Page 6 of More Bite than Bark

“Where do you want to sit?”she asked without looking at him.

“I’d prefer to have my back against the wall,” Hex said.

He kicked off his boots and put them next to the TV table where they would be out of the way then went to sit on the bed, one leg kicked wide to give her a place to settle and get comfortable in front of him.“Want to turn on the TV?”he asked as she sat and backed up in front of him.

Elle shook her head.

Hex started at the bottom and carefully worked his way up the length of her hair, making sure there were no tangles and loving the way the soft strands curled around his hand as if they couldn’t resist the urge to touch him back.

As he brushed he watched her shoulders slowly relax.He wondered if she was ready yet.Could he ask without putting her back up?He was still debating whether or not to speak up when she made his internal debate moot.

“I don’t know where to start.”Her voice was soft, almost lost.

Hex wanted to pull her into his arms and tell her it would be okay, but this wasn’t the time.If he did, she’d likely stop talking and he got the feeling she needed to get this out.

“Start wherever you like.”He kept his voice gentle, hoping not to push her out of talking.

She tilted her head back and looked at the ceiling for several seconds.Hex wondered what was going through her head, but he stayed silent.

“I’ve been seeing Michael for over a year.I don’t love him.I never did.But Mama insisted he was a good match and that I would learn to love him.”Her voice was empty.As if she was talking about someone she barely knew instead of her life for the last year or more.

Hex wondered if she’d been with the man at the altar for a year, why she’d come to him a couple of months earlier.He wasn’t thrilled about having been the other man, even if he hadn’t known about the one she’d been seeing for what was it, ten months?But he stayed silent.She was talking and he didn’t want to stop her for fear she wouldn’t start again.

“Michael—” She paused.

Hex didn’t know if she was looking for the right words or what, but he didn’t say anything.

“Michael was determined to do things ‘right’.He has a key to my place, but he’s never spent the night.The same goes for me and his place.”

Hex frowned.That seemed odd to him, especially since she’d spent the entire night with him, at least the one night they’d spent together.He didn’t say that.He waited for her to continue.

“He was determined that we would wait until after the wedding to go all the way.He said it would strengthen our relationship to be friends and know we liked each other before we added in the hormones of intercourse.”

“You never had sex with him?”Hex couldn’t stop himself from asking.He wondered if the man was straight or if he was already getting sex somewhere else.Those were the only reasons he could think of for someone not to go to bed with the woman they planned to marry.But it took all kinds and he did his best not to judge.Unless there were kids involved.That was something he wouldn’t stand for.

She shook her head.“Which makes what I found out this morning even harder.”

“You want me to braid this for you?”He changed the subject for a moment.

“You can braid hair?”

“Yep.”

“Where’d you learn to braid?”

“You learn all kinds of things in a stable, sugar.”

Elle was quiet for a moment, then she spoke, “A braid would be good.”

He divided her hair into three sections and got busy weaving it.

“What did you learn this morning?”he asked, letting her know he was listening and wanted to know.

She fidgeted.Her hands shuffled in her lap, and she turned her head to look out the window.He didn’t stop her from moving, just let his hands follow her head as she did.

“I’m pregnant.”Her voice was so soft he wasn’t he’d heard her right.

“You’re pregnant?”he asked, his mind spinning.