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“What?” Ryan’s voice got loud to the point Caleb had no choice but to pull the phone away.
“You don’t have to scream at me.”
“What are you doing to do?”
“I don’t know. I’m not sure if Annie is aware of what happened,” he said. “The four times we did it.”
“Four times. You had sex four times in one night.”
“Keep your voice down. You have children over there.” Caleb glared ahead, all the while keeping his gaze fixed on the door Annie was behind.
Had she woken up? Had she heard him?
“You have to tell Annie.”
“But what if she wants to get the morning-after pill?” Caleb asked.
“Do you want her to get the morning-after pill?”
“No.”
“Then tell her that.”
Caleb groaned, running a hand down his face. “I was an asshole, wasn’t I?”
“If you mean you purposefully forgot the condom at least once last night and still went ahead, then, yeah, I’m guessing you are. I don’t know. This is you and Annie, Caleb. Remember, this woman pays you.”
“She doesn’t.”
“Huh?”
“I refunded all the payment to her. No money has been given to me to help her with Tara, and now, I mean, it’s not like I’m actually helping her with Tara. It comes naturally when I’m with them. This is not a job.”
It hadn’t been a job since the beginning. When he saw the payments she’d made to his company, it had left a bad taste in his mouth and he couldn’t stand it, so all money had been refunded to her. He loved his job. He loved Annie more.
This wasn’t the kind of love he’d ever experienced. Not even with Melissa. That hadn’t been love, but lust that had turned to hatred. This wasn’t the same. This was real. It was pure. He didn’t want to be without Annie for a single moment. Each day was made better just by having her there.
“Dude, fuck, wow, I … wow.”
“I’ve got to tell her, huh?”
“Yeah,” Ryan said.
“What do I do if she hates me?”
“You’ve got to make it up to her,” Ryan said. “I don’t know how, but you’ve got to, I don’t know, make it work somehow. What if she’s already pregnant?”
“I don’t know. It would be too soon to tell.” He gripped the back of his neck, wanting nothing more than to hit himself around the back of his head.
He hadn’t been thinking straight. Sure, in the past few weeks he might have had a couple of thoughts on how to keep Annie all to himself. Those same thoughts might have also included knocking her up, but they had been fleeting. But there was nothing fleeting in knocking her up. Last night there hadn’t been any thought—it had been about feelings, impulses.
Seeing Annie naked, he’d reacted. She looked so fucking good last night, it had been a struggle to keep his hands to himself. He’d seen some of the men looking at her, wanting her. None of them would ever get the chance. She belonged to him.
He looked up as his bedroom door opened and Annie stood in the doorway, hair a mess and wearing one of his shirts, which was way too large for her.
“I’ve got to go,” he said.
“Wait, dude, we need to talk about this before you do anything crazy stupid,” Ryan said.
He’d already done the crazy stupid stuff. Now he had to figure everything else out, so he didn’t continue to fuck it all up.
****
“Morning,” he said to Annie.
The coffee had already percolated.
“Morning,” she said.
“Do you want some coffee?” he asked.
“Sure, coffee would be great.”
Why was this awkward? They were never awkward. They’d been living together for nearly three months. He stayed in her apartment. After they started to have sex, he’d moved into her bedroom—the spare room they were turning into Tara’s main bedroom. It wouldn’t be long before she wouldn’t need a crib anymore.
He’d also started to make plans with his own apartment. He had a spare room here as well, one that he’d always longed to turn into a nursery for his child, and Tara felt like his own kid. He loved her as he loved Annie.
Walking into the kitchen, he grabbed them two cups and tried to think of a way to start a conversation. They’d had sex long before last night.
“Was that Ryan?” Annie asked.
“Yeah. Tara had a good night.” He told her everything Ryan had said to him, including the part about the cardigan.
Annie breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s a good thing, right, that she settled?”
“Yeah, it is.”
“Good, good. What about the whole cardigan thing?”
“It means you offer her comfort,” he said. “She feels safe near your scent. I think that’s a good thing.”
“Right, yes, a good thing.” She nodded her head.
“Look, Annie,” he said. “We need to talk.”
She nodded.
He handed her the mug of coffee and sighed. “Last night was amazing.”
“Are you breaking up with me?” Annie asked.
