Page 10 of The Baby Bargain
"I called you princess all day."
My knees press together. My stomach flutters. Chase calling me princess. God, that's… I had such a crush on him.
"You are a princess."
"I'm not—"
"Maybe you don't have the swimming down—"
"I do okay."
His lips curl into a half-smile. "There's something about you."
"Thank you." I think.
"What do you need, princess?" His eyes light up. With desire. Then surprise.
It sounds so good on his tongue.Princess.
For a second, I forget Phil dumped me. I forget I have four months to get pregnant. I forget everything except that day Chase first called me princess.
I need to keep this in the back of my mind. Can you do that? Can you make me forget my boyfriend of three years decided he doesn't want to have kids with me? Can you make me forget I had to issue that terrible ultimatum because I'm carrying the gene for the cancer that killed my mother and I need to have a baby now or give up on it forever?
Please, Chase, make me forget.
God, I'm losing track of my point. Maybe it's the Moscow Mules. Maybe I've had too many. Or too few.
"Do you want another round?" I ask.
He nodssure.
I take his cup, fix two more.
Chase eyes me curiously. It's different than his normal gaze. Filled with concern and something else. Something I've never seen in his eyes.
At least, not directed at me.
He holds up his drink.
I do the same. "What to?"
"Heartbreak."
I'm not sure I want to toast to the thing making my body ache, but I do it anyway.
Clink.
"It'll hurt for a while." A sigh rolls off his lips. It's low. Deep. Pure pleasure. "Then less every day."
"Right." I don't want to call Chase a liar, but he's not a shining example of his point. His fiancée left two years ago and he's still completely miserable.
I mean, Chase has never been happy go lucky. But he did love her.
For a while, I hated how happy in love they were. Then I got over my schoolgirl crush and—
Why is my stomach fluttering the way it did then?
His eyes are so blue. And intense. And he's staring at me like he's staring through me.
