Alpha’s Virgin Stripper

Lake:

“I’ll be thrilled.” I replied with a smile. I did not know what was happening to me. I seemed to not know a lot of things nowadays. As she walked in front of me, I found myself wishing I could hold her back and pull her into my arms. I wished that I could feel her skin underneath mine and kiss her hair, like I used to. But I knew better than to try that, especially when I was not sure I had a chance yet. Everything required patience, right? I needed to be patient with her.

She led me up a small flight of stairs into a large room. She pushed the metal door open slowly, my eyes fell to the part of her back which her shirt left open. Pregnancy and childbirth made her even more beautiful than I remembered. Her hips had more curves now, and her skin glowed like she applied sparkles on them.

A huge bed sat at the distal end of the room, a wooden baby court was next to it. From where I stood, I could see baby Lucian sleeping safely in his court. She continued to walk ahead of me, until we got to the front of a wall.

I stopped after she stopped and lifted my eyes to examine the wall. There were black and white monochrome pictures. The images were quite vague, but it did seem like they were taken in something hollow.

Even if I did not understand what they were at first glance, I could feel my heart grow warmer at the sight of them. They were seven pictures in total, and with every picture, something in the image seemed to grow bigger.

“These were pictures I sneaked out of all the ultrasound scans.” Jojo spoke as she stood next to me. I tore my eyes away from the wall and rested it on her face. Her cheeks were puffed and the colour of roses. I could remember when she used to be like that for me, and only me. Her lashes fluttered as she stared at the picture. She tiptoed to point at them one after the other. I could see her lips move while she smiled, chuckled and threw her head back in laughter. But it was impossible for me to hear a word of what was being said. I was lost in her beauty, her grace threw me over a cliff, I did not intend to survive the fall.

“He was so small here, like a gummy bear.” She said, pointing at the first picture.

“I did not even know if he would be a boy or girl yet. The doctor said she could find out in the next three weeks, but I did not know if I wanted to know at all until the day of the birth. Mrs Smith insisted I found out, so we could start shopping for baby clothes and other things. But, I didn’t want to. I wanted to see him or her that day and be… well, surprised.” She added, turning away from the picture to look at me.

Once our eyes met, my heart seemed to skip a trillion beats. Which was absolutely abnormal! My heart never skipped beats, not for anyone.

“My mother did not listen, did she?” I asked, in a bid to start the conversation.

“She might be a lot like you, because she did not. I eventually had to do the scan after twenty-eight weeks. I was grateful for whichever sex it was. The next day, Mrs Smith came back home with a lot of blue, white and even black baby clothes, toiletries, furniture and playthings. At first glance, she was more excited about the baby than even I was. She was of so much help, you know.”

I could see the gratitude in Jojo’s eyes. She was genuinely happy, she had not missed me at all. Everyone and everything she could have needed were by her side, at her call. I did not know if this fact made me happy or sad, but it was a good thing to know that she had always been happy about the child, even though he was… mine.

“Can I keep the pictures?” I asked again. She turned sharply to me. At first, it was a strong glare, one that carried in it more questions than I could answer. But the glare faded away with such speed that had me questioning if it had been there in the first place.

I noticed how the creases on her forehead relaxed, before she sucked in a deep breath and returned her grass green eyes to the wall.

“Yeah, sure. I could send copies to you.” She replied bluntly. She did not say any more words, so I did not speak either. We both fixed our eyes on the wall in silence. There was a lot I wanted to say, I could feel the weight of unsaid words pulling my shoulders, I could sniff the tension in the air. But if I were to speak first, I would not know what to say.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

Thankfully, she turned to look at me again. But without her glare. This time, it was a soft and… pitiful expression I caught in her eyes.

“You know I am not going to keep Lucian away from you, right? I mean, I do not intend to keep you two apart, he doesn’t deserve that. He is your child too, but that would be the only relationship between us. We would only ever be Lucian’s parents, nothing else.” Her tone was irrevocably definite, her gaze was a soft type of stern.

It was strange, but I could not tell which fact hurt more; the fact that she wanted nothing to do with me, or the fact that she had not even waited for me to ask before spilling the information on my ears. I knew it was because of the man I met at the hospital, I had seen how comfortable and cosy she was with him.

“You’re seeing someone, aren’t you?”

Shit! The question slipped out of my tongue before I could do anything about it. Did I really have to be so razor mouthed?

She frowned first, before replying.

“I do not think that is any of your business.” She bit back.

She stopped, took in a deep breath and turned away from me, as though she was leaving the room.

Well, she was. It was a subtle reminder that this was not my home, and she did not want me here. I suddenly remembered how the strange man stood with her in beach pants, he looked like he had just woken up from a long nap. All the women were comfortable and safe with him, he was part of the family, I wasn’t.

And that realization stung more than a hundred angry bees.

Once we were out of the room, she closed the door behind us and stood in front of me.

“You are welcome here whenever you need to see him. When he is old enough, he can begin to travel to Rush pack and would stay there for as long as the holidays allow. I would never withhold him from you or you from him.” It was a reminder, not a reassurance of any sort.

My heart, ego and pride were already bruised. All I could do was nod in reply.

“Thank you, for letting me come.” I said.

She did not so much as nod, and I understood why. I turned away from her and started my journey outside her house.

Once I was in my car, I picked up my phone and called Kenji.

“Lake?”

“Meet me at the address I’ll text you in the next thirty minutes, we need to drink.”

I needed to drink.