* * *

Nick slowly shut Beth’s door and walked down the hall. After sleeping with her for months, he didn’t feel any closer to her than their first time on Gray’s kitchen counter. Everyone assumed that he just jumped from one bed to another, but he seldom did that and the few times it had happened, he had hardly been proud of it.

He had never planned on getting involved with Beth, even though she had intrigued him from their first meeting. Her obvious dislike of him was like fuel on a fire. The more she rolled her eyes at him, the more he teased her. She hated him calling her princess so he made sure he did it regularly. What had started as an innocent game had fast gotten out of control. He found himself making up reasons to stay at Gray’s with Beth and Suzy while she was injured. He shuffled his schedule and worked far into the night so that he could free up more time to help. Of course, he would have done anything that Suzy needed and he knew that Gray was grateful that he was staying there while he was away. Truthfully, though, he just couldn’t seem to stay away from Beth.

He was an affectionate person by nature and he usually had some level of closeness with the women he was involved with. Admittedly, it might be a brief relationship, but he still cared, to some degree, even after it was over. He couldn’t understand why Beth seemed so determined to keep him at arm’s length.

She’d given him more than one hard-on before they’d finally had sex. Probably the most memorable one was in Victoria’s Secret when Suzy dragged them there to shop for something for Gray’s return home after a long business trip. Nick had started by playfully holding up skimpy bra and panty sets trying to embarrass Beth. She finally walked off, clearly pissed off. He’d let her go, giving her time to fume in private. As he was wandering around the store waiting for them both to be finished, he spotted Beth holding a pair of lacy black thong panties. Just when he felt sweat starting to break out on his forehead, she grabbed what looked to be a dozen pairs of them in various colors and matching lacy bras.

He had felt his erection starting to dig painfully into the zipper of his jeans when she paused at the end of the aisle and picked up a garter belt. She acted as if she wore stuff like that every day. He stood rooted in the same spot for at least five minutes trying to get control of his body. He really didn’t want to be the weird pervert that went into a lingerie store to get his thrills. Luckily, he had gotten himself under control by the time he saw the girls paying for their purchases. Every time he saw that damn bag for the rest of the afternoon, he felt his cock stirring. He was practically saying “Down, boy” every few minutes.

The night they’d finally had sex had blown him away. He wanted her so much by then that he was constantly on pins and needles when she was near. Her scent when she walked by drove him crazy. She smelled like a citrus mixture of exotic fruit and flowers. He actually caught himself sniffing when she left the room, hoping for a whiff of that enticing scent.

He had been determined not to hit on her, though. He knew Suzy and Gray would kill him if he slept with her and, even though he longed to land in bed with her, he never did anything other than tease her. When they were cleaning up after a cookout at Gray’s home, she had walked into the kitchen with the last of the dishes. He had started to tease her when she dropped the dishes loudly into the sink. He would never forget the look on her face. Her eyes narrowed at him as if in anger, but her cheeks were flushed and she was breathing as if she had just run a marathon.

Suddenly, she had gripped his shirt, pulling him down to her and slammed her mouth against his. Shock had rippled through his body for a split second before desire took over. His arms came around her and it was the hottest moment of his life. He had tried to step back at some point and give her a chance to walk away, but she had held on for dear life and he was too far gone to walk away from her again.

He had lost himself in her from that moment. Seeing her in a pair of those sexy little panties that she had purchased from Victoria’s Secret had finished punching his ticket. There was no way he could have left that kitchen without having her. She was just as desperate for him as he was for her. He had never been with a woman so responsive. She knew exactly where he wanted to be stroked. She touched him like someone with a wealth of experience, yet when he entered her body, she was almost like a virgin, so small and tight. He almost lost it on the first stroke into her body and just barely managed to hold it together until he felt her orgasm. Such loss of control was foreign to him. He prided himself on his “ladies-first policy,” but, boy, had he come close to violating it.

He was so blown away afterward that he just wanted to find a bed and curl himself around her lush body. Instead, she had essentially patted him on the head and walked away. Say what? Wasn’t that supposed to be his exit move? Her bedroom door had closed firmly and that had been it. If he hadn’t been so damned exhausted he would have trailed her into her room and insisted that she talk about what had just happened. Since when did a guy have great sex with no strings and then want to dissect it all night long? She handed you every man’s wet dream and you want to make it complicated? And that was when he realized he was in over his head with her.

The next morning, Beth had acted as if nothing unusual had happened between them. No eye contact, no hot looks or seductive body language, nothing. By the time he left work that evening he was wondering if he had imagined the whole thing. He had almost convinced himself of that fact when he got in the elevator for the penthouse at Danvers where he was staying until he found something to purchase. He reached over to put his key card in when someone stepped onto the elevator. The polite smile froze on his face when he saw it was Beth.

Fire blazed in her eyes as her gaze locked on his. He tried to pull it together and have some semblance of cool, but it was all over when she lined her body up flush with his and pressed her soft curves against the hard lines of his body. He sucked in a ragged breath groaning, “Princess, what are you doing?”

A husky laugh escaped from her throat when she purred, “I’m doing you, Nick, that’s what I’m doing.” With those words, she had hooked her arms around his neck and drew his mouth to hers. Just as their tongues met and tangled, he heard the elevator chime for his floor. He backed her out the door, knowing there were probably cameras in the elevators and he didn’t want to give security any added entertainment.

As he tried to fit his key in the door lock, Beth wrapped herself around his back and her hand wandered around to his front, lightly stroking against the growing bulge in his pants. He thought he would break the damn key trying to get the door open. The key suddenly turned and they fell inside when the door opened. They ripped each other’s clothes off and Nick pulled Beth onto his lap on the couch. They both moaned as he slid inside of her.

That was how most of their sex life seemed to go. A frantic twist of hands, tongues, and bodies coming together as they raced to the finish line. He tried to slow it down. He wanted to spend an evening doing nothing but exploring her body. But Beth wouldn’t allow slow and gentle. Whenever he tried, she did everything she could to drive him over the deep end until they ended fast and furious.

Damned if he could understand it. Not that he was complaining because, quite frankly, sex with her was mind-blowing. He just wished that sometimes she would let him slow the frantic pace. Not every time had to be a trip to the Indy 500.

He had no idea what he wanted from Beth, but he was tired of her treating him like a fuck buddy. Go ahead and turn your guy card in because no man should complain about having hot sex with a beautiful woman whenever she wanted it. Still, her attitude toward spending more time together bothered him. Maybe it was time to stop being so available. Tonight he would do what assholes all over the world did daily. He would stand her up for dinner and, for once, let her wonder where her Mr. Available was. Sitting around glued to her side wasn’t getting him anywhere so maybe it was time to change things up.

Chapter Five

Where was Nick? Beth looked at her watch yet again and saw it was now after ten. He should have been here no later than six. Dinner had long since grown cold, but she’d left everything on the table, too pissed off to clean up. She had planned on telling the big jerk about the pregnancy tonight, but now all she wanted to do was yell and scream at him—and, God help her, she also wanted to sit down and cry.

For someone who claimed to want nothing from Nick, you certainly are overreacting at being stood up. With a groan of disgust, she went to the bedroom to get ready for bed. Already she seemed to tire much more easily than she normally did.

She awoke with a jolt. The room was spinning and her stomach was churning. She jumped out of bed and dove for the bathroom, where she once again lost the contents of her stomach. Since she had barely eaten anything earlier, it ended up being a lot of dry heaving after the initial sickness.

She was lying on the bathroom floor, too tired and weak to make it back to bed, when she heard someone stumbling around in the bedroom. She heard a crash and a loud curse. She relaxed, recognizing Nick’s voice. He knocked on the bathroom door and slurred a loud, “Princess, you in there?”

Before she could answer, the door burst open and Nick blinked several times while his eyes tried to adjust to the bright light. “What’re you doing on the floor, princess?” Nick asked, obviously confused. “Oh, shit, baby. Are you sick again?”

Disgusted and still pissed off at him, she snapped, “Can’t get anything past you, Einstein, can I? How about giving me some privacy, Nick, and then you can have the bathroom to hose all the booze off since you reek of it.”

Nick seemed to be deep in thought over her suggestion. “Are you finished being sick?”

“Yes, I’m okay now. I just need a minute to make it back to bed.” She swayed on her feet as she tried to stand up too fast. Nick was by her side in an instant. Despite her protests, he swung her up in his arms effortlessly and walked into the bedroom to deposit her on the bed. Without saying a word, he went to the kitchen and returned with a glass of water and a wet cloth. She sat quietly while he cleaned her face and held the glass to her lips.

For someone who had been slurring his words a few minutes ago, Nick seemed to have sobered up fast. “You need to go to the doctor tomorrow, baby. This is two nights in a row that you have been sick.”

“I’m fine, Nick. I’m sure it will pass.” Wrinkling her nose at the smell of liquor on his breath, she said, “Why don’t you go home and sleep it off?”

“I’m not leaving you here sick. But I will go shower since it offends you so much.”

Before she could stop herself, she blurted out, “Where were you tonight?”

“What do you care, princess? Did you have an itch that you needed scratched? Because I know that’s the only reason you ever want me around.”

Beth saw red. Was he actually complaining about having sex with her now? She wanted to hit him with something. Instead of physically assaulting him though, she hit him where she knew it would hurt him the most. “No, you ass. I’d just rather the father of my baby not wrap his car around a tree because he is stupid enough to drive while drunk!”

Nick gave her a smug smile and said, “I took a cab so get off your high horse.” He stood up and walked into the bathroom.

Beth sat in the bed, stunned. He had made no comment at all about the first part of her sentence. Was he so drunk that he hadn’t understood what she said? She finally worked up the nerve to tell him and this was it? No shock? No nothing?

Suddenly the bathroom door flew open and Nick stood there with no shirt on and just his pants riding low on his hips. She could hear the shower running. His face was white and his eyes were wild. “What did you just say?” he whispered.

“Um, that I didn’t want you to drive while you were drunk?” Beth hedged.

“No, before that,” Nick responded quietly.

“I didn’t want the father of my baby to wrap his car around a tree.” Beth closed her eyes when she saw the reaction on his face that she had expected when she first delivered her bombshell.

She heard Nick clear his throat and then, “I’ll be right back.”

He was back about ten minutes later having obviously showered. He had pulled on a pair of lounge pants that he kept at her place to wear in the evenings. He looked stone-cold sober as he settled in a chair near her bed.

Beth was starting to get unnerved as he continued to stare at her. Finally realizing that he was waiting for her to say something, she cleared her throat and tried to think of where to begin. “I’m pregnant and it’s yours.” Smooth, Beth, real smooth. You couldn’t start with a flowery speech? I think he already knows you’re pregnant and that he’s the father. “I . . . I just found out. I was going to tell you tonight, but you didn’t come home.”

“How? I thought you were on the pill?”

“I am. God, I don’t know. I could have missed one, I just don’t know.” She looked down to buy time, picking an imaginary piece of lint off the bedspread while she waited for him to freak out and start accusing her of trying to trap him.