Page 5 of The Single Dad

Warmth spreads on my cheeks, and while I’ve been looking forward to this job and living under the same roof as my longtime crush, I don’t want him to feel weird in his own house. “Did I just make things uncomfortable for you? I can totally just leave and?—”

“No!” He stands abruptly, the bottle dropping to the carpeted floor with a thud. “You’re staying … well, unless you don’t want to anymore.”

The intensity of his response shocks me. When he stands to his full height while I’m barefoot, I have to tip my head back to look him in the eye. He was always handsome to me when I was a teenager, but from the eyes of a grown woman, Adrian is a walking daydream. Unlike before, he’s now rough around the edges, but that only adds to his allure.

The more I look at him, the more I feel tendrils of warmth weaving through my legs up, up, up to the apex between my thighs. My God, he’s only become hotter, and I’m supposed to live with him and pretend he doesn’t affect me the way he does.

My body throbs with raw need as his gaze drops very briefly to my chest. For the record, I did not plan to seduce him. It’s just that I don’t wear a bra ever. Outside, I wear pasties, but once I’m inside my house, I don’t bother. I like to set the girls free, and bras are suffocating to me.

Unfortunately, that’s where Adrian zeroes in, and he sucks in a sharp breath, pinching the bridge of his nose. He lifts his gaze to the ceiling and scrubs his face furiously.

That’s when I notice, for the second time tonight, the tent in his pants. So I guess I wasn’t imagining it earlier, huh? He sees me watching his crotch but doesn’t move to cover it.

“I-I’m sorry, Noelle. It’s been a while.” His voice is low, with something that sounds like … sadness?

I still don’t take my eyes off the tent. “How long?”

He spins on his heel. His back is to me, and I can’t help but admire the thick muscles of his shoulders and arms stretching the fabric.

“Five years.”

Wait, what? “Five? You haven’t been with anyone for five years?”

He looks at me over his shoulder. “Being a full-time father and businessman kept me busy.”

I may be overstepping a bit, but the need to know overrides logic. Actually, his proximity makes me lose my mind. “Thomas’s mother?”

Adrian turns back to me and shrugs those broad shoulders. “She bailed out on him when he was eight weeks old.”

My heart breaks for both him and Thomas. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. It was the best thing she ever did.”

“Why?”

“She said she could never stay in one place.”

Even for her own child? Wow. “She doesn’t get in touch with you?”

“No.”

“And you never have…?”

His face reddens, and he looks away. “No. So I’m sorry. If you feel uncomfortable or unsafe around me, I understand.”

I’m shaking my head even before he finishes the sentence. “I don’t.”

“It’s fine, Noelle. Really. I’ll tell Peter I found someone else. You don’t have to be here if you don’t want to.”

I hear him just fine, but I tune him out because all I can focus right now is the way his pants mold around his cock. And what a big, lengthy cock that is. I pulse with need, my head foggy with desire. I don’t care about anything but the need to make him relieve the terrible, empty ache within me.

I need Adrian to see me as a woman worthy of his attention, affection, and more. I’m not that doe-eyed kid anymore. I’ve worked on myself so that one day, when we meet again, he’ll look at me differently.

Jutting my chin at his erection, I smirk. “Want me to take care of that?”

His brows are drawn together, a deep crease forming between them, but his eyes, wide and unblinking, shine with something more than just fear. His lips part slightly, as if caught between a gasp and a question, and his breath becomes shallow, uneven. There’s tension in Adrian’s jaw, muscles flexing, yet his gaze remains locked in place, alternating between my eyes and my mouth.

This is a fight I need to win.

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