Adora nodded. “It’s reading week. I’ll have more free time to get caught up.”
He hadn’t seen her too much in the past week between work and school. They’d had more date nights, but it wasn’t enough time together, in his opinion. “What made you decide to stop by?” He could tell something was on her mind.
Adora shrugged.
“Will you be sleeping at my condo tonight?”
“I better not.”
Now he frowned, shrugging off his jacket and placing it on the back of his chair. “Tell me why, please. Why do you insist on keeping your distance?”
“It’s exactly what you’re doing with me, Tobias.” She ran her hands up his chest, reaching up on her tiptoes to wrap her arms around his shoulders. “You want me to give up everything, but you’re still keeping up all these walls.”
“I have no walls, baby.”
She cocked an eyebrow. “Sure.” Adora turned and walked toward the windows. Something was off about her, something sad and unsettled.
“Has something happened? Don’t hide anything from me.” Last week, Tobias had sent a registered letter to his parents, outlining a few of the incriminating tidbits he had on them. It was enough to get them to back off. They’d created him to be ruthless, so they shouldn’t have been surprised. They hadn’t expected him to turn against them. The moment they approached Adora they’d sealed their fate.
He sat at his desk chair and patted his lap. Usually she’d oblige him, but not now. Had his parents’ lawyer gone after her again? Maybe he needed to up his game.
“We don’t talk about us,” she said.
“What are you talking about? That’s all we ever talk about.”
“No, we talk about the baby, getting pregnant, watching my stomach grow.” She paced the office. “I mean, I realize that was the deal. This was all about the great Bennett heir. But somewhere along the line, I fell in love.”
He didn’t know what to say. When she looked at him with those big dark eyes, all her vulnerabilities on the surface, he became speechless. She was so damn beautiful. And young. He’d taken advantage of her when they first met because he never expected her to want anything to do with a forty-five-year-old man. To hear her declaration, a multitude of emotions took him by surprise.
“Nothing to say?” She exhaled a little breath. “It’s okay, Tobias. It was my fault for thinking I could change you.” Adora placed a brown paper bag on his desk. “I have to meet my mother for lunch.”
She walked out. He watched her go, and for some reason stayed rooted in place, not stopping her. Her words still played in his head. This all started out with sex, using Adora to mother his baby without attachments. Somewhere along the line everything changed.
Tobias opened the bag and reached inside. It was a white stick.
A pregnancy test.
It was negative.
****
Everything had been going so well, but the longer they were together, the more fragile she realized their relationship was. No matter how happy they were, the fact was this started because Tobias wanted a baby. If she couldn’t give him what he wanted, how long until she used up her usefulness? They had sex like rabbits and no pregnancy. Adora wasn’t naïve. She knew it could take months to make a baby, but the negative test made her think, make her wonder if Tobias would even want her if she couldn’t give him an heir.
Dating, sex, and compatibility was great, but she needed things to move to the next level. She needed Tobias to be real, to open up to her, to emotionally commit. And she wasn’t sure he was even capable of giving her what she needed.
By the time Friday came around, she missed Tobias fiercely. He hadn’t called, and she assumed he’d lost interest after seeing the test. She’d wanted him to think, to consider what he wanted before they got too deep. It worked, but her heart was already starting to crack down the middle. They were supposed to go to a gallery opening tonight to celebrate one of the Bennett Corporation’s newest office buildings. Since she hadn’t heard from Tobias, she assumed the date was off.
Adora lay on her twin bed, reading her text book. Ever since seeing him earlier in the week, she’d wanted to kiss him, to feel his warm skin. What if she never tasted him again? How would she feel if she saw him with a new girlfriend? Maybe a model? She immediately felt for her mother. Adora couldn’t imagine watching Tobias get married and seeing it plastered on the news.
Her cellphone rang, and she rolled to her side to grab it off her night table. It was him. She dropped her book, and bolted up into a sitting position. Her heart raced, a sense of peace filling her just knowing he’d remembered her.