Page 23 of Secret Daddies

“And what’s wrong with that?” she teased. “Sometimes it’s nice, being conquered.”

“Ugh, don’t put it like that,” I giggled. “That sounds horrible.”

“Yeah, I know, but I’m just saying,” she continued, nudging me again. “You can relax and just enjoy having some attention if you want. You’ve been so focused on taking care of Matty these last few years, if you want to let yourself get ravished by a couple of movie stars…why not?”

“Uh, because it’s going to make my life way too complicated?” I countered. “Because one of them is his father and doesn’t know it yet?”

“You make a good point,” she agreed, tapping her finger on her bottom lip. “Just…play it by ear. You know what’s best for you, and for Matty. That’s what you have to focus on.”

“Yeah, I guess so…”

“Well, that and finding some way to hook up with the other guy too.”

“Lana!”

“What, I’m just saying!” she protested, holding her hands up and playing innocent. “You’ve had two of them. It would be rude not to go for the whole set…”

“Taylor’s not like that,” I muttered, and she waggled her eyebrows at me.

“See? Taylor. You’re already on first-name terms with him,” she teased me. “Is he cute too?”

I paused for a moment, considering. I knew the answer. Taylor, for all he might not have the slick charm of Lee or Devon’s earnest boyishness, was seriously hot, in that confident, cool way that older men sometimes were.

“He is, isn’t he?” she laughed. “God, Maya, you’re such a dark horse, I didn’t know you had it in you!”

“Me neither,” I admitted. I knew she was just kidding about getting with Taylor too—but after everything that had happened, I had no idea what would go down next. It had all been crazy enough as it was. Who was to say it wouldn’t get even crazier?

Just a few more months, and I would be done with it. I would be finished with the shoot, and I could forget about all of this and go back to normal. It would be like none of it had ever happened. But in the meantime…

In the meantime, I was sure there was a whole lot more to uncover. And I was as nervous as I was excited about finding out where it took me from here.

12

LEE

When I heardthe knock on the door, I grinned, ran a hand through my hair, and planted the bottle of red wine I had just been pouring from onto the counter.Showtime.

I knew from the moment the thought had crossed my mind that Maya would say yes to my invitation to come over for dinner and a few drinks over the weekend. I’d been hitting her with every ounce of flirtation I could, and though she tried to keep things professional, I’d seen her mind wandering to a few places it shouldn’t have, given that we were meant to be working together.

Fooling around with her had been fun, but damn, I needed more. I needed to go all the way with her, and I intended to make that happen tonight. I had cooked dinner, I’d picked out the perfect bottle of merlot, I had invited her to my apartment, I had even offered to cover childcare for her for the evening—everything it would take to make sure she would be totally capable of relaxing and enjoying herself for the night, without getting distracted by anything else that might be going on inside her head.

And she’d accepted. Well, everything but the childcare, which she insisted she could cover herself. Fine by me—as long as I got her alone, I was happy.

Not that I’d minded meeting her kid the other day, Matty. He was pretty sweet, and it wasn’t as though I didn’t have plenty of practice in handling excited elementary schoolers who wanted me to sign their backpacks. I knew some people in the business found it annoying, being swamped with attention from children who couldn’t seem to tell the different between fantasy and reality, but honestly, I liked it. It was fun to play into their fantasy and let them live in that place of childish wonder for a little longer—God knows I wished I’d had the chance to do that when I was a kid, not that I was ever offered the opportunity…

I pushed that thought aside as I answered the door and found Maya, standing in a short emerald dress, staring up at me with a cocked eyebrow.

“Exactly how much security do you have on this place?” she asked as she slipped her coat from her shoulders—the fabric grazed the skin of her arms, and I couldn’t help but let my gaze trail along the shape of her waist and her hip. The dress she was wearing hugged her body perfectly, and it was all I could do not to push her against the door, lift the skirt over her hips, and pick up right where we had left off.

“Enough,” I replied. “I don’t want us to be disturbed tonight.”

A small flush rose to her neck, but she laughed.

“You’re lucky I got up here at all,” she warned me. “I think they wanted to keep me out of here. Didn’t like the look of me.”

“Then they’re crazy,” I replied, hanging up her coat. “You want a glass of wine?”

“I’d love one. Wow, your place is amazing…”

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