Page 108 of More Than Words

“Since when have we had clear boundaries with each other about this kinda stuff? You know I like to fuck people’s wives with them watching. This is a little bit tamer than that.”

“Shh,” I tried to quiet him, so he didn’t broadcast that to the entire bar, but when I looked around, no one was paying any attention to us. “I’m pretty sure I blacked out and came to with her on top of me, playing with her tits.”

“Sounds like a fun night to me,” he laughed.

“At least I have the next three days to rest before she’s back in Boston.”

“Electrolytes, my brother. Go stock up on electrolytes so Is doesn’t come looking for the better-looking twin to take care of her when you can’t.”

“I hate you.”

“Yeah, I get that a lot. Doesn’t sound as convincing coming from you as it does from my teenager.” His face sobered as he looked at me. “How wild is that? Penny is going to have two genetic half-siblings born within a few months of each other.”

“Yeah, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell your daughter that my daughter is her sibling. That’s not something we need her repeating around the neighborhood. You’ve got the gossips following your every move as it is. And I doubt a twelve-year-old would understand the nuances of twin genetics.”

“The offer still stands if you’d like me to step in and take over as Bel’s Daddy.”

My middle finger was the only response I could muster as my head fell to the surface of the bar, the cool lacquered wood doing nothing to help my fatigue.

ISOBEL

Boston

Thanksgiving had been low key this year. With all the travel I’d done, I had no desire to return to Iowa to spend time with my family.

They didn’t seem to understand that my career was my life, and while things had now changed with my pregnancy, I had no intention of staying home like my mom and sisters did with their kids. That would never be in the cards for me. I liked my job too much to give up everything I’d worked for.

Some people might think that was selfish, and there were countless women who were amazing stay-at-home moms, but I didn’t expect being one of them. That didn’t mean I wouldn’t try to be the best mom to this baby, but she would never be encouraged to give up her dreams to fit into some antiquated female stereotype. She should be able to make her own choices without judgment. Which was why I was thankful Adrian had never even brought it up for me to stay home longer than my planned maternity leave.

We had accepted that we’d both continue to work full time and have her downstairs at the corporate daycare during the day. He hadn’t even asked me if I would consider something different. The one time it came up, he’d taken my opinion and wholeheartedly supported me. He’d grown up in a household where his mother worked full-time to provide for their family, and he’d never resented her or questioned her decisions.

“Hey.” Think of the handsome devil and he would appear—wearing a suit, no less. “Do you need to go home to change before tonight?”

Closing my eyes, I scrunched my nose and then slowly blinked, trying to refocus my eyes after staring at a screen for so long. “Huh?”

“Are you wearing that to the cocktail hour?” Glancing down at my casual blouse and Adrian’s favorite white skirt that barely fit despite having a stretchy waistband, I frowned.

“No, but I don’t need to go home. My dress is in the garment bag on the back of my door.” Adrian had been at an early morning meeting with an author when I needed to come into work, so I’d just taken an Uber instead of waiting for him to get done. I felt bad enough I was relying on him for transportation to and from work every day.

He adamantly refused to let me give him any money for gas, and he got cranky when I didn’t ask him first if I needed to go somewhere. I knew his heart was in the right place because he wanted to take care of me in any way he could, but sometimes the quiet to gather my thoughts before a hectic day at work was nice.

“Need some help?” he asked, stepping a few feet further into my office and reaching back to close the door. He moved to the blinds, twisted the rod to close them, and turned off the overhead lights. The click of the lock was last.

“Not the kind of help you’d clearly like to provide,” I laughed as he grabbed the garment bag off the door and unzipped it while he headed in my direction.

“I’m only here to please my lady,” he chuckled, draping the dress over the chair and beckoning me to stand with a crook of his finger.

“You just want to reenact a few weeks ago.” While he’d threatened to bend me over my desk multiple times as a joke in the past, I may have lured him into my office a few weeks ago under false pretenses to do just that. My hormones started going haywire after twenty-three weeks and now that I was at twenty-seven weeks, things had settled back to as normal as they could get with my growing midsection.

“While I’d love to take you up on that, we need to leave in a half hour. And you know Sloane would not be impressed if we’re late.”

In my new capacity as her right-hand woman, Sloane had invited me—and Adrian by extension—to attend a holiday cocktail party followed by a dinner held every year for the region’s publishing industry professionals. Vivid was the host this year, so she expected the attendance of several of the genre heads in the editing department.

“Think she’d be alright with us cutting out early after dinner is over?” While I appreciated the opportunity to network, I was also asleep by nine pm most nights. That was true before I got pregnant, and even more so now.

“We’ll see how it goes, but I doubt we’re getting out of there until she leaves.”

“That’s what I was afraid of,” I sighed, reaching for the zipper on the back of my skirt. Adrian’s eyes followed every movement as I wiggled my hips and it dropped to the floor. “Why are you staring at me like that?”

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