Forced (1st book in The Forced Series)

Twenty Six

Twenty Six

A couple minutes later, Van walked out the bedroom, hair damp from his shower. His large feet created a sort of pat pat on the tiled floor as he neared her. Hazel felt herself blush, making her question her own sanity. Surely there was no reason for her to be blushing.

"Do you want anything in particular?" his question took a couple of difficult seconds to understand.

"N-no. Anything is fine."

He nodded, but failed to conceal his mocking grin,"You... were ah, how did you put it? Thinking, not staring."

Hazel sniffed, turning her back to him, hoping he didn't see pass her air of importance and see how delighted she was with the fact that she had a joke to share with someone other than herself and the apartment. Or, perhaps now, her baby.

Hazel sat on one of the sofas that faced the full length windows, thinking. Her baby. My baby, she thought, my baby.

Her fingers laced around her stomach in wonder. She didn't feel particularly different. And surely, with her paper pale skin tone, she had not achieved the famed maternity glow. Then, perhaps the test was wrong and she was only sick. No, she told herself, I am pregnant.

She closed her eyes and allowed herself to smile. To grin, to feel truly happy for the first time in many years.

Van stood by the door, watching Hazel hug her stomach and smile like he'd only seen her smile in the pictures from five years prior; before she went under the radar. He bit his tongue to stop himself from speaking, wondering what happened to her in Chicago. Her once constant smiles turned into constant frowns and surely Chicago's princess talked more than the closed off girl he saw.

"Do you want coffee?" Van asked, stepping forward.

Hazel's eyes flew open, her nose scrunching up in disgust,"No. It smells like... garbage."

Van laughed, knowing full well that it was her pregnancy speaking,"Tea then?"

Hazel nodded,"Yeah thanks."

Van spinned on his heels, stopping however when she called him,"Thank you, Van."

He grinned,"No prob, Haze."

A blush took over her again when he continued on. Was he aware of how handsome he was? She knew he was. And she was beginning to like his confidence. Certainly, that was an attractive trait she would love her baby -their baby- to have.

×forced×

Van stepped out the meeting room, taking leisurely steps towards his office. He pulled out his phone, tapping on the contacts icon. He tapped Hazel's number then put the phone at his ears.

"Hello." she sounded out of breath.

Van frowned, "What are you doing? You're supposed to be resting."

"I...was painting. But I left my phone in ou-the bedroom."

"Oh. Well I was just checking up on you. You are feeling fine, right?"

He heard her sigh,"Yes. China came over and we had lunch. I'm just feeling bored so I decided to paint."

Van smiled,"Do you want to go out tonight? The cinema maybe."

She took a while to answer,"I..I don't know. Yes?"

"Okay. It's a date, I'll see you later, sweetie." He heard her sharp intake of breath, and knew that her green eyes had widened doe sized from his endearment.

The last week since he found about her pregnancy had been a little above civil. He would be lying if he said that Hazel had opened up but she was certainly nicer to be around; less criptic.

Van sat behind his desk, skipping through the pictures he had taken of her when she wasn't looking. Some showed her frowning whilst she seemed to be pouting in most of them; mostly at whatever she was sketching. Either way, he thought that she looked like the single most devastatingly beautiful woman he'd ever seen.

What he knew for a fact, though, war that he was falling for her, and falling hard.

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