“We need to talk,” she said, voice edged with nerves, the extent of everything she had to confess pressing against her ribs. The pregnancy, the Feds, the Senator—each revelation a devastating typhoon waiting to break, and she had no idea how he would react to any ofit.
Titus simply leaned back in his chair, calm, unreadable, watching her with that same intensity that always made her feel like she was standing on the edge of a cliff. But before she could say another word, he reached into his desk drawer, pulled something out, and placed it on the glass surface betweenthem.
“Shall we start with this?” he asked.
Her breath caught.
It was her pregnancytest.
Jazz froze, every thought in her head screeching to a halt. The tiny, plastic stick that had sent her world tilting off its axis now sat between them like a detonator waiting to gooff.
Titus watched her reaction, his fingers tapping once againstthe arm of his chair before he spoke, voice smooth assilk.
“You’re pregnant.”
She sucked in a breath. “You— How—”
“Did you really think I wouldn’t find out?” he asked, tilting his head slightly. “I told you before, Jazz. Ialways know.”
Her stomach twisted. The words she had planned to say—the warning, the fear, everything she had rushed here to tell him—vanished in an instant. Her throat went dry, her pulse pounding in her ears as the urgency that had driven her here crumbled under the sheer weight of this revelation.
Relief flickered, but it was quickly swallowed by something else—disorientation, uncertainty.
She had spent the entire frantic drive here preparing to unload a storm of danger and deception at his feet, but now, the storm was inside her. And suddenly, telling him about the Senator, about what she had overheard, felt impossibly far away. None of that seemed as urgent as theconversation he had just forced upon her. Not with him already knowing. Not with him holding the truth like a weapon.
Because now, the conversation wasn’t about threats or enemies. It was aboutthem.
She crossed her arms over her chest, her defenses slamming into place. “How long have you known?”
The barest hint of amusement ghosted over his lips—though whether it was genuine or planned, she couldn’t tell. Was he toying with her, testing her? Or was he genuinely surprised by her reaction, by the fire in her voice? “As long as you. Maybe longer.”
Fury bubbled up inside her. “So you’ve just been sitting on this information? Watching me, waiting for me to—”
“Waiting for you to tell me,” he corrected, voice cool. “Which, clearly, you weren’t in a hurry to do.”
Jazz’s fingers folded into fists at her sides. “I was goingto tell you.”
“When?” His gaze fixed on her. “After the Feds got to you? Or were you planning to keep it from me altogether?”
She flinched, abolt of panic shooting through her. “You know about the Feds?”
Titus’s jaw tightened, his expression darkening. “We’ll get to that.”
Jazz swallowed hard, her heart hammering against her ribs. “I was never going to keep it from you. Ijust... Ineeded to know for sure. And then the gala happened, and—” she released a shaky breath and shrugged. “Everything started spinning out from under me. Ididn’t want to throw this at you when we were already having issues after everything that happened last night.”
“Did you think I wouldn’t have eyes on you?” he asked, cutting her off. “That I wouldn’t know every single move you made? You’re mine, Jazz. Everything about you belongs to me. And that—” he gestured to the pregnancy test, his voice dipping lower, rougher, “—changes nothing.”
His words unnerved her, not from fear, but from the sheer intensity of his possessiveness. She stiffened, instinctively bracing against him, but at the same time, something inside her sparked—something unsteady, something dangerous. He had always been like this, always watched her too closely, too deeply. But now, with the pregnancy between them, the meaning behind those words felt different, heavier.
She took a breath, steadying herself. “You think knowing every single move I make bothers me?” she shot back, her voice quieter now, but no less pointed. “Because it doesn’t. It never has.”
And yet, everything about this moment felt different. The way he looked at her—calm, unwavering, as if he had already figured out how this would play out—unnerved her more than she wanted to admit. This wasn’t just another game of strategy between them. This was their child. Their future.
Her breath came fast now, fury warring with something deeper, something unsteady. “Mypregnancy changeseverything, Titus. Even if you refuse to see it.”
For the first time since she walked in, something flickered across his face—something she couldn’t name. But it was gone before she could grasp it, replaced by that same cold detachment that had always been his armor.
“Does it?” he murmured, his gaze locked onto hers. “Tell me, Jazz—what exactly do you think has changed?”
