Page 73 of Fox (Road Rebels MC 4)
“You’re right, Tank, you’ve been rude to me and hurt me, and I don’t think I want to see you again,” she replied, and I ran a hand through my hair and pressed my eyes closed.
“I’ll stay away from you if you really want that, but I really need to come over and see you,” I argued.
“I told you I’m all right. I was just calling to let you know what happened,” she said, and I heard the wounded sizzle in her voice.
“I know, and I’m glad that you called. Now, please let me come over so that we can talk this through,” I told her, and once again, she fell into radio silence. It had to be at least a couple of minutes before she finally replied.
“Okay,” she said and ended the call.
I jumped on my bike and rode to her apartment building as fast as I could. I had waited nearly three months to see her, and this was my opportunity.
***
I was nervous when I knocked on the door of Noelle’s apartment. I had daydreamed about this scene before, several times, but these were not the circumstances I had predicted I would be seeing her under.
When I heard the door opening, I felt like I was going to explode. Then I saw her, peeking out from the side of the door. She opened it wide, and we were finally standing face to face again. Me looking at her, she looking at me. Everything I had felt that day when I first saw her at the hospital, had returned. Was she even more radiant now?
She was in jeans and a baggy cotton t-shirt, her dark hair was left down, her bangs fell over her forehead, her blue eyes glowed and were it possible that she looked even more deliciously curvy now? My cock moved in my pants. I wanted to ride her. I wanted to push her back into the apartment and just take her.
“Noelle,” I said her name as softly as possible, hoping she wouldn’t notice the way my cock was behaving in my pants.
“Come in,” she said and dragged her eyes away from me and stepped back from the door to let me in.
I walked into Noelle’s swanky apartment. I knew she lived in the more upscale part of town, but I hadn’t expected her apartment to be this luxurious. Her parents had provided it for her, no doubt. Seeing her apartment reminded me of the world of difference between us and how this could never work. She would never be happy with a guy like me.
She walked away from me, as far away as she could and stood behind her plush leather couch. I watched her as she crossed her arms over her breasts, and for some reason, they looked even bigger and juicier now. It had to be the time away from her, that made her look sexier to me…if that was even possible.
“You didn’t have to come and see me, Tank. I’m quite capable of taking care of myself,” she said and tucked hair behind her ears. I could tell that she was nervous to be around me. Was she afraid of me as well?
“Yes, I know that…but someone gave you a scare today, for which I am responsible. I wanted to come over and make sure that everything was okay,” I told her. We were staring at each other, and I could see that she was struggling to hold my gaze. Did she want me gone?
“Everything is okay. He has nothing to do with me,” she replied, and my eyes traveled over her body, drinking in all the curves I’d missed and fantasized about.
“How are you, Noelle?” I asked her, and she thrust her chin up in the air, looking down at me over her small cute nose.
“Why do you care, Tank? If you’re asking me all this out of some sort of guilt, let me stop you right there. You don’t need to concern yourself about me. I heard you loud and clear when you said that I wasn’t your type of woman,” she went on, and there was that same sizzle in her voice again. I knew I had hurt her, and just like me, she hadn’t been able to get past it either.
“I know what I said, and I’m sorry that I hurt you,” I told her and Noelle jerked her face away from looking at me.
“It’s over now. I’ve moved on. You’ve come over here and done your duty of checking on me. So you can go now,” she said, and she was refusing to meet my eyes.
“Okay, I’ll go if you want me to,” I said, but she still didn’t look at me. This was a fruitless effort. I had successfully managed to ruin everything between us, and it was all my fault…just like I had planned it.
I drank her in again, staring at her beautiful body one last time before I left her apartment. When my gaze fell on her belly, I noticed that her baggy t-shirt looked tighter over it. At first glance, it could have just been that she’d gained some weight…it made her look even more delicious for the taking. But as I scanned the rest of her body, I noticed that only her breasts looked bigger. There was a red flush on her cheeks…she was glowing. I hadn’t imagined it when I first thought that she looked even more luscious somehow. At that moment, I knew. Noelle was pregnant.
“Noelle!” I exclaimed and stepped hurriedly towards her. She looked frightened for a second, and she jerked her head to look at me. She’d caught me staring at her belly, and her hands flew defensively to it. Any doubts I had in my mind regarding her pregnancy were dissipated immediately by that reaction.
“You’re pregnant!” I said, drawing closer to her and she stepped away from me, in fear. Like I was going to do something to the baby she was carrying in her belly.
“Talk to me!” I growled at her, losing control of myself. She was near enough to touch, and yet I could see that she didn’t want me to touch her.
“Are you pregnant with my child?” I growled, and she clasped a hand to her mouth, as though she was afraid of what she might say.
CHAPTER 18
Noelle
“Noelle?” I heard him repeat my name, but I was too dazed and too much in shock to respond to him immediately. Seeing Tank again, after all these months, had brought back all those memories and feelings which I thought I’d managed to get over.
He was still as hot, and the way he was looking at me now could make me melt. He was angry and disappointed and curious…all at the same time, and I just couldn’t get the words to come out of my throat.
“Noelle…you have to tell me what’s going on!” he was scolding me, and came even closer. I could smell him, he was close enough to touch, and I had never been tempted to fall into someone’s arms like this before. I knew I’d feel relieved, I’d feel safe in his arms…but he didn’t want me! He never wanted me for anything more than one night.
“What do you want me to say?” I snapped at him, realizing that any second now, the tears were going to start gushing down my cheeks.
Tank was quiet, he was glaring at me, his gaze drifting to my belly from time to time as he stared at me.
“I want you to tell me if I’m the father,” he said, in a quiet deep voice. The silence in my apartment, between us, was deafening. I could hear the clock ticking on the wall, and I could have sworn that he could hear my heart beating in my chest too.
I opened my mouth to speak, but no sound came out. I could have just lied to him, and told him it wasn’t his. That would send him away. But did I really want him to go away? Hadn’t my heart leaped at the sight of him at my door, at the sound of his voice over the phone?
“Noelle?” he came even closer to me, and now he had placed a hand on my shoulder. His touch was electrifying, and it seemed to weigh my shoulder down. I couldn’t believe that Tank was touching me, that I was so close to him again. I had only been fooling myself all these weeks by pretending that I had mana
ged to move on. That I would be able to live my life without seeing him again. I opened my mouth and let the words pour out.
“Yes, it’s yours. The baby is yours,” I said and hung my head down. I couldn’t look at him. I didn’t want to see the look of horror and disgust on his face. I didn’t want to see just how badly he regretted sleeping with me.
We were both silent again, till his grip on my shoulder became tighter. I felt the pinch on my skin, and I looked up at him instinctively.
He wasn’t horrified like I’d predicted, in fact, there could have been a smile on his face.
“Why didn’t you tell me, Noelle? Why did you keep this from me?” he asked, and he placed his other hand on my other shoulder. We were inches away from each other now. I was so close to just falling into his arms.
“Because you didn’t want me. And I was afraid of how you would react if I told you. If you didn’t want me, why would you want my baby?” I could hear the cry in my own voice. My eyes had filled with tears already, and they were threatening to roll down my cheeks.
“That was a lie, Noelle,” he said, in a deep, gruff voice and I jerked my head to look up at him again. That smile on Tank’s face had stretched wider. He was grinning, his eyes were lit up.
“What?” I asked, and slowly, he pulled me closer to him by my shoulders.
“I was lying when I said that you weren’t the right kind of woman for me,” he told me, and I stared at him with my brows knotted. The tears were gushing down my cheeks now, but I didn’t care. I didn’t know whether to believe what he was telling me.
“I don’t understand,” I said, and Tank smiled more.
“I don’t expect you to, and I’m sorry for hurting you. But believe me, Noelle, I told you that so that you would hate me. So that you never had to get involved with all the messed up things in my life. In some messed up way, I was trying to keep you safe,” he continued, and I shook my head. This was crazy. This couldn’t actually be happening. I had to be dreaming.
