Prologue
“Do you have a band-aid? Because I scraped my knees falling for you,” Aidan said, watching as the incredibly beautiful woman that he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about since he first saw her, smiled.
“Still not the worse pick-up line I’ve ever heard,” Melanie, his brother’s tenant and the woman that he had no business being with, said with a warm smile while Aidan sat there, absently finishing off his drink as he watched her, unable to help but wonder what it was about her that made him nervous.
Nervous…
That was an understatement because she fucking wrecked him. For the past two weeks, Aidan hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her. He’d tried to force himself to forget about her, but he couldn’t, and he had no idea why. He’d never reacted to a woman like this before. Normally if he was attracted to a woman, he simply asked her out and if she said no, he moved on without a second thought. With Melanie…
When he saw Rebecca’s lab results waiting for him this afternoon, he’d decided that it was now or never and used the results as an excuse to go see her. As soon as he saw Melanie, something inside him settled, something that he couldn’t quite explain, but it had him deciding that it was time to stop playing games.
“Do you have a name or can I just call you mine?” Aidan asked, reaching for the shot of tequila that she’d ordered for him and couldn’t help but wonder when the last time that he drank this much was as he downed the shot and signaled for another one.
“I just feel like you’re not even trying,” Melanie said with a pitying look as she picked up her shot, took a sip, and-
“Oh, that’s bad,” she said with an adorable frown that had him chuckling as she finished the rest of the shot with a wince.
“You’re the one who ordered the shots,” Aidan reminded her as he picked up his beer.
“I needed sustenance to help me get through your cheesy pick-up lines,” Melanie said, nodding solemnly.
“They’re not that bad,” Aidan said even though they were, but he was more than happy to repeat the asinine pick-up lines that he’d heard over the years if it made her smile and he definitely wanted to make her smile.
“They really are,” Melanie said, chuckling as she took a sip of her beer.
“Can I follow you home? Because my parents told me that I should always follow my dreams,” Aidan said, making her laugh.
“Do any of those lines even work?” she asked as he sat there, unable to believe just how badly he wanted this woman.
“I don’t know. You’ll have to tell me in the morning,” Aidan said, not sure if it was because of all the alcohol that he’d consumed or the fact that he couldn’t stop thinking about her that had him leaning over and kissing her, unable to wait another minute to find out what it was like to kiss the woman that he couldn’t resist.
Chapter 1
Six Months Later…
“I think I’m going to be sick,” Melanie mumbled pathetically even as she shoved another delicious french fry in her mouth while she once again had to question the life choices she’d made that brought her here.
“Really? I can’t imagine why,” Rebecca, her best friend since elementary school and ex-roommate, said innocently with an equally innocent expression as she sat across the booth from her, clearly enjoying herself. Melanie considered kicking her beneath the table, but right now, that seemed like a lot of work. So, she settled for taking another bite of her delicious french fry instead.
“I ran,” Melanie said in a daze, still trying to figure out how everything had gone so horribly wrong so quickly.
One minute, the nurse was calling her name, and the next, she was in her car, tearing out of the parking lot, and debating the pros and cons of taking Rebecca up on the suggestion that she’d made last year and move to Switzerland.
“I believe waddled is a more fitting term,” Rebecca, always helpful, added as Melanie absently dipped her fry in ketchup and popped it in her mouth with a tragic groan.
“I panicked,” Melanie said, sighing heavily as she stared down at the half-eaten burger on her plate.
“Yes, yes, you did,” Rebecca said absently, and Melanie didn’t need to look up to know that her best friend was probably licking her lips as she watched her husband do something that caused his insanely large muscles to bulge.
Her best friend had it bad for Lucifer and unfortunately, Melanie couldn’t say that she blamed her. Not that she was interested in Lucifer, because she definitely wasn’t into guys who loved to glare, but she couldn’t help but notice just how much Lucifer adored Rebecca. It was something that she would probably never have, she thought, popping another delicious fry in her mouth with a heartfelt sigh.
“You can try again,” Rebecca pointed out.
“I know,” she said, wondering how she was going to be able to go back to that office and face his staff after today.
She already knew that she wouldn’t be able to do it, which was probably for the best. Telling Aidan, the asshole that she’d had a one-night stand with that the Morning-After Pill hadn’t worked after all wasn’t exactly something that she really wanted to do at his office.
Then again, it also wasn’t something that she wanted to do when she was six months pregnant, but she didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. She’d wanted to tell him sooner, had actually planned on telling him sooner, but things changed when she’d almost lost the baby and the doctor was forced to put her on bed rest.
She’d never been sicker in her life than she had in the last five months. Every day had been pure hell as she’d tried to make it through the day without ending up in the emergency room, terrified that she was going to lose her baby. It had been touch-and-go there for a while, but eventually, they’d been able to get her nausea under control and she’d started putting on weight.
Five days ago, her doctor announced that her weight was good, her numbers were up, and that the baby, a very active little boy, was exactly where he should be, and that it was now safe to leave the confines of her bed. It had honestly been the best news of her life even though it meant that it was time to face the music.
She had to tell Aidan Bradford, the man that had made it clear that he didn’t want children that he was about to have one. She’d waited until she knew that the baby was going to be okay before telling him because she honestly couldn’t think of anything crueler than telling a man that he was going to be a father when there was no guarantee that the baby was going to survive.
She wasn’t supposed to be telling him now, but she didn’t want to put this off any longer. She didn’t want to be one of those women who tried to keep her child away from their father, which was the reason that she was ignoring her doctor’s orders to hold off until after she had the baby. He was concerned about what the stress would do to her. She didn’t want to do anything to risk her baby, but she had to do the right thing.
She had to tell Aidan.
“I can go with you if you want,” Rebecca suggested with that same worried look that she’d been giving her since this whole thing started.
Melanie shook her head and said, “It’s better if I tell him by myself,” even though it was tempting to bring Rebecca along as a buffer. Aidan liked Rebecca and probably wouldn’t start yelling if she was there, but he would still be angry. She wasn’t sure that she wanted Rebecca around when it happened, mostly because her best friend would probably take it upon herself to beat the crap out of him if he made her cry. Melanie also wasn’t sure that she would be able to come up with enough money to bail her best friend out of jail.