Free Wicked: Sweet Temptation [Wicked Series Book 4] by Lily Graison

found out you were pregnant, would you have signed those papers?”
    Faith inhaled a breath and held it. Did he want the truth or the lie she’d told herself repeatedly?
    The truth was easy. She’d spent weeks thinking about him, wondering what her life would be like being a proper wife to him. Endless hours were wasted secretly writing Faith Sheppard, Mrs. Mick Sheppard, Mrs. Faith Sheppard repeatedly in a notebook like some lovesick high school girl with her first crush. She went to bed every night wondering where he was, if he was alone or if he’d found someone else. Lonely nights wishing she could just hear his voice. To ask him if he missed her. If he still wanted her. So many days spent hoping he’d call and say he wanted her more than anything in the world. That he wanted her as much as she wanted him.
    The lie, however, left her feeling hollow and empty. She’d told herself repeatedly that they were wrong for each other. That she didn’t belong in his world and he would never fit into hers. They were too different, that they wanted different things out of life and once they’d sated their hunger for each other, there wouldn’t be anything left. But that’s all they were. Lies. She almost convinced herself to believe them. Until he came barreling back into her life.
    She swallowed the sudden lump forming in her throat. There wasn’t any way to know the answers to the questions she asked herself daily unless she asked him and she didn’t have enough nerve to even dare.
    “Would you,” he asked again.
    The answer to that was simple. She looked up at him and knew it was now or never. “I don’t think you’re asking the right question, Mick,” she said.
    He raised an eyebrow and lowered his arm, taking her hand. “And what is the right question?”
    It felt as if her insides were going to shake loose any moment now. Her stomach ached and it felt harder to breathe suddenly. What if he doesn’t want me back? “The question,” she said, trying to keep her voice steady, “is did I want to sign the papers.”
    He stared down at her, his hand tightening around hers until her fingers were pinched together. “Did you want to sign the papers?”
    She answered without hesitating. “No.” His grip tightened to this side of pain before he reached down, lifting her from the ground and pulling her into the vehicle to sit her on his lap. His mouth covered hers an instant later, his tongue pushing past her lips. His hold on her tightened, his kiss bordering on ravenous. When he raised his head to look at her, she knew. He did want her.
    “Does your father know you want to stay married to a heathen like me?”
    She grinned. “No. He’d perform an exorcism on me if he did.”
    He laughed. After meeting the Reverend he could see the old man doing that and worse. He glanced down, his hand pressing lightly against her stomach and said, “And what of the evil spawn you’re carrying around?”
    “Oh, well its not the baby’s fault his father is the devil incarnate. I’m guessing daddy’s thinking raising him without your constant interference will rid him of your hellish ways.”
    “An what about you?”
    “What about me?”
    “Do you think the baby will be better off without me?”
    She shook her head. “No,” she said. “I’ve lived my whole life without my mother and there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about her. Her leaving us was beyond anyone’s control but I still wonder about her. I don’t want my child, one who actually has a living father, to ever wonder why he wasn’t wanted.”
    “What if I don’t know how to be a good father?”
    “No one knows how, Mick. You think I have all the answers? I’m just as clueless as you are.” She glanced toward the house when she caught movement out of the corner of her eye and felt her pulse start to race. “Unless you’re ready to fight your way past one angry minister and five equally moody brothers, I suggest you put this monster