The Lion’s Forbidden Mate

“Hey, beautiful,” it said. “I’m busting out of the party tonight. I’m coming to see you. I’m not missing this opportunity. See you soon. I’m crazy about you.”

She ran her fingers over his name and stared at it, wondering how long it would take him to make up some excuse to leave the party. Wouldn’t they realize that the lead singer to the band was going to be gone? They would come looking for him and inevitably someone was going to catch on. It was a dangerous game that he was playing, but she supposed that he was probably to the point that she was and he didn’t care anymore. He probably just wanted all of this to end once and for all. She wanted that, too. She wanted to have her man back and she wanted to be able to be with him and not have anyone judge them.

When the knock came almost instantly, she jumped off the edge of her bed. She stood up and she felt herself running toward the door and pulling it open to look at James standing on the other side. He didn’t look like the James she knew from all the other times they’d met, but someone different and someone new. He looked like a man who was trying very hard to hide who he was from anyone that might be watching them. She stared at him and felt the smile spreading across her lips, like a wildfire eating up a dry, old forest. She was glad to see him. No, she was more than glad to see him. This was the best moment of her life, seeing him after all these dark days and weeks.

“Hey,” she exhaled.

“Hey,” he said back to her in a voice that she’d longed to hear.

She grabbed his hands and pulled him into the room, feeling that old, familiar sensation she’d nearly forgotten, but it ignited inside her mind when she touched his hands like it was as bold as the first time she’d touched him. There was something magical inside of him and she was more than eager to draw it out. She had missed him more than anything in her life. She missed him the same way she missed being home in Montana. She missed him on a deep, personal level that she couldn’t quite fathom. This was the longing she felt deep inside of her all along.

“You have something you need to tell me, apparently,” James said, stepping into the room and closing the door with his foot.

His hands immediately shot to her sides, pulling her close in her robe, pressing her against him and their lips met in the soft, welcoming kiss she remembered. This was the kiss that defined them and that burned a hole in her memory. She loved the feeling of him kissing her and she loved the sensation of his warmth rippling through her. There was nothing better.

“I do,” she broke back from him and took a step away from him.

This was the hardest decision she’d ever made, but she knew she didn’t have a choice but to tell him. He did deserve to know and have the opportunity to advise and support her in whatever way he saw fit. Sure, the final actions were her own, but she wanted him to know. She wanted him to be able to give her the chance to tell him what she knew.

She took a deep breath. Her heart was pounding harder than it ever had before. “I’m pregnant,” she whispered to him softly.

He looked at her for a moment, his eyes were still and they were locked on hers. There was no movement and she was certain that the silence in the room was a strange and powerful creature that was telling her everything she needed to know about him. He wasn’t sure how to react and as she told him, she could tell that she needed to have thought out a better plan that this. She couldn’t just spring this on a man and she couldn’t just throw it at him like a pan of hot grease.

What a horrible person she was not to buffer him or help to soften the blow. She knew that no one wanted enormous, earth-shattering news like this so harshly and so immediately. You had to ease people into the reality of their situation and you had to give them a chance to process it and to take it all in. She had denied him that and she was immediately sorry for how she had handled it. How could she be so callous and cruel to him?

But then his eyes flickered. There was a little dance in them and as she looked at him, she watched as the color that had faded from his face was starting to come back and the light in his eyes was growing, swelling with a new life that had been breathed into them as he looked at her face, taking her in. His fingertips constricted a little tighter against her sides as he held her close to him. His reaction was almost something out of a fairy tale to her as she felt him pull her closer and plant his lips on her.

The kiss was powerful and it was full of life, hope, and excitement she hadn’t been anticipating for the past few moments. She thought she’d screwed up and she had thought that she had ruined everything, but as he kissed her, she knew there was a very good chance he was going to be able to work this out. They were going to be together and they were going to have this moment forever. It was vital they stick together and endure. She knew she needed him in her life and she knew he wanted her in his life as well.

He pulled back from her and she could see the tears welling up in his eyes as he looked at her.

“I can’t believe you’re pregnant,” he whispered with a kind of excitement and jubilee that couldn’t be faked. His whole body was trembling with the excitement and she was so happy that he wasn’t angry or depressed.

“This is the most incredible thing that I’ve ever heard,” he said to her with a grin spreading across his face. “Oh my God, I can’t feel my face. I feel like I’m going to just float away on happiness. Oh my goodness.” He took a step forward and placed his hand on her stomach, as though he might be able to feel if their child was moving.