The Beauty and the Brawler by Nikki Winter Read Free Book Online Page A

teased.
              “Must be the pregnancy,” Trip murmured in a distinctly absent-minded tone. The problem was, while it was absent-minded for him and definitely unintentionally spoken from what Luciano could tell, it. Was. Still. Heard. And it still caused Luciano to stop breathing.
              The silence on the line after the comment was enough to leave his hands trembling as he stared down at the blinking screen of his android, one million different thoughts battling in his head. Pregnant. Samara was pregnant. Samara was pregnant with his baby. He didn’t even stop to question whether or not the kid was his, because he knew it in his gut that he or she was. Samara was a lot of things, but someone who hopped from bed to bed without protection wasn’t one of them.
              The morning Luciano had woken up in his bedroom alone with condom wrappers scattered all over the floor and dresser had been more than enough evidence that he hadn’t been dreaming she’d been with him. For the first time in his adult life, the absence of a woman the morning after had left him feeling cold and wondering how he could get her back. That led to his ever-sparking interest in Samara deepening but he never drifted down that road, preferring to continue his routine of wanting her from a distance. Now not only would he have her again...it seemed like he might be tied to her for the rest of their lives, all because of one tiny person growing inside of her.
              “Oh. My. God. Sammie, I didn’t mean to—”
              “Okay!” Paz interrupted the other man’s apology. “Time for a master mix!”
              That was all Luciano heard before the sound of the Harlem Shake came crashing through his headphones. He slowly pulled them out, palms sweaty. “Uh, Sunny?”
              “Yeah?”
              “You mind calling Nyssa for me?”
              “She’s still not speaking to me and I dunno if she’s back in town yet, but I can try.” Sansone took his eyes off the freeway to glance at Luciano in the rearview. “Need something in particular?”
    “Yes.” Luciano almost crushed his phone, he held it so tightly. “Samara. I need to talk to Samara.”

Chapter Five
     
              “Put your head between your knees and breathe, Sammie.”
              “Oh, my God... Oh, my God...” Samara chanted while following Ava’s directive as she sat on the couch inside her station manager’s office,
              “You’re having a panic attack, which is completely understandable, but I need you to take slow, deep breaths, okay?”
              She nodded, following the exhale pattern Ava gave her; desperately trying to inhale normally.
              Samara’s boss went out of view, and she briefly wondered where the hell she’d disappeared to and why she was abandoning her until she heard, “You two! In here now!”
              There were footsteps, and then Trip was kneeling in front of her, cupping her face. “I do a lot of shit, Sammie, the majority of it stupid, but you have to know that was an accident. Swear to God.” Of course it was an accident. Trip was insane and exasperating, but he wasn’t spiteful.
              She nodded again, still taking slow, deep breaths. “I know.” Samara poked him in the face. “Doesn’t make you any less of an asshole, but I know.”
              He grinned, kissed her on the forehead. “You’re gonna be just fine, kid.”
              Samara frowned. “’Course I am. I’m pregnant, not dying.” Those words sunk in, and she held Trip’s shoulders in a white-knuckled grip, her previous calm disappearing. “Holy baby shit, dude! I’m pregnant! Now all my listeners know! I have over twenty thousand listeners!”
              Paz pushed Trip to the side, took his place, and held her hands. “Yes, you’re pregnant. And yes,