Bad Boy's Baby Part 46

"Who? His girlfriend?" Azariah breathed into the phone. "No."

"She had a son. And he..." I banished the memory of his lips pressing into my neck. "Made it into the will."

"No way!" Azariah whooped. "Girl, this is some Lifetime movie s.h.i.+t."

"It gets worse."

Azariah hushed me for a second before m.u.f.fling the phone and announcing to anyone listening in the office. "I'm going on break, ya'll! Keep talking, girl. Who is this son?"

"I already met him."

Silence. She waited, not making it easy on me.

"He and I...met."

"Oh." She figured it out. "Oh, s.h.i.+t."

"Yeah."

"You...and your step-brother?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, honey. This is beyond Lifetime. This belongs on Maury Povich."

"It's horrible," I said.

"Did you know it was him?"

"Of course not!" Give me some credit. "But I have a lot to figure out."

"But..." Azariah hummed. "Was he any good?"

I tossed a suitcase onto the bed, but nothing from my drawers made it in. "He's my step-brother!"

"Well...I mean...he's not blood."

"What's wrong with you?"

"People do f.u.c.ked up s.h.i.+t all the time. You're rich. You can get away with it."

I sighed. "Not this."

"All those kings and queens in Europe used to do it."

"I'm not a queen!"

"Didn't Woody Allen marry his adopted daughter?"

"Gross."

She snickered. "Maybe you've been watching too much Game of Thrones."

"It's not funny! This is a problem! I have to deal with this guy, okay?"

"It's a little funny."

I didn't need her att.i.tude. "I'm hanging up now."

"Sorry." She let it pa.s.s, but I knew her too well. She wasn't done. She circled the pack, looking for somewhere weak to sink her teeth. "But you know this wouldn't have happened if you had just talked with your dad."

I packed all of my underwear into the suitcase. I had more than I thought. Now the latches wouldn't close. Fantastic.

"He left us," I said. "We had nothing to discuss. Don't make me feel guilty. I'm on a hair trigger."

"He was trying to start a relations.h.i.+p. The car and school and gifts. He extended an olive branch."

And I broke that twig over my knee and cast it into a fire. "I know. But it doesn't change anything. He made his choice. h.e.l.l, he even started a new family."

"It really is sad."

And now I had more guilt. "I gotta get packing. I'm heading up to the-" I didn't want to say mansion. "-House."

"When can I see it?"

It was probably visible if she squinted and looked at the horizon. "Whenever you like."

"You'll need to have a big graduation party there, Shay. Something to celebrate your trust."

"I guess."

"You leave that to me. I'll plan you something worthy of an MTV special."

G.o.d help us all. Azariah was eager to keep talking, but she miraculously had to go when I asked if she'd help me pack. I was on my own to box up my things and transform myself into someone completely different.

A mansion awaited me, just a little ways north of the city.

A whole mansion.

Pools and hot tubs, patios and gardens, fountains and statues. Downton Abbey was my new reality, except I didn't have a lick of English inside me...not without Zach's persistence.

Except, it didn't feel right. None of it.

So why did I want to live there so badly?

I knew it was more than money and security and luxury. The estate was the only bit of family I had left.

How was I supposed to know Dad would die?

I sighed. No sense dwelling on the past. Momma always said we'd have more than enough time at Judgement for that.

First thing was first. I needed to buy luggage. I wasn't moving into a beautiful new mansion hauling garbage bags full of clothing into my room.

The knocking rattled my door just as I finished folding my last pair of socks. I grinned-who thought Azariah would actually help me move?

I bounded to the door, swinging it open without bothering to greet her. I grabbed an armful of dirty laundry from the living room. No more quarters for the machines downstairs. h.e.l.l, I could buy new outfits whenever mine needed to be washed.

"Azariah, Grab whatever looks like clothes and follow me." The laundry smothered me as I gave the order. "We have to figure out how to stuff everything I own into one suitcase."

I hobbled to the bedroom and dropped the armful of clothes onto the already bigger pile cluttering the floor. Maybe Dad did help more than I thought. Without worrying about car payments or school, I had much more disposable income to spend on my wardrobe.

I examined the mess. Where did I get a Taylor Swift s.h.i.+rt? That was Azariah's doing. I kicked the s.h.i.+rt over to her and finally looked up.

I hadn't welcomed Azariah into my apartment.

It was Zach.

And he picked up the laciest, pinkest pair of panties I owned. He stretched them between his fingers.

"Packing the necessities?" He asked.

Oh, sweet Jesus.

I leapt over the bed and slammed shut the suitcase br.i.m.m.i.n.g with panties. The bed frame was a piece of junk. The slats holding the box-spring slipped, and everything tumbled, including the suitcase. Zach laughed as a wave of panties cascaded over his legs.

"What the h.e.l.l are you doing in my room?" I shrieked.

He jerked a thumb to the door. His t-s.h.i.+rt tightened over his biceps. Didn't he have any clothes that fit?

"You let me in."

"Well, get out!"

"Why?"

"Because this place only has me on the lease. You don't live here!"

Dimples, a flash of teeth, and a quirked eyebrow. He disarmed me without even trying.

"Relax. I wanted to see if you needed help moving." He wagged a folder in his hand. "William called me. Said he had some paperwork for us. I volunteered to bring it."

I took the folder. "Thanks. Get out."

He declined with a smile. "So, you're packing? Decided to come stay with me after all?"

"I've decided to live in the house that my father pa.s.sed to me."

"I haven't had a roommate for a while. Hopefully it's better than the barracks."

"We are not roommates."

"Not yet. Look at all this packing you have to do." His grin would suffocate me. "Seriously, need any help getting this to the car?"

"Not from you."

Zach motioned to sit on my bed. I chased him away.

"Shay, come on. There's no sense being angry."

I had every right to be angry. I fluttered around his feet, collecting stray bits of the s.l.u.ttiest and most embarra.s.sing underwear I had. I didn't know what was worse-the granny panties or the slinky silk ones.

I poked his chest as he dared to get in my way, but brandis.h.i.+ng a thong at him wasn't threatening.

"You tricked me," I said. "You had s.e.x with me without saying you were my step-brother. You lied about who you were, why you found me, and what you were doing. It was cruel, and I want nothing to do with you now. No help. No moving. No nothing."

"How am I supposed to make it better if you won't even listen to me?"

"There's nothing to make-better. You are beyond apologies at this point."

"Give me a chance?

Was he kidding? I threw the laundry onto the bed. "Zach, you hurt me."

His smile faded. "It wasn't my intention."

"First I poured my soul out to you, and then we had..."

And there I went again, imagining everything I had tried not to imagine for the past week and a half.

And he must have imagined it too. Zach s.h.i.+fted, adjusting himself without making it obvious he was adjusting.

That namesake again.

Hard.

He lived up to it. He was supremely gifted. Just knowing how he had felt, tasted, and pleasured was too much for me to handle right now.

Or ever again.

"You are the biggest mistake of my life." I took a breath, but I didn't let him intimidate me. "But you know what? I'm going to take you up on your offer."

Zach tilted his head-a look I'd consider cute and puppyish if I didn't know better. He was no little rolly-polly cutie, he was the wolf. Cunning. Sleek. Built for power and precision. I didn't meet his gaze. The green was far too inviting for what I needed to say.

"You're going to come stay at the mansion?" He stepped closer, twirling the little pink panties around his finger. "It's a good idea, Shay. We could keep each other company. Again."

I braced as he approached. He was huge, powerful, and perfect. I had never felt pet.i.te before, but in his shadow, I was overwhelmed.

Zach could haul me around a bed with one arm and then cuddle me against his strength when we were done. And I remembered the wonderful things he'd whispered, things that warmed me from inside once more.