The Billionaire Op - Lori Ryan Page 0,50

stood there timing herself to his routines every day to be sure she didn’t miss it. Then he’d walk out of the lake dripping wet, with beads of water running over his shoulders and his wet hair looking even darker than it was.

Oh, God.

Jennie curled her feet up under her on the couch as she tried to banish the slide show playing in her mind’s eye. She needed to learn to ignore the way her body reacted to Chad. She needed to get her body in line with what her head and her heart wanted.

As if he could read her mind, Chad chose that very moment to look up from his What to Expect book.

“Says here some women get really horny when they’re pregnant,” he said, waggling his eyebrows with a shit-eating grin.

“It does not!” Jennie said, feeling two hot spots form on her cheeks.

How does he know?

“Does too. They don’t phrase it that way, but that’s essentially it. Anything you need help with, Jennie? Any cravings I can take care of for you?” He laughed as he leaned in suggestively.

“Gah!” She stood and stormed off to the shower, not looking back at him as she went into the bathroom.

She gave in to the urge to rearrange his neatly laid out toiletries on the counter by the sink, though. It was an activity she allowed herself to indulge in at least once a week to keep her sanity. Mussing up his ordered tidiness helped her feel a little better about his teasing.

It didn’t do anything to diffuse the insane arousal she was fighting at the moment, though. Chad had her so wound up, she felt like she would burst soon. Her heart raced and she had the sweet achiness of need between her legs almost twenty-four hours a day.

And, no amount of self-indulgence seemed to quell her hunger for Chad. If anything, it seemed to make it worse.

Jennie sighed as she turned Chad’s razor perpendicular to his toothpaste and moved his toothbrush over to the other side of the sink, then stepped into the shower. She knew better than to hope a cold shower would help, and truth be told, she didn’t have it in her to take one.

She needed the comfort of the warm water beating down on her nowadays. Her life had become one long twisted joke lately and she didn’t have any idea when it was going to change.

She put her hand to her belly and tried to imagine the tiny life that was growing there. This poor child was going to come into a mixed-up mess of a situation and Jennie didn’t know how to change that.

She closed her eyes and stepped beneath the spray remembering a shower in Florida that started all of this. She rubbed her hand over her belly again. She couldn’t regret the baby, but she did worry that she wasn’t going to be able to give the little one anything resembling the kind of life she should.

She squeezed her eyes shut. What have I done?

Chapter 28

Chad waited for Jennie to turn off the water in the shower before knocking on the door.

“Jennie,” he said through the door. “Dinner—chicken or beef?”

“Cheese danish,” came her reply.

“Uh, no. Chicken, then. Stir-fry chicken with veggies or grilled chicken and salad?”

She opened the door, letting out a cloud of steam with her. Chad looked down at her, hair wet, bathrobe around her tiny frame, and her hands fisted on her hips as if she were ready to take him on.

She smelled of that light flowery scent he was pretty sure was lilacs, but also seemed innately Jennie. Her body still glistened with beads of water and he had to fight the urge to lean down and lick at the droplets.

His body’s response to her was involuntary and unwelcome, but it was there just the same. There was no stopping it.

He only hoped he could ignore it and that she didn’t notice. He knew, if she asked, he would probably give her anything she wanted.

Except cheese danish for dinner.

“Pudding, then. I’ll have pudding,” Jennie said.

She brushed past him and either didn’t see his eye roll or chose to ignore it.

“Jennie, you can’t just eat shit like that. You need more nutrients in you.”

Chad could tell she wasn’t eating nearly enough to feed both herself and the baby. As much as he didn’t want to be angry with her, his frustration was wearing on him. He wanted to strap her to a chair and force-feed her something more