His face was perfectly composed, perfectly cool, but Erin could sense something else going on underneath the façade.
His eyes, when she was close enough to see them, were smoldering...and not in a good way.
“Hey,” she said in a friendly voice, trying to fend off any unpleasantness. “What’s up? What are you doing here?”
Seth’s eyes shifted intentionally to her date. Scanned him from head to toe in an arrogant, dismissive way. Then stared for a moment at where she still held her date’s arm before pinning Erin with his gaze. “I should think that would be obvious, since I was knocking on your door.”
Then he continued, biting each word out distinctly, “But what exactly are you doing?”
Erin swallowed. Resigned herself to the end of her pleasant, giddy day.
Four
Erin took a deep breath and tried to remain calm, not wanting to create a scene that her date could retell to all of her neighbors. “Excuse me?” she asked, giving Seth a look of cool disinterest.
His eyes flickered over her knee length skirt and low cut top, but then he shifted his gaze over to the man beside her. “Maybe I should apologize,” Seth pronounced with exaggerated formality. He held out his hand. “I guess my presence here interferes with your plans for tonight.”
Her date blinked several times and stared speechlessly, even as he automatically reached out to shake Seth’s hand.
Erin groaned out loud. “For God’s sake.”
Her date was darting his eyes between her face and Seth’s, and finally he said awkwardly, “Uh, maybe I should just get going.”
“Excellent plan,” Seth replied, nodding approvingly.
Rolling her eyes, Erin tightened her fist so she wouldn’t follow her impulse and swat Seth across the side of his head. She’d wanted to get rid of her date anyway, so Seth hadn’t seriously inconvenienced her. His rudeness merely made the parting more abrupt than she would have chosen. She would tell Seth off for his arrogance and presumption, of course, but she would do so privately.
No use making this encounter any more awkward than it already was.
Turning her back to Seth purposefully, she faced her date instead. Murmured, “I’m sorry about this, but I had a really nice time.”
The guy smiled at her faintly. “Yeah. Me too.”
Giving him a warmer grin than she would have done had Seth not been watching her, she stood on her tiptoes and kissed the guy softly on the side of his mouth. “I’ll see you later.”
She could feel Seth seething silently behind her as she said goodbye and stood watching as her date walked back down the hall.
Then she stiffened her shoulders and turned back around. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“Looking for you,” Seth answered coldly. “I spent three hours trying to reach you. So I started to get worried and came over to make sure you were all right.” He paused and tightened his lips. “Only to find out that—not only were you all right—but you were actually out—”
“Out doing what? What exactly are you accusing me of?”
He seemed to have coiled up his anger again, and the icy power had faded from his eyes. His voice more composed and reasonable, he suggested, “Maybe we should go inside to discuss this.”
Erin didn’t budge. “I don’t want you inside my apartment.”
“Well, don’t hold me responsible if you read a transcript of this entire conversation on that ridiculous gossip site.”
Erin had been working up some good righteous anger, but at this her momentum jerked to an abrupt halt. Unfortunately, Seth had a point. Any one of her neighbors could be listening at their doors or looking out their peepholes.
If there was any sort of juicy gossip about him, verified or not, Mary Carlyle would publish it.
Swallowing in annoyance, she unlocked her door and allowed him to follow her in.
When she’d shut and locked the door again, she turned back toward him. “Now,” she began, feeling tired and resigned rather than truly angry, “say what you want to say and get out of here.”
This seemed to surprise him. He stared at her blankly.
“I believe you were about to call me a tramp, or something worse, who has no right to take your unborn baby out on a date.”
The expression on his face had altered dramatically. All of the primal intensity had faded, and he looked more disgruntled than anything else. “That wasn’t exactly what I was going to say.”
“Wasn’t it? I think I picked up on the right vibes. You were bristling with noble wrath over my scandalous behavior. Imagine my going out on a date on a Saturday night instead of lying around with a book and cooing over your baby.”
“I was worried about you when I couldn’t reach you,” he explained, sounding reluctant. “I overreacted.”
This admission surprised Erin so much that she was momentarily speechless. “You did?”
Only his eyes smiled. “You think I reacted appropriately?”
To her disgust, Erin had to smother a giggle. She was supposed to be righteously outraged by his controlling arrogance, not amused by his dry wit. “Of course not, but I didn’t expect you to admit it so easily.”
“I realize you’re an autonomous individual who makes her own decisions and has every right to do so, but I can’t say I’m comfortable with the idea of your screwing random men while you’re pregnant with our child.”
Erin sucked in an indignant breath. This was more of what she’d been expecting. “Fuck you, Seth,” she said matter-of-factly. “What makes you think I just want a casual fling? Has it ever occurred to you that I might want a real relationship? And that maybe I’ll eventually get married again? It’s not exactly an unusual desire, and the only way to get there is to go out on dates.”
She actually hadn’t been looking for a lifetime love tonight, but Seth had no way of knowing that, and his assumption was just plain obnoxious.
“Is that what this was? Was this the beginning of a real relationship?”
“Would it change anything if it were?”
“If you had real hopes for him, then I might feel a modicum of guilt for scaring him away.”
Erin’s mouth dropped open in shock, but before she could respond to what had almost sounded like an apology, Seth continued—only this time in annoyance. “But damn it, Erin! Can’t you find a man with an actual backbone? I didn’t even raise my voice, and he ran like a rabbit.”
Erin choked on a burst of laughter and had to fake a cough to hide it. She had been a little disappointed by her date’s hasty retreat, although that might be anyone’s natural reaction when confronted with a glacially intimidating Seth Thomas.
Still, it would be nice to see someone actually stand up to Seth.
“That’s not the point. I’m pretty sure I don’t have a future with this guy, but for all you knew I could have, and you have no right to keep me from having a normal, active social life.” She slanted him a cold look. “Especially since I’m sure you indulge in a very active social life yourself. So stop acting like a jealous boyfriend.”
She was quite pleased with her last sentence and decided to make it her parting shot, so she added, “Please close the door on your way out.”
Then she turned her back to Seth and walked into her bedroom. Sat down on the bed and started easing her aching feet out of her high heels.
She decided that she wasn’t going to wear these shoes again until after she had the baby.
Unfortunately, Seth didn’t care that her last line was supposed to be a parting shot. He simply followed her into the bedroom. “I’m not jealous, but I’ll admit to feeling rather...rather protective of our child. Surely you can understand that it feels unnatural to me for you to be fucking some other guy while you’re pregnant with—”
“Your child?” Erin finished for him in a sharp voice, slipping her second shoe off and dropping it onto the floor. “Yes, I suppose I can understand that feeling, but you need to acknowledge that it’s irrational. My
carrying this baby gives you absolutely no claim over me as an individual. And I can fuck whomever I like.”
Seth’s jaw clenched, but he didn’t argue.
Deciding she’d made herself clear, Erin figured she could ease up a little. “As it happens, I wasn’t going to fuck this guy tonight.” Before the relief could register on Seth’s face, she went on, “But you’d better get used to the fact that I might. I’m pregnant, but I’m still a normal woman. And I have the same needs and inclinations I had before I got pregnant. Plus, now I have a few hormonal issues.”
She stood up and walked barefoot over to her dresser. Slipped off her watch, earrings, and necklace, since they were making her fidgety for some reason.
Because she was facing the mirror over the dresser, she was able to see Seth’s face transform—with something that looked like enlightenment.
“Oh,” he breathed. “I see.”
She whirled around. “What do you see?”
“Your needs and inclinations? Hormonal issues?” He was almost smiling now. “You just want to get screwed.”
The words seemed so uncharacteristically crude that Erin stared at him for a moment. Then she realized what he’d said. “You get yourself screwed all the time. Are you really going to stand there and judge me for occasionally wanting to have sex?”
“Of course, I’m not going to judge you. Why would I? But surely you can do better than fucking strangers.”
“He wasn’t a stranger! I’ve known him for two years. And I already told you I wasn’t going to fuck him. But if I wanted to—”
“Yes, I know,” Seth interrupted, now looking more grumpy than superior. “You can fuck whomever you want.”
“Maybe you can just raise one eyebrow and have gorgeous women throw themselves at you. But, for normal people, it’s not that easy. If we want to have sex, then we have to date.”
He shook his head slowly. “If you just wanted casual sex, then why the hell didn’t you simply ask me?”
“How the hell would I—” Erin began, until she registered what Seth had just said. Then, “What? What?”
He looked faintly exasperated. “You said you aren’t looking for romance but instead just want some good sex. Given our situation, it seems that I would be the most obvious choice to help you out with that dilemma.”
Erin felt like she’d been walloped in the gut. “What? What?”
His eyes were getting hotter by the moment. “You already said that. Do I need to make myself any clearer? We’ve already had sex. Both of us enjoyed it. You want to have sex again. And, if I were the one screwing you, then my instinctive protectiveness about the baby wouldn’t be an issue. It seems like the simplest solution to both of our problems.”
She scowled at him. “Your problem is just stupid, and my problem isn’t that serious. People deal with horniness all the time. How many times do I have to tell you that I’m not interested in anything serious with you?”
“I’m not interested in anything serious either.” He spoke calmly and smoothly now—like a negotiator. “We aren’t discussing a relationship. Just casual sex, if you ever feel like you need to indulge your needs and inclinations. No strings. No complications. No expectations. Nothing would change about our arrangement.”
Her knees felt weak so she went to sit on the edge of her bed. “But...as simple as that? We’d just have sex? I mean, you’d want to do that? Why?”
Seth stared at her like she was crazy. “Why would I refuse sex?”
“Oh,” she said, thinking as quickly as she could and failing to find any drawbacks to this arrangement. If she wanted sex, Seth could provide it. No tricky dating scenarios. No fake, romantic expectations. No months of frustration while she became less and less likely to find anyone willing to satisfy her desires.
Now that the idea had entered her mind, she couldn’t think of anything else, and she became deeply conscious of the fact that she was sitting on the side of her bed, and Seth was standing in front of her—looking gorgeous and yummy and the slightest bit dangerous in his dark grey suit. “That makes sense.”
He watched her closely. “I’m serious. There’s no reason for you to go through the hassle of dating if all you want is sex, and it will save me the embarrassment of overreacting. We’re both adults, and we’re both realistic about this situation.” His lips tilted up irresistibly. “Consider it one of the features of our arrangement. One of the perks.”
“I think you’d be getting a few perks yourself.”
“Of course. I assumed that was a given.”
They exchanged an amused smile, and Erin ridiculously wanted to laugh. She’d never met anyone like Seth before. Had never met anyone who could match her no-nonsense approach to the world. Something about their ability to understand each other in this way—see the humor and irony in such a bizarre situation—made her feel closer to him than she ever had before.
“Well?” she prompted, when he didn’t do anything but stand there.
“Well, what?”
She huffed. “You said you’d be willing to provide sex.”
“Now?”
She actually flushed a little, but she was way beyond normal embarrassment with him. “I’m horny now. Or was this all just talk, and you’re not really man enough to fuck the pregnant woman?”
He smiled a slow, predatory smile. “Was that a challenge?”
She smiled back. Figured that, since she was already on the bed, she wouldn’t even have to move. “Are you...up to it?”
It wasn’t her best attempt at wordplay but—since she was already getting excited—it was the cleverest thing she could come up with at the moment.
He walked over, although his stride seemed more like stalking. When he’d reached the bed, he knelt in front of her in one graceful move and then slid his hands from her ankles to her knees. Fortunately, she’d shaved before she’d gone out this evening, so her skin was smooth and supple.
“No question about that,” he murmured.
Erin gasped at the feel of his hands on her bare skin. She was already jittery and overly warm, and Seth’s strong body and hot blue eyes were the sexiest things she could imagine.
Strangely enough, the fact that this was just sex—nothing else—made it so simple, so visceral, that anticipation shuddered through her body.
His gaze crawled up from her thighs to her hips to her belly to her breasts. When he finally reached her face, she saw that his expression was oddly hungry. The wild primitive glint she’d caught earlier in the hall had returned, and it both exhilarated her and made her a little anxious.
“Are you sure it can be this simple?” she asked. “This whole thing is complicated enough without making it any worse.”
His hands slid up to comb her hair back from her face. “It’s just sex. We’ve had it before. You aren’t secretly in love with me, are you?”
“God, no. You?”
“Not even close.”
Erin realized that she had to be a strange kind of woman, to be so relieved to hear that a man she wanted desperately to fuck wasn’t remotely in love with her.
“So let’s just enjoy this,” he said, his voice like another caress.
And that was all the convincing Erin needed, since her body was already making a pretty good case of its own. She squirmed slightly as she sat on the edge of the bed—not because Seth was touching her but because he was about to.
“Okay.” Then she leaned down into a kiss.
She traced the line of his lips with her tongue, breathing in the light, warm scent of him as her hand drifted up to curl around the curve of his skull and tangle in his hair. He moved slightly, until his body was between her thighs. He took her face between his hands, holding her mouth against his.
After a moment, the light friction of tongue against tongue, lip against lip, became torturously erotic. So Erin clutched at his shoulders, trying to pull him up to her level so she could get access to more of his body.
He rose up, never pulling out of
the kiss. He pushed her back slightly and then sideways, until he was halfway sitting on the edge of the bed beside her and halfway draped on top of her.
Caught in a tingling haze, she got her hands in between their bodies so she could grab the lapels to his suit jacket. Then she clumsily pushed it off over his shoulders. His kiss became more demanding, and she was both breathless and enthusiastic in response. He nibbled on her lower lip as he loosened his arms enough for her to pull off his jacket completely.
They’d shifted positions in their embrace until she was draped over him now. She leaned against his chest and sprawled one leg across his lap. Arousal built quickly, and, as they kissed, she tried to generate a little friction by rubbing up against him.
She only ended up frustrating herself at the limitations of their awkward position.
She felt more urgent than she normally did with so little foreplay, but she figured it was just the hormones and going three months without an orgasm.
Seth’s hands were busy and skillful, and he had pushed her skirt down over her hips before she realized what was happening. When it fell to her ankles, she kicked it off all the way, relieved she’d worn pretty panties, even though they were a larger size than she’d worn a few months ago.
They didn’t speak at all—just breathed heavily and moved against each other. Soon, the rest of Erin’s clothes were on the floor next to her skirt, and she would have felt self-conscious if she weren’t so hot and restless.
Deciding that it was time to catch up, she pulled off Seth’s tie and started fumbling with the buttons on his shirt, until she gave up and let him take it off all the way.
She was vastly relieved to both see and feel the hard bulge at the front of his trousers when she slid her hand down to his lap. At least she wasn’t the only one who was already fully aroused, even after just a few minutes of groping.
Seth was still trying to get his shirt off when she freed his erection. Brushing her fingers over the hard length of it, she heard him hiss in response.
She began to massage his cock purposefully. He writhed briefly, and his mouth fell open—a low groan escaping his lips. It was the sexiest noise Erin could ever remember hearing, and the gravelly sound of it went right to her pussy.