Page 61 of Who's Your Daddy?

I grab my phone and go straight to Google:How much marijuana do you need to smoke to be considered an addict?

I chuck my phone before I even click search. He’s not even born yet. I need to calm the fuck down.

I toss off the covers, and after a deep breath, I walk down the hall to Lia’s bedroom. This is honestly the worst arrangement I could’ve possibly thought of. Living under the same roof as the woman who is quite literally the embodiment of feminine perfection is no easy feat. But then Noble Nick stepped in again and took sex off the table, and now it’s a million times worse.

Again, I know I’m doing the right thing. We can’t keep having sex because then when do we stop? When we get bored with each other? When she finds the man shewantsto settle down with? I’m not going to be a placeholder until she finds her Prince Charming.

That’s just going to get messy, and I don’t want my kid getting caught in the crossfire if shit goes south between us. I need to make sure that his therapy sessions are limited to dealing with his marijuana addiction. He doesn’t need more issues. He’s just a kid, for fuck’s sake!

I’m going off the rails again.

Calm down.

Needless to say, it is in fact her continuous quest to find the perfect husband that made me enter into this completely sexless arrangement. Subtle though it was, she has rejected me not once, not twice, butseveraltimes now. I mean, I left for an hour and came back to an empty house. That was a clear sign. But I ignored it and went back to the motel to check on her.

Now, while it wasn’t my intention to convince her to come back, I thought we could still be friends (with some benefits), and we could continue to...see each other. That sorta sounds like dating, but I wasn’t going to rush into labeling it or anything.

However, that attempt ended with her shutting the door in my face, and the only reason it didn’t end there was because I took a detour at the drugstore. All in all, I got the message. But just because it’s the right and logical thing to do, doesn’t mean it’s easy.

This woman is a walking temptation. I don’t know if it’s because she’s pregnant, but her tits are bigger, her ass is juicier. Everything about her is a little fuller, plumper. I’m not doing okay. The baby is one stress, but Lia is putting a different kind of strain on me.

I’m going to give myself credit, though. I got through Sunday night and the whole of yesterday without cracking. I have persevered and stayed strong. I’m a man of steel. Nothing’s going to break me. I can do this for a few more weeks, months...years.

Years?

Am I really never going to have sex with her again?

I shake off the thought because it’s a fate I don’t wish to bear and knock on her bedroom door. It swings open a few seconds later, and she is in the sexiest state of disarray. Her hair’s half up, half down. She’s half dressed, half...not, wearing the skirt of her uniform and a white camisole, the lacey trimming accentuating the supple curves of her breasts.

“Hi,” I say.

“Hi.”

Hazel eyes caress me, prancing seductively over my bare chest. I have no trouble interpreting her body language. Her lips part. Her breath quickens. And the way she looks at me sends a bolt of red-hot lust straight to my groin. There’s no shortage of that in this house. Lust has always flowed in abundance between us. It’s extractinganyother kind of emotion out of her that’s the problem.

I clear my throat when I realize I’m rock hard in the middle of the hallway, and I can do nothing to hide it because all I’m wearing is a flimsy pair of boxer shorts.

“Hi,” I say again because I can’t find another word amid the naked images of her flashing through my mind.

She smiles, that adorable smile where she tries so hardnotto smile that it makes the dimple on her cheek more prominent. “Hi.”

“Uh...hi.”

“Let’s make a collective effort to move past that word.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

“Now, let’s try the same thing withokay.”

“Sure.”

She giggles. “Our interactions seem to be getting more awkward with each passing day.”

I grin, clasping my hands in front of me to hide my ever-growing erection. “One day, we’ll figure out a way to navigate around this.”

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