Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 110694 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110694 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
The silver Mercedes sedan pulled up beside my truck, and I dropped the cigarette to the concrete before covering it with the toe of my boot. Burl was here. The urge to send him away and let this go was there. But I’d not be able to get it out of my head. I’d think about the kid. Guilt would creep in, and it would eat me alive. I had to fucking know.
Dr. Burl stepped out of his luxury vehicle, and his gaze swung to mine. I hadn’t given him any information other than I needed a paternity test. In the past, I’d had to call him to do this for one of the guys, but not me. This was going to be a first.
“Morning,” Burl said, tipping his cowboy hat back on his head.
He looked like he had been down at his stables. His worn jeans were dusty, as were his boots. Unlike the family, Burl didn’t have a stable full of thoroughbreds that he bred and raced. He had quarter horses and a couple of Tennessee Walkers. His wife had once been a champion barrel racer and now taught riding lessons.
“Are we testing a baby or a kid?” he asked me.
I glanced up at the door. “Four-year-old girl.”
“And, uh…” He cleared his throat. “Which one of the guys do I need to swab?” The hesitancy in his voice gave away his unease at having to ask me that.
I cut my eyes back to him. “Me.”
The flicker of surprise was gone as quickly as it had come. He was a master at shutting down his expression and masking his thoughts around us. “Okay. Then, we can go ahead and swab your cheek before we go to the room.”
He set his small case down on the hood of the truck then reached into it. When he turned back to me with the sterile cotton swab, I opened my mouth so that he could rub the tip inside my cheek several times. I’d never had to do this since fucking without wrapping my dick up was something I didn’t do. My one exception with the blonde goddess, who I’d fucked like a damn dog in heat, had brought me to this.
There had been two condoms on the floor that morning—the only ones that had been in my pocket—which I tossed in the trash. I walked away, knowing that the memory of her tight, hot, wet pussy as I had taken her raw wasn’t a hallucination since we had fucked many times. Not just twice. Yet I told myself that she was most likely on birth control. If she hadn’t been, she’d have said something.
I’d gone to the nearest pharmacy and gotten the morning-after pill, just to be safe. Covered all the bases.
When Burl had the swab in its container, he put it in the case, then closed it. “The child’s mother is with her?” he asked.
Legally, the mother had to be with her, but Burl knew I didn’t care about legalities. He was paid well to overlook the times he was asked to break a law.
I nodded. “Yeah. She’s expecting us.”
I started toward the stairs, and he fell into step beside me.
“You think this is another female looking for money?” he asked.
I fucking wished. I shook my head. “No. I’m the one demanding it.”
“Oh.”
The startled sound in that one word wasn’t lost on me.
We climbed the stairs in silence, and the closer I got to the door, the more the foreboding squeezed my chest. I didn’t have to do this. I could sign the fucking divorce papers and let them walk. My lawyers had verified that they were in fact legal. They suggested that I file a petition for an annulment since we never lived together and the marriage wasn’t valid. If not, then they needed to prepare paperwork for her to sign, stating she gave up all rights to my assets and money.
Before a decision was made on that, I needed to know if the kid was mine. Because if she was, it would change things. I might not have wanted another kid, but if I had one, I would support her. Even if her mother didn’t want my money, she’d goddamn take it. Another man wasn’t going to financially support what belonged to me.
Burl didn’t ask any more questions, but then he never did. He didn’t pry; he only knew what we shared with him. He wanted it that way too. The less he knew about the workings inside the family, the better. He handled all our medical needs that we didn’t want taken to the hospital, as well as being available for things such as this. Making house calls for our convenience.
I rapped my knuckles against the door. There seemed to be a struggle on the other side with unlocking it, and I glowered as I waited. When the door eased open, Branwen wasn’t standing there. My eyes dropped to see blue eyes staring up at me, along with a big grin, causing dimples in her cheeks. There was a sprinkling of freckles over her nose that I hadn’t noticed yesterday.