Forbidden: A Stepbrother Secret Baby Romance by Vesper Vaughn Page A

when I’m not allowed to touch.
    And she is entirely off limits. Have I said that enough?
    She takes my hand angrily, and I slip my other arm around her waist. Even with her protruding stomach, she is so small I can easily reach the sweet little curve of her lower back. I think for a moment I can feel her shiver, but when I see the look in her eyes I know I must have imagined it. She is just angry. She plasters on a smile for the sake of the crowd watching. We begin to move around the dance floor.
    "Enjoying the reception?" I murmur to her just to see her reaction.
    "Oh, yeah. It's been wonderful having to stand up all night," she hisses. "My back loves it."
    I have a flash of her on her side, naked, with me oiling up her body and working out the kinks there. I blink it away. My brain is telling me to ask the question. It seems important for some reason. I do it. “How far along are you?”
    “Eight months,” she says to me.
    Something pings in the back of my brain. Eight months. “That’s about how long it’s been since we saw each other. Right?”
    The words hang in the air between us for a moment. Tessa clears her throat. “He’s not yours,” she says. “I’ve only had sex with one man without a condom and it wasn’t you.”
    My mind flashes to the sight of two lonely condom wrappers on the floor of my bedroom. “Of course not,” I say to her. Eight months. Almost exactly eight months. And what are the odds, anyway? The other half of my brain kicks in. Kids. Babies. Remember? Screaming, crying, pissing kids. Phew. That was close. "Well, this shindig will be over soon enough, I think. I've heard more than one person complain that their feet hurt."
    "Yeah, well some guests have already gone to bed," she says with a bitterness I'm not expecting.
    I tilt my head in confusion and then look around the room. Her skinny, asshole partner is nowhere to be found. "You talking about your husband?"
    “Husband?” She laughs. “He’s not my husband. Oh, no. He’s just my boyfriend.” She gets a far-away look in her eyes. "And I shouldn't be upset that he already went to bed. He works really hard. It's just, he's been sleeping all day and I've been -"
    I cut her off. "On your feet all day and you look like you're about to pop out a baby on this dance floor." Tessa looks hurt. Shit. Backtrack, asshole. "I just meant -"
    Tessa shakes her head. "No, I know what you meant. I look like a beached whale right now." Tears prick at her eyes.
    Fuck. I made her cry. What do I do now? I spontaneously lift my hand and twirl her around, pulling her back into my body. Hard. I can feel her stomach on my dick. I look at her face and realize I’ve managed to shock the tears right out of her. Good. That was my plan. I lean down and whisper in her ear. "You look fucking gorgeous. Don't let anyone tell you differently."
    Entirely without meaning to, I nuzzle my nose into her slender neck. God, she smells good.  And she's so tiny. One of my hands could wrap around her entire head. I feel Tessa's breathing get heavier. Her belly is pressing harder into my crotch.
    I realize with a jolt that the room is silent. I look around the room and see the crowd gaping at me. Fuck. How long has the dance been over? Tessa's face is unreadable. I pull my hands away from her and see that goosebumps are covering her bare arms. I hope that it's from what I said to her. My father is staring at me with harsh disapproval. Cassie looks scandalized. I kiss Tessa's hand and drop it, walking away through the whispering crowd.
    What the fuck did I just do?

CHAPTER TEN
    TESSA
    SEVEN MONTHS LATER
    I wake up to the sound of Paul walking around. "Honey?" I mumble into the dark room.
    "Yeah?" he asks. I look over and realize that his hand is already on the knob of the bedroom door. "I'm leaving for work."
    I roll over to face. "Did you feed Ryan yet?"
    I hear Paul sigh. "No, he's not awake and I wasn't about to wake him up. I've really, really got to go. I have a lot