“But you are,” she interjected. “A man-whore, that is.”

“Just because I like having sex with multiple women, that does not mean I’m a whore,” he said with a glare. “And at least I’m not a liar,” he added, receiving one hell of a death look.

“I am—not—a—liar.”

“I think you are. You lied to me for six months about our baby. In those six months we could have worked something out.”

What that something could have been, he had no clue, but she didn’t need to know that. “I was protecting myself,” she argued.

“While f**king me in the process. I am walking on eggshells right now on the team, and when this hits the media and I don’t deny that the baby is mine, I’d better be ready to fix things or I’ll be off the team—Elli is not kidding around. I need your help, Piper.”

“I just don’t understand how marrying me is going to help you,” she said, still flabbergasted that he would even consider marriage as an option.

“It will make me look like a stand-up guy. Everyone knows how I am,” he stressed. “They know I like the ladies, but if I can show that I can be a family man, then maybe I have a chance to stay on this team. Or any team for that matter; word does get around.”

Piper only shook her head, and Erik knew she was still unconvinced. “Plus, we have the issue of our families. My parents will freak when they find out. Yours will, too. It doesn’t matter that we are adults and that not everyone gets married when a woman gets pregnant today. Not everyone’s families are tangled up the way ours are.”

Letting out a sound of distress, Piper looked up at him.

“You don’t want this. I’m not so sure I do, either.”

“Of course I don’t. None of it. I like my life, but you threw a wrench in it. That’s why you gotta help me.”

She looked away and he could see her eyes filling with tears.

“So, what, we’ll be married and then get divorced in a month?”

Erik shook his head.

“No, we would wait until after the baby is born. We’ll be like most couples that marry because of a kid—no one is going to expect us to succeed. We just need to make Elli believe that we tried. So we act like this is real for a few months to a year, and then end it after we both get what we want.”

When Piper turned her head to look at him, a tear had escaped her right eye. That sign of emotion affected him; it was like taking a puck to his chest. Erik hated when girls cried; that was one of the reasons he didn’t get emotionally involved.

“Why do you need to stay on this team? Go somewhere else.”

“No,” he said without even thinking. Not only did he not want to leave his brother, but Jakob’s words played hard on his mind.

What kind of man does that to their child?

It bothered him, and as much as he would love the chance to leave and never see Piper again, he knew he couldn’t do that if he wanted to play on the Assassins and, ultimately, be able to live life the way he wanted to—that is, once all this was over with.

Instead of admitting that, he said, “I don’t have those options now—like I said, word gets around. I’ve f**ked up, and this pregnancy is only going to make it worse.”

She bit down on her lip and shook her head.

“No one will believe that we wanted to get married. We hate each other. Neither of us is that good at playacting.”

Erik was a little taken aback by her comment.

“I don’t hate you, Piper. Not at all. I just hate how you have handled things.”

“Like you’ve given me a choice. It’s not like you were being the doting boyfriend; you were off f**king anything with legs—”

“I’m done with that conversation,” Erik said, interrupting her. He paused for a moment as she crossed her arms, her beautiful mouth set in a straight line. “The main thing is our future. We have to stop with the blame and the fighting about what I should have done or what you should have done. I need your help, okay, and I think marrying me is the least you could do.”

“Really? Are you f**king kidding me?! The least you could have done was not f**king break my heart! You don’t get to come into someone’s life and then check out. Only to later expect them to help you!”

Her eyes were clouded with tears and he could see that she was doing everything to hold them in. He didn’t want to yell at her, but he had no choice. She had to do this.

“I never meant to hurt you and I told you that! You kept this from me, giving me no time to figure things out! You owe me this!”

“I owe you nothing!” she screeched. “Nothing!”

Shaking his head, feeling like this was going nowhere, Erik closed his eyes and turned his face up toward the ceiling. When he glanced down, Piper was leaning against the counter, her forehead on the surface, her breathing labored.

“Okay, maybe you don’t owe me, Piper, but I need your help. I love my life here, and I don’t want to leave my brother and Ally. And now our baby.” Not a total lie, but definitely another approach he was hoping would convince her.

“You don’t care about our child,” she whispered, shaking her head against the counter.

“I do,” Erik said, taking a step forward. He placed his hand on her shoulder, causing her to glance up at him.

“So you want us to play house,” she whispered. “Live as if we are the happiest, most in-love couple, expecting their little bundle of joy.”