Page 3 of Daddy's Reckoning

“I should have gone on birth control when I realized it was gonna be a regular thing.” What's that thing they say? Hindsight is 20/20? This was my hindsight moment, and it was a doozy.

“Even birth control fails sometimes,” Theo offered lamely.

I sank onto the bed and buried my face in my hands. “I can’t do this!” I wailed. My voice was taking on a higher pitch with every word. “I had plans for my life. I can't have a baby in med school! I’m barely surviving as it is!”

“Okay, okay.” Theo knelt beside me, peeling my hands away from my face. His eyes were gentle and his expression calm. Meanwhile, I felt like I was going to throw up. Again. “It's okay. It's gonna be okay. You can have an abortion.”

I gaped up at him, ready to tell him that I would never do that, but he was already on his feet. He crossed the room and returned with his wallet, peeled out a huge stack of bills, and pressed them into my hands. The relief was palpable on his face.

“I’ll pay for it,” he said, unnecessarily. “And anything you need. And I can go with you and take care of you after. Just schedule it and tell me when. We’re in this together. You don’t have to go through it alone.”

I blinked up at him, still holding a stack of hundreds in my hand. I could feel the tears welling up behind my eyes as I gulped around the lump in my throat. I was seconds away from falling apart, and I wasn’t going to do that in front of Theo. Not when he’d just proven he couldn't be trusted with my emotions.

“Okay, yeah,” I whispered, my voice cracking. On autopilot, I stood and gathered my clothes from the floor, throwing on the first thing I found—a crop top and my rattiest sweatpants. I didn't bother with a bra, panties, or socks, and shoved my feet into my tennis shoes.

“Thanks,” I muttered when I looked up and caught Theo staring at me. “I will. I need to go. I’ll call you later.”

I ran out the door before he had a chance to respond, took the elevator to the parking garage, and squealed out of there like I was running from a ticking bomb that was about to explode.

In a way, I was. I made it two blocks from Theo’s apartment before I pulled over to the side of the road, laid my head on the steering wheel and burst into tears.

I had no idea what to do about my perfectly cultivated plans. I hadn't been lying when I said I couldn’t handle med school and a baby, but I had been lying about everything else.

I wasn’t going to make an appointment. I wasn’t going to call Theo ever again. And I damn sure wasn’t going to get an abortion.

As a medical student, I believed in the right to choose, but it wasn't a choice I would ever make for myself.

Laying my hand on my still-flat belly, I whispered. “It's just you and me now, kid. From now until the end of time.”

CHAPTER 1

PRESENT DAY

ERIN

How are your classes going? Have you been taking care of yourself?

The text from Theo came through three weeks later, reminding me that I’d never canceled my contract for Rent-A-Daddy services.

I’d meant to. I’d told myself I would. I hadn't heard from Theo since that fateful morning at his apartment when he’d pressed a thousand dollars into my hand and told me to get an abortion, on him, as if it were a Subway sandwich or something.

I really wasn’t in a place to keep paying for a service I wasn't using, but for some reason I couldn't bring myself to make the call to cancel it, either.

And selfishly, I wanted to use the service. It was the end of the year, and between morning sickness and pregnancy brain, I could use the extra motivation that Rent-A-Daddy provided.

The conundrum was in seeing Theo again. Obviously, he was ready to pick up where we’d left off, but that didn't mean I was.

For now, my belly was still flat, but my boobs were fuller than usual, and eventually it would become obvious I hadn't gotten an abortion. That wasn't a fight I was mentally ready to have.

With my fingers hovering over the keyboard of my phone, I sighed. Was spanking even safe right now? I looked it up on a popular kink site, and frowned at the wide range of answers. The jury was still out, it seemed.

The general consensus seemed to be that alternate punishments were safer, or to keep the spanking to a hand, or less harsh implement, like a spoon.

But if I suddenly renegotiated my limits, wouldn't Theo know something was up?

Frustrated, I dropped my phone onto the couch beside me and looked up my grades. Biochem was still low.

Of course it was. Biochem was impossible, and short of getting the answers from a guy in class that I knew was crushing on me, no amount of studying I seemed to do helped.