“Hope it’s cool enough in here for ya,” I said, as if I was thinking about anything other than putting a baby in this gorgeous woman. “The AC unit is new, house is well-insulated.”
She glanced over her shoulder. “Okay.”
Then she straightened and turned just a quarter toward me, licking her lips.
Lord in heaven…
“I’ll let you get unpacked,” I said, and it embarrassed me how hoarse my voice was. “Come back around six—bring some dinner. Then we can—” I stopped. There was no elegant way to say this. “Get to business.”
She blinked.
"Tonight," she said.
"If that's what you want." I kept my voice even. "No pressure. We've got time."
"The contract specifies?—"
"The contract specifies we try. It doesn't specify when we start." I looked at her. "You just got here. You don't have to?—"
"I want to start tonight."
Why not right now?that feral thing in my chest purred.She's right here. She signed the contract. She said she wants tonight. The bed is three feet away and she just licked her lips and you have been thinking about this woman for two weeks and?—
I put my hand on the doorframe.
"Six o'clock," I said again, mostly to myself.
"Six o'clock," she agreed, in a voice that was doing things to me.
I turned and walked out of the bedroom and through the cottage, then out the screen door and into the afternoon heat. Sawyer was leaning against his truck eating an apple and I walked past him without stopping.
"Not a word," I said.
He took a bite of his apple, still grinning.
I kept walking.
Six hours.
I had six hours.
I was going to need every one of them.
FIVE
Millie
The next six hours passed in a blur.
I texted Daniela, like I'd promised. I texted my parents, because I knew they would panic if I didn't. I tried to put things away, but I kept getting distracted and forgetting where I was.
My heart was pounding.
Tonight that man was going to come in here and fuck me.
And he was going to fuck me every night until I was pregnant.
I put a stack of books in the refrigerator. I found them twenty minutes later when I went to get water. I stared at them for a long moment and then put them on the shelf where they belonged and stood in the kitchen and pressed my cold water glass to my forehead.
