Hank Read online

  Which is why the argument we keep getting into is killing me. I wish with everything I am that I could tell him how much I want a life with him. How much I truly love him, and I want to tell him everything. Everything about my family and the journey that brought me to him.

  I wipe the tear falling down my cheek away. Grabbing my clothes from the floor, I look over at him as he is sleeping soundly. His arm is still draped across the spot in the bed I was occupying. I would give anything to lay back in that space and let him wrap me in his muscular arms protecting me from everything outside these walls.

  Get a grip, Sophia. Stop your blubbering, I say to myself as I wipe my face and finish putting my clothes on. Once I’m dressed, I sit on the edge of the bed by his head and take in the memory of our last night together. I do this same ritual every night I leave his embrace. The borrowed time I am on with him could end at any moment. I have no idea when the last time will be, and I never want to forget a single hairy inch of him. Leaning over, I whisper my final words every night.

  “I love you, Ragnar.” I kiss his cheek and leave to get ready for work.

  I started calling him Ragnar when he slept because he reminded me of the Norse Viking Ragnar. It is something I learned about him in Mythology class when I was in high school. It seems as if it was a lifetime ago.

  When Ragnar was fifteen, he killed a nest of poisonous snakes by wearing animal skin, which he boiled and rolled in sand. His clansmen would later call him Hairy Breeches. He was so young making his mark, but he was later killed by the very thing that made him famous. I refuse to be the snake that destroys Hank. God, I wish things were different I think as I am walking home.

  But, most of all, I wish I could tell him about the baby. The one growing inside me, that he put there our first night. I want to tell him all of it. But I can’t. If he knew, he would never walk away from either of us. Or let me. And now it’s about more than just us. I have to protect the baby now too.

  3

  Hank

  I am a fucking moron. When I jolt awake and reach for her all I get is cold sheets. Again. Fuming, I get out of bed and start searching the bathroom in case she’s there. But I knew better. Dressing quickly, I grab my keys and cellphone before storming down to my truck and making the drive to her apartment. My fingers are clenching the steering wheel until my knuckles start to turn white. The sun isn't even up yet. I know I should wait to confront her, but I’m beyond waiting.

  My inner Viking is demanding I take what's mine and leave no question that she is mine. The tires on my truck screech to a halt in front of her building. Jumping out before the truck has a chance to stop rocking, I run up the stairs and pound on her door until she opens it. Pushing past her, I enter her living room. There is barely any furniture and there are no decorations on the walls or sitting out. It’s as if she expects to be leaving at any fucking moment.

  “What are you doing here, Hank?” She asks with her voice full of sleep. With only the single lamp on the room, I can tell she's been crying. Her face is red, and tear stained.

  “Acadia. What do you think I'm doing here? You left my bed again. It's obviously eating you alive and is not something you want to do,” I respond exasperated.

  “I'm gonna stop you right there, Hank,” she says holding her hands up.

  For the first time, I notice her pajamas. Is this really the first time I've seen them? Her teeny tiny shorts might as well be panties and her half of t-shirt somehow displays her tummy and her tits. Are they bigger? I swallow that question down for now.

  “Why Cadi? Have I not shown you how much I care for you? How much I love you? Even how much I need you?”

  “I can't do this, Hank. You need to let me go.” I see red. Red on top of red.

  “You can shut that shit down now, Acadia. You belong to me and sealed your fucking fate when gave me that sweet cherry.”

  “Hank, you don't understand,” she says as fresh tears roll down her cheeks. Her crying was not what I had in mind.

  “Then help me understand, baby,” I say moving closer to her.

  “I can't,” she replies dejectedly.

  “Can't or won't?” I throw back at her and her shoulders slump.

  “Fine. Don't tell me, but you'll never not be mine. Nothing you say will change our fate.” She firms her face in determination. It’s about the cutest fucking thing I've ever seen.

  “Pack a bag. You are living with me from now on.” Her face twists in anger.

  “Listen here, Ragnar. You do not get to come into my house and tell me what I'm doing.” Ragnar? Recalling my Norse mythology, that is an interesting nickname to be sure.

  “Try and act like it’s not what you need. That it’s not what you fucking want from me.”

  “I. I. Damn it.” She crosses her arms over her chest. Those are definitely fucking bigger.

  “That's what I thought,” I say pulling her into my arms and kissing her until she moans. She pulls away from me first.

  “I guess I’ll pack that bag,” she says frowning.

  “Fuck the bag,” I say as I heft her up over my shoulder.

  “I at least need my purse and I really have to go pee. You woke me up,” she says giggling. I gently set her down and kiss her again. She just stares at me.

  “Didn’t you have to pee?” I ask chuckling.

  “Oh, yeah,” she says flitting off to her tiny bathroom.

  I stand in her living room and technically the kitchen as well. I notice prescription bottles on the counter and being the snoop that I am, I pick it up and read it. One is for prenatal vitamins and the other is for something called ondansetron. I pull my phone out and do a quick Google search. Ondansetron is a generic brand of medication used for nausea. Along with the prenatal vitamins, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that I knocked up my girl. I put the bottles back where they were and go back to stand by the door.

  The only questions I have is: Why hasn’t she told me, and should I tell her I know?

  “Ready,” she says coming back into the room. She grabs a bottle of water from her fridge and tosses it into the backpack she is carrying. The pill bottles are also dropped in her bag. I guess that answers the follow up question I have about when she’s going to tell me.

  “Let’s go, babe. I need you in my bed.” I say taking her hand and lead her down to the truck. I’m ready for her to be mine always. Right here is the beginning for us.

  4

  Acadia

  He is fucking hot. As much as I try to protest, I am turned on by him coming for me and demanding I go with him. How the hell is a girl supposed to walk away from something as delicious as that?

  Walking to the truck it isn’t until I get in that it hits me. There is no way I will be able to hide the pregnancy from him for long living in the same place. I am lucky if there is one morning where I am not puking my fucking guts out at bum fuck o'clock in the morning. Oh hell. This is not good.

  “What are you thinking about Cadi? Just so you know, it’s too late to turn back. You belong with me and to me. There is no going back.”

  Doesn't he know I know that? I can lie to myself all day by saying I don’t love him. But my body would never let me live with the lie my mouth spews out. My heart would never let me forget the rhythm it beats just for him. The nose will never let me forget his woodsy spicy smell, and my stomach can’t not carry the life we created. There is no part of my being that isn’t his. But I have to find a way out of this. For his sake. And ours. I am thinking as I am rubbing my stomach.

  “No. I’m fine. I just realized I left my uniform for work is all.” It is partly the truth.

  “I will send some guys over to pack and move your stuff to my, now our place. Sound good?” He is so fucking perfect.

  I look out the window to stabilize my feelings as the tears start forming. Seems nowadays I am more than a little emotional.

  “Mmmm...yes. Sounds perfect.” There is no more talking on the way to his place. Once we are inside, he wal
ks into his bedroom and starts stripping his clothes off along the way.

  “Come and shower with me, baby. I need to hold you.” Geez. If he keeps acting like this, I will be flooding his house with tears in no time.

  “Ok. You go on in. I will be right there after I check on Taryn. She called me earlier.” I fucking hate lying to him. But I don't know what else to do. If I don’t fight this somehow, Hank will become more than my life and then it really will be too late.

  “Ok, Cadi. Hurry up. This snake will bite, and you don’t want to miss it,” he says with a smile and laughing as he walks away. Jesus, that man makes my pussy throb without touching it.

  I walk to the front room and dial the number my fingers have been itching to dial for a while now.

  “Sophia. What’s wrong? Is everything ok?”

  “No. Everything is fucked, Om.”

  “What happened? Has your identity been discovered?”

  “No. Not that. It’s worse. I know you are going to be mad. Hank and I have been seeing each other for the past two months. It got serious real quick and he made me move in with him.” I rattle it all off as fast as I can because the guilt is killing me.

  “What the fuck, Sophia? I told you not to involve my family in this.” He did. And I didn’t mean to.

  “I know. It was an accident. I didn’t mean for it to go this far. But I love him so much. Om, it hurts. I know I need to leave him now, but it is going to kill me.”

  “That’s a negative buttercup. He’s got you now. Trust me when I tell you, that once we find our soulmates we never let go.”

  “So, what do I do?”

  “Don’t get him killed. Be careful. Stay out of photographs and out of trouble. Above all don't break his heart.”

  “That’s it? That’s all you have to say?”

  “Oh. And welcome to the family.” With that, he hangs up.

  Asshole. Oh, Soph. How did you get yourself into this situation?

  “CADI!!!! Get your sexy ass in this bathroom so I can fuck you.” That’s hot. Well shit. My man is calling. And right now, I need him more than ever.

  5

  Hank

  After an entire week of living together, Cadi hasn’t said shit to me about our baby. It has put me at my wit's end pretending to be sleeping while she spews her guts every morning. But I am determined that she will be the one to tell me. Maybe she is waiting to have a sonogram or some such shit in order to tell me in a special way. Unfortunately, it’s killing me. Several times I’ve had to stop from reaching out and rubbing her belly.

  We’ve had several conversations about her goals in life. She wants to be a chef, so I convinced her to take an internship at UTGARD. Now she will be working closely with me, starting today. I am going to teach her everything I know.

  “I’m ready,” she says wearing the all black chef uniform for UTGARD. “This is so much more comfortable than the uniform at Missy’s,” she says laughing.

  “You look beautiful,” I say.

  It’s still early. I am on the morning shift this week. I’ll be making today’s stocks, soups, and sauces. I’ll also be getting the bread ready since Taryn has been sick this week and coming to work in the evenings. There must be something in the water in Bleak. Almost everyone I know is pregnant.

  We hop in the truck and drive over to the restaurant in silence. It’s only going to be the two of us until about ten a.m., so I plan on making the most out of it. As we start working it is discovered Cadi has more skills than even, she realized. We work through the list quickly getting everything going on the stovetop. When we are done cleaning up the prep mess, I set the timer for the bread and pull her into my arms.

  “Do you know that you hum while you are cooking?” She asks me.

  “I do. Loki tells me I annoy him all the time,” I respond with a laugh.

  “I think it’s adorable,” she says tilting her head up for a kiss. I oblige her with a kiss her, while simultaneously opening the buttons on her jacket and pulling it off of her arms. Her little tank top comes off next along with her front zip sports bra.

  “We can’t do this here. Loki will kill you if you mess with his perfect score from the health department,” she says moaning as I pull her nipple into my mouth.

  “Don’t talk about my brother when I am about to fuck you,” I say my mouth still full.

  “Shut up and eat my pussy,” she demands with a smirk on her beautiful face.

  She lightly pushes me down to my knees. I go down willingly and grinning as I pull her pants down, along with her panties. I position her leg over my shoulder and using my thumbs to pull her pussy lips wide open. Licking her already wet slit from her clit to her ass causing her juices to pool in my beard. I love the sweet taste of them. I eat her until she comes.

  Standing, I open the drawstring on my own pants and pull my already hard and heavy cock out. I watch in fascination as my girl drops to her knee’s takings my cock into her hot wet mouth. By this point, she knows just what I like and brings me to almost the point of coming, before pulling off my cock leaving a hot trail of her saliva.

  Lifting her body to turn her around and lay her face down. Her ass is sitting on the prep table next to us. I slam into her juicy cunt from behind. The sounds of her moans, along with the sounds of my hips reverberating off of her lush ass have me ready to come in no time. I reach with my right hand around to find her clit and start strumming it. I use my left hand to grip her hair and using it as leverage as I fuck into her. She screams my name as she comes.

  “Good girl let me hear you,” I demand.

  “I love you. I love you. I love you,” she continuously screams as I release jet after jet of my cum into her pretty cunt. At this moment I feel about a thousand feet tall. Spent, I lean down and kiss her neck.

  “I love you too,” I whisper in her ear causing her to shiver.

  We have said it to each other a thousand times in the last two-plus months, but this time it feels different. More somehow. Gingerly, I pull out of her and quickly pull her pants and panties back up her legs. I pick her jacket up off the floor and help her back into it. We kiss for a while and then go back about our business like we didn’t just fuck into oblivion. After cleaning our hands, we get back to work. I sanitize the prep table while she stirs the various pots on the stove. While we are working, I hear the back door open and chuckle. We were so close to getting caught. Loki walks in, smiling.

  “What’s up, bro?”

  “We got it,” he says excitedly.

  “We got what?” I ask while pausing my wiping down of the counter.

  “Delicious Eats will be filming here this weekend. It’s going to be live. Can you believe it? Our restaurant, Hákon, live TV on Saturday night. It’s already Wednesday. We don’t have a lot of time to get this place camera ready,” he says.

  “Fuck. That’s amazing. We’ve been trying to get this accomplished for so long. How’d you do it?”

  “Tabby spoke to the producer. Is there anything that woman can’t do?” he asks rhetorically. I grin and pull him into a hug.

  “We’ve got to get busy,” I say already mentally planning out the systematic deep clean of the restaurant. I know Loki is already thinking about what to make.

  “You guys, that’s amazing. Delicious Eats is the American Food Channel’s most-watched show. Is Savannah Echols really coming here?” Cadi asks mentioning the hostess of the show. She looks very pale.

  “Do you know her?” I ask suddenly realizing I don’t know much about her before she moved here.

  “I do. We went to the same high school, though she is a couple of years older than me,” she says before clamming up.

  That’s interesting. As far as I know, Savannah is from Atlantic City, New Jersey. Cadi doesn’t sound like she is from New Jersey, does she? Now that I think about, she does have a distinct Jersey Shore accent when she’s pissed.

  “She’ll be here,” Loki interjects and interrupting my musings of the Garden State.

&n
bsp; “Oh, it’ll be nice to catch up,” Cadi says quietly. I can tell she’s not thrilled.

  “Anyway, we need all hands-on deck. I’ve called the guys and Thane come to help us. Erika will bring fresh flowers. The only person I’ve not gotten a hold of yet is Sven. Have you seen him?”

  “No, not in a few days.”

  “Me either. I hope he’s enjoying himself.”

  “I’m sure he is,” I say chuckling.

  The timer goes off for the bread and I watch as Cadi takes it out of the oven. This filming is either going to be amazing or a shit show. How fun is that going to be?

  6

  Cadi

  Great. Just great. When I think I have it under control something like this happens. There is no way I can be here for this. Out of all the stupid things I have done, being on camera would be the penultimate dumbest thing. Shit. I have to call someone. Oh wait, I can call Hank’s uncle Tori.

  “Sophia. Is everything ok?” It's so weird having people call me by my given name.

  “It’s not that. Loki and Hank have an excellent opportunity for the restaurant. But the problem is it is going to be filmed. LIVE!!!”

  “Fuck! Does Om know about this?”

  “No. I called you first. What do I do? I have to find a way or reason to be absent.”

  “Ha. Good luck. Hank is a Jorgensen. There is no way he is going to let you out of this. Just try to have a reason to work in the back room or something. I will let Om know. Maybe he can come up with a plan.”

  “Alright. Please. Hurry.” Man oh, man. This is too much.