Free Breaking Bedrock (Book Two) by Britney King

glanced up at him. “Don’t patronize me, Patrick.”
    This was pretty much the way the conversation went the rest of
the evening: back and forth exchanges on how they’d gotten into this mess with
no real clear-cut answers. Well, Patrick knew how they’d gotten themselves
here; he just hadn’t a clue how to get himself out of it. What he did know was
that right now wasn’t the time to ask Michele to get an abortion. She was in no
mood for it. Maybe it was the hormones, but she sure did seem on edge. He
hadn’t remembered Addie being this way.
    They spent much of the rest of the weekend either in bed or
working. Both of them seemed determined to avoid the topic altogether,
tiptoeing around it, careful not to set the other one off.
    On their last day at the cabin, after making love, Patrick
carefully broached the subject. “I think we need to talk about this, Michele.
How far along would you say you are?”
    Michele smiled and rolled over, placing her hand on his chest. “I
know exactly how far I am.”
    “All right, well, what are you thinking?’ Patrick asked softly.
    “I’m thinking I’m going to have a baby.”
    “You can’t be serious. You know we’ll both lose our jobs over
this, don’t you?”
    “I’m dead serious, Patrick. I never wanted kids, but, now, I
don’t know. It’s as though I’ve been given this opportunity, an opportunity I
didn’t even know I wanted, and, well, I sort of feel like it’s my last shot at
it. I’m not exactly young anymore. And neither are you, for that matter.”
    Patrick sat up and adjusted the covers. “But I don’t want any more
children, Michele. Don’t I get a say in any of this?”
    Michele stood up quickly and sank back down. “Whoa. I’m dizzy.
You . . . You don’t have to take part in any of this. I’m fine to do it on my
own. Of course, I’d hoped it wouldn’t be that way, but if it is, then so be
it.”
    “What about my job, Michele? We’re both going to be out of a job
after all this gets out.”
    Michele turned and looked Patrick straight in the eye. “I guess
that depends, you know? If you want to raise this child together, then I have
an idea about how to make it work out for the both of us. But if not, then I
guess you’re on your own.”

    Addie thought about how William’s arms had felt around
her. She remembered how he’d felt inside her. God, she shouldn’t have let
him go. She could still feel his kiss on her skin, the way it felt when he
touched her. She could still taste him. There was nothing else like it. Being
with him was like a drug, a high that she’d never achieve any other way. He was
her dealer, and she was his addict. She should have said something, anything,
to make him see things her way, to make him stay.
    But Addie had known better. The thing about men as powerful as
William is that you had to set boundaries with them. Without boundaries and
discipline, they were nothing. They’d walk all over you; this much she’d
learned from her time as a Domme. You had to know when to take it and when to
draw the line. As a Domme, you had to gauge what it was they needed: how much
was too much, how little was too little. With Patrick, she’d lost herself.
Patrick wanted to believe that he was the dominant type, but in reality, he
wasn’t. Addie’s biggest mistake was going along with it for so long. She should
have put her foot down sooner, disagreed, and made him fight. But she didn’t.
Instead, Addison hated who she’d become in their marriage. She became desperate
for her husband to see her, to love her, to really know who she was. She
tried ten thousand ways to the sun and back to get him to see her, to get what
it was she needed. The more she tried, the less important it seemed she became
to him. After a while, she’d become nothing more than an annoying fly buzzing
in his ear. She was the thing in the room he knew was there but passed without
a second glance. The more she tried to become the perfect wife, the