Suzanne Wright - From Rags

Choosing to go with the flow for now, or until he got near his mobile phone, Luke waltzed into the living room. Jaxxon, sitting cross-legged on the sofa, grinned at him. “What’s all this about?” he asked.

“Ah, I think he thought she’d come here to shag him,” said Dane as he and Connor covered the doorway of the room, blocking Luke’s path should his flight instinct kick in.

Connor shook his head. “Nah, I’m sure his intentions were totally honourable when he invited her inside.”

“Do you do a lot of jogging, Luke?” asked Jaxxon.

The question took him by surprise. His shrug was small. “Not a lot, no.”

“How often would you say you do?”

“What? I don’t know. I just do it sometimes if I feel like it.”

“And you felt like going jogging on that morning that we met, didn’t you?”

He swallowed hard. “Yeah.”

“Sorry again about Bronty growling at you like that. But as you said, he was just protecting me. Odd choice of words, wouldn’t you say?”

He laughed nervously. “You’re saying you thought I was going to hurt you?”

“You tell me.”

“A lone man jogging in the park has to have dodgy intentions these days, is that it?”

“I never saw you do much jogging. As I recall it, you just appeared out of the woods.”

“Because I’d just spent the past half hour jogging through those woods taking the short cut to the lake.”

“And yet, there wasn’t an ounce of sweat on you.” She gave her head a little shake and shrugged. “What a phenomenon.” She smiled as she assessed his posture. “You’re looking a little nervous. You were looking a little nervous that morning too. And that night in the bar. Funny that you should turn up in the same place like that. It wasn’t so funny that you did your best to get me drunk to bring me here.” Her brows rose. “Nothing to say to that? How about a subject change then? Let’s talk about Anita Donovan.”

He didn’t bother denying that he knew her. Why make the hole he was in even deeper? Besides, technically he hadn’t done anything wrong. Well maybe by Connor McKenzie’s rule book he had. “I haven’t seen her in a while.”

“When did you last see her?” asked Connor.

“That night that I was talking to Jaxxon at the bar.”

“So you two were seeing each other,” said Jaxxon; not a question, a statement. When it was mentioned that she might have a stalker she had tried thinking about anyone who might have acted strange around her, which brought her to think of Luke. But it didn’t make any sense to her that someone like him – gorgeous, rich, always had girls throwing themselves at him – would bother following her around. Then she remembered when they were in the bar and Connor had appeared. Jaxxon had witnessed surprise and betrayal and, finally, understanding flash on Luke’s face, but she had been positive that they weren’t directed at her or Connor – he had been thinking of someone else. So she asked herself, assuming someone else was involved, who could possibly be connected to both her and Connor that would want to play games.

Luke rubbed his chin and sighed. “Only for a couple of weeks. There wasn’t much going on other than shagging. To be honest, I thought she was a bit weird but she was good in bed so that was overlooked; she was adventurous and imaginative when it came to games -”

Jaxxon held up a hand. “Too much information, Luke.”

“Not sex games. I mean, well, they were sex games but not like what you’re thinking. We’d go out to a bar and she’d pick out a bloke and I’d pick out a girl and then we’d dare each other to go after them. We’d try to get their phone numbers, a kiss, an invite back to their place…We never used to go, it was just a game we played. Whichever one of us got the farthest had control in the bedroom that night.”

“But you didn’t try to get my number or a kiss or an invite to mine. You wanted me to go with you.”

“Anita turned round one day and said, ‘Hey I dare you to go after Jaxxon Carter’. I said if we were ever out one night and you were there I’d approach you.” Connor growled but he ignored it, even though the sound chilled him. “But she said, ‘No, I’m changing the rules; you’ve got to approach her out of a bar and then get her to come back here’.”

“Hence, the pretend-jog incident?”

“She told me you walked your dog in the park on Saturday mornings.”

The fact that Anita knew that didn’t sound good to Connor but he didn’t interrupt, he wanted every detail.

“I had it all in my head what I was going to say to you,” said Luke, sighing, “but when I got up close it just all left me. I was just, well, mesmerised by you.” He was surprised when she looked confused about that. He wasn’t surprised that Connor growled. “Anyway she teased me for hours when I came back here without you and she wouldn’t let the dare drop. But, well, my ego was all sore and I didn’t fancy getting brainfreeze and making an idiot out of myself in front of you again so I told her to forget it. Then she said -” Here was where he suspected Connor wouldn’t be too pleased.

Jaxxon arched a brow. “She said…?”

“She said she had it on good authority that you were into threesomes.” As he anticipated, Connor growled again and spat a curse. “She said if I managed to get you back here then the three of us could…I mean come on I’m only bloody human.” He turned to Connor and Dane. “Don’t tell me you two wouldn’t have been intrigued by the idea.”

“I’m married,” said Dane.

“I never would have shared her no matter who it was with,” stated Connor honestly.

“Whatever.” Luke turned back to Jaxxon. “I’d heard you and your mate talking about going to Frankie’s bar that night so I went. And, well, you weren’t easy to charm and then he showed up. And that’s when everything clicked into place. I remembered that Anita had been engaged to him ’til recently and I thought about how weird it was that she’d seemed so determined to get you here where she’d be waiting. When I went back home without you she was fuming. I asked if it had all been some revenge game for McKenzie and she flipped her lid, ranting about men and commitments and models and babies. Then she stormed out and I haven’t seen her or heard from her since.”

Dane exchanged a look with Connor before he informed Jaxxon and Luke, “That was the night Anita turned up at mine in tears looking for somewhere to stay.”

“So you know where she is?” asked Luke, not that he really cared.

Nodding, Jaxxon smiled. “She’s at Dane’s house, she’s absolutely fine and she’s very pregnant.”

Luke gaped. “She’s what? Wait a minute, it’s not mine. We used protection.”

“Did she ever try to get you to go bareback?” asked Connor, now seeing where Jaxxon’s thoughts had taken her.

He shook his head. “No, never.” Then a memory came to him. “We did go bareback once in the car because I had no condoms but she said she was on the pill.” Three sympathetic looks were directed his way. “You think this baby she’s having is mine?”

Jaxxon sighed. She couldn’t help feeling sorry for the bloke. “The facts are that Anita was planning to ‘accidentally’ get pregnant with Connor’s baby but he found out and we were presuming he ended it before she had a chance to get the plan live and kicking. Then she told me a week ago that she was pregnant, but I can tell you right now Luke she was lying her arse off. Or, as it turns out, she was under the impression that she was. Yesterday she did a test and it was positive. I don’t think she’d have waited this long to do a test if it was Connor’s, it makes no sense. So if she hasn’t been able to come up with a positive until now then she must only be in the early stages of pregnancy. If that’s true, the baby can’t be Connor’s. But it could be yours,” she added more sensitively. “I think she thought she could pass off your baby as his; you have dark hair and dark eyes like him.”