Page 11 of Bedding the Baby Daddy

Chapter Three

Six weeks later

Aurora froze as she walked back into her office with the salad she’d just picked up down the street. There were flowers on her desk.

These days there were always flowers on her desk.

She put her salad down and picked up the lilies, then glanced at the card, which was once again simply signed “From Dante.” With a sigh, she caressed the D in his name with her fingertips before placing the card along with the stack of identical cards in her desk drawer. Then she strode back out to the break room. Gently, she placed the flowers into the vase along with yesterday’s roses and the daisies from the day before. The office was running out of vases, and she was running out of patience with Dante Callaghan.

AKA the biggest mistake of her life.

She strode back into her office and shut the door. She just wished she could shut the door against the memories that assaulted her whenever she thought of him. The way he’d rearranged her clothes then set her gently back in the front seat after he’d given her some of the most intense orgasms of her life. How he’d held her hand as he’d driven her to his house. How he’d carried her up to his room like she hadn’t weighed a thing.

And how he’d rolled with her, kissed every inch of her, made her scream for hours.

Aurora squeezed her eyes closed and let her head fall back on the door. The image that tortured her, the one that made her feel like she couldn’t breathe, was how he’d looked just before she’d snuck out early the next morning. Peaceful and sated and somehow dangerous. It was like watching a lion sleep. She couldn’t believe how much of her had wanted to crawl back into bed with him, lick up his stomach and see what happened. But the rest of her, the sane part of her, had been screaming for her to get the fuck out of there before he woke up and they had to talk about whatever the hell had happened.

So, she’d snuck out, gotten an uber, and hadn’t spoken to him in over six weeks. Unfortunately, the memories of their time together kept playing in her head, even at the most inopportune times. It was playing with her head. Distracting her. Affecting her performance at work. Which was why she was ducking him. She’d made up bullshit excuses to Gio, and he’d taken over all interactions with Dante.

She was hoping that eventually, if she distanced herself from him enough, the memories of their passion would fade and things would go back to the way they’d used to be. Sure, she’d always found him attractive, but she’d convinced herself his arrogance irritated her too much to ever give in to that attraction. She could convince herself of that again.

Dante Callaghan and his magic cock were not on her list of things she was going to spend time or energy on.

Only he wasn’t making moving on easy for her, damn him.

After she’d snuck out on him, there’d been radio silence for a few days. Something that had both relieved and, weirdly, disappointed her. But then she’d gotten a text from an unknown number.

Pretty sure that of the two of us, YOU’RE the fuck boy.

She’d tried not to smile. She’d tried not to text back, she really had. But then her fingers were somehow acting without her permission.

Excuse me?

Anything to get me in the sack and then you mess with my head. That’s the definition, right?

Aurora wasn’t sure whether to laugh or to grimace.

I’m not trying to mess with your head.

That’s exactly what a fuck boy would say.

Now she really did laugh. She ignored the pinching in her gut when she typed what she did next.

Not trying to play games, Dante. It was a great night. Let’s leave it at that.

It had been a great night. Actually, it had been the best night of her life. But no matter how you sliced the pie, she was in love with Gio. And if she couldn’t have him, then she was going to have the second most important thing in her life. Her career.

Not to mention the fact that Dante was a major player. He’d pursued her for a long time, sure. But she was under no misconceptions that she was the only woman he was treating that way. He’d just wanted what he couldn’t have. And, according to the rumors, there was very little that Dante couldn’t have. She’d heard through Alice, Gio’s intern, that Dante had dated no less than six women in their office building. And it was not a big office building. She didn’t know what kind of game he was playing with the flowers, but it wasn’t one that Aurora planned to get wrapped up in.

He hadn’t texted her again or called since that day, but he had sent flowers almost every day for the last six weeks.

It was flattering, she told herself, that was all. That was the reason that the gesture made her heart beat fast. And the flowers were always beautiful. That was why she had a little pinch in her chest every time she took them out of her office and put them in the break room.

She just wished every time Gio happened to see them, he didn’t tease her about the smart man trying to win her heart. Every time he said it, Aurora had to swallow the lump in her throat.

He hadn’t said anything about it specifically, but Aurora had the distinct impression that things were on the right track with Rose. She could tell that Gio was happier than he’d been in a very long time, and she in turn tried to be happy for him. Unfortunately, thinking of him with Rose depressed her so much that yesterday, when the gigantic delivery of orangey pink roses came, she’d been tempted, for the first time, to text Dante, see what he was doing.

She’d opened up her phone, brought up a blank text to him. She’d managed to stop herself, however. After all, she thought, what would he think when she texted him out of the blue, what was it, six weeks later?

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