“Zach—”
“I love you, Alex,” I said, slowly and deliberately. I wanted to make absolutely sure that she heard me. “I don’t think I missed out on not falling in love earlier in life. Look how that worked out for Jake. I’m happy with what we have now.”
Alex stared at me for a moment, and then she was off the couch and coming around my desk. I had seconds to close the Amazon window so that she wouldn’t ruin her own surprise. She threw herself into my arms. “I’m happy with what we have now,” she said. “I’msohappy... sometimes, I can’t understand how I got so lucky to be this happy.”
We kissed, and this time, there was heat behind it. “What do you need, beautiful?” I asked.
She smiled, and it was sultry and naughty and everything from my best dreams. “You,” she replied. “Just you.”
I glanced at the lock on my door to make sure it was flipped shut, then I picked her up and set her on my desk. “I’ll give you what you want,” I told her. “Anything you want.”
22
ALEX
It had to be food poisoning... a week-long episode of sporadic food poisoning. It was the only explanation for the level of nausea that I was experiencing. It came and went in waves. “Girl, you look awful,” Naomi said as we sat in her office. “You don't have the flu or anything, right?”
I shook my head. “I don't think so... it must have been the sushi last night.” I'd pulled a near all-nighter with my study group, and at two a.m., we'd gotten some very questionable sushi from a place.
“I told you that late-night place wasn't a good idea,” Naomi pointed out, but there was a kind smile on her face. I knew my men didn't care for her—and she could be abrasive at times—but she'd adopted me when I started at the firm and had become something like a big sister.
“Never again,” I promised. My mouth suddenly filled with saliva, and I grabbed her wastebasket seconds before my breakfast made a reappearance.
“Oh, gross,” Naomi muttered, and I wanted to apologize, but my stomach wouldn't stop spasming long enough for me to get the words out.
Once there wasn't anything in my stomach, I felt better, like I had never felt nauseous at all. “I'm so sorry,” I said and stood. “Let me go take care of this.”
Naomi nodded, waving me out, and I took the bag out of the wastebasket so that I could dispose of it elsewhere. I made my way to the nearest women’s restroom, tossed the smaller bag into the bigger trash can that got emptied every few hours, and rinsed my mouth out. I had a toothbrush and toothpaste in my bag, which I’d stored in Zach’s office today, but I knew they were busy with Hunter, and I didn’t want to intrude.
I wet a paper towel and patted my forehead and the back of my neck, the same places my mother used to when I was little and didn’t feel good. It was one of the few good memories that I had of her. Most were hazy and without definition, like dreams that were nearly nightmares.
Shaking myself from my thoughts, I rinsed my mouth again. I had to set up a conference room for one of the junior associates soon. They were trying to handle a divorce settlement without the need to go to court. I wasn’t as hopeful as the associate that it wouldn’t end up there.
I stopped back into Naomi’s office to grab my files. “Hey, how are you feeling?” she asked.
“Fine now,” I said. “It was the weirdest thing. I’d never felt so sick, and then it was just... gone.”
Naomi snorted. “You know what that sounds like?” she asked.
“What?”
“Morning sickness,” she said with a shake of her head. “When I got pregnant with Emily, I was as sick as I’d ever been, but as soon as I threw up, it was gone... until the next day.” She shook her head again. “It was like that my whole pregnancy. Some girls are lucky and the nausea lets off after the first trimester, but not me.”
I tried to listen to what she was saying, but my whole world had come to a screeching halt.Morning sickness, I thought. It wasn’t possible, right? I had been taking my birth control faithfully. I followed the instructions exactly. There was no way I could be pregnant.
You let them comeinsideyou, my mind whispered to me savagely.Of course, you could be pregnant!
My nausea came roaring back, but it was tinged with panic now. “I have to set up the conference room for Brady,” I said numbly.
Naomi nodded, but her eyes were studying me. “Alex, are you okay?” she asked. “You look... like someone just shot a puppy in front of you or something.”
“I’m fine,” I said and tried to push my face into a smile, but I could tell it came out more like a grimace.
“You’re not acting fine.”
A part of me wanted to confess my worry... but I couldn’t do that unless I told her about who I was dating, and even if I tried to make it better by only mentioning one name, who would I say? Which of my guys would be left out? And which one would be the “lucky” one who got to be my public boyfriend?
I couldn’t say anything until I knew for sure. I took a breath and forced my face to relax. “I’m fine, Nai,” I assured her. “I’m just not feeling great, and the settlement meeting is going to beugly, I can tell.”