Shit, she’d made him like her and Dean didn’t like easily.

But then, she left him. And, once Dean thought about it, he decided it was for the best. She should be with someone else.

Only, the same thought had him clenching his jaw and his blood boiling. He didn’t want to picture her with anyone else, spending time with together, doing the freaky things Dean taught her with whoever it was she preferred over him. Goddammit. No man was good enough for Sheri. Not even me, he thought.

It took longer than Dean expected to convince Beatrice or Belle that he really wanted her to leave. To her credit, she didn’t try to be a bitch and just shrugged like it was nothing, only added a “maybe next time, then” when she realized he was serious about needing to be alone.

He stood looking out of the picture window in his unlit bedroom for a long time after that. It had taken this long, three weeks, to admit to himself that Sheri hurt him.

He’d expected more from her. She could have at least talked to him about things. And most importantly, he’d have wanted her to believe in him.

He dragged his hands down his face in exasperation. The whole situation was fucked up. In the beginning, he’d hoped she’d show up all apologetic. Heck, they’d both apologize to each other and he’d support her through whatever had got her to run off the way she had. If he’d done something to hurt her then, of course, he’d make it up to her, whatever it took.

Now, though, he didn’t hope for shit. He just wanted to move on from this whole annoyance. He had a million and one things to keep him occupied, instead of mooning around. Sheri Wilson had been the best assistant he’d ever had, the best everything to be honest, but he’d be a fool to let her get to him any deeper than she already had.

Because then Dean would have to admit that he needed her. And he didn’t need anything or anyone. Growing up an only child with parents too busy maintaining their high net-worth empire, he had become thick-skinned to any lack of affection. Soon, he had learned that emotions like love and dependence were a weakness.

He told himself he knew what women needed even when they didn’t know it themselves: not love, not worship, but a man who put them on equal footing where the pleasures of sex, companionship, and like-mindedness were of mutual benefit. Women needed respect, not someone building fairy castles all around, acting like that could solve all their emotional problems. Love solved nothing, but only turned normal-thinking dudes into fools that let women walk right over them.

Yeah, Dean did a whole lot of rationalizing till his goddamned head hurt.

Hell.

He didn’t need this. What he needed, was to forget all about Sheri Wilson. Because she’d certainly forgotten him.

Chapter 8

Three weeks after Sheri left her job as Dean’s assistant, she found out she was pregnant.

She was just days away from leaving town. Guy had been calling every other day, keeping her stirred up about the move to a new city, a new life. But now in a blink of an eye, her universe had taken a new turn and she was in shock.

She didn’t know how the hell this could have happened.

She’d thought she’d been really careful with the birth control pills. But damn, that month or so of being lovers with Dean, had been just insane when they’d had more sex than she’d indulged in for her whole adult life combined. Could there have been some point where she’d slipped up and missed taking her pills or…

There was no point going crazy wondering what went wrong. Mistakes happened – nothing was ever really fool-proof. The one thing she was sure as hell of, was that she was definitely pregnant. She’d gone to do some final checkups before her trip and there’d been some routine tests. She hadn’t even seen it coming. Yet here she was, finding out she was about five weeks pregnant.

Sheri did the math as best as she could and counted eight weeks since the first time she and Dean had sex. Which meant she’d fallen pregnant around the third week after. She just couldn’t believe she hadn’t even known!

She stared at her phone the whole day, not knowing what her next move should be.

Then, it took her all of five seconds to finally decide to call Dean’s number. One she knew by heart since in the past three weeks she’d always been a finger push away from calling him.

Now, part of her secretly wondered if she was glad to finally have an excuse to pick up the phone and say, “Dean, we need to meet up and talk.”

She had blurted out the words without thinking because she’d never expected Dean to pick up on the first ring. Almost as if he’d been waiting by the phone, which was crazy, right?

Even crazier was the fact he barely missed a beat, before replying, “I can be there in fifteen minutes.”