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I rubbed her back soothingly. "I know, mama. Me, too. But we can do better than that. Now we're married, we have proof I was not with her."
"I know. But I was thinking…" Amara shifted her weight off of me and sat up, crossing her legs. I had to focus on not letting my eyes wander over her gorgeous naked body on display in front of me.
I forced myself to look back up at her. "What were you thinking?"
"Would it be so bad to wait until after little P is born to tell the world about us?" She bit her lip, and her fingers played with the sheet.
"Honey, if that's what you want, that's what we'll do. I want to do whatever I can to protect you and our baby girl. If you think it'd be easier for you to handle the fallout of coming out as my wife to the world after she's born, then we'll wait."
She sighed. "I hate that I'm asking this. It's still ten more weeks, give or take. She could do a lot of damage between now and then."
I scoffed. "More damage than telling the world I want her to abort my unborn baby? What else could she possibly say or do?"
Amara lifted her shoulder and dropped it back down. "I don't know, but I wouldn't put anything past her at this point."
I crawled forward and wrapped her in my arms. "We know the truth, and right now, that's enough. When the time is right, we'll tell the world. Until then, we'll just keep our heads down, okay?"
She nodded. "Okay."
I hoped I sounded more sure than I felt. I had no doubt Lexi could do a lot more damage to my reputation and my career in the next two and a half months, but I refused to force Amara into the spotlight before she was ready. I had to hope that when the truth came out, it'd be enough to erase all the damage Lexi had done.
Eight weeks ago, Amara became my wife. I still found myself lost in the memories of that day and night on a regular basis. I didn't even care that I was totally gone for my wife. Wasn't that how it should be?
Lexi, on the other hand, was another problem. Like we'd discussed on our wedding night, Amara and I had kept a low profile, and so far, word of our marriage hadn't gotten out. It was a goddamn miracle, really.
But Lexi didn't make shit easy. Nope. She kept flapping her gums, digging herself, and me, a bigger hole. I just hoped that when the truth came out it would shut her the hell up. At this point we were just waiting for little P to be born. Once she was here, we'd decide when exactly we were ready to go public. I knew the wait wouldn't be much longer, but at this point, I was more anxious for her to get here safe and healthy than I was to clear up the Lexi mess. That'd just be a happy side effect of Phoenix's birth.
Last week, I made the mistake of checking my social media. I don't know why I did it. I think it had something to do with Maddox giving me shit about the whole Lexi situation and I wanted to see how bad it had gotten. Harrison made it a point of never talking to me about it. He was doing as much damage control as he could from his end, but there wasn't a lot he could really do without exposing Amara and the baby.
Harrison and Montana had called a meeting for this morning at Montana's office. It made sense because my album was releasing in a couple of weeks, right around the time little P was due, but I had an uneasy feeling about the meeting. Maybe it was all the Lexi shit that had been going on, or maybe it was the tone of voice Montana used when she called me to schedule the meeting instead of her assistant doing it.
Either way, I had a bad feeling. I grabbed my keys off the counter and made my way to the garage. "Honey, I'm going to my meeting!" I called out and Amara came around the corner, waddling her way over to me. It was adorable. She was all stomach, and I didn't know how she kept her balance. When I looked at her from behind, I couldn't even tell she was pregnant. My eyes traveled down the length of her body as she approached, a fire igniting in my blood that I had to quickly extinguish if I was going to get to my meeting on time.
She stepped in front of me and threw her arms around my waist, burying her head in my chest and breathing in deeply. I chuckled, wrapping my arms around her. All these months later, she was just as addicted to my scent as she'd been in the beginning.
"Be safe and hurry back. Love you." Her voice came out muffled because she'd buried her face in my shirt.
I kissed the top of her head, letting go. I stepped away from her despite my body screaming at me to do just the opposite. "Hopefully, it'll be quick. An hour or two tops, depending on the shitty LA traffic."
She smiled at me before turning to go back to her work, but I reached out and grabbed her hand. "Hey, make sure you keep your phone nearby just in case." I dropped my eyes to her stomach. I wouldn't be gone long or very far away, but she was so close to her due date that I hated to leave her for any amount of time. I wasn't even surfing in the mornings anymore because I couldn't keep my phone on me in the water. It made me feel marginally better that our best friends lived right next door, and they hadn't planned any trips near Amara's due date, either, so I knew they'd be here if anything happened.
She rolled her eyes before breaking out into a grin. "I've got it right here." She waved her phone at me. "Plus, Kennedy's coming over as soon as you leave. I swear it's okay if I'm alone for a few minutes." Her words were irritated, but her tone wasn't. She looked happy, her eyes bright, and a slight smile pulled at her lips.
"You know I worry about you. I don't want to miss anything." I thought back to a few months ago when she'd ended up in the emergency room, and I wasn't there, and my stomach churned. I still hadn't forgiven myself, and I doubted I ever would.
I know, I love how you're so worried about me." She reached up and patted my cheek, her eyes sparkling. I caught her hand and kissed her wrist before letting her go with a sigh.
"I really have to go."
"Byeeee." She laughed and waved over her shoulder as I watched her walk away, adjusting myself with a groan. Fuck, my body was ridiculously reactive to my wife, and I swear if I could, I would live inside her.
Unfortunately, though, I couldn't, and I had a meeting to get to. Luckily traffic wasn't too bad, and I made it downtown quickly, parking in the garage under the tall as fuck building Montana's office was in. I didn't know how anyone could stand being confined fifty floors in the air day after day.
I breathed a sigh of relief when I stepped out of the elevator onto Montana's floor. Sure, I was nervous about this meeting, but I was glad to be away from anywhere the paparazzi could accost me. They had a way of popping up when I least expected them lately, yelling fucking garbage at me. I was beyond tired of it. I'd started to wonder if I could slap anyone with a lawsuit when all this was over.
Red hair caught my eye, and I turned to see Montana making her way towards me with Harrison right behind her. Both of them wore weary expressions that I didn't like the look of. My stomach dropped and my heart started to race. I'd had a bad feeling about this meeting all day, and it looked like I was right. Based on the looks on their faces, this wasn't going to be a traditional release strategy meeting for me.
Resigned to whatever was coming, my shoulders slumped. "Where are we doing this?" I asked.
