Page 40 of Bedding the Baby Daddy

And then there was nothing to do but collapse over her back, kiss along her neck and over the shell of her ear.

“Baby,” he whispered to her, sliding one arm around her to hug her as tight as he could. “Jesus, baby. Sweetheart. You gorgeous girl. You perfect, luscious goddess. God, you undid me. Tore me apart.” He continued whispering in her ear until she chuckled.

“Guess you liked it, huh?”

“I saw the white light. Almost went through the pearly gates on that one, sweetheart.” Dante reached between them to grab the base of the condom he always wore when he realized in a heart stopping moment that there was no condom.

He pulled out anyways, grabbed her hand, and dragged her into the adjoining bathroom. He closed the door behind them, wetted some paper towel and fell to his knees in front of her, gently cleaning her up.

“Sweetheart,” he started, unsure on how to proceed. Better just go whole hog. Tell the damn truth. “I forgot to put on a condom.”

“Shit,” she murmured reflexively. Then she reached out and smoothed his furrowed brow. “We both forgot.”

That soothed a bit of his guilt, but it didn’t soothe the panic racing through him. “I’m clean, got tested just before we slept together the first time and you’re the only one I’ve been with since then.”

Now Aurora was the one furrowing her brow, as if she almost didn’t believe that he hadn’t been man whoring around Los Angeles. “Me too. I’m clean.”

Dante put her underwear back in place and pulled her skirt down, smoothing out the wrinkles. Rising, he took her hands in his. His heart was in his throat. “Could I have gotten you pregnant?”

Aurora’s face instantly went flat, and a careful expression came over it. She cleared her throat. “No.”

So she was on birth control of some kind. Dante let out a deep breath. “Thank god. That could have been really bad.” He let his hands trail down her shoulders and bent to kiss her lips, unaware of the flash of mortal pain that stabbed across her features at his words. “You just got me so revved up, I couldn’t even think straight. That’s never happened to me before.”

She cleared her throat again and raised an eyebrow as she turned to wash her hands in the sink. “You’ve never gotten head before?”

He laughed. “No, I mean I’ve never gone bareback before.”

“Really?” She looked at him with complete disbelief.

Feathers ruffled, he reached around her to wash his own hands. “Sometimes your low opinion of me gets a little old, Aurora. I’m not Hugh fucking Hefner. So I’ve dated a lot. Who hasn’t? But I don’t lie. And I’m telling you I’ve never fucked a woman without a condom.”

Aurora took a step back from him, dried her hands on a towel and tossed it into the trash. “Okay.”

She was opening the door to the bathroom when he slammed a hand on it to keep her from leaving. “That’s all you have to say about that?”

In a move that was extremely out of character with the polished, ladylike exterior, Aurora slapped his hand right off the door.

She spun around, one finger directly in his face. “You obviously have your panties all in a twist over something, Callaghan. But trust me, you don’t want to get into it with me.”

And then she was striding out of the bathroom, leaving him to stare at every graceful, Amazonian inch of her. He barely got in front of her before she could exit his office. “I’m sorry. I’m being a total ass and I’m sorry. But you’re being a little bit of an ass too.”

She stepped back, cocked out one hip and folded her arms across her chest, raised an eyebrow.

“And,” Dante continued, “while I’m trying hard to be mad at you for being an ass and thinking the worst of me, you’re so mad right now that your New Orleans accent is finally coming out and turns out I find that really cute.”

Aurora’s hands dropped from over her chest and fell to her sides. “Oh. Well, I tried to lose it during business school but sometimes it creeps back in.”

Knowing that the irritated heat between them was on a low simmer right now, Dante hedged his bets and stepped forward, slipping his hand over her golden hair.

“I don’t know why you’d try to lose it. It’s beautiful. Makes you sound like a Georgia peach.”

At that, Aurora threw her head back and laughed. “Trust me when I say I am not that at all. And no New Orleans girl wants to be called that. We’re in our own category, baby.”

And Dante just said, “Abso-fucking-lutely you are.”

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