Page 44 of Baby Bombshell for the Boss

He closed his eyes and kissed her.

Her body responded to him at once, turning to meet him, and her hand cupped the back of his neck. Elliot knew in an instant that there was no turning back now. This was what he had been craving from the moment she’d moved in. Before that, really. He wasn’t going to be able to restrain himself now, not when she was kissing him back so eagerly.

He had brought her up here to look at the stars. But as the kiss deepened and the two of them got more and more lost in each other’s touch, the stars were completely forgotten.

CHAPTER 20

IVY

Oh my God. What in the world was I thinking?

Ivy sat on the edge of her bed, staring at her hands and reliving last night. It had been amazing — she couldn’t deny that. It had been just as good as the first time. In fact, it had been even better, because the two of them knew each other now. It meant so much more to her to be with Elliot when he was someone she knew and cared about than it had when he’d been a virtual stranger.

But that was the problem. She cared too much. It had been a one-night thing, a birthday celebration. A slip.

A mistake.

How was she going to go on living here? How could she face Elliot, knowing how much last night had meant to her, knowing that it hadn’t meant the same to him? That it would never happen again? This was the exact reason the two of them had insisted on keeping everything purely platonic. It was too difficult when they let their hearts get involved.

She’d fallen in love with him. There was no going back from that. But she knew that their relationship couldn’t be anything more than coparents. For the sake of the baby, she couldn’t have any sort of messy romantic entanglement. Things between her and Elliot needed to be simple. Easy.

I can’t go on living here.

She got out of bed and dressed slowly. A weight of dread had settled over her — she felt as if she was walking toward a deeply dreadful task. And I am, she thought.

But it shouldn’t feel like this. She had been so irresponsible in allowing things to get to this point — in allowing her own feelings to get to this point. She should have known that her time with Elliot was temporary. She had known. How many times had she said it to herself, and yet she didn’t seem to have internalized the message.

She found him in the kitchen with his usual morning cup of coffee. He’d gone ahead and prepared her tea as well, she noticed with a pang. He must have done it when he’d heard her start to move around in her bedroom. It was so painful to think that this part of her life was about to be over.

He looked up at her and smiled warmly, and she felt another pang. “Last night was fun,” he said.

It had been fun. It had been too much fun. It had been more than fun.

That was why this had to end.

Ivy drew a breath. “I wanted to talk to you about something, if I could.”

“Of course,” he said. “You can talk to me about anything.”

She nodded. “What you said last night, about me having my own place in this building. I thought maybe that would be a good idea.”

Elliot lowered his coffee cup slowly and looked at her. “You want to move out?”

She swallowed hard. “I think it makes sense,” she said. “Once the baby comes, it’ll be hard to make any changes to the way we’re living. If we’re going to change something, we should do it now. I know we said that I’d stay here until the baby was born, but I actually think this might be the best thing for both of us. You don’t want us here forever.”

He looked as if he was going to say something, but he didn’t. He looked down at his coffee instead.

Then he looked up quickly. “Is this because of what happened last night?” he asked. “Because if I overstepped in any way?—”

“No,” she interjected quickly. “You didn’t overstep. You’re right. Last night was great. Please don’t think I have any regrets about that.”

Of course, the truth wasn’t that simple at all. She did have regrets — but at the same time, she was glad the two of them had seized the moment. To have one last moment together before they had to end things completely was worth all the pain that was going to follow. Last night had made her realize that a change was needed, and she couldn’t regret that realization, even though it did hurt her. She was glad she knew. At least now they could move forward and start to heal.

Still, Elliot looked troubled. “Maybe I should have kept my distance,” he said.

“I think we both should have,” she said. “I don’t think it was good for us to do what we did, but we’ve already agreed on that. We don’t want things to be too complicated, for the sake of the baby. That doesn’t mean I regret what happened, and I certainly don’t blame you for it. But I do think the smartest thing we can do is get started on building our separate lives. So if you’ve got a place I can move into, I’ll take that.”

He looked crestfallen. “We made that whole nursery,” he said. “We haven’t even gotten the crib together yet. And I wanted to be part of the early days with the baby.”

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