Page 9 of Tales of Obsession Epilogue
She kissed Arya on the forehead. “You haven’t had anything to drink all night. You’ve been avoiding Caden like he’s a leper. He’s been willingly chugging the eggnog, wondering why you’re hiding from him.”
“Uh-huh.”
“So, how far along are you?”
“Six weeks.” I suspected it when I was two weeks late and then took a pregnancy test to confirm it.
“Hm.”
“That’s it? Hm? I tell you I’m pregnant, and you have no other reaction?”
“Technically, you didn’t tell me. I guessed.”
I turned away from her.
Poppy sighed. “Just tell him. Do it now before you chicken out.”
“Caden isn’t exactly child-friendly. He won’t even hold Arya, and that’s his niece.”
“No,” she agreed. “But he’ll be happy to have anything that ties you to him for the rest of your life. And right now, he’s freaking out so much that this might just be the best news he has ever heard.”
That made me feel marginally better.
I had been a little distant the last two weeks, too preoccupied with how to break the news.
“He’s in the den,” she offered helpfully. “He went through the eggnog and then broke into Zane’s whiskey.”
“Crap.” I hurried toward the den, suddenly desperate to talk to my husband. He rarely drank, let alone this much. The Women’s Alliance was going off the grid tomorrow. I couldn’t let the girls down by backing out, but I also couldn’t let Caden believe the worst, which meant I had to fix things between us tonight.
Twisting the doorknob, I threw open the door to the den. Caden sat behind the desk, silently staring at the amber liquid in his glass.
My nerves collapsed at the sight of my beautiful man. Despite being dressed for our formal gathering—gray slacks and a charcoal sweater—there was something so familiar about his effortless presence. His presence was like a gravitational force. Words failed me as I drank him in for a moment.
When he looked up, his eyes softened for exactly one breath before they turned cold again. It was a defense mechanism to snuff out any vulnerability, and I had learned that throughout our marriage. The set of his shoulders and the shadow under his cheekbones bespoke hours spent wrestling with some internal beast. He was frustrated with the distance between us, and I was worried about letting the news about my pregnancy slip if I didn’t maintain the space. We had gotten into an argument before the party, and he was still angry. He balanced himself on the edge of the chair as if gearing up for another flight.
“You’re drinking,” I pointed out dumbly.
“What’s his name?”
For a moment, I watched him, my tongue thick and dry. “What?”
“I’m not an idiot, Rose. You have been avoiding me for days.” Caden swirled the drink in his hand. You could see the calculation in his eyes, trying to figure me out. “Where’d you meet him?”
“You think I’m cheating on you? What the hell, Caden?” For the thousandth time, I wondered how two people could be so inseparable yet so at odds with each other. How could being loved by Caden be so sweet yet so ferocious? He made the world a fortress around me, but he was also the wolf at the door.
His eyes narrowed into slits. “The only thing keeping me from burning this entire city down is not knowing who the hell he is. Because I need to kill him myself.” He tossed back the whiskey, then poured another from the bottle on the desk. “I’m going to find him anyway, so you might as well tell me his name.”
I took a deep breath. Lord, marriage was hard. “I’m not cheating on you, you lunatic. You boys track our every move, and I have a whole security detail. You know as well as I do that there’s no one else.”
“Then what the fuck’s going on?” he demanded, voice sharp as glass.
I blew out a frustrated breath, and he pinched the bridge of his nose.
The anger drained out of him, replaced by weariness. “I can’t lose you, Rose. I’m never going to be an easy person to get along with, I know that. But if you want out, you have to know that I’ll never let you go?—”
“I’m not trying to leave you. I’m pregnant,” I blurted.
The confession hung in the space between us. I stood there, feeling naked, every part of me defenseless. I realized, all at once, that I was less afraid of his rage than his disappointment.
