Unforgivably Broken (The Broken Series Book Two) (8 page)

And after the birth, Zane would have an infant to care for with Lizzie. He hated being away from Conner now. He didn’t fully trust Lizzie to give Conner everything he needed so there was no way he would trust her full time with an infant. He’d be around her.
A lot.

Where would that leave me? Lizzie and I couldn’t stand each other so any kind of family event would be damn near impossible. I would have to step aside and tell Zane it didn’t bother me that he wanted to spend Christmas morning with Lizzie and his children because he should. I would have to lie through my teeth and make it convincing.

“Hey,” he said, breaking into my thoughts as he reached for my face. “Where’d you go?”

I leaned my face into his hand and noticed the anxiety in his expression. I needed to smile and reassure him that we were good but I could feel the tears brimming as I fought to control my emotions. “This is going to be hard.”

“Come here,” he said, pulling me against him again. He held me tight and I buried my face in his neck again. I felt his lips against my hair. “Just breathe, Pixie. Deep breath.”

I did as he asked and he waited patiently for my breathing to calm. Feeling guilty for nearly losing it again, I lifted myself slowly to a sitting position, still staying on his lap. “Sorry. I’m okay.
Really. I’m just…”

“Scared?”
he asked. I looked him in the eye and nodded. “So am I. You’re right, this isn’t going to be easy. Our history will make this… complicated.” He sighed and I let him pull my face to his, keeping our eyes locked as he stopped with just inches between us. “We’re going to have to work at this. It’s going to take trust. And for trust, we have to have complete honesty and a lot of understanding and forgiveness. We will have to fight for this. But I think we’re worth it.” He grazed his thumb slowly along my cheeks and I saw the determination and stubbornness I knew and loved. He was right. We were worth it.

“We can do this,” I said, leaning in to kiss him softly.

He smiled against my lips. “And our first test is to open that door and face the rest of the family.”

When we gathered around the kitchen table, I tried not to stare at the crack in the wall but my eyes seemed to be drawn to it. It all came back around to the mistakes we made in the days leading up to that one, didn’t it?

I waited, expecting Paige to go off on a tirade but she was surprisingly silent as we waited for Tish and Kas to join us. She stared at the same spot on the wall with a look of confusion. I didn’t think any of us had told her about that night.

“
Lili nearly took Zane’s head off with a mug the night he let Lizzie in the house,” Tish said when he walked in and saw Paige’s preoccupation. He headed to the coffee pot, in normal tradition for this type of gathering. I looked over at Paige, who was eyeing me with an expression that looked almost impressed.

“She also told me she fucking hated me
.” Zane’s voice was straining for lightness and I reached over, taking his hand and lacing our fingers together under the table. He stared at our hands before releasing mine and I felt my heart drop for a second. I swallowed down the automatic defensiveness and he grabbed the edge of my chair, scooting it to his and wrapping his arm around my shoulders to hold me closer. He reached over with his other hand and covered mine, bringing them to rest on his thigh before kissing my hair.

I glanced up at him, trying to decide how to respond. He needed reassurance right now but as
Kas entered the room, I was reminded just how crowded this house was. I took a deep breath, steeling myself to speak and become vulnerable in front of them for the sake of our trust. “I really thought I did at the time.”

“I’m guessing you two talked already?”
Kas asked as she took the seat across from Zane.

He sat up straighter. “Yes. And here’s the thing, the only person whose opinion matters to me in this is hers. But Lizzie was lying
—”

“That bitch isn’t even pregnant, is she? I fucking knew it!”
Paige voiced, cutting him off.

Zane sighed. “No, she is. Well, according the paperwork she is
—”

“It’s not yours though?”
Paige cut him off again.

He huffed, glaring over at her. “It could be
, I don’t know yet. But I didn’t know anything about it until last night when she showed up.”

“When are you going to get a test done?” Tish asked. He had taken the seat across from me but he was looking only at Zane, disappointment clear on his face.

Zane rolled his neck, his fingers twitching against my hand, showing his irritation with the questioning. “I’m going to check into it as soon as I can, okay? But regardless, even if this child isn’t mine, it will still be a sibling to my son, so we all need to keep that in mind. Especially when Conner is around.”

I stared at the table, trying to keep my breathing normal as I absorbed the heavy meaning behind his words. I hadn’t thought for
even a second that even without being the father, Zane would be tied to this new life. Lizzie really had gotten just what she wanted with all this. I had no doubt she would keep trying to get him back.

“Okay,”
Kas said, pushing up from the table. “I’m going to make breakfast. Do you want some eggs?” She directed the question to Zane and I saw him nod out of the corner of my eye, clearly relaxing now that the interrogation seemed to be behind us.

Paige disappeared to shower and Tish moved to help
Kas with breakfast, placing a hand on Zane’s shoulder as he crossed behind us. It was a gesture of support and I felt the last of the tension leave Zane. He wouldn’t admit it if I asked, but I knew that Tish’s disapproval would hurt him as much as the thought of it hurt me.

“You okay?” Zane’s voice was soft as he
discreetly pressed his lips to the spot directly behind my ear.

I nodded automatically but immediately felt guilty because I wasn’t being completely honest. “Just a little overwhelmed still. I’m
kinda worried about Lizzie,” I whispered to the table, still not looking at him.

“What about her?” His nose was running along the edge of my ear now and it caused a slight shiver to run up my spine. He chuckled as the goose bumps formed along my arm, tracing his finger from the hand he was holding up my forearm.

“Just that she’s not going to give up.”

He stopped moving for a moment, his tone darker when he did speak. “You think she planned this?” I couldn’t tell if he was aggravated at me for saying it or if he was considering it for the first time.

“No. Well, I don’t think so, but who knows with her? I just meant now that it happened, she’s going to take advantage. She’s the type to use it to get your sympathy,” I answered, shrugging.

“Hey.” He waited until I looked up at him before he continued. “She can try all she wants. I’m yours. Nothing’s
gonna change that. Got it?”

I smiled and nodded as he leaned in, nudging my nose with his.

I was both grateful and disappointed that Zane was well enough to shower on his own now. It’d been embarrassing but also bonding in a way to have that kind of trust in a new relationship. Not that I’d ever really
seen
anything but it was almost sad to feel like he didn’t need my help. I laughed as I dug through the bag I still hadn’t unpacked from the hospital. It was ridiculous to feel disappointed about that and the overwhelming relief that he was getting better far outweighed it anyway.

A soft buzzing sound c
ame from somewhere close by, catching my attention. I looked around, seeing Zane’s jeans lying in a heap near the wall. I glanced at the nightstand and realized he must’ve left his phone in his pocket last night. I grabbed them and felt the weight of it immediately. I dug into the pocket and pulled it out, dropping the pants as I flipped it over and looked at the screen. It just read BITCH.

Lizzie.
Of course. I considered answering it. After all, if I was his girlfriend, then it was my right, but I didn’t want to be
that
girl. Plus, I had no desire to talk to her this morning. As I plugged the phone into the charger, the call went to voicemail and I heard the bathroom door open.

“Hey
.” Zane sounded amused and I realized I was still in just my bra and jeans, having been disrupted while looking for a shirt.

“
Perv,” I replied, rolling my eyes playfully as I looked over my shoulder at him. “Your ex called while you were in the shower.”

“What did she want?”
he asked, tossing his wet towel on the foot of the bed as he moved to his dresser to pull out a shirt of his own. I was momentarily distracted by the sight of the scar on his back. I tried not to look at it. Ever. It was so different from the tiny slice on his chest where they had entered to finish repairing his lung and remove the fragments of the bullet.

“I… uh… I don’t know. I didn’t answer.”

“Oh. Well, toss it here.” He pulled the shirt over his head as he turned to face me and the movement drew my eyes up to his face.

“You’re at twenty percent,” I warned as I unplugged it and slid it across the sheets. Zane’s eyes fell to my chest, reminding me that I needed to put a shirt on. And make the bed.

“Fourteen missed calls? Jesus,” he said, scrolling through his phone and pressing buttons before putting it to his ear.

“You left it on the floor all night,” I explained. He shrugged, clearly not caring as he waited for an answer. I went back to digging through my bag for a shirt. I needed to unpack and organize my shit if I was really going to be living in his room.
Even temporarily.

I felt warm fingers along my spine and I shivered again, grabbing my shirt and standing up straight. Before I could even turn to face Zane, his lips were making a trail across the top of my bare shoulder toward my neck. My eyes fell closed automatically, my breath stuttering a little at the intimacy of the move. We’d kissed but other than our drunken fight last night, we’d never really taken any steps further than that. The shirt slipped from my grip as his teeth grazed the spot where my shoulder met my neck, his fingers deftly sliding my hair aside.

“Zane,” I said, not sure exactly what I was trying to convey, but with as close as he was, I could vaguely hear the phone ringing on the other end and it reminded me that he wouldn’t be able to continue. I needed him to stop. I needed him to keep going.

“Voicemail,” he mumbled against my skin
. He leaned away to toss the phone onto the bed, but his hand immediately returned, holding my hair aside as he continued his path across the back of my neck. I was struggling for control, my knees felt unsteady in a completely foreign way and I couldn’t seem to get enough oxygen to my lungs.

His free hand slipped around my waist until his palm was flat against my stomach, holding my body to his. At my neck, his teeth returned, grazing directly over the tattoo between my shoulder blades and I let out a sound somewhere between a whimper and a moan at the feel
ing. Every muscle in my body tightened and I was achingly aware of just how long it had been since I’d been with anyone. He released my hair, using his fingers to slide my bra strap down my arm and out of the painfully erotic path he was creating.

When I felt his heavy breath against my skin, I shuddered again, realizing just how affected he was as well. I pressed my body back against his and he expertly flipped open the button on my jeans with
his hand that was resting on my stomach. My brain was completely lost as his fingers slid between the denim and the satin of my panties, skimming directly to where I needed his touch.