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The look he gave her as he backed out of the parking space was decidedly disgruntled. “I don’t see what’s so funny.”
“Really? You don’t?”
“No.”
She thought about enlightening him, but the truth was, he might actually have hit on the perfect solution for getting him off her back about this. He wouldn’t last a day in her apartment, so why not let him move in? The first morning he couldn’t get hot water or the air-conditioning went on the fritz, he’d be out of there. Billionaire playboys born with silver spoons in their mouths rarely knew how to rough it. Not that she’d met that many billionaire playboys—or even more than one, really—but she was certain her opinion would hold up.
“Okay, fine,” she said as he pulled into traffic. “You can move in with me.”
“Seriously?” He glanced over at her before fastening his eyes back on the road. “You mean it?”
“I do. If you’re willing to move into my place—which, I’m warning you, is small—then who am I to tell you no? But we need to lay down some ground rules if we’re going to do this.”
His smile quickly turned perplexed. “Ground rules?”
“Yeah, like who gets the bathroom when and who does what chores and no sex. You know, the usual.”
Now he was frowning and it was all she could do not to crack up again. It was wrong of her to be enjoying this so much, but she couldn’t help it. After all the tension of the day, messing with him was a welcome relief.
“Do you have a problem with any of those rules?” she asked when she’d finally managed to choke down her mirth. The last thing she wanted him to know was how utterly and completely she expected this to fail.
“Well, you can have the bathroom whenever you want and I’ll hire someone to do the cleaning and I’ll do the rest of the chores. But the no-sex rule—I’m not really okay with that one, no.”
“Oh.” She kept her voice as innocent as possible. “That’s kind of a deal breaker for me, to be honest.”
“But we’ve already had sex. And—” he made a point of glancing at her stomach “—you’re pregnant. So, I’m not really sure what the point would be of abstaining.”
“The point is what I said back at the restaurant. I don’t know you. And my one and only one-night stand excluded, I’m not in the habit of sleeping with men I don’t know. So, yeah, it’s a deal breaker.”
“I’m your only one-night stand?”
She did laugh then, at the sheer ridiculousness of his response. “Seriously, that’s what you got out of what I said? That you’re my one and only?”
“No, I heard all of it. But that was definitely the most interesting part.”
“Of course it was,” she said with a snort. “You are such a guy.”
He shot her an amused look. “I never claimed to be anything else, sweetheart.”
“Don’t call me that.” The words were instantaneous and forceful, welling up from a place she hadn’t thought of in years.
“What?” He looked mystified. “Sweetheart?”
“Yes, that. Don’t ever call me that.”
“Sure.” He held up a placating hand. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“You didn’t upset me,” she contradicted him.
He didn’t respond, but the silence spoke louder than any words e
ver could. He knew she was lying, knew she’d had a strong and immediate reaction to that word. And still he wasn’t calling her on it. She didn’t know if that endeared him to her or just pissed her off.
It took a few minutes for the awkwardness to wear off, but Nic finally asked for directions to her apartment.
She kept her voice light and relaxed when she gave them, and eventually the last of the tension eased away. At least until he’d parked his car and started following her up the stairs to her apartment.
“Is there an elevator?” he asked after they’d started on the third flight.
