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His gaze dropped to her midriff, and lingered, his jaw tensing. ‘What’s the deal? When you’re pregnant? Is it safe to do it?’
‘That’s not what I...’ she began, because she hadn’t meant the question that literally. But seeing the concern etched on his brow, she hesitated.
What she had meant was that they ought to consider the long-term implications of sleeping together in the short-term, and what impact that might have on their relationship when the baby came. They needed time, and space, to consider that and make some ground rules—and if he started touching her again, they weren’t going to get it. She’d never been great at deferred gratification—and where Nate was concerned, she was pants at it.
But the truth was, he also had a point. She was pretty sure sex was okay during pregnancy. She couldn’t imagine Eva denying herself for nine solid months and not mentioning it. But Tess hadn’t asked the obstetrician about it, specifically, because she hadn’t thought there was any need. And she probably should have, especially now, after their last frantic coupling on the kitchen counter.
‘I suppose I should double check with Dr Hillier,’ she said tentatively, a little ashamed that he’d considered the risk before she had. ‘Don’t you think?’
His gaze fixed on her belly for several beats, then his forehead lowered to hers. ‘Yeah, I guess so,’ he said, letting out a long sigh. ‘We better not risk it till you know for sure.’
The reluctant agreement had a burst of emotion welling up inside her. She lifted her hand, the sudden tenderness, the need to caress the soft waves of dark hair, overwhelming—but then a car horn blasted outside and she snatched her hand back, the feeling of connection shattered.
His head lifted and she slipped the offending hand under her bottom, grateful that he hadn’t spotted it hovering over him.
‘That’ll be Zane.’ A crooked smile curved his lips. ‘He must have broken the speed limit to get down here so fast.’
She climbed off the table, feeling awkward and hideously exposed by the tight feeling in her chest as he held the kitchen door open for her.
Exactly how needy and pathetic was she? To believe she was cherished, or that he might cherish her child, because he’d shown a bit of restraint when she’d asked him to?
She straightened as they walked out into the sunshine, mindful of the warm, possessive hand pressed to the small of her back.
She didn’t need him. She could do this on her own. And any show of consideration from him wasn’t going to change that. Because she couldn’t let herself rely on it.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
ZANE MONTOYA wasn’t good-looking, Tess decided, he was nothing short of spectacular. His laid-back personality a perfect complement to the twinkle of wickedness in his pure blue eyes. As he and Nate huddled together under the hood of her car and talked in hushed, not-particularly-promising tones, a beam of sunlight pierced through a cloud and gave Zane’s jet-black hair a bluish glow as if spotlighting his perfection. His lean
ly muscled physique, lightly olive-toned skin and the sort of dashing, model-perfect features that could sell a gallon of designer aftershave with a single glance were just overkill.
Tess hummed appreciatively as he bent over further to unscrew some gizmo and she gave his muscular backside a thorough inspection. Then heaved out a sigh of dismay.
Zane Montoya was a walking, talking, female fantasy. The sort of guy that a couple of months ago would have made her stop and stare... And quite possibly drool, a little. But right now, he wasn’t doing a thing for her.
Her gaze lifted from Zane’s stupendous but completely ineffectual butt to find Nate standing behind his friend and glaring at her—her heart leapt up and galloped into her ribcage like a greyhound racing after a hare.
Nate yanked a hand out of his pocket and, taking two fingers, pointed at her eyes, jerked the fingers towards his friend’s backside and wagged one in front of his own nose. Then he mouthed what looked like, ‘Stop drooling.’
Patting her chest like a woman about to swoon, she fluttered her eyelashes outrageously and did her very best impersonation of a guppy. But even as her teasing got the desired effect and his brows fused together in a warning glare her heart wasn’t in it—because of one horrifying discovery. She hadn’t just been susceptible to Nate’s industrial-strength sex appeal because of her recent sexual drought with Dan and the hormonal effects of her pregnancy—as she had conveniently assumed. Her attraction to him was much more disturbing than that.
If she couldn’t get excited about a guy like Zane—who could hotwire a woman’s hormones from five hundred paces—who the heck could she get excited about? Nate Graystone had ruined her for other men!
This was much worse than she’d thought. And meant she would have to give a lot more consideration to having sex with him again. She’d never been this obsessed before, even as a hormone-charged teen determined to be as wild as necessary to get her father to notice her. She’d always known exactly what she was doing. Had had complete control over the flings she’d had. But now that feeling of superiority, of control was gone, she’d morphed into a sexual virago bound to only one man. What would she do if Nate found out? That she wanted him that much? How vulnerable would that make her?
He’d said he wanted her too. That he wanted her a lot. But did he want her to the extent that she wanted him? Forsaking all others, so to speak? She doubted it. Because she had always known that while men had found her sexy and way too available in her misspent teens, and a suitable diversion in her twenties, not one of them had ever wanted to keep her around.
Even her own father had cast her aside eventually.
Tess’s gaze drifted back to Nate. Or more specifically to Nate’s mouth-watering backside as he leant under the car’s bonnet discussing its innards with his friend. Her heart rate shot back up as she studied the faded denim stretched across the tight orbs of muscle. Her gaze zeroed in on the hint of black cotton where his T-shirt rose up and his boxer briefs peeked out above the low-slung waistband of his jeans.
She yearned to brush her thumb under the elasticated band and trace the indent of his spine down to his coccyx and beyond.
Her pulse stuttered as she realised that the safety of the baby and their future association weren’t the only things she needed to worry about before she considered getting up close and intimate with Nate Graystone again.
* * *
‘Are you sure Zane has a spare car and he won’t mind me borrowing it for that amount of time? He seemed sort of surprised when you suggested it.’
