Blue Lines: The Assassins Series: A Loveswept Contemporary Romance (25 page)

He looked over to see that she was now cuddled up with her Kindle on her blanketed
knees.

“I smacked myself with my phone.”

She giggled. “Way to go, genius.”

“I’ve seen you do the same thing plenty of times,” he pointed out.

She stuck her tongue out at him, a playful grin on her face. “Leave me alone. I’m
trying to read.”

Erik sat up and stretched his arms above his head. “I guess I gotta read, too, since
someone destroyed my TV.”

“She had a good reason, I’m sure you remember,” Piper said as he went down the hall.

Falling back onto the couch with his book and reading glasses, he tucked his toes
under her blanket. She drove him insane with the temperature in the house. Piper kept
the house as cold as Siberia and then she would cover up with a blanket. How did that
make sense?

Putting his glasses on, he opened his book just as Piper said, “I didn’t know you
wore glasses.”

He looked up and shrugged his shoulders. “Only when I read.”

“Probably because you’ve messed up your eyes playing Xbox.”

He blinked a few times and then looked down at his book. “Whatever.”

Suddenly he looked up when she reached over, lifting his book to see what he was reading.

“Nuh-uh!”

Figuring she was balking at his reading Harry Potter, he said, “Don’t hate.”

Erik had been reading the Harry Potter series for the past year. Ever since he went
over to hang out with Lucas and found himself fighting hippogriffs with Lucas’s son,
Aiden, he had been hooked on the series.

“No! I said that because I’m reading the same book!” she said, holding up her Kindle
to reveal
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
. “I love this book. It’s my favorite. I’ve read it like a hundred times!”

“Yeah, it’s pretty awesome. This is my first time.”

She smiled, moving closer to him and looking down at his book before doing something
to her Kindle. She looked back up at him and grinned before looking back down at her
Kindle. She was leaning against his leg, her knees pulled up to hold her Kindle, and
then her sweet mouth began reading the book out loud. She was reading to him. Erik
looked down as warmth filled him. He followed along, until the chapter was over and
she glanced up at him. “Your turn.”

He smiled. “I used to do this with Cooper.”

“I did it with my dad, too.”

He saw her whole heart in her eyes as that beautiful kiss-me smile came across her
lips.

“Hopefully, you’ll do it with the baby, too. It will be like a tradition.”

Erik couldn’t look away if he tried; his heart was in his throat as he held her gaze.
He swallowed loudly and with a slow nod he said, “I’d love to do that.”

“Good,” she said, flashing him a bright smile. “Now your turn.”

Erik couldn’t take his eyes off her. She glanced up at him expectantly, and he started
to read the next chapter. They spent the whole night reading to each other, and Erik
knew then there was no other place he’d rather be.

“Ready?”

Piper nodded quickly. “So excited.”

She could not believe Erik did this for her.

“Me, too,” Erik said as a cute blonde came toward them with a bright happy smile on
her face.

“Welcome! Do y’all have an appointment?”

Erik nodded. “Yes, for Piper Titov.”

Man, Piper loved that name.

“Yes, I have you down for twelve. Y’all are a tad bit early, so take a look around
while we get everything ready.”

“Thank you,” he said and then he turned to look at Piper. “Let’s sit down?”

“Sure.” She sat down, crossed her legs, and relaxed, taking out her phone to check
on her Facebook and other social media as they waited. Erik was doing the same, but
he looked calm, cool, and collected while she felt crazed. What if they did the ultrasound
and the baby grew eight legs like Mrs. Octopus? What if it wasn’t breathing, or had
another baby coming out of its belly? What if her wish to have a dog was true and
the baby had a tail? Okay, it was all really silly, but she was beginning to worry.
What if the baby was not normal?

She didn’t realize she was bouncing her knee until Erik’s hand rested on it.

“Your leg is doing crazy things.”

A smile pulled at her lips as she said, “What if there is something wrong?”

“That won’t happen.”

“We don’t know that!” she squealed, then quickly covered her mouth.

“For the love of God, Piper, you are making me nervous,” Erik said, shaking his head
and picking up a parenting magazine. “Everything will be fine.”

Piper nodded slowly. He was right—she was freaking out for no damn reason. The doctor
already said the baby was healthy; the only reason they were there was to find out
if the baby was a boy or girl, and to see its little baby face. Everything was going
to be okay.

Piper looked over and saw a flyer for Lamaze classes. Picking it up, she said, “Oh,
I gotta sign up for this; remind me to do that before we leave.”

Erik looked over and calmly took the flyer from her.

“Lamaze? What is that?”

“Breathing classes, so that you don’t have a heart attack during the birth.”

Erik nodded. “Okay, cool.”

She wanted to ask if he would go with her but she was afraid that would scare him
or he would say no, so she tucked the flyer in her purse. She would ask Reese to go.
Looking down at her phone, she let out a long breath as she decided if she wanted
to text Reese or not. Maybe she should try to get Erik to go with her.

“Make sure to do the Wednesday class. I don’t have training camp on Wednesdays, so
I can go.”

Piper looked up quickly to find him looking through a magazine as if he hadn’t just
made her the happiest pregnant girl in the world. Tears sprang to her eyes as she
watched his beautiful profile. She wanted to kiss him and tell him she was going to
love him forever, but instead she said, “Really?”

“Yeah, I want to be there. I might need to know that stuff,” he said, glancing over
at her. When he locked eyes with hers, he said, “What? Did you think I would miss
it?”

“I didn’t think you’d want to go.”

“Oh, well, I’m going. That’s intense stuff. I don’t want you to die. Listen, Piper,
I know you won’t believe me but I had every intention to be at the first ultrasound
appointment. I just totally forgot until me and Phillip got talking—seriously, you’ve
got to know I wanted to be part of this since then.”

She was going to devour him in the middle of the clinic. He gave her a weird look
and was about to say something but she interrupted him by leaning toward him, placing
her lips to the side of his mouth. He took in a sharp breath as she closed her eyes
tight, her lips lingering against his hot lips. Piper opened her eyes slowly when
she felt his hand on her cheek. She pulled away to see that his face was full of confusion
and tenderness as his eyes searched hers.

Moving his thumb along her cheek, he caught some of her tears as he asked, “Why are
you crying?”

“Because you are making me very happy right now,” she said without thinking.

“Piper,” he said slowly, but she shook her head.

“No, you are, thank you. I wouldn’t want anyone there but you.”

“It’s just a Lamaze class.”

She shook her head. “It’s really more than that.”

They shared another long, heated look until Erik looked away, taking in a deep breath.
She felt like he was about to say something but before he could they were being called
in for the test. Erik dropped his hand from her face before standing up. Piper did
the same and they followed the nurse into the imaging room.

“Go ahead and lie down; get comfy. Rachel, your tech, will be in soon.”

“Thank you,” Piper said, climbing up on the table.

Erik sat in the chair beside her and crossed his leg over his knee. Piper leaned back
and took in a deep breath as she tapped her fingers against her belly.

“Calm down,” Erik said. “You are making me nervous.”

Piper glanced over at him and smiled. “I’m so ready for this; thank you again for
thinking of this—I didn’t even think of it. Well, even if I did I probably wouldn’t
have considered it because of the expense.”

“You’re welcome but I wanted this, too,” he said with a nod as he looked down at where
her hands rested on her belly, fiddling with her wedding band. “You move your ring
around a lot. I see you doing it when you draw.”

Piper nodded. “Yeah, it’s become a habit.”

“Do you like that ring?”

Piper held her hand up, looking at the little diamond-encrusted wedding ring as she
nodded. “It’s beautiful.”

“It’s simple.”

She nodded. “I love that it is simple. I don’t need flashy things.”

“Maybe you could give it to the baby when it grows up. That would be nice, don’t you
think?” he asked, causing the grin that sat on Piper’s face to falter.

“What?”

“So they have something from our marriage. I think they would like that. It’s been
a good marriage. We’ll leave on good terms.”

Fucking asshole!

Piper sat up on her elbows, giving him a dirty look. “Why are you doing that?”

“Doing what?”

“Putting up fucking walls. I say you make me happy and all of sudden you need to remind
me of your leaving? Do you think I don’t know that and think of it every day? Just
stop; it’s annoying.”

Erik glared as he leaned against his knees. “You think you got me figured out, don’t
you?”

“I do and I don’t like that part of you! There is good in you, so stop trying to hide
it.”

“You don’t know what you are talking about,” he muttered as he sat back, crossing
his arms.

“I don’t?”

“Hush, the tech will be here soon and I don’t want her to see us arguing.”

“ ’Cause you know I’m right; you know that you are a good person and your biggest
fear is that no one will love you back.”

Erik shot up out of the chair, his hands out in front of him as he pinned her with
a look. “Where the hell did you get that from? Because it is ridiculous; you’re ridiculous.”

“Because I get you, the same way you get me. I don’t understand why you fight this.
We have been happy the last couple of days. Why fight that?”

“Because it is not right. This is fake, this is going to end, I don’t want to lead
you on.”

She wanted to scream.

“I don’t understand how it is leading me on when everything you do is from your heart,
even if you don’t want it to be. May I remind you we are here getting these state-of-the-art
images because of you, because you cared enough to do this for me, for us.”

The door opened and in came their ultrasound tech. She may have said something but
Piper was furious. How dare he? He knew what he was doing and she hated the fact that
with all that had passed between them he was now putting up his walls again. He frustrated
the living shit out of her and she wanted to wring his neck, but first she needed
to know what their baby was.

Then they could have it out with each other.

The tech, Rachel, explained to them what was about to happen. Neither Piper nor Erik
had any questions so Piper leaned back and took a deep breath in as Rachel lifted
her shirt up. Looking down Piper swore she had gotten bigger. Everything was changing
so quickly, and the
truth was that it scared her to the core. She had thought things were changing between
her and Erik, but it seemed that even if they were, Erik wasn’t going to let it happen.
He wasn’t going to be there after the baby was born. He was going to leave her, and
it was going to hurt.

Closing her eyes, she took in a sharp breath as Rachel put some warm gel on her belly.
Suddenly she wanted to stop this; she wanted to run to the nearest bathroom and just
cry. She knew Erik cared, she had seen and felt his concern for her, so why did he
continue to push her away? What was he hiding? She shouldn’t allow him to ruin the
most exciting time in her life; finding out the gender of her child was more important
than Erik’s indecisiveness. It’s just that he confused her. Sometimes he could be
the biggest ass in the world and other times he could do something so considerate
it was shocking, and it wasn’t when they were play-acting for the family, either.
There was something more to his actions and dammit, she would find out what it was … after
she found out her baby’s sex.

When she felt a warm hand go into hers, she opened her eyes to find him looking at
her. He bit down on his lip before letting out a long breath.

Moving in close to her, his nose tickled her cheek as he whispered, “Don’t let what
happened ruin this. We’ve been waiting for this for a while, so come on, don’t be
mad at me.”

He pulled back and squeezed her hand, totally confusing her. She just didn’t get it.
Why say those things, why try, if he had one foot out the damn door? He was by far
the most confusing man on this earth, and that said a lot because Piper had had her
share of confusing men way before him. She knew he was right, though, so she nodded
and turned her head to look at the screen.

When she saw what she was sure was her baby, tears clouded her eyes. As the probe
moved around her belly, they saw different angles of their child. It seemed to have
all four limbs and one head, thankfully. Maybe some hair, too, from what Rachel said.
It looked normal, perfect.

“We are finding out what we are having, right?” Rachel asked.

Piper nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

Rachel smiled as she moved the probe and paused so they could see what was projected
on the screen. Piper found it hard to breathe as she had waited forever for this moment,
and here she was. Erik’s hand in hers, their baby on the screen, his legs wide open
for the world to see. Tears rushed down Piper’s face as her heart started to beat
harder than a drum.

“I think that speaks for itself,” Rachel said, laughing.

Piper smiled as she turned her head to look at Erik. His brow was to his hairline
and he looked confused as he looked over at her.