Nauti Temptress (Nauti Girls 1)

Besides, if she was pregnant, her child would need a mother fully capable of caring for him. If he had to do without a father, then he at least needed more than just half a mother. Or a mother who couldn’t forget that she had had to beg his father to love her.

He. She kept thinking of the baby as a he. Just as Christa, Chaya, and Kelly had claimed they had done with their daughters, she had already assigned a sex to the child she might have conceived.

As she stared up at Brogan, he laid his forehead against hers and closed his eyes as though he meant to nap a bit more this morning.

It was apparent he wasn’t going to say a damned thing.

This time she didn’t have to fight the tears back, though her chest tightened with aching regret. There were no tears filling her eyes; there was only acceptance—an acceptance tinged with bitter regret.

“It’s time for me to get up,” she told him, pretending everything was fine. “I have things to do this morning.”

Slowly, watching her carefully, he let her go.

Uncertainty flickered in his gaze, and despite having sensed it in him before, she still found that small bit of vulnerability endearing. Brogan wasn’t a man who admitted to any sort of weakness, and he would see uncertainty in any area as a weakness.

“Will I see you this evening?” she asked as she moved to the closet and pulled out a light blue casual chiffon skirt that fell just below her thighs, along with a loose matching camisole top.

“Definitely,” he answered, propping his hand on his palm as he watched her, his gray-blue eyes reflecting simmering lust. “I may even be able to get away from the job early. We could go out to dinner.”

He was willing to take her out now? Why now? Because he was afraid she wouldn’t wait until he was ready to stake his claim? Her dinner with Chatham—or Doogan, as Brogan had called him—hadn’t pleased him in the slightest.

Brogan was ready to stake a public claim on her now, while he was always willing to walk away from the more private claim.

Her jaw tightened in anger as she turned away from him and moved back to the closet, where she pulled free a pair of flat, strappy leather sandals. She was not going to let him see how hurt she was, or how angry. If he didn’t want to own her hea

rt, then screw him; she had no problem at all trying to take it back from him.

“If I’m not back when you return, then I won’t be much longer,” she promised, fighting to keep her voice even, her tone casual.

The last thing she needed was for him to suspect her plans.

But if he thought she was going to hang around Pulaski County and watch him flit around like a buck in rut while all the women swarmed him, like they had since he’d arrived, then he was crazed. She’d be damned if she would have to deal with the smart-assed territorial women who seemed to think he was their own personal prize.

It wasn’t going to happen.

“Where will you be?” Suspicion entered his gaze as well as his voice, though maybe he was finally figuring out that things weren’t going to go all his way any longer.

“I had a job offer.” She shrugged as though it didn’t matter, while she gathered clean underclothes together before heading to the shower. “I’m going to meet with the company’s owner today so he can explain the job.”

The offer had come from another of John Walker’s friends from Boston the day before. He had enough of those to go around, it seemed. At first she hadn’t been interested, until she had talked to her mother the night before.

“Where is this job, Eve?”

Brogan could sense the ax getting ready to fall, and he could kick his own ass for letting it go this far.

Staring into his eyes moments ago, Eve had shown him more clearly than words what it would take to keep her, and he had ignored her.

Stubborn arrogance, his father called it, and now Brogan might very well pay for it.

“Where do you think?” She laughed as though he should know. As though the question were moot.

“My guess is, outside Kentucky,” he stated.

Eve turned around slowly to face him, and the answer was in her eyes.

“Boston.” She confirmed his guess. “It’s a wonderful opportunity. I’ll be managing several offices and client lists. My degree is in business administration, and there are just so few—”

“I love you, Eve. . . .”