Chapter 27

When I told Asher I was busy tonight, I should have expected the follow-up messages.

???

With what?

With who?

I tried my best to ignore him. I checked every message as it came it, but I forced myself not to reply. I didn’t trust myself not to immediately cave and tell him everything.

He wouldn’t approve of me meeting Joseph – especially if it meant turning down dinner with him.

But I had to do this. To move on from Asher, I had to see what other options were available.

Plus, my baby deserved a father who wanted to be a part of their life.

Even though Asher had offered to take the job, it had only been because of his promise to Dylan. When he’d made that vow, he hadn’t known I would get pregnant. He couldn’t have known the promise would tie him down to a baby.

This wasn’t fair to Asher.

Joseph was the one who should take responsibility.

So I grabbed my coat and headed toward Joseph’s meeting spot in the park. I found him sitting on a park bench. He hopped to his feet when I approached.

“Cynthia,” he said, giving the boyish smile that had attracted me to him in the first place. I saw it differently now, knowing the playboy underneath. Any innocence he gave off was an act.

“I’m here,” I said. “Say what you have to say.”

“Please, sit.” He waved me toward the bench. It was dusk, the park was mostly empty. I didn’t totally feel comfortable getting closer to him, but I didn’t want to be rude.

I had made the decision to come here. It was too late to turn back.

So I moved forward and sat on the edge of the bench. My phone buzzed from within my purse. It had to be Asher, but I couldn’t check now.

Joseph sat beside me. He tapped his knee into mine.

“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking these past weeks. I hurt you. Well, I guess I hurt a lot of people, but I know I hurt you the worst, what with... the baby.”

Instinctively, I wrapped my arms around my waist.

“I’ve changed, Cynthia. I know you may not believe me, but I’m ready to prove it, if you let me.”

I glanced at him. His eyes seemed earnest, but I’d been fooled before by that same look before.

“You’re the only one for me,” he had whispered, holding me close, not all that long ago.

“How?” I said now, disbelieving.

“I want to be there for you, and for our baby. Whatever you need. If you depend on me, even for little things at first, I can show you I mean it.”

“I don’t know.”

“Here! Look.” He reached into his knapsack at the foot of the bench and pulled out two books. He held them up for me and I skimmed the titles.

They were books on parenting.

“I want to be a good father,” he said.

I slightly thawed, impressed by the bent spines and marked pages of the books. He’d been studying.

He lowered his books down onto the empty space on the opposite side of him.

“I’ve made mistakes, Cynthia. I was an idiot kid. So many women all around me kept throwing themselves at me and I was too weak to reject them.”

Thoughts of Asher came to my mind. Women threw themselves at him too, and he, apparently, didn’t say no.

Shaking my head, I tried to focus on the here and now. Joseph was here, before me, trying to be better.

“Okay,” I said. “We can talk about things. With the baby. I’m not ready for more.”

He beamed at me. “Thank you, Cynthia. I can be patient. I’ll prove everything to you in time.” His arm fell onto the back of the bench behind me.

I inched forward, away from it. “We’ll see.”

”Don’t let him touch you,” Lilith said in my mind.

He’s just being friendly, I reasoned.

“He cannot be trusted,” Lilith hissed in reply.

“You’ve made me so happy, Cynthia,” Joseph said. He pressed his knee more insistently into mine. Moving closer, his thigh touched mine too.

I jumped off the bench. I had an excuse primed, ready on my tongue. I swallowed it when I heard a low, dangerous growl behind me.

“You have the worst timing,” Joseph grumbled, rising to his feet. “Tell me, which one of my friends told you where to find me?”

A familiar presence walked to my side. Asher gave me a careful once over, before taking another step forward, moving between Joseph and me. The growl from his throat never wavered.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Joseph said. “I haven’t done anything. I was only apologizing.”

“Don’t lie,” Asher said, voice deep.

“Is it so hard to believe? Look at these books.” Joseph held the books up again, this time like a shield. “I want to be part of my baby’s life.”

“She doesn’t need you.”

Joseph’s brow furrowed. “And who gets to decide that? You? Last I checked, Asher, you aren’t her brother. And you aren’t her boyfriend. So what are you exactly? Her guard dog?”

Asher’s whole body flexed, like he might spring forward at any moment.

I placed my hand on his arm near the elbow. “Asher.”

I didn’t have the strength to hold him back if he tried to pounce, but I couldn’t stand by and do nothing. He would get into trouble for attacking Joseph. I refused to cause him even more misfortune.

“Asher, come on. Let’s just go.”

Looking down at me, he began to relax under my touch.

“Did I say guard dog?” Joseph sneered. “I meant puppy on a leash.”

In one fluid motion, Asher ripped from my hand and surged toward Joseph.

Joseph cowered back at once, falling over himself. On the ground he crawled backwards, away from Asher who stalked ever closer.

Before I could panic, though, Asher stopped. In a low dangerous rumble, he said, “Know your place.”

Joseph, eyes wide with fear, nodded like a bobble-head.

Asher then swiveled away from him and came to me. I thought he might turn the same angry glare at me, but he did not look at me at all.

He clutched my wrist, firmly but not enough to hurt, and pulled me behind him out of the park.

At the entrance of the park, where the sidewalk met the quiet street, he dropped my arm.

“This was what you were busy with,” he said, cold as ice.

He wasn’t growling like before, but I think I would have preferred that to the icicle wall he put up around himself now.

“This is why you couldn’t see me.”

I’d made my choice, now I had to live with it and the guilt that pressed down into me.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “But I had to hear him out, for my baby.”

Asher stood very still. I wasn’t even sure he was breathing.

He was every inch the predator an Alpha was expected to be.

“I knew you would react this way,” I said. I wasn’t scared, more… sad.

He must have been able to tell, because he deflated at once. His shoulders dropped.

Exhaling deeply, he ran a hand through his hair.

“You have to stay away from him, Cynthia. He’s up to something.”

“What?” I was willing to believe. My safety seemed to forever be Asher’s first priority. But to turn away my baby’s father, I needed proof.

“I don’t know yet,” he said. “It’s just a feeling.”

I threw my hands up. “Asher! I can’t go on just that.”

“Why not?” Finally, his eyes found mine and they seared me with their intensity. “My instincts are never wrong.”

I tried to hold his gaze, but it was too strong. I looked down and away.

I wanted to trust Asher, but Joseph was my baby’s biological father. Didn’t I owe him the benefit of the doubt for the sake of the child?

I curled my arms around myself. I didn’t know what to do.

“If you won’t trust me,” Asher said. “I’ll show you.”