Page 30 of Vicious Arrangement (Alpha Billionaire Daddies #7)

Chapter Twenty-Five

ARIA

I have a flying visit with Gramps the next day after my shift. I drop by with the extra pastries, and we eat them and talk.

It’s nice, and when he asks me if everything’s better with Noah, I just smile, and heat burns in my cheeks. He pats my hand in return, and we move on to other things.

For the following week, things are good. The morning sickness comes and goes like some kind of wonky tide, and more than once, I’ve had to rush off to the bathroom at work to hurl.

Once I’m through this, I’ll be able to work through a lot of my pregnancy, and then… then I guess I’m going to have to do something I’ve never thought I would.

Take time off for maternity leave. With my marriage to Noah, I don’t have to work, there’ll be no rush to return to work and yet I never want to just stay at home. I’m not sure how much of that is in my DNA. I’ll go back eventually. But maybe… I suck in a breath, maybe in a different form.

I’m getting ahead of myself, and when I get home, I take Angus out for a run. I’m amused by how he’s warming to Noah’s room, which, when he smells around the apartment, I think he’s looking for him.

Noah keeps up the gruff stance of not liking dogs or Angus, but he buys him treats, the butcher treats are common now.

He claims he’s just trying to train the dog, but I don’t think so.

Angus has had a big day, he and Alonso gardened, and he helped Carrie with the housework. That’s according to the note left.

But the run ends, and we walk back. I’m pacing myself a little with the morning sickness I’m a little more delicate those days, and this morning was one of those.

“Hey, Angus,” I say, stopping at a fruit stand. “Do you want some berries?”

He’s more interested in smelling a spot on the pavement, and I end up buying a whole lot more than the raspberries and blueberries and strawberries on the cart. I buy citrus, watermelon, apples and grapes, too.

“I should get you some side saddles,” I tell Angus as we turn onto our street. “So you can carry my shopping.”

He barks, and I laugh. I look up at the building.

Things with Noah, I think once more, are good.

But they’re not where I’d like them to be. I’m falling for him fast and he… I don’t know where he is on that, or if he’s even near the same book.

We have a routine, we have a lot of sex, even if I still have my room. I make myself sneak back some nights, and there are times he comes to me.

But he doesn’t tell me anything about that call he got or if he did anything about it. With a sigh, I open the door, and Angus and I get in the elevator, a man rushing in too. He hits the third-floor button.

He doesn’t talk, a baseball cap on as he scrolls on his phone. When the door to that floor opens he heads out to one of the four apartments on the floor.

When the elevator arrives at mine… ours… Noah’s I take the fruit and set it on the marble island.

Angus barks and takes off outside to the terrace, and I pop a raspberry in my mouth as I open the fridge.

All the delicious, healthy meals neatly stacked stare back at me. I don’t want any of them.

“I’m craving Italian. D’Angelo’s…”

“Little Italy?”

I spin and smile, Noah’s standing there, one hand in his pocket, frowning at his phone.

My smile falters. “Just talking out loud.” He doesn’t look at me, and my heart sinks. I don’t know why I’m so damn emotional so early on, but I am, and tears press and burn. “Is something wrong?”

“I’m good.” His gaze shifts to me, but his shoulders look tense, and his smile doesn’t even hint at his dimple, it’s that small and tight.

I pick up the raspberries and go to him. “You don’t look like you’re good. You look stressed. Have a berry?”

“Not hungry.”

“Noah.” I sigh and go put the berries back on the island and approach him again. This time, I ease his phone from his hand, and I don’t look at it, but I take his hand and lead him to the nearest sofa in the great room and sit him down. “You can talk to me.”

He looks at me, startled. “You’re pregnant.”

“Like seven weeks now. Also, pregnancy doesn’t make you an imbecile or made of glass. I can listen. I can even think.”

He rubs a hand over his face. “Sorry. It’s nothing.”

Fuck, this is like pulling teeth. “No, it isn’t. It’s definitely something. However big or small, it’s something and maybe I can help.”

Noah leans back and loosens his tie, looking up at the industrial ceiling. “I called that guy back.”

The words and you didn’t tell me claw for freedom, but I don’t let them. My sudden burst of frustration just another ride on the weird hormonal emotional rollercoaster.

“Okay,” I say calmly, “what did he have to say?”

Noah lets out a noisy breath and pinches the bridge of his nose as the tension suddenly rises a few notches in him.

“Aaron, that’s his name, turns out to be my half-brother.”

For a moment I can’t think of a single thing to say. I stare at him, as shock ricochets through me.

Finally, I find my voice as I put a hand on his thigh. “How do you know he’s telling you the truth? After all this time, you’d think…”

“I made him get a DNA test, and the results just came back. We’re a close familial match.”

Noah has a brother.

I take his hand. It’s cold, and he doesn’t respond to mine. I pretend it isn’t like a slap in the face. “How do you feel about that?”

“Indifferent,” he says, shrugging, pulling his hand free as he sits forward. “It doesn’t change a thing, and all it does is prove what a true asshole my father was. Not to be confused with my assholery.”

I wince. “Noah…”

“I don’t feel a fucking thing. He’s nothing to me. A stranger. And he’s probably an asshole, too.”

“Noah,” I say carefully. “That might be true about your father, and this Aaron might be a dick or he might be a nice guy. He could be anything at all and he just found out and tracked you down. You’re known so it isn’t that hard.”

“Getting my number is hard.”

I nod. “My point is we just don’t know. You don’t know. And Aaron isn’t responsible for your father’s actions.” I search for the right words. “It’s not fair to punish him because of it.”

“And you know this how? Maybe he’s a fucking monster.”

“Maybe he is. I don’t know anything,” I say, recoiling as he jumps up, narrowly missing the coffee table.

“Or maybe you just like to judge me.”

“Don’t start this, Noah. You’re lashing out because you’re hurting. You?—”

“What?” he says, snarling, “I lash out to protect myself. I’m not a fucking DIY project.

And I’m not an idiot. I don’t have to see this guy, I don’t know him.

He’s nothing to me, you get that? Nothing.

And I’ve got nothing to give him, either.

Just pain and heartache about my father.

And I don’t have money for him, either. There’s none from my dad, and he doesn’t get to touch the Templeton money. ”

I draw in a breath and stand, too. “Noah, I just thought… maybe you could look at it calmly. Of course you don’t need to see him if you don’t want to, it’s your life.”

“So keep out of it,” he says.

I stumble back, recoiling, and behind me from the doorway to the terrace, Angus growls. I don’t even tell him not to. Let him. Noah deserves to be growled at.

“Keep… out of it?” I laugh and shake my head. “I was only trying to help, to talk things out. It’s what people do.”

Silence spreads through the air and hangs heavy between us.

“Noah—”

“Look,” he snaps, “I appreciate you’re trying to help, but this is none of your business, Aria.”

That arrow hits so hard I can feel myself bleeding inside. And it’s cold and it hurts.

“You’re right, it’s not,” I say, moving away to the open kitchen to put the fruit away, and he follows to the edge. “It’d only be my business if we were in a relationship, right? You know, a real one?”

Now he sighs. “Aria, you know damn well that’s not what I fucking meant.”

“Didn’t you?”

“No.”

“Because,” I say angrily, “from where I stand, you’re never going to let me in. Not completely. I don’t even know what I’m doing here.” I snap my fingers. “That’s right, I’m pregnant so you’re stuck with me.”

“I never said that.”

“You didn’t have to. The fact you just want me to fuck and now, apparently, to birth your babies is reason enough for you to have me here, but it’s not for me.

To me, this whole thing’s a waste of time.

” A sob breaks free, and my eyes blur, a tear slipping free that I dash away with the heel of my hand. “I might as well just…”

“You might as well just what?” he asks softly.

And I sob again, shaking my head.

“Leave? Are you suggesting you might be better off leaving me?”

“I don’t know, Noah. I just know I’m at the edge of everything, and I’m tired and sick, and I just want—” I stop, look at him, and straighten up.

He doesn’t say a damn thing, he just watches me. Waits, and that’s maybe the worst of all, because he knows I’m not going anywhere. I can’t.

I’ll never hurt Gramps. And now… I won’t rob Noah of his inheritance.

But what about me?

I’m here because… like it or not, I’ve gone and fallen. And trapped myself in the worst way.

“What do you want, Aria?” he asks.

I shake my head. I’m no longer hungry. I tap my hand on my thigh, and Angus trots over to me, nails softly clacking on the white oak floor.

“Nothing. Nothing at all. We both know why you’re here, and we both know I’m well and truly stuck here.” I sniff, and walk to the hall. “Come on, Angus. We’re going to bed.”