Page 41 of This Baby Business
“Lots of women love those silly little lapdogs,” Stone said.
“And then he’s got Grace. Women love babies, too.” Matt nodded in his sleep, apparently. “It’s actually kind of unfair to all the other single guys out there, when you think about it.”
If they only knew how Grace cramped his style. She was worth it, but he wouldn’t call her a chick magnet. And now there was Digger. The first time a woman got her hand pissed on by his cute dog, she might not be all that thrilled with either one of them.
“I think y’all are giving me way too much credit.”
“Yeah?” Stone arched an eyebrow.
“Neither one of you two were slackers when it came to picking up women. Just because you’re settled down now, don’t try to act all proper with me,” Levi said.
A few minutes later, there was a brief knock on the door and Sarah let herself inside. “We’re ready for you.” She smiled at Matt and yanked on his arm. “Take off your shirt, babe.”
“If I had a nickel…” Matt stood and pulled it off, then threw it so that it hit Levi’s head.
“Hey!” Levi threw it back at Matt’s chest.
“We’ve already got a line forming. Women who want to see some skin,” Sarah said. “The more skin, the bigger the donation.”
They’d been experiencing an Indian summer that had stretched into October, and the temps were still in the low seventies with sun, just as the weather forecast had predicted. Sarah was right, and as he stepped out into a bright ray of sunshine, he noticed mostly women and one guy lined up with their pets. Big retrievers—his kind of dog—shepherds, beagles, poodles and…was that a pig?
The tubs were filled with sudsy water, and a short table near each one held all the pimping products. Levi scanned the area to find Grace and make sure she was still okay. She sat in her stroller, thumb in her mouth, staring with huge eyes at what appeared to be a bullmastiff. Digger was still off to the side with Zoey, who seemed to be giving him…a massage? Levi was officially in la-la land. Might as well get into this thing.
When in Rome…He pulled off his shirt.
“All right. Who’s my first victim?”
CHAPTER18
Carly
he’s so sexy.
He stood at the kitchen sink, holding a mug of coffee in one hand, facing the window. Shirtless. Even his back was drool-worthy, with a physique that was no gym rat’s. No, these were working-man-who–lifts-engines muscles. My favorite kind. Natural. I curled my arms around his waist and pressed my face into a warm, solid, masculine back. This one was all man. Oh, and he smelled so good.
“Good morning,” I said to his back. Then I licked it, feeling his stomach tighten beneath my fingertips.
He groaned. “Didn’t have enough of me last night?”
“Never.”
He turned around in my arms to face me. “I can take care of that.”
Levi.
In one hand, he had a diaper, and in the other, a baby bottle. “Did you feed Grace yet? Did you burp her?”
No! No! Not sexy! Not sexy!
“Jesus, Mary and Joseph.” I rolled over and sat up in bed. “What’s wrong with me?”
Wrong? Oh, nothing other than the fact that Levi had put a few suggestions in my head that were still bouncing around. He’d been sitting right on this bed when he’d kissed the living daylights out of me. When he’d set his boundaries. No one would get hurt. Even when this whole thing ended. I was totally on board with not getting hurt, by the way. The last thing I wanted was to get tied down to any man when I was about to finally be free. What I’d do with all that freedom was still up for grabs.
Besides, between Grace and my website, it felt like I had babies on my brain twenty-four seven. If I wasn’t working on the website, I was working with Grace. But even if what I really wanted was more dreams about Levi without his shirt on, I understood it wasn’t a great idea. He’d been right to set limits. Even if what we had was only pretend, it would be fun faking for a little while. I didn’t mind when he flirted with me and another orgasm would not be the worst thing to ever happen to me.
We had their stories straight. We had agreed we would pretend to have met first in New York and run into each other again when he moved to Fortune. From there, it had been one of those insta-love things no one believed in anymore. Neither did I, frankly, but it was going to have to work for our purposes. The only people who had to believe the story were Mr. and Mrs. Lane.
I had the meeting with Jenny scheduled via Skype in a couple days, and I’d see whether I could somehow work in a sales pitch of RockYourBaby. It was an opportunity, if nothing else, to tell her about the blog. To drop several hints that we might be interested in selling, in case Jenny knew of anyone. I worked to remind myself to contain the excitement. Jenny was a good contact to have in New York, and reconnecting with her could only mean good things ahead.
