Erin supposed
she should listen to her instinct in this matter. So, as the elevator rose to
her floor, she sighed in resignation.
As much as her
body wanted to have sex tonight, the rest of her obviously didn’t want it.
Which was a bit
of a disappointment.
The elevator
doors slid open on her floor, and they both stepped into the hallway. Erin
laughed at another joke the guy made, not because it was really funny but
because she still felt like laughing. She took his arm companionably and tried
to figure out how best to tell him to go home.
As soon as Erin
turned and took a step, she saw that someone was down the hall, knocking steadily
on her apartment door.
Seth
was
knocking on her door.
Which was the
strangest thing.
He must have
heard them get off the elevator, because he stopped knocking and turned toward
them. Stood perfectly still—tall, authoritative, and compelling in a dark gray
suit—and watched as they approached.
Erin stopped
laughing and sucked in her breath. For no reason she could understand, her
heart started beating more quickly.
Nothing was
really wrong here. At worst, it was simply awkward. But her stomach began to
jump as she got closer to Seth.
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.
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.”