Page 68 of Owned

Part of me wanted to push him, but I was still feeling shaken and I wasn’t in the mood for pushing, so all I said was, “Don’t we have to?”

“It’s early days.” Atlas gently eased me down until I was back on my feet again. “Pregnancies aren’t usually announced until the three month mark.” He got to his feet too then went over to the vanity and looked down at the pregnancy test with its proud, little pink lines.

“What do you know about pregnancies, jaded playboy?” I asked, half teasing.

He glanced at me. “Hey, you think I wouldn’t know what the early signs are and when to get worried?”

“Fair enough. So you don’t think we should say anything yet?”

“I think we need some time to decide how we’re going to play this, so yeah, we hold off telling her as long as we can get away with it.”

“You haven’t figured out how to stop her blackmailing your friend?”

“Not yet.” He paused a moment, then added, “What she has on him could have implications for me.”

I did not like the way he’d said it. “What implications?”

“Legal implications.”

I felt cold again. “What do you mean legal implications?”

“Meaning, I could go to jail.” His voice was very level, his eyes glittering. “I told you I wasn’t a good man, beauty.”

The cold slithered like a snake through my veins. “What did you do?” I asked, even though part of me didn’t want to know.

“If I told you would it change anything?”

I stared at him, the question catching me off guard, making me very aware that while I’d spent two weeks living with him, talking with him, and being in his bed every night, I still didn’t know that much about what kind of man he was.

But you know a bit.

That was true. I knew he didn’t like being told what to do, that he very much went his own way, and that crossing him was a mistake. Sex with him was intense and he was very much in charge and preferred it that way. But he also listened to me when I spoke, even when we argued, and had no difficulty with apologizing when he was wrong. He was honest and blunt, but everything he did made it clear that while he might not say it, my needs were important to him. His passion and his intensity came from caring, and I knew that at the very heart of him was a depth of feeling that he hid from the world.

But he couldn’t hide it from me, no matter what he thought.

“No,” I said quietly. “It wouldn’t change a thing.”

Shadows moved in his eyes and let he out a breath. “I can’t tell you the whole story, because it’s not mine to tell. But I helped a friend hide something. And Charlotte knows of my involvement, so if my friend goes down, I’ll go down too.”

24

Atlas

I could see the shock flare in Rowan’s eyes. She was standing near the tub, looking achingly lovely in a flowing blue dress that was a million times better than the prim little business ensembles she’d used to favor. Her black hair was loose and her cheeks had regained some color, which was good.

I’d nearly had a fucking heart attack when I’d come into the bathroom to find her sitting on the floor, white as a sheet. I hadn’t thought twice, going over to her and gathering her into my arms, holding her as she’d gazed up at me, her eyes dark with panic.

She was conscious and uninjured, though, and I hadn’t needed to see the test on the vanity to understand what was going on. Only one thing could make her panic like that and that was actually finding herself pregnant.

I’d been waiting for confirmation, of course, but hadn’t expected the reality to hit me exactly the way the possibility had hit me two weeks earlier, though. That reality, not just a possibility anymore, had slammed into my chest, stealing my breath, making shock echo through me. Then after the shock had passed, I’d been gripped by a deep sense of triumph and satisfaction. Whether that was all purely biological or something more I wasn’t sure, but I hadn’t counted on the intensity of it. I hadn’t counted on the urgency to protect Rowan and my child that had subsequently kicked into high gear, either.

Regardless of what I’d said about it being early days, Charlotte’s regime of check ups and insistence on contact would make it impossible for us to screw around with dates. Despite the fact that she didn’t know me, Charlotte seemed to have some insight into what kind of man I was — probably through my association with Ten — and had planned her own responses accordingly, which meant I needed to be careful about protecting Rowan, especially given the shit Charlotte had on Ten and therefore me.

I shouldn’t have given Rowan an opening into asking about that particular shit, but it wasn’t fair of me to keep it from her when there were some very real implications for her. If Charlotte decided to use the intel she had on Ten there would be press. Ten would be hounded and once my role was discovered — and it would be discovered, the media loved a secret — so would I. And so would Rowan.

I could only imagine what would happen then. Charlotte would likely swoop in as the savior and take Rowan under her wing, and my child would be taken away….

You can’t let that happen.

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