Forced (1st book in The Forced Series)

Twenty Five

Twenty Five 

Dinner was a strained event. Despite his hardest attempts, Van couldn't get Hazel to open up to him. The most that she had talked about was her art work. Everything else was gloom and obviously closed off. At the end of it all, being annoyed and frustrated, he confronted her.

"Do you hate me? Am I an annoyance?"

Her eyes bulged at the question,"No. Not at all." He was, she had to admit, a witty yet serious person. She enjoyed listening to his liquid smooth voice.

"You didn't say much throughout the day. Nor did you finish the meal. And I'm sure you didn't eat the lunch I got you."

Hazel considered what he said. It was true after all. She hadn't felt like eating at lunch, the torment of the possibility that he would throw her out pregnant had still nagged at her, in fact, it still did. Her eyes watered at the prospect of having to live alone again, with no one to depend on. Even if they couldn't get along, she liked knowing there would be someone she could possibly count on.

"Are you- do you want this baby?" her voice was creaky, her eyes watering and breath held.

There was a pause, in which Van seemed to see her in a new light. Scared, young and pregnant with a virtual stranger's baby. His heart felt for her but the fact remained; she was cold by nature. He couldn't, and wouldn't, let him self believe that the demon in an angel's skin would ever let him be anything more than her baby daddy and for-show husband.

"Yes. I want my baby." his voice sounded angry and suddenly very cold.

Hazel stood, on wobbly legs with a spinning head,"Okay. I'll-I'll go to bed now..."

Before he could answer, she was stumbling down the hall, heading to their room. He eyed her retreating frame with guilt. Perhaps, he thought, I shouldn't have answered like that.

Nevertheless, he didn't see her opening up to him anytime soon. Nor did he see himself thrusting her. The very fact that she had been pregnant and aware of it, neglecting to say anything, was an obvious sign that she was a cold, closed off woman.

He chewed on his lip, wondering how his child would be. If it was a boy, would he be closed off like his mother or as bad of a human being as his father? And if it was a girl, would she be the type of person that would get married to a virtual stranger for money? Either prospects seemed like a dead end. Frustrated with his line of thought, Van ran a hand down his face and stood. There was nothing he could possibly do about it now. She was pregnant with his child and whether or not he wanted it so, he'd really have Hazel in his life forever.

×forced×

Hazel glanced beside her, staring at the outline of Van's body in the faint light of dawn. His lips were pressed in a crooked yet beautiful line and the almost nonexistent sound of snoring rose from him.

Hazel had become accustomed to his sleep pattern, where he would shuffle in the dead of the night, unconsciously snuggling himself into Hazel's back, then his morning snore where he would start snoring as he laid on his chest. In fact, she quite liked his sleep pattern; his antics often made her smile or giggle to herself during the day.

But the days weren't that peaceful. Her days were even worse than her second try at love. They were long, filled with loneliness and absolute torment whenever she tried thinking of a future. Before she got knocked up, her situation with Van had been complicated and she had wanted to decomplicate things by reinstating her prior rules but with a child in the mix - the one thing she totally hadn't anticipated- she didn't see how that would ever work.

Not only would the kid be confused with the atmosphere that would surround the place, but he or she would grow up stuck in between his parent's animosity towards each other. And Hazel sure as hell didn't want that!

Growing up with people posing as 'parents' hadn't been too good for her, and it surely wouldn't be good for her own child.

"Why are you staring at me, Hazel?"

She jumped at the sound of Van's gruff morning voice. His eyes searched her pale face for an answer, only seeing a slight blush creep onto her cheeks.

"I wasn't staring, just thinking..." she muttered, getting up and stuffing her unruly hair from her eyes.

"Mmmhh, I'll make breakfast after a quick shower." Van's eyes ran along the curves of Hazel's body under her baggy tee, that was sticking to her, and elephant sized pj bottoms. For a reason unknown, with her hair down like that, he wanted to ravish her. To put it simply, he would have love to tackle her onto the ground and put-

"Why are you staring at me, Van?" Hazel mocked, almost laughing. She caught herself before she could though.

"I'll admit that I was, indeed, staring." he replied, standing. He took a step closer to her,"But in doing so, I was only thinking..."

He lifted his arm and yanked at something behind her, then walked away to the bathroom, pants and boxers in hand.

Hazel glared at the door before turning away. She was annoyed at him for putting her on the spot like that - but furious with herself for the immense blushing her face and neck was doing. She walked up to the full length mirror and sighed,"You look like a blazing fire engine."

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