“That looked like it hurt,” she said softly, and I could feel the atmosphere lightening.
I raised my eyebrows. “Doesn’t come naturally.” I sipped my coffee, even though it was too hot. I enjoyed the burn. “I might have overreacted a bit. But Reese has been burned before. The last one almost broke him.” Christina had been all big blue eyes and a cold black heart. She took one look at Reese and saw a meal ticket for life. He’d lavished her with gifts and a love that he gave way too easily. I should know, I lapped that shit up like a starved mutt when I’d met him. So when I’d busted her still sleeping with her ex, Reese had gone into his office and not emerged for six days, and I’d sworn to Vincent that I would never let another money-hungry bitch get in his head or his bed again.
Then Celeste strolled into his life.
Celeste jumped up to sit on the kitchen island with ease that should have been nearly impossible in a pregnant woman. “Look, Lincoln. I’m not trying to break him. I’ve been pretty damn clear with him how this is going to go. In three or so months, I’m going to hand over the best thing that ever happened to me, and then I’m gone. I don’t want to hurt anyone else along the way.”
She meant that she’d be the only one hurting, and that didn’t make me feel better. “You’re insane if you don’t think leaving won’t hurt him.”
She gave me a dead-eyed look. “You say that like you didn’t try and fuck me out of his life yesterday.”
I have a very vivid flash of her on her knees in front of me, her pretty lips around my cock and her full lashes fluttering against her cheeks. My dick grew uncomfortably hard in my sweats, but I refused to adjust in front of her. “I said I was sorry. I didn’t mean to take advantage.”
She chuckled, and ran a finger down my chest. “Oh, Linc. The truly adorable thing is you still think you were taking advantage of me.”
With that, she clinked her glass of milk against my mug in a fucked up cheers and left the kitchen, heading toward the balcony. I heard a wheezing noise and looked up to see both Reese and Vincent in the hallway. Reese was bent in half, sucking in lungfuls of air as he laughed. Vince just stared after the woman, a dazed look on his face. He slapped Reese on the back, and I wasn’t sure if he was trying to help him breathe or not.
“Dude. I think I might actually love her,” Vincent muttered, and Reese straightened, his shit eating grin aimed my way.
“Welcome to the club, asshole.”
To prove that I’d changed my ways, at least to Reese because I didn’t give a fuck what Celeste thought, I turned off the ball game looked at the other three occupants in the living room. Vincent was strumming his guitar idly, his lip piercing sucked into his mouth in a way I definitely wanted to replicate later. Celeste was lying in the sun again, stretched out on the blush faux hair rug that Reese had moved by the window for her. She spent a lot of time doing that, just lying in the sun, and part of me thought it was weird. But hey, pregnant women were damn strange anyway.
Reese was sitting beside her in an armchair, typing out emails on his insanely expensive laptop.
“We should buy baby shit.”
Vincent gave a discordant twang. “You wanna buy baby shit?”
I frowned at him and he stuck his tongue out at me. “Baby supplies. Cribs and… I don’t know. Stuff?”
Vincent frowned. “I’ll pass, but have fun with that.”
I snuck a look at Celeste, and her brows were drawn together but she wasn’t protesting. Reese, however, was grinning like it was Christmas. “Awesome idea! We should do this as a family though. Vincent, you have to come. ”
I don’t know who looked more shocked. Celeste or Vincent. I felt my tense facial muscles and I consciously relaxed them. Okay, it was probably me.
Reese looked down at Celeste, something painfully hopeful in his expression. She gave him a soft look and lifted herself up onto her elbows. “Just let me get changed.”
She didn’t need help getting to her feet, agile and lithe. If I hadn’t seen it for myself, I’d almost wonder if she was faking her pregnancy. She smiled as Reese grabbed her on the way past, pulling her into a hug and whispering something in her ear. But I could see the lines of sadness in her face when she walked past me.
Reese’s frown told me she hadn’t hidden it so well from him either. “You gotta tell me your end game.”
Reese looked fierce. He dropped his voice low. “I want her to stay,” he whispered.
“But what if she-”
“Shh,” he said again, and I looked around. There was no fucking way she could hear us from the other room. But I whispered back to humor him.
“You can’t make her stay. You need to be prepared for both possibilities.”
Vincent sauntered over, resting his guitar against the arm of the couch. “I vote we keep her so sexed up that she can’t even think of leaving.”
Reese rolled his eyes. “Your dick is your solution to everything.”
Vincent was so far from offended though. He just grinned and gave a little air-thrust. “I’m pretty sure my dick could bring world peace if the rest of me was willing.”
“I’m sure,” I deadpanned, and he winked at me. It always made an unholy cocktail of butterflies and lust cramp my gut when he did that. He was too fucking hot. I dragged my eyes away from him and back to Reese. “I’m just saying, we don’t have a basement to lock her in, so just prepare yourself. She doesn’t strike me as the kind of person who would enjoy feeling trapped.” That was an understatement. Celeste felt wild in a way I wasn’t sure I could describe. The room just felt different with her in it, and that undescribed sensation fucked with my sense of order. Maybe that was why I was so dead set against her. She felt like a storm and I’d spent years creating a safe harbor for us all.
Reese slapped me on the back. “I know, Linc. It will break something in me if she leaves but at least I’m going into it with my eyes wide open. But I want her to feel so safe and happy with us that she never even considers leaving. I need you to help me do that.” He paused, and gave me that assessing look that seemed to unpick all my complicated walls and see right into my soul. “You like her.” It wasn’t a question. He was telling me what my brain refused to admit, but perhaps my body already knew. “You do. You just need to forget all that baggage from your past and let yourself get to know her. You’re just a guy and she is just a girl. Give her a chance.”
He’d asked this of me three separate times in the last week. Could I just forget my fucked up past and be her friend?
Sure. Why the fuck not? “Okay,” I said and it was worth it just to see the smile on Reese’s face. I looked at Vincent, who had on no shirt and unbuttoned ripped jeans. You could just see the dark curls of his pubes. I shook my head. “Let’s go get changed before someone takes one look at you and calls child protective services before the kid is even out of the womb.”
Chapter Fourteen
Reese
For someone who didn’t want to come, Vincent was having way too much fun. The change occurred right around the time he realized the store had a full range of rock-inspired onesies. I swear, he put one of each in his cart.
“Pretty sure my child now has a better wardrobe than you do, Vince,” I teased and he grinned over his shoulder.
“Our child, Bro.”
My heart did a little splutter at that, but I tried not to let it show on my face and scare the shit out of my notoriously commitment phobic friend. Lincoln’s words kept going around and around in my head about Celeste not staying. The idea hurt more than it should, considering I’d only known her a week, but if she did go, at least these two guys were with me for the long haul. The baby would be our baby. Even if Celeste stayed, we would be a family. I was going to make sure of it.
Both Vincent and Lincoln had crappy childhoods, so they didn’t really have any life experience with the warmth, the security, that having a loving family could provide. But a baby? A baby would cement us all. A baby would need us all, and they both had huge h
earts even if they kept them locked down behind impenetrable brickwalls.
As if to prove my point, Lincoln was over in the safety section, looking at some kind of weird crib pressure mat that told you if the baby rolled over or stopped breathing or something in its sleep. His cart was filled with safety stuff. I was pretty sure not even Fort Knox had as many safety precautions.
If anyone looked uncomfortable, it was Celeste. She wandered around, picking up and putting things down. I made a note of the product numbers with my phone camera, but didn’t press her to buy anything. I walked up beside her and resisted the urge to pull her to my chest. The need to touch her, to comfort her, was almost overwhelming.
“Are you okay?”
She gave me a bright smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “They are buying so much stuff.”
I shrugged and lost the battle not to touch her. I pulled her into my side, slinging my arm over her tiny frame. “Let them. We are three guys with good jobs and no responsibilities. They have money to burn and it’s making them happy.”
It was making me happy too. I would have to look at converting my office into a nursery and I made a note in my phone to call a contractor. So far we’d picked a crib that had a matching wardrobe and changing table, and also a bassinet. A state-of-the-art stroller was another purchase and came with more accessories than my car.
I hadn’t realized babies needed so much stuff until I printed out a list from the internet. When Celeste began to look weary, I decided it was time to wrap it up. I tilted my head at both Vincent and Lincoln, leaning down to kiss the top of Celeste’s head. “Let’s take this over to the register and then we can wait in the car for the guys.”
The shop assistants fussed, probably because I was sinking money in the tens of thousands. Celeste looked pale at the amount, but I just held her tighter. Lincoln and Vincent looked like they were arguing about the number of stuffed toys in Vince’s cart and I shook my head. I handed over my credit card and the girl was nearly gleeful when she swiped it, but Celeste remained unnaturally quiet.
I grabbed her hand and led her towards the entrance of the shops. “Did you know I was adopted?”
Her eyes shot to me and she shook her head. “No.”
“Yep, as a toddler. A really wonderful older couple became my parents, and no matter what happened before they adopted me, I knew nothing but love for my entire childhood. They lavished me with gifts, which was great, but more than that they were so generous with their love.” I sighed and gripped her hand harder. “What I’m trying to say is I have money, sure, and our child will have the best of everything. But more than that, it will know love like I did.”
She smiled up at me then, her first genuine one of the day. “I know you will.”
She froze and her face turned down in a frown. She glanced around, and I only got to see the flash of panic on her face a split-second before electricity shot up my spine.
I’d been tased.
I could only watch Celeste as my limbs went offline, and she spun, her elbow getting the guy trying to grab her in the solar plexus. I felt like all my muscles had been torched by fire. It was the longest five seconds of my life as I watched a second hunter come out of nowhere and make a grab for her, herding her toward a van that was now idling on the street.
“Get the fuck away from her!”
The sound of Vincent’s voice made me want to cry with relief. Because if Vincent was there, then…
Lincoln came out of nowhere, his fist whipping out and catching the guy trying to grab Celeste in the side of the head. The guy stumbled, but it was long enough that Lincoln had Celeste behind his back and a gun pointed at the guy’s face.
Finally, the ticking of the taser stopped and my muscles relaxed. I yanked on the wires and struggled to my feet. Vincent was there, grabbing both Celeste and me, his eyes whipping around the parking lot looking for more attackers.
There was a crowd of people now, watching from a safe distance.
“Don’t fucking move,” Lincoln growled, and the hunter just grinned. Bullets started flying from the van, and I ducked, covering Celeste’s body with mine as we ran toward my SUV. Vincent was there before me, yanking the door open and pushing us both inside.
We heard the squeal of tires, and the van pulled away, mounting the sidewalk as it careened around a corner.
Lincoln was suddenly in front of us, checking Vincent over before wrenching open the car door and looking between Celeste and I. “Are you guys okay?”
I nodded, but I was still checking Celeste over. She was okay. Her eyes were wide and she was so damn pale. “Are you okay? Celeste? Are you okay?”
She swallowed hard. “I’m fine.”
Pale faced people began to swarm into the spot in front of the store, and Lincoln eyed them all like they were possible shooters.
“Let's get out of here. The cops can catch up with us when they do their job.”
Lincoln climbed into the front and tore out of the parking lot. He was silent and tense, his eyes watching the road in front of us and behind us, in case of a tail. Vincent was still in the back of the car with us. I had Celeste bundled into my chest and Vincent ran a soothing hand down her back. I realized she was shaking and I whispered soft promises.
When I felt hot tears soak my shirt, I didn’t say anything, just held her harder. It wasn’t until Vincent placed his palm over mine that I realized my hand had curled into a fist on her back. I relaxed it and it shook. I would make it safe for her, even if I had to break the world to do it.
By the time we reconvened on the couch after we got home, Celeste was drinking her third cup of herbal tea from a travel mug and Lincoln had called a private security team and the building’s security to make sure it was airtight.
Vincent continued to pace around and around the room, unable to sit still. I held Celeste on my lap, and she had curled up against my chest, soaking in my warmth. “You have to tell them. They are going to find out sooner or later, and it’s their safety at risk too.”
She tensed, but whatever she was going to say in response was interrupted by Lincoln hanging up his phone. “I have a private security firm coming in to tighten measures around the apartment. I told building security that no one is permitted up here if it isn’t one of the four of us. No Chinese delivery men, no strippergrams, nothing.”
I nodded, trying not to hold Celeste too tightly. Vincent stopped in front of us and dropped into a crouch until he was eye level. “I gotta apologize, Star. I thought the whole ‘I’m on the run from bad people’ schtick was a load of shit. I was wrong.”
I tensed, waiting for her to lash out, but she just snuggled closer to my chest and sighed. “It was a week for misunderstandings. I get it.” She sat up, and looked between Vincent and Lincoln. “I should admit that I was lying a little. Well, at least omitting all the facts.”
I saw the moment when all the progress that Lincoln had made with Celeste evaporated. His body went tight and his eyes went hard.
“You should just do it. No matter how you explain it, they are going to freak. Better to just rip off the bandaid,” I whispered and she shrugged.
“Okay, they are your friends. Just make sure he doesn't shoot me.” She eyed Lincoln warily. She made a good point.
“Gun, please?” I asked, holding out my hand and he stared between us like we were crazy. “Trust me, Linc.”
He narrowed his eyes at me, because I didn’t often play the earnest card, but he unholstered his gun, taking out the clip and handing both to me. This was how Lincoln showed his love. Unless he was naked, he was always armed. And even then, he was within five steps of a weapon of some kind. We’d probably have to fix that when the baby came.
The fact he just handed his weapon over was like a child handing over their security blanket.
I took them and tucked them in the gap in the couch.
I looked at Celeste, her eyes sparkling with amusement. “You know this is my favorite part, right?”
I shook
my head. “We’ll see.”
It finally got too much for Vincent, because he was frowning. “Are you guys going to let the rest of us in…”
He trailed off, because before he could finish his sentence, standing before him on four legs was Celeste. The snow leopard.
Chapter Fifteen
Celeste
I laughed as Vincent let out a girlish squeal and fell backwards off the couch. Only, in my snow leopard form, it was a chuffing sound. Lincoln automatically went for his gun, but it wasn’t there. I lifted my lip and snarled at him. Asshole.
He let his hand drop to his side when he realized it wasn’t there, the act of going for his gun seemingly unconscious. He didn’t take his gaze off me though, staring directly into my eyes like he was still the apex predator in the room.
My leopardess chuffed in amusement. She liked him, the alpha-douche.
Vincent scrambled back to his feet, but stayed on the other side of the couch. “What the actual fuck? I swear I gave up LSD.”
My leopardess thought this was hilarious, or maybe I did, and we slumped to the floor, rolling onto our back with our murder mittens in the air. Even in this form, my stomach was swollen with my cub.
Reese, who had the benefit of not being surprised, still looked at me with absolute amazement. “Hey there beautiful,” he crooned, kneeling down beside me to stroke the soft underside of my fur. I purred a little, batting at him with my paw until he was closer. “Fuck you are just amazing.”
I grinned, which probably looked a little nuts as a snow leopard, and I turned to the other guys. Vincent had come around from the couch, but was still standing several feet away. I rolled back to my feet and padded over to him carefully, not making any sudden moves. It was best not to make any sudden moves in front of a predator, but I didn’t worry. My leopardess really liked them and when she looked at Reese, a thrumming purr began in her chest and a word reverberated around our head that I refused to latch onto.
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