“You date?” I push the eggs around on my plate.
“No. Not since college. Who has the time?” He takes a sip of his coffee.
“Only time for one-night stands?” I try and make it sound like a joke, but I fail. I was a model, not an actress, after all.
He doesn’t answer me. I lift my eyes from my plate to see him staring at me. He always is but he never touches me. Not since he barged into my condo and kissed me senseless.
“Never done that either.” He leans forward in his chair. “Except you. You’re different. You’re-” He’s cut off when his phone dings. I want to know how I’m different. If he too feels this crazy pull toward me that I do toward him. That doesn’t make sense, though, because he can’t bring himself to even touch me.
“Car’s here.” He pushes back from his chair. “Let’s go see how our little one is doing.” He pulls the chair out for me, again making me wonder if it wasn’t for the baby would I be here at all?
Chapter Fourteen
Oliver
I don’t know that I ever had a fixed standard of sexiness in my head before I met Maddie, but now if anyone would ask, I’d say it was a woman in her fifth month of pregnancy sprawled on my bed wearing nothing more than a sheet, a tiny nightie and a pair of panties. Bottle that up and it’s more potent than the little blue pill. No more erection problems ever. The only challenge is making the hard-on go away.
I try not looking at her but it doesn’t help because I can still see the image. It’s burned into my retinas. It might be the only likeness I’ll ever see for the rest of my life—if I’m lucky. But even if I couldn’t see her—or the image of her—I can hear her. She has a low, throaty voice that sends chills up my spine.
Everything about her makes me feral. I want to throw her down, climb on top of her, and rut inside until we’re both completely spent. I don’t know how I’m going to survive months of this no touching rule.
My mood is foul by the time we reach the doctor’s office. Maddie is directed into a room where she changes into a gown and then comes to join me in a private waiting room.
“I’ll sit out here,” I say when the nurse asks me if I want to go back.
“Really?” the nurse drawls, the side of his mouth going up in disgust.
Next to me, Maddie makes a small, sad noise that feels like a dull knife against my gut. If there are awards given out to assholes of the month, both of them are voting for me, but I can hardly tell them that if I go in and have to see Maddie’s naked flesh and not be able to touch her I might have a mental breakdown.
“No, I was kidding,” I bark out. We all know I wasn’t.
When we get to our feet, Maddie shrinks from me. She wants the baby but she sure as hell doesn’t want me. It makes me want to put my fist through a wall but this nurse looks like someone who would totally call the cops on me. I shove my hands into my pants pockets and give them both a terse nod. “Let’s get this over with.”
The nurse puts an arm around Maddie and leads her down the hall, but not before shooting me a death glare over his shoulder. Shape the fuck up, he’s saying. He’s not wrong. I’ve got a baby coming and a mama to take care of. My dick’s needs are the last thing I should be thinking about. I order myself to man up and follow Maddie into the examination room.
“How far along are you?”
“A little over twenty weeks,” Maddie says as she settles into what looks like a mini torture chamber with little metal contraptions sticking out on either end of the table.
“What are those?” I point to the silver objects.
“Stirrups,” the nurse clips out. “Have you felt any movements?”
“I think so. A little.” Maddie rubs a hand over her stomach.
I follow the movement with intense jealousy. I want to be that hand. I want to be touching that mound. I want—“Movements?” The word has just sunk in. “The baby is moving?”
I rush over to the table and nearly touch her, only to remember at the very last second that she’s off limits. I snatch my hand back.
“I’m not diseased,” Maddie snaps. “You aren’t going to get pregnant yourself if you touch me. You’re not going to lose your one-night stand privileges if you acknowledge that I’m having your baby.”
What the hell is she talking about? “First, you’re the only one-night stand I’ll ever have and second, I have a working knowledge of biology,” I reply stiffly.