Page 72 of Pipe Dreams
He chuckled. “Just let me in, okay? I just want to see you.”
She closed her eyes and clenched her fists against the urge to open the door. But he was right there on the other side, asking to come in. Was there any chance she was about to send him away?
Something wentthunkagainst the door.
“What was that?” she asked.
“My forehead.”
“Are you drunk?”
“Not at all. Just miss you.”
Somehow those were the magic words. She reached for the door knob and opened it. “Want to get drunk?”
He chuckled. “Maybe? Rough day? Want to talk about it?”
She tried on that idea in her head.I was hoping to be pregnant right now, so I shamed Chancey’s wife. Nope. That sounded too crazy to say out loud. “I’ll be fine. I missed a doctor’s appointment in New York today. No big deal. It’s just that things just didn’t work out like I planned.”Again.
“This time it’s not my fault,” he said, tossing his tie onto the coffee table. “Where’s the TV?”
She pointed at the bedroom.
He shrugged off his jacket and kicked off his shoes. Then he went to sit on the bed. She watched as he grabbed the clicker and unmuted the TV, where a man’s voice began to belt out Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.”
Mike made a face. “He’s not gonna win! Listen to that.”
For a second she was just frozen there on the carpet, trying to wrap her head around this moment. It might have been any night from the happiest year of her life. The TV on. Idle chatter. Mike looking pleasantly weary from one game or another.
It was like traveling backward in time.
She had to work to unstick herself and walk toward him. “Want a beer from the mini bar?”
“Am I breathing?”
Another knife to the heart. He used to say that all the time.
She fetched him a bottle of Dos Equis, opened the top and brought it to him. With her wineglass in her hand, she climbed carefully onto the other side of the bed and sat beside him. “Where’s your family?” she asked, watching the singer strut around on the stage.
“They went to bed.”
She gave him a sidelong glance, wondering what he expected to happen now. “We can’t have sex,” she blurted out.
His eyes didn’t leave the screen, but he covered her hand with his. “Why?”
“I could get pregnant right now.”
His chin whipped toward hers. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” she said, her voice almost inaudible.
He gave a sexy little growl and shifted his hips. “And why is that a problem? Is that the doctor’s appointment you missed today?”
Lauren shivered slightly. She grabbed the clicker and bumped up the volume on the TV.
He let her have the distraction for a moment. But thenhis thumb began to slowly stroke her wrist. That jerk. He knew she’d have trouble resisting his caresses.
She pulled her hand back. “I can’t be casual about this.”
