(Crushed by Lesley Roy)
He had probably hated her once, but if he was honest, it had lasted all of a drunken five seconds. If he'd had a choice about falling in love with her given their history, it had been a blueprint for disaster almost from the start.
The pretty cyber-punk girl with the dip-dyed blue streaked hair and stormy grey eyes who had attended Beaves funeral.
Tormenting hot little nerds like Cindy Mackenzie had always been a juvenile sport, the kind of girls who wore their intelligence as armour against guys like him, never really venturing beyond their own self-assigned outcast status in Neptune. Their paths would have crossed eventually, probably some kind of project or assignment in a work related environment sometime if he ever took Jake Kane up on that internship offer for after College.
Instead her complicated status of being his roommates fiancées best friend and that drunken night of scorching hot sex and the dominoes had fallen. The entire path to this moment of the petite brunette standing at the end of his bed was like a montage of just how easily they had crashed together.
A drunken one night stand should never have gotten this complicated. But once they'd started, they hadn't been able to stop. Her place, his place... any place.
His fingers flexed around the glass in his hand before he set it gently down onto the table. She looked like a frightened deer, ready to bolt at any moment. He let his gaze fall over her, from the brown waves in a messy knot on the back of her head, to a face scrubbed free of cosmetics, to the loose cotton clothes she wore. The indecision was written all over her face. He was horribly aware of the insidious doubts, whispering that she was heading for certain catastrophe given the way he'd behaved the last time they had spoken.
Of course she wanted to run but a small town didn't leave many places to hide. He'd threatened to take sole custody of their baby and ruin her entire future and that was just the steps he'd taken she knew about... his father had always taught him that the only way to stay ahead of the opposition was to crush them.
He stared at her without saying anything, trying to find something that wouldn't make her run. Maternal instincts probably screamed at her that perhaps this wasn't the brightest idea she'd ever had. It's not like their last interaction had ended that well and she still had those legal papers sitting in her dorm room.
You learn a lot about people when they don't get what they want…
"I uh-" she swallowed casting a quick glance towards the door. Damn you, Parker! Maybe we should have waited for #TeamPitchfork... aka Veronica and Wallace?
'What's going on, Cindy?' he asked. That was the million dollar question.
For a moment, that simply hung there. Both of them were lucky to be alive, he'd saved her from Tim Foyle and took three bullets for his efforts.
People did crazy things when looking at the noose of incarceration tightening around their necks. Even trying to murder pregnant co-eds.
How did he right the wrongs that had caused so much pain?
How did he work his way back after he'd accused her of using their white hot attraction to get herself knocked up with the golden ticket to a privileged life?
Mac felt like every nerve in her body had been crammed into her stomach that now churned like a washing machine. Her grey eyes taking in the sight of him propped up against the pillows like a chiselled work of human art. Dick was the piece of malware jammed in her system.
The fatal error that could crush her entire world at will yet part of her wanted to leap into his arms...
"Excuse me..." she muttered before dashing towards the private bathroom in his hospital room and began to be sick.
"Cindy?" he called pushing the call button for a nurse, cursing his stitches which felt like tiger slashing along his side as he tried to strain and get a better view.
This was psychological torture...
"Just a minute..." she pleaded.
She knew she looked terrible, lack of sleep and a heady dose of morning sickness, which was stupidly name considering it happened at almost all hours of the day. The nurse at Neptune Women's Health clinic had assured her that feeling nauseous was completely normal in the first trimester and that she could look forward to the symptoms easing off in the next few weeks but that it was essential to stay hydrated.
"Are you okay?" he asked in concern when she sheepishly returned from the small bathroom.
She nodded, looking a little embarrassed. Cramps are for Champs! her thoughts mumbled miserably in Loony Lola's bible thumping cheer squad voice. A sweet sharp ache settled in his chest and he reached out the small glass of water from his tray and pressed the button for the nurse again impatiently.
Gingerly she accepted the drink and sat down onto the chair Logan had vacated. He looked down at the rumpled bed, his eyes flickering towards the door. Where was the medical Kowtowing he was supposed to be receiving?
"Dibs?" she asked quietly.
"Huh?" he asked snapping his attention back to her.
"Logan... you told him you were going to tell me dibs... what did that mean?" she repeated, a protective hand smoothing the t-shirt over her belly.
Was he planning on picking up right where they'd left off? Lawsuits and custody battles?
She wasn't sure her heart could take that...
"Are you a sperglar?" he asked. A sperm burglar?
Wasn't there some famous case involving a millionaire at a hotel in Los Angeles where a hotel cleaner had stolen semen and impregnated herself?
"You still think I tricked you?" Mac asked breathlessly placing the glass down and stepping away from her chair. Her expression could very quickly become something with sharp edges.
"No! Gods no..." he denied, reaching out for her. Stupid stitches...
"Then what are you asking me?" she demanded looking at his hand as if it were poisonous. She felt as vulnerable as new born in a shark tank.
"I don't mean anything except... don't leave, I can't chase you if you run..." he pleaded his ocean eyes urging her to come closer.
"Maybe I should be after that NDA and the paternity test you demanded..." she scolded, standing stone still, she didn't take his hand, Her chin dipped so she was looking at the floor, crossing her arms snugly over her chest. But she wasn't leaving either, so that was promising at least.
"Dibs because you're mine Cindy," he told her firmly. Her heart felt like it was trying to batter out of her ribcage, her short painted nails gouging into the soft flesh of her palms to keep herself from taking his hand. He pulled his hand back and sat up against the pillows as a nursing came in. A short fuller figured woman with greying hair wearing pink scrubs.
"Everything ok Mr Casablancas?" she asked, her hazel eyes assessing the tension in the room.
"My girlfriend is feeling unwell, can you bring anything for morning sickness?" he asked gesturing towards her.
"Oh you poor dear!" she said taking in Mac's pale colour. "I'll see about getting you something to help."
"Thanks," Dick said with his usual charm but his attention never wavered from Mac, running a hand through the floppy mane of gold-streaked hair. The softness in his gaze dissolving the fight out of her as quickly as sugar in water.
"I'm tired, too tired to be worrying if I'm standing on a battle ground or if you're mood is going to flip and I still have to go see my parents... so can we just both get back onto the same page soon?" she begged, overwhelmed by the sheer undisputed authority he radiated and her disastrously receptive body. "Please?"
"Cindy... We've never been on the same page."
