Lush by Beth Yarnall Page A

weeks since she and Cal had started spending time together again in this weird married-but-not-quite-a-couple gray area.
    She’d watch him when he wasn’t paying attention and she’d remember the good times and what it had felt like to have all of Cal’s attention. What it had felt like to have his hands on her…and his mouth, his incredibly talented, seductive mouth. He’d seduced her with words and then put all of it into action, backing up his boasts with skill.
    The first time they’d slept together had been an accident. They’d been at a launch party for one of the products that would be featured on Pleasure at Home . She’d been with the show for a couple of years by then. When she bumped into him at the bar and he offered to buy her a free drink with a wink, she accepted. He was cute, and even though he was her boss’s boss and therefore off limits, she didn’t hide her interest in him. A couple hours later and they were slipping out the back door and climbing into his Porsche. He took her to his place. Probably to impress her. It had.
    Before she knew it they’d been on the stairs to the second floor, ripping each other’s clothes off. They’d made it as far as the landing and then he was on top of her, sliding into her, her legs wrapped around his waist. She’d never come so hard, so fast in all her life. Then he’d taken her back downstairs and fixed her an omelet. They’d done it a second time with her bent over the countertop and him driving into her from behind.
    She hadn’t gotten to see his bedroom until two weeks later. By that time they’d had sex on every available horizontal surface and even a few not so horizontal. It had gone on like that between them for months. He could hardly keep his hands off her. When she’d walked in on him with someone else, she’d been beyond shocked and humiliated. It had brought her world down around her. And then she’d met Kevin. He’d been everything Cal hadn’t. Or so she’d thought.
    Lucy changed into clean clothes and went down the hall to check on her husband and daughter. She found Cal rocking a sleeping Poppy. He hummed softly. She started to go into the room, but Cal’s whispered words stopped her.
    “If you were mine, I’d never let you go. If you were mine, I’d make sure you knew how much you were loved and wanted every day.” He kissed Poppy’s forehead, and Lucy’s eyes filled with tears.
    This was what every child should have, a father who loved her and wanted her. It was what Lucy should’ve had and what Poppy should’ve had all along. She backed out of the doorway, smothering a sob with her hand.
    No matter what had happened between them, Lucy realized now that she never should’ve kept Poppy from her father and Cal from his daughter.

 
    CHAPTER ELEVEN
     
    How was she going to tell him after all this time?
    Because she had to. She had to tell him. Not only had she promised him the truth, but she couldn’t sit back every day and watch him care for and cradle his daughter and not tell him the truth. When she’d initially agreed to marry him, she was only thinking of keeping Poppy safe. She hadn’t expected Cal to dote so much on his daughter. How could she? He hadn’t mentioned children at all in the months they’d been together. The words marriage and family had never fallen from his mouth until that afternoon when she’d come to him in an act of sheer desperation.
    She’d found out she was pregnant a week after walking into the nightmare in his office. She swore then that she’d never ask Cal for anything. Ever. And she hadn’t until she had to ask for her old job back.
    But now things were different. Cal was different. And her feelings for him, well, they’d changed too. Seeing him holding their daughter and wishing she was his was more than Lucy could handle. She’d tell him. Tonight.
    Her mind made up, she dried her tears and took a really deep breath.
    By the time she returned to Poppy’s room, Cal had just