“Hey, baby girl! Are you helping Mommy?” I heard him say as Carrie squealed in delight. I heard them doing their adorable nose honk/beep greeting and knew he was probably sweeping her up and gobbling her tummy like he did every night when he got home. He walked into the kitchen a few minutes later and wrapped his arms around me from behind. “Hi, Bear. I’m so sorry about last night. About dinner and… everything else.”

I nodded but couldn’t bring myself to speak. I was still so hurt. He ran his hands up and down my sides as he kissed my neck. “I’ll make it up to you tonight, baby. A lot,” he said, nibbling on my ear and pressing his hard body against my back.

“You’d better bring your A-game, Broxton. I would at least like to get equal time to your baby mama. So, over three and a half hours?”

“I wasn’t gone that long, was I?” he asked, his body stilling.

“At least that long. That’s when I fell asleep. I guess time flies when you’re having fun, huh?”

“Don’t be snarky, Blaire. You think this is fun for me?” He’s calling ME snarky? “We were discussing living arrangements. Milan is going to move here so I can be close to Junior when he’s born.”

“Junior?”

“Yeah,” he said proudly. “Milan wants to name him Axel, Jr.” God, give me strength. I had to give it to Milan, though. She played a good game. “I brought your favorite wine,” he sang, pressing tiny kisses against the side of my neck. “It’s in my coat pocket if you want to grab it and open it when you’re done here. I’m going to go up and take a shower before we eat.”

I went to find Axel’s jacket, which he had flung on the couch, and reached into his deep side pocket to find a bottle of red wine in a brown paper bag. A piece of paper fell out with it, and I picked it up to stuff it back into his pocket. Then I realized that it was a Hilton receipt. I glanced down at the total and almost crapped my freaking pants.

$1692.26? What the…? Did he buy the entire fucking hotel for her?

I read through the charges and saw that he had prepaid for two nights in a luxury suite. At over $800 per night. I left the paper sitting unfolded on the coffee table and went back into the kitchen, grabbing my phone. I looked up the Hilton’s website and checked the room prices. The basic room was $140 per night, which was closer to what I was expecting. The luxury suite for Miss Priss was apparently the most expensive room at that particular hotel. I wondered how long he was going to pay for this because the price went up to over $1000 per night on the weekends.