Page 46 of Deadly Aloha
I yanked open the screen door as Skipper was standing, picking something up from the floor, and I was fairly certain his next words were the only ones in the world that could have stopped me in my tracks.
“You’re pregnant?”
The red in front of my vision faltered. Clearly, Skipper wasn’t talking about me. There was only one uterus in the room.Pregnant?
Slowly, Lu nodded her head. Her back was to me, and I doubted she even knew I was here. But that nod… It was a confirmation.Pregnant? No, that couldn’t be. We used protection. Then my flustered brain reminded me that we actuallyhadn’t. Several times. Yet, pregnancy hadn’t actually occurred to me. In my line of work, I was always careful about unplanned pregnancies. Accidents happened, but I tried to limitthose as much as possible. And not just with me and an actress, but with all my employees. Last thing my business needed was a paternity suit.
But with Lu… After that spontaneous first time, ever since I went to her apartment, I had known she wasn’t on birth control. I hadn’t hesitated, though. I’d kept fucking her raw.
I couldn’t see Lu’s expression from where I stood, but I knew Lu. From her posture, she was upset. The fucker had made her cry!
Just as I stepped into the kitchen, Skipper looked up at Lu and demanded to know who the father was. The door slamming closed behind me was like a ring bell to my soul.
I charged.
Tackling Skipper to the floor, I barely registered Lu’s screams or the clattering of something plastic skidding along the linoleum. My goal wasn’t death, not yet anyway. I wantedpain. I wantedblood. This motherfucker had touched Lu, he’d made her cry!
Who the fuck did he think he was questioning the paternity of Lu’s baby?Mybaby!
I’d known for years that Skipper, or Rory, had feelings for Lu. A sadistic part of me had gotten a thrill of flaunting it in his face. Making him watch what he would never have, becauseIwould never let him touch her. I was always careful with the men I brought into our bed. They could desire her, absolutely, but have feelings? Fuck. No. It was one of the reasons I also chose strangers, men who couldn’t know her enough to have developed feelings. Infatuation, sure, but not a misplaced love.
But those fuckers—because Skipper hadn’t been the only one over the years—I enjoyed tormenting. Letting them see her,wanther, watch other men fuck her, and know that they will never have what was mine.
I’d admit that it was a dick move, but then again, I wasn’t planning on winning any Nice Guy Awards. And I got a kick from watching them suffer.
Skipper was different, though. He was closer to Lu than the other men, like a coworker, a bartender, a fellow surfer… Skipper wasn’t just ‘that guy’ to Lu. He was her friend.
And he had also been married at the time.
Aaleah had been a great woman, an activist who had believed in our cause as much as the rest of us. In some ways, she had been extremely reckless, believing the cause always justified the means. We’d worked well together, but Aaleah only ever had eyes for her husband. I knew towards the end there that she had been aware her husband’s eyes, and his heart, were starting to stray. I also knew that she had been worried because it was obvious Lu and I were having problems, and she’d feared Rory would see it as an opening.
I didn’t know if Lu knew about Skipper’s feelings for her. But I damn well knew that she hadn’t been sleeping with him. Who’s the father? Fucker,I was.
I’d offered Skipper sympathy and leeway after Aaleah’s death. While I did not believe I was the cause of her death as Skipper did, I did hold some guilt, knowing that my presence may have prevented it.
No more. I wasdoneletting Skipper slide his way through. Not when he wore the cutIhad given him.
Who the fuck was he to question who the father of Lu’s baby was? It wouldn’t have mattered if there’d been other men in our bed. Wouldn’t have mattered if Lu had slept with someone the night before we’d reunited.I would still be the father!
Skipper got in some good kidney strikes, but it didn’t stop me. I whaled on him, fist after fist. Hitting pressure points, joints, and bones. His teeth cut my fists, but I didn’t care.
Multiple hands, too large and masculine to belong to Lu, wrapped themselves around my arms, pulling me back. I fought to get free while simultaneously kicking at Skipper while I was dragged to my feet.
I was about to turn my rage on whomever was holding me, and I counted at least three sets of hands on me, when Lu was suddenly in front of me. She put her hands on my face, cupping my cheeks. “Stop, Aloiki! Stop! He’s not the father! You are! He thinks there are still others in our bed, but there haven’t been! I swear! You’re the father!”
Our eyes met, but the calm she instilled into me did not quell my rage. It wasn’t a surreal, heavenly sense of peace. What it did was give me back control, allowing me to hone my rage rather than let it fly aimlessly.
She thought I was beating the shit out of Skipper because I thoughthemight be the father of her baby? It had never even been a question! How could she think I would think that?
I looked to my left, subconsciously knowing that those hands belonged to Tangaloa. I stood taller and gave him a nod to let him know that I was back. It was rare for me to lose all sense like that, but not when it came to Lu.
Only she had the influence to make me so powerful and so weak at the same time.
Her dark eyes pleaded with me now, and I saw the evidence of her tears down her cheeks. As the others let go of my arms, I brought my hands up to her face, wiping the wetness away with the pads of my thumbs.
There was something unspoken in her gaze, and I fucking hated it.
Right there, in front of all of my men, I fell to my knees before her. Wrapping my arms around her waist, I buried my face into her belly. She was wearing a pair of skimpy shorts and a bikinitop, giving me unimpeded access to her stomach. Not that a shirt would have stopped me anyway, but it would have wasted time.
