Page 61 of There Are No Words

I crossed my arms over my chest and shook my head. “I’m good. It’s everything I told you over dinner. I feel good about it all. I like Jade.”

“Then let’s go to bed.” He dropped his hand and walked to me without hesitating, slipping his hand around my back and turning the knob on my door so we could walk in together.

It was a dangerous road I was going down, that much I knew, but I couldn’t seem to not. I was constantly at war with myself over wanting this man. I was both greedy and magnanimous where Brady Moore was concerned. I wanted him—all of him—but was desperately trying to maintain my dignity and keep my heart whole. And those pesky fears of mine kept rearing theirugly head—namely that I wasn’t good enough for him,normalenough for him.

Would there ever be a time I didn’t worry about that? I sincerely wished I could just flip a switch in my brain and not care, but I knew that wasn’t possible. I had those fears. Unfortunately.

Chapter Twenty

Brady

“Screw this,”Allegra shouted from inside her closet.

I was sitting on the foot of her bed, my legs manspread, and my hands together as I leaned my elbows on my knees. “Damn it, Allegra, you’re really starting to piss me off.” We were supposed to be at Jack and Quinn’s in twenty minutes, and at the rate Allegra was going to just pick out an outfit, there was no way we were going to make it. It didn’t bother me that we were late, not really anyway. I mean, they were family, so it was fine, and they wouldn’t care. What annoyed me was that Allegra had started getting dressed a little over a half hour ago and she was still in a bra and panties.

Allegra poked her head out of her closet, her eyes narrowed. “Don’t start with me, Brady Moore”—she wagged a finger in front of her, pointing at me—“this is all your fault. Not a single thing in here fits me. I can’t even squeeze into my dresses anymore.”

I ran a hand across my face and shook my head, getting up to walk over to her. “It doesn’t matter what you wear, Allegra. You look beautiful no matter what.”

She frowned as I placed my hands on her arms and began rubbing them. Fuck, it felt good to touch her.

“You mean it?” she asked.

“Would I lie?” I quirked a brow, watching her expression as she let out a sigh. “Come on. Just pick anything. What about those maternity clothes?”

She scrunched her nose and threw her head back, groaning. Which only made her breasts become more pronounced. She’d always had a great rack, but suddenly, it was all I could do not to stare at it. Had they grown? It was as though her bra was barely doing anything for her. They were practically spilling out the top and the only thing I couldn’t see—unfortunately—were her nipples. Shit, I wanted to free her breasts from the confines of that bra and hold them in my hands, fondling them. Then I wanted to greedily push them together so that I could suck on both of her nipples at the same time.

“Never mind. You’re right,” she said, breaking me out of my reverie. She turned around and started rummaging through her clothes.

Did she just say I was right?

She tossed her head over her shoulder, and her eyes widened, so much so that they were practically bugging out of her head. “Forget a dress, I could wear those pants that stretch in the front.” Her eyes welled with tears. “Do you remember my old ass?”

I cleared my throat. “Um, what?” Herold ass? Okay, I guessed that was what we were calling it now.

She moved at a fast pace, leaving the closet and moving me aside to look in the floor-length mirror. “My old ass,” she reiterated. She tossed her hair up in some messy thing on the top of her head with a band she had on her wrist. “I remember it. Of course, you probably don’t miss it because you didn’t have time with it.”

“Is this like the foot eulogy?” I asked, remembering that horrid shit I read in the pregnancy book.

She darted a confused look at me as I approached her. “What?”

I shook my head. “Never mind.”

She posed probably about ten different ways, staring at her ass from every which angle before placing her hand on her belly and licking her lips. She blinked. “It’s fine,” she finally said. “Really, it is. Once Baby is born, I’ll get my ass back.”

I nodded. “Absolutely.” Then I placed my hands around her to cup her belly, rubbing concentric circles on it. “Until then, though, you look sexy as hell.”

She looked up, and I caught her eyes staring at me in the mirror. “I have a ridiculous question, but humor me, okay?”

All right, I didn’t know where this was going, but I’d do anything for her. “What’s that?” I asked.

She placed her hands over mine on her belly and closed her eyes as though it was taking all of her energy to come out with it. “If we were together,” she started, swallowing, her muscles tensing. “What would you want to do to me?”

“You mean sexually?”

She nodded, opening her eyes back up. “Yeah.” Then she dropped her hands and walked away from me, sitting on the foot of the bed. “I know it’s silly. You don’t have to answer that. You can actually go to the car and I’ll meet you. I’m just going to get dressed. I know what to wear now.”

Was she really acting shy? Wasn’t this the same woman who’d led me into my office looking for a one-night stand? It was definitely cute, but I was a little surprised. And frankly, I wasn’t sure she wanted to hear what I had to say. “You really want to know?” I turned around and pulled on the back of my neck, waiting for her answer.

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