Page 50 of Knocked Up by my Rival

With him, everything seemed to fit as if it had always been this way.

When the sky turned to an inky blue and the stars started to show, we finally packed up the basket, folded the blanket, and headed back toward the car.

We drove through the streets of LA in silence, enjoying each other’s company. The day clung to me like glitter, and my heart swelled with emotion. I really liked Troy. I was falling for him more and more, and it scared me. It didn’t seem like he felt something different for me, though. He seemed to be as attached to me as I was becoming to him.

Maybe, despite everything going on with work, we could still be together. It was just work, after all, right? It was just a contract…

I wasn’t sure how true that was for me. I wanted it desperately. It would further my career, and I would get a good name and a solid contract on my resume. If I lost the contract to Troy, I didn’t know how I would feel.

Happy for him, I guess. But I’d be pissed that I’d lost it, too.

Would this thing between us end once we got around to presenting and one of us won the contract?

I wanted to ask, but earlier, Troy had wanted to talk about work, and I’d told him we wouldn’t. I wasn’t going to go there tonight. We could talk about it some other time. It wasn’t even set in stone where this was headed, anyway. Maybe it meant nothing, and then we would part ways, and that would be the end of it.

When we arrived at his place, Troy opened the door.

“Do you want to come in for some more wine?” he asked. “You don’t have to leave right away.”

“I should probably get going,” I said.

“Where?”

He was right, I had nowhere to be, but if I agreed to stay for a glass of wine… chances were I would stay the night.

“I want you to stay,” Troy said. His voice was deep and smooth like velvet on my skin, and his gray eyes held my gaze.

“Okay,” I said, nodding because, damn it, I wanted to stay, too.

Was I looking for trouble? Or could this work out between us and be the happy ending I hoped we could find?

Inside, Troy kissed me. He slid his hand under my hair, his fingers hot on my neck, and his tongue slid into my mouth. I moaned softly when he tasted me, and my body tightened in all the right places.

I wanted him.

Ialwayswanted him, but it was getting worse and worse these days.

Maybeworsewasn’t the right word because there was nothing bad about it. In fact, everything about being with Troy was good, and that threw me for a loop. He was my work rival, so we shouldn’t have been getting this comfortable with each other. I was also not really looking for a relationship.

Not that I was opposed to being in one but I liked the idea of not having to make excuses or to explain myself to anyone. To be able to work as late as I wanted, to do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted… so many of the girls I’d studied with, the girls in school even, had felt trapped in their relationships, sacrificing a certain form of freedom.

I guess for every sacrifice there was a return, but I’d never been able to see how having a significant other balanced out the sacrifices a relationship required.

Until now.

Troy changed everything, and when I thought about what I’d have to give up if I decided to be with him, they seemed much less like sacrifices than when I’d thought about it all before.

“Hey,” Troy murmured against my lips.

“What?” I whispered.

“Stop thinking.”

“How do you know I’m thinking?” I asked, my lips curling into a smile against his.

“I can practically hear the cogs turning. There’s nothing to think about right now. Switch off and be with me, right here, right now.” He kissed me again, and I did just as he asked. I threw caution to the wind and let myself get lost in the feel of his body pressing against mine, the taste of his tongue in my mouth and how his free hand traced my curves.

Troy broke the kiss.

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