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It felt good to feel wanted. I had struggled with feeling confident for so long, but with him, he made me feel different. I felt desired. Beautiful. Sexy. Also, very pregnant. The morning sickness had finally hit me.
As he opened the car door for me, I felt his touch for what felt like the first time in years. His hand grazed my lower back as he guided me inside the car. That one touch unraveled me and I wanted more. I made the conscious choice to not scooch to the far end of the car. As he slid in next to me, I didn’t pull away when his thigh grazed against mine. I felt his eyes meet where our bodies touched and a small smile crossed his lips.
“How are you feeling today?” he asked.
“Tired. A little nauseous. And my boobs hurt.”
He laughed. “They look bigger,” he said, holding back a smile.
“Daniel!” I said, slugging him playfully in the arm.
“What? It’s hard not to look.”
I felt my cheeks burning.
“You make a really hot pregnant woman.”
“You’re ridiculous,” I said, shaking my head.
The word pregnant coming from his mouth made it all the more real. I was carrying a baby. Our baby. While I didn’t know exactly what our situation was, I was grateful he was here. It might just be a ride to the city and a supposed cure to morning sickness, but it meant so much more to me than that. This was him showing up when I was convinced he was walking out.
We hadn’t talked about the logistics of anything, or about if or how he would be a part of the baby’s life. I didn’t know where we stood. We talked about anything and everything else, and that was enough for me. For now.
I was seeing a new side to Daniel. He didn’t seem like the same man I had met all those weeks ago. Yes, he was still incredibly sexy and charming and made it easy to see why I had gone home with him in the first place. The man didn’t have the reputation he did for nothing.
But he was also funny. Sweet. Pensive. Genuine. It was as if his cool guy façade had fallen away and I could see the man behind the millions. I wondered if it was a side many had seen or if I was just lucky. Either way, it was hard not to fall for him.
Knowing I was carrying his baby just added to my attraction for him. It seemed incredibly stupid, but I couldn’t help wondering if there could somehow be a happy ending for us. I hoped for it. For the baby. For me.
Chapter 18
Daniel
I noticed Addison’s eyes on me and for the first time in a few days I didn’t see anger or fear or sadness. All things I wished I hadn’t caused her. I didn’t know what I saw in that glance, but it made her brown eyes come alive. I held her gaze until she looked away coyly. I realized we were on her block and our time was almost up.
As the car came to a stop outside her work, I felt the same disappointment I felt every day when it was time to say goodbye. On top of that, I felt a franticness that it would possibly be the last time I saw her. Maybe she would change her mind and this short time together would end. An hour or so was not enough time together, but it was all I could get right now. All I attempted to get. All I probably deserved to get after what I had put her through.
“Well, this is me,” she said softly, grabbing her purse and putting her hand on the door.
I gave a solemn nod as Armand rounded the car and opened her door for her. She was almost out of the car, and then she turned around and slid back across the seat toward me. I sucked in a shallow breath as I wondered what she was doing. Eager for whatever was bringing her closer to me.
She leaned in and whispered in my ear, “Thank you.”
Those two simple words entered my skull and sent shivers down the length of my spine, forcing me to close my eyes as if it was a reflex to her close proximity. She then pressed her soft lips to my cheek before pulling away. Then she was gone.
As soon as her lips left my cheek, a burn took place of where her kiss had been. I could have sworn it was a touch that would scar me in a way I would want to remember. Like a scar on your knee from when you first learned to ride a bike. It was exciting and new, and without the pain.
I watched as she walked up to her work, parts of her white dress swishing as she walked, while others clung to her curves. She didn’t look back, but my eyes didn’t falter from her until she disappeared through the doors. Today was the first time we had touched in the week I had been picking her up from Brooklyn. I had taken a chance by placing my hand on the small of her back today as she got into the car.
I couldn’t help it. She was like a magnet, and I no longer had the strength to avoid her pull. It seemed to open a door I thought had surely been shut.
This morning felt different. Driving her to Manhattan had become some sort of unspoken agreement between the two of us. Every morning, she would walk out of her brick building and look around as if she doubted I was there again, but then her eyes would find me and a slow smile would spread across her lips. It got me every time.
Every car ride, I felt her walls start to come down a little. I wondered if I would eventually get the chance to call her Heart. It had become a new challenge for me.
In the five-ish or so hours we had spent together the past week, we hadn’t talked much about the baby or what the future looked like, other than how she was feeling and what symptoms were new. The boobs were definitely new. They were good before, but now I knew they’d spill out of my hands, and the thought was tantalizing.
It was as if we knew that talking about the baby would mean talking about us, and we were just barely figuring each other out. After doing everything backward, we were now at the getting to know you stage.