Chapter 4: Whose Bed?

Kit & Danny:

“Why am I here?” Danny looked around the condo, trying to find a single thing that would feel familiar. It was difficult, though. The walls were bare; the red, black, grey, and white colours scheme was what you would expect from a man who was living on his own. The whole place screamed bachelor. Yet she chanted in her head “this is my husband, this is our home,” and the wall screamed back, “this is a condo.” There was nothing about the place that held the feeling of home.

Danny turned to Kit, who still stood by the door. She wasn’t sure if he was waiting for her to feel at home before he could walk into the living room, or if he was just as stunned at how un-homey the place felt, or if he was guarding the door, just to make sure that she didn’t run away.

“This place is—”

“I just bought it. You can do whatever you want in terms of decorating.” Kit tossed his bomber jacket on the leather seat and rolled up his sleeves. “It’s a great space for the four of us. It’s close to your parents’ house, but not too close. I like your mom but the mother-in-law stopping by every five minutes to bring over a cup of sugar is not an ideal situation for me.”

Stunned disbelief was the only way that Danny could describe what she was feeling. The goofy smile on his lips, the excited glint in his eyes…delusional, she concluded. “You don’t really think that I’m going to live here, do you?”

Danny rubbed the top of her belly as one of the twins kicked her. It wasn’t the normal ‘I’m stretching or playing’ kind of kick. It was probably a reaction to the nervous fluttering going on in her belly. They were probably annoyed by it, but not more than her. She wasn’t sure whether or not she was happy with this arrangement. Kit was a stranger to her. A stranger who’d put two babies in her belly. To any other person, it was probably what was expected of her. Regardless of whether she knew the man, living with the person who got you pregnant and called you wife was the thing to do.

“What’s wrong? Don’t you like the place?” Kit asked.

“What kind of person was I…before the accident, was I the kind of girl who just moved into whatever house that opened its doors for me?” It frustrated her that she had no clue of who she was. “I just don’t get why…where did I live before?”

Kit’s fingers kneaded the back of his neck as he unsuccessfully tried to hide his frustration and annoyance. “That doesn’t matter.”

“So, I probably lived with your twin brother.” Danny nodded knowingly as she paced around in the same spot. “That’s why the paternity is in question.”

“That doesn’t matter to me.”

“It does to me. I was the kind of person who just moved in and lived with whatever man was there at the moment.”

“No! You lived with me when we were on the island. And now you live here. As far as I’m concerned, I’m the only man you have. Everything you did when you were drunk or high on drugs has nothing to do with me, and a past that has been erased.”

The ferocity in his voice had her stepping back. And as if that didn’t shock her enough, Kit punched the standing lamp. Danny couldn’t help but jump back as she yelped to avoid the flying pieces of the glass lampshade. There surely was a first time for everything. Danny wasn’t sure, but she doubted that she had ever seen this side of Kit. She didn’t think that this side ever existed. Either he found her or the situation frustrating enough to let go of his rage.

“Calm down,” she said.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”

Danny started to walk into the kitchen to look for a broom when the memory of the days after she was discharged from hospital hit her. Kit did have a moody, withdrawn side that made her nervous. Days after leaving the hospital, Danny had plenty of Alice in Wonderland moments, when all she’d wanted was to be happy. She never took a moment to discover what the problem with Kit really was. She wasn’t an expert on the issue, but she had met a few military wives when she was at her shop. They had this sad expression that Danny obviously didn’t have. Danny didn’t care that much about Kit just yet—a weird thing to say about your husband and father of her children, but the truth. This was her sober head thinking, not the Daniela Kit had met more than a year before. And sober Danny was sure that something was wrong with her suddenly enraged husband.

“Kit—” Danny stopped herself before she could even ask. It was probably better to watch and wait, carefully so, than to jump to conclusions. Her brothers were close by, and so was Kit’s. Maybe it would be a good idea not to aggravate him but just go with it. She made up her mind.

“What is it?”

“You should clean that up. I like walking around barefoot, and I don’t want to get slashed feet.” Danny stared down at the million pieces of glass on the ground. “I didn’t want to tell you this before, but this is for the better. It was an ugly lamp.”

***

Kit didn’t know whose benefit she was doing this for, or if he could even trust the sudden white flag she was waving. It was probably out of shock, but he hoped it wasn’t out of fear. He was content, though, having her give in to him so quickly and without much of a fight. Kit had been prepared for an argument. He already had his points listed out and crammed into his head. He was determined to get Danny to stay with him so that he could make her fall in love with him once more. However, as soon as he saw the shards of glass bounce off the ground as they broke from the lamp, he suddenly felt that cohabitating was a bad idea. He felt fear forming at the pit of his stomach, the same fear that was always there whenever he was about to experience combat. Was this it, the PTSD he had witnessed in the medical facility and prided himself for escaping? Kit stared at his trembling hand down to his balled fist. It wasn’t a good idea, but he couldn’t tell her to leave, just when she’d decided to stay.

“Where is my room?”

Kit caught her gaze just as it lifted from his fist to his face. She had seen it, the rage that he was fighting to keep bottled inside him. “You mean our room?”

“No, I mean mine.” Her firm voice left no room for argument. Just as he was about to explain that he had already prepared a separate place for her, she went on. “I woke up married and pregnant. Married to a husband who didn’t seem to want anything to do with me, and babies that I can’t confirm or deny that are his. I’m here to try and work this out with you. I may love you to some degree, but not enough to share a room or a bed with you. It might be ridiculous of me to try and guard my body, considering am just about as big as a cow right now, but I can’t even remember when I lost my virginity. So please humour me for now.”

“That speech must have knocked the wind out of you,” he laughed. Long-winded speeches were probably something that came with the new Danny. Or was it just the old Danny that he never got time to meet? When they were together, she was either very agreeable, or refused, flat-out. She never took time to explain. Suddenly, he wasn’t frustrated or afraid anymore. It would work out somehow.

“It’s going to be fun, getting to know each other again.”

“I don’t know.” Her gaze trailed back to the hand that once shook but was now relaxed, his fisted fingers now hanging loose on his jeans pocket. “I hope so…I really want to know the real you. I’ve heard great reviews, four-star worthy.”

Humour now. “I thought it was five-star.”

“You lost one when you lifted your living room straight out of a catalogue.” The corners of her lips lifted in a forced smile. “I had to take out one star for lack of originality and creativity.”

“Are you sure that’s all? Just originality and creativity? Nothing else?” Like the fact that I might be losing my mind and a grip on my rage?

“Your handsome face gives you an extra two stars, so you are safe for now.”

“Handsome face?” Kit cupped his left cheek. He could feel the slight bump of the scar that ran down the side.

“Get down!”

Kit crouched behind the makeshift barricade; his gun cradled in his arms. Getting down on all fours, he crawled over to Brody just as he had been trained, ignoring the bullets that whizzed above him, some just past his ears. Almost there, he told himself as he ignored the sensation of his knees and arms being torn apart by the shattered glass beneath them.

Kit stared at the shattered lamp, the red paint seeming more like blood stains as each micro-second ticked by.

Tick! Tick! Tick!

“Where is the air strike support? Did you call it in?” Kit didn’t know who he was asking because no one responded. He grabbed Brody’s leg when he was in reach. “Hey, man! Come on, get up! We need to move out of here.”

“And go where? Back to the beach?” Brody joked.

Kit saw Brody’s blood-stained teeth when he smiled. He ignored them, telling himself that his best friend wasn’t as bad as he looked. “You know it. I’ve got a hot girl waiting back home for me. Not sure if she can fit in any bikinis right now.”

“Lucky you. The only babe I got waiting for me is my snot-nosed little sister.”

“You need to get back to her,” Kit said.

“No, you will.”

“I already have a wife and a baby on the way. Sorry, man, I’m a one-woman kind of guy. But it would be my honor to get her ugly-ass brother back to her.”

“I’m not going anywhere, man.” Brian’s hand, which had been lying on his stomach, lifted to reveal a huge gash that ran across his belly. “Go, before your handsome face gets worse than it already is.”

“Handsome face, my handsome face,” Kit muttered.

“I know you are handsome. You don’t have to be this close for me to see it,” Danny grumbled.

Kit stumbled back from the pressure on his chest. He knocked the coffee table with his shin and snapped back to reality. He looked around, assessing his surroundings. He was home but he wasn’t there, either. Danny stood with her back against the wall, both hands wrapped around her belly and fear etched in every single curve of her face.

“Are you okay?” Kit made to go to her, but she lifted her hand to stop him.

“The question is, are you okay?”

“I’ll take you to your room.”

“I’ll find it, or just pick the biggest one. I don’t need an escort. You should stay behind and clean this up.”

As Kit watched Danny’s retreating, he knew he had made a big mistake.

***

Duke & Rhyne:

Rhyne walked into the townhouse, following closely and slowly behind Duke. She smiled as she watched their son, slumped over his father’s shoulder in a deep slumber. Rhyne didn’t look forward to her talk with Duke—she had so much explaining to do, but she was excited to see RD’s reaction when he realized they were back in the home that he had longed for and asked about each single day they were away.

Rhyne didn’t realize that there was another person in the room, not until the door closed behind her. An elderly lady walked up from behind her and to Duke. She opened her arms, no doubt to receive RD, but Rhyne rushed in to intercept her. No one except her had put their son to bed since the day he was born. She wasn’t ready to relinquish that duty to someone else.

“It’s okay, I’ll take care of my son,” she said as both the nanny, she assumed, and Duke settled their startled gazes on her. “I’m his mother, I know what to do.”

Duke scoffed and sent the nanny away with a single nod. He walked to the end of the hall, to where RD’s and her room was. However, when the door opened it was obvious that this room no longer belonged to both, but just to RD. Granted, she had not spent every night in that room, she had her own separate room, but there had been things here and there that marked her presence in the room.

Duke lay RD in the bed, took off his sneakers, and covered him with the duvet. With just the night-light on, he sat by their son’s bedside and stared at him.

Thick, awkward silence settled in the room. Rhyne wasn’t quite sure how to ask him to leave. She was exhausted and heavy on her feet. She needed to lie down and crawling into bed beside her son sounded like heaven.

“I’ll watch over him. You should go sleep.”

Nervously, she fidgeted behind him, and he remained seated in silence, not even acknowledging if he had heard her or not. Obviously, he must have, but just elected to ignore her or stay silent.

Rhyne wasn’t quite sure what she was back at the house as: nanny, housekeeper, mother of his children, or lover. She hoped for the latter two because that would mean he held no grudge against her. If it were the former, there was literally nothing she could do. As for the baby inside her, she still had a chance to legally register as the little girl’s mother. She wanted to ask Du—Mr. Henry about that. If he could put everything back to its rightful place.

Since she wasn’t sure of her position in his house, she decided to address him formally. “Mr. Henry?”

A low, rumbling chuckle filled the air as tension gripped his frame. “Mr. Henry?” he mocked. “That wasn’t what you called me when you squirmed underneath me. It isn’t what you called me when we made love.”

She took a step back when he whirled around with a glare that sank her heart to her stomach. “Duke—”

“Duke? That sounds more like you.” With a dangerous note in his tone, he got up from the bed and advanced toward her. “What name other than Duke and Mr. Henry did you call me when you took my son from me? How did you think of me when you found out you were pregnant and didn’t even call me? You must have thought me a fool, right? Idiot, stupid, that’s what you must have called me, right?”

RD’s slight sigh stopped his father dead in his tracks as they both peered at him.

He wasn’t awake, thank God. The last thing Rhyne wanted was for their son to see his father in this state. Duke still had that cool composure that drove Rhyne nuts; even when he was angry, her never raised his voice. He didn’t need to. His words and how he spoke then was enough to chill your blood. Duke didn’t need to go an octave higher. The lower his voice got the madder he was.

Duke grabbed her by the elbow and led her out of the room. “He sleeps there, alone. He won’t leave this house without his nanny, or express permission from me.”

He began to walk away as she grabbed his arm. Using all her strength, she managed to spin him back to face her. “I’m his mother. I know that’s not what it says on his birth certificate, but I am his mother.”

“Are you? Not according to the law.” He shrugged. “He is my son, just mine. And so will be that baby, once you give birth—just mine.”

“You can’t mean—” He was going to completely cut her out of their lives, RD’s, their daughter’s, and his, just as Nola had predicted. “This is why I ran. She said you would do this.”

“Imagine what your alternative would have been if you had come to me with the truth.”

“Imagine?”

“Yes, use your imagination because now you’ll never get to know.” His clipped tone killed any scenario she could come up with.

She regretted it, not telling him the truth and letting the fear Nola had implanted in her take over. They could have been happy. This was something she knew as a fact. Sure, he would have been angry about the trick they’d played on him, but he would have forgiven her. He had said that he loved her. Rhyne knew the only way she would ever hear those words from him again was if she pulled them out of her memory. He was done with her.

Her head hanging, she dragged her feet out of RD’s room. She didn’t get far when she felt Duke pull her toward him and lift her into his arms in one clean swoop. Her stomach made a nervous somersault. His move was suggestive, and hopeful to her. She didn’t fight him. Instead, she lay her head on his shoulder and nuzzled into his neck. She missed this, the feel of his rock-hard chest, strong arms, and his scent. It was like coming back into the safety of home.

Duke laid her on the bed. He stared down at her as she looked up at him. She expected him to take off her clothes, then his, and finally make love to her. No, what he did instead was leave the room, and her, in total darkness.

***

Temptation struck him hard. Even as she was round and heavy with his child, she was the most beautiful and seductive woman he had ever seen. When her nose gently grazed his neck, he thought he would come completely undone. She settled into his arms as if she had never left them. Duke had to control himself, and that was what he was good at, taming his otherwise animalistic and unruly side. He wanted to bury himself within her and leave all the anger, hurt, and pain inside her.

It was partially his fault, he had to admit. People found it hard to approach him with even the smallest of problems. He wasn’t a people person, but a robot beaten into form by his father. Duke thought he had lost any sense of social ability and friendliness when he was in college. When he began working with his father, he had lost all contact with his friends, and only knew that he had broken up with his girlfriend when he heard news of her getting married. That was how long it had taken him before coming back up for air. He then went back into heir-of-the-kingdom, robot mode, and had only resurfaced that day he was with Rhyne in his kitchen. For more than five years she had been in his home, but he had never taken the time to get to know her face. He wished he hadn’t.

That was a blatant lie, because if he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have experienced the best month of his life, he wouldn’t have connected with his son, and he wouldn’t have a daughter on the way. The heartache was a major trade off for everything he was getting in return. He should be a little happy. He had his family back with him, but he didn’t know for how long. There was that piece of news he had stumbled upon when he was doing his research on Rhyne, someone else was looking for her. For a while, not for long, he was determined to keep that truth hidden.

Duke stared at the door he had just shut. The object of his affection and insanity was right now lying in his bed, as responsive to him as ever. He was half-tempted to walk back in there and get to know the new curves of her body, but his pride wouldn’t let him. He was a wounded lion, and no amount of licking or caressing would mend his wounds.

He walked down the hall, past the living room, to his study, which had been redecorated, to remove all traces of Nola, whose room it had been before. He didn’t think Rhyne had noticed but he had done a major revamp on the house when he’d kicked the bitch out of his home.

Duke went into his study. He stared at the mountain of paperwork on his desk, no doubt all already organized in order of importance by Jessica. All they needed was a quick review and his signature. She always tried her best to make his life just a little bit easier, a bit better. Duke was sure that he loved misery. He couldn’t understand how he had never had that special feeling for her. It never went beyond friendship, no matter how hard she tried to seduce him. The sexual desire seemed to be there whenever he concentrated on everything below the neck, but once her face came into the picture, brother mode went up. It was insanity, trying to reconcile or tear apart these two characters, the friend-brother, that he had automatically begun playing whenever she was in the room.

He only wished that he could separate himself in the same way when it came to Rhyne. As angry as he was, it didn’t matter which part of her he looked at. Every inch of her called to him, his instinct to protect, to love, and inflamed his sexual desire. It was worse now, seeing her full with his baby.

He had been moved to tears when he had discovered that picture of her pregnant with RD, under the chest in her room. She was so beautiful, and yet she looked a little scared. He could still remember how her arms wrapped around her very large belly. Pride flickered within him just before anger had raged through as he realized just how detailed their deceit was. He had missed RD’s conception due to his drunken state and had missed the pregnancy because of his indifference. He had been way too focused on the business he was about to lose. He hadn’t taken time to consider everything and put it into perspective. Greed to earn an extra dollar had him ‘marrying’ Nola before she leaked it to the press that she had been knocked up and abandoned by the Henry Empire heir.

Duke was going to take that extra second to think everything over. He had promised himself that when he held himself back from chasing Rhyne to Hawaii the day he’d discovered the truth.

Duke was startled into the present when he heard movement outside his door. Looking down at his desk, he realized that he had been opening one file at a time. He had a pen that he didn’t remember picking up in his hand and was doodling across his paperwork. His distracted mind had managed to turn papers worth millions into garbage. He quickly sent Jessica a text, cringing at the noise he was going to get the next morning.

He walked out of the office and followed the noise all the way to the kitchen. He wouldn’t have been able to make out who was rummaging through the refrigerator if it wasn’t for the tiny cell phone light. He flipped the light on, suddenly making Rhyne jump back with a squeal, the phone that had been secured between her lips falling to the ground. She looked up at him with that deer-in-headlights expression that she always had whenever she didn’t know what to do next. He remembered that look. It must have been the second time he saw it when he made his way into her room on what he assumed was their second night together. The first time, he thought, was probably back in the hotel in Vegas.

“What are you doing?” he asked as he bent over to pick up her phone and held it out to her.

“Uhm.” Rhyne grabbed her phone, but he didn’t let it go easily.

“I’m assuming the flashlight function isn’t the only thing that works in this phone,” he said as he pulled the phone out of her grasp and laid it on the island table next to them. “You just didn’t feel I was important enough to deserve a phone call.”

Duke took her hand and led her to the small kitchen table. He wasn’t surprised that she silently followed. Rhyne always did what she was asked. She had a weak personality, probably the reason why Nola used her and why she’d given in to him every night they were together. Duke wasn’t too sure that what they did was making love, or if she’d just given in because she didn’t have a voice to say no. Gently, he helped her into a chair and walked back to the fridge.

He took out everything he needed to make a ham sandwich and silently began working on it. “I’m feeding my daughter,” he kept telling himself. The last thing he needed was for her to assume that he was doing something nice for her. So, he made the sandwich the way he liked it and didn’t ask for her opinion. Once he was done, he put it in front of her with a glass of milk to wash it down.

“Thank you,” she said in an intimidated whisper.

“It’s not for you.” He needed to make it clear.

Rhyne nodded and silently ate her sandwich.

Even the way she ate seemed beautiful to him. He wanted to wrap his arms around her and tell her it was all okay. It was then that Duke knew he had lost. Abruptly, he got up from his chair, startling Rhyne in the process.

“Go to bed once you are done eating.”

“Where?” she asked.

“What do you mean ‘where’? Or did you forget your old room is now occupied?”

***

Rhyne couldn’t help but stare into his eyes as he leaned over and glared at her. His tone was clipped, filled with so much animosity it scared her. But there was something else in there that broke her heart. The sad look in his eyes that he had tried to hide behind the anger, the pain in his voice that sounded out his betrayal, even though he tried to act like he didn’t care. She lifted her hand to his face, just about to cup his cheek when he pulled back with a startled expression. Duke walked away, leaving her alone with her guilt, her broken heart, and her sandwich. Rhyne didn’t know what came next after this, but she was willing to stay for as long as it took either one of them to figure it out.

Her appetite gone, she followed Duke into the bedroom. She walked in just in time to see him peel off his shirt and walk into the bathroom. She missed him, his body, and the way his back muscles would feel beneath her fingertips when he was on top of her as they made love. She longed to hear his heartbeat when her head was on his chest, or how his voice rumbled when he laughed. She longed for everything that she had managed to bring out of him when they were together, things that she had now destroyed.

Duke walked back in with just sweatpants that rode low. He tossed a shirt he had in his hand at her. “It’s the biggest one I have.”

Rhyne crumpled the cotton in her hands, her gaze never leaving his. For some weird, impossible reason she thought that if he truly looked at her, saw her for the woman he once treasured, he would forgive her. Or at least, let her off with a warning, seeing that she was the mother of his children. It was those little things he was doing for her that gave her that confidence, making her sleep in his room, fixing her something to eat, and now giving her his shirt. But when he walked past her and lay on the bed, she knew it was all wishful thinking.

Rhyne thought about going to change in the bathroom, but her legs protested any step she thought of taking, and her back was done for the night. Siting at the foot of the bed, she took off the dress she had on. At this point she wasn’t embarrassed for Duke to see her naked back. He had seen all of her once; however, he had never seen her naked and pregnant at the same time. She wondered what his reaction would be. Stealing a glance over her shoulder, she watched him watch her, his eyes filled with adoration as he stared at the side of her belly. Rhyne was sure of it now: forgiveness was coming her way. Even though it was a delusional thought, she was going to grab hold of that fantasy until she found her happily-ever-after.

She slipped on his shirt and the scent of him wrapped around her body like a warm hug. Rhyne made sure to only do the fourth to sixth buttons, leaving the rest of her bare for his perusal. Even though every inch of her protested the movement, she stood up and walked around to the side of the bed. She cupped the bottom of her belly as she pulled the covers back and sank into the warmth of the mattress. Rhyne lay facing away from him, her back toward him, and waited. It wasn’t as quick as she hoped for, but it did happen. She felt him move toward her and trembled as the solid warmth of his chest pressed against her back. A tear set free when his hand covered hers where it rested on her belly. Instinctively, she lifted her head, and his arm naturally formed a pillow for her, his hand wrapped around her, holding on to her shoulder. Her lips brushed against his thumb before she pressed a kiss onto it.

This is okay, right? She asked the universe. It was okay to shamelessly seek comfort in a man she had betrayed and hurt, right?

Before anyone could answer, Rhyne gave in to her exhausted body and fell asleep, a little bit of hope and guilt settling in her heart.