AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Then we’d sort it out.”
So confident it jarred her out of the dark abyss of her concerns, Devin scowled up at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nannies are a thing if you can stand one being in the house, and I’d be there. I’d love your baby as much as I do my own, honey.”
“You’d love another man’s offspring?”
“It’s not his, Devin. It’s yours. So, yes, I would love your baby.”
“You have an answer for everything, don’t you?” Devin hmphed and set her cheek back against his chest, not wanting to see the glitter of pleasure in his eyes that grew warmer and darker the more pleased he became.
“I do.” Max didn’t even try to hide his low laugh, though he quieted her grumbling by scrubbing at her scalp just the way she liked once more.
“You said you wouldn’t force me, but you said you wouldn’t give me a choice if I didn’t give you the three days. What did you mean by that?”
Max cleared his throat, shifting his weight beneath her before he resumed tugging at her roots. “I wouldn’t have hurt you, if that’s what you’re asking. I just… wouldn’t have given you the choice to leave.”
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
“I suppose it is from your point of view,” Max admitted, slouching further on the couch as he pushed Devin to sit up. Meeting her eyes from inches away, her traced the line of her cheek before fingers delved deep into her curls to hold the back of her neck. “It wouldn’t have been much different from this. I would have made you stay here until your baby was born. Your heat after. You would want me then.”
Devin’s brows knit together before settling into a firm line over her eyes. He’d claim her during her heat, without her consent. No different than any other Alpha, but he’d try and woo her for the nine long months of her pregnancy first.
“And if I hated you the whole time,” she demanded in a whisper.
“You’d love me after.” Max met her gaze, not an ounce of shame to be found.
There was nothing he’d do about an Omega forced into a claim. Not unless she asked him to.
“And if I asked you to… to fix it, after?”
“Do you hate me so much?”
Devin despised the worry in his eyes, the way she wanted to smooth away the frown marring his brow, but she did it anyways. Fingers tracing the deep furrows, her light touch cleared them away.
“I don’t hate you,” Devin admitted with difficulty, watching her fingers trace the coarse stubble along his jaw, learning the curves and hard angles of his face. “But I don’t love you. I love him.”
“If you don’t hate me, you could learn to love me. I’d be good to you, Devin. Every day could be like this.”
It would be so nice, she reasoned, so easy to fall into this trap of gentleness. To plunge deep into the calm pattern of days he promised. She didn’t doubt he’d keep his word, not with the way he’d acted so far. It could all be part of a much bigger lie, but she was forever the optimist.
But he wasn’t Rey. Rey was always the answer.
For all the anger and unsaid words between them through their time together, she loved him. He was hers as much as she was his, and she’d die without him.
“I love him.” Devin extricated herself from Max’s hold, taking her hands back to clasp loosely in her lap. “I don’t want anyone but him.”
“He hurt you—”
“And I hurt him. Dozens of times and in ways you can’t even imagine. He still loves me. That’s not enough to make me not want him.”
A wall came between them, frigid and sturdy as Max began clearing away the plates. A muscle in his jaw ticked as he made a great effort not to touch Devin or look at her. He didn’t say a word as he went to deposit the remains in the kitchen, returning a short while later with a faint flush in his cheeks.
“I’ll make arrangements in the morning.” No sign of his previous gentleness present now, he vanished with the quiet closing of the door.
Chapter Fourteen
“Put it on and we can go,” Max said, the innocuous slip of fabric dangling from his fingers twirling in the faint breeze.
