AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And all the days she’d spent at the Kamaras Estate during her time with Alex. It was strange how those memories centered on Constantine. They always had. It hadn’t mattered that she wasn’t supposed to be there for him. They’d always found each other. They’d always ended up talking.
It was like they’d been pulled together by forces stronger than themselves. Even when other people had been in the room, he was at the center of the memory.
“I personally will be an excellent father, as I am an expert in all of life’s important skills. Drinking fine alcohol...” Alex had lifted his glass “...driving fast cars and ensnaring the most beautiful women.”
He’d gestured to Morgan when he said that.
“And if you were to have a daughter?”
“I am equal opportunity, Morgan, perhaps my daughter will appreciate those skills? One never knows.”
His eyes had shone with humor and Morgan’s stomach had fluttered. Then Constantine had turned his dark eyes on her and her stomach had clamped down tight. She hadn’t been able to breathe.
“A fine role model then,” he’d said, his gaze flickering to his brother.
“And you, Constantine?”Alex had asked. “What will you teach your children? To glower, isolate yourself for days at a time and miss the punchline of most jokes lobbed your way?”
“A glower when pointed well is a useful tool. I think you mean work, not isolate, and if a joke is poor, I do not laugh. Which could be why you never hear it, little brother. But I will never have children,” he’d said, his tone definitive, “so it does not matter either way if I have useful skills to pass on.”
“Never?” she asked.
She hadn’t meant to ask. But she felt...sad hearing him say that. Constantine, for all that he perplexed her, bothered her, was one of the most beautiful men she’d ever seen. There was something magnetic about him. Something strong and infinitely...appealing.
The image of him holding a baby in his strong arms made her breath catch.
He looked at her and made her wish she hadn’t spoken.
“Never.”
And she stood there, grappling with herself. With how much of this was her looking for an easy way out of her connection with him, and how much was a genuine desire to not disappoint his parents.
And would he even believe her if she told him it was his?
Two nights, they’d been together. And even though they’d made love many times that last night... He must think she’d been with Alex countless times prior...
“What happens if I don’t go with you?”
“I think you will find that it is a legal battle that you do not want,” he said, his voice grim.
And that she knew to be true. Because she didn’t have any power, not in the face of the Kamaras family. It wouldn’t be a fight. Not at all. She might have been unburdened of her student loans, but that didn’t mean that she was wealthy by any standards. She lived in this apartment, which was truly not childproof, and she...
She would just never be able to fight his family, she knew that.
And part of her...
A small part.
That girl sitting in the yellow wallpapered kitchen in the recesses of her memory, whispered: And this way you won’t be all alone, not anymore.
Oh, she desperately didn’t want to be so alone.
Did that make her weak?
Maybe.
But she was so tired of it. That was the hardest thing. She hadn’t loved Alex. But being with him had given her a family, in a way. Even when she’d been sparring with Constantine at those gatherings, it had given her something. Connection.
With his loss, she had lost them.
