Stricken Unveiled (Stricken Rock #2) (4 page)

“That Johnathan’s supposedly impregnated some
woman? Yes. But that doesn’t explain why you’re in here sobbing and
throwing up.”

I adjust in his lap and free one arm from
around him. I dip my hand into my gray yoga pants pocket and
withdraw an ultrasound photo that I stuck in my pocket after we got
back from the docs. I wanted to keep it close and I’ve pulled it
out and glanced at it five or six times since we’ve been home. I
slide it into his beefy hands. He pulls it into his line of sight
and then crushes his arms around me.

“I knew something was up.” He says pressing
his face into my hair, his arms melding us together.

“Yeah.” I shrug, in his loving embrace. I
never thought James liked me this much. But I guess so.

“You went to the doctors today didn’t
you?”

I nod.

“I wondered because when you sent me grocery
shopping to pick up some particular things I found it a little
strange. But I know lately you’ve been eating more than usual. I
just thought it was stress and when I noticed you have that little
pooch. I figured it was from the stress eating.”

“Are you telling me I’m getting fat?” I pinch
his side playfully with a giggle.

“You could put on two hundred pounds Emily
and I will still think you’re beautiful.” He says with a sigh,
loosening his arms from around me.

“You’re sweet you know that?” I tug him back
into a hold and snuggle my face back against his warm chest. I
can’t get enough of the way this man smells. It’s divine.

“So let me guess Johnathan knows nothing
about your pregnancy? And you don’t want to tell him?”

I shoot up quick and face him. “Please don’t
tell him!” I shriek, my eyes wide with worry.

He chuckles deep and billowy in this chest
and reaches around to the back of my neck, gently coaxing my face
back against him. “Calm down I won’t tell him. Your secret is safe
with me. Or me and Stacy as it seems.” He reassures, patting my
back softly.

I exhale deeply. “Thank you.” I murmur and
kiss his black t-shirt covered chest.

“You’re welcome Emily. You’re my family now
and I protect my own. So just relax and calm down and we’ll go out
and see Stacy in a little bit. He’s on the phone. We don’t need you
to stress out like that again. I know it’s not easy. Johnathan’s an
ass but an ass who does love you. I’ve worked for him for the past
four years. I know love when I see it. And I know even though he
keeps hurting you, you love him too.”

“How do you know all this? Are you some kind
of mind reader?” I tease and kiss his chest again. Jesus, James
smells so good. I inhale him again. It’s soothing. He’s like warm
milk, wrapped in a velvet blanket and dunked in hot chocolate, the
epitome of comfort.

“No but I can tell with him because if a
woman gets under his skin too much he drops her like a bad habit.
What Stacy said about him doing that over and over again was true.
I’ve seen it for years. Two, three weeks of lots of sex, lots of
hot and heavy and then when he wants to get down to the emotional
level after the short-lived honeymoon stage is over, he gets bored
and realizes they don’t belong with him.”

“Did he really give them money to leave him
alone?” I whisper like I’m divulging a horrible secret.

“Yes, but it wasn’t to leave him alone. He
could make that happen with a restraining order. He felt bad.
Johnathan lives with a guilty conscious, more so than one would
think.”

“How do you know all this?” I inquire, as I
run my finger up and down his thick back.

“I’ve been his personal bodyguard for the
past almost four years, until he gave me to you.”

“Did you do something to make him mad so he
wanted a new bodyguard?”

He chuckles, my head rising and falling with
his chest. “No, I wondered in the beginning why he wanted you to
have me instead of him anymore. We’ve been friends for a long time.
It’s hard not to be when you work with someone so closely every
day. But I realized two days after being assigned to you that he
wanted you to have me because I’m the best at my job and he loves
you so much that he would rather sacrifice himself then have
anything happen to you.”

A tear falls from my eye. “Then why does he
treat me so bad and have sex and impregnate other women?” I
sob.

“You’re hard on him too. Ya know. But I think
it’s his way of self-preservation. He doesn’t want to love you like
he does. But he can’t help himself. So he tries to find ways to
prove to himself he doesn’t feel the way he does.” He explains,
caressing my back.

“He has a terrible way of showing it. Either
he tries to have sex with me or he goes and does or says things
that hurt me. It’s exhausting.” I slump.

“Yeah well we all can’t be perfect. I even
have flaws.”

“Surrreee ya do, like what?” I ask, sarcasm
clinging to my every word.

He laughs. “For starters my feet stink really
bad after I get home from work, I drink milk from a jug, slurp
soup, leave soda cans all over the nightstand in my bedroom….”

“Pop Cans.” I correct with a smile.

“Oh yeah, that’s right. Okay.
Pop
Cans
.” He chuckles twice. “I fold over pages in books that I
read if I like a quote or something on it.”

I pinch his side. “That’s not a bad habit
that’s adorable actually.”

He inhales sharply and exhales loudly. “Yeah
well. There’s lots wrong with me.” He mumbles.

“So far you don’t sound so bad. Keep going.”
I hug him harder and his hands rest on my lower back.

“You need more? Isn’t that enough?” He
chuckles

I shake my head.

“Oh alright, fine… I like to have sex with
the lights on, if I have it. And I eat peanut butter right out of
the jar with my finger. I shave in the shower and sometimes the
hair doesn’t get rinsed down well enough so at the end of the week
I have to wipe down the shower to clean a weeks’ worth of hair
build up.”

I snort a laugh. “I can’t believe you think
those are bad qualities.”

“They are. Those are a lot of the things
women tell me when they break up with me, to tell me why they want
to break up.” He shrugs.

I sit up quickly, grab his soft caramel face
in my hands and look him straight in the eyes. Forcing him to look
into mine.

“James, if a woman doesn’t want you because
you shave in the shower and your feet stink. She’s a fucking moron.
You’re a good person who I happen to think the world of. Who’s
spent the last half hour on the floor with a crying pregnant woman
trying to make her feel better and the same man who just spent four
hours finding me umpteen food staples because I’m craving them. So
don’t be thinking low of yourself because of some hoity-toity bitch
doesn’t love you for who you are.” I state firmly and let go of his
face.

His eyes widen. I can be sure if it’s a good
or a bad thing.

“Sorry.” I mutter. “I shouldn’t have been
that forward.”

He pulls me into another hug. Pressing my
body against his and I lay my small head on his big peck.

“If you ever decide you don’t love Johnathan
anymore give me a call.” He says. I can hear the smile in his
voice, even if I can’t see it.

I laugh. “You won’t be saying that when I get
fat, have stretch marks, and the proud mom of twins.” I murmur
under my breath.

He slides his hand up and down my back with
affection. “I will want you if you had sixteen kids and stretch
marks and weighed two hundred and fifty pounds.” He reassures and
actually sounds like he means it.

I sit up to see his face again, draping my
arms loosely over his shoulders. “Well if you put it that way.
You’ll be the first man I’ll be sure to call.” I laugh and he joins
in.

“But seriously James, how did I ever get so
lucky to have you and Stacy in my life? I don’t know what I would
do without either of you.” I say, staring him straight in the
eyes.

“I wonder the same thing
all
the
time.” He teases with a sly smile and I smack him in the arm. “See
you’re all better.” He adds rubbing his reddened arm for show.

I roll my eyes. “Yeah, whatever.”

“Well now that the woman we all love has
re-graced us with her presence why don’t we get off the bathroom
floor and join Stacy in the living room?”

I slide off him. He stands first and offers
his hand to help me, which I accept.

He opens the bathroom door and I freeze. I
don’t know if I can go out there and face the music. I will cry
again. I can feel it coming already. I don’t want to hear about
Johnathan’s new baby mama. I want to crawl into bed and sleep for a
week.

James holds out his hand standing in the
opened door frame.

“It will be okay. I promise, if you need to
cry or breakdown again it’s alright. I will be here, and Stacy is
right out here. You will be in the safest hands you got.” James
says sweetly.

I nod and accept his hand again and hold it
all the way into the living room. Stacy is sitting on the couch
yelling on his cell phone. I turn my head and see Deacon sitting at
the island in the kitchen eating left over pizza.

“This is good pizza.” He comments taking a
big bite.

Yeah, it was good going down but coming up
not so much.

“Why are you here still?” I ask D a little
bitchy. I can’t help it. I can’t stand that guy. He’s a pompous
fucker who treats women worse than Johnathan does and that says
something right there.

“I’m waiting to hear that Stacy has to say
when he gets off the cell. This is a huge shocker for us all. Who
would’ve thought J would be the dumbass to get a woman
pregnant.”

I tighten my grip on James’s hand. He leans
over to my ear and whispers. “Do you want me to throw his ass out
now? I can.”

I shake my head.

“Oh, are you two a thing now?” D motions with
his pizza toward my hand in James’s.

“Does it matter if we are or not?” I
snap.

“Naw, just thought I’d change the subject
till Stace decides to get off the fucking phone with an update.” He
shrugs, obviously frustrated. Yeah well join the damn club.

“Why does it matter to you anyways Deacon?” I
bark.

I’m pissed now. Hey anything is better than
crying like a fucking baby on the floor in the bathroom with my
bodyguard.

“J’s my man. If he’s gonna be a daddy I wanna
be there to support him and shit. I just can’t believe it. He never
leaves his dick unwrapped.” He shakes his head. “Like never. It’s a
rule we don’t want nothing we can’t wash off. Ya know?”

I want to scream at him: Uh, huh sure he
doesn’t you stupid pompous motherfucker. I am pregnant because your
“J” came in me four times in one motherfucking night.
With no
condom on
! If his sperm is anything, it’s potent and fertile as
fuck. Because five percent chance of pregnancy over here still got
knocked up by him. With twins you stupid asshole. So even if he
wrapped his shit it might have super powers to eat through the
condom and impregnate just about any woman he’s ever slept with.
Which if I remember correctly is like three hundred and twenty plus
bitches. Including myself!

I shake my head. God I hate him! Deacon and
Johnathan both. I think I’m past hating Johnathan because I can
forgive him for some stuff. But damn if anything this bullshit has
me angry and heartbroken and emotional as fuck. Hating him all over
again. Welcome to the hormonal roller coaster of pregnancy. If I
wasn’t pregnant I’d still be hormonal but I’m juiced now. It’s like
a 4 cylinder car versus a V8. I’m now the latter.

“Just got off the phone with Passages and the
media.” Stacy says solemnly, walking over to us standing in the
hallway between the kitchen and the living room.

“And?” D cuts in.

“You okay babe?” he asks me, his shoulders
slumped. I drop James’s hand and wrap my arms around Stacy’s
shoulders. He presses his lips to my temple and tugs me into a soft
loving embrace.

“I’m fine.” I whisper swirling my fingers on
the back of his soft neck, his blonde hair tickling my
knuckles.

“No you’re not. I’m sorry I didn’t come to
the bathroom sooner but as soon as I got up to come in my phone
rang, it was the rehab calling. There is media camping outside the
gate into Passages, wanting to do interviews with Johnathan. I told
them what happened. Since there are no TV’s there. We’re all going
to tell him on Monday when we go to pick him up. They have a
counselor scheduled to sit with us when we do.”

I nod.

“I’m really sorry” he mutters against my
temple and pulls me in tighter.

“It’s okay Stace. James came and took care of
me.” I pat the back of his head sweetly.

“I know but it’s my job to take care of
you.”

“It’s our job.” James interrupts.

“Dude, stop whining and fucking tell me
what’s going on?” D breaks in and I want to haul off and slap the
shit out of him.

Stace kisses my temple once more and releases
me then whips around fast to face Deacon.

“Listen dick this is my motherfucking house.
You can pull shit all you want elsewhere. Not here. I will throw
your stupid ass out and not tell you damn thing. So your ass better
ask nicely or so help me!” Stacy yells. He’s on fire.

GO STACE!

D throws up his hands in defeat and holds
them there. “Dude, sorry. Can you
please
tell me what’s
doin’?”

“Press staked out the rehab center. But
according to the director no one has gotten in or close enough to
Johnathan to tell him what’s happening. We will tell him on Monday
with trained professionals. I spoke to the media, they are blowing
up the work line asking for interviews and shit. I spoke to two
different ones. Told them we have no comment because we don’t know
the ins and outs. But we’re not confirming or denying the
allegations. The only thing that’s got us by the balls is this
chick has an ultrasound picture from a valid well-known OBGYN which
has confirmed that she is six weeks pregnant, which puts her
conception around the same time she slept with Johnathan. Plus she
has photos of them fucking.”