Free Somebody's Wife: The Jackson Brothers, Book 3 by Jasmine Haynes, Jennifer Skully

her robe from the back of the door because she couldn’t stand being naked in front of him. “You bastard. You think I lied.”
    “No, not lied.”
    “Fuck you, Mitch.”
    “Connie.”
    She’d shocked him with the curse word, and she didn’t give a damn. She’d given him the benefit of the doubt the other day, telling herself he trusted her. But here was proof he didn’t. He was checking up on her. She did everything he asked, watched every penny she spent, every penny he earned, and it wasn’t good enough for him. She was so angry, she couldn’t even sort out her thoughts.
    Except one. Suddenly...certainly, it was there.
    “You don’t intend to have another baby, do you? You’ve just been stringing me along for as long as you could.”
    “Connie, I—”
    “Tell me the truth,” she shouted, stretched past a limit she didn’t know she had.
    “I just don’t think it’s the right time.” He stared at her with bleak, brown eyes.
    “You never do, but you promised. That’s what we promised each other.”
    “We made that promise when we were younger, more naïve.”
    “You changed your mind, and you didn’t tell me. You’ve been lying to me and checking up on me.”
    “That’s not what I was doing.”
    She looked pointedly at the pills in his hand. “You think I’d trick you into having a baby. You think I’d miss taking a pill on purpose. How could you do that to me, Mitch?”
    They were supposed to love each other. How could he touch her the way he had tonight, then sneak into the bathroom and check to make sure she hadn’t lied?
    Mitch didn’t say anything.
    She crossed her arms over her abdomen. “I don’t know you anymore, Mitch. We had plans. We had trust. Now all you do is bitch and moan about money. It’s the only thing that’s important to you. How many dollars you have in the bank. What about your family? What about Rina and Peter?”
    The calmness in Connie’s voice belied the angry glitter in her eyes. Yet there was more. Lines of sorrow etched her mouth. The saddened tilt of her head. The way she pulled her lower lip between her teeth, biting down as if to stem the tears sparkling in her eyes. She broke his heart.
    “I’m sorry,” he said. He wanted so badly to grab a towel, something to cover himself with, anything. More than just his body lay bare before her. So did his soul.
    “That’s not good enough.” She pulled her robe tightly closed at the throat. “Answer the question.”
    He didn’t pretend he didn’t know what question lay between them. “Connie, please, let’s talk about this.” His life was shattering at his feet yet he clung to the small hope that he could talk his way out of it.
    “I’m done talking. That’s all we’ve done since Rina turned three and we were supposed to start on the next baby. You need to be honest. Are you giving up our dreams of a big family?”
    They stared at each other for long moments. He could see the ultimatum in her eyes, feel it in his heart. His life with Connie flashed before his eyes, laughter, passion, joy at watching his babies grow in her belly. Her arms around him the night after Lou died. He’d cried. She’d loved and soothed him even as his meltdown shamed him. And finally, these last three years, the growing anger and dissatisfaction. His growing fears consuming him until that’s all that existed for him.
    He wanted her. He needed her. “I love you, baby.”
    She continued to stare in stony silence, her knuckles clenched white.
    She could be his if he said yes. They could stop fighting. She’d be happy, but they could never return to what they once had. A man’s fear did terrible things. It ate him up inside. It twisted his feelings. One day he might end up resenting her for forcing his hand. Eventually, he might even hate her.
    It was easier to have her hate him .
    So he said it, uttered the only thing he could. “I don’t want another child.”
    The words rang in his head like a death knell, sealing