Page 29 of Seven Minutes In Heaven
It was supposed to be romantic, she presumed. Yet why did she cry the moment her cheek hit his chest?
Jake let the tears fall against his T-shirt. The more she cried, the harder he held her, arms squeezing the air out of her chest as his nose nuzzled into the top of her scalp.
How? How could this man be real? They had only spoken more than a few words on a couple of occasions. They had hooked up like ravenous teenagerstwice.Yet Jake had made his feelings for her clear. He liked her. Wanted her. That reassuring scent imbued into his clothing lulled Claire into the falsest sense of security every single time she encountered it.
“Why couldn’t it have been you?” Claire whimpered.
“Are you keeping it?”
They relaxed their embrace. Claire kept her forehead pressed against his chest. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “It doesn’t feel real.” The five pounds, the aching joints, the morning sickness from hell… it still didn’t feel real. This was all a bad dream that would soon go away.
“Well, if you do… or even if you don’t…” Jake backed away. His face was pale and his shoulders trembling. “I’m here.”
“Your father…”
“Yeah. That’s a problem.”
“I can’t tell him.” Claire shook alongside him. “I can’t tell him that I’m pregnant if we’ve never slept together! You said so yourself! It’s okay for him to fool around with other women, but me? I don’t want to know what will happen. I’ll be blacklisted. I’ll…” She covered her mouth. “I’ve fucked up. What do I do? What if he finds out it’syours?”
Jake took her hand again. “You let me deal with that. Just keep me abreast of what’s going on with you. I know a doctor… not forthat…I mean… I know a good doctor who helped a friend when she… never mind. It’s not coming out right.”
Claire caressed his face. “Thanks, Jake. I’ll let you know. I’ve gotta go.”
She wasn’t sure where she was going when she left, but once she brought up her rideshare app, she found her fingers punching in Carter Mansion as the destination.
Just reassure me that it’s not the end of the world, Arthur.Claire had no idea what would happen. She rehearsed what she would say – or whether she would remain silent. Maybe she would roam the hallways, wondering, imagining what it would be like to raise a child in the same halls its father had called home.
While calling another manDad.
The housekeeper expressed surprise to see Claire coming up the front steps. “Mr. Carter is currently in the middle of a meeting,” she said with a firm tone Claire had never heard before. “I’m under strict orders to keep everyone out until he says otherwise.”
Claire glanced toward the driveway. A cute pink convertible was parked next to Arthur’s vintage Corvette.
“A meeting, huh?” Something burned inside Claire’s gut, and she doubted it was the baby giving her indigestion. “I’m sure he can make an exception for me.”
“Ms. Finn…”
“It’s an emergency.” Claire unceremoniously pushed the housekeeper aside. “I’m sure he’ll understand.”
“Ms. Finn!”
Claire figured she had about five minutes to find Arthur’s ass before security descended upon her.They’ve never acted like this toward me before.Usually, Claire was welcomed into the mansion with little fuss. She was, after all, soon to be the lady of the home.So if I’m being kicked out? Something dirty is afoot.Later, Arthur would try to excuse it as his staff being too strict. He would laugh. Pat her on the shoulder. Maybe on the head, to get his condescension across.
He wasn’t in his office. That meant he was probably up in his room, the same room Claire was expected to call hers in a little over a month.
Hers… and some nobody actress who had her tits out and straddled her legs across Arthur’s lap likeshewas the future Mrs. Carter!
“Claire-Bear!” Arthur, naked in his own bed, shoved the twenty-something off him and threw back his covers. “This isn’t what it looks like!”
Claire lowered her sunglasses and shut his door behind her. She officially didn’t care anymore.
***
Jake didn’t say anything when Claire helped herself into his apartment. He didn’t need to. He could probably tell, from the aura radiating from the core of her spiteful being, that something had happened in his childhood home.
He shut his door with a soft click. Claire stood in the middle of the room, trembling as she remembered what it was like to see her fiancé fuck another woman right in front of her.
Twice.
Here she had been beside herself because she was falling in love withoneother man?
Claire removed her jacket and dropped her bag to the floor. Before either of them could say a word, Claire threw herself into Jake’s arms and begged him to kiss her.
If that’s the way it’s gonna be, then I’m at least going to follow my own heart.Claire was more than willing to jump up into Jake’s arms and let him do whatever he wanted to her. They could make slow and sweet love. They could fuck like rabid animals who no longer gave a single shit about the world around them. All she wanted from him was the reassurance that she wasn’t alone in this cursed fate.
If she couldn’t trust the father of her child with that, then who could she trust? Her own fiancé? Ha!
Both of their phones rang throughout the evening. Whether they were during sex or lying in silence near one another, they both ignored the hundreds of calls coming from the only man they shared. Nobody wanted to hear what Arthur had to say.
