Free Rapture 2: a BWWM, Alpha Male Romance by Perri Forrest

circling. With each minute that passed and sitting there with her, I was getting used to the idea that she and I were parents together. Actual parents ! Yeah, quite a bit to take in. Even in that moment, it was still a lot to digest.
    “Did you even call me after that night, Rush?”
    “No, I didn’t. But what does that have to do with anything? We weren’t in a relationship, Janae.”
    “You’re absolutely right. We weren’t in a relationship. And that right there is my point.”
    “You cannot be getting ready to sit here and use that. I sure as hell hope not, because that’s gonna piss me off even more. I don’t get what the hell me calling you after we had sex has to do with you not telling me that I had a daughter!”
    “Well, look. My position on this whole thing was this: We used protection, right?”
    “And…?”
    “ And …my main concern at that time was getting to my OB/GYN to get cleared of STD’s and shit like that.”
    “STD’s!” I laughed.
    “Yep, those ! You’ve always been a wild child, slinging dick out here on different bitches, and having that condom come off was a little traumatizing,” she acknowledged, animatedly rolling her eyes. “It didn’t even dawn on me that I could be pregnant until I missed my period. And that didn’t even happen until maybe six weeks later! I was still in denial all the way up until I went to the doctor and got that positive pregnancy test confirmed. I sat in shock for about a week, went to work as normal, and tried to debate what I’d do.”
    “All that’s fine, but—”
    “Hell, that night, there were so many damn groupies trying to get your attention, I didn’t expect to do anything but come say hi and give you a hug! Spending the night together was a fluke!”
    “Okay, where is this segueing to?”
    “Well, let me explain. We were never in a committed relationship, correct?”
    “Is this a fucking quiz? What the fuck?” I asked her, irritated as hell. I just looked at her. I wasn’t about to keep responding to miniature statements that seemed to be leading nowhere real fucking quick.
    “Okay,” she continued. “So me and you…we took the responsible route. Regardless of how drunk we were, we did slide that condom on before we started fucking around.”
    “Why the hell are you narrating a damn story, Janae? Please get to the point.”
    “The point is that I wasn’t interested in coming to you to assume responsibility for a baby we hadn’t planned. That was how I thought in the very beginning. But at the same time I did want to give you the chance to at least know about the baby.”
    “But you never did. So none of this long, drawn out detail is making sense to me. You say you wanted me to know but yet here we are…”
    She exhaled another deep sigh and I saw confusion eclipse her pretty face. She looked off into the distance, and gone was the cheery, flirtatious demeanor. It was evidence that she was pondering her responses.
    “Right…here we are,” she said, repeating my words. She bowed her head and then looked back up again, seemingly ready to continue. “A few weeks after Michaela was born, I started feeling these pangs of guilt and knew that it would only be right for her to know her father, and for you to know her. Around that time you were all over the sports circuit, and the tabloids. Your career was on fire, Rush.”
    “So what?” I said, becoming annoyed with her attempt at making excuses for keeping my fucking child from me.
    “I never told anyone who Michaela’s father was. Not even my family. Mama and J would ask because of her name, but I just played it off like I always loved the name, so they didn’t think much of it. You were like family anyway so they didn’t trip too much.” Then she began laughing. “And the fact that she was mixed didn’t make them suspicious either because you weren’t my first vanilla latte. As far as everybody knew, I had a fling and made a personal decision to keep my