Page 15 of Royally Taught
“I’m sorry for waking you,” she says, smiling at me. “I can come back later.”
I shake my head. Fuck no. I reach for her and pull her into my arms. As soon as her body hits mine, I wrap my arms around her and hold her tight. “I thought you weren’t coming back.”
She shrugs. “I’d thought about it. But sometimes life has a way of changing our plans.”
“I came for you,” I tell her as I pull back and look at her. She takes my breath away with her beauty. Christ. I’m a lucky bastard.
She nods. “I found out last night. I know what my mom said to you. I’m sorry.”
I frame her face with my hands. “You have nothing to be sorry about. Not fucking ever, Anastasia. You were right, I was blindsided when I found out about your family, but since you’ve been gone, I’ve realized that I was the idiot. You didn’t owe me anything, especially not your life’s history. Can you forgive me?”
“What is it that you want, Jacob? I’m determined to get my education. It’s something I’m passionate about,” she asks softly, her gaze firmly on mine.
“I thought it was my career, but since you walked out, I realized just how much I love you and that given the chance, I’d have chosen you. I’ll always choose you.”
Her lips part as her eyes widen. “Why?”
“Why what?” I ask, wondering what she means.
“Why would you give up everything that you’ve worked so hard for? Why would you give up your career?”
“Sometimes, Anastasia, the path we wish to take, changes. What we value most changes. I poured everything I had into work because it was a way to cope with the loss of my mom and the way my dad was acting. I now realize that my work hid the grief. I was in perpetual darkness. Until you.”
She blinks, tears in her eyes. “Jacob,” she whispers softly.
“I would have continued to live in the darkness. But when you asked me for help, it was as though you broke through the grief, your light shone like a beacon into my world, and I was sunk. Losing you affected me deeper than I could have ever imagined, Ana, I felt lost and alone.”
“I did, too,” she confesses as a lone tear falls from her eye. “I hated it.”
“I fucking love you.”
She bites back a sob as she steps closer. “And I love you.”
I lower my head and press my lips against her. She doesn’t hesitate in giving me what I so desperately crave. Her. The kiss is frantic, passionate, and filled with hunger.
She pulls back, her lips swollen, and her breathing ragged. “Jacob,” she breathes. “We need to talk.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Can we sit?” she asks nervously.
I lead her to the living room and wave a hand at her to take a seat on the couch. She’s not meeting my eyes, she’s looking everywhere but at me.
“This isn’t easy to tell you.” She glances down at her hands, and I brace. “I’m pregnant.”
Holy fuck. That’s not what I expected her to say.
“I’m going to be a dad?” I ask, but I’m unsure if she’s even heard me, my words are that low.
She nods. “Yeah,” she whispers. “I never intended this to happen.”
Does she believe that I think she did? “Neither of us did,” I tell her. I fucked up by not putting on a condom. I was so consumed by taking her that I didn’t even stop to realize that I fucked her without protection. It didn’t click until she had left.
“You hurt me, Jacob, it’s not something that I can just forgive. I love you, I really do, but the way you reacted to the news of who I am and who my family is, was crazy.”
I grit my teeth. “I know, my reaction was fucked up. I’m so sorry. All that flashed through my mind when you told me was when it got out, it would be construed as something dirty and that I’d be labeled as a pervert.”
She shakes her head. “You’re not, I’d never allow that to happen.”
