Call Her Mine (Harmony Pointe #1)- Melissa Foster Page 0,22
Boston cream pie doughnuts, she was still thinking about everything his sisters had said.
He even loves the way you snort-laugh. The dude is totally into you . . .
Maybe she should just tell Ben how she felt and leave the ball in his court. She was a big girl. She could handle it if he laughed in her face, couldn’t she? Or if he said, Great, let’s fuck? What if all he really wanted was a one-night stand? Or worse, what if his innuendos were jokes and he really didn’t like her in that way at all?
By the time she reached his house, she was all riled up and confused. She stormed through the front door and through the clean living room—Clean? For some reason that only heightened her anxiety. Leave it to master-at-everything Ben to take control of his frigging chaos in the space of a morning and be able to handle fatherhood with ease and grace.
He wasn’t in the kitchen or his office. She stalked upstairs, gritting her teeth and practicing her lay-it-on-the-line speech. Ben, I like you. I might even love you. And you don’t have to like me back—or love me—but I wanted you to know.
I can do this. I can do this, she told herself as she stomped down the hall toward his bedroom. I am totally doing this! She felt lighter already. This was exactly what she needed to do.
She walked into the bedroom as he was coming out of the bathroom wearing nothing but a towel and carrying Baby B’s basket. His hair was wet, and he hadn’t shaved. He always shaved! Damn it. His scruff was dark and sexy, and it made him look edgier than usual, which made her all sorts of nervous.
He set down the basket, in which B was fast asleep, and stepped toward her, smiling as he said, “Hey, Rels. I got the place cleaned up.”
Her eyes were riveted to the water dripping down the treasure trail on his abs. She opened her mouth to speak, but it was bone dry, and her mind went completely and utterly blank.
“You okay?” he asked.
Her fingers itched to rip off that towel and throw herself into his arms, but she was frozen in place, and he reached out, touching her fingers, sending lightning through her veins. She dropped the bag from the bakery, said, “I can’t do this,” and practically ran down the stairs and out the front door.
CHAPTER FIVE
AFTER BABY DUTY and breakfast, courtesy of his very confusing best friend, who still hadn’t returned his texts from this morning, Ben was finally trying to get himself thinking straight before his conference call with Aiden. Thank God B was sound asleep after two bottles and three diaper changes. Now if he could only focus on work.
He gazed out the window of his home office. He had a six-thousand-square-foot home on seven acres within walking distance of town, tucked away down a long tree-lined driveway, he ran a multibillion-dollar empire, he might have a beautiful baby girl, but he couldn’t even hold on to the only woman he wanted. His house never felt like a home except when Aurelia was in it, and even then it didn’t feel as warm and homey as her apartment did. In Aurelia’s apartment, they fell asleep on the couch together most of the time, but even if he fell asleep on the couch and she went into her bedroom, she was still right there, just a few steps away. That felt good and right. In his house they slept on the couch, or the chaise lounge, and he would never even think about leaving her to go upstairs to the bedroom. It was too far away.
His mind circled back to Aurelia running out of his bedroom, when she’d said, I can’t do this. He’d started to go after her, but then he’d remembered the tiny ball and chain relying on him. He hadn’t even been able to call out after Aurelia for fear of waking the baby.
He looked down at B sleeping soundly in the basket by his desk and crouched beside her. He should be pissed every time he looked at the baby who was turning his life upside down, but how could anyone be angry at an innocent child? It wasn’t her fault he might have screwed up and her mother was too weak to care for her. Or maybe she was in trouble. Fuck. He needed to find out, but he was biding