomach.

He looks from my face to where his hand is, and I clear my throat.

“I don’t know whose it is. Brad thinks it’s his, but…

we all know it could belong to any of you.

I don’t know what it will change between us.

I don’t know if the father really matters.

But it’s big and I was afraid to make it real by talking about it. ”

“So, you said it only when you couldn’t hold it back anymore,” he fills in.

“Yeah. Because if I didn’t say it, if you all didn’t know, then.” I sigh. “It wasn’t real. I mean, what am I going to do about this? I still have to finish a semester of college, then I was supposed to find work and instead…” I trail off.

“It was real either way, doll. The baby doesn’t care if you’ve told people or not. It’s growing, right here inside you,” he says.

I nod, accepting that, but Carter stands after a moment. I have a feeling he’s going to leave. Leave me alone. Maybe he’ll fix things downstairs first. Maybe not. But he runs his hand through his hair, then clears his throat.

“Brad was right about you needing to be taken care of. Let’s get you cleaned up so you can relax, and we’ll figure things out another day,” he decides.

I swallow. “Okay.”

And that’s what we do. He asks me questions while I’m in the shower, watching through the curtain, but not pushing a single limit, not touching me, just watching. He asks what happened in the woods. What I saw. What Brad did. What state Dan was in. What Brad said.

Once I get out of the shower and wrap myself in a towel, Carter takes care of the scratches on me, making sure he doesn’t miss a thing. He sighs when I tell him that Dan was still there when Brad and I left.

A door slams downstairs and I flinch.

“This is going to be a fucking shitshow,” Carter growls. “If that asshole doesn’t shape up… god, the trouble we’re going to be in.”

“Could I go to jail?” I whimper.

Carter’s eyes meet mine and the resolve in his gaze is nearly overwhelming. “I’m not letting that happen, doll. You’re not going to jail for what Brad did. He fucked up. He was the one who did all that. You couldn’t have stopped it when he brought you out there.”

“I didn’t call the police,” I say anyway.

“We’ll deal with it. Dad and I are very good at what we do,” Carter says darkly.

That’s all I get before he leads me to bed and tells me to put on pajamas and relax. He promises to take care of everything, promises that I’ll be okay. But when he turns the light off, my thoughts just swirl.

There’s no chance of relaxing when our home is in chaos all over again.