All true. “I can’t change any of that, I’m afraid. My schedule opens up once Vader’s wedding is done, but the baby thing won’t be fixed for say, the next eighteen years.” At his grin, she felt another twinge of guilt. Would her baby boy have his infectious smile?
“You can stay with me tonight.” His finger trailed down her cheek.
Her heart fluttered. “I have meetings in the morning—”
“Cancel them,” Asher said bluntly. “Take time out for yourself for a change. Is the world going to end if the caterer has to wait a few more hours to talk to you?”
“Well, no . . .”
“Are meetings your only objection to spending the night with me?”
Her entire body went on alert. Hot, sultry flashes of the last week’s dirty phone calls rolled through her mind, and her nipples pricked. “I . . .” She licked dry lips. She could turn him down. Tell him she wasn’t interested in pursuing things outside of the “lessons” he’d forced her into. But she’d be lying to him and to herself. “I don’t object to that . . .” When his face lit up, she added, “As part of our . . . practice.”
“Of course. I’ve been waiting all week for a chance to practice on you.” His fingers curved to cup her chin and tilted her head back so he could kiss her. “I’m surprised to see you here, though I’m absolutely going to take advantage of it.” Then he stilled, concern flicking in his eyes. “Why are you here? Is there a problem with Gretchen and Hunter?”
“No, it’s the baby.”
To her shock, his face drained of color. “There’s a problem with the baby?”
“I misspoke,” she said quickly, and felt even more guilt when obvious relief moved over his features. “The baby is fine. I had an appointment with my obstetrician and I wanted to keep it. I could have seen a doctor back in Vegas, but I like this one.”
“And everything’s all right?” Asher’s gaze roamed over her as if he could assess her health visually. “Is there anything I can do?”
“I think you’ve done enough baby-wise, don’t you think?” She meant it as a tease, but when he flinched, her guilt returned. So she blurted out the first thing she could think of. “It’s a boy, by the way.”
Asher froze. “A boy?”
She nodded.
His gaze went to her stomach, and then when he looked her in the eye again, she could have sworn his were a little wet with emotion. “Damn.”
“I know,” Greer said softly.
“I’d thought it would be a little girl.” Asher’s voice was hoarse. “Big dark eyes and dark hair like her pretty mother. But a boy . . .” he rubbed his mouth and looked away. “I know I’m not supposed to care because you don’t want me to, but . . . damn. Finding out the gender just makes it that much more real, you know?”
She knew. Oh, how she knew. “I’ve felt the same way all day.” Plus an extra helping of guilt for the contracts they’d drawn up to cut him out of the baby’s life.
He leaned in and kissed her cheek. “It’s wonderful, Greer. Congratulations.”
A kiss on the cheek. A verbal pat on the shoulder. Was that all she got?
Why did she care? She was the one forcing him out of the picture.
Why wasn’t any of this simple any longer? Why couldn’t she just hate him and keep going the way she had been? She’d had her path laid out, and every time she was around him, it just got muddier. Greer sighed unhappily.
“What is it?” He stepped protectively in front of her and glared at a man trying to walk around them on the busy sidewalk. His gaze moved back to her face and then he scanned the street again, possessively looming over her.
That little action made her melt inside. He was looking out for her. Trying to take care of her in the only ways she’d let him. That cinched her decision for her.
She put her hand on his lapel. “Take me back to your place?”
Chapter 9
A boy.
Asher didn’t know if he should have been excited or devastated at the afternoon’s events. He’d left his office and come running the moment Gretchen had texted him to let him know that Greer was in town. He’d missed seeing her, and the glimpse of her in the restaurant, laughing and chatting with her friends, unaware of him? He’d fucking fallen hard all over again.
She was radiant. Lovely and radiant and sparkling with happiness.
And he was the fuckup in the equation trying to squeeze himself into her life, to take whatever crumbs she’d throw in his direction. He was fine with that.
Then he’d found out she’d been in town for a doctor visit and he’d nearly lost control, imagining the worst. Greer miscarrying. Greer sick.
But it was a normal check-up, and the baby was a boy.
It wasn’t that the gender mattered. He didn’t give a crap. It could have had two heads and nine arms and he’d have been fucking ecstatic. It was that finding the gender out had taken things from this is happening at some point to this shit is real and it is happening now.
And he was devastated at the thought of her cutting him out of her life after Stijn’s joke of a wedding.
But then she’d sweetly reached for him and asked him to take her home, and his heart had nearly burst.
He’d take her back to his place, and then he’d pleasure her for so long and so hard that she’d never think again about leaving him. He wanted her dickmatized and craving more. So tonight? Tonight he had to be fucking perfect, because everything rode on pleasing her.