12/09/2023
Novel Title: Rebel Pursuits: Craving the Forbidden
Chapter: 16
James
The grin on my face is so wide as I walk in, I’m surprised my cheeks fit through the doorway. I’m soaked from the rainstorm that started while I was out, but I don’t give a s**t.
Taylor greets me as I step inside, and I crouch to fuss the top of his head and rub his nose. Honestly, I never wanted the responsibility of having a pet, but now I know I was missing out. They rely on you, and love you unconditionally, and that’s worth cherishing.
“Nancy, I’ve got a surprise for you. Come on out here.” For the first time in my life, I feel like dancing. I mean, just literally letting loose right here like Kevin f**king Bacon. She’s going to be pi**ed, probably, at first. Then she’ll thank me.
And that bit, I can’t wait for.
“Nancy!” I call out as I shove the living room door open to emptiness and silence.
“Lil’ bit! Where are you?”
I turn around, glancing up the stairs, expecting her to be standing there in all her pregnant sexy glory.
But there’s nothing.
Nobody.
Silence.
“What the f**k?” The smile fades and I start to frown. Something isn’t right. My heart is thundering.
“Sis? Lil’ bit?”
It’s then that I spot it, a folded piece of paper on the table by the door.
With my name on it. Seriously, what the f**k?
I sn**ch it up and read it through twice before I start to crumple it absently in my fist. I can barely believe what I’m reading. An apology. A f**king apology. Like she’s done anything wrong.
She thinks I’m mad because the baby’s mine?
I’ve never been happier in my entire life. I would have loved that baby like my own, no matter who the father was, but to find out by some massive twist of fate that I’m the biological father too? Nobody could have given me a bigger gift. And she thinks I’m mad about it?
A soft growl escapes my lips as I think about her hurt and alone, thinking things are over between us.
“They’ve only just f**king begun, little girl,” I murmur, then pull my phone out of my pocket as I smooth out the note again.
She wrote it, and anything that she ever does I want to cherish like it’s treasure. I want to save it as an heirloom to pass down to our grandchildren.
Doesn’t matter if it’s hurtful, I’ll keep it like it’s a f**king love letter.
The tracking app is up on my screen in moments, and I breathe more easily when I see the little white dot on the map, showing me where she is right this second.
Not her car. Not her purse or her cell phone. Nancy.
Even if she’s naked, I’ll know exactly where she is. Though she better be clothed if there are any other males in the near vicinity or I’ll be facing a murder charge.
“I’m coming, baby,” I tell her, stroking the screen.
Then I dive out of the door and into my truck. The Mercedes and her VW are still here.
Uber.
Fu***ng Uber.
Jesus.
She said she’s going to see Azra, and that either I could take care of Taylor or she’d find someone that could come in and feed him while she’s away.
Apparently her friend’s in town, staying at a hotel, and there’s some sort of plan to get Nancy out of the f**king country or something. Like she thinks I won’t chase her ass down across the world if I have to? F**k that. I’d follow her to the moon.
I pop my phone into the dash holder and use the tracking app like a GPS, putting my foot to the floor every time I get a straight run. She seems to be sticking to the speed limit though, because I gain on her fast.
“Good girl. Keep my two most important people safe. Daddy’s coming.”
I spot a Mazda ahead with a Uber sticker on the back window. I gun it after her, weaving around the nose end of a Ford sedan coming from a side street and getting a blare of horns in my wake.
Time was, I would have taken the trouble to flip the as***le off, but not today. Today I’m focused on one thing.
The car turns into a hotel’s underground parking garage when I catch up to her, but I’m not chasing after her down there. I slam the gas, inch past her then pull the parking brake, skidding out and beating her to the turn by a whisker. Then I’m out and running for her car.
“What the f**k?” I tear open the back door as the driver looks at me with terror.
She frowns and points at my vehicle, blocking hers. Her eyes are puffy and red, tears still drying on her cheeks.
“I could ask you the same thing!”
“I’m gone for a couple of hours and you’re leaving the f**king country?”
“I don’t want you to think I’ve trapped you. This is my mess, I can clean it up. You never wanted children, you said so, I read it! A year ago you told some sports guy on a pod cast.”
I blink, shaking my head, trying to think where she could have possibly read that. I don’t keep a diary, so… “An interview? You’re bringing up a goddamn interview? Baby, those things aren’t real. They get you to say stuff and half the time you don’t even know what it is you’re telling them.”
“But you don’t say something like that if you don’t mean it. You left. You needed time to think, right?”
“Time to think?” I drop to my knees in front of her, still shaking my head, careless of the rainwater puddling around my legs. I take her face in my hands and wipe the tears from her cheeks. I never want to see her sad.
Never again.
“Sis, I don’t need to think about anything. Not with you. I’m all in. You. Me. Our baby. Ours. If you run away from me, I’m going to chase you down and I’m going to bring you right back. Because we belong together. Forever.”
She’s staring at me. Frowning.
Then she starts to laugh. Her hands fly to her face as she bursts with it, covering her mouth, her eyes creasing up.
“What?” I don’t let her go. I can’t. I hold her face in my hands and stroke her perfect skin, pushing her hair back behind her ears.
“What, lil’ bit?”
She shakes her head, rocking back and forth a little.
“Sorry.”
“No, what? Tell me.”
“Sorry, it’s just, down in the rain like that, I suddenly had an image of you proposing.”
My heart leaps into my throat.
“And you find that funny?”
“Well, kinda… I’m nearly eight months pregnant. You’re my stepbrother.
Our parents got married so suddenly and I was about to run off to another country with my friend. Come on, it’s a little funny…”
I’m shaking my head as I reach into my pocket and bring out the little box.
“Well, I don’t find it funny.”
Her face falls, shock taking over as all the laughter dies. And silence stretches.
“Marry me, baby Be my wife, my stepsister and the mother of my baby. I want it all.”
For a long pause, she says nothing. I don’t wait. I can’t. I slide the four carat zinger onto her finger and admire the way it looks sat right there.
Fu***ng mine.
Then she starts to nod.
And I grin.
“Yes?”
“Yes,” she says.
“Yes, yes. But…”
“But what?”
“But I think… I think the baby is coming.”
F**k.
The baby is coming. Jesus Christ.
I’m on my feet in an instant.
“Into my truck. I’ll get you to the hospital faster than any f**king ambulance. Come on. The f**king baby is…”
She’s laughing.
“You should see your face,” she says, bending forward over her bump, heaving with laughter.
“This baby is staying right here until it’s the right time. Isn’t that right, little one?”
I glare as I watch her rubbing her belly in slow circles as she starts to calm down. Then she glances at the ring and turns it this way and that so that it catches the light. I’m dripping wet, but I don’t care. Seeing her happy?
That’s my sunshine.
I sniff.
“Well, if you’re not going to take things seriously, I guess you can’t have your surprise.”
“Already got it,” she says with a grin.
“You think you can surprise me more than you have already?”
“I think so.”
She narrows her eyes.
“Really? Let’s hear it.”
“Baby, I can do better than that. I can show you.”
“No.” Nancy shakes her head, pulling back, trying to get back in the truck.
“No, take me home.”
“I knew you’d be pi**ed.”
“I’m not pi**ed, I’m just… It’s a really nice gesture…”
“I knew you’d be pi**ed at first,” I tell her.
“Then you’d be grateful.”
“I am grateful,” she says, looking up at the private jet, where a stewardess is waiting to welcome us both on board.
“But… I can’t…”
“Yes you can.”
“No. You don’t understand, I… I can’t sing in front of anyone else. I can’t do it, I get stage fright.”
“It’s a studio, baby. No audience.”
She’s still shaking her head.
“There’s an audience. The people recording, the people who will listen to the recording. If anyone ever listens to it and I don’t just completely flop. Do you know how difficult it is to break into the music industry these days? How many people try and—”
“And they’re following their dreams. And you can too. And I’m going to make f**king sure they come true.” I take her hands and pull her up.
“Baby, I’ll be right there with you. Come on. Your voice is amazing. I want you to have this.”
Her eyes dart to the plane, and truth is, I f**king get it. It’s hard to do that thing, to put yourself out there in front of the world and take that leap, but I’m going to step off the ledge right alongside her. And I’ll never let her fall.
“Okay,” she says, grimacing a little.
“Okay, I… I can do this. I want this.
But if I suck, you’ll tell me, right?”
I kiss her, then pull her with me. I’m not making that promise, because there’s no way on earth that she could ever suck.
I’m grinning as I listen to my girl sing her heart out.
The moment she stepped into that studio? It was like she was a different person. Maybe it’s being here in Nashville, maybe it’s the acoustics, maybe it’s the fact that she got a hug from her f**king idol as she was leaving the same f**king studio, but my stepsister, my fiancé and the mother of my children is giving it her all.
And it’s f**king perfect.
The technician gives me two thumbs up as Nancy finishes her set.
“That’s it, man. Where did you find this girl?”
“My mom married her dad,” I tell him, and he chuckles.
“She’s a f**king diamond in the rough. You managing her? Because if not, I know a few people who would be—”
“I’m managing her,” I growl, the thought of anyone else taking that role almost more than I can stand.
“Okay, okay, just saying.” He holds his hands up.
“I’ll get this cut into a demo disk for you.”
I slap his back, then head through to the studio at the same time as Nancy is coming out. She throws her arms around me and I lift her up against the wall. I’m instantly hard for her. I always will be. She’s my girl, my stepsister, my angel. I’ll never stop loving her and wanting her, wanting to be inside her every second of every day.
“Did you see who was coming out as I went in?” she says, her head still in the clouds as she comes to terms with what’s just happened. The first step on the journey to her dreams coming true.
“I did.”
“Taylor Swift! I got a hug from Taylor Swift. I have to text Azra. She’s never going to believe this. Do you think I can put in a call to Mason in prison? He’ll be so jealous—”
I cut her off with a kiss, pressing her hard into the wall and listening with satisfaction to her moan of contentment.
“Lil’ bit,” I say as I pull back, staring into her eyes.
“You can tell whoever you want. You can play them the demo. I’m sure Mason can get a CD player in his cell, or at least something that will play the digital thingy. But there’s something you have to do first.”
“What?”
“Me.”
