My Ex's Baby (Crescent Cove 8)

“I definitely did that.” He slid his hand around to the back of my neck, massaging the tension out of my muscles. “I want to again.”

“You’re a very giving lover.” It wasn’t what I intended to say, but it was worth the mirth in his eyes. He didn’t smile enough when we were together.

That was probably my fault.

“I try to be, but gotta say I do hope to receive this time too.” He rubbed his lips against mine, so softly I nearly sighed.

Sense kicked in and I jerked back. “One second,” I yelped, fleeing into the bathroom.

My mouth tasted like a sewer, and morning needs were making themselves known. There was no way we could make out and possibly do other things before I’d tidied up a bit.

Once I’d taken care of business—including brushing my teeth twice with the spare toothbrush I kept at Ivy’s for our occasional sleepovers—I stepped back into the bedroom. My hair was semi-tamed, and I’d even swiped on lip gloss.

August stared at me as if I was a mirage.

“Damn, you’re gorgeous.” He gestured for me to come closer and I responded as if I had no say in the matter.

Once my knees hit the mattress, he leaned across it and hooked his hand around my hip. He nudged up my nightshirt with his nose and aimed right between my legs, giving me a long, slow lick that weakened my knees.

He was so good at that. And if I let him continue down that road, we’d never talk. We would never set the ground rules we needed to.

Just so everything was nice and clear.

“Wait. You said—you said—” I grabbed my phone off the nightstand and scrolled through texts once face recognition let me in. “You said you’d give me a baby. Why would you say that?”

“You asked me to.”

“What?” I nearly shouted the question and then sent up a fervent prayer that the noise I could hear in another part of the house was the TV.

Rory and Ivy didn’t know August was here. No one knew. So when we flamed out—as we were going to do any moment now—it wouldn’t be a thing in town. People wouldn’t ask how I was doing after such an awful event, and Ivy wouldn’t be forced to pick sides. She probably wouldn’t pick mine, because no one ever did.

Not that I knew anything about that.

But I didn’t want to put her in the middle anyway. She loved her brother, last night’s hushed argument on the stoop aside. This whole situation was messy and unnecessary, even if my inner thighs were quivering and the minty scent of August’s soap was making my head spin.

“You asked me to,” he repeated calmly, leaning closer to resume licking me as if he had all the time in the world.

I tried to breathe. To think. “I was drunk.”

“You were perfectly coherent.” He moved back and slowly swiped the back of his hand over his mouth in the most seductive way imaginable before tugging me down to sit beside him on the bed. “And you took two pregnancy tests.”

Despite the still obvious tingling between my legs, I rubbed my phone against the hollow ache in my chest. “I wanted to be sure.”

“Yeah. And you were disappointed.” He averted his gaze. “As am I.”

He couldn’t be serious. Most guys didn’t want kids. At least not in a situation like this. We weren’t even technically dating, and he had no concerns about a biological clock. It was my egg timer suddenly dinging in my head, not his.

But he didn’t even say he was disappointed, as in past tense. He’d made it present.

“You were?”

“Yeah. Crazy, right?” He let out a low laugh and scraped a hand over his adorable bedhead. His hair was normally as neat and tidy as everything else was about him. Not right now. Spikes were sticking out in all directions.

Just like my feelings for him. It was getting harder to put a lid on them when he went and said stuff like that.

“We’ve been on fast forward since the wedding. I guess this is just one more part of it. So if you weren’t just drunk rambling, if you want to go for it… Well, I do too.”

Shock echoed in the pit of my stomach. Had he lost his mind?