Read Online His Brand of Passion by Kate Hewitt - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Kate Hewitt
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didn’t seem to notice and walked closer to him instead, so he caught the vanilla scent of her hair as she waggled her fingers in front of him.
‘I spent two hours in the tub. My fingers still look like prunes.’
Aaron took a step away. ‘I’m sure you’ll recover.’
‘I ordered Chinese for dinner. I know it’s completely stereotypical for a pregnancy craving, but I really wanted some pork lo mein.’
‘Your body must be craving MSG.’
She raised her eyebrows, a teasing smile curling her lush mouth. ‘Wait a minute, did you actually make a joke?’
‘A poor one, since the local Chinese place I order from doesn’t even use MSG.’ He took another step away from her, needing the distance. ‘I think I’ll go shower and change.’ Wrong thing to say, he realised immediately. It made it sound as if they were going to have a cosy night in, eating Chinese food and watching TV. How ridiculous. How
impossible
.
This whole situation was incredibly awkward, Aaron thought as he escaped to the shower. He’d offered his apartment to Zoe on impulse, because when he saw a problem and he wanted to deal with it immediately. He hadn’t considered how uncomfortably intimate it would be, sharing his livingspace, seeing her freshly showered and talking about Chinese food…
The whole thing was absurd. And messy. The sooner Zoe had a clean bill of health and could go back to her own life…
Except when would that be? he thought suddenly, his hands stilling in the process of scrubbing his hair. If the pregnancy continued to term, his life would always intersect with Zoe’s in a most critical way. He needed to develop a plan. A strategy for the future. Except he had no idea what that could be.
First things first, he decided as he stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist. He’d get through the next few weeks of uncertainty—Hell, first he had to get through this evening. Then he could think about what the long-term future for this unexpected family of theirs would be.
Zoe set out plates and glasses with no idea of what to expect. Would Aaron be joining her for dinner? Were they actually going to sit down and have a meal together, like some bizarre, instant happy family?
Despite her decadent afternoon, she felt exhausted. Maintaining a cheerfully insouciant facade—for she knew that was all it was—with Aaron was emotionally and physically draining. But it was also armour, a way to protect herself. To show him she wasn’t bothered by this unusual living arrangement, that she wasn’t remembering how he’d taken her right on that rug, with the lights of the city streaming over them. How for a moment, when he’d been inside her, she’d looked into his eyes and felt far more emotion than she ever wanted to feel…Even as she craved that connection once more.
Thankfully the intercom buzzed, calling a halt to that unhelpful line of thinking. By the time Aaron came out of his bedroom she was opening the steaming cartons of fragrant Chinese food, inhaling the blissful aroma of pork lo mein.
‘You look like you’ve just died and gone to heaven.’
‘It feels like it,’ she admitted, and couldn’t resist eating a forkful of noodles right from the carton. ‘And normally I don’t even like Chinese food.’
Aaron let out a rusty laugh. ‘Those pregnancy hormones must be something.’
‘I guess so.’ She swallowed and smiled. ‘What do you like? We have the lo mein, General Tsao’s chicken, moo shoo pork…’
The slight smile that had softened Aaron’s features disappeared and he reached for a plate. ‘I’ll just have a bit of everything. And I’ll eat in my study. I have work to do.’
Zoe felt the words like a rejection—and one she wasn’t prepared to accept. ‘You’ve been working all day,’ she said mildly. ‘And, not to sound like a nagging wife, but I’m not going to last if I have to stay in this morgue of an apartment by myself twenty-four-seven.’
Aaron frowned
‘I spent two hours in the tub. My fingers still look like prunes.’
Aaron took a step away. ‘I’m sure you’ll recover.’
‘I ordered Chinese for dinner. I know it’s completely stereotypical for a pregnancy craving, but I really wanted some pork lo mein.’
‘Your body must be craving MSG.’
She raised her eyebrows, a teasing smile curling her lush mouth. ‘Wait a minute, did you actually make a joke?’
‘A poor one, since the local Chinese place I order from doesn’t even use MSG.’ He took another step away from her, needing the distance. ‘I think I’ll go shower and change.’ Wrong thing to say, he realised immediately. It made it sound as if they were going to have a cosy night in, eating Chinese food and watching TV. How ridiculous. How
impossible
.
This whole situation was incredibly awkward, Aaron thought as he escaped to the shower. He’d offered his apartment to Zoe on impulse, because when he saw a problem and he wanted to deal with it immediately. He hadn’t considered how uncomfortably intimate it would be, sharing his livingspace, seeing her freshly showered and talking about Chinese food…
The whole thing was absurd. And messy. The sooner Zoe had a clean bill of health and could go back to her own life…
Except when would that be? he thought suddenly, his hands stilling in the process of scrubbing his hair. If the pregnancy continued to term, his life would always intersect with Zoe’s in a most critical way. He needed to develop a plan. A strategy for the future. Except he had no idea what that could be.
First things first, he decided as he stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist. He’d get through the next few weeks of uncertainty—Hell, first he had to get through this evening. Then he could think about what the long-term future for this unexpected family of theirs would be.
Zoe set out plates and glasses with no idea of what to expect. Would Aaron be joining her for dinner? Were they actually going to sit down and have a meal together, like some bizarre, instant happy family?
Despite her decadent afternoon, she felt exhausted. Maintaining a cheerfully insouciant facade—for she knew that was all it was—with Aaron was emotionally and physically draining. But it was also armour, a way to protect herself. To show him she wasn’t bothered by this unusual living arrangement, that she wasn’t remembering how he’d taken her right on that rug, with the lights of the city streaming over them. How for a moment, when he’d been inside her, she’d looked into his eyes and felt far more emotion than she ever wanted to feel…Even as she craved that connection once more.
Thankfully the intercom buzzed, calling a halt to that unhelpful line of thinking. By the time Aaron came out of his bedroom she was opening the steaming cartons of fragrant Chinese food, inhaling the blissful aroma of pork lo mein.
‘You look like you’ve just died and gone to heaven.’
‘It feels like it,’ she admitted, and couldn’t resist eating a forkful of noodles right from the carton. ‘And normally I don’t even like Chinese food.’
Aaron let out a rusty laugh. ‘Those pregnancy hormones must be something.’
‘I guess so.’ She swallowed and smiled. ‘What do you like? We have the lo mein, General Tsao’s chicken, moo shoo pork…’
The slight smile that had softened Aaron’s features disappeared and he reached for a plate. ‘I’ll just have a bit of everything. And I’ll eat in my study. I have work to do.’
Zoe felt the words like a rejection—and one she wasn’t prepared to accept. ‘You’ve been working all day,’ she said mildly. ‘And, not to sound like a nagging wife, but I’m not going to last if I have to stay in this morgue of an apartment by myself twenty-four-seven.’
Aaron frowned
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