Page 49 of Holding Out

Robbie squirmed impatiently in Griff’s arms, reaching out for Becca.“You want the baby for a sec?”

She took him, sniffing suspiciously.“Did you just give me a baby that needs changing?Because if so, you’re a bigger asshole than I thought.”

“Does he need a change?”Griff asked innocently.

Okay, so maybe he wasn’t Future Dad of the Year quite yet.She gave him the finger with her spare hand.He grinned at her.The grin didn’t help with her resolve, either.

“Give him to me,” Alia said with a sigh.She collected him.“I’m headed to bed, anyway, and he probably needs to be, too.”

A few minutes later, Nate yawned, stretched, and looked at Becca.“You guys mind if I head upstairs?I was up three times last night and I’m falling asleep.Griff, you can stick around and watch the end of the game, I’m not kicking you out.Becca, lock up behind him?”

“Yeah, no worries,” they said at the same time.

Becca didn’t dare look at Griff.

“Parents,” Griff said scornfully, when Nate had gone.“No staying power.It’s not even time for the seventh inning stretch.I remember a time when Nate wouldn’t miss the end of a baseball game for sex.”

Becca eyed him.He was on one end of the couch, legs spread, arms crossed, all alpha male occupying an absurd amount of upholstery and looking disturbingly hot doing it.A tingle of want flared between her legs and sent warmth into her belly.

Shut up, she told her body.We’re not doing that.

He leaned toward her, narrowing his eyes.“Are wereallygoing to pretend that what happened last weekend didn’t happen?”

She’d been determined to do so, actually, for her own self-preservation.But the look in his eyes right now was downright predatory, and—well, her best intentions were in the process of paving the path to her pussy.

That was bad.

“‘First rule of Operation V-Card is, there is no Operation V-Card,’” she reminded him.

“Right,” Griff said.Wrinkles appeared between his eyebrows.

“One and done,” she added.

“Right,” he said again, but he was frowning now.

“Besides.There’s even more reason now to stick to those ground rules.I’m going to be around a lot the next two weeks, at least as long as I’m working for Jake.Plus watching Robbie, hanging out at Friday Night Dinners.No way for us to avoid each other.”

“Right.”

“And I’m staying here, under Nate and Alia’s watchful eyes.”

“Right.”

For a second, she thought the conversation was over, and she felt a wave of relief—followed immediately by an equal and opposite wave of disappointment.

“Becca,” Griff said.

“Yes?”

“Come here.”

“No,” she said.

It wasdefinitelythe wrong answer, because Griff’s eyes gleamed with mischief and his mouth quirked at one corner.Her nipples tightened.

“No, huh?”he asked.“Is that, like,nomeans no?Or is that more like—?”

“We said one and done,” she said, but even she could hear the desperation in her voice as the last of her resolve vaporized.

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