Enticing Daphne

by Jessica Prince

  “God, I’m so tired all the time.” She curled into my side and closed her eyes again. “I just want to get home, curl up in bed, and go to sleep.”

  “Hopefully not before you brush your teeth,” I joked, earning a glare. And even that looked pretty on her.

  “Hey, sweetheart. We’re here, time to wake up.” She looked so peaceful asleep in my passenger seat that I hated waking her.

  “Hmm?” Her head came up and her eyelids blinked, but stayed half-mast with sleep.

  I undid my seat belt and pushed my door open. “Hold tight. I’ll come around.”

  I rounded the hood and pulled her door open. Leaning in to unfasten her belt, I lifted her into my arms and started for the house.

  “I can walk, you know,” she argued. But the words were slurred because of how tired she was, and there wasn’t an ounce of fight in her body.

  “I know that. I just like carrying you. Makes me feel all chivalrous and stuff.” She snorted, resting her head on my shoulder. “Need you to get out your keys, gorgeous.”

  Daphne rummaged through her tiny purse and pulled out a set of keys, slipping one into the lock once I reached the door. “Okay. I’m all safe and sound inside. You can put me down now.”

  I ignored her and started up the stairs. She let out a sigh of defeat and settled in for the climb. It was only when I reached her bedroom that I placed her on her feet. Before she could take a step away, my hands were on her waist. Reaching behind her, I found the small zipper at her spine and slid it down.

  “What….” She swallowed thickly. “What do you think you’re doing.”

  I shot her a tiny grin. “Relax, Daph. I’m not trying to cop a feel, just getting you out of this so you can put on something more comfortable.”

  She wriggled and squirmed until I had no choice but to let her go. “I can do that, thank you.”

  “Okay, well get changed and ready for bed. I’ll get you a glass of water from the kitchen. Be right back.”

  “Caleb, you don’t—” But I was already moving down the stairs.

  I filled a glass with water from the fridge and rummaged through the cabinets until I located the medicine. Daphne had a box of dissolvable anti-nausea tablets, so I popped two of those out and carried them and the water back to the room. When I stepped past the threshold, she was just coming from her bathroom, face freshly washed of makeup and in a cute pair of PJs with what looked like Care Bears decorating them.

  I extended the hand with the tablets. “Here, take these. They should help.”

  She popped the meds without objection and sucked back half of the water before climbing into the bed like her limbs had cinderblocks tied to them. “Thanks.”

  The rustling of my clothes seemed to shake her from her near-slumber. She shot up on one elbow and looked at me with big eyes. “What are you doing? Why are you talking your clothes off?” she squeaked.

  “Because I can’t sleep in a suit,” I answered in a tone that said duh.

  Daphne sat up fully. “You’re not sleeping here!”

  I dropped my pants, letting them fall to the floor where I’d just thrown my shirt, shoes, socks. “You’re even crazier than you act if you think I’m leaving you alone after how sick you’ve been.” I moved to the bed, throwing the covers back and climbing in wearing nothing but my boxer briefs. “I told you I wasn’t going to cop a feel and I meant it. But you just emptied the entire contents of your stomach a little while ago. I’m not leaving you alone. Now scoot.”

  Cursing me to hell and back beneath her breath, she moved to the other side of the bed… all the way to the other side of the bed, and curled up on her side in a tight ball, taking up as little surface area as humanly possible.

  If there was anything I’d learned in my months with Daphne, it was that she slept sprawled out on her stomach, not afraid to cuddle or spoon. What she didn’t do was sleep on her side in a tiny little ball. With an annoyed huff, I reached across the expansive bed, hooked Daphne around her waist, and jerked until she was in the middle, right beside me, uncurled and lying flat on her stomach.

  “There. Better. Now sleep.”

  “I hate you,” she grumbled under her breath.

  I’d let her believe that for the time being if that was what she needed. As long as she kept letting me spoon her in this kickass bed.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Daphne

  I woke to an empty bed, telling myself that I was relieved Caleb was gone when the truth was it made me sad. I climbed out of bed with the singular thought of coffee on my mind, grateful that it was the first morning in a long time that I didn’t wake up having to shove my head in the toilet.

  The smell of freshly brewed coffee greeted me as I padded down the stairs toward the kitchen. The sight of Caleb in nothing but his dress pants from the night before, standing at my stove with a spatula in hand, was the last thing I expected to see. I froze in the middle of the living room and stared as he flipped a pancake with a flourish.

  The floor creaked beneath my feet, alerting him to my presence. The smile he graced me with was the very one that made me fall for him in the first place. Damn it. “Morning.” He moved away from the stove and came to give me a kiss on the forehead. I was nowhere near awake enough to shore up my defenses against Caleb’s charm. “How are you feeling?”

  “I’m, uh, okay.”

  “Good.” He turned and headed back for the kitchen. “You think you can eat something? The pancakes are done, and I just threw the bacon on.”

  Uh-oh. It was like fate was laughing in my face. Ha! You think you got away without puking this morning? Well I’ll show you! The smell of the sizzling bacon hit my nose like a sharp jab, traveling all the way to my stomach.

  “Son of a bitch,” I muttered before running for the powder room. I dry heaved into the toilet, the retching so painful thanks to the fact that there was nothing in my belly.

  “Okay, that’s it,” Caleb declared sharply. “You’re going to the doctor. This has gone on long enough.”

  I would have argued had I been able to talk past all the heaving. My doorbell chimed just then, and he turned and disappeared out of the bathroom doorway. Seconds later Fiona appeared, hunkering down next to me to brush the hair off my forehead. “Oh no. Again?”

  “The bacon,” I panted between breaths. “The smell.”

  She looked over her shoulder at Caleb. “Put the bacon down the disposal and open a window. I’ll take care of her.”

  From the brief peek I took, I saw that Caleb didn’t look happy to leave me be at all, but quickly moved to do as ordered. Fiona closed the door, locking us in the privacy of my tiny powder room.

  “Ugh, what the hell is wrong with me?” I grumbled, flushing the toilet as I stood. I grabbed for the spare toothbrush I kept by the sink and headed for the vanity to brush the taste from my mouth. “Maybe I really do need to go to the doctor,” I muttered around the toothpaste foam filling my mouth.

  “Oh, you’ll need to go to the doctor, all right. Just not right at this moment.”

  I spit and rinsed, looking at her curiously in the mirror. “What are you talking about?”

  She stood, and that was when I noticed the paper bag in her hand. “I’m pretty sure I know what’s wrong with you. I have to say, I’m a little surprised you haven’t figured it out by now.”

  She extended the bag, holding it open so I could see the colorful boxes inside. “No,” I gasped, turning my big eyes from the multitude of pregnancy tests back to her. “No. I can’t be. That’s not possible. No. No, no, no, no, no.”

  I couldn’t get enough air in my lungs. It felt like the walls were closing in on me. Fiona quickly dumped the boxes into the sink and pressed the paper bag into my hands. “Here, breathe into this. I’ll get rid of Caleb, and then you and I are going to have a nice long chat.”

  The paper crinkled with each inhale and exhale into the bag. I offered a jerky nod and closed the door behind her, and a minute later I could hear the two
of them talking in the living room. It sounded like Caleb was standing his ground, but thankfully, after a long muffled argument I couldn’t quite make out, Caleb’s voice sounded from the other side of the door.

  “Daph? Sweetheart, I’m going to leave you with Fee, but I’ll check on you first thing Monday, okay?”

  I nodded again, my panic attack having rendered me temporarily stupid. When I realized he couldn’t see me I pulled the bag from my face. “Okay.”

  The sound of the front door opening and closing eventually penetrated my senses, and Fiona reappeared a moment later.

  “Okay, honey. Let’s get this done.”

  I paced the length of my bedroom floor, wringing my fingers together. “That can’t be right. It has to be like one of those false positive things, you know?”

  Fiona looked at me from where she sat on the end of my bed. “I think I read somewhere that a false negative is much more common with these things, not a false positive.”

  I stopped mid-pace and glared at her. “You’re not helping!”

  She blew out a sigh. “Seven tests, Daph. Seven. And they all said the exact same thing. Not to mention the one you forced me to take that was negative. I think it’s safe to say you’re preggers, babe.”

  Unable to accept what she was saying, I stomped over to my dresser and ripped open another box. After the first several tests came back positive, I’d demanded Fiona go back to the pharmacy and buy more. I pulled out a stick and shoved it at her. “Pee on this.”

  With a roll of her eyes, she pushed my hand away and got to her feet, taking me by the shoulders.

  “Daphne, you’re pregnant,” she said in a tone that one would typically use on a misbehaving child. “Stop with all this craziness. You’re going to be a mom. This is a good thing.”

  I slumped onto my mattress in defeat. “I’m pregnant,” I finally admitted.

  Fee sat down beside me, slinging an arm over my shoulder. “It’s his, isn’t it? Caleb’s?”

  I sniffled, wiping my nose with the back of my hand as I nodded. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this, Fee. We weren’t even in a relationship. It was just a fling.”

  “Honey. I know Caleb McMannus. Known him all my life, and he’d never go ungloved with a woman he considered just a fling.”

  I shot her a spiteful look. “Trust me, that’s all it was to him. I’m on the pill, that’s the only reason he ditched the condoms. I don’t know how this happened. I mean, I might have forgotten to take them once or twice, but…” Then a horrible thought dawned on me. “Oh god. He’s going to think I did this on purpose to trap him!” Then something even worse hit me. “Oh my god! My mom did that exact thing! She got herself knocked up with me to trap my dad!”

  I collapsed onto my back and started sobbing. “I’ve turned into my mother, Fee! And she’s just the worst!”

  She grabbed my hands and forced me back up. “Stop that. He’s not going to think you did this on purpose to trap him.”

  “Yes, he is.”

  “No, he’s not.”

  “Is too!” I continued, because clearly being pregnant reverted me back to a teenaged maturity level.

  “Good Lord,” Fiona said to the heavens. “Will you just stop? Think about it. The guy I saw downstairs was not someone only interested in a fling. You should have seen his face, Daph. He was seriously worried about you. I had to swear I’d text him hourly updates before he finally agreed to leave.”

  I felt the panic building again. “You can’t tell him about this.”

  The look she gave me was full of chastisement. “I’m not going to. But you have to. This isn’t something you can keep from him. It wouldn’t be right.”

  I chewed on my lips, feeling like the world’s biggest coward. “I know. And I will. I just… I’m scared that he’s going to hate me. We never talked about anything like this. I don’t even know if he wants to be a dad. And he’s a total playboy, Fee. What if… what if he decides it’s not worth the stress?”

  By the look on her face, I got the distinct impression that I’d gone too far. That was confirmed when she finally spoke. “Look, you know I love you. But I love Caleb too. And I’ve known him for a lot longer. You aren’t giving him enough credit. He might come off a certain way in the media—hell, he even likes to feed that persona because he doesn’t think he’s any better than that—but I know that’s not true. You do too, that’s why you’re in love with him.”

  I nearly swallowed my tongue. “I’m not… that isn’t—”

  “Oh, please. Don’t bother denying it. You two might have been good at hiding it all this time, but I saw how you guys were together last night.”

  I narrowed my eyes in a ferocious glare. “I don’t like you very much right now.”

  She smiled in a way that showed my words had zero effect. “Only because you know I’m right. But you’ll come around.”

  We both lapsed into silence for what felt like an eternity. Hesitantly, I placed my palm on my still-flat belly. “I can’t believe it,” I whispered, wonder filling my voice. “I’m going to have a baby. I’m going to be a mom.” Then, for an altogether different reason, I started crying again. That time it was because of the overwhelming happiness I felt at the thought of holding my little guy or girl in my arms.

  “You are,” Fiona whispered, wrapping me in a hug. “And everything is going to be just fine. You’ll see.”

  I didn’t know if she was referring to the situation with Caleb or not, but right then, I knew her words to be the stone-cold truth. Because even if things with Caleb didn’t work out, I was still going to have my little one. And that would be just fine.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Caleb

  I’d spent the rest of the weekend worried sick over Daphne. True to her word, Fiona had texted me updates, but they consisted of menial information like “all is well” and “no need to worry,” or my least favorite, “she’s going to be just fine”.

  No offense to Fee, but I’d rather hear that from a doctor. Her zero years of medical training didn’t provide me with confidence in her opinion.

  Monday morning finally rolled around, and I found myself awake long before my alarm clock sounded. I rushed through my morning routine and made my way to the office, only stopping long enough to grab myself and Daphne a coffee from the Starbucks on the corner. Once in our building, I took the elevator to her floor, her friends be damned. I wanted answers and I wanted them now.

  Luckily when I reached their office Daphne was already there, blessedly alone. “Thank god,” I said on a relieved breath at the sight of her. She spun around in her chair, surprised to see me.

  “Caleb. You’re here early.”

  “Couldn’t sleep,” I replied, moving into the office. “I’ve been worried out of my mind, and you haven’t bothered to return any of my texts all weekend.” I pointed an accusatory finger in her direction. At least she had the good grace to look apologetic.

  “Sorry. I slept a lot. But everything is fine. Just a bug. It should pass…” She got a strange look on her face that I couldn’t read and finished on a mutter, “…eventually.”

  “Well here.” I handed her the coffee. “I got this for you. Hope your stomach can handle it.”

  She took the cup and set it on her desk. “Oh, um… thank you.”

  I gave her a curious look. “Aren’t you going to drink it? I thought you couldn’t function before coffee.”

  “Oh, yeah! Totally,” she chirped a little too brightly. “I’m just… I’m letting it cool, is all.”

  Something was definitely up with her, but I couldn’t figure out what.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  Her smile didn’t come near her eyes. “Yep. Completely fine. Promise. I just have to get prepared for this morning’s show, so….” She looked from me to the door and back again, her meaning crystal clear. She wanted me gone. What the ever-loving fuck?

  “Okay. Yeah. Well, I’ll just….” Christ, what was happening to me?
I was getting the brush-off from a woman, and it was driving me fucking crazy. I threw my thumb over my shoulder and started backing away. “I’ve got a lot of work too. Better get to it.”

  “Okay, bye,” she blurted, spinning around in her chair, giving me her back. It was obvious she was trying to rush me out even faster. I didn’t think my pride could survive another hit, so I turned and headed back to the elevators, taking one to my floor.

  I didn’t know what the hell was going on with her. One second she burned hot, and the next she was so cold I got fucking frostbite. I needed answers. And if she wasn’t going to give them to me, then I’d find someone who would.

  And who better to grill on all things Daphne King than someone who’d practically grown up beside her.

  I stormed into Dominic’s office, ready to demand some inside information on what made that damn woman tick. He was sitting at his desk with a sickening smile on his face as he pecked away at his keyboard.

  “Why the hell do you look so happy?” I grumbled, envious that his morning was evidently going better than mine.

  He cocked an eyebrow and smirked. “I think the better question is why do you look so fucking miserable?”

  Collapsing into one of the chairs in front of his desk, I ran my hands through my hair and admitted, “It’s Daphne, man. That chick’s got my shit all twisted up.”

  The asshole didn’t bother to hide his laughter as he leaned back in his chair. “Still immune to your limited charms?”

  I tried my best not to resort to violence, especially in the workplace, but the dude was pushing it. “Fuck off,” I grumbled. “And yes. What the fuck’s that all about?” I paused, realizing that my confession might make him start to question whether or not something was going on between us. The last thing I needed was for Dominic to get suspicious. It would just give Daphne another thing to hold over my head. I quickly backpedaled, amending my words to make it seem like I was just in it for the chase.