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“I left them on the table in the foyer.” I held my hand out to her, “Come, my family doctor, Dr. Morgan, is waiting for you downstairs. I want him to have a look at you.”
Her green eyes grew impossibly wide, “What?” she shrieked. “Bu—but, I already saw a doctor!”
I huffed in annoyance, “Your doctor obviously didn’t know what the fuck they were doing. They sent you home and you fainted. Not to mention, you look as though you’re about to lose your stomach again.”
I took her hand instead of waiting for her to reach for mine and started towing her behind me, intent on getting her to Dr. Morgan.
She tugged weakly, trying to get me to release her, but I disregarded her efforts.
“My doctor is fine. She sent me home with medicine, I just need my pills, not to see another physician.”
We reached the stairs and I immediately started to worry about her fainting again and taking a spill, possibly hurting herself or the baby. I swung her up into my arms, ignoring her when she protested.
“Jade,” I said, my voice a little patronizing. “The sooner you stop arguing and let Dr. Morgan look you over, the sooner I’ll stop harassing you about it.”
Her eyes narrowed and she gave me a glacial stare, until it once again caved under the weight of my stubbornness.
“Fine, but no blood tests or anything invasive. Just a standard checkup,” she finished as I crossed the threshold into the room where Dr. Morgan had set out his instruments.
“She needs a blood test,” I informed Dr. Morgan as I set her down on the overstuffed couch. I threw her a black look when she started to comment and it shut her up.
“And who have we here?” Dr. Morgan smiled at Jade, “Does this beautiful woman belong to you, Lucas?”
“No,” Jade answered before I could even open my mouth. She returned my angry expression with a somewhat sly smile. “I’m his step-sister, Jade.”
I had no clue how to respond. Did I tell the doctor about our history and trust him to keep it a secret? Or did I pretend the baby wasn’t mine and we were simply cohabitating step-siblings? I wanted to shout and punch something. This whole situation was so fucked up.
“Really? I didn’t realize Jonathan’s new wife had a daughter. It’s lovely to meet you.” He smiled and shook her hand. If he weren’t here to examine her, I might have ripped off his appendage for touching her. No one else will ever be caressing her silky skin but me ever again.
“We didn’t know about each other until recently,” she admitted.
“Really? Well, how wonderful you two aren’t left without family.”
His comment made me cringe, much too similar to the words of my father’s will, which put me in this ridiculous spot in the first place.
“Now, what seems to be the problem, my dear?” Dr. Morgan asked as he began taking her blood pressure.
“She’s been nauseous, exhausted, and she fainted earlier,” I growled, glowering at Jade as I started to pace again.
“Any chance you’re pregnant, Jade?”
I waited with baited breath to see how she would answer.
She cleared her throat, “Um.” She glanced at me and Dr. Morgan took notice.
“Lucas, perhaps you should wait in another room.”
Jade smiled triumphantly.
“I need to be here. With our parents gone, I’m her legal guardian. Our parents wanted someone to take care of her.” I grinned back at Jade.
“Puh-lease. I’m twenty-two years old. And even if I wasn’t, nobody would pick you to guard their dog, much less another human being.” Her cheeks brightened with color as we bantered back and forth.
“Now, now, Jade, you mustn’t compare yourself to a puppy, at least you’re house trained.”
She huffed and Dr. Morgan chuckled. “Squabbling like siblings already.”
Our matching gasps of disgust seemed to shock the doctor and his gaze bounced between us like a pinball machine. After a tense moment, he focused back on Jade as he got her arm ready for a blood draw.
“Ugh. Another needle, I think I’m going to be sick again.”
“You know,” I drawled, “You didn’t answer the doctor’s question.”
Jade’s eyes flew to me and I smiled sinisterly. “Any chance you could be pregnant Jade?”
“Yes,” she snapped. “I had a fling with a macho, egotistical, shallow, pompous ass who apparently didn’t know how to use a fucking condom and knocked me up. That’s why the blood test isn’t necessary because my doctor already confirmed it this morning.”
I didn’t know why but hearing her admit it out loud made the whole thing much more real. Holy fuck. I’d gotten Jade pregnant. Mentally banging my head against a wall, I amended the thought. I’d gotten my step-sister pregnant. The board was going to ruin me and send me off to live in Louisiana with all of the other people whose lives sing like a fucking country song.
7
Jade
Had I really said what I thought I did? Someone please tell me I hadn’t. I slowly opened my eyes, which I’d squeezed shut in mortification as soon as the words popped out of my mouth. Yup, I’d totally said exactly what I thought I had. The twin looks of shock on Lucas and the doctor’s faces confirmed it.
“I guess we won’t need a blood test after all,” the doctor drawled, placing the needle down right before jabbing me with it. It was the only upside to my untimely announcement. He got over his surprise more quickly than Lucas, who stood there staring at me with his jaw open and his eyes wide. Dr. Morgan’s attention shifted between the two of us before focusing on Lucas. “While I appreciate your concern for your step-sister, I think it would be better if you gave us some privacy to discuss such a delicate matter.”
Privacy sounded fantastic to me, but I couldn’t bear the tormented look on Lucas’s face at the doctor’s request. I’d pulled the rug out from under him with my announcement, and it wouldn’t be fair of me to make him wait in another room so soon afterward.
“It’s okay,” I sighed. “He can stay.”
“If you’re sure?” Dr. Morgan’s tone was doubtful, but I appreciated him giving me another out if I wanted to take it. Lucas didn’t welcome it, though.
“You heard Jade,” he growled, prowling over to me, taking my hand in his and squeezing tightly.
Lucas turned towards me as soon as we heard the sound of the front door closing. “The baby’s mine?”
I wanted to scream and cry at the very thought of him suspecting it was someone else’s, but I couldn’t blame him for the question. It wasn’t even an accusation, he was merely asking for confirmation of what I had hinted to when the doctor was present. “Yes.”
His gaze dropped to my stomach and I swore I saw triumph in his eyes, which made no sense at all considering his opinion of me. “Okay, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In a way, you being pregnant simplifies things,” he mumbled to himself, pacing the length of the room.
“How is my pregnancy simple?”
Instead of answering, he shocked me speechless by striding over to me and lifting me up in his arms. He swiftly made his way through the house, up the stairs and into his bedroom, placing me gently on the mattress. Then he quickly stripped out of his clothes, only leaving his boxers, and climbed in next to me.
I was about to object, my lips ready to form the words, when he stopped to place a soft kiss on my belly. The gesture was so darn sweet, I all but melted into the mattress. By the time he settled himself on the pillows with me in his arms, I was a strange combination of an emotional mess and a beyond horny as heck woman.
“Your pregnancy means I don’t need to fight this thing between us anymore.”
I couldn’t help but laugh, considering we’d spent a grand total of five days together over the last six weeks and had slept together all but one of those days—today. Based on the fact that I was lying on his bed next to him in only his boxers, it was pretty safe to assume we were about to keep the streak alive. “I think your definition of fightin
g our chemistry and mine are very different. And I don’t understand why you’ve felt the need in the first place.”
His arms tightened around me. “The circumstances surrounding our first meeting were suspicious.”
“An artist meeting a gallery owner in their place of business is not suspicious.”
“It is if she looks like you and agrees to spend the weekend in a hotel with me without so much as a single word in protest.”
“You’re the one who suggested it,” I grumbled. “What did you want me to do? Say no?”
His eyes lit with humor. “I’m not sure it would have mattered if you’d said no. I would have just found a way to get you to say yes at some point.”
