Blue Lines: The Assassins Series: A Loveswept Contemporary Romance (24 page)

“Whoa!” Erik exclaimed with his hands up in the air. “Who said anything about loving
anyone? Change, Phillip, I said, change for her, no love. I have never been in love
with a woman a day in my life and no matter how much she makes me want to
change
, I don’t think I’ve ever loved her. I feel like I care for her, or something, but
I don’t love her.”

Phillip laughed as he rolled his eyes. “You might not now, but you could if you allowed
yourself to.”

“She worries the piss out of me. When she is mad, I get upset, too, but that doesn’t
mean anything. It means that she is getting under my skin and that I need to get the
fuck out! Because I actually care about the ultrasound, does that make any sense?
I actually care about finding out what the baby is because she cares, and I like to
make her happy.”

“I’d want to know that, too. That’s cool. When is that?”

Erik paused. “The twenty—oh fuck!”

“What?” Phillip asked.

Suddenly the front door flew open, banging against the wall, causing some pictures
to
fall. It startled them both and Stanley started barking his ass off. Standing in the
doorway was a very angry pregnant woman.

“You son of a bitch,” she sneered as she stomped down the hall, leaving the front
door wide open. “How dare you!”

“Now Piper,” Erik said, standing up with his hands out in front of him.

“You forgot about the ultrasound, didn’t you?” Phillip asked as he leaned back into
the couch.

“Shut up, Phillip!” they both said at the same time. Erik turned to look at Piper
just as she picked up his hockey stick.

“Piper, I’m—”

Before he could get anything else out, she swung the stick into the middle of his
beautiful seventy-inch LED TV.

“Oh, you are so fucked, dude,” Phillip laughed as she continued to slam the stick
into the screen.

“How dare you!” she screamed as she turned, the stick resting at her side. “How do
you forget that today was the day we find out what the baby is! Oh, I know how! Because
you are always playing these useless fucking games and you don’t give two shits about
this baby or me!” Before he could even move, she swung and slammed the stick into
his Xbox console. Erik took in a sharp breath as she continued swinging annihilating
his poor game machine. When she was through, Piper was breathless as she turned to
him and screamed, “You promised me!” Her body began to shake as tears poured down
her face.

“Piper, I’m sorry—”

“I don’t want your apology! Because of you, I still don’t know what my child is because
I fucking promised our child that I wouldn’t know unless you were there! I promised
myself, and also you. I said I wouldn’t do it because I kept things to myself for
so long!” she yelled, and it felt like she was jabbing him in the heart with knives.
He didn’t know what to say. He wanted to take her in his arms, hold her, kiss her
angry mouth, and apologize but he knew there was no touching or even trying to talk
to her right now. “So thank you! Thank you for ruining my fucking day and hell, the
rest of my pregnancy because the ultrasound techs are fully booked for the next three
months, which means I can’t find out what I am having until the baby is born! I wonder
if you’ll be there for that, or maybe you’ll fucking forget!”

She threw the stick down, knocking over an end table as she stomped through the house
and toward the back door.

“Piper!”

“No!” she said, whirling around and pointing her finger in his face. “No! You have
broken my heart, Erik, for the second time, and you get to say nothing else to me!”

Her eyes were wide, tears pooling in them before they fell in heaps. She turned to
walk out of the house, slamming the door behind her. Erik never meant to hurt her,
and when he looked around the house, he was in complete shock at all the destruction
she had caused. The biggest blow was the one she did to his heart. He had never felt
like such a piece of shit since he left his father’s abusive home.

“You can promise a fetus things?”

Erik looked down at Phillip and was about to yell at him when he saw he was wearing
his hockey helmet. “Why are you wearing that?”

“Dude, I gotta protect my head. She was swinging that stick harder than Shea does,
I swear.”

Any other time, Erik would have laughed, but right then he shook his head and dropped
down on the couch. “Man, I fucked up.”

“Uh, yeah. She is pissed.”

“
Pissed
is not the word for what she is.”

Shaking his head, he buried his face in his hands as he took in a deep breath. She
was right. How did he forget? She had reminded him yesterday! Erik’s heart hammered
against his ribs. Usually he knew what to do to fix things, but with her, he didn’t
know and she was pissed. Pissed enough to break his TV and game system and probably
his neck if she wanted to.

God, he was an idiot.

“Yeah, I’m not really sure how you are going to fix this,” Phillip muttered.

“I’m not, either.”

But he knew he had to try.

Because Piper mattered.

The next morning Erik stood at the lakeshore behind Piper’s house letting the water
run up his ankles, his mind completely on her. They hadn’t talked much since yesterday,
after she annihilated his toys. He still could not believe he missed the appointment—God,
he was an idiot. He was losing his mind worrying about her. The feelings he was having
were scaring the hell out of him. But he had no control over them. When it came to
Piper, nothing made sense and he was starting to accept that.

Running his hand down his face, he took in a deep breath and reached in his pocket
for his phone. Looking down at the display he saw he had no missed calls, no text
messages or voice mails. He didn’t even have a Facebook notification, which was so
pathetic. Just then the phone lit up with Jakob’s ugly mug, but before he could answer
it, Erik jumped in surprise when a hand came down on his shoulder. Looking behind
him, a smile came over his face when he saw it was his brother. “Hey, bro, what’s
with the phone call, warning me you’re in the vicinity?” he said as Jakob came to
stand beside him, his arms folded across his chest.

“Nah, just wanted to make you jump. Why are you standing out here alone?”

Erik let out a breath. “Thinking.”

“About?”

“Piper,” Erik said honestly, with a sideways glance at Jakob.

Jakob nodded as he looked down at the ground.

“They talked yesterday. Harper said that you guys missed the appointment to find out
what you’re having.”

Erik nodded. “I forgot.”

“Oh God. Are you stupid?”

“Yeah, basically,” Erik answered with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Harper didn’t tell me that. She just said that you guys are waiting until the baby
is born.”

Erik shook his head, looking over at his big brother. “Nah, man, I fucked up. I missed
the appointment and now the office is booked until after the baby comes. I even tried
to get us another appointment at another office but no luck.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah, I suck.”

“Yeah, you do. Was she mad?”

Erik laughed as he nodded. “She broke my TV and Xbox and now won’t talk to me.”

Jakob shook his head. “I don’t blame her.”

Erik dropped his head at the sound of disappointment in Jakob’s voice. It was bad
enough that he felt like a jackass for what happened, but it didn’t help to hear Jakob’s
disapproval as well.

Clearing his throat, he asked, “How would you fix it?” Jakob grunted, causing Erik
to look over at him. “What?”

“Nothing. It’s just so weird to see you like this. I never thought I’d see the day
when you’d care if a woman was mad at you or not. It’s weird.”

Erik looked away.

“I get that but are you going to help me?”

“So this isn’t a sham then, is it? You really care for her. Because honestly, up until
now I thought you were full of shit.”

Erik looked straight into his brother’s eyes and for the first time since marrying
Piper, he didn’t lie when he said, “I do.”

“Okay,” Jakob said with a smirk. “I won’t say anything else about it then. I’m sorry
I doubted you.”

“It’s fine; now help me.”

Jakob thought for a moment and then clapped his hands together, turning to Erik with
a huge grin on his face.

“When Harper was pregnant with Ally, we had gone to the regular ultrasound at the
doctor’s office, but Harper wanted those cool 4D ones, so we called around and everything
locally was booked, so we called places in Clarksville. I bet Piper would like to
go there since it is close to her parents’ house; you could kill two birds with one
stone as the saying goes. The place is literally across the highway from Blake and
Rowan’s.”

Erik nodded as he thought. That was the perfect solution. Why didn’t he think of that?
Though he had no clue what 4D was, he was pretty sure it was like an ultrasound, and
well he had to give himself points for even trying to reschedule that. With hope,
he asked, “Do you have
the number?”

“I do!” Jakob exclaimed, pulling out his phone. Erik shook his head at his overly
excited brother as Jakob read him the phone number. Erik called them right there and
soon he was on the line with the receptionist. Luckily they had a cancellation the
next day and were able to give them an appointment. Erik booked it, getting the biggest
4D package imaginable so that Piper would have all the tests they offered. Not only
was he sure that it would make Piper happy; he was excited to know what they were
having, too.

“Booked,” he said with a grin.

* * *

Later that day, Erik found Piper standing out by the lakeshore. She had spent most
of her time in her room, obviously not wanting to talk to him, or be near him for
that matter. This was the perfect time to tell her about the 4D ultrasound. He hated
when she was mad at him, and he knew he had to fix it. Not just for himself, but for
them and for the baby.

Shit, when did he start caring about more than just himself?

Erik started down the hill to where she stood. She was wearing her bright blue bikini,
the one he loved because it made not only her ass look great, but her tits, too. She
was so beautiful, her hair blowing in the breeze, but when he got closer, he saw that
she was still crying.

Standing beside her he gathered his courage and said, “Can I ask you something?”

She wouldn’t look at him. She only nodded, so he took in a deep breath and asked,
“Are you still mad at me?”

She didn’t answer him for what seemed like eternity, but then she looked over at him.
Her blue eyes locked on his as a lone tear escaped and ran down her beautiful face.
He reached over, slowly wiping the tear away with his thumb and was surprised when
she didn’t flinch or try to move away.

“I want to be, but I’m not. I’m more hurt than anything. You knew how much I wanted
to know the baby’s gender.”

“I know, Piper, and I’m so sorry. I couldn’t believe that I forgot about it, either.”

She looked out at the lake again. He didn’t want to lose this moment. This was the
first opportunity he had all day to tell her.

He pulled up the package he had purchased for her on his phone. He handed it to her,
praying to God she didn’t drop it in the lake, and watched as she read the receipt.
When her eyes went wide, he smiled. She glanced up at him, her mouth parted as tears
gathering in her eyes. But this time he was sure they were happy tears.

“You made us an appointment for a 4D ultrasound?”

“I did,” Erik said. “Jakob helped me out a little.”

“Oh my God,” she said, glancing back down at the phone. “Why didn’t I think of doing
this?”

Erik suggested, “Because you were too busy chopping my TV to bits?”

Her smile grew and then suddenly she threw her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly
as her legs came up wrapping around his waist. Of course, he was hard within seconds
as he held her wet body against his, but he controlled himself, hugging her back.
When she pulled away, her face was happily looking down at him. If he tilted her just
a bit, he could kiss her, and she would be able to feel his arousal. He could feel
her heart hammering in her chest as her eyes deepened in color. His hands rested at
the middle of her back, but when she ran her tongue along her lips, his hands tightened,
squeezing her as he tried to not kiss her. Everything was already so confusing between
them; adding sex in the mix wasn’t going to help anything.

“Thank you,” she whispered. He wanted to smash his lips to hers, take over her body
with his own, but before he could even move, talk, or breathe, she screamed, “Shit!”

“What?” he asked as she wiggled out of his arms and moved behind him. He turned to
find her bending down and fishing his phone out of the water.

“I dropped your phone. I’m so sorry.” she told him, as she tried to shake it dry.
He wanted to be mad, he wanted to shake her because she had ruined everything he owned—but
when she looked up at him with worry, all he could do was smile.

“Ah, it’s no big deal,” he said, taking his soaked phone from her. “I’ll just add
it to the list of things you have destroyed over the course of our marriage.”

And the list was as follows:

TV.

Xbox.

iPhone 5.

And, the walls around his heart.

Yup, Erik Titov was in trouble.

* * *

Erik was sitting on the couch when Piper came out to sit by him, her Kindle in one
hand and a blanket in the other. She was wearing those naughty little black shorts
and his old high school hockey shirt. He loved the way the shirt fit her, stretching
over her belly and her swollen breasts. His hands shook from the mere need to touch
her. Slouched, and leaning back on the couch, he had been setting up the new iPhone
and lost his grip on it as it hit him in the face.

“Ah!” he yelped, picking up the phone, rubbing his nose.

“What?”